Faculty Artist Series: Julio Elizalde, piano – featuring Yura Lee, violin

Artists

Julio Elizalde, piano
Yura Lee, violin

Program

Maurice Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major (1927)
     I. Allegretto
     II. Blues. Moderato
     III. Perpetuum mobile. Allegro

George Enescu: Violin Sonata No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 25 "In Romanian Folk Style" (1926)
     I. Moderato malinconico
     II. Andante sostenuto e misterioso
     III. Allegro con brio, ma non troppo mosso

- Intermission -

Eugène Ysayë: Rêve d'enfant, Op. 14 (1901)

Camille Saint-Saëns: Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 75 (1885)
     I. Allegro agitato – Adagio
     II. Allegretto moderato – Allegro molto

About the Artists

Praised as a musician of “compelling artistry and power” by the Seattle Times, the Hispanic-American pianist Julio Elizalde is a multi-faceted artist who enjoys a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, artistic administrator, educator, and curator. He has performed at many of the world’s major music centers including Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco), Koerner Hall (Toronto), Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), National Concert Hall (Taipei), and the Esplanade Concert Hall (Singapore), among many others. Since 2014, Julio has served as the Artistic Director of the Olympic Music Festival near Seattle, Washington. He has appeared as recital partner to famed violinists Ray Chen and Sarah Chang, and has collaborated with artists such as Pablo Ferrández, Kian Soltani, Pamela Frank, Robert McDonald, and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Takács, Kronos, Brentano, St. Lawrence, and Dover string quartets. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Julio received a bachelor of music degree with honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Paul Hersh. He holds master’s and doctor of musical arts degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal, Joseph Kalichstein, and Robert McDonald.

Yura Lee is a multifaceted artist who has earned a reputation as one of very few soloists and chamber musicians in the world with unparalleled mastery of both the violin and viola. She has performed with major orchestras including those of New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She has given recitals in London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. At age 12, Lee became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the Performance Today awards given by National Public Radio. She received a 2007 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was the first-prize winner of the 2013 ARD Competition. She has received numerous other international prizes, including top prizes in the Mozart, Indianapolis, Hannover, Kreisler, Bashmet, and Paganini competitions. Her CD titled Mozart in Paris, with Reinhard Goebel and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, received the prestigious Diapason d’Or Award. As a chamber musician, she regularly takes part in the festivals of Marlboro, Salzburg, Verbier, and Caramoor. Her main teachers included Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Thomas Riebl, Ana Chumachenko, and Nobuko Imai. A former member of Chamber Music Society Two, Lee serves as an associate professor of viola and Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Chair at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.