L’ERMITAGE FOUNDATION Presents TRIO MAESTRI ROBERTO CANI, Violin RUSLAN BIRYUKOV, Cello ARMEN GUZELIMIAN, Piano

L’ERMITAGE FOUNDATION
Presents
TRIO MAESTRI
ROBERTO CANI, Violin
RUSLAN BIRYUKOV, Cello
ARMEN GUZELIMIAN, Piano

PROGRAM
“Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67” by Dimitri Shostakovich
“Piano Trio in F sharp minor” by Arno Babadjanian

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2018 AT 8:00 P.M.
LUXE SUNSET BOULEVARD HOTEL, GRAND BALLROOM
11461 SUNSET BOULEVARD (at I 405), BEL AIR, CA  90049


Bel Air, CA (May 30, 2018) – L’Ermitage Foundation, will present TRIO MAESTRI consisting of Roberto Cani, Italian Violinist, who serves as the Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra; Ruslan Biryukov, Russian Cellist, who serves as the Founder of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra; and Armen Guzelimian, Armenian Pianist, who is a renowned concert and recording artist.  The trio will perform classical favorites from the chamber music repertoire on Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel, 11461 Sunset Boulevard, at the intersection of I 405, in Bel Air, CA  90049. Their program will include “Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67” written by Dimitri Shostakovich (1944) and “Piano Trio in F sharp minor” written by Arno Babadjanian (1952).

Reneé Cherniak, Executive Director of L’Ermitage Foundation said, “We are honored to present a triple header concert of world renowned artists for our upcoming June 14th concert, which is part of our 2018 Summer Concert Series.  Each artist on the program, Violinist Roberto Cani, Cellist Ruslan Biryukov and Pianist Armen Guzelimian are each accomplished and critically acclaimed soloist performers.  To have them all on the same stage at the same time will be a distinct musical treat. We will open our doors to the general public for this particular concert to allow those who aren’t Club L’Ermitage members an opportunity to hear and experience classical music at its best in an exquisite intimate setting.”

Admission to the concert is a Suggested Donation of $50.00 per person.  Due to limited seating, Advance Reservations for the 60-minute concert are required and can be made by calling the L’Ermitage Foundation at 310-472-3330 or by E-mailing reneelcherniak@aol.com. Valet parking is available at the hotel.  After the performance, the performer’s CDs will be available for purchase and to be autographed.  To learn more about this concert and tax-deductible membership in L’Ermitage Foundation, please visit online at http://lermitagefoundation.org

About The Artists:
           Roberto Cani (Violinist) was born in Milan, Italy, and now resides in Venice, CA.  Cani is acclaimed throughout the music world as not just a performer, but an “artiste” who has continued to bring his art to the highest of levels, captivating and delighting audiences in the United States and abroad, since his solo debut at the Gaveau Hall in Paris.  Beginning his studies at the age of seven, Cani has been a First and Grand Prize Winner of numerous competitions, including the Paganini International Competition in Genoa, the Courcillon International Competition, and the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Belgrade, where he also captured a special award for the Best Performance of a Contemporary Work.  In addition, he has been the winner of the Minetti Prize and received honors at the Tchaikovsky Competition.

Throughout his successful career as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster, Cani has established himself as a versatile and respected artist worldwide.  He has performed throughout the United States as well as in Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, Russia, Croatia, Belgium, Poland, Serbia, France, Taiwan, Japan and South Africa.  He has appeared as soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic, the RAI Symphony (Italy), the Belgrade Philharmonic, Zagreb Soloists, Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano, the American Youth Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Missouri Chamber Orchestra and Symphony of the Americas.

Recent performances include Paganini’s “Violin Concerto No. 1” with Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo (Italy), Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto” with San Bernardino Symphony and Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No. 4” with the Mozart Classical Orchestra.  His performances have been televised nationally for PBS, RAI in Italy, RB in Yugoslavia, NHK in Japan, ZDF in Germany and in Taiwan.  He has been featured on several occasions in radio broadcasts on both KMZT and KKGO in Los Angeles.  Other notable appearances include his widely acclaimed performance of the first concerti of Paganini and Szymanowski in Italy and his premiere of a piece by Polish composer, Gorecki, for Violin and Piano.

Cani has performed as Guest Concertmaster for the La Scala Philharmonic in Milan under the baton of Riccardo Muti.  He was also invited by Vladimir Jurowski to be a Guest Concertmaster for the London Philharmonic Orchestra.  Cani was appointed Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra in 2011.  As Concertmaster of Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Cani works closely with Plácido Domingo, James Conlon, and Gustavo Dudamel, among others.

Actively involved in chamber music, Cani has had the pleasure of touring with conductor and pianist Justus Frantz.  He has also performed alongside Lynn Harrell, Jeffrey Swann and Jason Vieaux.  Presently, he is part of piano trio with Robert De Maine and Inna Faliks and has an active presence in many West Coast Chamber Music Series.  He has also participated in Chamber Music Festivals in Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, and the Canary Islands.

Cani has given Master Classes at many California Universities, among them those at the University of Southern California (USC), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as playing and teaching at Summer Music Festivals in Positano (Italy), Hvar (Croatia), Astoria Music Festival (Oregon, USA), Music Festival in Prague, Cremona International Music Festival (Italy) and The Royal Academy of Music in London.

Cani has recorded Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” sonatas by Respighi and Busoni with pianist Jeffrey Swann, and the solo sonatas of Bartok, Ysaye, Bloch, and Prokofiev on the Arkadia and Agora labels.  His other recordings include Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto,” and a CD of favorite encores.

Cani is a graduate of the Milan Conservatory, the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, and the University of Southern California.  He has studied with world-renowned violinists Viktor Tretiakov and Abrahm Shtern.  Cani plays on a 1735 Pietro Guarneri of Venice violin.

Ruslan Biryukov
(Руслан Бирюков) (Cellist) was born in Baku, Azerbaijan and now resides in San Bernardino and Encino, CA.  He is the Founder of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Cello Quartet and serves as Artistic Director of Positive Motions Concert Series in Los Angeles.

He has been lauded in the press for his superb artistry, passion and individuality.  Biryukov was the only cellist ever invited to perform for 10 consecutive seasons in solo recitals at the Sundays Live Concert Series in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the longest running live radio broadcasted concert series in the United States.  He was also the only Russian cellist invited to solo with an orchestra during the inaugural season of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County.

Recent appearances include solo performances with Chinese Traditional Orchestra in the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood; the show “Where is the Drop” with Joel Zimmermann, “DeadMau5” broadcast live from the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles via Tidal Networks; Dvorak and Lalo cello concertos with the Redlands Bowl Symphony and Marina Del Rey Symphony (Summer Series), as well as appearing with the Glendale Philharmonic in a performance of the World Premiere performance of the “Bestemming” Cello Concerto written by Sharon Farber, presented at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.  Additionally, Biryukov is a co-host of “The Cool Classics” radio show broadcast live at the LA Talk Live Radio station (in collaboration with conductor Frank Fetta).

Biryukov has been a master teacher in music festivals in Europe and Russia.  He has held teaching positions at the Ippolitov-Ivanov State Institute of Music in Moscow, Russia, the Music Academy in Lovran, Croatia, and the California Institute of Music in the United States.  His creative artistic ideas are based upon the traditions he learned from esteemed artists Kirill Rodin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, Natalia Gutman, Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, and Eleonore Schoenfeld.

His cello students have won over 250 prizes at various competitions worldwide including the 8th International Youth Tchaikovsky Competition (Nathan Le, 3rd Prize), American Protégé International Competition in New York, American Fine Arts International Festival, Lansum International Completion in Los Angeles, San Diego Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Inland Valley Symphony, Culver City Symphony and Redlands Bowl Symphony Concerto Competitions.

He received his formal music education at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in Russia and the USC Thornton School of Music in the United States.  He first earned international recognition by winning major awards in Azerbaijan and by the inclusion of his name in the Golden Book of Russia’s international program, “New Names.”  Biryukov has gone on to win numerous other awards worldwide, including the Grand Prize at the 17th Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition.

He has recorded numerous CDs with pianist Armen Guzelimian, including:  “Cello Art:  Volume 2” (Stravinsky’s “Suite Italienne,” Prokofiev’s “Sonata for Cello and Piano” and Britten’s “Sonata in C;” “Cello Art:  Volume 3” (Chopin’s “Introduction at Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3,“ Lalo’s “Sonata for Cello and Piano” and Arutunian’s “Poem);” and “Cello Art:  Volume 4” (Locatelli’s “Sonata in D,” Haydn’s “Divertimento” (Piatigorsky arrangement) and Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 3 in A Major”).  The recordings are available on Pandora, iTunes and Amazon.

Since 2003, Biryukov has resided in the United States.  He was awarded permanent residency from the U.S. government as an “Extraordinary Ability Artist.”  The title means that he has “sustained national or international acclaim and the achievements have been recognized” in his field, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  In 2016 Biryukov became a naturalized citizen of the United States.  Additionally, Biryukov has a Commercial Pilot license and Certified Flight Instructor Instrument single & multi-engine airplane licenses.  To learn more, please visit www.celloart.com

Armen Guzelimian (Pianist) was born in Egypt and now lives in Camarillo, CA.  Guzelimian’s chamber music successes have been with such groups as the Rossetti String Quartet, Los Angeles String Quartet, Camerata Pacifica, Dilijan Chamber Music Concerts, Chamber Music in Historic Sites, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival.

He made his Disney Hall debut in March of 2014 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society and was re-engaged for another performance in November 2016.  The pianist has partnered such artists as violinists Viktoria Mullova, Thomas Zehetmair, Ani and Ida Kavafian, violists Lars Tomter and Kim Kashkashian.  In the vocal domain, he has appeared and worked with such stars as Kiri Te Kanawa, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Lucia Popp, Florence Quivar, Peter Schreier, Rod Gilfry and Marni Nixon.

In the realm of contemporary music, Armenian pianist Armen Guzelimian has had the privilege of working closely with the great composers Aram Khachaturian, Alan Hovhaness, Tigran Mansurian, Witold Lutoslawski, and most recently with the young Artur Avanesov.  Thomas Pasatieri and Byron Adams have both dedicated works for the pianist; a piano sonata and “Illuminations” for piano, respectively.

A passionate and devoted educator, Guzelimian has been on the faculties of the USC School of Music, Music Academy of the West, and has served as a Guest Lecturer at the Eastman School of Music, Loyola University New Orleans and Aspen Music Festival and School.  He is invited frequently to adjudicate on the panel of various competitions and to give Master Classes.  His brother, Ara Guzelimian is the Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School in New York City.

Armen Guzelimian has diverse recordings on the EMI, Angel, Teldec, Nonesuch, Delos and Crystal labels.  He appears on the documentary film SHADOWS IN PARADISE, as well as Classica Arts Showcase and PBS.  To learn more, please visit www.armenpianist.com

About The Program:
“Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67” written by Dimitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) was a Soviet composer and pianist.  He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th Century.  A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works.  His music is characterized by sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality.  The composer was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and (especially in his symphonies) by the late Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler.

The “Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67” for Violin, Cello and Piano, by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1944, in the midst of World War II.  The composition was dedicated to Shostakovich’s good friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, a Russian polymath and avid musician, who had recently died at age 41.  The work received its premiere in Leningrad on November 14, 1944. The piece consists of four movements, with a complete performance running 25 to 27 minutes.

The Trio begins a cello passage in all harmonics.  The rest of the first movement, Andante, develops into a sonata form.  The second movement, Allegro con brio, is essentially a frenzied dance that never finds a settling place.  The third movement, Largo, is full of dark, slow, and somber melodic lines.  It fades into the last and fourth movement, Allegretto, a “Dance of Death” starting with staccato repeated notes, which introduce a Jewish-style melody, which is revisited thematic content from the previous three movements.  The Trio ends in a tortured E Major chord, almost inaudibly. The Jewish melody from the last movement was quoted in Shostakovich’s famous “String Quartet No. 8.”  The third movement is featured in choreographer John Neumeier’s ballet “The Seagull,” performed in Hamburg in 2002.

“Piano Trio in F sharp minor” written by Arno Babadjanian
Arno Babadjanian (1921 – 1983) was an Armenian composer and pianist during the Soviet era.  A native of Yerevan, Armenia, Babadjanian spent most of his life there.  Most of his music is rooted in the Armenian traditional culture.  A multi-genre composer, Babadjanian was well known as an author of Soviet pop-music songs.  Babadjanian was praised by Dmitri Shostakovich as a brilliant piano teacher.  Babadjanian was also a noted pianist and often performed his own works in concerts.

The “Piano Trio in F sharp minor” was composed in 1952, while Babadjanian was actively teaching at the Yerevan State Conservatory.  The piece was received with immediate acclaim and regarded as a masterpiece from the premiere.  The work consists of three movements.  Right from the top listeners are submerged into a world of rich and intense Armenian folklore.  The piano part is the leading voice in the first movement, Largo – Allegro expressivo.  The second movement, Andante, is full of the classic Armenian vocal lyricism with continuously developing endless melodies passed from one instrument to another.  The third movement, Allegro vivace, is a complex rhythm dance-scherzo with moments of gentle lyricism and an arc-like ending reminiscent of the beginning of the trio.

About L’Ermitage Foundation:
           L’Ermitage Foundation offers a classical music concert series in an intimate salon setting while raising funds for charitable organizations.  L’Ermitage Foundation was founded in September 1983 by Polish-born American hotelier and philanthropist Severyn Ashkenazy as a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization.  Today L’Ermitage Foundation is overseen by Executive Director, Reneé Cherniak and offers subscription packages to members, which include attendance to all concerts held throughout the year, along with post-concert conversations with the artists.  New members are always welcome.  Introductory Packages are available for $180.00.  Basic Membership starts at $1,500.00.  All Memberships are tax-deductible.  Charities which have benefited from the L’Ermitage Foundation’s generosity over the years have included:  Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Para Las Niñas (For The Children), Venice Family Clinic, Education Through Music, American Friends of Hebrew University, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, Los Angeles Free Clinic, New York Philharmonic, The Friends of José Carreras International Leukemia Foundation, Sojourn House – Building A Future for Refugees, Haven House, Children’s Institute, Inc., The Jeffrey Foundation – Childcare/Counseling for Special Children and Families, Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services and Center Stage Strings, to name a few.  Artists who have appeared in L’Ermitage Foundation concerts over the years include:  Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Victor Borge, Peter Nero, Eugenia Zukerman, Abbey Simon, The Canadian Brass, Anne Akiko Meyers, Jeffrey Kahane, Lainie Kazan, Jaime Laredo, The Romeros and Yefim Bronfman, to name a few.  To learn more about L’Ermitage Foundation memberships and benefits, please visit the website, http://lermitagefoundation.org.  L’Ermitage Foundation, Charity Never Sounded So Good.

Music Calendar Listing:
L’Ermitage Foundation Presents TRIO MAESTRI
Roberto Cani, Violin, Ruslan Biryukov, Cello and Armen Guzelimian, Piano


WHO &
WHAT:
L’Ermitage Foundation, will present TRIO MAESTRI consisting of Roberto Cani, Violin, Ruslan Biryukov, Cello, and Armen Guzelimian, Piano.  The trio will perform “Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67” written by Dimitri Shostakovich (1944) and “Piano Trio in F sharp minor” written by Arno Babadjanian (1952).

WHERE & WHEN:
Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel, 11461 Sunset Boulevard, at the intersection of I 405, in Bel Air, CA 90049.

HOW:
Admission to the concert is a Suggested Donation of $50.00 per person.  Due to limited seating, Advance Reservations for the 60-minute concert are required and can be made by calling the L’Ermitage Foundation at 310-472-3330 or by E-mailing reneelcherniak@aol.com. Valet parking is available at the hotel.  To learn more about this concert and tax-deductible membership levels for L’Ermitage Foundation, please visit online at http://lermitagefoundation.org

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