Itzhak Perlman, violin - Programme

PROGRAMME

Roy Thomson Hall presents

ITZHAK PERLMAN, violin

ROHAN DE SILVA, piano Thu May 16, 2024 • 8pm

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PROGRAMME

ITZHAK PERLMAN, violin ROHAN DE SILVA, piano

LECLAIR Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 9 No. 3 (1697–1764) Un poco andante

Allegro – Adagio Sarabande. Largo Tambourin. Presto

(12 minutes)

BEETHOVEN Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer” (1770–1827) (35 minutes) Adagio sostenuto – Presto Andante con variazioni Finale (Presto)

INTERMISSION

SCHUMANN Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 (1810–1856) I. Zart und mit Ausdruck II. Lebhaft, leicht III. Rasch und mit Feuer

WORKS TO BE ANNOUNCED FROM THE STAGE

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(11 minutes)

NOTES ON THE PROGRAMME Jean-Marie Leclair, Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 9 No. 3 Leclair is one of those composers in the annals of classical music whose colourful lives—and deaths—overshadow the legacy of their art. Born in Lyon in 1697, Leclair was a dancer, a violinist of great renown, and a music director for aristocrats in France, Spain, and Holland—to whose princess of Orange, Anne, this piece is dedicated, as part of Leclair’s fourth (and final) book of violin sonatas. The music was engraved for its 1743 publication by Leclair’s second wife, who would, some two decades later, be suspected of having a hand in his grisly murder.

During his life, the cosmopolitan Leclair was feted for taking the Italian Baroque sonata form (usually in four movements, alternating slow and fast tempi) and adding the ornamentation typical of French playing. Here, his predilection for dance music finds overt expression in the third and fourth movements—a sarabande and a tambourin (or folk dance)—and the first two movements also incorporate dancelike rhythms.

Movement I, marked Un poco andante (roughly, at “a bit of a walking pace”) opens with an expansive violin melody whose dotted rhythms add an almost “swing” movement to an otherwise stately procession of quarter notes from the piano (whose part was originally written for harpsichord). As for the sonata as a whole, the violin takes the lead, with the piano sometimes echoing its figures. The violin part is difficult in a deceptive way—full of trills and double and triple stops written in such a way as to demand nonchalant execution. In the lively second movement, which resembles a gigue, the violin is occasionally asked to add its own counterpoint, playing two melodic voices at once while the piano adds punctuation.

The sarabande, movement III, is a stately largo, in which the piano provides choralelike accompaniment to the violin’s melancholy lines. In the fourth movement, the tambourin, the pianist’s left hand plays the same percussive figure nearly all the way through, evoking a drum (perhaps the tambourin itself, a double-headed instrument from Provence). The figure also provides a pedal point (on the note D)—a foundation for a series of harmonic changes. Occasionally, the violinist is asked to hold down a D as well, while playing melodies, as if dancing with one foot anchored to the ground. The opening melody is quizzical—notes that one would normally expect to be ornamental are accented. It’s as if someone wrote a song that emphasized words such as “the” and “and”, but the tempo and Leclair’s fizzing inventiveness make it sound less awkward than fun. A stormy minor-key section breaks out, and Leclair allows a little melancholy to creep in before the tambourin brings us home in D major once more.

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Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer” One of the most famous violin sonatas in the repertoire, Beethoven’s ninth has a story that is nearly as compelling as the music.

It was premiered in 1803 at 8:00 on a May morning in Vienna, in the Augartensaal—a venue known for attracting well-heeled audiences at bracingly early start times.

Beethoven had already been up for a while, finishing the music, and he had woken a pupil of his at 4:30am to copy out the violin part.

Even so, the violinist, George Polgreen Bridgetower, was forced to look over Beethoven’s shoulder during the second movement, sight-reading from the full score. Bridgetower, the son of a Polish mother and an African-Barbadian father, was on leave from his job in London as a musician for the Prince of Wales (later George IV). Beethoven, it seems, had been inspired to compose the piece by his virtuoso skills.

The cover of the first edition of the sonata—which was eventually published in 1805—would refer to the composition as “quasi come d’un concerto”—somewhat like a concerto. Certainly, its scope suggests something grander than a sonata, and its technical demands are daunting, including rapid-fire passages at the top of the instrument’s range.

The opening itself is a challenge—a series of unaccompanied double, triple, and quadruple stops, set up as if to suggest the violin can be an orchestra unto itself. In response, the pianist plays the same figure, but altered from A major to A minor— setting up a dialogue of equals, in which each instrument responds to the other.

The solemn opening adagio gives way to its polar opposite: a presto whose confident opening theme is punctuated by rhythmic staccato “pom-poms”— somewhat like in Leclair’s “Tambourin.”

Soon after the theme is introduced, there’s a florid arpeggiated run in the piano.

During the premiere performance, Bridgetower, unprompted, saw fit to repeat it on the violin. In reaction, Beethoven jumped up, give Bridgetower a hug, and shouted, “Once again, my dear boy!”

For all his reputation for sturm, drang, and military heroism—the Eroica symphony was composed around the same time—Beethoven clearly had a sense of fun, which transmits itself throughout this sonata. The second movement, nominally

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a slow adagio, is a theme with a set of short, sweet variations full of scampering staccato and jesting, high-velocity back-and-forth in sixteenth and thirty-second notes. Variation III, in F minor, offers a somewhat startling contrast, but with its winding chromatic movement, it avoids overly weighing down the proceedings.

Then we’re off to the races again in Variation IV, in which the musicians seem to be asked to challenge each other to see who can play both quicker and quieter.

At the premiere, Bridgetower would later recall, the second movement—or at least its opening section—was so popular, he and Beethoven were asked to play it again. The third movement, unusually, is also marked presto. Beethoven, it seems, had composed it a year earlier, intending it for what would be his sixth violin sonata.

He felt that at 539 bars in length, it would unbalance the rest of the piece—but it fits brilliantly with the rest of the “Kreutzer.” In 6/8 time, it presents itself as a flurry of ideas to be performed at a pace that, for more modern audiences, might suggest the rapid-fire dialogue in 1930s screwball comedies.

Beethoven originally dedicated the sonata to Bridgetower, writing with friendly, teasing familiarity on the score: “Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer, gran pazzo e compositore mulattico” (“’Mulatto’ sonata composed for the mixed-race Bridgetower, great madman and mixed-race composer”).

So why do we now call it the “Kreutzer”? One apocryphal story has it that by the time the work was published, Beethoven and Bridgetower had fallen out over a woman the composer admired and the violinist disparaged. More likely, Beethoven simply wanted to sell more copies of the score and bolster his name as a composer, and so he sought association with a more famous virtuoso, Rodolphe Kreutzer.

Ironically, Kreutzer himself is now best known as the work’s dedicatee—although he is said to have considered the music unplayable and never performed it himself.

Here in the 21st-century, Chineke! Orchestra founder Nwanoku is leading a campaign to restore the original dedicatee’s place in the popular imagination—and to re-dub the piece “The Bridgetower Sonata.” To do so would be to give a brilliant musician his due, and to revive the convivial spirit of the work’s premiere.

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Robert Schumann, Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 Schumann wrote this set of three interconnected pieces in early 1849, during a very prolific period when chamber and solo piano music seemed to pour out of him. Clearly, he was inspired, but he was also driven by necessity. Having spent the previous year writing his only opera, Genoveva—which wouldn’t be produced until the next year— and with four children to support (and a fifth on the way), he needed money quickly.

And so, he turned to Hausmusik—smaller-scale chamber pieces intended for domestic settings, to be played by families and friends. The Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, was written with clarinet and piano in mind, but the woodwind could be substituted for the cello or the violin—making it ideal for a wide range of possible players or parlours.

Unsurprisingly, Schumann’s Hausmusik regularly transcended its somewhat utilitarian purpose; this particular set of three interconnected pieces ended up being played at his memorial service in 1856, by his young friend Johannes Brahms and violinist Joseph Joachim. Schumann had originally called the work “Soirée Pieces,” but he eventually fell back on Fantasiestücke, or “fantasy pieces”—a title he would give to four works for four different instrumental configurations during his career. Unlike, say, the Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, which were based on writing by Nutcracker author E.T. A. Hoffmann, this set has no particular stories behind it, but it’s dramatic nonetheless.

The first piece, marked Zart und mit Ausdruck (“tenderly and expressively”), starts off with quiet intensity, as if we’ve landed in the middle of a story. After a truncated piano introduction, the violin plays a searching melody, to which the piano responds with a countermelody outlining a move from E7 to A-minor (V7 to i), and then another from D-minor to E. This fleeting figure will become important later on.

From here, the piano draws out the tension inherent in the violin’s rhapsodic lines, leading determinedly chromatic movement until we wind down in what seems to be D minor, albeit landing on a V chord (A major). There’s a rest at the end of the final bar, and the ominous word attacca, which means the musicians are to proceed directly to the next piece, which … … marked Lebhalt, leicht (“Lively and light”), picks up on the countermelody from the first, shifting it from minor to major and developing into a theme. The piece also inherits its precursor’s persistent triplets. Soon, there’s an abrupt shift to F-major, with mischievous ascending chromatic lines, followed by tumbling arpeggios.

When we eventually return (just as abruptly) to A major, we’re shuttled, via various

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rapid-fire modulations, to a coda marked nach und nach ruhiger (“gradually calmer”), which eventually settles—like the first piece, on an A-major chord. There’s a rest, and another “attacca,” and … … we take off like an uncaged bird through an open window. The third piece, marked Rasch und mit Feuer (“rapidly and with fire”), alternates between propulsive and tender passages, and fittingly, before long, the opening theme from the first piece returns. The writing is dense, tense, and technically tough—less experienced house musicians might balk! A coda starts off curiously quietly but then builds to a blazing finale—on an A major chord, which at last, at the very end, deposits us somewhere that feels like home.

Notes on the music by Mike Doherty.

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ITZHAK PERLMAN

Violin

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.

Having performed with every major orchestra and at concert halls around the globe, Mr. Perlman was granted a Presidential Medal of Freedom – the Nation’s highest civilian honor – by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000, and a Medal of Liberty

by President Reagan in 1986. Mr. Perlman has been honored with 16 GRAMMY® Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Genesis Prize.

In the 2023/24 season, Mr. Perlman brings his iconic PBS special In the Fiddler’s House program to San Francisco, Houston, Bethesda and Palm Beach, joined by today’s klezmer stars including Hankus Netsky, Andy Statman and members

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of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. His orchestral engagements include play/ conduct programs with the Houston Symphony on Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Charleston Symphony on Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony as well as a series of concerto and conducting appearances with the Israel Philharmonic. He continues touring An Evening with Itzhak Perlman, which captures highlights of his career through narrative and multi-media elements intertwined with performance, with dates in Newark, Dallas, Costa Mesa and Stony Brook. He plays recitals across North America including Toronto, Los Angeles and Portland with longtime collaborator Rohan De Silva.

He currently serves as Artistic Partner of the Houston Symphony in a partnership that commenced in the 2020/21 season and culminates at the end of 2023/24.

He performs 9 programs across three seasons that feature him in versatile appearances as conductor, soloist, recitalist and presenter.

Mr. Perlman has an exclusive series of classes with Masterclass.com, the premier online education company that enables access to the world’s most brilliant minds including Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster and Serena Williams, as the company’s first classical-music presenter. Available exclusively at www.masterclass.com/ip, his class offers students an intimate and inspirational approach to the world of violin where he covers fundamental techniques, practice strategies, and ways to build a richer sound.

Mr. Perlman has delighted audiences through his frequent appearances on the conductor’s podium. He has performed as conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Montreal and Toronto, as well as at the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals. He was Music Advisor of the St. Louis Symphony from 2002 to 2004 where he made regular conducting appearances, and he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony from 2001 to 2005. Internationally, Mr. Perlman has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic.

Further to his engagements as violinist and conductor, Mr. Perlman is increasingly making more appearances as a speaker. Recent speaking engagements include appearances in Texas at Lamar University, South Dakota with the John

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Vucurevich Foundation, Washington D.C. for the Marriott Foundation and New York, in conversations with Alan Alda at the 92nd Street Y and Alec Baldwin at New York University.

An award-winning documentary on Mr. Perlman, titled “Itzhak”, premiered in October 2017 as the opening film of the 25th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in over 100 cinemas nationwide in March 2018, with international releases that followed in Summer 2018. Directed by filmmaker Alison Chernick, the enchanting documentary details the virtuoso’s own struggles as a polio survivor and Jewish émigré and is a reminder why art is vital to life. For more information, visit www.itzhakthefilm.com. In October 2018, the film made its debut on PBS’ American Masters in a broadcast throughout the United States.

Mr. Perlman’s most recent album features him in a special collaboration with Martha Argerich. Released by Warner Classics, it marked a historic first studio album for this legendary duo exploring masterpieces by Bach, Schumann and Brahms. It had been 18 years since their first album, a live recital from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. On that momentous occasion in 1998, in addition to recording the material for their initial disc, the pair recorded Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1. The Schumann Sonata at long last was released in 2016 alongside new material, making the album a fascinating ‘then and now’ portrait of how two living legends have evolved musically.

Mr. Perlman recorded a bonus track for the original cast recording of the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, released on Broadway Records in March 2016. The cast recording features Perlman on a track titled “Excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof,” arranged by John Williams.

The year of 2015 brought three record releases in celebration of Mr. Perlman’s 70th birthday: A Deutsche Grammophon album with pianist Emanuel Ax performing Fauré and Strauss Sonatas, a 25-disc box set of his complete Deutsche Grammophon and Decca discography, and a 77-disc box set of his complete EMI/ Teldec discography titled Itzhak Perlman: The Complete Warner Recordings.

In 2012, Sony released Eternal Echoes: Songs & Dances for the Soul, featuring a collaboration with acclaimed cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot in liturgical and traditional Jewish arrangements for chamber orchestra and klezmer musicians, and in 2010, Sony released a recording of Mendelssohn Piano Trios with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax. Highlights of albums over the last two decades have

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included a Deutsche Grammophon album with Mr. Perlman conducting the Israel Philharmonic, a live recording with Martha Argerich performing Beethoven and Franck Sonatas (EMI); Cinema Serenade featuring popular hits from movies with John Williams conducting (Sony); A la Carte, a recording of short violin pieces with orchestra (EMI) and In the Fiddler’s House, a celebration of klezmer music (EMI) that formed the basis of the PBS television special. In 2004, EMI released The Perlman Edition, a limited-edition 15-CD box set featuring many of his finest EMI recordings as well as newly compiled material, and RCA Red Seal released a CD titled Perlman rediscovered, which includes material recorded in 1965 by a young Itzhak Perlman.

Other recordings reveal Mr. Perlman’s devotion to education, including Concertos from my Childhood with the Juilliard Orchestra under Lawrence Foster (EMI) and Marita and her Heart’s Desire, composed and conducted by Bruce Adolphe (Telarc).

Mr. Perlman has entertained and enlightened millions of TV viewers of all ages on popular shows as diverse as The Late Show with David Letterman, Sesame Street, The Frugal Gourmet, The Tonight Show, and various Grammy Awards telecasts.

His PBS appearances have included A Musical Toast and Mozart by the Masters, as well as numerous Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts such as The Juilliard School: Celebrating 100 Years. In 2008, he joined renowned chef Jacques Pépin on Artist’s Table to discuss the relationship between the culinary and musical arts, and lent his voice as the narrator of Visions of Israel for PBS’s acclaimed Visions series.

Mr. Perlman hosted the 1994 U.S. broadcast of the Three Tenors, Encore! Live from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. During the 78th Annual Academy Awards in 2006, he performed a live medley from the five film scores nominated in the category of Best Original Score for a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions. One of Mr. Perlman’s proudest achievements is his collaboration with film composer John Williams in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film Schindler’s List, in which he performed the violin solos. He can also be heard as the violin soloist on the soundtrack of Zhang Yimou’s film Hero (music by Tan Dun) and Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha (music by John Williams).

The year of 2018 marked the 60th anniversary of Itzhak Perlman’s U.S. debut and appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, which took place on November 2, 1958. This milestone was celebrated with a return to the Ed Sullivan Theater on November 2, 2018 in a special guest appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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Mr. Perlman has a long association with the Israel Philharmonic and has participated in many groundbreaking tours with this orchestra from his homeland. In 1987, he joined the IPO for history-making concerts in Warsaw and Budapest, representing the first performances by this orchestra and soloist in Eastern bloc countries. He again made history as he joined the orchestra for its first visit to the Soviet Union in 1990, and was cheered by audiences in Moscow and Leningrad who thronged to hear his recital and orchestral performances. This visit was captured on a PBS documentary entitled Perlman in Russia, which won an Emmy. In 1994, Mr. Perlman joined the Israel Philharmonic for their first visits to China and India.

Over the past two decades, Mr. Perlman has become actively involved in music education, using this opportunity to encourage gifted young string players.

Alongside his wife Toby, his close involvement in the Perlman Music Program has been a particularly rewarding experience, and he has taught full-time at the Program each summer since its founding in 1993. Mr. Perlman currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair at the Juilliard School.

Numerous publications and institutions have paid tribute to Itzhak Perlman for the unique place he occupies in the artistic and humanitarian fabric of our times.

Harvard, Yale, Brandeis, Roosevelt, Yeshiva and Hebrew universities are among the institutions that have awarded him honorary degrees. He was awarded an honorary doctorate and a centennial medal on the occasion of Juilliard’s 100th commencement ceremony in 2005. Itzhak Perlman’s presence on stage, on camera, and in personal appearances of all kinds speaks eloquently on behalf of the disabled, and his devotion to their cause is an integral part of his life.

Mr. Perlman has performed multiple times at the White House, most recently in 2012 at the invitation of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama, for Israeli President and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Shimon Peres; and at a State Dinner in 2007, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush, for Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. In 2009, he was honored to take part in the Inauguration of President Obama, premiering a piece written for the occasion by John Williams alongside cellist Yo-Yo Ma, clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gabriela Montero, for an audience of nearly 40 million television viewers in the United States and millions more throughout the world.

Born in Israel in 1945, Mr. Perlman completed his initial training at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. An early recipient of an America-Israel Cultural Foundation

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scholarship, he came to New York and soon was propelled to national recognition with an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. Following his studies at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, he won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964, which led to a burgeoning worldwide career. Since then, Itzhak Perlman has established himself as a cultural icon and household name in classical music.

Mr. Perlman’s recordings can be found on the Deutshe Grammophon, Warner/EMI, Sony Classical, London/Decca, Erato/Elektra International Classics and Telarc labels.

For more information on Itzhak Perlman, visit www.itzhakperlman.com.

Management for Itzhak Perlman: Primo Artists, New York, NY www.primoartists.com.

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ROHAN DE SILVA

Piano

Rohan De Silva’s partnerships with violin virtuosos Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Joshua Bell, Benny Kim, Kyoko Takezawa, Vadim Repin, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Julian Rachlin, James Ehnes and Rodney Friend have led to highly acclaimed performances at recital venues all over the world. With these and other artists he has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Philadelphia Academy of Music, Ambassador Theater in Los Angeles, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, La Scala in Milan and in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Mr. De Silva’s festival appearances include Aspen, Ravinia, Interlochen, Seattle Chamber Music, Santa Fe Chamber Music, Manchester, Schleswig-Holstein, Pacific Music Festival and the Wellington Arts Festival in New Zealand. He has performed chamber music in Beijing with the American String Quartet and has appeared in recital worldwide with Itzhak Perlman.

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Alongside Mr. Perlman, Mr. De Silva has performed multiple times at the White House, most recently in 2012 at the invitation of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama for Israeli President and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Shimon Peres; and at a State Dinner in 2007, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush for Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

A native of Sri Lanka, Mr. De Silva was invited in 2015 by the Prime Minister of his country to perform at a luncheon for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on his historic visit to Sri Lanka.

In the 2023/24 season, Mr. De Silva plays recitals with Itzhak Perlman across North America including Portland, Los Angeles, Toronto and the New York TriState area. He also performs with Mr. Perlman on the program An Evening with Itzhak Perlman which captures highlights of Mr. Perlman’s career through narrative and multi-media elements, intertwined with performance. Mr. De Silva served on faculty at the Perlman Music Program from 2000 to 2007 and currently teaches at the Juilliard School where he has served on faculty since 1991 and at Heifetz International Music Institute. He has led masterclasses in Collaborative Piano at University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University in Bloomington and the University of Gainesville in Florida.

In previous seasons, Mr. De Silva toured with Mr. Perlman in sold-out concerts throughout Asia, visiting Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and to Europe in their first appearances as a duo in London (Barbican Centre), Paris (Philharmonie de Paris) and Munich (Gasteig). In North America, he has performed with Mr. Perlman at notable venues including Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Lyric Opera, West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center.

Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, D.C. at the Kennedy Center and in New York at Carnegie Hall, to name a few. In 2020, at the invitation of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mr. De Silva performed for an exclusive guest list at the Supreme Court with Mr. Perlman in Washington D.C. Mr. De Silva also performed at Center Stage for Strings in Michigan, Innsbrook Institute in Missouri and Maui Music Festival in Hawaii.

Mr. De Silva began his piano studies with his mother, Primrose De Silva, and with Mary Billimoria. He spent six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London studying with Hamish Milne and received many awards including the

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Grover Bennett Scholarship, the Christian Carpenter Prize, the Martin Music Scholarship, the Harold Craxton Award, and the Chappell Gold Medal for best overall performance. In 2015, he was appointed Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Mr. De Silva was the first recipient of a special scholarship in the arts from the President's Fund of Sri Lanka. This enabled him to enter the Juilliard School, studying with Martin Canin, Felix Galimir, and violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. He was awarded Best Accompanist at the Ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award presented to him by Itzhak Perlman at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. De Silva joined the collaborative arts and chamber music faculty of the Juilliard School in 1991, and in 1992 was awarded honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2015, he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2001, he joined the faculty at the Ishikawa Music Academy in Japan, where he gives masterclasses in collaborative piano. Mr. De Silva additionally has served as a faculty member at the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing, China, and at the International String Academy in Cambridge, U.K. since 2011. He was on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program from 2000 to 2007. Radio and television credits include PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and the Colbert Report with Itzhak Perlman, The Tonight Show with Midori, CNN’s “Showbiz Today”, NHK Television in Japan, National Public Radio, WQXR and WNYC in New York, Berlin Radio, and the 2000 Millennium Grammy Awards. Mr. De Silva has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Universal, CBS/SONY Classical, Collins Classics in London, RCA Victor and Chandos.

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