Holy Cross Artists-in-Residence to Collaborate with International and Award-Winning Violinist Itamar Zorman

The College of the Holy Cross music department"s artists-in-residence will present an intense and virtuosic program titled "Echoes of Torment and Bliss" featuring select works by Antonín Dvorak, Witold Lutoslawski, Olivier Messiaen, Paul Ben-Haim, and Robert Schumann. Cellist Jan Müller-Szeraws and pianist Adam Golka will be joined by violinist Itamar Zorman on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Zorman, a violinist and native of Israel has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2014; the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant; and he received first place in the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia. He has performed as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, German Radio Philharmonic, and American Symphony. Zorman is also a member of the Israeli Chamber project as well as the Lysander Piano Trio, which won the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2012 and the grand prize at the Coleman Competition. Zorman, a chamber musician, has performed in many prestigious concert halls in the U.S., which include the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He was born into a family of musicians and started playing the violin at the age of six at the Israeli Conservatory Music in Tel Aviv. He studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and received a bachelor of music. Zorman earned his M.M. at the Julliard School in New York. He has received Artist Diplomas from both the Manhattan School of Music and Julliard.

Golka, artist-in-residence at the College, is excited about the upcoming performance with the international and award-winning talent of Zorman. “I consider him an extraordinary colleague and unquestionably one of the greatest young violinists on the chamber music scene today,” says Golka.

An experienced pianist born to a Texan family of Polish musicians, the Washington Post has praised Golka for his “brilliant technique and real emotional depth.” He has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras in the U.S., including Houston, San Diego, and Grand Rapids symphonies as well as the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium. Golka has also appeared internationally with the BBC Scottish Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Shanghai Philharmonic. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2009 Max I. Allen Classical Fellowship Award of the American Pianists Association; the 2008 Gilmore Young Artist Award; and received first-prize in 2003 at the China Shanghai International Piano Competition. Golka began his piano studies with his mother, pianist Anna Golka, and continued as a teenager with Dariusz Pawlas of Rice University. He received Artist Diplomas from Texas Christian University and the Peabody Conservatory. His debut recording features the sonata “Opus No. 1” of Brahms and the “Hammerklavier” sonata of Beethoven and was released in August by First Hand Records. Recently, during the 2014-15 season, Golka has been performing with the Vancouver, San Diego, Richmond, Billings, Evansville and Brevard symphonies. During this time, he will also be performing in a number of solo recitals for the Van Cliburn Foundation and the Alice Tully Hall in New York.

Cellist Müller-Szeraws, artist-in-residence at the College, director of the
Chamber Music Institute at Holy Cross and chamber music coordinator of the music department, has a career that has taken him across three continents. His solo-engagements include performances with the New England Philharmonic, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de de Chile, Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción and Orquesta de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile with concertos ranging from the traditional repertoire such as Haydn, Schumann, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich to concertos by contemporary composers Chou Wen-Chung, Bernard Hoffer, Gunther Schuller and John Harbison. He has most recently recorded an album with music by Shirish Korde, Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Holy Cross, with music for cello, tabla and Carnatic soprano as well as sonatas by Brahms and Chopin with fellow artist-in-resident Golka, for Hammond Performing Arts. Müller-Szeraws has been a guest artist at many festivals across the U.S. and is a member of the contemporary music ensembles Boston Musica Viva and Trio Tremonti. Müller-Szeraws was a prize-winner at the Washington International Competition and is a grant recipient of the Saul and Naomi Cohen Foundation. He studied at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, Germany and received both his B.M. and M.M. from Boston University.

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