2021-2022: SEASON 9

ZLATOMIR FUNG, CELLO | ROHAN DE SILVA, PIANO

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PROGRAM

• TCHAIKOVSKY ROCOCO VARIATIONS

• BEETHOVEN SONATA IN G MINOR
• BLOCH BAAL SHEM
• JUDITH WEIR UNLOCKED (BASED ON AMERICAN SPIRITUALS)

Program Notes

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ARTIST BIOS

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  Zlatomir Fung

  The first American in four decades and youngest musician ever to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division, Zlatomir Fung is poised to become one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Astounding audiences with his boundless virtuosity and exquisite sensitivity, the 22-year-old has already proven himself to be a star among the next generation of world-class musicians. A 2020 recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Fung’s impeccable technique demonstrates a mastery of the canon and an exceptional insight into the depths of contemporary repertoire.

  In the 2021-2022 season, Fung performs with orchestras and gives recitals in all corners of the world. Summer debuts include La Jolla Chamber Music Society in recital with Richard Fu, multiple programs at ChamberFest Cleveland, Bravo! Vail in a chamber music program with Joshua Bell and Shai Wosner, Aspen Music Festival in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and Rockport Chamber Music Festival in a recital with Dina Vainshtein. In the fall, he opens Ann Arbor Symphony’s season and appears twice with Iris Orchestra. He is presented by Harvard Musical Association, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, and Thomasville Entertainment Foundation before making his Carnegie Hall Weill Recital debut with pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen in a program of Romantic-era classics. He returns to Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in January for two evenings with BalletX and the Calidore Quartet to give the Philadelphia premiere of a new work by Anna Clyne and appears with several orchestras including the Kansas City and Greensboro Symphonies. He tours Italy, Russia, China, and Japan with orchestras and in recital.

  In the 2020-2021 season, Fung made his Seattle Symphony debut in the orchestra’s 13th annual Celebrate Asia concert in addition to livestreams presented by University of Delaware, The Phillips Collection & Music Wooster, and Friends of Chamber Music, and many online masterclasses. In the 2019-2020 season, he returned to the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and debuted with Asheville and Aiken Symphony Orchestras. He performed at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in a joint recital with fellow Tchaikovsky Competition winners in October, following a recital at Friends of Music in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Other recitals include Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Syrinx Concerts in Toronto, The Embassy Series in Washington DC, Salon de Virtuosi and Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York City, Chamber on the Mountain in Ojai, and Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore. At the Artist Series of Sarasota, Fung performed the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven. As a chamber musician, Fung performed around the world, opening the season with IMS Prussia Cove on tour to London’s Wigmore Hall, Cornwall, Cambridge, West Sussex, and Somerset. New York City chamber music engagements included the Aspect Foundation. During the summer of 2019, Fung performed at Musique de Chambre à Giverny, a chamber music festival in northern France. 

  A winner of the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2017 Astral National Auditions, Fung has taken the top prizes at the 2018 Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, 2016 George Enescu International Cello Competition, 2015 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, 2014 Stulberg International String Competition, and 2014 Irving Klein International Competition. He was selected as a 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholar for the Arts and was awarded the 2016 Landgrave von Hesse Prize at the Kronberg Academy Cello Masterclasses. 

  Of Bulgarian-Chinese heritage, Zlatomir Fung began playing cello at age three and earned fellowships at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Heifetz International Music Institute, MusicAlp, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. A proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, Fung currently studies at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy. Fung has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and has appeared on From the Top six times. In addition to music, he enjoys cinema, reading, and blitz chess.

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  Rohan de Silva

  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, and Julian Rachlin have led to highly acclaimed performances at recital venues all over the world.  With these and other artists he has performed at 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 and La Scala in Milan and Tel-Aviv, Israel.  His festival appearances include the Aspen, Interlochen, Manchester, Ravinia and Schleswig-Holstein festivals, the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and the Wellington Arts Festival in New Zealand. He performs frequently with Itzhak Perlman and was seen with Mr. Perlman on PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center broadcast in early January 2000.  In September 2009, Mr. De Silva performed with Mr. Perlman in Mexico City and in recital at the Moscow Conservatory. Mr. De Silva and Mr. Perlman recently performed at the State Dinner for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush at the White House.  At the invitation of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama, Mr. De Silva and Mr. Perlman returned to the White House in June 2012, where they performed at an Official Dinner for Israeli President and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Shimon Peres.  In 2013-14, Mr. De Silva performs with Mr. Perlman in a recital tour of the Far East, with performances in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China.   He will also appear with Mr. Perlman in cities across the United States.

  Mr. De Silva, a native of Sri Lanka, began his piano studies with his mother, the late Primrose De Silva, and with the late Mary Billimoria.  He spent six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London as a student of Hamish Milne, Sydney Griller, and Wilfred Parry.  While in London, he received many awards including the Grover Bennett Scholarship, the Christian Carpenter Prize, the Martin Music Scholarship, the Harold Craxton Award for advanced study in England, and, upon his graduation, the Chappell Gold Medal for best overall performance at the RoyalAcademy.  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, where he received both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, studying piano with Martin Canin, chamber music with Felix Galimir, and working closely with violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay.  He was awarded a special prize as Best Accompanist at the 1990 Ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.  He received the  Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award presented to him by Itzhak Perlman at the 2005 Classical Recording Foundation Awards Ceremony 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 2001, he joined the faculty at the IshikawaMusicAcademy in Japan, where he gives masterclasses in collaborative piano.  Mr. De Silva was additionally on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program from 2000-2007.  Radio and television credits include The TonightShow with Midori, CNN’s “Showbiz Today”, NHK Television in Japan, National Public Radio, WQXR and WNYC in New York, Berlin Radio, and the 2000 Millenium Grammy Awards.  He has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, CBS/SONY Classical, Collins Classics in London, and RCA Victor.