Festival Artists
Gil
Morgenstern
Violin
Acclaimed for his artistry and technical brilliance as soloist with
orchestra, in recital or as a chamber musician, violinist Gil Morgenstern has
performed all over the world to overwhelming critical praise. Performing
in public since he was five years old, Mr. Morgenstern has gone on to perform
all across the globe, playing in such musical centers as New York, London,
Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin and Hong Kong. He has toured extensively in the
United States, appearing in recital and with many leading orchestras including
the St. Louis, Baltimore, Louisville, Indianapolis, Denver, Milwaukee, New
Jersey and North Carolina Symphonies. Mr. Morgenstern has shared the stage
with such eminent musicians as Philippe Entremont, Lynn Harrell, Laurie
Anderson, Sharon Isbin, Heinz Holliger, André-Michel Schub and Jeffrey Kahane,
and has collaborated with United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Pulitzer
Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. He has been the subject of numerous
television and radio shows both at home and abroad and his performances can be
regularly heard on National Public Radio broadcasts. His discography
includes works by Gabriel Fauré, Ludwig van Beethoven, Aaron Copland, and George
Tsontakis; his newly released recording, 20th Century Duos (Ravel, Kodály and
Roger Sessions), has hit #1 on eMusic’s Classical Album Charts in only its first
week. Mr. Morgenstern records for the MMC, Engine Company and Koch International
Classics labels.
In addition to his performance activities, Mr. Morgenstern is the co-founder and
co-artistic director along with writer Jonathan Levi of Nine Circles Chamber
Theatre, a creative organization dedicated to exploring the collaborative nature
of inter-disciplinary performance and expanding the performance traditions of
music, theatre and dance. He is also the artistic director of
”Reflections,” a new international performance series with concerts in New York
City, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, with additional performances
anticipated in Florence, Milan and Rome next season. Mr. Morgenstern is the
violinist and artistic director of the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, a diverse
chamber group specializing in Classical, Romantic and contemporary works of
mixed instrumentation, and he recently stepped down after 15 years as the
artistic director of An Appalachian Summer Festival, located in the Blue Ridge
mountains of North Carolina. During his tenure, the festival grew into one
of the leading regional performing and visual arts festivals in the United
States and became recognized as an important venue for commissioning and
presenting original works.
Mr. Morgenstern’s many prizes and honors include a command performance at the
White House, Gold Medals in The Washington International and National Society of
Arts and Letters Competitions, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, and the Jaycees
of America’s “Outstanding Young American" award.
Highlights of Mr. Morgenstern’s recent seasons include appearances as soloist,
in chamber music concerts, and in inter-disciplinary performance in the United
States, Europe and Australia. He premiered works of music and dance at Lincoln
Center and with the Brooklyn Ballet. His music-theatre projects with New York’s
prestigious Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y included the premiere
of “Samuel Beckett at 100,” "Venus and Adonis" with Claire Bloom and John
Neville, and a staged version of U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s translation
of Dante’s Inferno which toured the country and was broadcast on PBS and NPR,
for which it received a Peabody nomination. Mr. Morgenstern’s performance
in the Nine Circles Chamber Theatre production of “When Samson Met Delilah”
toured Holland to rave reviews and his recent recital in Toronto was broadcast
throughout Canada on CBC. Next season’s highlights, in addition to the
Reflections series, will include fully staged performances of the Beckett
evening at Harvard University, a new staged version of The Epic of Gilgamesh for
actors and solo violin at the 92nd St. Y in New York City, performances in
Europe and the premiere of "Falling Bodies," an orginal music theatre work based
on the lives of Galileo Galilei and Primo Levi for actors, violin, flute and
percussion.
Copyright © 2008 Gil Morgenstern. All Rights Reserved