WMP Concert Hall

Every WEDNESDAY at 12:30pm, we offer a 45 minute to one hour long chamber music concert. It is free admission with a suggested donation of $10.00. This concert series offers high quality music to the public during their lunch break. Our mission is to give something back to the community while promoting talented musicians. The musicians play on an Antonio Stradivari violin.

Wednesday, February 15th @ 12:30pm

Violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft and pianist Noreen Polera

Wednesday, February 22nd @ 12:30pm

Violinist Liv Heym

Wednesday, February 29th @ 12:30pm

Violinist Emily Daggett- Smith and pianist TBA



  No food or beverage in the concert hall

This Concert Series is sponsored by www.gostrings.com

News from WMP written on Feb 9th, 2012

Talented young French violinist, Virgil Boutellis-Taft will perform for our Strad for Lunch Series with one of the preeminent artist in NYC, pianist Noreen Polera. The program will feature Nigun by Bloch, famous Meditation from Thais by Massenet, Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns and one of the masterpiece of the violin and piano repertoire, the Franck Sonata in A Major.

Virgil Boutellis-Taft is an accomplished young French violinist. This past summer he gave a highly reviewed month long performance at the Avignon International Festival and then participated in the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France. Winner of the Soloist String Player Prize at the ISA International Competition 2010 in Austria, he performed for the Vienna Cultural Radio and has also performed as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of the RCM-London, with the Emeritus Chamber Orchestra-Israel. In America he opened the 2011/2012 season with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and will be playing again in the US in 2012 with the Dayton Philharmonic, among others.
From the age of 9, Virgil has given many private and public recitals and concerts in France, Luxemburg, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Hungary, England, the United States, and Israel, and has participated in numerous international music festivals: among them, the Bowdoin International Music Festival in the USA, in 2006, invited to return in 2007 as assistant teacher, and the Valdres International Music Festival in Norway in 2008 and 2009. In Israel he took part in the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse 2007 and 2008, in The 8th Red Sea (Valery Gergiev) International Music Festival in 2009, and in The 4th Eilat Chamber Music Festival, 2009 and 2010. In 2009 he was part of the Pablo Casals International Music Festival in France, and again in 2011. In Austria, in 2010, he performed in the ISA PragWienBudapest International Music Festival, and last April, he took part in the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, UK. Among his awards are, in France, the 1st Prize of the Vatelot Violin Competition, Paris 2001, and the winner of the Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation for the Vocation Award in 2004. In London, Virgil was the recipient of the prestigious AHRC Award 2005, followed by the Pennington-Mellor-Munthe Trust Award in 2006, and the MBF Award that same year. In 2007 he obtained the Myra Hess Trust Award and was a prize winner in the 17th Haverhill Sinfonia Soloist Competition. He obtained his 1st Prize, Gold Medal, from the Paris Conservatory at the age of 16 and was accepted directly into the Soloist Program. Then followed studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Budapest, the Royal College of Music, London, where he obtained his Masters in Advanced Performance and his Artist Diploma. He then spent 2 years in Israel, invited by the University of Tel Aviv to participate in their International Program for Outstanding Foreign Students. He has been a student of the soloists Hagai Shaham, Olivier Charlier and Laurent Korcia, and has studied chamber music with Leon Chilingirian of the Chilingirian Quartet and with Geza Hargitai of the Bartok Quartet. He has also participated in numerous master classes with internationally renowned soloists and professors such as: Zakhar Bron, Miriam Fried, Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel, Boris Kuschnir, Schlomo Mintz, Igor Oistrakh, Joel Smirnoff, Haim Taub, Almita Vamos… Virgil Boutellis-Taft plays on a 1850 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume made available to him through the generosity of a private sponsor.

The pianist Noreen Polera ranks among the most highly-regarded collaborative pianists and diverse chamber artists performing today, and maintains a career that has taken her to every major American music center and abroad to Europe, Russia, and Asian centers of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul.  Recent performances include those at Alice Tully Hall, Zankel Hall, Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y, Jordan Hall, Gardner Museum, Kennedy Center, Salle Cortot, and appearances atfestivals including  Caramoor, Bard and Grand Teton, as well as engagements at the Chamber Music Societies of Philadelphia and La Jolla. She has recorded for EMI, Audiophon and Centaur Records. Noreen Polera has collaborated with leading soloists including David Shifrin, Matt Haimovitz, Carter Brey, Antonio Menesis, Aurora-Natalie Ginastera, Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Rose. Winner of the Accompanying Prize at the Eighth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, she regularly collaborates with laureates of the Queen Elisabeth, Tchaikovsky and Naumburg international competitions. Ms. Cassidy-Polera’s mastery and affection for the complete standard cello-piano repertory is well-known, as is her attention and dedication to the works of living composers.  In recent seasons she performed Elliott Carter’s venerable Sonata for Cello and Piano on tour in Paris, New York and Philadelphia, along with new works by Lowell Liebermann and YCA composers Benjamin C.S. Boyle and Kenji Bunch to critical acclaim.  Her CD recording Sound Vessels (with cellist Scott Kluksdahl) features the recording premiere of Richard Wernick’s Duo, as well as works of Robert Helps, Augusta Read Thomas and Elliott Carter. Noreen Polera holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Martin Canin.

News from WMP written on June 13th, 2011





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If you want to watch a five minute selection of the Bach Project DVD's presentation, please follow this link:

http://www.mlfilms.com/files/mlfmusic/b&fopeningbb.mov

Amazing performance of the Chaconne by famous violinist Joshua Bell:

http://www.mlfilms.com/

You can purchase the DVD Bach & Friends on : www.gostrings.com