Classics, The Kaua`i United Way Jan 19-20

Ana Kavafian. Photo courtesy of Kaua`i United Way

Kaua`i United way will welcome three world class musicians — members of the world-class Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center — to perform in two concerts to benefit the Kaua`i United Way’s Annual Campaign. The performances, sponsored by Personal Financial Consultants,  will take place on Saturday January 19 at 3 p.m. at SeaSong Estate in Seacliff Plantation, Kilauea for which tickets are $125

; and on Sunday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt Resort and Spa in Po`ipu, for which tickets are $80.

Enjoy an afternoon of pupu, signature cocktails and an opportunity to bid on vacation packages to San Francisco and New York.

The musicians include Ani Kavafian on violin; Yura Lee on violin and viola; and Laurence Lesser on cello. Their announced program is as follows: Schubert String Trio in B-flat major, D. 8; Beethoven String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 1; and, following intermission, Bartok Duos for Two Violins (selections); and Dohnanyi Serenade in C major for String Trio.

Ani Kavafian was born in Istanbul to parents of Armenian descent. After studying at Julliard, she debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1969 and Paris in 1973, the same year she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

She taught at the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music and was accepted as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1979.  In addition to touring with the Society, she is currently a professor at the Yale University School of Music.

Her instrument is a 1736 Stradivarius.

Yura Lee. Photo courtesy of Kaua`i United Way

Yura Lee, violin/viola received the prestigious Avery Fischer Career Grant in 2007 and has performed as a soloist with many major symphony orchestras in the U.S and throughout Europe, receiving numerous international prizes.

At the age of 12, Lee became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the Performance Today awards given by National Public Radio. Lee divides her time between Berlin and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a professor at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Cellist Laurence Lesser, president emeritus of the New England Conservatory, was a top prizewinner in the 1966 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, a participant in the historic Heifetz-Piatigorsky concerts and recordings and has been a soloist with many prestigious orchestras where he has performed under the batons of Ozawa, Rostropovich and Tilson Thomas.

Laurence Lesser. Photo courtesy of Kaua`i United Way

At the Zermatt Master Classes, Pablo Casals said of Lesser, “Thank God, who has given you such a talent.”  Mr. Lesser plays a 1622 cello made by the brothers Amati in Cremona, Italy.

Call 808.245.2043
for further details.