arts & entertainment

Taking Their
'Bows'

I

Two violinists of Jewish/Japanese
heritage will be part of Chamber Music
Society of Detroit's 2014-15 season.

Suzanne Chessler

Contributing Writer

A

mong the many musicians
scheduled for the 2014-15 sea-
son of the Chamber Music Society
of Detroit, two have a lot in common.
Anne Akiko Meyers and Rachel Shapiro,
appearing in different concerts, share
a love for the violin, have studied at
the Juilliard School in New York, recall
Michigan performances, draw from Jewish
and Japanese heritage, and have known
Austin, Texas, as home.
Meyers opens CMSD's Signature
Chamber Series Saturday evening, Sept.
20, when she will appear with pianist
Anton Nel to present Mozart's Violin
Sonata in F major, Part's Spiegel im Spiegel,
Ravel's Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major,
Corigliano's Lullaby for Natalie and Faure's
Violin Sonata in A major.
Shapiro, a member of the Aeolus
Quartet, will be in the opening concert of
the CMSD at Oakland University Series.
On Sunday afternoon, Oct. 12, her quartet
will join with the Juilliard String Quartet
and play Mendelssohn's Octet for Strings
in E-flat major. Also on the program
will be Haydn's Quartet in G major and
Israeli-American composer Shulamit Ran's
Quartet No. 2 ("Vistas"), written in 1989.
"I love playing contemporary music, and
I love Corigliano's piece says Meyers, in a
phone conversation from New York and on
break from preparations for a concert for
The All-Star Orchestra series, to be filmed
by PBS for broadcast next spring.
"It's one of the most beautiful arrange-
ments of a lullaby, and he wrote it for my
first-born daughter. I love juxtaposing that
with traditional works, those being the

About CMSD

T

he 2014-15 season of the
Chamber Music Society of
Detroit has announced four series
spotlighting both returning artists and per-
formers new to CMSD programming.
Among the headliners will be the
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio,
Brentano String Quartet, Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center, and soprano
Heidi Grant Murphy with German-born
Israeli-American pianist Menahem Pressler.
Also performing will be violinist
Gidon Kremer, whose Jewish father

Anne Akiko Meyers

Rachel Shapiro

Ravel and Faure, and I love the crosscur-
rents of old and new.
"I'm very exploratory and love discov-
ering works that haven't been played to
death as well as commissioning com-
posers. I feel like a detective in that I'm
putting pieces together, whether finding
something fresh, original and new in an
older piece or playing something from
today"
Meyers, 44, drawn to the violin since she
was 4, started learning through the Suzuki
Method, memorizing pieces very quickly.
After studying with private teachers in
California until she was 12, she worked
with Josef Gingold at Indiana University
for a half year and went on to Juilliard.
"From the time I was 16, I had manage-
ment and have been playing professionally
ever since says Meyers, who works in
many countries and has recorded some 30

albums. "I've played at a lot of Jewish com-
munity centers that have recital series"
Meyers, whose Jewish heritage is
through her father's family, is married to
Jason Subotky, also of Jewish heritage, and
they have two young daughters drawn to
music. Their home is in Austin, where he
is a funds manager.
"I've known Leonard Slatkin since I
was a teenager" she says of the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra conductor. "We've
toured the Far East, and recently we've
been playing the Mason Bates' Violin
Concerto a lot. I'll be playing that with him
in Lyon, France, next year.
"Leonard Slatkin is such a great cham-
pion and advocate of new music, and he
was very helpful in bringing together a
recording of that concerto:'
Meyers, who has performed with
the Detroit Symphony, is very proud
of the instrument she has been loaned
for life by an anonymous donor — the
"Ex-Vieuxtemps" Guarneri del Gesu violin,
dated 1741. It belonged to Belgian virtuoso
violinist and composer Henri Vieuxtemps.
"There's a lot of room for breathing and
discussion with a chamber music recital"
says Meyers. "It illustrates many different
characters, moods and periods in history"
Shapiro echoes Meyers' enthusiasm for
performance as she discusses the piece she
will be playing in Michigan.
"The Mendelssohn work is interesting
because it was done early in his career and
so has a lot of teenage emotions and covers
the whole musical spectrum" says Shapiro
in a phone conversation from the road.
"We've performed it a number of times
and in a number of venues with great col-

survived the Holocaust in Latvia, and
Israeli-born pianist Inon Barnatan.
A lecture series presented by CMSD
President Steve Wogaman at the
Bloomfield Township Public Library and
preconcert events supplement the musi-
cal programming based at the Seligman
Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills,
the Music Box at the Max M. Fisher
Music Center in Detroit and Varner
Recital Hall on the campus of Oakland
University in Rochester.
For a complete schedule and ticket
information, call (248) 855-6070, or go
to chambermusicdetroit.org .

❑

- Suzanne Chessler

laborators.
"Two winters ago, we did a residency
with the Chamber Music Society of Detroit
and partnered with the American String
Quartet. We played for kids in cafeterias,
gyms and classrooms, and we visited
a children's hospital and special-needs
school:'
Shapiro, 27 and single, grew up in
Pennsylvania, where she started taking
violin lessons and thought about playing
rock 'n' roll. As she moved into the clas-
sical world, she attended the Cleveland
Institute of Music and began playing
chamber works with friends.
After forming the Aeolus Quartet, its
four members auditioned for graduate
residencies. They spent two years at the
University of Texas in Austin and went on
to the University of Maryland at College
Park. They will be in their second year at
Juilliard.
"Last year, we did a program of music
by Jewish people during the World War II
era" recalls Shapiro, whose Jewish heritage
is from her father's family. "It was at the
Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York
City, where I now live:'
The quartet — appearing in Tulsa before
coming to Detroit and in Korea follow-
ing Detroit — has made two recordings,
Aeolus Quartet Performs Brahms 6 Bartok
and Many-Sided Music, which includes
work by William Bolcom of Ann Arbor.
"Our upcoming performance in
Michigan will be a special experience for
us," Shapiro says. "We get to play with our
mentors, the Juilliard Quartet" ❑

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, with
pianist Anton Nel, opens the CMSD
Signature Chamber Series at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Seligman
Performing Arts Center, 22305 W.13
Mile Road, in Beverly Hills. $30-$60.
Half-price student tickets, ranging
from $15-$30, also are available with
student ID, and $10 student rush
tickets are available one hour prior
to performance on concert nights,
subject to availability.
Rachel Shapiro and the Aeolus
Quartet join the Juilliard String
Quartet to open the CMSD at
Oakland University Series at 3 p.m.
Sunday, Oct.12, at Varner Recital Hall
on the campus of Oakland University,
2200 N. Squirrel Road, in Rochester.
$30 adults/$15 students (248) 855-
6070; chambermusicdetroit.org .

September 4 • 2014

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