by Mitra Sadigh

On Sunday, Oct. 20, the CT Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra will commence its 2013/14 season of free orchestral concerts at CCSU’s Welte Hall. This season, the Virtuosi will present the Heritage Series, so named for its “reflection of the cultural richness of the Greater New Britain community, all the people who make the community what it is.” Maestro Sylveen believes that art and music can help build cultural bridges between the past, present and future. “We cannot build present moments without our past heritage and we cannot build the future without strong cultural existence in the present.” Each concert is presented with a special cultural theme. This concert program, featuring the music of Chopin, Saint-Saens, and Bizet, is titled “French Connections.”

Internationally acclaimed pianist Neal Larrabee will be the featured soloist for Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. This piece of music was first performed in October 1830 in Warsaw, with Chopin himself as the soloist in a farewell concert given before his departure to Paris, where expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration were warmly welcomed. Chopin never returned to Poland after emigrating in 1831 despite nostalgia for his homeland, a yearning that is embedded in his music.

Mr. Larrabee has performed in major concert halls throughout New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Berlin, Moscow and Warsaw. He has amassed particular prominence in Poland where his renditions of Chopin’s music have permeated national television and radio broadcasts, recording labels, and spotlights on every major Polish concert stage. Larrabee has received honors in the Fifth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Ninth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, among many other competitions. He was the first pianist recipient of the Artur Rubenstein Medal as winner of the Young Musician’s Foundation Competition in Los Angeles. Audiences are sure to enjoy an extraordinary rendition of Chopin’s music and a fitting tribute to the iconic composer, who passed away 164 years ago in October.

The program features the dramatic, technically brilliant first movement of Saint-Saens’ violin concerto No. 3 performed by 9-year-old prodigy Michelle Stern, winner of various prizes including the Concert Festival International, American Protégé International Competition and American Fine Art Competition. This year, she received first prize and the Judges Distinction Award at the American Protégé Piano and Strings International Competition, first prize and Best Performance Award at the American Protégé Competition, and Grand Prize at Concert Festival International Concerto Competition.

Bizet’s uplifting Symphony in C Major is also on the program, a timely placement considering Bizet began the work in October 1855 of his 17th year, completing it in just a month’s time. Although the work was greatly admired by later generations, it was never performed during his lifetime.

The concert is on Sunday, October 20th at 4pm at Welte Hall, CCSU New Britain and is co-presented with the Polish Studies Program at CCSU. Join us early at 3:30 for a presentation by the Virtuosi Academy Students. Admission is free. For more information, please visit www.thevirtuosi.org or call The Virtuosi at (860) 325-CVCO (2826).