Adam Levin and William Knuth in DUO SONIDOS Joins A440 Arts Group

A440 Arts Group welcomes Duo Sonidos (Adam Levin, guitar and William Knuth, violin) to its growing roster of composers, classical musicians, and ensembles for management and publicity in North America. A440 will also represent Adam Levin as a soloist.

Duo Sonidos is dedicated to bringing a fresh interpretation of chamber music to audiences across the globe and expanding the repertoire for violin and guitar duos through new commissions. In December 2010, Duo Sonidos was awarded first prize at the Luys Milán International Chamber Music Competition in Valencia, Spain. In January 2011, Duo Sonidos was featured on the WFMT/Chicago radio program Live from Mayne Stage.

Their self-titled debut album was released in 2010 featuring standard and new works by Astor Piazzolla, Salvador Brotons, Eduardo Morales-Caso, and Manuel De Falla. The CD garnered a US Choice recommendation from BBC Music Magazine in June, 2012. Music critic JulIan Haylock wrote “how refreshing to encounter two gifted young American musicians playing the Histoire du Tango with a loose-limbed, easy virtuoso cool and beguiling tonal warmth that combines laid-back intuitiveness with classical sophistication. …Stunning performances from Duo Sonidos.” The American Record Guide wrote, “Knuth plays violin with perfect intonation, a wide range of timbre, sprightly rhythm, expressive phrasing, and great sensitivity. He never overwhelms his partner…and his affinity for this music is ideal. Levin is every bit as fine. This is exquisite music-making… an exciting discovery, recommended to all lovers of great chamber music playing.”

Duo Sonidos is a bid to amalgamate the capabilities of two classically ambassadorial instruments basic to the fabric of contemporary and classical music, and to advance this chamber combination with audiences around the world. Duo Sonidos has forged relationships with contemporary composers with an adaptable catalogue of music as well as commissioned several composers that have written new works for them, including Jan Freidlin (Israel), Jorge Variego (Argentina), Ricardo Llorca (Spain-USA) and Eduardo Morales-Caso (Cuba- Spain), and others.

Levin and Knuth have performed throughout the United States and Europe and have been honored as US Fulbright Scholars in the field of music performance in Madrid, Spain and Vienna, Austria.

Adam Levin has been praised by renowned American guitarist Eliot Fisk as a “virtuoso guitarist and a true 21st century renaissance man with the élan, intelligence, charm, tenacity and conviction to change the world.” Levin’s debut album, In the Beginning, was praised as “absolutely thrilling…will dazzle and entertain at every possible opportunity” by Minor 7th Acoustic Guitar Music Reviews.

Levin has embarked on expanding the guitar’s repertoire through collaborations with thirty renowned contemporary Spanish composers. His second album, Music from Out of Time featured world premiere recordings by contemporary Spanish composers Eduardo Morales-Caso, Leonardo Balada, Mario Gosalvez-Blanco, David Del Puerto, and José María Sánchez Verdú. His most recent solo recording on Verso Records, Fuego de la Luna, showcased the complete guitar works of Eduardo Morales-Caso. In September 2012, production begins on a four-volume solo CD series on the Naxos label and a companion publication with Brotons y Mercadal Edicions Musicals, presenting the thirty Spanish works commissioned while in residency in Spain from 2008-2011.

Levin has performed across the United States and Europe at renowned venues such as Chicago’s Pick Staiger and Mayne Stage concert halls, at the Palazzo Chigi Saracini in Italy, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Berlin Universität für Musik und darstellende Künst, the Barcelona Auditorio Axa, and in Madrid at the Palacio de Godoy, BBVA Palacio del Marqués de Salamanca, and Sala Manuel De Falla.

The recipient of numerous top prizes, Adam Levin has been recognized by the Society of American Musicians, the Lake Forest Concerto Competition, Minnesota’s Schubert Competition, Boston GuitarFest, Concurso Internacional de les Corts para Jóvenes Intérpretes in Barcelona, Concurso Internazionale Di Gargnano, and Certamen Internacional Luys Milan de Guitarra in Valencia. Levin has been guest artist on a variety of music series, including Madrid’s Sociedad Española de Guitarra, Conciertos en Palacios and Festival Clásicos en Verano, Valencia’s Amigos de la Guitarra, Boston GuitarFest, L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, and Festival Pro Música e Cultura in St.Moritz.

In 2005, as part of a fundraising effort for Hurricane Katrina victims, Levin directed the Concert for Gulf-Coast Aid, which raised $10,000 for hurricane relief. In 2007-2008, Levin was awarded an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, encompassing 200 hours of innovative community work in Boston area schools, homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers, halfway houses, and prisons. In 2008, Levin was honored as a Fulbright Scholar in the field of music performance, researching contemporary Spanish guitar repertoire in Madrid. In collaboration with the Spanish and American embassies, Levin has continued outreach performances in Madrid at a number of bilingual school programs, introducing both American and Spanish classical guitar repertoire to students. In 2009, he was awarded the Program for CulturAl Cooperation Fellowship, promoting cultural understanding between Spain and the United States. In May 2010, Levin was awarded the Kate NeAl Kinley Fellowship, continuing his research and performance of contemporary Spanish music in Madrid.

A native of Chicago’s North Shore, Levin holds BM and BA degrees from Northwestern University in Music Performance, Psychology, and Pre-Med. Under the tutelage of Eliot Fisk, Levin completed a MM at New England Conservatory in Boston. His esteemed teachers have included Oscar Ghiglia, Gabriel Estarellas, Anne Waller, Mark Maxwell, and Paul Henry. Levin was professor of guitar at Amadeus Escuela de Música in Madrid, Spain and is currently the co-director of the music program, Boston Guitar Immersion, which offers comprehensive guitar instruction to independent schools.

William Knuth, violinist, has earned recognition for his artistry as a solo and chamber musician and has been praised by American Record Guide for his “perfect intonation, wide range of timbre…expressive phrasing, and great sensitivity.” Mr. Knuth spent two years as a US Fulbright grantee to Vienna, Austria studying at the Vienna Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst. He was a featured performer multiple times for members of the United Nations Council as well as foreign ambassadors from Russia, Spain, Germany, and Austria.

In addition to his international touring as a member of Duo Sonidos with Adam Levin, William has participated in various international festivals and academies including the Internationale Sommer Akademie Prague-Vienna- Budapest, the IMPULS New Music Ensemble Akademie with the Vienna Klangforum Orchestra, and the Juilliard International Akademie at the Hochschule fur Musik in Leipzig, Germany. Mr. Knuth has traveled and performed in central Europe at notable venues such as the Bösendorfer Hall and Antonio Vivaldi Hall in Vienna, the Mendelssohn House in Leipzig, Germany, the Instituto Internacional of Madrid, and the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin. Recent concerts in the US have included performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Harvard Sanders Theater, Boston WGBH Radio, Chicago WFMT Radio, NPR Radio, Mayne Stage Chicago, guest solo appearances with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, the Boston International Guitarfest, and ensemble work with Discovery Ensemble (Associate Concertmaster), Signal Ensemble. Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, The Harvard Group for New Music, June in Buffalo festival, and the Ojai Festival.

William holds a MM degree at the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo Quartet, a Fulbright certificate for work with Ernst Kovacic at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, and a BM in violin with a minor in German from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester where he was a student of Lynn Blakeslee and the Ying Quartet. William completed his preparatory studies under the tutelage of James Krehbiel in Syracuse, NY.