An Die Musik Presents Cellist Amit Peled In Bach Cello Suites

On Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 3:00pm ET, An Die Musik Live presents Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled in a live streamed recital featuring Bach's Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major and Suite No. 5 in c minor.

Peled is on the faculty of Baltimore's Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught a cello studio since 2003 and was one of the youngest professors ever hired by a major conservatory. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Peled has expanded his teaching offerings to include a successful Online Cello Academy, including an open call for eight cellists to participate in an intensive eight-day "hard-core cello workout" and the The First Hour Online Journey, a seven-week course conducted over Zoom. The academy uses Peled's pedagogy book The First Hour, his unique cello emoji language, scale system, and method of how to wisely practice your first hour of the day. Learn more: www.amitpeled.com/first-hour-online-journey

Program Information
An Die Musik Live Presents Cellist Amit Peled in Recital
Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 3:00pm ET
Live Streamed from An Die Musik in Baltimore, MD
Tickets: $7
Link: http://bit.ly/PeledSept20

Program:
Bach - Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major
Bach - Cello Suite No. 5 in c minor

About Amit Peled
Israeli-American cellist, conductor, and pedagogue Amit Peled, a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. At 6'5" tall, Peled started life as a basketball player and was called "larger than life" and "Jacqueline du Pré in a farmer's body" when he enveloped his cello. Peled strives to break down the barriers of the concert hall, about which The Baltimore Sun wrote, "His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we'll need more of if classical music is to survive." From 2012 through 2018, Peled performed on the Pablo Casals 1733 Goffriller cello, which was loaned to him personally by Casals' widow, Marta Casals Istomin. Peled served as Music Director for CityMusic Cleveland for the 2019-2020 season.

Recent career highlights include Bach Suite cycles in the United States, Europe, and Israel; performances of the Saint-Saëns cello concerto at the Kennedy Center; a debut collaboration with the Peabody Chamber Orchestra led by Maestra Marin Alsop; a return to the Ravinia Festival in celebration of Peled's recording of Brahms Cello Sonatas on the Casals cello; a return visit as a soloist to the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico; performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto and Penderecki's Second Cello Concerto conducted by the legendary Krzysztof Penderecki himself; Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata recorded on the Casals cello; and a worldwide musical celebration of Beethoven's Sonatas for Cello and Piano to commemorate the composer's 250th anniversary.

In 2017, Peled published a children's book, A Cello Named Pablo, written by Marni Fogelson and illustrated by Avi Katz. Funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, it follows Peled's journey from the basketball courts of rural Israel to the world's great concert halls playing one of the most famous instruments of all time and continuing the legacy of Pablo Casals.

Peled has performed as a soloist with many of the world's top orchestras and in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium.

Peled's extensive discography includes critically acclaimed CDs on the Naxos, Centaur, CAP, CTM Classics, and Delos Labels. His release Casals Homage, which features the legendary 1915 Pablo Casals program, topped the iTunes charts in 2016. Peled and the Amit Peled Cello Gang released a cello ensemble album on Peled's own label CTM Classics in October 2017. His recording, To Brahms with Love... From the Cello of Pablo Casals, features Brahms' Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 performed with pianist Noreen Polera and was released on CAP Records in June 2018. The album was described by AllMusic as "[likely] composer approved, more so than almost any other contemporary recording." Peled released a recording of Bach's iconic Cello Suites Nos. 1-3 on the Casals cello in February 2019, which The Classic Review described as "a superb performance, warm-hearted, knowledgeable, and deeply felt" and AllMusic called "an important new statement in the history of these works." Upcoming album releases include a recording of the Cassado cello sonatas for Naxos and the second installment of the Bach Suites for CTM Classics.

One of the most sought after cello teachers in the world, Peled has instructed students who have gone on to garner First Prize at the Carlos Prieto International Competition in Mexico and top prizes and final appearances at prestigious international competitions such as the Schoenfeld International Competition in China and Young Concert Artists Guild in New York. The Amit Peled Cello Gang is composed of students from Peled's studio at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught since 2003 and was one of the youngest professors ever hired by a major conservatory. The students in the Amit Peled Cello Gang range in age from undergraduate freshmen to second year master's students, and the group comes together often to perform works written or arranged for cello ensemble. Peled and the Cello Gang also record in professional studios and tour regularly around the country, performing cello concerti, cello choir repertoire, and more in an effort to give the conservatory students practical experience as professional touring artists. Peled is also the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the Mount Vernon Virtuosi, a chamber orchestra dedicated to launching the careers of recently graduated music students, which performs a five-program season in Baltimore, Silver Spring, and Rockville, Maryland.

As an active chamber musician, Peled is a founding member of the famed Tempest Trio with pianist Alon Goldstein and violinist Ilya Kaler. Their Dvořák CD on Naxos has been described as "The best 'Dumky' on disk ever!" by Fanfare Magazine. Peled frequently performs and gives master classes at prestigious summer music festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Schleswig Holstein and Euro Arts Festivals in Germany, Gotland Festival in Sweden, Prussia Cove Festival in England, The Violoncello Forum in Spain, and Keshet Eilon Festival in Israel, among others.

Raised on a kibbutz in Israel, Amit Peled began playing the cello at age 10. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife and children and performs on the only known copy of the "Servais" Stradivarius by Vuillaume ca. 1865. For more information, visit www.amitpeled.com.

Photo Credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco