Greenwich Village Orchestra Presents Season Finale Barbara Yahr, Music Director With Xiao Wang, May 7​​​​​​​

On Sunday March 7, 2023 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church, the GVO presents its Season Finale, featuring award-winning violinist Xiao Wang in Paganini's First Violin Concerto, plus the eloquent and expressive Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms, conducted by Music Director Barbara Yahr. Tickets available at www.gvo.org

Xiao Wang is th first-prize winner of the 2012 Szigeti International Violin Competition and 2016 New York Concert Artist, he has received numerous prizes and awards from international competitions, including the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Competition and the 2015 Seoul International Competition.

Mr. Wang has toured throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. As a soloist, he performed at Bela Bartok National Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Gewandhaus, Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonic, National Center for Performing Art in Beijing, and Seoul Art Center. He worked under the baton of Marin Alsop, David Gilbert, János Kovács, George Manahan, and András Ligeti, and performed with orchestras including the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Academisches Orchester.

Mr. Wang was invited as a guest artist and faculty member and given recitals and masterclasses at the Budapest Spring Festival, Texas Music Festival, Festival International de Musique de Wissembourg, Bravo Music Festival, Qingdao Music Festival, and Beijing International Music Festival and Academy and Manhattan in the Mountains. As a passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated with members of the American String Quartet, the Mendelssohn String Quartet, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and faculty members of Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music and the Juilliard School.

Xiao Wang began his violin studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with Weidong Tong and later studied with Joseph Silverstein at the Curtis Institute of Music. He received B.M., M.M., and Artist Diploma from the Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of Lucie Robert.

Now in its 36th season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. The GVO was founded in 1986 by a group of musicians from the New York Metropolitan area. The 70-member community orchestra is made up of accountants, actors, artists, attorneys, carpenters, editors, physicians, professors, photographers, computer programmers, retirees, scientists, students, and teachers, among others.

The GVO regularly performs with internationally acclaimed soloists. In recent years, the orchestra has performed alongside soloists such as violinists Andrés Cárdenes, Itamar Zorman, and Hye-Jin Kim; cellists Edward Arron, Raman Ramakrishnan, David Heiss, and Brook Speltz; soprano Christine Goerke; mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnson Cano and Naomi O'Connell; baritone Jesse Blumberg; trumpet soloist Brandon Ridenour; and more.

Now in her twenty-first season with the GVO, Music Director Barbara Yahr continues to lead the orchestra to new levels of distinction. With blockbuster programming and internationally renowned guest artists, the GVO under Barbara's baton, has grown into an innovative, collaborative institution offering a full season of classical music to our local community.

A native of New York, Yahr's career has spanned from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Her previous posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, Resident Staff Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony under Maestro Lorin Maazel and conductor of the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra. She has appeared as a guest conductor with such orchestras as the Bayerische Rundfunk, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Janacek Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, and the National Symphony in Washington D.C. She has also conducted the orchestra in Anchorage, Calgary, Chattanooga, Columbus, Detroit, Flint, Louisiana, New Mexico, Lubbock, Richmond as well as the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber, Rochester Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony and the Chautauqua Festival Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared in Israel conducting in both Jerusalem and Elat and as an opera conductor, has led new productions in Frankfurt, Giessen, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Minnesota and at The Mannes School of Music in NYC. She has coached the actors on the set of the Amazon Series, Mozart in the Jungle, and last season, conducted the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Yahr is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Middlebury College where she studied piano and philosophy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Max Rudolf and an MM in Music Theory from the Manhattan School of Music. She was a student of Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine.

Yahr's commitment to finding new ways to reach a broader population with music ultimately led her into the field of music therapy. She is a Board Certified Music Therapist, with an MA in music therapy from NYU and post-graduate certification from the world-renowned Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy in New York City. Her pioneering, community music therapy project, Together in Music, brings orchestral music to the special needs community with uniquely interactive programs. Barbara is married to Alex Lerman and has two adult step-children, Abe and Dania, and a 20 year-old son, Ben.

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