PSO Concert to Feature Violinist Stefan Jackiw

On Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 8 pm and Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 4 pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents virtuoso violinist Stefan Jackiw to the Richardson Auditorium stage on the campus of Princeton University. Mr. Jackiw performs Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor on a program with the US premiere of Princeton-based composer Julian Grant's work a?"a??a??a?? (Five Generations - One House) and a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36 in honor of the composer's 250th birthday. Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov conducts.

PSO Executive Director Marc Uys says, "I am incredibly excited to welcome this formidable artist to our stage. He truly is one of the extraordinary violinists active today."

Stefan Jackiw is one of America's foremost violinists, captivating audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. He has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco symphony orchestras, among others, and performed in numerous important festivals and concert series, including the Aspen Music Festival, New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, the Philharmonie de Paris, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. Born to physicist parents of Korean and German descent, Stefan Jackiw began playing the violin at the age of four. His teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, Michèle Auclair, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, as well as an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, and is the recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. He lives in New York City.

Julian Grant has composed 20 operas which have been performed by English National Opera, The Royal Opera, Almeida Opera, Mecklenburgh Opera, and Tétè-a-Tétè, and has won the National Opera Association of America's New Opera prize and been nominated for an Olivier Award. From 2007-10 he lived in Beijing, where he worked with the Beijing New Music Ensemble, and attempted to master the Yang Qin (Butterfly Harp). Recent premieres include a work for Buskaid Soweto Strings, based on dances by the 18th century British-African Ignatius Sancho, and a new collaboration with pianist Melvyn Tan. His chamber opera with librettist Mark Campbell, The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr Burke & Mr. Hare, premiered in Boston in 2017. For the 2019-20 season, he has a US premiere with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and a new piece, Jump Cuts, composed for the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. He currently lives in New York and Princeton.

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto was written for his friend and fellow musician German violinist Ferdinand David in 1844, and considered his last great work. Julian Grant's a?"a??a??a?? or Wu Dai Tong Tang, is a small suite of five pieces for string orchestra, and Beethoven's second symphony, composed in 1802 during a troubled stay in Heiligenstadt, ironically includes plenty of good humor with a lively scherzo and witty finale.

Ticket prices range from $30-$100 (children 17 years and younger accompanied by an adult receive a 50% discount). Tickets for this and other PSO Classical Series concerts are available by phone: 609-497-0020 and online at princetonsymphony.org.

Programs, artists, dates, and times are subject to change.