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Acclaimed Cellist Sophie Shao Performs with Lithuanian Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute
March 9, 2012
Program Includes Works by Beethoven, Kirchner, Janáček, and Franck
Middlebury, VT—Award-winning cellist Sophie Shao, a frequent guest on the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series, will return to perform a vivid duo program featuring works by Beethoven, Kirchner, Janáček, and Franck with rising star pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute on March 9. Shao’s knack for gathering graceful combinations of musicians is a testament to her collaborative strengths.
At the age of nineteen, cellist Sophie Shao received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and has since performed throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. Winner of top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, the New York Times has applauded her “eloquent, powerful” interpretations of repertoire ranging from historic master composers like Bach and Beethoven to work by contemporary American composer George Crumb. Highlights of this season include recitals for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Middlebury College, a performance of the complete Bach suites at Union College, and a “Sophie Shao and Friends”—her popular, flexible chamber ensemble—tour including performances from Brattleboro, VT to Sedona, AZ. Shao recently collaborated with film composer Howard Shore resulting in a commission of “Great Gardens,” a concerto being written for her to be premiered with the American Symphony Orchestra in April 2012.
In the 2012–2013 season, she will appear as a soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Keith Lockhart in performances of the Elgar and Shostakovich concertos on a two-week tour of the west coast. Shao is on the faculty of Vassar College and the Bard Conservatory of Music. She plays a cello made by Honoré Derazey dating from 1860, once owned by Spanish musician Pablo Casals, widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century.
Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute is known for her deep musical and emotional commitment to a wide range of repertoire. She performs regularly for audiences in the US, Europe, and South America. Her ability to communicate the essential substance of a work has led critics to describe her as “elegant and engaging” (The Wall Street Journal) and possessing “razor-sharp intelligence and wit” (The Washington Post.) In 2006, she was honored as a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. 
In 2005, Jokubaviciute made her Chicago Symphony debut, and appeared as a guest artist at Carnegie’s Weill Hall (on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today”,) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and toured with Musicians from Marlboro. In June of 2009, her piano ensemble Trio Cavatina won the 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Jokubaviciute is also a collaborative pianist at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, and serves on the piano faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division.
The concert by Sophie Shao and Ieva Jukubaviciute will take place on Friday, March 9, 2012, at 8:00 P.M., in the Concert Hall of Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts. Tickets are $25 for the general public; $20 for Middlebury College faculty, staff, alumni, emeriti, and other ID card holders; and $6 for Middlebury College students. For more information, call (802) 443-MIDD (6433) or go to http://go.middlebury.edu/arts.
