Violinist Karen Gomyo is “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity” (Chicago Tribune). Orion Weiss is a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post).
At 7 p.m. Feb. 16, Gomyo and Weiss will perform music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach, Samuel Adams, Antonín Dvořák and Johannes Brahms for the Great Artists Series at Washington University in St. Louis.
The program will open with Mozart’s Violin Sonata in G major, K. 379/373a (1781), which the composer famously claimed to have written in a single hour. Next will be Bach’s “Toccata” in E minor, BWV 914 (1710), a brisk and seldom-performed early work, followed by Adams’ “Violin Diptych” (2020), inspired by medieval and contemporary visual art.
After intermission, the program will resume with Dvořák’s lyrical “Romance,” Op. 11 (1873), which the composer would later rescore for violin and full orchestra. Concluding the evening will be Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 108 (1886-88), a late work — and the composer’s final piece for violin and piano — that nevertheless finds him at the height of his powers.
Karen Gomyo and Orion Weiss
Born in Tokyo, Gomyo studied at the Juilliard School, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the New England Conservatory. She has worked with the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras as well as the Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Vancouver, Indianapolis and Oregon symphonies, among many others.
International credits include appearances with the Philharmonia in London, Danish National Symphony, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. A dedicated chamber musician, she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ Chamber Concerto and the U.S. premieres of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto “Adrano” and Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No. 2 “Mar’eh”
Weiss, renowned for his “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (Washington Post), is a sought-after soloist and chamber music collaborator. He has performed with dozens of orchestras across North America, including the Chicago and Boston symphonies and the Los Angeles and New York philharmonics.
Read their full biographies here.
About the Great Artists Series
Sponsored by WashU’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, the Great Artists Series welcomes some of the brightest stars on the contemporary concert stage to St. Louis. The series will continue March 2 with Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim Bronfman, followed by star tenor Lawrence Brownlee March 23. Vân-Ánh Võ & the Blood Moon Quartet, a chamber ensemble featuring traditional Vietnamese instruments, will conclude the series April 6.
Tickets and related events
Gomyo and Weiss’ performance will begin at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, in WashU’s E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall. Tickets are $35-40, or $32-37 for WashU faculty and staff, and $15 for students and children. The E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall is located in the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard. Tickets are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, 314-935-6543. For more information, visit music.wustl.edu.
In addition, Gomyo will lead a piano masterclass at 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 17, also in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall. Joining Gomyo will be WashU students Bradley Gober, Andy Liu, Charles McGrath and Young Whun Kim. The program will feature works by Max Bruch, Édouard Lalo and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The class is free and open to the public. Read more on the music website.
The Great Artists Series is made possible with support from the Regional Arts Commission and from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
