Program
| Composer | Work | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Ernest Chausson | Poème, Op. 25 | 1896 |
| Intermission | ||
| César Franck | Violin Sonata in A major, FWV 8 | 1886 |
About the Artists
Thomas Wolf
Thomas Weaver is an American pianist, composer, and educator. His extensive repertoire contains music of the past as well as new compositions, including many pieces written especially for him. A native of Marlton, NJ, he began his study of piano at the age of eight, giving his first public performance at the age of nine. He is currently based in Philadelphia.
Thomas Weaver maintains an active and chamber career that has included performances in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His playing has been hailed as displaying both sensitivity and incredible dexterity. Weaver has appeared in many concert halls, including those in New York (Carnegie/Weill Recital Hall, Greene Space, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall), Philadelphia, Washington D.C. (Phillips Collection), Boston (Jordan Hall), Chicago, Nashville, Dallas, Berlin (Germany), Itami (Japan), the Tanglewood Music Festival, Red Rocks Music Festival, New York Chamber Music Festival, and others. Weaver has performed with a number of eminent musicians including Elmira Darvarova, Jess Gillam, Kenneth Radnofsky, Jennifer Frautschi, Gene Pokorny, and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and others. Weaver is a currently a member of the Amram Ensemble, Trio Ardente, and New England Chamber Players.
Weaver is on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he teaches Core Studies (harmony, counterpoint, and analysis), Keyboard Studies, and Supplementary Piano. He is a staff pianist and accompanist at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and at Mannes College. He holds a Master of Music degree in both Piano Performance and Composition from Mannes College, and a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Boston University. His primary piano teachers include Anthony di Bonaventura, Victor Rosenbaum, and Pavel Nersessian. His primary composition instructors include David Loeb, Dr. John Wallace, Dr. Martin Amlin, and Jonathan Coopersmith.
Keila Wakao
Born in 2006 in Boston, MA, Japanese-American violinist Keila Wakao has gained international recognition as one of the leading young artists of her generation. Praised for her “crystalline sound” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer) and the “special energy she brings to the stage,” she captivates audiences with her exceptional musicality, technical command, and expressive depth beyond her years.
Keila began playing the violin at age three. At six, she became a student of former Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Joseph Silverstein, and from ages nine to eighteen studied with Donald Weilerstein. She has also worked with Itzhak Perlman and participated in the Perlman Music Program from 2018 to 2022. She is currently a second-year undergraduate student of Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory as a Starling Foundation Full Scholarship recipient.
Keila performs on the 1690 Cremona “Theodor” Stradivarius violin, on loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.
Dina Vainshtein
Pianist Dina Vainshtein collaborates with some of the most promising musicians of our time. Now based in Boston, she is the daughter of two pianists, and studied with Boris Berlin and Arthur Aksenov at the prestigious Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. At the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition, she received the Special Prize for the Best Collaborative Pianist.
In recent concerts Ms. Vainshtein has collaborated with violinists Miriam Fried, Yura Lee, Karen Gomyo, Chad Hoopes, Caroline Goulding, Zina Schiff, Alexi Kenney, and Angelo Yu; cellists Natasha Brofsky and Amit Peled; as well as the Borromeo String Quartet.
Dina Vainshtein came to the United States in 2000 to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she worked with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and Donald Weilerstein. For nearly a decade, Vainshtein has been affiliated with the New England Conservatory and the Walnut Hill School, where she teaches chamber music.