Program
| Composer | Work | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Violin Sonata No. 18 in G major, K. 301 | 1778 |
| Leoš Janáček | Violin Sonata, JW VII:7 | 1914 |
| Intermission | ||
| Niccolò Paganini | Caprice No. 11 in C major, Op. 1:11 | 1820 |
| Erich Korngold | Suite from Much Ado About Nothing, Op. 11 | 1916 |
| Paul Schoenfeld | Four Souvenirs | 1990 |
About the Ensemble
Jewish-American violinist Ilana Zaks has been described as “fearless, refreshing and commanding … she has all the requisites of technique, confidence, and sensibility for a major career.” (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “captivating and delightful” (Worcester Telegram). She has performed as a soloist with the Boston Civic Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, Pioneer Valley Symphony, Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Nashua Chamber Orchestra, Wellesley Symphony, Brockton Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Symphony, Arlington Philharmonic, Cape Cod Symphony, Symphony Pro Musica, and Thayer Symphony Orchestra.
As an entrepreneur, Ilana’s passion resides in creating theatrical multidisciplinary collaboration, breaking the stereotypes of modern musical experiences through the inclusion of contemporary works by women, popular recital works, and works she commissions. Her Jewish identity inspires her to advance Tikkun Olam through creating community within a diverse group of people through educational accessibility and the advancement of gender equality and representation of women in leadership roles. Ilana loves contemporary music as well as premiering new works in unusual instrumentation and presenting the music through multidisciplinary means. In Spring 2019, she commissioned four composers (three from NEC, one from Berklee) to write pieces for Violin and Percussion. The album, Persistence of Memory, was awarded an EM grant from the New England Conservatory and was self-released on CDbaby to great acclaim in November 2019, with the Visual Album Film of the same title distributed on Amazon Prime.
Ilana Zaks studied with Donald Weilerstein for 12 years at New England Conservatory, where she completed her Bachelor’s degree in violin performance and liberal arts minor in creative arts in 2020. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at Yale, where she is also a contributing writer at the Yale Daily News. In the summer of 2021, in addition to being a featured artist at the Boston Public Library’s Concerts in the Courtyard series, Ilana was a Presidential Public Service Fellow at Yale where she worked in community outreach, education, and social justice/arts and cultural programming.