• Program
• About the Artists
  • Emma Meinrenken
  • Thomas Weaver

Program

About the Artists

Emma Meinrenken

Canadian-German violinist Emma Meinrenken is currently pursuing her Master of Music Degree at the Yale School of Music, under the tutelage of Augustin Hadelich. She is the 2023 recipient of Yale’s Presser Foundation Music Award. She is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Ida Kavafian, and was the Dorothy Richard Starling Annual Fellow. She was a 2021/22 recipient of a Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, and upon graduating from Curtis, was awarded the Milka Violin Artist Prize. She is also a former student of Atis Bankas at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Meinrenken has won many top awards and prizes internationally, including 1st place at the Stradivarius International Violin Competition, and the Silver Medal award at the Stulberg International String Competition. She was a participant in the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, a semifinalist for the Menuhin Competition, and was recently a finalist for the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. She was a winner of the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank competition, and was given a loan of the 1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius violin from 2018-2022. She was the 2019 winner of the Prix Ravel at the Ecole d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, and was also awarded the best interpretation of a new composition. She has been selected to participate in many music festivals, including the NUME Festival in Italy, the Norfolk Music Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Verbier Festival Academy, and the Four Seasons Winter Workshop. Meinrenken is often a featured performer at the Music Niagara Festival in Canada, and has been a faculty member for the festival’s young artist academy since 2020.

Meinrenken debuted with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the age of 10, and has since performed as a soloist with many other orchestras across North America, including the Utah Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre Metropolitain Montreal. She also works with orchestras as a section player, and has been on the roster of substitute players for the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2021. She has played recitals for WHYY Radio, CBC Radio, and 96.3ClassicalFM. She is passionate about collaborating with composers, and has given the premieres and been the dedicatee of many new works for the violin. She made her Carnegie Hall debut playing the New York premiere of a duet for violin and guitar by Fred Lerdahl.

Emma Meinrenken currently plays on a 1687 Gioffredo Cappa violin.

Thomas Weaver

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 solo 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.