Twenty-four guests gathered for a special concert presented in music, words, and photographs. With two acclaimed musicians and over 100 historical photographs, author Thomas Wolf presented the compelling story behind his award-winning book, The Nightingale’s Sonata.

The tale took us from the shores of the Black Sea to the Tsar’s palace to Carnegie Hall to the White House and beyond. In it, Wolf recounted the life of Lea Luboshutz, the first internationally known female violinist, her incomparable Stradivarius violin (the “Nightingale”), and her multi-generational musical family of which he is a member. Against the odds of pogroms, the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust, this Jewish family triumphed again and again.

The fascinating narrative told their personal stories while sketching the history of classical music in the 20th century. Through the adversity they faced, family members were linked by a remarkable piece of music, César Franck’s sonata for violin and piano, performed live during the program.

• Program
• About the Artists
  • Thomas Wolf
  • Keila Wakao
  • Dina Vainshtein

Program

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 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.

Keila Wakao

Japanese-American violinist Keila Wakao was awarded the 1st prize and the Junior Composer Award in the 2021 Menuhin International Violin Competition. She was also the 1st prize winner of the Stulberg International String Competition and was awarded the Bach prize in 2021.

Keila has performed solos and recitals throughout the United States, Japan, Germany, Singapore and the United Kingdom in venues such as the Cadogan Hall (London), Victoria Concert Hall (Singapore), Jordan Hall (Boston), Carnegie Hall (New York), and Hibiki Hall (Japan). This season, Keila will be performing with the Reading Symphony, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Lexington Symphony, and the Eugene Symphony.

Keila Wakao began playing the violin at the age of 3. At age 6, the late Mr. Joseph Silverstein accepted Keila as a student. Keila is currently an eleventh grader at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and studies with Donald Weilerstein and Soovin Kim at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. She has also been receiving Kyoko Takezawa’s private instruction in Japan.

Keila plays on a 1745 fine old Italian violin by G.B Guadagnini, on generous loan from the Florian Leonhard Fellowship.

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.