Florin Parvulescu and Samantha Cho

August 1, 2018, 12:15 pm

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Romanian-born violinist and conductor Florin Parvulescu and pianist Samantha Cho present a recital with works of Beethoven and Debussy. This performance was live from Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center for this Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert on WFMT.

Florin Parvulescu was born in 1971 in Bucharest, Romania. He started playing the violin at the age of six at the Georges Enescu music school. In 1978 he attended the Juilliard School Pre-College division, studying with Shirley Givens. In 1989 he went on to study at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where his principal teachers were Sylvia Rosenberg and Herbert Greenberg. He also worked closely with pianist Leon Fleisher and Berl Senofsky. In addition to earning Bachelors and Artist Diploma degrees at Peabody, Mr. Parvulescu was awarded numerous prizes.

Mr. Parvulescu also studied conducting with David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival and Michael Tilson-Thomas. As a conductor, Mr. Parvulescu has led the New World Symphony, the Aspen Academy Orchestra and the Nanning Symphony in China among others. In addition, he led performances of Stravinsky’s “A Soldier’s Tale” and works by Charles Ives and Scott Joplin with members of the San Francisco Symphony as part of the Symphony’s “Keeping Score” project. In August 2013 he conducted the Macau Youth Orchestra in an all-Mozart program for their US debut at Merkin Concert Hall in Lincoln Center, replacing the regularly scheduled conductor on two days notice.

Mr. Parvulescu joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1998. From 1996 – 1998, he was a member of the St. Louis Symphony. As soloist and chamber musician Mr. Parvulescu has appeared in recital series at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, the Kennedy Center ,Aspen Music Festival, Berkeley Chamber Music Series, SF Chamber, Heidelberg, Germany and Fontainebleau, France and as soloist with the Xiamen Philharmonic in 2009 and 2010. He has given masterclasses at the Beijing Conservatory and was guest faculty at the 2018 Singapore International Violin Festival. He has been featured on the McGraw Hill Young Artist Showcase on WQXR radio NY and on National Public Radio. The San Francisco Chronicle praised him for his “gleaming tone and pyrotechnics.”

Pianist Samantha Cho is a pianist based in San Francisco Bay. In fall 2016, she joined the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division as chamber music faculty and staff pianist. From 2012-2015, she taught class piano as graduate teaching assistant at University of Minnesota. Her recent projects include performances with members of the San Francisco Symphony and Lee Trio, giving an all-Schumann Lieder recital at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and collaborating with Kenwood Symphony. Also passionate in teaching, she coached students in an ensemble setting at Music at Tateuchi during the summer of 2017, and maintains a private piano studio throughout the year.

Samantha graduated from Northwestern University, Cleveland Institute of Music and University of Minnesota. Principal teachers include Robert Turner, Edwin Deveny, Paul Schenly, Kathryn Brown and Alexander Braginsky.

Biographies provided by the International Music Foundation.

  • Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 12 No. 1, by Ludwig van Beethoven
    Allegro con brio
    Tema con variazioni. Andante con moto
    Rondo. Allegro

  • Violin Sonata in G Minor, L. 140, by Claude Debussy
    Allegro vivo
    Intermède: fantasque et léger
    Finale: très animé

  • “Clair de lune” from Suite bergamasque, by Claude Debussy
    arr. Alexandre Roelens