Elisha Willinger, clarinet and Lior Leigh, piano perform works by Kian Ravaei, Carlos Guastavino, and David Baker, live at the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Born in Taiwan and raised in Florida, clarinetist Elisha Willinger leads a versatile career as a chamber musician, soloist, educator, and orchestral performer. His appearances have included performing with many ensembles such as the Detroit, Baltimore, and New World symphonies. He has also appeared as principal with the New Haven Symphony and performed chamber music with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A winner of competitions including the 2012 Yamaha Young Performing Artists competition, 2017 Yale Chamber Music Society, and 2019 International Clarinet Association’s orchestral competition, he has performed in the US, Europe, and Canada and was soloist with The Royal Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. He has spent summers performing as a fellow with the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, and American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria,
Award-winning pianist Lior Leigh performs as a solo and chamber artist in the US and abroad. At the age of 19, he made his New York concerto debut at Carnegie Hall performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich. He won grand prize and audience prize in the Camerata Artists International Piano Competition following his performance of Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev at Merkin Hall. An avid chamber musician, Dr. Leigh has collaborated in recitals with musicians of the Boston, Detroit, and Baltimore orchestras. Passionate about the music of our time, Dr. Leigh has premiered countless works and has released a commissioning/performance/article series on I CARE IF YOU LISTEN called Active Listening. Each work in the project hopes to bring awareness and action to a social justice issue chosen by the composer. The series, which partners with the Maryland Food Bank, has raised thousands of meals for those in need. Towards the end of his doctoral studies, he was appointed to the music theory and keyboard studies faculty at Peabody Conservatory.
