Terrie Baune & John Chernoff “Old First Concerts” (SF)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Terrie Baune, violin & John Chernoff, piano

Grażyna Bacewicz Sonata No. 4
Béla Bartók Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1

Both of the pieces on our program came into being because of strong, dynamic Eastern European women violinists. Grażyna Bacewicz – Polish/Lithuanian violinist, composer and author – studied composition with Nadia Boulanger and violin with Carl Flesch. She served as concertmaster of the Polish National Radio Orchestra in the 1930s. Bacewicz was well known for her virtuosic and fiery playing of her own compositions and received many accolades including the Warsaw Prize for her compositions.

Jelly D’Aranyi – Hungarian violinist and great niece of Joseph Joachim – was the inspiration for both of Bartók’s sonatas for violin and piano. Bartók first knew her as a young girl when he was her older sister Adila’s piano teacher, and when her met her again in 1921 he was so captivated by her charm and passion that he wrote the first sonata to perform with her. “He had written it entirely for her, he said,” according to D’Aranyi’s biographer Joseph MacLeod, “and if she wouldn’t play it, then he would never play it with anyone else.”

Both pieces on this program meld the meticulous craft of the classical canon with the earthiness and free expression of the indigenous folk music of Eastern Europe.

Violinist Terrie Baune is a member of Earplay, a consortium of composers and musicians dedicated to the performance of new chamber music, and co-concertmaster of the Oakland-East Bay Symphony, concertmaster of the North State Symphony, and a former member of the Empyrean Ensemble. Her professional credits include concertmaster positions with the Women’s Philharmonic, Fresno Philharmonic, Santa Cruz County Symphony, and Rohnert Park Symphony. A member of the National Symphony Orchestra for four years, she also spent two years as a member of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra of New Zealand, where she toured and recorded for Radio New Zealand with the Gabrielli Trio and performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Pianist John Chernoff has performed across the United States, including appearances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, and Symphony Space in New York City. He has worked with a variety of renowned artists such as Libby Larsen, Chen Yi, Amit Peled, Ian Swensen, and Mark Sokol and currently serves as Staff Accompanist at Humboldt State University. John holds degrees from San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and has served as a performer, accompanist and coach at the Heifetz International Music Institute and Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop. Mr. Chernoff is also a frequent soloist and lecturer with the Eureka Symphony and regularly appears with concertmaster Terrie Baune and cellist/conductor Carol Jacobson for chamber music performances throughout Humboldt County.

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