Salisbury Symphony Orchestra

On The Double

Featuring Duo MemDi, Violin & Piano
Saturday, March 9, 2019 | 7:30 p.m.
Holloway Hall Auditorium

Duo MemDi was founded by violinist Igor Kalnin and pianist Rochelle Sennet in summer 2010, when they served on the faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. The duo performs all repertoire by memory, as they believe that it allows them to connect with composers’ ideas in a more profound and insightful way. They understand it as internalization and re-composing of the structural, harmonic and melodic elements of a particular work. Another focus of the duo is to increase diversity and inclusion in the world of classical music, and they have worked with living composers from various backgrounds. These two fundamental ideas created the name of the duo: Mem[ory] and Di[versity] – MemDi. Since its inception, the duo has performed a broad variety of repertoire by memory, including sonatas of Bartok, Beethoven, Brahms, Franck and Prokofiev, and numerous violin and piano showpieces. The duo also has commissioned a number of works, including Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano by the African-American composer James Lee III and Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra by the Uzbek woman composer Dilorom Saidaminova. They performed extensively in Europe, Asia and across the United States.

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Rachmaninoff’s Realm

Featuring Ernest Barretta, Piano
Saturday, May 11, 2019 | 7:30 p.m.
Holloway Hall Auditorium

Recognized, at a young age, as a pianist “in command of his instrument and the music at every intricate turn ... his technical expertise, stage presence and sensitivity to the music are truly inspiring in so youthful a pianist” (McKeesport Daily News), American pianist Ernest Barretta continues to enjoy success as both soloist and chamber musician. He has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad, as soloist with the St. Petersburg Symphony in St. Petersburg, Russia; the National Gallery Orchestra of Washington, D.C.; and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. This is his second appearance with the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Barretta additionally devotes a great deal of his time to teaching; the rewarding task of working with emerging talent is an important part of his life as a musician. He is currently on the piano faculty of the Juilliard School of Music, pre-college division, having served previously on the piano faculties of The Peabody Conservatory and Towson University. He also enjoys working as conductor and composer, and is music director of the several ensembles that make up the music program at St. Joseph, Fullerton, in Baltimore, MD.