Renowned cellist to perform at The Renaissance Center

Release Date: 3/29/2002. Expired: 4/22/2002

World-renowned cellist Wesley Baldwin will present a master class and a recital in the rotunda at The Renaissance Center April 22.

Baldwin is the founder of the Plymouth String Quartet, with whom he was a top prizewinner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and a finalist in the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet competition.

With a BA in Russian and East European Studies, cum laude, from Yale, an MM degree with honors in cello performance from the New England Conservatory, and a PhD in Musical Arts from the University of Maryland, Baldwin garnered the Prix Mercure at the Mercure Wettbewerb in Vienna, and the first prize in the Homer Ulrich Performance Award competition. He was one of only three Americans to compete in the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Cello competition.

Baldwin has performed throughout New York with the Society for New Music, in recital at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as a guest artist at Colgate University, and in chamber concerts throughout the United States.

As a chamber musician he has collaborated with the Diaz Trio, the Miami String Quartet, Steven Doane, and Michael Tilson Thomas, and has appeared at the Aspen, Cazenovia, Ojai, Sandpoint, Mainly Mozart, May in Miami, Skaneateles, and Subtropics music festivals.

Lora Brown, director of String Methods and Music Education for The Renaissance Center, noted that The Miami Herald wrote of Baldwin’s “passionate conviction” while the Washington Post described his solo work as “almost orchestrally rich in sound; bold but well controlled in phrasing and dynamics.”

“Wesley Baldwin is an extremely talented cellist and all-around musician,” Brown said. “His warm tone is friendly and inviting, but full of energy. There is a true brilliance in his sound that fills your heart. Most strikingly, though, is how all of this masterful skill pours out into his teaching. Dr. Baldwin has a very engaging style and is equally talented in teaching all ages.”

Internationally Baldwin has performed in chamber concerts in Italy, France, Monte Carlo, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica. His chamber music performances have been broadcast nationally on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and on FM radio stations in New York, Illinois, Oregon and Tennessee. He has recorded chamber music for the Naxos label. His recording of cello sonatas by Joseph Jongen and Eugene Ysaye will be released on the Centaur label this year.

An avid performer of new works, Baldwin has premiered numerous compositions both in the United States and abroad. He was chosen by Jon Nelson to play the Miami premier of the composer’s Six Etudes Breve for cello and electric tape.

Baldwin has also championed works such as the Henze Capriccio, the Lutoslawski Grave, Alfred Schnittke’s Third String Quartet, and Erich Urbanner’s Third Quartet, of which the Plymouth Quartet presented the North American premiere.

He was a cello and chamber music faculty member at Florida International University 1992-1995. He has also taught at the Sewanee Summer Music Camp, Point Counterpoint, the New World School of the Arts, the Bethesda Center for the Arts, and the University of Maryland. An enthusiast for education and cello playing, he initiated and directs the Tennessee Cello Workshop and annual seminar for young cellists.

A member and principal cellist for the New World Symphony for four years, Baldwin was selected by his orchestral colleagues to receive the symphony’s Community Board Award for artistic integrity and leadership. As a member of that orchestra he has toured Japan, Scotland, England, Argentina and Brazil, and has recorded several orchestral CDs on the Decca label.

Baldwin has also played with the Aspen Chamber Orchestra, the New York String Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in South Carolina and Spoleto, Italy, the Washington Chamber Orchestra and the Washington Opera.

Baldwin is an assistant professor of cello and chamber music and coordinator of the string area at the University of Tennessee. In the summer he serves on the faculty of the Hot Springs, Ark., Music Festival.

In addition to the recital, Baldwin will present his cello Master Class 3-5 p.m. in which he will work with several students and give general cello tips while others observe. The cost of the master class is $5.

Baldwin will perform in recital at 7 p.m. Monday, April 22, in the rotunda at The Renaissance Center. Admission is free.

For more information call The Renaissance Center at (615)740-5600.

The Renaissance Center is located at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 minutes west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Events - Concerts and Recitals page for more about musical performances.

News

Date Released	Expiration	Headline
No Press Releases to show...