Last season, the Hawaii Concert Society presented internationally renowned violinist Midori, thanks to a generous grant from Midori’s foundation, Partners in Performance. As part of the agreement, HCS agreed to present a Midori protege in the current season.
The HCS will fulfill that agreement at 7 p.m. Friday when it presents the young multi-award winning violinist Nathan Meltzer at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Performing Arts Center.
Meltzer, who at age 25 has already established a dynamic career as both a soloist and chamber musician, will be accompanied by another young multi-prize winner, Chinese pianist Wynona Wang.
Their concert will include major works by Johannes Brahms and Gabriel Fauré, as well as recent compositions by the American woman composers, Hannah Ishizaki and Sky Macklay.
Meltzer is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Li Lin and Itzhak Perlman. While he loves performing all kinds of music, he says “chamber music is the form that I hold closest to my heart. Recently, and probably in part due to a long-term relationship with a composer, I have become completely enamored of contemporary chamber music.”
In Hilo, Meltzer will perform on a 1793 Lorenzo Storioni violin on loan from the Rin Collection. Born a generation after Stradivarius and Guarnerius, Storioni helped to revive violin-making in Cremona.
Pianist Wang’s route to her career had some interesting twists and turns. At age 4, her parents, who were not musical, put her into music class. Playing the piano was not her choice; she would have preferred violin. However, at age 6 she won a piano competition, with winners in each category awarded a trip to study.
“I noticed two things,” she said. “One was that I never need to go home. I could go see the world, travel to different parts of the world. Then the second thing was, I had a goal at that time. I wanted to try out all the restaurants in the world. I’ve got to become a pianist!”
Her career took off after she won First Prize at the 2018 Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York City. She has bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, and she continues to pursue her master’s degree there.
Tickets for Friday’s concert ($25, general; $20, 60-plus; $10 student) are available at Basically Books and The Most Irresistible Shop. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door starting at 6:15 p.m.
For additional information, visit hawaiiconcertsociety.com or phone 959-4064.
