Andy & Friends: Voice of the Relentless Artist

The Sigal Music Museum is pleased to present Andy & Friends Concert Series at Greenville’s Fine Arts Center. World-renowned pianist and concert host Artistic Director Andrew Armstrong will be joined by a stellar lineup of world-class musicians, ensuring an unforgettable second season for this very special series.

Kevin Zhu – violin

Gabriela Diaz – viola

Sterling Eliot – cello

Maggie Cox – double bass

Andrew Armstrong – piano

PROGRAM

Serge Koussevitzky | 1874-1951

Valse Miniature, for Double-Bass and Piano (1907)

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Rebecca Clarke | 1886-1979

Viola Sonata (1919)

William Grant Still | 1895-1978

Mother & Child, arr. for Cello and Piano (1943)

Arvo Pärt | b. 1935

Fratres – “Brothers,” for Violin and Piano (1977)

Franz Schubert | 1797-1828

Piano Quintet in A Major, D. 667, “The Trout” (1819?)

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

Violinist Kevin Zhu first came to international attention with early successes at the Yehudi Menuhin and Paganini Competitions. His young career has since taken him to renowned concert halls across the globe, ranging from the Konzerthaus Berlin to the Esplanade in Singapore, London’s Royal Festival Hall to the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, and Bozar Brussels to The Kennedy Center. Favorite performing memories include concerts on Paganini’s famed violin ‘Il Cannone’, invitations to the Moritzburg Festival in Germany in consecutive years (including one edition where he was asked to step in on short notice—twice—in the span of a week), and a performance of Kreisler’s Liebesfreud for the pandemic-era Musical Storefronts series in New York City which moved children to dance upon hearing the music.

A fierce champion of contemporary music, Gabriela Diaz has been fortunate to work closely with many significant composers on their own compositions, namely Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Lucier, Unsuk Chin, John Zorn, Joan Tower, Jessie Montgomery, Roger Reynolds, Chaya Czernowin, Steve Reich, Tania León, Brian Ferneyhough, and Helmut Lachenmann. Gabriela plays regularly with Winsor Music, Castle of our Skins, Radius Ensemble, is concertmaster of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and is a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICEensemble), and A Far Cry.

Acclaimed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. Already in his young career, he has appeared with major orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony and the Dallas Symphony, with noted conductors Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Thomas Wilkins, Jeffrey Kahane, Mei Ann Chen and others.

Marguerite Cox, a double bassist from northeast Ohio, is a versatile and in-demand collaborator in numerous musical settings throughout the United States. A recent alumna of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect fellowship, she performs regularly with A Far Cry, Palaver Strings, and Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and counts forthcoming appearances with The Knights, AMOC*, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Ruckus, Teatro Nuovo, and other chamber ensembles exploring music through the ages.

Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic. Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have encompassed a vast repertoire of more than 60 concertos with orchestra.

NOTE: This performance takes place at the Fine Arts Center, 102 Pine Knoll Drive, Greenville, South Carolina