NORWICH – The Chenango County Council of the Arts, Norwich, announces the first show in its 2011 Chamber Music Series. The Kristina Reiko Cooper Trio will perform at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Martin W. Kappel Theater.
The enchanting cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper has won widespread acclaim for her musical versatility, her virtuosity, her charismatic stage presence and her passionate intensity. She has found great success in numerous forms of media, from her best-selling DVDs and CDs, to television performances and commercials, magazine covers, print fashion ads and even her own magazine column.
Although well-known for traversing musical genres, she first established her career as a classical artist. Hailed by the New York Times as “sensational in concert” and a “striking virtuoso” by the Los Angeles Times, Kristina has performed as a soloist and chamber musician on many of the world’s most distinguished stages. She has been the featured soloist with such highly regarded orchestras as the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony and the Osaka Symphony and has toured extensively with the Tokyo Yomiuri Orchestra. She is a frequent featured performer at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Jerusalem’s Henry Crown Hall, Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Kioi Hall of Tokyo, Beethoven Hall in Stuttgart, Radio France in Paris, Stockholm Concert Hall, and the Fiesole Amphitheater. Her many festival appearances include the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, Mostly Mozart, Musicians from Marlboro, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Stresa International Music Festival Aspen Music Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA. Kristina recently performed Tan Dun’s Water Passion at Los Angeles’s Disney Hall to rave reviews, made a solo appearance with the Shanghai Symphony for the World EXPO and performed as a soloist for the ISCM World Music Day Festivals in Korea and Luxembourg and at Washington DC’s Library of Congress.
Kristina is also well-known for her adventurousness and as an enthusiast of new, popular and contemporary works. She has had many original works written and commissioned specifically for her. As a chamber musician, Kristina received the Walter M. Naumburg Chamber Music Award first prize. She has been a member of many renowned ensembles, including the internationally acclaimed Quartetto Gelato (seen at the Council of the Arts in 2004), Concertante and The Whitman String Quartet, and continues to perform as part of the contemporary music group Continuum, and the popular and eclectic ensemble of three, Intersection, also known as Kristina & Laura. She is also the musical co-director of the Israel Chamber Music Society.
Kristina has an extensive discography of CD and DVD recordings, including many best-sellers. She is often heard on National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, NHK in Japan, KBS in Korea, WNYC and WQXR in New York City, as well as in television broadcasts for CNN, PBS, CBC Television, CBS’s 60 Minutes, national Chinese Television, KBS Television in Korea, Fuji Television and NHK Television in Japan.
Kristina received her bachelors and masters degrees in music and her doctorate of musical arts from the Juilliard School where she studied with Joel Krosnick, Robert Mann and Felix Galimir. She is currently a visiting professor at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and plays on a 1786 William Forester Cello.
Tickets for this performance are $15, with discounts for members of the Arts Council and seniors. Youth 18 and under are free. The performance is sponsored by NBT Bank and in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
This is the first in the 2011 Chamber Music Series. Upcoming performances include Megan Higley Phillips, pianist, on April 9 and the Colgate Chamber Players with guest performers Ursula Bauer and Joscelyn Godwin on April 17.
The Council of the Arts is located at 27 West Main Street, Norwich. For tickets or additional information call 336-ARTS (2787) or visit chenangoarts.org.