Hailed by critics as “a grand departure from the usual” (News Herald), the Manhattan Piano Trio is one of the most creative, exciting, and dynamic young ensembles in America. Now in its 13th season, MPT has been among the busiest groups in the classical music scene, having performed hundreds of concerts for enthusiastic audiences in almost 40 states, and in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and the Ravinia Festival. The Washington Post described the Trio as “impressive” and “outstanding”, while the Sarasota Herald Tribune said “one seldom is privileged to enjoy music of such a wide range of styles performed with self-effacing skill and relaxed assurance.” Their third album, a disc of Schumann and Chopin trios in honor of the composers’ bicentennials, was successfully released in 2010 on the Marquis Classics label.
The Manhattan Piano Trio is an ensemble that embodies, in the deepest sense, the borough that provides its namesake: these three American musicians represent starkly different backgrounds, and yet connect on a fundamental level to enjoy making music together. Wayne Lee, violinist, is a native of San Francisco; Dmitry Kouzov, cellist, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Milana Strezeva, pianist, is originally from Chişinău, Moldova.
Eugenia Zukerman is a true Renaissance woman. While maintaining an international concert calendar with more than thirty performances annually, her multi-faceted career also includes distinguished work as an arts administrator, author, educator, internet entrepreneur, and journalist.
In demand from New York to China as an orchestral soloist, chamber musician and recitalist, Eugenia Zukerman has been praised by The New York Times for her performances — “Her musicianship is consummate, her taste immaculate and her stage presence a sheer pleasure.” She has enjoyed musical collaborations with Emmanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, the Shanghai String Quartet and fellow flutists Jean- Pierre Rampal and James Galway. This season, she made her heralded debut at the prestigious Verbier Festival in Switzerland, performing challenging chamber works by Hanns Eisler, Arnold Schönberg, Andreas Jakob Romberg and Behzad Ranjbaran. She partnered with some of the world’s finest musicians, including violinist Dimitry Sitkovetsky, violist Nobuko Imai, cellist Frans Helmerson, and pianist Elena Bashkirova, among others. This season she will perform with the Manhattan Piano Trio in Pennsylvania, with the Symphony Space All-Stars in New York City in a festive concert of Brandenburg Concerti, and with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Op.39 conducted by Rossen Milanov, Music Director and Conductor.
As a recitalist, Eugenia Zukerman has been lauded not only for her playing, but also for her adventurous programming. As The Sunday Telegram observed, “Few major instrumentalists offer anything comparable to the intelligence and breadth of programming that she brings to her concerts, and this one was no exception.” The Capital Times concurred, “What made this concert so noteworthy was not only the unusual music that Zukerman played with world-class virtuosity and musicality, but also her presentation and stage presence.” For twenty years she performed a yearly three concert series of thematic programs at the New York Public Library with harpsichordist. Organist and pianist Anthony Newman. This season she will collaborate with Mr. Newman in a flute and organ performance in Amarillo, Texas, and in over twenty recitals nationwide with pianist Milana Strezeva.
Eugenia Zukerman has performed as soloist with many of the world’s finest orchestras. Her numerous guest appearances have included engagements with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic, and the Israel, Moscow, Prague and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. The breadth of her appearances in North America is remarkable – with more than eighty orchestras nationwide, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony in Washington DC, the Montreal and Vancouver Symphonies and the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. Performances and a recording of Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Op.39 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton (Delos) led to a rewarding connection between Eugenia Zukerman and the orchestra. Last summer, the relationship continued to flourish with her performance of Mozart’s concerto for Flute and Harp (with Yolanda Kondonassis) in the opening concert of the Vail Valley Music Festival, conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden.
A creative and dynamic administrator, Eugenia Zukerman enjoyed thirteen distinguished years as Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. During her tenure, the festival in Vail developed an international profile through the annual residencies of the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony. Yo-Yo Ma, Lang-Lang, Yefim Bromfman and Jean-Yves Thibaudet were among the many internationally renowned artists who appeared during her directorship, further elevating the reputation of the Festival.
Recognized with an Emmy nomination as an important broadcast journalist, Eugenia Zukerman interviewed and created more than three hundred portraits as an Arts Correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning. Her interview subjects included James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Helen Frankenthaler, Al Hirshfeld, Julie Taymor, Dame Maggie Smith, David Hyde Pierce, Mikhail Barishnikov, Savion Glover, Peter Martins, Daniel Barenboim and Isaac Stern. For more than twenty-five years she introduced viewers to the most outstanding creators in fine art, music, dance and theater. It is through her lens that a generation of viewers came to appreciate the arts. She has also been the invited guest on NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, the Charlie Rose Show and appeared in numerous specials on PBS.
An innovator, she embraced the internet early on and founded ClassicalGenie, an internet company that provides video content to music schools, artist, managers, orchestras and other institutions for use on their websites. The video material helps promote reputation, attendance, interest and fundraising. Recent clients include the Manhattan School of Music’s Fiftieth Anniversary celebration and The Harlem School of the Arts million dollar fundraising appeal.
She continued her role as an arts journalist in the summer of 2011, creating the first vlog (video blog) for the MusicalAmerica website. Thousands of internet viewers tuned in to Eugenia Zukerman’s Verbier Vlog as she introduced the world to the Verbier Festival from her inside perspective as a performer. Festival participants, from Founder and Executive Director Martin Engstroem to performers Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, Julian Rachlin, David Garrett, as well as local merchants and audience-members, responded to Eugenia Zukeman’s warm invitation to share their insight and experience on the Verbier Vlog. She has the rare ability to make the foreign feel familiar.
In 2012 the Boston Symphony Orchestra hired her to create The Tanglewood Vlog, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the BSO’s summer residencies in the Berkshires. And in the summer of 2013, she returned to the Verbier Festival in Switzerland to create another Verbier Vlog for the festival and to perform with artists such as clarinetist Martin Frost, violinist Ilya Girngolts, pianists Yuja Wang and Michel Beroff, the great German actress Barbara Sukowa, and other extraordinary artists
In addition to her television appearances and on-line presence, Eugenia Zukerman’s discography is impressive. She has over two dozen discs to her credit, including releases on the Delos, SONY Classical, Pro Arte, Vox Cum Laude and Newport Classic labels. Her most recent recording, Flesh & Stone: The Songs of Jake Heggie was released on the Americus label with all proceeds benefitting Classical Action; Performing Arts Against AIDS.