Violinist Yehonatan Berick and guitarist Matthew Ardizzone
April 14, 2006
Yehonatan Berick, violin
A prizewinner at the 1993 Naumburg competition and a recipient of the 1996-97 Prix Opus, Yehonatan Berick is in high demand internationally as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician (on violin as well as on viola) and pedagogue. His busy concert schedule has already taken him throughout North America, Europe and Israel.
He has performed, among others, under Yoav Talmi, Mendi Rodan, Kees Baakels and Keith Lockhart, with the Quebec, Winnipeg, Windsor, Grand Junction, Jerusalem and Haifa Symphonies, and the Israeli, Cincinnati, Montreal and Manitoba Chamber Orchestras, Thirteen Strings and Ensemble Appassionata. He has presented numerous recitals with such pianists as James Tocco, Louis Lortie, Stephen Prutsman and Michael Chertock, and collaborated in chamber music performances with David Soyer and Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet, cellists Peter Wiley, Stephen Isserlis and Yehuda Hanani, clarinetists Wolfgang Meyer and James Campbell, flutist Julius Baker and many others from a long list of internationally renowned artists.
Berick's many festival and chamber series’ credits include Marlboro, Ravinia, Seattle, Vancouver, Ottawa, Jerusalem, El Paso, Maui, Domaine Forget (Canada), Great Lakes (Michigan), Close Encounters with Music (Great Barrington, MA), Leicester (U.K.), Moritzburg (Germany), Lapland (Sweden), Riihimaki (Finland), Strings in the Mountains (Colorado), Alpenglow (Colorado), Four seasons (N. Carolina) and Bowdoin (Maine). He was co-artistic director of the revived Quebec Chamber Music Society. Touring as a chamber musician with Musicians from Marlboro, The Lortie-Berick-Lysy Piano Trio, the Huberman String Quartet, Concertante Chamber Players and other chamber ensembles, he has been featured in the world's most important music centers: in Europe (London's Wigmore Hall, Paris's Musee du Louvre, Milan's Sala Verdi), the US (New York's Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Museum, Washington's Kennedy Center, Freer Gallery and the Phillips Collection) and Canada (Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio and St. Lawrence Centre, North York's Ford Centre and Quebec City's Palais Montcalm).
On CD, Berick has recorded for the Summit, Gasparo, Acoma, JMC and Helicon labels. His recording with the Amici ensemble, entitled Contrasts, has won rave reviews in the Canadian press. Other CD features include the Grand Concert for violin, piano and string quartet by Chausson; The Impossible Dream by Gerhard Samuel; and Mordechai Seter's unaccompanied violin sonata. Many of his concerts are broadcast on Radio and TV in Canada, Europe and Israel.
Previously teaching at McGill University and the Eastman School of Music, Yehonatan Berick is currently Professor of Violin at the School of Music at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He has been invited as teacher and artist-in-residence at Bowdoin Music Festival (Maine), Keshet Eilon Mastercourse (Israel), Domaine Forget (Canada), The Beethoven Seminar (New York), and the JMC Young Players' Unit (Israel). Wherever he performs, he is available for masterclasses.
Yehonatan Berick started his musical education at the age of six. Having graduated from highschool at 16, he entered the Tel Aviv University's Music Academy, and completed his studies at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, earning a full tuition and a Summa cum Lauda. His principal violin teachers were Ilona Feher, Henry Meyer, Kurt Sassmanshauss, and Dorothy Delay. He had theory teachings with composer Sergiu Natra, and attended masterclasses with such artists as Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Max Rostal and Josef Gingold. One of the brightest talents of Israel, Berick won several Clairemont Awards, and received yearly stipends from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
Yehonatan Berick currently plays on a violin by Honore Derazy Pere from 1852, and a viola by Stanley Kiernoziak from 2003.
Matthew Ardizzone, guitar
First Prize winner of the 1995 Rantucci Guitar Competition, Matthew Ardizzone was one of twelve semi-finalists in the 1996 Walter W. Naumburg International Competition for Guitar in New York City. In 1997 he took fifth place in the Stotsenberg International Guitar Competition, the same year that he became the first guitarist to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music.
Mr. Ardizzone has appeared as a soloist with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra (IN), the Livingston Symphony Orchestra (MI), and the orchestra of the Conductor’s Retreat at Medomak. His 2005-2006 season includes performances in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, and numerous concert series in smaller communities. Past appearances include the Eastman GuitarFest, GuitarHouston, the Ithaca College Winter Guitar Festival, and the Shady Side Chamber Music Festival. With violinist Movses Pogossian, he formed Duo Forza and recorded a CD of Spanish and Latin American Music. Other chamber music partners include flutist Leone Buyse, violist Yizhak Schotten, and violinist Yehonatan Berick. Active in Ann Arbor’s musical community, Matthew has collaborated with Chamber Music Ann Arbor, the Canton Chamber Players of the Plymouth Symphony, the Phoenix Ensemble, and Brave New Works. His solo CD, Mazurka! was picked by the 2001 Communicator Awards for a “Crystal Award of Excellence.”
A committed teacher of guitar, Matthew has given master classes and his “Practice for Enjoyment” workshop at schools throughout the country, including the Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastern Michigan University, Houston Baptist University, Ball State University, and the University of Iowa. He is an adjunct faculty member at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and teaches younger students at the Ann Arbor School for Performing Arts and the Chelsea Center for the Arts.
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