Wendy Warner and Irina Nuzova. The cellist Wendy Warner and the pianist Irina Nuzova recently issued a highly successful CD and are now following it up with a series of Chicago-area concerts. A collection of Russian music for Cello and Piano, the CD debuted last week at number 8 on the Billboard Classical Charts. It was produced by Cedille Records, a Chicago label devoted to promoting local classical musicians. The CD contains several rarely performed works, including Miaskovsky’s Sonata No. 2 in a minor (the composer dedicated it to the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich), and Alfred Schnitke’s Musica nostalgica. One of its pieces – Gregor Piatigorsky’s arrangement of Alexander Scriabin’s Etude Op.8 No. 11 – can be heard here.
Wendy Warner grew up in Chicago and first gained recognition as a soloist at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she studied under Rostropovich. At 18, she won first prize at the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 1990 and then toured extensively with Rostropovich throughout Europe and the U.S. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Warner still feels her mentor’s influence as she performs with orchestras and chamber groups across the world. “He believed in pushing oneself, constantly striving to be better,” she says. “He always told me it wasn’t enough to be a great cellist, I had to search deeper into being a great musician.” When she isn’t performing, Warner mentors the next generation of artists by teaching at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, the Music Institute of Chicago, and the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Georgia.
Pianist Irina Nuzova made her New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in 1997, also appearing at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, the Steinway Society in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Palazzo Minerva in Minerbio, Italy. She has won top prizes in international competitions, including the coveted Bruce Hungerford Award at the Young Concert Artist Auditions in New York, and the Beethoven Piano Sonata International Competition in Memphis, Tennessee. Ms. Nuzova studied in Russia and also the Juilliard, where she was taught by Oxana Yablonskaya and Jerome Lowenthal.
October 11, 2010
Wendy Warner and Irina Nuzova. The cellist Wendy Warner and the pianist Irina Nuzova recently issued a highly successful CD and are now following it up with a series of Chicago-area concerts. A collection of Russian music for Cello and Piano, the CD debuted last week at number 8 on the Billboard Classical Charts. It was produced by Cedille Records, a Chicago label devoted to promoting local classical musicians. The CD contains several rarely performed works, including Miaskovsky’s Sonata No. 2 in a minor (the composer dedicated it to the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich), and Alfred Schnitke’s Musica nostalgica. One of its pieces – Gregor Piatigorsky’s arrangement of Alexander Scriabin’s Etude Op.8 No. 11 – can be heard here.
Wendy Warner grew up in Chicago and first gained recognition as a soloist at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she studied under Rostropovich. At 18, she won first prize at the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 1990 and then toured extensively with Rostropovich throughout Europe and the U.S. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Warner still feels her mentor’s influence as she performs with orchestras and chamber groups across the world. “He believed in pushing oneself, constantly striving to be better,” she says. “He always told me it wasn’t enough to be a great cellist, I had to search deeper into being a great musician.” When she isn’t performing, Warner mentors the next generation of artists by teaching at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, the Music Institute of Chicago, and the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Georgia.
Pianist Irina Nuzova made her New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in 1997, also appearing at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, the Steinway Society in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Palazzo Minerva in Minerbio, Italy. She has won top prizes in international competitions, including the coveted Bruce Hungerford Award at the Young Concert Artist Auditions in New York, and the Beethoven Piano Sonata International Competition in Memphis, Tennessee. Ms. Nuzova studied in Russia and also the Juilliard, where she was taught by Oxana Yablonskaya and Jerome Lowenthal.