The Keneseth Israel Community Music Arts Concert Series begins its 22nd season with a virtual series of concerts! ORDER TICKETS HERE!

WHO: Pianist Natalie Zhu / Violinist Juliette Kang 

WHAT: A Spring Festival of Beautiful Music, the Annual Cheryl Beth Silverman Memorial Concert sponsored by Art and Carol Silverman. Click Here for More Information. Beethoven: Sonata no 5, “Spring Sonata” for violin and piano, Elgar: La Capricieuse, Lili Boulanger: Nocturne and Cortege, Cesar Franck: Sonata for violin and piano in A.

WHEN: Sunday, May 23 at 7:30 PM WHERE: At your home! This concert will be accessible only by ordering your ticket(s) from Keneseth Israel.

TICKETS: PRICE IS ONLY $36 FOR THIS CONCERT, $18 FOR THE NEXT CONCERT ON JUNE 6 (DEPUE BROTHERS BAND) OR A SPECIAL DEAL OF $50 FOR BOTH FANTASTIC CONCERTS! Order Online at KenesethIsrael.org/MusicArts or Mail your Check to KI, 8339 Old York Rd. Elkins Park, PA 19027. 

Pianist Natalie Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at age six in her native China, and made her first public appearance at age nine in Beijing.  At eleven she immigrated with her family to Los Angeles, and by fifteen was enrolled in the Curtis Institute, where she received the Rachmaninoff Award and studied with Gary Graffman.  She received her master’s degree from Yale School of Music as a student of Claude Frank.  After stepping in for Garrick Ohlsson in several collaborations with violinist Hilary Hahn in 2000, she continued to perform with Ms. Hahn in tours of the U.S., Europe, and Japan, including a hugely successful Carnegie Hall recital debut.  Ms. Zhu has also appeared in concert with violinist Soovin Kim on the San Francisco Performances series.  In 2001 she joined the Curtis faculty as staff pianist and in 2003, received an Avery Fisher Career Grant a Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and a winner of Astral’s National Auditions. Her performances have been featured on National Public Radio’s Performance Today.   Ms. Zhu has appeared as a soloist with the Pacific, Haddonfield, and Riverside symphonies; the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra; the Bergen and China philharmonic orchestras; and the National Repertory Orchestra. Solo recital appearances include the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; New York’s Steinway and Merkin halls; the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts; the Portland Piano International Summer Festival; Munich’s Herkulessaal; and Beijing Concert Hall. An active chamber musician, she is a frequent soloist at the Amelia Island Festival and has appeared at the Marlboro Music,Tanglewood, Skaneateles, Marlboro, Amelia Island, and Great Lakes Festivals; and the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, which she has directed for 13 seasons.

Juliette Kang, violin, is from Edmonton, Canada;  A child prodigy, Juliette Kang began violin lessons at age four and soon became a student of James Keene, concertmaster of the Edmonton Philharmonic making her concerto debut in Montreal at age seven. In Canada, Ms. Kang won top prizes at the National Music Festival. At age nine, she was accepted at the Curtis Institute and became a student of Jascha Brodsky. By age 11, she won top prize at the 1986 Beijing International Youth Violin Competition in China. In 1989, at age 13, Ms. Kang became the youngest artist to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. She appeared as a soloist with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, in December 1990, and in June 1991 she performed Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor with Pinchas Zukerman and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the 30th Anniversary Young Concert Artists Gala. Kang began her master’s at Juilliard in 1991 with renowned violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. In her first year at Juilliard, Kang won first prize in the 1992 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in Paris. In February 1992, she won first prize in the Philadelphia Orchestra Student Competition. Ms. Kang performed her New York recital debut in March 1993 in the YCA Series at the 92nd Street Y. She continued her studies at Juilliard for an additional two years after graduation and performed an average of 20 recitals per year. In 1994, Ms. Kang won the gold medal at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, as well as prizes for best Bach performance and best performance of Witold Lutoslawski’s Subito, the commissioned work of the event. Ms. Kang has performed with every major orchestra in Canada; in the U.S.: the San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, and Indianapolis orchestras, the Boston Pops; Hong Kong Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, and the Orchestre National de France. Since 2005, Ms. Kang has held the position of first associate concertmaster with the Philadelphia Orchestra.