For Immediate Release
Contact: Cohn Dutcher Associates
 Lois Cohn, 917.339.7187, lcohn@cohndutcher.com
Dan Dutcher, 917.339.7157, ddutcher@cohndutcher.com
Josh Marcum, 917.339.7188, jmarcum@cohndutcher.com
David Mayhew, 203.533.5621, david@davidmayhew.net

CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
Presents

Alisa Weilerstein & Lera Auerbach

Friday, July 11, 8:00pm

Program features world premiere of Auerbach's
Twenty-four Preludes for Violoncello & Piano played by the composer
 

Katonah, New York - Caramoor International Music Festival presents Alisa Weilerstein, cello, and Lera Auerbach, composer and piano, in a program that includes the world premiere of Ms. Auerbach's Twenty-four Preludes for Violoncello & Piano, Op. 47 (1999-2006) on Friday, July 11 at 8:00pm in the Spanish Courtyard.

Their program also features Ms. Auerbach's Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, No. 1, Op. 69 and the Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 40 by Shostakovich.

"These two ascending stars in the musical firmament will take audiences on a journey through the stark and poetic Russian soundscape," says Michael Barrett, Chief Executive and General Director of Caramoor.  "Lera Auerbach is a rare composer who is also an accomplished concert pianist.  To hear her play her own world premiere composition with Alisa Weilerstein will be a vibrant summit of two brilliant artists and a remarkable treat for audiences."

"Cellists twice or thrice Weilerstein's age would be hard-pressed to match the concentrated beauty and power of this young dynamo's playing," proclaimed The New York Times about Alisa Weilerstein.  She has performed with the nation's top orchestras, given recitals in music capitals throughout the U.S. and Europe, and regularly participates in prestigious international festivals, including performances at Caramoor, where she was a guest artist on the opening night this summer.  She is also dedicated to performing chamber music, having grown up in a family of musicians with whom she collaborated from an early age.  Alisa Weilerstein is continually engaged by orchestras across the U.S. and has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, as well as major European orchestras.  She was the winner of the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award, which she received at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany.  Alisa Weilerstein was a Caramoor Rising Star in 1999.

Lera Auerbach is one of the most widely-performed composers of her generation.  A virtuoso, Ms. Auerbach continues the great tradition of pianist-composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Born in Chelyabinsk, near Siberia, she was one of the last artists to defect from the Soviet Union during a concert tour in 1991 while still in her teens.  In addition to performances at Caramoor, where her composition Findings/16 Inventions, a work commissioned by Caramoor, premiered in 2007, her compositions have been commissioned and performed at leading festivals throughout the world including Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein.

TICKETS

Tickets are $25.00 and $35.00 and may be ordered by calling the Caramoor Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road in Katonah, New York.

ABOUT CARAMOOR

Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures.  Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world.  Their musical evenings were the seeds of today's International Music Festival.  Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings - in 1946 the Rosens gave Caramoor to the public as a center for music and the arts.

Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years. During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: the Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today, and, under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.

Caramoor is a Garden of Great Music. "We invite people to come early, explore our beautiful grounds, take a tour of the House Museum, visit our gift shop, enjoy a pre-concert picnic, and discover beautiful music in a relaxed setting," advises Paul Rosenblum, Caramoor's Managing Director. With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands. "Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all." - The New York Times

Art and Gardens
Concerts take place in two outdoor theaters: the large, acoustically superb Venetian Theater and the more intimate, romantic Spanish Courtyard.  Caramoor is more than just music - there is beauty at every turn.  The House Museum, the former summer home of Caramoor's founders, Lucie and Walter Rosen, contains a vast collection of Renaissance, 18th-century, and Eastern art objects, including furniture, tapestries, sculpture, paintings, textiles, porcelain, and jade in twenty rooms that are open to the public.  There are entire rooms that were imported from European palaces and villas.  In fact, Caramoor is one of just five mansions in the country that incorporate entire rooms into its collection.  On Thursdays and Fridays, afternoon tea is served in the Summer Dining Room, overlooking the charming Spanish Courtyard.

Caramoor's gardens are also well worth the visit and include nine unique perennial gardens.  Among them are a Sense Circle for the visually handicapped, a Butterfly Garden, Tapestry Hedge, and an Iris and Peony Garden, which may be enjoyed on one's own or seen on a guided tour.

Enjoy a Picnic at Caramoor
Extend your Caramoor experience by arriving for concerts early and enjoying a picnic amidst the beautiful gardens.  Bring your own picnic or pre-order from Great Performances® by calling 212.337.6055.

House Museum
Guided tours of the House Museum are provided from Wednesday through Sunday, 1:00pm-4:00pm with the last tour at 3:00pm.  On Saturdays, during the Festival, tours are given from 1:00pm-5:00pm, with the last tour at 4:00pm.  Tickets are $10 (children 16 and under free).

GETTING TO CARAMOOR

Caramoor is easy to get to by car and mass transportation.  

By car from the West Side of Manhattan and New Jersey, take the Saw Mill River Parkway north to Katonah.  Exit at Route 35/Cross River.  Turn right and, at the first traffic light, make a right turn onto Route 22 south. Travel 1.9 miles to the junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor.  (For detailed directions call 914.232.5035 and press 2, or online at www.caramoor.org).  Parking at Caramoor is free.

By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah, New York. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (five minutes away) is available.

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CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
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Friday, July 11                 ALISA WEILERSTEIN & LERA AUERBACH
8:00 p.m.                         Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Spanish Courtyard          Lera Auerbach, piano
$35, $25  
                                        Auerbach          Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, No. 1, Op. 69
                                        Shostakovich    Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 40
                                        Auerbach          Twenty-four Preludes for Violoncello & Piano, Op. 47
                                                                  (1999-2006)  Caramoor Commission and World Premiere

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CREDITS

Performances are made possible, in part, by Westchester Arts Council, with funds from Westchester County Government
 

Performances are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
 

TICKETS

Tickets may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org. 

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

ALL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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Press Tickets:
Laura Malick
917.339.7183
lmalick@cohndutcher.com