Grahamstown Music Society's Last Concert for 2013
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Monday, 4th November 2013
The last concert to be presented by the Grahamstown Music Society for 2013 will be on Tuesday 19th November. Yura Lee (violin), accompanied by Tertia Visser Downie (piano), will play Beethoven’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in D major Op. 12 No 1, Brahms’s Sonata No.3 for Violin and Piano in D minor Op. 108, three pieces by Fritz Kreisler – Praeludium and Allegro, Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow) and Liebesfreud (Love’s Joy), and Tchaikovsky’s Waltz-Scherzo . Violinist/violist Yura Lee, first prize winner of 2013 ARD Competition in Germany, is enjoying a career that spans almost two decades, and takes her all over the world. Her musical integrity and her compelling artistry were praised by both the critic and some of the most respected artists of today. At age 12, Ms. Lee became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the “Performance Today” awards given by National Public Radio. She also received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, which is one of the most prestigious prizes given to young artists. Ms. Lee received numerous international prizes from competitions, including the first prize at the 2013 ARD Competition (Germany), first prize and the audience prize at the 2006 Leopold Mozart Competition (Germany), first prize at the 2010 UNISA International Competition (South Africa), first prize at the 2013 Yuri Bashmet International Competition (Russia), and top prizes in the Indianapolis (USA), Hannover (Germany), Kreisler (Austria) and Paganini (Italy) Competitions. Ms. Lee studied at the Juilliard School (New York City), New England Conservatory (Boston), Salzburg Mozarteum (Austria), and at the Kronberg Academy (Germany). Her main teachers included Namyun Kim, Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Thomas Riebl, Ana Chumachenko and Nobuko Imai. As a soloist, she has appeared with many major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NDR Symphonieorchester, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, and many others. Ms. Lee has performed with conductors Christophe Eschenbach, Lorin Maazel, Myung-Whun Chung, among many others. Tertia Visser Downie is an accomplished South African pianist who studied under national and international piano masters John Antoniadis and London-based Martino Tirimo after winning the prestigious Mabel Quick Scholarship. She completed her Honours degree in music at the University of Stellenbosch, and achieved the Unisa Performers’ and Teachers’ Licentiates, with distinction in both qualifications. Performing numerous solo recitals in South Africa and internationally, Tertia has featured with various orchestras and appeared at events such as the Cape Town Pops Series with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoff and Gershwin. She is regularly invited as an official accompanist at national music competitions and at various events and concerts. She was one of the official accompanists at the UNISA International String Competition in 2010, accompanying Yura Lee (violin), the overall winner. During 2009, she joined renowned poet Philip de Vos on a national tour to bring masterpieces “Pictures at an exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky and “Kinderscenen” by Schumann to stage, radio and television. In 2008 Tertia took the leading female role in Pieter Dirk-Uys’ play, Appassionata, and performed the Beethoven Sonata with the same name. Tertia has produced five CDs of her own as well as establishing and managing her “Tots in Tune” program designed to introduce classical music to young toddlers. She released a fourth CD with well-known cellist Marian Lewin at the end of 2009. She played the first keyboard in the Cape Town Production of Phantom of the Opera at Artscape in 2011/2012. She is a part-time lecturer in piano at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town. The venue for this concert will be the Beethoven Room at the Rhodes University Music Department. The concert will start at 7:30 pm and tickets – R80 (adults), R60 (pensioners), R40 (tertiary students) – will be available at the door. Schoolgoers and GMS members FREE!
