“Astral Artists—an organization supporting young, emerging classical musicians—held a concert [on October 26] at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia to debut its new roster of performers,” writes Peter Crimmins last Friday (10/28) at Newsworks.org (Philadelphia/southern NJ/Delaware). “Every year, Astral Artists selects musicians through a competitive audition process. This year, for the first time, it presented the new crop publicly. Seven artists … performed a gala concert at the Kimmel’s Perelman Theater. ‘Philadelphia hasn’t had had a major classical music competition of national reputation for the public to enjoy since the Pavarotti voice competition in the 1980s and 90s,’ said Astral Artists executive director Julia Rubio. ‘We hope that by opening up the auditions we will enrich our cultural community, and add dimension and perspective to the life of a classical musician.’ One of those musicians is Natalia Kazaryan, 28, a pianist who grew up in the Republic of Georgia … Another set of artists new to Astral is the Rolston String Quartet, now in residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Texas.” This year’s artists also include pianists Congcong Chai and Zhenni Li; violinists Timothy Chooi and Katie Hyun; and harpist Emily Levin.
Posted November 4, 2016
