Sun, November 19, 2023 | 7:30 pm St. Mark's Capitol Hill, 301 A Street, SE, Washington, DC
Byron T. “John” Franzén Annual Memorial Concert
The precise architecture of Bach’s solo work gives way to the fantastical shapes of Szymanowski’s hypnotic sound world that poeticizes three Greek myths. Brahms’s lyrical warmth meets Shaw’s homage to the legendary Fritz Kreisler in this intimate program featuring Grammy award-winning violinist Domenic Salerni and Chiarina artistic director Efi Hackmey.
Program
Johann Sebastian BachViolin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003
Karol SzymanowskiThree Myths for Violin and Piano
Johannes BrahmsSonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78
Caroline ShawBroad and Free
Artists
Domenic Salerni
Violin
Efi Hackmey
Piano
Domenic Salerni
Violin
Violinist, composer, and arranger Domenic Salerni is a member of the two-time Grammy Award-winning Attacca Quartet. Attacca was featured on Billie Eilish’s most recent Album “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” and earlier this season made their Concertgebouw debut. Attacca can be heard on the soundtrack to Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming seven-part film series on Apple TV+ “Disclaimer,” playing the music of Finneas. They will also be featured, alongside Sō Percussion and Roomful of Teeth, in Caroline Shaw’s film score to Ken Burns’ newest PBS documentary, “Leonardo da Vinci,” airing this November. Attacca looks forward to a number of upcoming releases with the record label Platoon, and can also be heard on albums with Nonesuch Records and Sony Classical.
As a recitalist and composer, Domenic can be heard at Richmond, Virginia’s newest chamber music salon, The Belvedere Series, founded by pianist Ingrid Keller. The Belvedere Series commissioned Salerni’s “Seven Meditations” for piano trio last season thanks to a grant from the Allan and Margot Blank Foundation. Domenic also arranged 60s Civil Rights era protest songs for the Palaver Strings’ album “a change is gonna come,” featuring tenor Nicholas Phan and jazz vocalist Farayi Malek. In 2022, Attacca created and recorded original music for the podcast “The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome,” which was featured in the New York Times’ Best Podcasts of 2023. Domenic’s first string quartet commission, “Trilobites: a Musical Excavation,” was made possible by the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival, founded in 2021 by cellist Katie Terrell, and is featured on West Virginia Public Television.
A graduate of the Yale School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Domenic regularly performs with the Chiarina Chamber Players in Capitol Hill, DC. Recipient of the 2020 CMA Commissioning Grant, Chiarina looks forward to its debut album in its 10th season of the music of Carlos Simon, including the commissioned work, “The Best Cuisine,” featuring co-artistic directors Efi Hackmey and Carrie Bean Stute and bass-baritone Carl DuPont.
Efi Hackmey
Piano
Pianist Efi Hackmey is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players, together with cellist Carrie Bean Stute. Mr. Hackmey is an active soloist and chamber musician in NYC and in the DC area. In 2013 he released an album on the Naxos label, which includes several world premiere recordings (Polish Violin Music with violinist Kinga Augustyn). Efi has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, Kennedy Center, Bargemusic, Arion Chamber Music, and the Friends of Mozart series in NYC. He performed many additional concerts in Alabama, California, DC, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming. In his native Israel he performed as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Jerusalem Music Center, and in special concerts presented by the Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society. He has performed on Israeli TV Channel 2, and his recordings have been broadcast on the Israeli National Public Radio,and in the US on WTSU, WRWA and WTJB. A review of one of his New York performances quotes “excellent Israeli musician... under his fingers the piano sounded noble, and each phrase was full of character”, and further praises his “highly personal, thought through interpretation.” (Roman Markowicz, “Nowy Dziennik”).
Mr. Hackmey has served on the piano faculty at DePauw University, and he also taught at the Indiana University system, Montgomery College in Rockville, MD, and Levine School of Music in Washington, DC. He holds a Doctor of Music degree in piano performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and degrees in piano and conducting from Tel Aviv University. He studied with Menahem Pressler, Pnina Salzman and Dina Turgeman, and has had additional coaching with Lazar Berman, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Janos Starker, David Zinman, Richard Stoltzman and Jaime Laredo.
