75 1 – Celebrating Composer Judith Lang Zaimont’s 75th Birthday, November 8 at New York City’s Merkin Hall at The Kaufman Music Center

75 1, a very special celebration (rescheduled from 2020) of internationally renowned composer Judith Lang Zaimont’s 75^th Birthday, will be presented on Monday, November 8 @ 7:30 PM at New York City’s Merkin Hall at The Kaufman Music Center, 129 West 67th Street (btw Broadway and Amsterdam) in Manhattan.

Performers will be pianist Joanne Polk, violinist Xiao Wang, cellist Julian Langford and The Amernet String Quartet, presenting Zaimont’s Jupiter's Moons for solo piano, A Strange Magic – String Quartet No. 2, Tanya Poems for cello solo and the Nocturne and Romp movements from Piano Trio No. 1 - Russian Summer.

Proof of COVID-19 vaccination and masks are required to enter Merkin Hall.

Tickets are $30, reserved seating, $20 seniors and students, and can be obtained at https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/75-1-a-celebration-of-judith-lang-zaimont/.

Judith Lang Zaimont is internationally recognized for her music's distinctive style, characterized by emotion, expressive strength and dynamism. Her creation of inventive and widely varied colors and textures is repeatedly cited, whether in orchestral, or choral works and chamber music. A 2003 Aaron Copland Award winner, the 2016 The American Prize in Chamber Music Composition, and a 2017 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, she has enjoyed a distinguished career as composer of over 120 works with performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Berlin and Czech Radio symphonies, Camerata Bern, BBC Concert Orchestra and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. Her music is widely performed throughout the U.S. and Europe and has been recorded for Sorel Classics, MSR Classics, Naxos, Navona, Harmonia Mundi, Arabesque, Milken Family Foundation, Albany, Jeanné, Leonarda, Northeastern, and 4Tay labels. Her principal publishers are Subito Music, Galaxy/ ECS, Jeanné, Lauren Keiser Music Publishing and Vivace. She is creator and editor-in-chief of the critically acclaimed book series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective. More information about Ms. Zaimont, including sound clips of many of her compositions, is available at http://www.judithzaimont.com.

Pianist Joanne Polk was catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) on the Arabesque Recordings label. She celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center, under the baton of Paul Goodwin, and subsequently performed it with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco, under conductor Apo Hsu, in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Visit her at https://joannepolkpianist.com/.

Praised for their “intelligence” and “immensely satisfying” playing by the New York Times, the Amernet String Quartet (Misha Vitenson and Avi Nagin, violins, Michael Klotz, viola and Jason Calloway, cello) has garnered recognition as one of today’s exceptional string quartets and are Ensemble-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami. Their sound has been called “complex” but with an “old world flavor.” Strad Magazine described the Amernet as “…a group of exceptional technical ability.” Their current season includes tours throughout Europe and Latin America as well as the premieres of several new works for quartet and return engagements throughout the US and Israel. They’re at http://amernetquartet.com/.

Violinist Xiao Wang, first-prize winner of the 2012 Szigeti International Violin Competition and laureate of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition and 2015 Seoul International Competition, has performed as soloist with distinguished conductors and orchestras around the world. A passionate chamber musician, Mr. Wang has collaborated with Philippe Entremont, the American String Quartet, members of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, and the New York Philharmonic. More about him at https://www.msmnyc.edu/faculty/xiao-wang/.

Cellist Julian Langford was a winner in 2008 of National Public Radio’s From the Top, and performed on their nationally broadcast radio program.  In the same year, he performed the Schubert Two Cello Quintet with Yo-Yo Ma and was invited to be a guest artist with Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center.  He also performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic. In 2014, Julian attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he was selected as a principal cellist. He is also a member of the faculty at Manhattan in the Mountains Summer Music Festival in Hunter, NY. In the summer of 2018, he participated in a tour of China. He has performed at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Boston University's Tanglewood Institute, the Morgan Library & Museum in NYC and many Summer festivals in the U.S. and internationally. More about him at https://www.julianlangford.com.

For artist photos or more information, contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or jamesarts@att.net.

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