June 22: Violinist Melissa White and Pianist Nargiz Aliyarova Celebrate Composer Gara Garayev's 105th at Carnegie Hall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 212.837.8466

 The National Music and Global Culture Society Presents
Violinist Melissa White and Pianist Nargiz Aliyarova at Carnegie Hall   

Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 7:30pm at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

Melissa White makes her debut at Carnegie Hall in this recital dedicated to the
105th Anniversary of Azerbaijani Composer Gara Garayev

“absolutely breathtaking … I have no other words for the grace,
precision, and warmth [Melissa White] brought to the stage.”
– Maryland Theater Guide

“[Nargiz Aliyarova] is a pianist of intelligence, fine technique, and above all, passion.”
 – ConcertoNet

www.melissawhiteviolin.com | www.nargizaliyarova.com
 

New York, NY (June 8, 2023) – On Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 7:30pm, the National Music and Global Culture Society presents acclaimed musicians violinist Melissa White and pianist Nargiz Aliyarova in a recital at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Dedicated to the 105th anniversary of the great Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev, the concert program will include Garayev’s Violin Sonata, Preludes, and Adagio from ballet “Seven Beauties”; plus other works including Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 45; William Grant Still’s Summerland; Amy Beach’s Romance, Op. 23; Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major; and three pieces by Chopin: Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55, No. 1; Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Op. posth.,"Nocturne oublié"; and Nocturne in C Minor, Op. 48, No. 1.

Hailed by The Washington Post for being an “excellent advocate” and praised by The Washington Informer as she “continues to enchant audiences around the world,” White will make her Carnegie Hall recital debut in this performance. She has previously performed at the famed hall with her ensembles, Sphinx Virtuosi and Harlem Quartet, receiving critical acclaim as both a soloist and a chamber musician.

She is joined by pianist Nargiz Aliyarova, described as “clearly a dynamo who combines excellent pianistic skills and artistry with her role as presenter and educator” by the New York Concert Review. She had her Lincoln Center debut in 2018, Carnegie Hall debut in March 2022, Stern Auditorium Carnegie Hall debut in November 2022 and Kennedy Center debut in 2023.

Aliyarova is the president and founder of The National Music & Global Culture Society (NMGCS), which aims to be the bridge for connecting communities to global and multinational culture through classical music. NMGCS has been holding an annual International Composition Competition since 2021 to unite cultures globally through national music.

White shares, “Nargiz and I met in 2015 when I traveled to Baku, Azerbaijan to perform a recital with her there in her home country. We’re thrilled to be bringing this program honoring Garayev to NYC, where we now both reside.”

Performance Details
Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 7:30pm
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/06/22/Chamber-Music-Melissa-White-Violin-and-Nargiz-Aliyarova-Piano-0730PM 
Tickets: $50

Performers:
Melissa White, violin
Nargiz Aliyarova, piano

Program:
Garayev – Violin Sonata
Garayev – Preludes
Garayev – Adagio from ballet “Seven Beauties”
Brahms – Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major

Intermission

Chopin – Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55, No. 1
Chopin – Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth.,"Nocturne oublié"
Chopin – Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1
Beach – Romance, Op. 23
Grieg – Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45

About Melissa White
American violinist Melissa White has enchanted audiences and critics around the world as both a soloist and a chamber musician. White emerges from the 2022/2023 season resplendent with new achievements and milestones in a skyrocketing career that continues to span the globe. In June of 2022, White made history as the concertmaster of the Recollective Orchestra, the first all-Black orchestra to perform onstage at the Hollywood Bowl. The occasion, aired live on CNN, was a Juneteenth program presented by the LA Philharmonic to mark the Bowl’s centenary. In August, White made her Aspen Music Festival and School debut performing and conducting Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and in January she made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

Last fall, the violinist embarked on a European concert tour that included her debut in Ireland and a return to London’s Wigmore Hall with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective.

White’s recent orchestral activity includes return engagements with the National Philharmonic and the Chicago Sinfonietta, and debut performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as the Richmond, Cincinnati, and Midland Symphony Orchestras, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Brevard Music Center and Heartland Festival Orchestras, and The Juilliard Orchestra, which she joined with only three days’ notice to perform Florence Price’s Concerto No.1 in January 2022. White is a founding member of New York-based Harlem Quartet, where since 2006 her passion and artistry have contributed to performances hailed for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent” (Cincinnati Enquirer). Together with Harlem Quartet, she has worked with such classical-music luminaries as Itzhak Perlman, Ida Kavakian, Paul Katz, and Anthony McGill; appeared in many of the country’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, the White House, and the Kennedy Center; and performed throughout the U.S., as well as in Europe, Africa, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Harlem Quartet was named quartet-in-residence at Montclair State University in the fall of 2021, and has served as the visiting quartet-in-residence at the Royal College of Music in London since 2016.

White currently serves as Music Artist Faculty at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and, as of fall 2022, she is also Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo. She looks forward to her Sarasota Music Festival debut as a faculty member in June of 2023.

Born and raised in Lansing, Michigan, she received her BMus from The Curtis Institute of Music and MMus from New England Conservatory, where her teachers included Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried.

In addition to her musical career, White has enjoyed practicing various styles of yoga for more than a decade, and completed training in both Vinyasa and Ashtanga at Sampoorna Yoga School in Goa, India. She is the co-founder of Intermission, a groundbreaking program that unites body, mind, breath, and music-making through yoga and meditation. The program comprises both sessions for students and retreats for professionals. Learn more at www.melissawhiteviolin.com. 

About Nargiz Aliyarova
New York-based artist Nargiz Aliyarova is an international pianist and professor. Since her first concert at the age of nine, Aliyarova has been on stage as a soloist, collaborative musician and performer with chamber and symphonic orchestras in more than 40 cities around the world. Her repertoire includes music ranging from baroque to contemporary. She had her Lincoln Center debut in 2018, Carnegie Hall debut in March 2022, and Stern Auditorium Carnegie Hall debut in November 2022.

Aliyarova was awarded a diploma for “Outstanding contribution to the legacy of Chopin” by the Government of Poland in 2010. She has produced five CDs, three of which were released by the Belgian Recording company Etcetera. In 2008, Aliyarova was named a Laureate in the Pietro Argento 11th International Competition held in Italy. That same year, she was declared “Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan Republic”. Aliyarova has participated in many international festivals including the 48th International Contemporary Music Congress (Darmstadt, Germany); IV, VI, and VIII U.Hajibeyli International Festival; “Silk Way”; and III and VI Gabala International Festival, “Phonex” (Cologne, Germany).

Nargiz Aliyarova is a Doctor of Art and Professor, as well as an author of more than 20 scholarly articles and several books. She has been teaching piano and chamber music at Baku Music Academy for 25 years. Aliyarova is the president and founder of The National Music & Global Culture Society, which aims to be the bridge for connecting communities to global and multinational culture through classical music. NMGCS also holds an annual International competition. Its first composition competition, held in 2021, was dedicated to the great Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli, and its second competition, held in 2022, was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of another Azerbaijani composer, Fikret Amirov. Aliyarova also served as President of The Zonta of New York, a global women’s organization, from 2018 to 2020. Learn more at www.nargizaliyarova.com. 

*Photographer Credits: Melissa White by Dario Acosta and Nargiz Aliyarova by Tahmina Ahmadova

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