Release of long-awaited debut album Songbird on Warner Classics March 24 highlights second half of violinist Maria Ioudenitch's 2022-23 season

Being released in the middle of the second half of her 2022-23 season, violinist Maria Ioudenitch's debut album, Songbird, is a journey through song, with a thoughtfully curated collection of arrangements, untouched renditions and songful instrumental works. The album includes works by eleven composers: Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Nadia Boulanger, Amy Beach, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Medtner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Mikhail Glinka, Franz Schubert, and Richard Strauss. The recording, available in both CD and digital formats, is a special prize from the 2021 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition, at which she also wond first prize, and features her first ever transcription of a work - Rachmaninoff's Don't sing, my beauty, for me.

Joining her on Songbird is her friend and musical collaborator, pianist Kenny Broberg, with whom she regularly performs in recital. With a songful focus, it is no surprise that Ioudenitch also invited a singer to participate in the album. German soprano Theresa Pilsl makes a guest appearance in the final work, Richard Strauss's Morgen! Op. 27 No. 4.

Songbird 
Warner Classics
C. SCHUMANN 3 Romances for Violin and Piano Op. 22
No. 1 Andante molto
R. SCHUMANN 3 Romances Op. 94
No.2 Einfach, innig
F. MENDELSSOHN 6 Op. 7
No. 2 Erwin
BOULANGER Soleils couchants
BEACH, Romance for Violin & Piano Op. 23
TCHAIKOVSKY 6 Romances for voice & piano Op. 6
No. 6 None but the lonely heart
(arr. for violin and piano by Mischa Elman)
MEDTNER Fairy Tale Op. 20, No. 1
(arr. for violin & piano by Jascha Heifetz)
MEDTNER Forgotten Melodies Cycle II Op. 39
No. 4 Canzona Matinata
(arr. for violin & piano by Kenny Broberg)
RACHMANINOFF 6 Romances, Op. 4
No. 4 Don't sing, my beauty, for me
(arr. for violin & piano by Maria Ioudenitch)
GLINKA arr. BALAKIREV L'Alouette / The Lark
(arr. for violin & piano by Leopold Auer)
SCHUBERT Fantasie in C for voice & piano D.934
I. Andante molto; II. Allegretto; III. Andantino
IV. Allegro vivace - Allegretto - Presto
STRAUSS 4 Lieder for voice & piano Op. 27, TrV 170
No. 4 Morgen!
(with soprano Theresa Pilsl)

with Kenny Broberg, piano, and Theresa Pilsl, soprano
Recorded at Meistersaal. Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin, Germany
Link to Warner Classics' webpage here.

Ms. Ioudenitch performs works from the album at the March 11 "Stanislav and Friends" Gala at Park University. Upcoming engagements in the United States also include appearances with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Guarneri Hall, and Ravinia on Tour, which includes stops at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In Europe, she can be heard with four orchestras: Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Nürnberger Symphoniker, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin - as well as in recital, among others at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie.

About Maria Ioudenitch
Passionate performances, nuanced interpretations, and technical prowess are the hallmarks of violinist Maria Ioudenitch. Her debut album on Warner, Songbird, with collaborator pianist Kenny Broberg and guest soprano Theresa Pilsl, is set for release on March 24, 2023. Known for her innovative programs, the CD includes a scintillating mix of works by composers ranging from Franz Schubert, Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann to Nikolai Medtner, Richard Strauss and Nadia Boulanger. The recipient of the first prize at the 2021 Ysaÿe, Tibor Varga, and the Joseph Joachim international violin competitions, as well as numerous special prizes including Joachim’s Chamber Music Award, the prize for Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work, the Henle Urtext Prize, and a recording deal with Warner Classics, Ioudenitch's reputation continues to grow as she builds an international career.

A compelling and articulate artist, during the 2022-23 season Ms. Ioudenitch can be heard in performances of the Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Barber concertos, as well as Haydn’s G-Major and Mozart’s D-Major concertos and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Recitals include works by George Gershwin, William Grant Still, Dolores White and Fazil Say, alongside standard violin repertoire. This spring, she makes her debuts with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (at Berlin’s Philharmonie), and MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig. Debuts in the first half of the season included Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Münchner Symphoniker, a return to Kansas City Symphony as well as performances with Kammerakademie Potsdam, Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, Fränkische Musiktage Alzenau, Dusseldorfer Symphoniker, and Munich Symphony Orchestra in Europe and in the U.S. with Salina Symphony, North Mississippi Orchestra, Ensemble132 and Symphony Pro Musica.

Recent engagements have taken her to the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Mariinsky Orchestra, Lithuania Chamber Orchestra and Utah Symphony, while her growing list of conductors includes names like Andrey Boreyko, Alpesh Chauhan, Kevin John Eudesei, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Andrew Manze, Ruth Reinhardt and Hugh Wolff. An active chamber musician, she will take part in Marlboro Music Festival's chamber music tour with Christoph Richter in November 2023.

Born in Russia to a musical family, Maria Ioudenitch immigrated with her family to the U.S. at the age of two and grew up in Kansas City. She began playing violin with Gregory Sandomirsky at the age of three and continued her studies with Ben Sayevich at the International Center for Music in Kansas City and Pamela Frank and Shmuel Ashkenasi at the Curtis Institute of Music. A 2018 American Public Media Young Artist in Residence, she completed her master’s degree and Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Miriam Fried. This past year, Ioudenitch has been mentored by Sonia Simmenauer as part of Simmenauer’s new initiative, zukunfts.music. She is currently in the Professional Studies program at the Kronberg Academy, working with Christian Tetzlaff.

Maria plays a violin by the Brothers Amati from ca. 1624, courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins in Chicago. She is represented by Christopher Dingstad of Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm (General Management) and Emily McClean of Opus 3 Artists (The Americas and Caribbean). Visit Maria's website here.

Press Contact:
Laura Grant, Grant Communications
1.917.359.7319; Laura@grant-communications.com