Richmond Piano Trio
Performance Details
Date: March 7, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Location: Music Building Recital Hall. 551 Jamestown Road
Admission: Free, no tickets required
NEAL CARY has been praised for his “robust tone and high-romantic phrasing,” and the “tremendous amount of emotion and heart” he brings to his performances. He has been principal cellist with the Richmond Symphony since 1988 and has served as principal cellist of the Williamsburg Symphony since 2002. In 1984, he joined EMF’s faculty and has served as principal cellist since 1988. In August 2012 and 2016, Cary performed in the All-Star Orchestra. Before moving to Richmond, Cary was co-principal cellist of the Kansas City Philharmonic, assistant principal cellist of the Tulsa Philharmonic, the San Antonio Symphony and the Denver Symphony orchestras. From 1994-1998, he was adjunct faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University. While a student at Juilliard, he was a chamber music teaching assistant to Earl Carlyss and Claus Adam. While a student at Meadowmount, he was a chamber music teaching assistant to Joseph Gingold. In addition to his symphony work, Cary maintains a large private teaching studio and has been a member of the performing artist faculty at William & Mary since 1991. An avid chamber musician, he has performed with many world-famous musicians at EMF and has been a member of the Richmond Chamber Players since 1989.
Neal is married to Catherine Cary, violinist with the Richmond Symphony and EMF. They have two children – daughter Emma, a cellist, and son Alan, a violinist.
JOANNE KONG’s performances have been praised for “great finesse and flexibility” (The Washington Post), “utmost keyboard sensitivity and variety of tone” (Richmond Times-Dispatch), and “superb artistry” (San Antonio Express-News) in works “sensitively played” (New York Times). Her versatility includes the distinction of being the first artist to release a harpsichord-piano recording of the Goldberg and Diabelli Variations, on the Brioso label, and she gave the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Colgrass’s Side by Side, the first concerto that features a keyboard soloist in the dual role of pianist and harpsichordist. The work was commissioned the Richmond Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra. Ms. Kong has performed to critical acclaim on numerous concert series with recent performances in Austria and South America, including a 10-day concert tour in Brazil this May, sponsored by the Partners of the Americas and the U. S. State Department. As a gifted collaborator she has performed with some of the world’s finest musicians, including the Shanghai Quartet, cellist James Wilson, violinist Karen Johnson, flautist Eugenia Zukerman, baritone James Weaver and three-time Grammy Award-winning ensemble eighth blackbird. She is the recipient of numerous honors including performance fellowships from the American Academy of the Arts in Europe and the Bach Aria Festival, and the Irl Allison Grand Prize in the 1985 International Piano Recording Competition. Dr. Kong is currently the director of the accompanying and chamber music programs at the University of Richmond.
DAISUKE YAMAMOTO, known for exhibiting “immense virtuosity and probing musicianship,” is originally from Marietta, GA. Concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony since 2013, he has been featured as a solo violinist on several occasions since his arrival, including a performance of the Theme from Schindler’s List for the Holocaust Remembrance Concert, which was broadcast statewide. Other performances include Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Ravel’s Tzigane and Vivaldi’s “Autumn” from The Four Seasons. Before coming to Richmond he was a member of the New World Symphony. While at New World, he soloed with the orchestra, performing Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy. He has also collaborated with Jaime Laredo in a performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins. He was also hand-picked by Michael Tilson Thomas to participate in the Thomashefsky Project, an homage to Tilson Thomas’s grandparents who were pioneers of the American Yiddish Theater. The project was recorded for DVD and was aired on PBS Great Performances. He was also invited to Medellín, Colombia, where he led sectionals and masterclasses as well as performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín.
