Wednesdays Strad for Lunch Review

Yesterday, our "Strad for Lunch" concert featured the cellist Thomas Mesa on our "Vatican Strad." cello made by Nicolo Amati circa 1660 and Alexandra Joan on our Bosendorfer piano. Thomas is a native of Miami, Florida and is currently a student of Timothy Eddy at the Julliard School.  Alexandra a graduate of the Paris Conservatory and the Julliard School. She has an active international performance career and is the artistic director of the Kaleidoscope Series this season at WMP Concert Hall. We witnessed a beautiful collaboration between both performers. For the  Sonata for Cello and Piano by C. Debussy, our french pianist really understood Debussy's music and it showed in her performance together with Thomas who showed how strong his relationship is with the cello, in coupling his interpretation with the piano. Showing his beautiful right hand technique, his bow getting a great powerful sound. The communication between them in the Sonata for cello and piano was beautiful. The second piece performed was the cello solo in Messiaen  Quartet for the End of Time "Praise to the Eternity of Jesus". It was very intimate, strong and moved everyone in the audience. This is such an important music. The final piece of the concert was  J. Brahms Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major. A great ending to the recital. Thomas played with strong, romantic emotion and precision. What a wonderful artist, giving us a great array of colors, feelings and moods. This recital was another example of the multitude of talented musicians that have performed on our stage, at WMP. We look forward to seeing both of these musicians perform again as their careers blossom. Oh, yes... we will get to see Alexandra perform one more time this season on June 1st. Visit wmpconcerthall.com for more details about this concert and all the activities at WMP.

In the workshop, top off a Stradivari and an Amati.

Today in the workshop, together with all the other patients,  there are two very fine instruments, a violin made by Stradivari and a cello made by Niccolò Amati. The instruments of Stradivari and Amati  are highly coveted by the worlds top musicians and collectors for the quality of their sound and their craftsmanship. Emmanuel is performing a major restoration, involving taking the top off on both instruments with the help of Sebastien Lavielle. The owners of these two instruments are famous musicians and we are proud to welcome their instruments on our bench.

Concert Tomorrow!

Hi! Tomorrow's wednesday, which means that there's another Strad for Lunch-concert in the WMP concert hall. This time, Giora Schmidt (violin) and Anna Polonsky (piano) will perform pieces by Geminiani, Janáček and Beethoven. As Giora has been practicing here, I know that it will be worth listening to!

Our Strad for Lunch concerts take place every wednesday at 12.30 pm, in the WMP-Concert Hall, which is situated at 31 East 28th street. We hope to see you there!

Eva - Intern for three weeks

11-05-'11 - midweek update

As some of you may know, at Wednesdays at 12:30 pm we organize one-hour concerts called "Strad for Lunch" featuring one of our Stradivarius instruments. Today's concert was a wonderful Violin Sonata (Mozart, No. 32 in B-flat major, K. 454) and another one composed by Prokofiev (No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80), performed by Erika Mitsui on the violin and Alexandra Joan on the piano.

Erika is a marvelous Japanese-American violinist, born and raised in New York, who studies at Juilliard with Ronald Copes from the Juilliard quartet. Alexandra is a French-Romanian pianist who's been a very active player in Europe and made her debut in New York in 2007. You might have heard her already at WMP this season as she's the artistic director of the Kaleidoscope series. They both did wonderfully today and had every one of us impressed!

Tomorrow evening (Thursday May 12th) at 7:30 pm we organize an evening of Chamber music with violinist Anastasia Khitruk and pianist Elena Baksht. They will be playing pieces from Colina, franck and Ravel. Anastasia Khitruk is an internationally renowned champion of rarely performed works and Elena captivates her audience from the moment she appears on stage with a combination of profound lyricism, dazzling technique and charismatic presence. We'd love to see you there tomorrow!

Eva - Intern for three weeks

Hi there!

This first post is merely an introduction to the companies situated here on 31 East 28th street, in Manhattan, NYC. This wonderful building is home to not only the headquarters of our online shop GoStrings.com, but also to the WMP Concert Hall (on the background of this page), Gradoux-Matt Rare Violins and One to One Services.

GoStrings is a website that sells a wide range of cases, strings, accessories and sheet music for string instruments, at affordable prices. Our GoStrings-guys have a whole basement to themselves. It's a small and welcoming company. You can rent string instruments here as well! Check the website to find out more!

The Workshop for Music Performance Concert Hall is a beautifully decorated Concert Hall that can keep an audience of 70 people. The acoustics are amazing and walking into the room makes you think of a Parisian salon in the 19th century. Chamber music concerts are arranged two or three times a week and the hall is available for rent - perfect for private events and concerts! Please see the link on the left.

String instrument dealer and restorer Emmanuel Gradoux-Matt started a workshop here, called Gradoux-Matt Rare Violins. It's now a well-run company with two violin builders, here to restore your string instruments, and they build instruments themselves, occasionally.

One to One services rents out beautiful cars with drivers and arranges beautiful home concerts with amazing musicians. For weddings they also arrange the whole package! Check their enchanting website on the left!

Keep checking this blog to get updates on life in this building, and please stop by!

Eva - Intern for three weeks