New York, NY - The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents Simone Porter, violin & Rohan De Silva, piano, play Strauss and more, on May 6, 2023 at 7:30pm ET. Tickets start at $25 and are available at 92ny.org/event/simone-porter-violin.

Young violinist Simone Porter makes her 92NY debut in the newly renovated Buttenwieser Hall, showcasing the talent that has been making both audiences and critics take notice. Her solo set includes the New York premiere of Drishti – a work written for her by Indian American composer Reena Esmail, and named for a focus concept in yoga – and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Pierrot Lunaire-inspired Lachen Verlernt, a piece that has become a contemporary touchstone of the solo violin repertoire. Porter and De Silva close the program with Strauss’s lyrical E-flat Major Sonata.

Program:
Andrew Norman, Sabina
Biber, Passacaglia
Reena Ismail, Drishti (????????) (NY premiere)
Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lachen Verlernt
Strauss, Violin Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 18

About the Artists
Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication. In the past few years, she has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, and Donald Runnicles. Born in 1996, Simone made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony and her international debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at age 13. In March 2015, Simone was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Recent highlights include Mendelssohn with New Jersey Symphony, Brahms with Pacific Symphony and an extensive tour throughout the US including concerts with the Santa Rosa, Amarillo, Pasadena, Fairfax and Midland Symphonies; the Rochester, Westchester, Orlando and Great Bay Philharmonics; the Sarasota Orchestra and the Northwest Sinfonietta. With the cessation of live concerts Simone continued to record streamed events with Seattle, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Greater Bridgeport Symphonies. Beginning with the Aspen festival where she is a frequent guest, in July 2021 she resumed a full season of orchestral and recital concerts to include Denver, North Carolina, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Quebec, Sarasota, Bakersfield, Princeton and Monterey Symphonies and recitals including Boston where the program includes the world premiere of a commission from composer Reena Esmail.

Internationally, Simone has performed with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel; the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro; the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica; the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong; the Royal Northern Sinfonia; the Milton Keynes City Orchestra in the United Kingdom; and the Opera de Marseilles.

Simone made her Carnegie Zankel Hall debut on the Emmy Award-winning TV show From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall followed in November 2016 by her debut in Stern Auditorium. In June 2016, her featured performance of music from Schindler’s List with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and members of the American Youth Symphony was broadcast nationally on the TNT Network as part of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to John Williams.

Rohan De Silva's partnerships with violin virtuosos Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Joshua Bell, Benny Kim, Kyoko Takezawa, Vadim Repin, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Julian Rachlin, James Ehnes and Rodney Friend have led to highly acclaimed performances at recital venues all over the world.

Alongside Mr. Perlman, Mr. De Silva has performed multiple times at the White House, most recently in 2012 at the invitation of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama for Israeli President and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Shimon Peres; and at a State Dinner in 2007, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush for Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

Mr. De Silva began his piano studies with his mother, Primrose De Silva, and with Mary Billimoria. He spent six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and received many awards including the Grover Bennett Scholarship, the Christian Carpenter Prize, the Martin Music Scholarship, the Harold Craxton Award, and the Chappell Gold Medal for best overall performance. Mr. De Silva was the first recipient of a special scholarship in the arts from the President's Fund of Sri Lanka. This enabled him to enter the Juilliard School, studying with Martin Canin, Felix Galimir, and violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. He was awarded Best Accompanist at the Ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award presented to him by Itzhak Perlman at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. De Silva has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Universal, CBS/SONY Classical, Collins Classics in London, RCA Victor and Chandos.


2022/23 TISCH Music Season
In this first season curated by 92NY’s new Vice President of Tisch Music Amy Lam, the season features 39 events, more than 20 92NY debuts, 31 premieres, and four 92NY commissions. The 22/23 season includes premieres of Joseph Schwantner’s guitar quintet Song of a Dreaming Sparrow, a song cycle by Anthony Cheung, and works by Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Marcos Balter, Christopher Cerrone, Nicholas DiBerardino, Reena Esmail, inti figgis-vizueta, John Glover, Ted Hearne, Fred Hersch, Stephen Hough, Jimmy López, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Angélica Negrón, Mary Prescott, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Darian Donovan Thomas, Scott Wollschleger, Pamela Z, and more.

Select Highlights:

This season marks the first time 92NY is presenting a fully integrated concert season across genres, including performances by Kate Baldwin, Joshua Bell, Regina Carter, Angela Hewitt, Larisa Martinez, Branford Marsalis, Kelli O’Hara, Eric Owens, Pepe Romero, Caroline Shaw, Sir András Schiff, Daniil Trifonov, and Jessica Vosk. The World Premiere of a 92NY-commissioned piece from composer Jimmy López, performed by J’Nai Bridges and the Catalyst Quartet.

The New York premiere of Difficult Grace by cellist Seth Parker Woods and dancer Roderick George, presented in collaboration with Harkness Dance Center.

An in-depth two-day Julius Eastman retrospective featuring LA-based music collective Wild Up in three concerts, as well as exhibits, and panel discussions with Eastman friends and scholars examining the life of one of the 20th century’s most iconoclastic voices.

The Bach Collegium Japan, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki with baritone Roderick Williams
92NY’s signature series exploring the American songbook, Lyrics and Lyricists, continues to explore the best of Broadway, while also highlighting significant contributions to American culture by singer-songwriters across a variety of musical genres such as Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, the Mamas and the Papas, and more.
Two performances as part of an ongoing partnerships with The Curtis Institute of Music.
Jazz, which has been a staple of 92NY’s Tisch season since Thelonius Monk and Charles Mingus took to the stage in 1955, will be performed by world-class musicians like Branford Marsalis, Fred Hersch, and Regina Carter not just within the renowned Jazz in July series, but throughout the year.