Program:

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Sinfonia for Cello and Basso Continuo
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Number 4 in C Major Opus 102
Zoltán Kodály: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Opus 4
Claude Debussy: Sonata for Cello and Piano

With Andrei Licareţ, piano

Admisson is free; we suggest a $10 donation

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Cellist Sara Gabalawi was born on August 3, 1991 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began her cello studies at the age of nine. Sara is currently studying at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where she is the recipient of the Beatrice Feldman Kahn and Raymond S. Kahn Scholarship in Cello. She studies with David Hardy, Principal Cellist of The National Symphony.

Sara is currently in her third year at the Peabody Conservatory. She is one of the Principal Cellists in the Peabody Concert Orchestra. At Peabody Sara has played in many chamber ensembles including a trio, quartet, and quintet. She also plays in the Conductor's Orchestra, in various composition and conducting recitals and also takes viola da gamba lessons.

Before coming to Peabody Conservatory, Sara studied cello with Lorne Munroe, former Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic, as well as Ohad Bar-David and Derek Barnes, cellists in the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has performed in masterclasses for Julius Berger, the Emerson Quartet, Umberto Clerici, László Fenyö, Shmuel Magen, the Brentano Quartet, Christopher Rex, Peter Stumpf, Timothy Eddy, Alexander Rudin, Udi Bar-David, Kimberly Fisher, and the Orion Quartet.

In the summers, Sara has participated in the Mozarteum - Internationale Sommerakademie in Salzburg, Austria; Aurora Chamber Music Festival in Trollhättan, Sweden; the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria; Festival de la Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de las Américas in San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine; Music in the Mountains in Pennsylvania; the Kimmel Center Chamber Music Program in Philadelphia; the Strings International Music Festival in Pennsylvania; the Robert McDuffie Labor Day Festival for Strings at Mercer University in Georgia; and the ARIA International Summer Academy in Massachusetts.

Sara's orchestral experience includes Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia Sinfonia, cellist in the chamber orchestra at the Settlement Music School, cellist and Principal Cellist in various summer festivals in America, Europe and Puerto Rico and at the Peabody Conservatory.

With her quartets, the Newman Advanced Study Scholarship Quartet and the Ambrosia Quartet, Sara performed in many venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C., and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. She has studied chamber music with Michael Kannen, Alison Wells, Sidney Curtiss, and Luis Biava.

As the winner of the Philadelphia Sinfonia 2006-2007 Concerto Competition, Sara was the soloist with the orchestra twice in Philadelphia and also on the 2007 tour to the Czech Republic and Poland (Boccherini Concerto in B-flat Major). She is also the winner of concerto competitions at the Festival de la Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil de las Americas (Shostakovich Concerto Number 1), and at the Strings International Music Festival (Saint-Saëns Concerto Number 1).

Sara has performed recitals in Schloß Höch and at the Mozarteum both in Salzburg, Austria, and also in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Baltimore, Maryland. This summer, Sara will travel to Europe to participate in masterclasses and play concerts.

Sara plays a French cello made by Victor Joseph Charotte in 1880.

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Andrei Licareţ
Since his debut in 1993 with the Jeunesses Musicales Orchestra, Andrei Licareţ, has mastered a rich repertoire which he has played in numerous recitals and also in concerts with orchestra, collaborating with conductors such as Cristian Mandeal, Horia Andreescu, Jin Wang, Arnold Ostman, Arie Vardi, Ilarion Ionescu-Galati, and Florentin Mihaescu. His pianistic artistry has been praised by the critics from important music centers around the world.

Andrei Licareţ started to learn the piano at an early age with his father Nicolae Licaret. Through the years, his teachers have included Gabriela Enasescu at the George Enescu Music High School, and Viniciu Moroianu, Dana Borsan and Dan Dediu (with whom he studied composition) all at the National University of Music Bucharest. He has also studied with Jacques Rouvier at the Paris Conservatory. In addition, he participated frequently in Dimitri Bashkirov's masterclasses at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He has given concerts throughout Europe in cities such as Paris, Enghien, Vendome, Santander, Alicante, Berlin, Wurzburg, Rome, Thessaloniki, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Prague, St.Gallen, Tel-Aviv, Warsaw, and Brussels. Andrei has also performed frequently in the United States in venues in New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Houston, Pella, New Jersey,and Northhampton.

Andrei has won prizes in several competitions, among them Jeuness Musicales 1st Prize (1996), Bucharest Yamaha 1st Prize (2002), Lory Wallfish Prize (2003), 2nd Prize in Tel-Hai Competition (2007) and 2nd Prize in Shreveport Concerto Competition (2008). Andrei Licareţ has also participated in summer festivals such as the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. He is a member of the “Henri Coanda” Foundation and has recorded for the radio and television. Andrei is currently studying in the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Leon Fleisher.