Guest Recital and Masterclass Featuring Lawernece Stomberg and Mark Livshits
Masterclass on March 28th at 12:00 PM
Cello Recital on March 29th at 7:30 PM
Lawrence Stomberg, Cello
Cellist Lawrence Stomberg enjoys a varied career of performance as soloist and chamber musician, pedagogue, and in community outreach through music. Hailed for "style and elegance" and “drama and rhetoric” (Strings Magazine), and “lyrical yet impassioned interpretation” (Fanfare Magazine), he has been a featured performer at the Serafin Summer Music and Master Players Festival, and performs annually at the Techne Music Festival. Currently a member of the Philadelphia-based mixed ensemble, The Halcyon Consort, he served thirteen years as the cellist of the acclaimed Serafin String Quartet, having toured around the United States. Stomberg is invested in presenting the music of the old masters, including recent performances of the cycle of the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello of J.S. Bach and the complete Cello and Piano works of Beethoven, as well as bringing new works and compositional voices to life, with recent and upcoming premiers and commissions of solo, sonata, chamber, and concerto works by composers Kirk O’Riordan, David Osbon, Richard Prior, Mazz Swift, Alisa Rose, and Ketty Nez. Concerts have taken him across four continents, with recent solo and chamber music performances in the cities of London, Vienna, Bogotá, as well as across the United States. He has recorded for the Centaur, Naxos, Albany, Ravello, and VAI labels.
As a recipient of the 2018 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Artist Fellowship, Stomberg turned much his performance activity to musical outreach and community engagement through his project, Bach in Wilmington, which paired the six Suites for Solo Cello of J.S. Bach with recorded interviews of residents of Wilmington, Delaware (his current home), and commissioned works responding both to Bach and Wilmington, by violinists and crossover artists Mazz Swift and Alisa Rose. This work continues, with continuing performance and teaching artist appearances in community centers, churches, food pantries, and re-entry programs around the city, and an upcoming online video series.
Stomberg is a busy and dedicated pedagogue, having served on the faculties at Truman State University in Missouri and Oklahoma State University before joining the music faculty at the University of Delaware School of Music in 2004, where he is currently Professor of Cello and Associate Director for Performance Studies. He is a frequent guest at schools across the United States and abroad giving cello and chamber music masterclasses, and finds the work of teaching a vital companion to that of performing.
Lawrence Stomberg lives in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife, cellist and pedagogue Jennifer Crowell Stomberg. They have three adult children, as well as an animal menagerie of three cats, a dog, and a turtle.
Mark Livshits, Piano
Grammy Award nominated pianist Mark Livshits is one of the most highly sought after soloists and chamber musicians in Philadelphia. He appears frequently in concert with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as with the orchestra as a substitute in the keyboard section.
In addition to performances at the Salzburg Festival, solo recitals at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and Bilbao Philharmonic Society, Dr. Livshits has also worked closely with musicians such as Yannick Nezet Seguin, Stephane Denève, Michael Tilson Thomas, Nikolaj Znaider, Leonidas Kovakos, Lynn Harrell, Christoph Eschenbach, Alisa Weilerstein, Measha Brueggergosman, Dave Brubeck and Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, YeEun Choi under the auspices of IMG Artists and the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.
In 2015, he was called to replace Yannick Nezet Seguin in a chamber music performance of Shostakovich’s Quintet for Piano and Strings with members from the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has been invited to perform in chamber programs with members of the orchestra since then. He is often called to play orchestral piano in the orchestra as well. Dr. Livshits has received invitations to perform for dignitaries such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Joe Biden.
He currently serves on the faculty of the McDuffie Center for Strings in Macon, Georgia as a Faculty Accompanist, and is a Staff Pianist at the University of Delaware. He also serves on the faculty at the Philadelphia International Music Festival. Dr. Livshits recently joined the Piano Faculty of Franklin and Marshall College.
Mark Livshits is a Steinway Artist.
