For my Greensboro friends:

Sitkovetsky and Biegel, Vivaldi and Gershwin
By Monica Robinson
President, Monica Robinson Ltd.
February 1, 2005

World renowned violinist and conductor Dmitri Sitkovetsky and pianist Jeffrey Biegel will pair up for a special chamber music event at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro on February 25th, 2005. Their program is titled 'Sitkovetsky & Friends Chamber Series': Dmitry Sitkovetsky, violin, & Jeffrey Biegel, piano, John Fadial & Steve Harper, violins, Maureen Michels, viola, Marcia Riley, cello, & John Spuller, bass. Program: Dvorák: [4] Romantic Pieces, Op. 75*; & Vivaldi,arr. Biegel: Four Seasons, Op. 8 (for piano solo & strings) Recital Hall, UNCG School of Music, Greensboro. 8:00 p.m. $25. 336/335-5456 or http://www.greensborosymphony.org/

Mr. Biegel will also perform George Gershwin's 'Concerto in F' with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra on February 24th and 26th.

The career of pianist Jeffrey Biegel has been marked by bold, creative achievements and highlighted by a series of firsts.

He performed the first live internet recitals in New York and Amsterdam in 1997 and 1998, enabling him to be seen and heard by a global audience. In 1999, he assembled the largest consortium of orchestras (over 25), to celebrate the millennium with a new concerto composed for him by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The piece, entitled 'Millennium Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra', was premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In 1997, he performed the delete second 'the' World Premiere of the restored, original 1924 manuscript of George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' with the Boston Pops. Charles Strouse composed a new work titled 'Concerto America' for Mr. Biegel, celebrating America and honoring the heroes and events of 9-11. Mr. Biegel premiered the piece with the Boston Pops in 2002. He transcribed the first edition of Balakirev's 'Islamey Fantasy' for piano and orchestra, which he premiered with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2001, and edited and recorded the first complete set of all '25 Preludes' by Cesar Cui. Currently, he is assembling the first global consortium for the new 'Concerto no. 3 for Piano and Orchestra' being composed for him by Lowell Liebermann for 2005-06-07. The World Premiere will take place with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andreas Delfs in May 2006, followed by the European Premiere with the Schleswig Holstein Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Oskamp in the fall of 2006.

Born a second-generation American, Mr. Biegel's roots are of Russian and Austrian heritage. A Russian cousin, pianist Herman Kosoff, emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century, and Mr. Biegel's grandmother's cousin, Dr. Sonia Slatin, a graduate of Columbia University who actively performed and also taught Schenkerian analysis at Brooklyn College, resides in Florida.

American composer Richard Danielpour will compose a new work for Mr. Biegel, tentatively titled, 'Concerto for Piano & Percussion' (5 players and piano). This new composition is slated for premieres in the 2006-07 season with the esteemed Canadian percussion ensemble, Nexus.

Mr. Biegel is currently on the piano faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY).