Symphony to introduce interim concertmaster at parks concert

Aug 24, 2006

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 326-3136

SPOKANE - Symphony Music Director Eckart Preu announced today that William Harvey will join the Spokane Symphony as interim concertmaster. He will give his first performance at the Annual Parks Concerts on Sept. 2 and 4, and return on October 20 for the Brahms Requiem.

We will be auditioning other candidates, along with Harvey, as we make the decision about this very important leadership position in our orchestra. Harvey is an exciting and highly qualified musician, who has a rich musical background, said Preu.

Harvey recently earned his Master's degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Ronald Copes. Upon his graduation in May 2006, the school presented him with the William Schuman Prize, its highest honor. As the winner of Juilliard's 2006 concerto competition, he gave the New York premiere of Behzad Ranjbaran's Violin Concerto in Alice Tully Hall, with the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Gerard Schwarz. Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker, hailed that performance as "intense and persuasive."

During his last semester at Juilliard, he served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra for the commencement concert conducted by Maestro James DePreist. Harvey has performed solo with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the New World Youth Symphony Orchestra in Basel, Switzerland.

Daisuke Yamamoto, who recently received his master's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and who has served as concertmaster for the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, will fill the position for a Sept. 9 concert in Chewelah and for the opening night performance of the Classics season on Sept. 15. He studied with William Preucil. He has played with the Canton Symphony, in the Sarasota Music Festival, with the Music Academy of the West and with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra in a live broadcast performance in Severance Hall.

Mateusz Wolski will play the opening night SuperPops concert on Sept. 30 and the Brahms Blast Classics concert on Oct. 6. He currently serves as concertmaster of the Annapolis Symphony. A student of Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of New York Philharmonic, Wolski received a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music from 1996-2002, where he was the winner of two MSM Concerto Competitions. He has appeared as soloist with the MSM Chamber Sinfonia and Symphony and performed the Brahms' Double Concerto with Juneau Symphony in 2003. He toured with the BSO on their October 2005 European Tour. With over 100 performances in New York and abroad, Wolski has appeared at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, Salzburg's Mozarteum, among others.