Violinist Sarah Vonsattel and pianist Anna Stoyacheva play the stunning Sonata No. 2 of Johannes Brahms plus virtuosic show pieces for their Downtown Music debut.
A Downtown Music debut.
Critically acclaimed pianist and winner of "Ettore Pozzoli" International Piano Competition in Italy, Anna Stoytcheva has performed throughout North America, Europe and Japan and has recorded two solo albums. She has collaborated with many distinguished artists as well as members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and several Young Concert Artists winners. She was a fellow at the New World Symphony and has attended the festivals Marlboro, Music Academy of the West, Banff, Pianofest, Bowdoin and Kneisel Hall. She regularly appears at Classical Tahoe music festival in both chamber and orchestral performances which have been broadcast on PBS Reno. Currently the co-chair of Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York series, she is also a member of the American Chamber Players ensemble and co-founder of Salix Piano Trio with violinist Joanna Maurer and cellist Alberto Parrini. Ms. Stoytcheva holds Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School. Her teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Veda Kaplinsky, Jerome Lowenthal, Julia Ganeva and Lidia Kuteva.
Violinist Sarah Crocker Vonsattel currently resides in New York City where she has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2008. Ms. Vonsattel leads an active life as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Classical Tahoe Orchestra, the Syracuse Orchestra, the Coastal Symphony of Georgia, the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, among others. Recent chamber music performances include appearances at Weill Recital Hall, Manchester Music Festival, Parlance Chamber Concerts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Classical Tahoe, Bargemusic, Prager Center for the Arts, Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, the Bronxville Chamber Music Series, and the New Marlborough House Concerts. As a founding member of the Verklärte Quartet, Ms. Vonsattel was a Grand Prize Winner of the 2003 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, leading to concert tours in the U.S. and Italy with this ensemble. Also a proponent of new music, Sarah has appeared with the iO string quartet, the Talea Ensemble, the League of Composers Orchestra, and Sequitur in New York and can be heard on the Bridge Records label performing the music of Poul Ruders and Tod Machover.
Sarah Vonsattel has appeared as both performer and faculty member at festivals including the Orfeo International Music Festival (Italy), the Wellesley Composers Conference (Massachusetts), and the Musical Friends Academy (Tunisia). She regularly instructs advanced students preparing to take professional orchestra auditions, and she has experience teaching students from beginner level through pre-professional. Prior to joining the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, she held positions in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony.
Ms. Vonsattel studied with David Updegraff at the Cleveland Institute of Music (YAP ’00 and BM ’04), and with Ronald Copes and Naoko Tanaka at the Juilliard School (MM ’04). Sarah lives in Manhattan with her husband, a concert pianist, and their two children.