Haroutune Bedelian (violin)

Since winning the First Prize at age twenty in the prestigious BBC Violin Competition, Haroutune Bedelian has performed, broadcasted and televised in major cities and concert halls around the world. He is also invited regularly to participate in international music festivals.

 Quotes from reviews of performances in major newspapers: "Alert, subtle artist as well as a superb instrumentalist," New York Times; "The result was a powerful music making, virtuosity going hand in hand with unswerving loyalty to the composer," The Strad Magazine ; "Mr. Bedelian has an unforced silvery tone and showed his musicianship in his immaculate phrasing". London Daily Telegraph ;  "Virtuosity comes to him as second nature, but it is used as a means  to the interpretive freedom and sense of style that characterizes his playing above all else," The London Times ; "Refined and sensitive musician. Controlled, clean and effortless playing making light of the most formidable difficulties," The London Guardian; "Technical and musical resources of virtuoso class," The Los Angeles Times. Before his appointment at the University of California, Irvine, he was professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music, London, England.

In 2007, Haroutune Bedelian issued on DVD the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J.S. Bach. That was the first time these works appeared in their entirety on DVD.

Lorna Griffitt (piano)

Lorna Griffitt, D.M., began her performing career at 16 as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra under the direction of Robert Whitney, in a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor. Her teachers include Doris Owen (Bickel), Tong Il Han, Gyorgy Sebok and Maria Curcio. She received her doctorate with distinction in piano performance from Indiana University under the tutelage of Menahem Pressler. Dr. Griffitt enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue in the US and in South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Lorna Griffitt began her teaching career in 1974 at DePauw University and joined the music faculty at the University of California, Irvine in 1993. During the summers, Dr. Griffitt is invited as guest artist to the Schlern International Music Festival in Voels am Schlern, Italy and to the International Cello Encounter in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she teaches, gives master classes and performs in concerto and chamber concerts with various international artists. With Haroutune Bedelian, she recently recorded The Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin by J. S. Bach with the Robert Schumann piano accompaniment to be released by Centaur Records later in 2008.

Programme:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sonata for violin and keyboard No. 1 in B Minor for violin and piano,
BWV 1014 (1720)