Pianist Kholodenko Scores with Powerful Prokofiev Second Concerto

Sometimes the designation “competition winner” is a scarlet letter, a mark denoting that soulless technical wizardry capable of impressing judges, but Vadym Kholodenko, first prize winner of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, demonstrated probing emotional depth and daring individuality in his stunning account of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto Sunday . . .

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Joshua Bell Cool and Collected at the Balboa

Milwaukee’s recent brazen Stradivarius violin heist—and subsequent recovery—has garnered a good deal of media attention, including a front-page story in the New York Times of Feb. 7, 2014. That same evening, another storied Stradivarius with an equally crime-tinged history made an appearance at downtown San Diego’s Balboa Theatre played by Joshua Bell in his performance with pianist Sam Haywood.

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Perlman Dazzles as Symphony Soloist

Pro basketball hall of famer Bill Walton may have been the tallest man at San Diego’s Jacobs Music Center – Copley Symphony Hall on Saturday night, but he was not the biggest. Instead, it was legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman who was the evening’s star attraction, dazzling concertgoers young and old, short and (very) tall with the first of two masterful weekend performances of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61.

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