West Stockbridge — Kids these days are into Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and the hip-hop flavor of the week. Kids at the Juilliard School are into other things, lucky for us. We know this is true, because a group of fresh-faced Juilliard undergraduates billed as the 65th Street Ensemble performed a program at The Foundry on April 20 that showcased not only virtuosic chops but the eclectic taste you expect from up-and-coming Juilliard professionals.
The 65th Street Ensemble comprises cellist Lila Holyoke, violinist Katya Moeller, violist Pearl de la Motte, pianist Ivy Xiaoya Wan, and bassist Joe Weinberg.
Last month, the tango band Cuarteto Rotterdam likely left the Foundry crowd hungry for more Astor Piazzolla, and this made the Piazzolla on Saturday’s program something like a sight for sore eyes. Violinist Katya Moeller and bassist Joe Weinberg played four Piazzolla numbers, Katya pouring the requisite passion into her playing and bassist Joe Weinberg pulling off the most harrowing passages (including a lot of double stops) with hardly a wince.
Judging by the frenzied audience response, it is probably safe to say that nobody in the Foundry crowd was prepared for Nikolai Kapustin’s Toccatina from his “Eight Concert Etudes.” We were blindsided by the sheer intensity of the music, combined with pianist Ivy Xiaoya Wan’s absolutely ferocious virtuosity. They could have ended the show with this.
Alyssa Weinberg’s “…enfumée,” for violin, viola, cello, and bass, is full of unconventional articulations that are good for producing eerie squeaks, groans, and shrieks reminiscent of Krzysztof Penderecki scores. Inspired in part by last summer’s Canadian forest fires and the reddened skies they brought to New York City, Weinberg’s piece is as unsettling as you would expect, given the circumstances of its creation and Weinberg’s commitment to developing the piece organically:
We were in the midst of New York’s first encounter with the hazardous smoke from the Canadian wildfires which was engulfing the city and surrounding regions of the country … In that moment I decided not to write a work that was necessarily in direct response to O’Keeffe’s painting, but rather to allow my connection and inspiration in that moment to refocus the piece as an outlet for my experience with that recent and present change in our environment.
Concert works scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass are relatively uncommon in the Western art music canon. Franz Schubert’s “Trout” is among the most popular, and it is likely to become part of this group’s standard repertoire. Their reading is precise, assured, and vigorous.
Lila Holyoke studies cello at Juilliard with Natasha Brofsky and Clara Kim. Her group Trilogy was a semifinalist at the 2019 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, having performed at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Rose Studio at Chamber Music Society, The National Arts Club, and on radio station WNYC.
Katya Moeller studies violin at Juilliard with Massao Kawasaki. She recently took First Prize in the World Bach Competition, First World Violin E-Competition, Grand Prize in the ENKOR International Violin Competition, and Second Prize in the Togliatti International Violin Competition. She has performed as a member of the Aviata Duo in Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, and the U.S.
Pearl de la Mott comes from a large musical family and started playing violin at two, switching to viola when she was 10. She studies viola at Juilliard with Hsin-Yun Huang. She was the first-place winner of the 2019 LJSC Young Artist competition, 2019 HB Goodlin Competition, and the 2021 American Viola Society National Competition, Senior Division.
Ivy Xiaoya Wan studies piano at Juilliard with Hung-Kuan Chen and Julian Martin. She won first prize in the Imola and Shanghai Weibo International Piano Competitions and took prizes at competitions in Spain, Germany, and Asia. She has given recital performances at such venues as the National Gallery of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; New York Steinway Hall; Minnesota Orchestra Hall; and concert halls in Bolzano, Beijing, and St. Petersburg.
Bassist Joe Weinberg is a student of Joseph Conyers at the Juilliard School. In 2021 and 2022, he participated in Boston University Tanglewood Institute’s Double Bass Workshop and Young Artist Instrumental Program. In 2022, he took first place in the Uel Wade competition and received the Daniel Pearl scholarship.
April 20 marked the 65th Street Ensemble’s second performance at The Foundry, and there is every reason to expect they will be back.
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