Program Notes: January 24 & 25

"Winter Romance" is the theme of this concert, to be performed Saturday, January 24 at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington and again on Sunday, January 25 at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland. Sarah Hicks will lead soloists Jaime Laredo, violin, and Sharon Robinson, cello, with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra in pieces by Jorge Martín, our own composer-in-residence David Ludwig (pictured, with Sarah Hicks), and Sergei Prokofiev. Read on for program notes....

Jorge Martín
Romance for Orchestra

In 1999, the VSO commissioned me to write a short piece of music for the “Made in Vermont Music Festival” fall statewide tour. The performing ensemble was a "Mozart orchestra;” that is to say, a few winds, a bunch of strings, no brass or percussion. But I set out to make the ensemble sound not like a "Mozart orchestra"--lush rather than lean. So when the VSO decided to program the work in the Masterworks season and asked me if I could expand the orchestration, it was not a big stretch to do so (to unleash its inner lushness, as it were), and I agreed. Although I was told I had the resources of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet orchestra, I only added a few more winds, horns, brass, and harp, but no percussion. I added a few measures to the middle section to give the brass a moment to make themselves felt.

To Mozart “Romanze” meant a lyrical slow movement with a stormy middle part. In my piece the storm passes quickly, like a spasm of anger or regret. The work is a meditation on a short melodic motif that floats throughout in many guises, mostly beatific and sweet. The title “Romance” suggests a story, but I did not have a specific one in mind as I wrote. I encourage the listener to hear a story made up as the music unfolds!

-- Jorge Martín

Jorge Martín (born in Cuba, 1959) has received numerous awards and commissions. Concert Artists Guild, Close Encounters With Music, Cantori New York and the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble are among those who have commissioned works; he won the 2003 Vermont Music Teachers commission award. In 2001 he was one of the featured composers in New York City Opera's "Vox: Showcasing American Composers." In 1999 he received a generous Cintas Fellowship for creative artists of Cuban descent, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Academy Award in Music in 1998, which included a stipend and a recording grant. In 2005 Mr. Martín was awarded a fellowship by the Bogliasco Foundation for a month-long residency at a villa near Genoa on Italy's Ligurian coast. Mr. Martín was awarded an artist's residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs in 1993 and again in 2003.

Mr. Martín has recently composed a full-scale opera, Before Night Falls, based on the memoir by Reinaldo Arenas, presently in development. His prize-winning one-act opera Tobermory has been performed in Eugene, New Orleans, Kansas City and at the Lake George Opera Festival. Beast and Superbeast, a set of four one-act operas, based on Saki short stories with libretti by Andrew Joffe, was presented in 1996 in both Washington D.C. (Bethesda) and New York City to critical acclaim. His chamber music has been performed around the US and Europe. His piano music is available on CD, "Steps" (on the Albany label) performed by Jeanne Golan.

In the spring of 2000, baritone Sanford Sylvan toured the premiere of The Glass Hammer, an hour-long song cycle on poems by Andrew Hudgins, with pianist David Breitman; Carnegie Hall presented them in May of 2000 at Weill Recital Hall in a performance of that work. The duo has recorded the cycle and is available on the Koch International Classics label. The work was performed last year in Brooklyn and Chapel Hill by Jonathan Hays and Craig Ketter.

This season Cantori New York will be presenting the world premiere of "Fatso," a large cantata for soprano, chorus and ensemble, commissioned by the group. The Vermont Philharmonic has also commissioned a new work from Mr. Martín to celebrate their 50th anniversary this season. For more, please visit www.jorgemartin.com.


David Ludwig
Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra

My Double Concerto is about three kinds of love: Eros, Agape, and Philia, as told in three ancient stories. The music of the first movement is based on a tale from Homer’s Odyssey, imagining the last night Odysseus and Calypso spend together before he leaves her after ten years of living on a desert island with each other. The music is sensual and rhythmic, and the solo instruments play together in almost every measure. The second movement is based on the medieval story of Tristan and Iseult, dwelling in forbidden courtly love as the two characters are not permitted to be together in love until they finally meet in death. The soloists play separately in this slow music until the very end of the movement. The third and last movement is about love of brotherhood and mankind as it embodies the story of the life of Buddha. The music becomes bright and celebratory, with ringing bells and chimes returning in its dancing rondo form.
-- David Ludwig

The Philadelphia Inquirer has called David Ludwig’s music “entrancing,” noted that it “promises to speak for the sorrows of this generation,” and the New York Times has praised it for its “expressive directness.” His works (many commissioned by prestigious artists and ensembles) have been widely performed in the U.S. and abroad.

Born in Bucks County, P.A., Ludwig received a B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory with Richard Hoffmann and his M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music. He continued post-graduate work at The Curtis Institute of Music with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon and Ned Rorem, and at the Juilliard School where he studied with John Corigliano. He is now in the PhD degree program at UPenn as the George Crumb Fellow in Music. Ludwig joined the musical studies faculty of The Curtis Institute in 2002 and the composition department in 2005. He is the artistic director of the Curtis 20/21 New Music Ensemble

Recipient of the First Music Award, an Independence Foundation Fellowship, a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, The Stott Award, The Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings competition award, and the Fleischer Orchestra Award, he has been twice nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Stoeger Award. Ludwig has further been awarded a Meet the Composer Music Alive! residency grant, an American Composers Forum Community Partners and Subito grant and a Composers Assistance Program award from the American Music Center.

Ludwig was the Young Composer in residence at the Marlboro Music School for three consecutive years. In addition to Marlboro, he has been in residence at the Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies. He is currently a resident artist at the Gardner Art Museum in Boston and is the resident composer and permanent New Music Advisor of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. This summer, he continued festival residencies as a composer-in-residence at the acclaimed Newburyport Chamber Music Festival. Ludwig is also the composer-in-residence at the New York Summer Music Festival where he is the director and instructor of the NYSMF Young Composers Workshop.


Sergei Prokofiev
Romeo & Juliet Suite

The idea for Romeo and Juliet was first suggested to Prokofiev by the Kirov Theater in Leningrad, which was eager to stage a new ballet by the composer. The project fell through and was then taken up by the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Although it was the longest ballet he had ever written, it took Prokofiev only four months to compose, and at the end of the summer of 1935, he presented the piano score to the theater directorate. It was rejected as unsuitable for the dance.

Adopting the well-used fallback ploy of many frustrated composers whose work encounters difficulty of an extra-musical nature (petulant choreographers, producers, patrons, and the like), Prokofiev developed from his score two orchestral suites and ten piano pieces which were performed in Russia in 1936 and 1937. The ballet itself continued to be, in his words, “rather unlucky.”

Part of the problem lay in Prokofiev’s insistence on a happy ending, with Juliet being found alive in the tomb by Romeo. This, he said, was purely choreographic: “living people can dance, the dying cannot.” He was convinced to alter his stance by a remark made to him which pointed out that even his own music expressed no real joy at the end, and by choreographers who assured him that a tragic ending could be expressed in the dance.

The ballet made its debut in the Brno Opera of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and was performed two years later at the Kirov Theater and in 1946 by the Bolshoi. For the ballet performances, certain changes were made in the score in terms of heavier orchestration and some additional music.

The complete ballet is rarely heard in concert form due to its length, but the suites from the original score (and a third suite dating from 1946) are often performed. As Prokofiev explains his suites in his autobiography, “Some numbers were taken directly from the ballet without alteration; others incorporated diverse other material.”

Suite 2, No. 1 The Montagues and the Capulets: The Duke forbids further fights between the warming families; the Capulet knights perform a heavy-footed dance; Juliet participates in a coldly formal dance with Paris, the fiancé chosen for her by her family.

Suite 2, No. 2 The Young Girl Juliet: Juliet laughingly resists the Nurse’s efforts to get her dressed for the ball; her mother tells her of the plan to marry her to Paris.

Suite 1, No. 1 Folk Dance: In the full ballet, this dance opens the second act, and is followed by public merrymaking. The dance is marked by slapping tambourines and jaunty brass solos.

Suite 2, No. 5 Romeo and Juliet Before Parting: The lovers bid farewell after their first and last night together.

Suite 1, No. 7 The Death of Tybalt: Tybalt fatally wounds Mercutio in a duel; Romeo duels with Tybalt, killing him; Tybalt’s funeral procession.

Suite 2, No. 7 Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb: Juliet’s funeral procession; a grieving Romeo arrives and poisons himself.

Suite 3, No. 6 The Death of Juliet: A sleeping Juliet awakens to find her lover dying, and joins him in death.

--Hilary Hatch


Sarah Hicks, conductor

Noted in the New York Times as part of “a new wave of female conductors in their late 20’s through early 40’s”, Sarah Hatsuko Hicks‘s versatile and vibrant musicianship has secured her place in “the next generation of up-and-coming American conductors.” She joined the Minnesota Orchestra as Assistant Conductor beginning in the 2006-2007 season, where she is lead conductor of the new “Inside the Classics” series, and concurrently holds the position of Staff Conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music. She completed a two-year tenure as Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in June of 2007. A cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra since 2003, she has guest conducted on their Family Concerts, Millenium Stage and summer series. She has collaborated with numerous soloists, including Nigel Kennedy and Hilary Hahn; in addition, she has acted as assistant conductor to such luminaries as James Levine, Sir Neville Marriner, Zubin Mehta and Yuri Temirkanov.

Ms. Hicks’s past positions include Resident Conductor of the Florida Philharmonic, Assistant Conductor of the Reading Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Singers, the chorus of the Philadelphia Orchestra, whom she has led in radio broadcasts heard nationwide. She has also been Music Director of the Hawaii Symphony, an ensemble she founded in 1991 in her hometown of Honolulu, which she led for five seasons. Ms. Hicks has guest conducted extensively both in the States and abroad, including the Milwaukee Symphony, Detroit Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Silesian State Philharmonic and the Charleston Symphony. In November 2007, she made her South Korean debut with the Prime Philharmonic, conducting the premier of Solbong Kim’s “War Requiem”, which was also recorded by EMI Korea and broadcast live on Korean television.

Ms. Hicks was invited to Japan by the New National Theatre Tokyo, where she acted as assistant conductor to a production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflote and has performed Verdi’s Aida with the East Slovak State Opera Theater. Her extensive work with the Curtis Opera Studio include performances of Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmelites and numerous vocal concerts; she led the Opera Studio in a production of Handel’s Alcina in April 2005.

A committed proponent of the performance of new music, Ms. Hicks regularly leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in readings, recordings and performances of contemporary works. In addition to premiering works by young composers from both the Curtis Institute and the University of Pennsylvania (as coordinator and conductor of the Penn Composers Project), she has collaborated with Ned Rorem, Richard Danielpour and Jennifer Higdon. She has also conducted performances with Composers in the Shape of a Pear (Cleveland), premiering avant-garde works, and has been a guest conductor of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Her most recent collaborations include the premiere and recording of John Hedge’s chamber opera, “The Invitation.”

In Ms. Hicks was a member of the Faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music from 2000-2005 and continues her affiliation with Curtis as Staff Conductor. She has prepared the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute for readings and concerts with leading conductors including Wolfgang Sawallisch and Sir Simon Rattle. Her work with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra led to a one-season appointment as assistant conductor to the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, an ensemble that she trained intensively for Music Director James Levine.

Sarah Hatsuko Hicks was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in Honolulu, HI. Trained on both the piano and viola, she was a prizewinning pianist by her early teens. She received her BA magna cum laude from Harvard University as a composition major; her AIDS Oratorio was premiered at Harvard University in May of 1993 and received a second performance at the Fogg Art Museum. She holds an Artists’ Degree in conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with renowned pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller. Ms. Hicks’s talents have been recognized with numerous prizes and scholarships; she received the Thomas Hoopes Prize for composition and Doris Cohen Levy Prize for conducting from Harvard University, and she was the recipient of the Helen F. Whitaker Fund Scholarship and a Presser Award during her time at Curtis.

In her spare time, Ms. Hicks enjoys running, yoga, her two large dogs and singing in garage bands.

In the January 11 Reno Gazette-Journal, Forrest Hartman writes, "The Reno Philharmonic continues its conductor search today when Sarah Hatsuko Hicks leads the orchestra through the first of two concerts featuring guest pianist Frederick Moyer. Hicks -- one of five finalists competing for the philharmonic's open music director job -- is assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra and staff conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music. She is also a self-confessed 'pop culture maven.' Says Hicks, 'I think I have a greater willingness to delve into other things and to look at what we do differently. I work with a lot of pop artists. I have a relationship with Ben Folds, who's a big rocker. I do a lot of shows in that realm as well, which I find is important. I also bring that to the classical stuff I do. When I was at the Richmond Symphony, we did a series called 'Kick Back Classics,' which were concerts in a club, and the audience members brought me shots of Wild Turkey between pieces. It was a really different way of looking at how you can present classical music.'"


Jaime Laredo, violin

“…music-making of unusually high quality – the sort of playing which comes only from understanding, love, painstaking care, and, quite simply, great ability.”

- The Guardian, London

Approaching his 50th year before audiences across the globe, Jaime Laredo has excelled in the multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist and chamber musician. Since his stunning orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the San Francisco Symphony, he has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics and fellow musicians with his passionate and polished performances. That debut inspired one critic to write: 'In the 1920's it was Yehudi Menuhin; in the 1930's it was Isaac Stern; and last night it was Jaime Laredo.' His education and development were greatly influenced by private coaching with eminent masters Josef Gingold, Pablo Casals, Ivan Galamian and George Szell. At the age of seventeen, Jaime Laredo won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, launching his rise to international prominence.

The upcoming season (2008-09) will include several conducting engagements, including appearances Fort Wayne Philharmonic, where he is the Artistic Advisor, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, in addition to his Music Directorship with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Laredo will continue to collaborate with his wife Sharon Robinson in several Duo performances, as part of an ambitious project to premiere and record newly commissioned double concerti across the U.S. The Duo will open their season in with Miklos Rozsa’s Sinfonia Concertante, with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, and the world premiere of David Ludwig’s Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra will be performed with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra under the baton of guest conductor Sarah Hicks. As a special celebration of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s 70th birthday, Ms. Robinson and Mr. Laredo will perform her Double Concerto, which was written especially for the Duo, with the Detroit Symphony under the baton of Hans Graf. They will also be performing The Muse and the Poet by Saint-Saens.

During the past season, Mr. Laredo conducted the Seattle Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Alabama Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. As the violinist of the Laredo-Robinson Duo with cellist Sharon Robinson, he appeared with Nashville Symphony, Delaware Symphony, and Sacramento Philharmonic in the world premiere of Daron Hagen’s Double Concerto; as a chamber musician, he presented multiple chamber music concerts at the 92nd Street Y in New York where he’s also the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Series, including a special Beethoven Trio marathon with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Other chamber music engagements throughout the season included concerts in Massachusetts, Arizona, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center), Detroit, Miami, Indianapolis, Albuquerque, and back to 92nd Street Y for the New York premiere of Richard Danielpour’s piano quartet Book of Hours – a special commission for the Trio’s 30th anniversary two years ago.

The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio celebrated its 30th anniversary with major concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the 92nd Street Y in New York, and was also heard in Boston, Philadelphia, Fort Worth, Tucson, La Jolla, El Paso, and Lisbon, Hamburg, Copenhagen in Europe and Calgary, Canada. They commissioned the stellar American composer Richard Danielpour for a new Piano Quartet, performed in 10 cities nationwide in 2006-’07 and 2007-’08. On the recording front, KOCH International Classics released the Trio’s new recording of Arensky & Tchaikovsky trios, as well as re-releases from their vast existing discography. Their most recent project includes a complete 4-Disc Brahms Cycle of the complete trios, scheduled to be released in the fall of 2008.

As a highly sought after conductor and solo violinist, Mr. Laredo appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia Festival in August 2006, followed throughout the season by engagements with the Seattle Symphony, the Vermont Symphony where he’s the Music Director, the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall and the 92nd Street Y. He also appeared in recitals with legendary pianist Leon Fleisher at UCLA Royce Hall and New York’s Zankel Hall, among other venues.

In 2005 Mr. Laredo accepted a chaired position at the Indiana University School of Music. During the same year, Mr. Laredo balanced solo and conducting dates with the intense chamber music schedule of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Winner of Musical America's Ensemble of the Year 2002.

With his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson, who also joined the faculty of Indiana University School of Music, Jaime Laredo performs and records extensively. Highlights of the celebrated Duo’s past seasons have included the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall of In the Arms of the Beloved, Richard Danielpour's 2002 Concerto for Violin and Cello written for the Duo to celebrate 25 years of marriage. The April 2005 performance in New York as well as a subsequent performance in Philadelphia were led by Michael Stern, who conducted the world premiere and the recently released recording. To commemorate the Duo’s 30th anniversary, Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson commissioned a new work from composer Andy Stein as well as a new double concerto from Richard Danielpour. In addition, Naxos released the Double Concerto by Ned Rorem, also written for Laredo-Robinson, with the Iris Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Michael Stern.

Mr. Laredo is in demand worldwide as a conductor and a soloist. He has been Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1999 and is also the Artistic Director of the Brandenburg Ensemble. The 2005-06 season saw him leading the Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, New York String Orchestra and Virginia Symphony, as well as soloing with the St. Louis Symphony in October 2005.

Mr. Laredo has recorded close to one hundred discs. He has received the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize and has been awarded seven Grammy nominations. He won the Grammy Award for a disc of Brahms Piano Quartets which he performed with his close colleagues and frequent chamber music collaborators, renowned pianist Emanuel Ax, celebrated violinist Isaac Stern, and distinguished cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

As Artistic Director of New York's renowned Chamber Music at the Y series, Mr. Laredo has created an important forum for chamber music performances which has developed a devoted following. His stewardships of the annual New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis have become beloved educational pillars of the string community. A principal figure at the Marlboro Music Festival in years past and more recently with the Aspen Music Festival, he has also been involved at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as the festivals in Italy, Spain, Finland, Greece, Israel, Austria, Switzerland and England.

Born in Bolivia, Jaime Laredo resides in Vermont and Indiana with his wife Sharon Robinson.


Sharon Robinson, cello

“Sharon Robinson was the cello soloist,and her performance was simply masterful.”
- Washington Post

Winner of the Avery Fisher Recital Award, the Piatigorsky Memorial Award, the Pro Musicis Award, and a Grammy nominee, cellist Sharon Robinson is recognized worldwide as a dynamic artist and one of the most outstanding musicians of our time. Whether as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, or a member of the renowned Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, critics, audiences and fellow musicians worldwide respond to what the New York Times called “an artistic personality that vitalizes everything she plays.” Her guest appearances with orchestra include the National Symphony, the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco Symphonies, and in Europe, the London Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Zürich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, and the English, Scottish and Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestras.

Appointed to the renowned cello faculty of Indiana University School of Music in 2005, Ms. Robinson divides her time between teaching, solo engagements, performing with her husband, violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo, and touring with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Throughout the 2008-‘09 season, Ms. Robinson will continue to collaborate with her husband Jaime Laredo in several Duo performances, as part of an ambitious project to premiere and record newly commissioned double concerti across the U.S. The Duo will open their season with Miklos Rozsa’s Sinfonia Concertante, with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. The world premiere of David Ludwig’s Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra will be performed with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra under the baton of guest conductor Sarah Hicks. As a special celebration of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s 70th birthday, Ms. Robinson and Mr. Laredo will perform the Double Concerto, which was written especially for the Duo, with the Detroit Symphony under the baton of Hans Graf. They will also be performing The Muse and the Poet by Saint-Saens. Additionally, Ms. Robinson will be featured this season in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mr. Laredo conducting.

During the 2007-‘08 season Sharon Robinson and violinist Jaime Laredo performed the world premiere of Daron Aric Hagen’s double concerto Masquerade with the Sacramento Philharmonic. The Duo also presented a recital in New York City featuring Suite for Two by Andy Stein, a work written for their 30th anniversary, while the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio played the New York premiere of Richard Danielpour’s piano quartet Book of Hours at the 92nd Street Y– a special commission for the Trio’s 30th anniversary, which was celebrated during the 2006-‘07 season.

Past seasons have included performances commemorating Ms. Robinson’s and Mr. Laredo’s 30th wedding anniversary, including a newly commissioned work from composer Andy Stein as well as a new double concerto from Richard Danielpour. In addition, Naxos released the Double Concerto by Ned Rorem, also written for Laredo-Robinson, with the Iris Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Michael Stern. The husband-wife team also appeared with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the Nashville Symphone, the Austin Symphony, as well as at Carnegie Hall and the Mostly Mozart Festival. 2001 marked the beginning of the tenure of Sharon Robinson and Jaime Laredo as co-artistic directors of the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle, the beloved annual summer series at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Ms. Robinson's television appearances have included The Tonight Show, The Today Show, The Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, and a profile on CBS Sunday Morning and the Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on NPR. Equally impressive are her festival engagements, which have included Spoleto, Mostly Mozart, Aspen, London's South Bank, Madeira, Granada, Edinburgh and Prague's Autumn Festival where she performed the Dvorák Cello Concerto at the famous Dvorák Hall.

Born into a musical family (her father was a bass player, her mother a violinist and all her siblings are string players), Ms. Robinson gave her first concert when she was seven and has since received numerous honors and awards. As winner of the Avery Fisher Recital Award, Ms. Robinson appeared on Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, giving the premiere of Ned Rorem's After Reading Shakespeare, a work she commissioned and performed on the Dick Cavett Show, and recorded for Naxos. Ms. Robinson's close relationships with today's composers have led to numerous commissions for solo and chamber works as well as concerti from Leon Kirchner, Arvo Pärt, Stanley Silverman, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, David Ott, Katherine Hoover, Richard Danielpour, Andy Stein, Darin Aric Hagan and Ned Rorem.

Renowned for her chamber music performances, Sharon Robinson co-founded the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio thirty-two years ago and has collaborated with Rudolf Serkin and Alexander Schneider at the Marlboro Music Festival, Leon Fleisher, Rudolf Firkušný, Yo-Yo Ma, Eugene Istomin, Itzhak Perlman, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, and the Emerson, Guarneri, Miami, Juilliard, Orion and Tokyo Quartets. In December 2001, Musical America named the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio the 2002 Ensemble of the Year.