Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.
The Palace Theatre, Greensburg | directions
Daniel Meyer, Artistic Director & Conductor
Featured Artist: Blake Pouliot, violin
Press: Westmoreland Symphony’s ‘Scottish Fantasy’ promises romantic date night Tribune-Review February 9, 2023
Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
Bruch: Scottish Fantasy
Blake Pouliot, violin
Brahms: Symphony No. 3
Inspired by Scottish melodies, dance tunes and Folk Songs, Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy takes center stage with guest violinist Blake Pouliot, recognized as “one of those special talents that come along once in a lifetime” (Toronto Star). Then we take you to the musical salons of Paris for Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte a work commissioned by American heiress Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac. You will hear the mesmerizing Pavane – a slow processional dance perfect for showing off the exquisite gowns of the day popular in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. The evening concludes with Brahms Symphony No. 3, an instant hit with audiences and critics in 1883 and described by Clara Schumann as “each (movement) a jewel. From start to finish one is wrapped about with the mysterious charm of the woods and forests.”
Daniel Meyer & Blake Pouliot Interview – Feb 2023
Meet Guest Artist Blake Pouliot
Described as “immaculate, at once refined and impassioned,” (ArtsAtlanta) violinist Blake Pouliot (pool-YACHT) has anchored himself among the ranks of classical phenoms. A tenacious young artist with a passion that enraptures his audience in every performance, Pouliot has established himself as “one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime” (Toronto Star).
Pouliot released his debut album on Analekta Records in 2019 to critical acclaim including a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine as well as a 2019 Juno Award nomination for Best Classical Album. Adding to his accolades that year, Pouliot won both the Career Development Award from the Women’s Club of Toronto and the Virginia Parker Prize Career Grant from the Canada Arts Council. He has been featured twice on Rob Kapilow’s What Makes it Great? series and was NPR’s “Performance Today” Artist-in-Residence for the 2017-18 season in Minnesota the 2018-19 season in Hawaii, and the 2021-22 season across Europe. In 2016, he was awarded the Grand Prize at the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition and was named First Laureate of both the 2018 and 2015 Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.
Since his orchestral debut at age 11, Pouliot has performed with the orchestras of Aspen, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Madison, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, and Seattle, among many others. Internationally, he has performed as soloist with the Sofia Philharmonic in Bulgaria, Orchestras of the Americas on its South American tour, and was the featured soloist for the first-ever joint tour of the European Union Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He has collaborated with many musical luminaries including conductors Sir Neville Marriner, David Afkham, Pablo Heras-Casado, David Danzmayr, JoAnn Falletta, Marcelo Lehninger, Nicholas McGegan, Alexander Prior, Vasily Petrenko and Thomas Søndergård.
Pouliot studied violin in Canada with Marie Bérard and Erika Raum, and he completed his training as an associate of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He graduated from the Colburn School Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Robert Lipsett, the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair.
Pouliot performs on the 1729 Guarneri del Gesù on a generous loan from an anonymous donor.
Guest artists and programs are subject to change.
