Wendy Warner, cello & Irina Nuzova, piano

Critics have applauded classical pianist Irina Nuzova for her “rise above mere virtuosity” (The Washington Post), “intensity of feeling” (La Nazione, Italy), “insightful piano playing” (Classical Music Magazine) and “profound interpretation” (Il Resto de Carlino, Bologna).

Nuzova has appeared in recital as a soloist and as a chamber musician in the United States, Europe, and South America. In Europe, she has performed in the Amici della Musica concert series in Florence; at the Teatro Massima in Catania, Italy; the Hermitage State Museum in St. Petersburg; the Moscow Conservatory; and in the Netherlands. In the United States, she has played at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York; and in chamber music series including the Rhode Island Chamber Music Concert Series and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. In recital with Wendy Warner, Nuzova has performed at the Music Institute of Chicago, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and in the Rockefeller tri-Institutional series in New York City.

Nuzova kicked off the 2010-2011 season with the WarnerNuzova duo’s debut release: Russian Music for Cello & Piano on Cedille Records.  Warner and Nuzova have played together for years, but officially formed the duo in 2008 with the intention of performing and recording the canonical sonatas for cello and piano from the past and present, as well as commissioning unique arrangements and new music. Their first album covers romantic Russian works featuring the rarely performed  Sonata in A Minor by Nikolai Miaskovsky – the first recording on American soil by an American label – and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Sonata in G minor. Also included are works by Alfred Schnittke, Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Prokofiev.  Nuzova regards the Miaskovsky sonata as a “rare gem,” adding that she likes to flip the Russian maxim which reads: “All is not gold that glitters,” to say “Something that does not glitter can still be gold” in regards to the composer and this sonata in particular.  Says Nuzova, “The sonata’s pervasive, nostalgic quality speaks to the Russian soul and mind, but it is subtle and subdued in its expression, and absolutely jewel-like in its clarity and simplicity.”

Season appearances include chamber ensemble recitals at the Stamford Art Center in New York; a performance with pianist Anya Alexeyev in Waterloo, Canada, as well as solo concerts in The Netherlands. The WarnerNuzova duo will be as featured at the Music in the Park series in Chicago, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society in Ontario, Canada and at the University of San Antonio as part of the Musical Bridges series.  The duo will perform the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. as well as other prestigious venues. Warner and Nuzova will also give performances and master classes at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University and will play the five Beethoven cello/piano sonatas for a live broadcast on WFMT in Chicago. 

The recipient of the Bruce Hungerford Award at the Young Concert Artist Auditions in New York, Nuzova has won top prizes in competitions such as the Vincenzo Bellini and Citta di Senigallia International Competitions in Italy and the Beethoven Piano Sonata International Competition in Memphis, Tennessee. As a chamber musician, she has won recognition at the Vittorio Gui and the Premio Trio di Trieste International Chamber Music Competitions in Italy. Nuzova’s performances have been broadcast live on WFMT in Chicago, WGBH in Boston, and Italian TV. 

A native of Moscow, Russia, Nuzova’s family members all played instruments.  Her mother was a professional piano instructor who took her daughter for her first piano lesson at age five.   Nuzova made her debut with the Omsk Philharmonic at the age of 14. She studied at the Gnessin Academy of Music under the guidance of Alexander Satz before moving to the United States. She continued her musical education at the Manhattan School of Music with Lev Natochenny, and at Juilliard where her teachers were Oxana Yablonskaya and Jerome Lowenthal.  To further herself as a musician she worked for many years in the cello studio of Harvey Shapiro at Juilliard and pursued individual studies with pianists Jean-Bernard Pommier, Eteri Andjaparidze, and Vladimir Feltsman. Nuzova earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford, Connecticut)

Wendy Warner has become one of the world’s leading cellists. In May, 2010, The New York Timesreported “Warner’s expressive playing and glowing tone were everywhere a pleasure.”  TheChicago Tribune wrote, "If there was a truly prodigious performance during the evening, this was it,” while Strings has hailed her "youthful, surging playing, natural stage presence and almost frightening technique.” As jury member Frans Helmerson told The New York Times when Warner won first-prize at the Fourth International Rostropovich Competition in Paris in 1990, “she’s unbelievable.”  

Audiences have watched Warner perform on prestigious stages including New York's Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Paris' Salle Pleyel, and Berlin's Philharmonie. She has collaborated with such leading conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn, Jesús López-Cobos, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Marin Alsop, Charles Dutoit, Eiji Oue, Neeme Järvi, and Michael Tilson Thomas. 

The 2010-2011 season's highlight is the August 31 release of Warner's first duo recording with pianist Irina Nuzova. Titled Russian Music for Cello & Piano, the Cedille Records collection of romantic works features Sergei Rachmaninov’s Sonata in G minor, and the first time the rarely-performed Sonata in A minor by Nikolai Miaskovsky has been recorded by an American on American soil. Also included are works by Sergei Prokofiev, Alfred Schnittke, and Alexander Scriabin.

This season, Warner is the featured soloist for concerto engagements with the Fox Valley, Lake Forest, University of South Carolina, Millikin-Decatur, and Hartford Symphony Orchestras.  She will also perform in chamber music series with Camerata Chicago at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois which will be broadcast on WFMT.  Warner, Rachel Barton Pine, Soojin Ahn, and Michael Larco will take part in a chamber music concert presented by the Norton Concert Series in Chicago.  She will also play with the Boston Artists Ensemble, The Schwob Chamber Music faculty, and the Jupiter Players in New York City.  

Upcoming WarnerNuzova dates include the performance of the Beethoven Sonatas plus Variations at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. as well as performances at the Music in the Park series in Saint Paul, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society in Ontario, Canada and at the University of San Antonio as part of the Musical Bridges series. 

Recently Warner made her debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall performing unknown works by Beethoven which she recorded as part of the Beethoven Project trio.  Warner’s past North American engagements have included performances with the Chicago, Boston, Dallas, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Montreal, New Mexico, Omaha, Nashville, and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Minnesota and Philadelphia Orchestras.  Around the world she has performed with the London Symphony (Barbican Center), Berlin Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Iceland Symphony, L'Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and L'Orchestre de Paris, with which she performed the Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, Semyon Bychkov conducting. Warner has played with the European Soloists of Luxembourg at Frankfurt's Alter Oper, and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. She has toured Japan as a soloist with NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic.

The child of professional musicians and the granddaughter of composer Philip Warner, whose symphony premiered with the NBC Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting, Warner began studying piano at the age of four and began studying the cello at age six, under the tutelage of Nell Novak. At age 14 she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcast on WTTW-TV. She continued her studies with Rostropovich at the Curtis Institute from which she graduated.  Her career took an auspicious turn in 1990 when she made her Washington D.C. debut with the National Symphony playing Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto.  In 1991, she made her Carnegie Hall debut performing the Schumann Concerto conducted by Rostropovich. She was re-engaged to appear with the NSO on a North American tour in 1991. Under Rostropovich’s baton, she performed with the Bamberg Symphony for a 1991 European tour, making her debuts in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Köln, Düsseldorf and Berlin. “He made the Prokofiev Symphonia Concertante and Shostakovich No. 1 fit like a glove.  He challenged me to new heights and made me feel that I had no limitations,” recalls Warner.

Warner’s discography includes the 2010 release of The Beethoven Project – featuring unknown Beethoven piano trios with pianist George Lepauw and violinist Sang Mee Lee;  Wendy Warner Plays Popper and Piatigorsky; Double Play: Twentieth Century Duos for Violin and Cello with Rachel Barton Pine, (all on the Cedille label);  Hindemith’s Music for Cello & Piano for Bridge Records and the critically acclaimed Samuel Barber: Orchestral Works, Volume 2 , featuring Barber’s Cello Concerto, with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, released by Naxos.

Warner performs on a Joseph Gagliano cello and a Carl Becker cello.  Her bow is by Francoix Xavier Tourte of Paris, c. 1815, the "De Lamare," on extended loan through the generous efforts of a patron from the Stradivari Society of Chicago.  A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Warner is on the faculty at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, the Music Institute of Chicago and the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Georgia.