presents
ROHAN DE SILVA, PIANO
MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2023 | 7:30 P.M.
Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Sponsored by HARRISON ESTATE LAW
RUSSELL AND BRENDA ROBINSON
SFI
ITZHAK PERLMAN ROHAN DE SILVA, PIANO
Program
Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 9 No. 3, “Tombeau” Jean Marie LeClair
Un poco andante
Allegro — Adagio
Sarabande. Largo
Tambourin. Presto
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 Ludwig van Beethoven “Kreutzer”
Adagio sostenuto — Presto
Andante con variazioni
Finale (Presto)
Fantasiestücke, Op. 73
I. Zart und mit Ausdruck
II. Lebhaft, leicht
III. Rasch und mit Feuer
INTERMISSION
Robert SchumannWORKS TO BE ANNOUNCED FROM THE STAGE
Mr. Perlman’s recordings can be found on the Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Warner/EMI Classics, Sony Classical, and Telarc labels
For more information on Itzhak Perlman, visit www.itzhakperlman.com
Management for Itzhak Perlman: Primo Artists, New York, NY www.primoartists.com
PROGRAM NOTES
Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 9, No. 3, “Tombeau”
Jean Marie LeclairBorn May 10, 1697, in Lyons; died October 22, 1764, in Paris
Jean-Marie Leclair started his professional career in the arts as a ballet-master in Turin; he first showed his creative talent when he began to write music for dance. In 1728, he settled in Paris as an active performing musician, but, after 1736, he worked principally as a composer and teacher. Leclair was the founder of the French violin school of the 18th century. Although the French school is not as well remembered today as the Italian school of Corelli, Leclair’s contributions to it were important.
What made Leclair a leading figure of his time was his ability to combine the elegant musical style of Lully with the melodic distinctiveness of Corelli to arrive at something new, using expressive material for his themes. He drew from the dance style of Lully and combined it with Italian sonata style. His music includes harmony that is varied and colorful and is occasionally bold in its modulations and its chromatic progressions. Altogether, his music combines qualities that assure it a grace and vivacity of great distinction.
Leclair also wrote successful operas and opera-ballets, but the violin and its music were the focus of his career. He published 12 concertos, 48 sonatas, chamber music for other combinations of instruments, and two collections of sonatas for two violins without accompaniment that were of such durable popularity that they influenced Mozart when he was in Paris in 1778. The technical difficulties in Leclair’s sonatas indicate that he was also a player of considerable accomplishment.
Leclair was appointed ordinaire de la musique du roi in the court of Louis XV, and he thanked the king for the honor with the dedication of his third book of sonatas. The fourth book, now designated Opus 9, was written after his association with the court of the Netherlands. The princess, Anne of Orange, was an accomplished harpsichordist, and it was to her that he dedicated this set of sonatas. With his many compositions for strings, Leclair not only established the foundation for the development of the French school of violin playing, but he also made a significant contribution toward raising the standard of violin technique in France. Generally, his works call for virtuosity, especially since many of his sonatas demand facility with multiple stops. In his preface to this Second Book of Sonatas, Leclair wrote that the sonatas may present technical difficulty for some players but should contain artistic merit so long as they are well played; in any case, “they will serve as a means of study for those who are in need of it.” In order to make the works of this opus less onerous than the preceding opus in which he used many arduous double-stops and upper register passagework, the composer aimed instead to give this work lyrical purity and very expressive writing.
In Leclair’s violin sonatas, the fast movements have the sound of Vivaldi, but his slower movements display a more pronounced French style. His sonatas are especially difficult in their technique, in which double stops, third and fourth chords, double trills, and left-hand tremolo effects are frequently used.
The elegant Violin Sonata Op. 9, No. 3, published in 1743, is his most popular, most frequently performed sonata of his 49 violin sonatas. The work is in what theorist J.J. Quantz called the “mixed style,” fusing French decoration with Italian melody. Following the traditional sonata da chiesa form, with its slowfast-slow-fast alternating structure, it displays carefully crafted rhythms and is very expressive.
While not designated as particular dance forms, the first two movements are written with the spirit of the dance in mind. The first movement, Un poco andante, is a two-part song beginning with a bright, lively rhythm and harmonious theme, before becoming melancholy and then returning to the original theme at the end. The second movement, Allegro, has a three-part form, beginning with a dance-like double-stop melody. The middle section becomes melancholy and minor, while the final part develops into a slow cadenza, before the first theme returns at the end. The third movement, Largo, a slow sarabande, is an elegant dance that uses a melody based on alternation from dark and gloomy to bright and spirited. The last movement, Presto, takes its name from another dance, the spirited and stylized tambourin, a Provençal folk dance which featured the pipe and tabor (drum).
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born December 16, 1770, in Bonn; died March 26, 1827, in Vienna
Beethoven wrote nine of his 10 violin sonatas in the six years between 1797 and 1803. They are paradigmatic works in which he added his own distinctive accent to the classical language of Haydn and Mozart, and then developed the musical forms he inherited from his two predecessors into innovative vehicles of powerful expression. Beethoven composed his last violin sonata in 1812, just before he took up the new idioms and structures that were to make the music of his last 10 years phenomenally original, difficult and powerfully moving. This work, now always called the Kreutzer Sonata, dates from 1802 and 1803, the time just before Symphony No. 3 (“The Eroica”), and the Waldstein Sonata for piano were written.
How this sonata came to be called the Kreutzer is intriguing. In 1802, Beethoven wrote a set of three violin sonatas that he dedicated to Czar Alexander I, but in preparing them for publication, he found the finale of the first sonata disproportionately grandiose and wrote a more modest one for it. In the spring of 1803, a young violinist, George Bridgetower (ca. 1780-1860), the son of an African father and European mother, on temporary leave from the service of the Prince of Wales, arrived in Vienna from London for a stay of a few months. Bridgetower had been a member of Haydn’s orchestra in London, and later earned a degree at Cambridge University and had a performing career in Europe. Shortly after meeting him, Beethoven decided to compose a sonata for them to play together.
Beethoven quickly wrote two movements to precede the finale originally intended for Op. 30, No. 1, and around May 24, 1803, the composer and Bridgetower together gave the new sonata its first public performance. The concert was
hurriedly scheduled, leaving no time to make a good copy of the music from Beethoven’s nearly illegible manuscript. The composer played the piano from a rough sketch that his pupil Ferdinand Ries said was only partly written out. Ries copied the violin part of the first movement for Bridgetower, but the violinist had to try to play the second from Beethoven’s unreadable scrawls and scratches. Bridgetower did have an earlier clean copy for the third movement. Even with these difficulties to overcome, the performance was a success, and before long, Beethoven and Bridgetower performed the sonata again.
Bridgetower and Beethoven quickly bonded as good friends, and in his manuscript, Beethoven casually called this his “mulatto sonata.” He intended to publish it with a formal dedication to Bridgetower, but when summer came, the two men had a quarrel over a young woman, and thus Beethoven dedicated it instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831), a brilliant French violinist he had met in Vienna five years before. Beethoven did not know Kreutzer nearly as well as he did Bridgetower, thus the switch in dedication was probably motivated by spite. Beethoven’s relationship with Kreutzer was confined to yearly letters that Kreutzer apparently never answered. Kreutzer never played the Sonata No. 9 in public, because (according to Berlioz) he found it outrageously difficult and unintelligible, yet Beethoven’s dedication has immortalized Kreutzer.
Beethoven described the work in his titling for it: “Sonata for piano and violin obbligato, written in a very concertante style, brilliant (the word brilliant was crossed out by Beethoven in the manuscript), quasi concerto-like.” This sonata had enormous appeal for 19th century Romantics. The Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, born the year after Beethoven died, wrote a story, once thought immoral, that he titled The“Kreutzer” Sonata, describing how this sonata incited a married woman to adulterous passion for the violinist with whom she performed it: “They played the Kreutzer Sonata by Beethoven,” her husband says. “Do you know the opening Presto? The Sonata is frightening — especially this movement. They say that it elevates the soul. That’s nonsense. Its effect is terrifying. It excites like poison.”
Beethoven titled the first edition of the Kreutzer Sonata (in Italian), “Sonata for the Pianoforte and an Obligato Violin, written in a very concertante style, almost like that of a concerto.” The import of this descriptive statement is that in the Classical era, sonatas for a solo instrument with piano always were titled sonatas for piano with violin (or another solo instrument) accompaniment. The two instruments were not given equal billing because they had not yet acquired the status of equal partners in the music. Even the titling of Beethoven’s Op. 30 Sonatas, published as late as 1803, had continued mirroring what had, over time, become that obsolete usage.
The music of this sonata is bold, original, large-scaled, and technically difficult. The first movement has an unusual slow introduction, Adagio sostenuto. By the time the Presto main section begins, the music has modulated into the key of A minor; the major tonality does not reappear until the finale. The music is stormy and dramatic, pausing occasionally as though for a deep breath, before renewing the attack on the emotions of the listeners and the strength of the performers. The slow movement contains a long and beautiful Andante
theme with variations. The Presto finale is a swift sonata-form movement with a memorable, feather-light second theme. The forward direction of the steady beat is sometimes distracted by a phrase in contrasting rhythm; even motion slows briefly to Adagio for two short moments before the forceful closing coda. — Program notes © Susan Halpern, 2023
Fantasiestücke, Op. 73
Robert Schumann
Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Saxony (Germany); died July 29, 1856, Endenich, near Bonn
Notes on this piece will be presented from the stage.
ITZHAK PERLMAN
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music. Having performed with every major orchestra and at concert halls around the globe, Mr. Perlman has been honored with 16 Grammy® Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Genesis Prize. Mr. Perlman has received multiple distinctions from U.S. Presidents over the years: A Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Obama in 2015, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 2000, and a Medal of Liberty by President Reagan in 1986.
In the 2022-23 season, Mr. Perlman conducts the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Houston Symphony on Mozart’s Requiem, and is joined by an illustrious group of collaborators — Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and the Juilliard String Quartet — in a special Itzhak Perlman and Friends program appearing in only three locations: Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, UMS Ann Arbor, and Carnegie Hall. He continues touring An Evening with Itzhak Perlman, which captures highlights of his career through narrative and multi-media elements intertwined with performance, to Boston, Philadelphia, Long Island, Akron, Austin, Tallahassee and Naples (Florida). He plays season-opening concerts for the Colorado Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and Florida Orchestra, and recitals across the United States with longtime collaborator Rohan De Silva. He currently serves as Artistic Partner of the Houston Symphony in a partnership that commenced in the 2020-21 season and culminates at the end of 2023-24. He performs nine programs across three seasons that feature him in versatile appearances as conductor, soloist, recitalist, and presenter.
Mr. Perlman has an exclusive series of classes with Masterclass.com, the premier online education company that enables access to the world’s most brilliant minds including Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster, and Serena Williams, as the company’s first classical-music presenter. Available exclusively at www.masterclass.com/ip, his class offers students an intimate and inspirational approach to the world of violin where he covers fundamental techniques, practice strategies, and ways to build a richer sound.
Photo © Masterclass.comMr. Perlman has delighted audiences through his frequent appearances on the conductor’s podium. He has performed as conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Montreal, and Toronto, as well as at the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals. He was Music Advisor of the St. Louis Symphony from 2002 to 2004 where he made regular conducting appearances, and he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony from 2001 to 2005. Internationally, Mr. Perlman has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic.
Further to his engagements as violinist and conductor, Mr. Perlman is increasingly making more appearances as a speaker. Recent speaking engagements include appearances in Texas at Lamar University, South Dakota with the John Vucurevich Foundation, Washington, D.C., for the Marriott Foundation and New York, in conversations with Alan Alda at the 92nd Street Y, and Alec Baldwin at New York University.
An award-winning documentary on Mr. Perlman, titled Itzhak, premiered in October 2017 as the opening film of the 25th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in more than 100 cinemas nationwide in March 2018, with international releases that followed in Summer 2018. Directed by filmmaker Alison Chernick, the enchanting documentary details the virtuoso’s own struggles as a polio survivor and Jewish émigré and is a reminder why art is vital to life. For more information, visit www.itzhakthefilm.com. In October 2018, the film made its debut on PBS’ American Masters in a broadcast throughout the United States.
Mr. Perlman’s most recent album features him in a special collaboration with Martha Argerich. Released by Warner Classics, it marked a historic first studio album for this legendary duo exploring masterpieces by Bach, Schumann, and Brahms. It had been 18 years since their first album, a live recital from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. On that momentous occasion in 1998, in addition to recording the material for their initial disc, the pair recorded Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1. The Schumann Sonata at long last was released in 2016 alongside new material, making the album a fascinating “then and now” portrait of how two living legends have evolved musically.
Mr. Perlman recorded a bonus track for the original cast recording of the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, released on Broadway Records in March 2016. The cast recording features Perlman on a track titled Excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof, arranged by John Williams. The year of 2015 brought three record releases in celebration of Mr. Perlman’s 70th birthday: A Deutsche Grammophon album with pianist Emanuel Ax performing Fauré and Strauss Sonatas, a 25-disc box set of his complete Deutsche Grammophon and Decca discography, and a 77-disc box set of his complete EMI/ Teldec discography titled Itzhak Perlman: The Complete Warner Recordings.
In 2012, Sony released Eternal Echoes: Songs & Dances for the Soul, featuring a collaboration with acclaimed cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot in liturgical and
traditional Jewish arrangements for chamber orchestra and klezmer musicians, and in 2010, Sony released a recording of Mendelssohn Piano Trios with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax. Highlights of albums over the last two decades have included a Deutsche Grammophon album with Mr. Perlman conducting the Israel Philharmonic, a live recording with Martha Argerich performing Beethoven and Franck Sonatas (EMI); Cinema Serenade featuring popular hits from movies with John Williams conducting (Sony); A la Carte, a recording of short violin pieces with orchestra (EMI) and In the Fiddler’s House, a celebration of klezmer music (EMI) that formed the basis of the PBS television special. In 2004, EMI released The Perlman Edition, a limited-edition 15-CD box set featuring many of his finest EMI recordings as well as newly compiled material, and RCA Red Seal released a CD titled Perlman rediscovered, which includes material recorded in 1965 by a young Itzhak Perlman. Other recordings reveal Mr. Perlman’s devotion to education, including Concertos from my Childhood with the Juilliard Orchestra under Lawrence Foster (EMI) and Marita and her Heart’s Desire, composed and conducted by Bruce Adolphe (Telarc).
Mr. Perlman has entertained and enlightened millions of TV viewers of all ages on popular shows as diverse as The Late Show with David Letterman, Sesame Street, The Frugal Gourmet, The Tonight Show, and various Grammy Awards telecasts. His PBS appearances have included A Musical Toast and Mozart by the Masters, as well as numerous Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts such as The Juilliard School: Celebrating 100 Years. In 2008, he joined renowned chef Jacques Pépin on Artist’s Table to discuss the relationship between the culinary and musical arts, and lent his voice as the narrator of Visions of Israel for PBS’ acclaimed Visions series. Mr. Perlman hosted the 1994 U.S. broadcast of Encore! The Three Tenors live from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. During the 78th Annual Academy Awards in 2006, he performed a live medley from the five film scores nominated in the category of Best Original Score for a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions. One of Mr. Perlman’s proudest achievements is his collaboration with film composer John Williams in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film Schindler’s List, in which he performed the violin solos. He can also be heard as the violin soloist on the soundtrack of Zhang Yimou’s film Hero (music by Tan Dun) and Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha (music by John Williams).
The year of 2018 marked the 60th anniversary of Itzhak Perlman’s U.S. debut and appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which took place on November 2, 1958. This milestone was celebrated with a return to The Ed Sullivan Theater on November 2, 2018 in a special guest appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Mr. Perlman has a long association with the Israel Philharmonic and has participated in many groundbreaking tours with this orchestra from his homeland. In 1987, he joined the IPO for history-making concerts in Warsaw and Budapest, representing the first performances by this orchestra and soloist in Eastern bloc countries. He again made history as he joined the orchestra for its first visit to the Soviet Union in 1990, and was cheered by audiences in Moscow and Leningrad who thronged to hear his recital and orchestral performances.
This visit was captured on a PBS documentary titled Perlman in Russia, which won an Emmy. In 1994, Mr. Perlman joined the Israel Philharmonic for their first visits to China and India.
Over the past two decades, Mr. Perlman has become actively involved in music education, using this opportunity to encourage gifted young string players. Alongside his wife Toby, his close involvement in the Perlman Music Program has been a particularly rewarding experience, and he has taught full-time at the Program each summer since its founding in 1993. Mr. Perlman currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair at The Juilliard School.
Numerous publications and institutions have paid tribute to Itzhak Perlman for the unique place he occupies in the artistic and humanitarian fabric of our times. Harvard, Yale, Brandeis, Roosevelt, Yeshiva, and Hebrew universities are among the institutions that have awarded him honorary degrees. He was awarded an honorary doctorate and a centennial medal on the occasion of Juilliard’s 100th commencement ceremony in 2005. Itzhak Perlman’s presence on stage, on camera, and in personal appearances of all kinds speaks eloquently on behalf of the disabled, and his devotion to their cause is an integral part of his life.
Mr. Perlman has performed multiple times at the White House, most recently in 2012 at the invitation of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama, for Israeli President and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Shimon Peres; and at a State Dinner in 2007, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush, for Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. In 2009, he was honored to take part in the Inauguration of President Obama, premiering a piece written for the occasion by John Williams alongside cellist Yo-Yo Ma, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriela Montero, for an audience of nearly 40 million television viewers in the United States and millions more throughout the world.
Born in Israel in 1945, Mr. Perlman completed his initial training at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. An early recipient of an America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship, he came to New York and soon was propelled to national recognition with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. Following his studies at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, he won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964, which led to a burgeoning worldwide career. Since then, Itzhak Perlman has established himself as a cultural icon and household name in classical music.
ROHAN DE SILVA, PIANIST
Rohan De Silva’s partnerships with violin virtuosos Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Joshua Bell, Benny Kim, Kyoko Takezawa, Vadim Repin, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Julian Rachlin, James Ehnes, and Rodney Friend have led to highly acclaimed performances at recital venues all over the world. With these and other artists he has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Philadelphia Academy of Music, Ambassador Theater in Los Angeles, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, La Scala in Milan, and in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Mr. De Silva’s festival appearances include Aspen, Ravinia, Interlochen, Seattle Chamber Music, Santa Fe Chamber Music, Manchester, Schleswig-Holstein, Pacific Music Festival, and the Wellington Arts Festival in New Zealand. He has performed chamber music in Beijing with the American String Quartet and has appeared in recital worldwide with Itzhak Perlman.
Alongside Mr. Perlman, Mr. De Silva has performed multiple times at the White House, most recently in 2012 at the invitation of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama for Israeli President and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Shimon Peres; and at a State Dinner in 2007, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush for Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. A native of Sri Lanka, Mr. De Silva was invited in 2015 by the Prime Minister of his country to perform at a luncheon for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on his historic visit to Sri Lanka.
In the 2020-21 season, Mr. De Silva performed recitals with Itzhak Perlman across North America in Costa Mesa, Seattle, Spokane, Greenville, and in the NYC region. He embarked on a debut tour with Mr. Perlman of a new program titled An Evening with Itzhak Perlman which captures highlights of Mr. Perlman’s career through narrative and multi-media elements, intertwined with performance. The tour visited Penn State, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, McCallum Theatre Palm Desert, Mesa Arts Center, Artis-Naples, and the State Theatre New Jersey.
In previous seasons, Mr. De Silva toured with Mr. Perlman in sold-out concerts throughout Asia, visiting Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea, and to Europe in their first appearances as a duo in London (Barbican Centre), Paris (Philharmonie de Paris), and Munich (Gasteig). In North America, he has performed with Mr. Perlman at notable venues including Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Lyric Opera, West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center, Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, D.C., at the Kennedy Center, and in New York at Carnegie Hall, to name a few. Over
Photo © John Beebe
the summer, at the invitation of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mr. De Silva performed for an exclusive guest list at the Supreme Court with Mr. Perlman in Washington, D.C. Mr. De Silva also performed at Center Stage for Strings in Michigan, Innsbrook Institute in Missouri, and Maui Music Festival in Hawaii.
Mr. De Silva began his piano studies with his mother, the late Primrose De Silva, and with the late Mary Billimoria. He spent six years at the Royal Academy of Music in London as a student of Hamish Milne, Sydney Griller, and Wilfred Parry. While in London, he received many awards including the Grover Bennett Scholarship, the Christian Carpenter Prize, the Martin Music Scholarship, the Harold Craxton Award for advanced study in England, and, upon his graduation, the Chappell Gold Medal for best overall performance at the Royal Academy. Mr. De Silva was the first recipient of a special scholarship in the arts from the President’s Fund of Sri Lanka. This enabled him to enter The Juilliard School, where he received both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, studying piano with Martin Canin, chamber music with Felix Galimir, and working closely with violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. He was awarded a special prize as Best Accompanist at the 1990 Ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award as presented to him by Itzhak Perlman at the 2005 Classical Recording Foundation Awards Ceremony at Carnegie Hall.
Mr. De Silva joined the collaborative arts and chamber music faculty of The Juilliard School in 1991, and in 1992 was awarded honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2015, he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2001, he joined the faculty at the Ishikawa Music Academy in Japan, where he gives master classes in collaborative piano.
Mr. De Silva additionally has served as a faculty member at the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing, China, and at the International String Academy in Cambridge, U.K., since 2011. He was on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program from 2000 to 2007. Radio and television credits include PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and the Colbert Report with Itzhak Perlman, The Tonight Show with Midori, CNN’s Showbiz Today, NHK Television in Japan, National Public Radio, WQXR and WNYC in New York, Berlin Radio, and the 2000 Millennium Grammy Awards. Mr. De Silva has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Universal, CBS/SONY Classical, Collins Classics in London, RCA Victor, and Chandos.