Gile Series: Dyad

About this event

Dyad is an innovative violin and bassoon duo charting a path through unexplored musical territory. After meeting at Juilliard, bassoonist Leah Kohn and violinist Niv Ashkenazi were inspired to create a new kind of chamber music. Together, they have crafted engaging programs that reimagine classic works, premiere new pieces, and engage the imaginations of their audience. Since their first performance in 2015, they have performed on concert series and major venues throughout the United States. Dyad has been featured presenting new works and their own arrangements at the Meg Quigley Symposium and the International Double Reed Society Conference, where they were a recipient of an IDRS 50 for 50 commissioning grant. Their arrangement of Bloch’s Prayer is published by TrevCo Music Publishing. They have also collaborated with TranscenDance Group and Lineage Dance of Pasadena to present programs that incorporate music, dance, and storytelling. From 2015-2019, Dyad performed for Street Symphony, founded by a former Los Angeles Philharmonic member to bring inclusive concerts to people experiencing incarceration and homelessness. Bassoonist Leah Kohn is a versatile musician with a passion for unusual repertoire. She is also an active performer on the baroque bassoon and contrabassoon, and the co-founder and director of Oak Hill Music Festival, a chamber music festival serving the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont. As well as freelance and studio work in Los Angeles, Leah has performed at the Lake George Music Festival, as a fellow at the Norfolk Music Festival, at several programs at the Banff Centre, and at Fresh Inc. Festival with Fifth House Ensemble. As an educator, she is on faculty at California State University, Northridge, and maintains a private teaching studio in Los Angeles, as well as coaching for several local youth orchestras. She received her D.M.A. from the University of Southern California as a student of Judith Farmer, with an academic field in musicology and elective fields in Arts Leadership and early music. She holds an M.M. from The Juilliard School and a B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, both as a student of Frank Morelli. Praised for his “extremely colourful interpretations, characterized by maturity and authority” (Pizzicato Magazine), virtuoso violinist Niv Ashkenazi has made several Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center appearances, and has performed in Europe, the Middle East, and across North America. Niv was the Artist in Residence at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts and Artist in Residence for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. His debut album, Niv Ashkenazi: Violins of Hope, released on Albany Records. It received international critical acclaim and was named one of the 10 best classical recordings of 2020 by the Chicago Tribune. Niv was a featured soloists, alongside Yo-Yo Ma, for the soundtrack of the PBS documentary Harbor from the Holocaust. He has been featured on ABC7, in the Los Angeles Times, and other major news outlets. Niv holds both a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School, where his teachers included Itzhak Perlman and Glenn Dicterow. ABOUT THE WILLIAM H. GILE TRUST CONCERT SERIES The William H. Gile Trust was created by Helen B. Gile in 1952. She left a legacy of more than $700,000 to finance a free concert series in Concord, New Hampshire in memory of her father, William H. Gile. Helen Gile stipulated that the trust funds were to be managed by what is now Citizens Bank, and that the selection of shows "of the highest type in all respects" was to be made by a committee of three local citizens. After much planning, the first William H. Gile Concert Series was held during the 1960-61 show season, and, over 60 years later, we are happy to now call the Capitol Center for the Arts our home.

Venue

Bank of New Hampshire Stage

Concord, NH

Venue website

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