FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:   Leonid Saharovici

Tel:  (901) 751-2036

 

Internationally Acclaimed Quartet Headline

42nd Annual Artists Ascending Concert Series

 

            MEMPHIS (August 29, 2008) –  The Belz-Parker Artists Ascending Series will pay tribute to the State of Israel in the opening of its 42nd season by hosting four of the country’s most heralded musicians touring the world today.  The Ariel String Quartet, founded ten years ago in Jerusalem, will take center stage October 26 at the Baron Hirsch Synagogue for a performance dedicated to the celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary.

 

            “The Ariel String Quartet is one the world’s most talented, inspiring musical acts and is a true testament to the talent and potential of the Israel’s youth,” said Jack Belz, CEO Belz Enterprises. 

 

            The young acclaimed quartet has played before audiences throughout Europe, the United States and Israel and received recognition in many international competitions.  Debuting at the Jerusalem Music Centre in 2000, the Ariel String Quartet won grand prize at the 2003 Franz Schubert and the Music of Modernity Competition and first prize at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.  The group has also performed at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw and the Daniel Days Festival in Holland.

 

            Members of Ariel String Quartet are students at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.  They include Gershon Gerchikov, violin; Alexandra Kazovsky, violin; Sergey Tarashchansky, viola; and Amit Even-Tov, cello.

The program will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. in the Belz Sanctuary, 400 South Yates Road in Memphis.  The event is free to the public.

 

            The Ariel String Quartet is the first of two performances for this season’s Artists Ascending Series.  The second, scheduled for January 18, 2009, will feature 16-year-old violinist Jourdan Urbach, a Julliard School student who has performed with the most prestigious symphony orchestras at renowned venues throughout the world.  At the age of seven, Jourdan formed the Children Helping Children foundation to benefit research and treatment for critically ill children.  All proceeds of his concerts are dedicated to this foundation, and to date, it has raised approximately $1.3 million. 

 

            For more than 40 years the Artists Ascending Concert Series has brought to Memphis some of the world’s most promising young classical musicians, most of whom have gone on to achieve international recognition, including violinists Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham and Jeremy Stein Cushman; conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim; pianist Misha Dichter; opera singer Roberta Peters; clarinetist Jonathan Bliss and many others.

 

The Artists Ascending Concert Series is dedicated to the memory of Philip Belz, a visionary leader and builder whose love of G-d and music are expressed by the performances of the young artists who have participated in the concert series. The Artists Ascending Concert Series is sponsored by the Belz Family.  For more information, contact event chairman Leonid Saharovici at (901) 751-2036.

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