Alexander Fiterstein to present The Zimro Project at Brooks Center

Published: February 8, 2012

Alexander Fiterstein image by: Alexander Fiterstein Trio

CLEMSON — Considered one of today’s most exceptional clarinet players, Alexander Fiterstein and his trio will present The Zimro Project at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at Clemson University's Brooks Center for the Performing Arts.

Presented as part of the Utsey Chamber Music Series, the performance will include cellist Nicholas Canellakis, a member of the prestigious Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two, and pianist Gilles Vonsattel, top prize-winner at the 2002 Naumburg International Piano Competition.

Fiterstein has performed in recital and with prestigious orchestras and chamber music ensembles throughout the world, including the Daedalus Quartet, Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center. He is the recipient of a prestigious 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Founded in 2008 by Fiterstein, The Zimro project is a unique ensemble dedicated to incorporating Jewish art music into concerts. Influenced by the Zimro Ensemble, a group that nurtured the music of Jewish composers and culture nearly a century ago in St. Petersburg, Russia, the trio regularly performs a program consisting of Klezmer music from the traditional Eastern European Jewish wedding ceremony. 

The February program at the Brooks Center includes “Refractions” composed by Paul Schoenfield as the featured Jewish art piece. The trio also will perform Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat Major for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 11; as well as Brahms’ Clarinet Trio, Op. 114, known as one of the most beautiful works in chamber music repertoire.

The concert is offered free of charge by the Utsey Chamber Music Series Endowment. For more information, visit www.clemson.edu/Brooks or contact the Brooks box office at 864-656-7787 from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

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The Lillian and Robert Utsey Chamber Music Series
For the past 25 years, Clemson University’s award-winning Utsey Chamber Music Series has presented more than 100 free chamber music concerts and continues with four more strong concerts in its 26th year. Recognized for outstanding programming and community service, the series has earned national accolades for showcasing the best soloists and ensembles in the genre. Last season, seven broadcasts of selections from concerts were heard on Performance Today, reaching an estimated 1.75 million listeners. In 2007, Clemson University received an Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts, South Carolina’s highest arts award, for outstanding contributions made by the Utsey Chamber Music Series to the arts in the Palmetto State.