Israeli cellist Maya Beiser performs Feb. 7 & 8 in La Jolla

By Eileen Wingard

Eileen Wingard
Eileen Wingard

SAN DIEGO — Dubbed by the New Yorker as a “Cello Godess,” credited by NPR with “a stunning command of her instrument,” and lauded by the New York Times for her “ferocious energy and talent,” Israeli cellist, Maya Beiser, will be the featured soloist in the La Jolla Symphony’s February 7, 7:30 p.m. and February 8, 2:00 p.m. concerts. These will take place at Mandeville Hall on the campus of UCSD.

Beiser will be performing Azul  by the Argentinian-born Jewish composer, Osvaldo Golijov. This work, originally written for Yo-Yo Ma, is for amplified cello, enlarged accordion and two percussionists, accompanied by orchestra. Mark Danisovzsky will be playing the accordion and the percussionists will be Fiona Digney and Stepen Solook.

Beiser will also perform Khose Buon, by UCSD composer, Chinary Ung. Ung wrote this piece in 1980 for unaccompanied cello. It was his response to the atrocities of the Pot Pol and the Khmer Rouge in his native Cambodia.

The Israeli cellist was last heard with the La Jolla Symphony in 2007, when she performed Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

Her first cello lessons were on a kibbutz in northern Israel, where she was raised. While serving in the Israeli Defense Force, she broke the ban against women in the military string quartet by threatening to go to the press if she were not allowed to audition. Her musical inspiration comes from both rock artists and classical musicians, as she continues to straddle both worlds.

Like most outstanding Israeli musicians, Beiser was an America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship recipient.

Her performances will fill the first half of the La Jolla Symphony program under the direction of their innovative conductor, Steven Schick.

The concert will conclude with Nielsen’s Inextinguishable Symphony, written during the darkest hours of World War I.  The four movement work, played without pause, represents conflict, characterized by timpani drums at opposite ends of the stage. The symphony finally resolves in a heroic conclusion.

For ticket information, call 858-534-4637.

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Eileen Wingard is a former violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.  Your comment may be posted in the space below or sent to eileen.wingard@sdjewewishworld.com