Maria Larionoff, violin, and Robin McCabe, piano, begin their traversal of the complete, magnificent Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano with a duo recital of three sonatas.

Series Background: Artist-in-Residence Barry Lieberman, artistic director and founder of The American String Project, presents a series of recitals and master classes by noted performers, including Seattle Symphony players, touring symphony musicians, young innovators, and rising classical music stars.

BIOS

Maria Larionoff, violin

Former Seattle Symphony concertmaster Maria Larionoff has appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle, Yakima and Port Angeles symphonies, the Orquesta Sinfónica Carlos Chávez, and the University of Washington and San Francisco chamber orchestras.

Also versatile as a violist, she has collaborated in many chamber music festivals.

In May 2002, with her husband, University of Washington double bassist Barry Lieberman, she launched the immensely successful American String Project, a conductorless string orchestra comprised of concertmasters, professors and distinguished soloists from around the world.

She plays on a 1775 Guadagnini (the ex- Lorand) on loan from the family of Dr Benum W. Fox of Chicago.

Robin McCabe, piano

Celebrated American pianist Robin McCabe has established herself as one of America’s most communicative and persuasive artists. McCabe’s involvement and musical sensibilities have delighted audiences across the United States, Europe, Canada, and in seven concert tours of the Far East. The United States Department of State sponsored her two South American tours, which were triumphs both artistically and diplomatically.

Her recordings have received universal acclaim. She was commissioned to record four albums for the award-winning company Grammofon AB BIS in Stockholm, which remain distributed internationally, including the CD “Robin McCabe Plays Liszt” (AB BIS No. 185).

In addition, McCabe is a dedicated arts ambassador and advocate for arts audience development, frequently addressing arts organizations across the country. With colleague Craig Sheppard, she has launched the highly successful Seattle Piano Institute, an intense summer “immersion experience” for gifted and aspiring classical pianists that enters its third season in July 2012.

The winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the International Concert Artists Guild Competition and a Rockefeller Foundation grant, McCabe was the subject of a lengthy New Yorker magazine profile, “Pianist’s Progress,” later expanded into a book of the same title.

In 2005, to celebrate its 100th year as an institution, The Juilliard School selected McCabe as one of 100 alumni from 20,000 currently living to be profiled in its centenary publication recognizing distinction and accomplishments in the international world of music, dance, and theater.

McCabe performs regularly throughout the United States, and in September of 2011 she made her first visit to South Korea.  She appears often as an invited jurist for international piano competitions, most recently in New Orleans, San Antonio, and Vancouver, Canada.

Barry Lieberman

Barry Lieberman is now in his twentieth year as double bass faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. He began his career at age twenty-one as principal bass of the Winnipeg Symphony.  In 1976 Zubin Mehta appointed him Associate Principal bass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a post he held for seventeen years.

In l994, Lieberman created the series “Barry Lieberman and Friends” at the University of Washington.  The series combines the talents of members of the Seattle Symphony (most notably his wife, Maria Larionoff, former Concertmaster of the SSO), the university, guest artists, and students from both the university and preparatory levels.  The series has met with great success and critical acclaim. Featured artists have included Gary Karr, Thomas Martin (Principal bass, London Symphony,) Hal Robinson (Principal bass, Philadelphia Orchestra,) Joel Quarrington (Principal bass, Toronto Symphony), and many other prominent double bassists from around the world. 

In 2002 he debuted The American String Project (www.theamericanstringproject.org).  The Project is a unique, conductorless string orchestra made up of some of the country’s best concertmasters, soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers.

Lieberman is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Cleveland Institute of Music.  He and his wife Maria Larionoff, the former Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, live with their Golden Retriever Mia and their Ibizan Hound “Crabcake” in a house remodeled and decorated by Lieberman in perfect mid-century modern style.