Classical music lovers in Kansas City will have a rare opportunity to hear Noah Geller, concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony, play a solo benefit recital at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, the last night of Hanukkah, in a concert presented by Temple Israel of Greater Kansas City. The performance will be at the Rolling Hills Campus, 9300 Nall in Overland Park, where Temple Israel currently holds its worship services.
Geller will perform several selections, including Sonata no. 1 in G major, op. 78 by Johannes Brahms, and there will be a Question and Answer session immediately after the concert. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}He will be accompanied by Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich, director of collaborative piano at the International Center for Music at Park University.
Tickets for the concert and a reception preceding it are $65. A limited number of tickets priced at $150 include reserved seats, the pre-concert reception and dinner after the performance. Admission to the concert alone will be $30. Tickets can be purchased online at www.templeisraelkc.org or by calling Anita Hampshire at 816-833-0673.
The musical event came about as a result of the connection Geller made with the spiritual leader of Temple Israel, Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, who officiated at Geller’s June wedding.
Geller, a violinist, is an original member of Shir Ami, an ensemble dedicated to the music of composers who fell victim to the Holocaust. Shir Ami performed “Forbidden Music of the Holocaust: The Music of Composers Silenced by the Nazis,” in June at Kansas City’s Congregation Beth Torah.
Geller became the symphony’s concertmaster in 2012 at the invitation of Kansas City Symphony Music Director Michael Stern. The concertmaster holds the Miller Nichols Chair, and he also is an adjunct associate professor of violin at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance.
The winner of many competitions and prizes, Geller has performed throughout the United States and abroad. Before coming to Kansas City he was acting assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and he has performed at many music festivals and chamber music series. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Lisovskaya-Sayevich has presented numerous solo recitals and has played as a soloist with orchestras in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Russia. She has participated in numerous music festivals including the Bashmet Festival in Tours, France, “Wave 2000” in Japan, International Music Art Institute in Maine (USA), Killington Music Festival in Vermont (USA), “Ars Longa” and “Primavera Classica” in Moscow. She now performs extensively in chamber music ensembles.
She is director of collaborative piano at the International Center for Music at Park University.{/mprestriction}