Guest violinist teams with CU's Xak Bjerken for April 10 concert

Cornell pianist Xak Bjerken has invited Bulgarian-born violinist Vesselin Gellev to return to Ithaca to play a concert featuring the complete Shostakovich Preludes, op. 34, "Due Pezzi" by Luciano Berio, "Vier Stücke" by Anton Webern, "Five Melodies" by Sergei Prokofiev and "Road Movies" by John Adams Sunday, April 10, at 8 p.m., in Barnes Hall. Gellev enthralled Barnes Hall audiences in 1999 and 2000 with his artistic and technical virtuosity.

Vesselin Gellev Photo Provided

Since his concerto debut at age 9, Gellev has performed as a soloist with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Plovdiv Philharmonic, Manhattan Virtuosi and the Idyllwild International Chamber Orchestra, among others. He served as concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy from 1998 until 2001 and guest concertmaster of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2002. An active performer on the New York new music scene, Gellev often has participated in the Focus! and Summergarden festivals and he performed the U.S. premiere of Laszlo Tihanyi's "Irlichtsspiel" for violin and orchestra with the New Juilliard Ensemble. He also has performed with Continuum and is a regular member of Ensemble Sospeso. Gellev is on the violin and chamber music faculty of the Eleazar de Carvalho Summer Festival in Brazil and was recently appointed concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. He holds bachelor and master of music degrees from the Juilliard School in New York.

Pianist Bjerken, associate professor of music at Cornell, has given numerous solo and chamber music recitals in Europe and the United States and has appeared as soloist with, among others, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Bjerken has held a chamber music residency at the Tanglewood Music Center and is the pianist of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet. "High Rise," a disc of solo works by seven living composers, was released in January 2001 by CRI. Bjerken earned his bachelor's degree cum laude at the University of California-Los Angeles, and his master's and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute.