Share the Wonder: Silver Duo Concert

Noreen and Phillip Silver bring a wealth of performing experience to their highly regarded partnership. They have an enviable international reputation for chamber music playing of the highest caliber. The Duo, founded when Noreen and Phillip were students at the New England Conservatory of Music, has received accolades and acclaim from appreciative audiences and critics throughout Europe, Israel, the United States, Scandinavia, and the Czech Republic. Their imaginative programming, in which lesser-known works are given exposure alongside established repertoire favorites, has proven very popular and made them much in demand.

For this December concert at the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Silver Duo chose musical selections which illuminate family and friendship. Antonin Dvorak and Josef Suk initially shared a teacher-student relationship, which broadened into friendship and ultimately family with the marriage of Suk to Dvorak’s daughter.

Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, siblings in a close family of extraordinary musical precocity, were devoted to each other. While Felix enjoyed great success in his lifetime, his older sister Fanny was less well known. The friendship between Felix Mendelssohn and Ignaz Moscheles was noteworthy. These two illustrious 19th-century musicians shared a common artistic and personal outlook, one that resulted in a life-long friendship and lasting devotion.

Noreen Silver has been described by Michael Tumelty in the Glasgow Herald as “an extraordinarily soulful player” who “demonstrates an uncommon depth of feeling and imagination.” Since 1999 she has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine, where she directs the Chamber Music program, teaches cello and Music Theory. Noreen also holds the position of Principal Cellist in the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions. She grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. She was fortunate to pursue independent study with the great cellists Jacqueline du Pré and Pierre Fournier. Much in demand as a teacher, Noreen has also served on the faculties of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Strathclyde University.

Phillip Silver is an internationally acclaimed solo and collaborative artist who has performed in many of the world’s leading concert halls. The Frankfurter Rundschau described his playing as “virtuosic,” Haaretz commented upon his “…superb technical ability that enthralled the audience with melody, lyricism and poetry,” while the Boston Globe called him “an international collaborative pianist of the first rank,” and the Jerusalem Post described him as “a superb accompanist whose work is marked by sensitivity, felicity of style and an inborn musicianship which unerringly directs him to the most appropriate musical gesture.”

Cost: Free to the public