Born in Budapest, Hungary, Zsolt has established himself as an international soloist and chamber musician. Zsolt is in his seventh season as Concertmaster of the Topeka Symphony and is currently professor of violin and viola at Washburn University. He is also a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory Academy and performs regularly in the Kansas City Symphony. His new concert series "Zsolt Eder and Friends" launched in 2018. Zsolt's interest in different musical cultures and traditions led him to establish folk music group Ensemble Amarcord in 2014. He has a particular passion for educational outreach, having worked for City Music Cleveland and Harmony Project Kansas City. He now works for the Musical Bridges Program at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, providing free one-on-one lessons for inner-city children. Zsolt enjoys collaborating with Kansas City groups like Ensemble Iberica, the Kansas City Baroque Consortium and Spire Chamber Ensemble. He is a graduate of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Eman Chalshotori is currently the principal cellist for the Topeka Symphony and associate principal for the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. He earned his Bachelor of Music in cello performance at SFA in 2012 and his masters and performer’s certificate from the UMKC Conservatory at University of Missouri - Kansas City.
IN THIS PERFORMANCE created by Alice Wiley Pickett for actors, singers, and the orchestra, we will enter the deeply emotional and intensely creative world of French composer Maurice Ravel, who lived during the rich explosion of arts and sciences in Paris in the first part of the 20th century. Through Ravel’s own words and the words of both his most beloved friends and his harshest critics, and through his revolutionary and wildly, beautifully inventive music, we will paint an impressionistic picture—at times whimsical and at other times tragic—of this enigmatic genius.
Music of Maurice Ravel
Including Bolero, Daphnis and Chloe,
Piano Concerto in G, Ma mere l’Oye,
Pavane for a Dead Princess, Alborada del Gracioso