ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next in-person Midday Concert @ 1:00 on November 4. The concert will be performed by Sophie Shao, cello and John Blacklow, piano and will be in the theater of the Moore Community Center at 125 State Street in Ellsworth, Maine. Masks are suggested.

Cellist Sophie Shao, winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions. Shao has appeared as soloist throughout the United States and concerto performances include world premiere performances of Howard Shore's "Mythic Gardens" with Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra and Richard Wilson’s “The Cello Has Many Secrets” with Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Shao has given recitals in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Phillips Collection among many others. Her dedication to chamber music has conceived her popular “Sophie Shao and Friends” and she was a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two and a frequent guest at many festivals. Ms. Shao’s recordings include the Complete Bach Suites and Andre Previn’s Reflections for Cello and English Horn and Orchestra on EMI Classics. Her performance of Howard Shore’s “Mythic Gardens” was released in 2017 on Sony Classical along with Lang Lang’s performance of “Ruins and Memory”. A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao was a student of Shirley Trepel, former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony, David Soyer at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Aldo Parisot at Yale College, where she received a B.A. in Religious Studies and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. She is on the faculty of University of Connecticut and plays on a cello made by Hieronymus Amati made in 1700.

Hailed by the New York Times for his “powerful and eloquent” performances, pianist John Blacklow has been presented on many of the world's most renowned concert stages. In Europe, he has performed in the Musikverein in Vienna, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Albert Hall in London, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In the U.S., invited performances have included appearances on Carnegie Hall’s “Distinctive Debuts” series and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Zankel Hall, both the Kennedy Center and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. Recent seasons have also included performances in Birmingham (UK), Brussels, Paris, Lugano, Venice, Zurich, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, and Taipei. Blacklow has performed many times as keyboardist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Pierre Boulez, and for the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, as well as with the L.A. Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Society, in the Orchestra’s “Minimalist Jukebox” festival, and on the Green Umbrella New Music Series. His many highly acclaimed recordings include the complete Schumann Sonatas for violin and piano with Jennifer Frautschi, as well as many premieres of music by living composers. A Steinway Artist, Blacklow graduated from The Juilliard School and Harvard University, studying with John Browning, Leonard Shure, Bella Davidovich, and Tatiana Yampolsky. He currently serves as Professor of Piano at the University of Notre Dame and has recorded for Universal Music, Ltd., Bridge, Albany, and DG/iTunes.

For more information, please call 207-664-9258 or email: info@ellsworthcommunitymusic.org.

left to right: Sophie Shao, cello and John Blacklow, piano