The iPalpiti Festival, an annual festival celebrating musicians at the start of their careers, will return to Los Angeles for its 27th season on July 22-27.
The theme of this year’s festival is “On Wings of Peace.” Twenty-three musicians from 19 countries — all laureates of international competitions — will be performing five concerts featuring music by Chopin, Dvorak and Mendelssohn. The festival concludes at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena on July 27 with a program also called “On Wings of Peace” and includes three klezmer songs written by the Syrian American composer, Kareem Roustom
In addition to the ticketed performances, the ensemble, under the leadership of Maestro Eduard Schmieder, will open their rehearsals to the public July 22-26 at the Beverly Hills Library Auditorium.
There will be eight Jewish musicians, including three from Israel performing at this year’s festival. It’s part of the festival’s mission to unite people through music. It will also feature the U.S. premiere of the “Freedom Quartet” by Finnish cellist Jaani Helander. There will be performances of works by Israeli composer Mark Kopytman, including his “Kaddish” for cello and strings, dedicated to the memory of victims of Oct. 7.
The July 24 performance of “Freedom Quartet” and Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C major (“The Cello Quintet”) and is dedicated to the late cellist Lynn Harrell. An internationally-renowned cellist, Harrell was a close friend of Maestro Schmieder. He was involved in the early years of iPalpiti and helped to establish it as an annual tradition in Los Angeles. Harrell passed away in 2020 at the age of 76.
The Journal spoke with Laura Schmieder, the festival’s director, about the iPalpiti’s mission and what audiences can expect this year.
JEWISH JOURNAL: With eight Jewish musicians participating this year, including three from Israel, in what ways will the show highlight and celebrate them?
LAURA SCHMIEDER: We never specifically plan which countries musicians are coming from. There are no formal auditions. The qualification is ‘talent only.’ Initially, all young musicians were selected only by our Artistic Advisors referrals. Musicians, however, in addition to acceptance on performance, are required to submit an essay, “My Life in Music,” with some musicians submitting quite extensive essays – like Cameron Carpenter and Karina Canellakis who became world’s leading organist and conductor respectively – on their vision of their place in the music world. When we announced the 2024 festival to our alumni, quite a few responded with an enthusiastic ‘yes please, we want to come.’ It happened so that three were Israelis, and others are Jewish from Italy, France, Ireland and Lithuania. Most of the time we don’t even know they are Jewish until they come to L.A., come to our home for Friday night dinner before the big concert on Saturday – from 2004 to 2019 held at Disney Hall — and only when we see the candles and challah do we discover who is the member of the tribe. This year having Jewish musicians — especially from Israel — is very emotional and significant.
This year having Jewish musicians — especially from Israel — is very emotional and significant. – Laura Schmieder
JJ: The festival will feature the U.S. premiere of the “Freedom Quartet” by Finnish cellist Jaani Helander and performances of works by Israeli composer Mark Kopytman. Can you share more about these pieces and why they were chosen for this year’s program?
LS: Jaani has been a cellist of iPalpiti since 2014 and has been on tours in Salzburg and Israel. When flying from Helsinki to Tel Aviv, his flight ‘neighbor’ asked him why he was flying to Israel. When Jaani replied he was on tour with iPalpiti, the person said, ‘this is whyI am coming, I am flying specifically to hear iPalpiti concerts.” – Jaani was flabbergasted. He is currently a member of the Helsinki Philharmonic, a cello professor at Sibelius Academy, and co-director of the Helsinki Chamber Music Festival with iPalpitian alumni violinist Kreeta-Julia Heikkila. Upon his commitment to come this summer, I asked him if he would like to play solo or chamber. He offered to play his own cello sonata. I checked his site and found that he composed and performed this Freedom Quartet. The complexity, drive, and emotional intensity moved me deeply and I asked if he would like to have a US premiere of his quartet. Of course he was elated. Other alumni, principals of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra violinist Yevgenia Pikovsky and violist Dmitri Ratush, and Aleksandr Snytkin (violinist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra) were eager to learn this exciting composition upon hearing it. So, the audiences in LA will be privileged to hear this breathtaking composition performed by four leading musicians of major philharmonics, all iPalpiti distinguished alumni.
JJ: The July 24th concert is dedicated to the late cellist Lynn Harrell, can you speak a big about him?
LS: The July 24 concert is a double and it is in the second concert that bears the dedication to Lynn Harrell. Harrell and Eduard Schmieder were both newly arrived professors at USC in 1986 and became friends from day one. Their last professional collaboration was at the New York Summit Festival where Eduard conducted the festival orchestra and Lynn was the soloist in the [Joseph] Haydn concerto. The greatest cellist of his time, Lynn had as big a soul, with his six-foot-three-inch stature and his playing. When we founded iPalpiti Young Artists International in 1998, the foremost musicians of the time, starting with Yehudi Menuhin, eagerly joined as artistic advisors, as well as Lynn, who wrote, ‘Music is a chain reaction that reaches down through generations. Musicians are its links. It is wonderful to know that young musicians have a hand held out to them that they, in their turn, will reach out. Bravo iPalpiti Artists International!”
JJ: What are some of the most significant changes or milestones you’ve witnessed, and what do you envision for its future?
LS: Having celebrated 10th and 20th anniversaries — and close to finishing the third decade —playing in the most prestigious venues from Concertgebouw [in Amsterdam] to Carnegie Hall to Mozarteum and beyond, we are gratified to see that our talented alumni take the lead into the future as soloists, ensemblists, orchestral leaders, and creators of the festivals in their own countries to pass on great traditions of classical music and spread the peace and humanity through music.
JJ: Is there anything else you’d like Jewish Journal readers to know about the upcoming festival?
LS: The ending of the Maestro’s letter could be very appropriate: ‘At the time when the spiritual dimension of the creation and re-creation of music is evaporating, it is our intention to replenish people’s souls with loving energy, beliefs, and ideas, by infusing music with positive emotional energy.’
The 27th iPalpiti Music Festival will be held July 22-27. For tickets, visit their website: https://ipalpiti.org/
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