Ludwig, Mark

Violist who graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1980 and became a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1982.

Other groups with whom he has worked include the Cambridge Quartet, Boston Pops Orchestra, the Hawthorne String Quartet, and the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra.

He appears on the following recordings: America; Chamber Music from Theresienstadt 1941-1945; Chris Botti in Boston; David L. Post: String Quartets Nos. 2-4; Haas/Krasa: String Quartets; Jazz for Lovers; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Petite Suite de Concert/Ballade in D minor/Spirituals/Quintet in A; Schulhoff: Concertos alla Jazz; Schulhoff/Schoenberg: Chamber Works; Silenced Voices: Victims of the Holocaust; A Splash of Pops; and, We Are All Connected: Berklee College of Music Reaches out to the Women of Darfur.

He directed and produced Silenced Voices: Music Banned by the Nazis in 1994. In 1996, he visited Terezin, the Czech Republic, on a Fulbright grant. Terezin was the site of a concentration camp during the second World War, and among its prisoners were composers whose music was forgotten or lost. One of Mark’s passions is rediscovering this music and reviving it in the public theater.

His social consciousness complements his musical endeavours, as it did in 1997, when he started MusicFOR/Sarajevo to help restore the academy of music there. In 2002, he was asked by the U.S. State Department to put together a series of benefit concerts to help flood victims in the Czech Republic.

The Hawthorne String Quartet toured the Czech Republic in September of 2004. One of the highlights was a concert at the United States embassy in Prague, where ambassador William Cabaniss, Jr., honoured Mark and his Terezin Chamber Music Foundation.

Mark served a residency at Skidmore College from 2005 to 2006. Here he premiered a new work written for him,”Meditation on Terezin”, and led the violas in the Skidmore Orchestra’s rendering of “Symphony No. 2” by Johannes Brahms.

On 10^th October 2007, the TCMF hosted its 10^th annual benefit concert at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. The HSQ were joined by pianists George Horner and Robert Spano and violist Rebecca Gitter in a recital of Gideon Klein’s “Fantasie and Fugue for String Quartet”, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478” and “Quintet in G minor, K. 516”, Josef Suk’s “Barcarole for String Quartet” and Karel Svenk’s “Kabarett: Proc Pak Mame Zvlastni Vuz” and “Lullaby”.

Mark was the guest soloist of the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra at Upper Darby Performing Arts Center on 27^th April 2008. Their program comprised Felix Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture, Op. 26” (“Fingal’sCave”), Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, K. 364” and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 9 in E flat major, Op. 70”.

The HSQ performed “Fragment No. 2” by Elliott Carter, “String Quartet No. 1” by Charles Ives and “String Quartet No. 13” (“Rosamunde”) by Franz Schubert at Skidmore College on 28^th February 2009.

On 20^th April 2009, they were joined by guitarist Joel Brown at Tang Gallery for a recital that included Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “Quintet for Guitar and Strings, Op. 143”, Pavel Haas’s “String Quartet No. 3, Op. 15”, Gideon Klein’s “Fantasie a Fuga” and Pavel Novak-Zemek’s “String Quartet No. 16” (“Bells of Light”).

Mark and cellist Sato Knudsen, clarinetist Thomas Martin, pianist Andre Previn and violinists Si-Jung Huang and Michael Ludwig delivered the world premiere of Previn’s “Clarinet Sonata” at Prague Spring 2010.

The same group, minus Previn and plus harpist Jessica Zhou, appeared at Symphony Hall in a performance of “Escape Routines” by Miroslav Srnka on 26^th September 2010.

The HSQ helped christen the new wing of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with a recital of Ives’ “String Quartet No. 1”, Thomas Oboe Lee’s “Morango… Almost a Tango”, and David Post’s “Quartet No. 3” on 20^th November 2010.

On 27^th March 2011, the HSQ with Martin and Zhou appeared at Centennial Auditorium in Somerville in a concert that included the aforementioned “Escape Routines” and David Post’s “Virtual Fantasie on a Chorale”.

This same ensemble gave a community chamber concert at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester on 3^rd April 2011. “Escape Routines” again made the cut, paired with “String Quartet No. 2, Op. 18” by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Mark was a special guest at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on 1^st September 2011 when he played Klein’s “Lullaby” to open the proceedings.

He performs a piece by Gideon Klein at the reception for the Delegation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum held in the Ukraine…

Sources:

Ludwig, Mark

Navigate Feenotes

Search Feenotes

Please donate to keep the site alive