Violin Prodigy Scheduled for UMaine Concert

Acclaimed violinist Ryu Goto, brother of renowned violinist Midori, will perform at the University of Maine July 30 as part of the second annual Chamber Music Institute.

Goto, who recently debuted at Carnegie Hall, will play works by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns and Ravel, accompanied by pianist Carmen Rodriguez Peralta of Boston. The concert begins at 7 p.m. at Minsky Recital Hall in the Class of 1944 Hall. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children, students and seniors, and includes a dessert reception.

Some 30 chamber musicians from around the world, ranging in age from nine to 22, will attend the Chamber Music Institute. Ryu Goto will help lead master classes with institute founders Anatole Wieck, violinist, conductor and UMaine School of Performing Arts professor, and his colleague Akiko Hirose-Silver, a respected teacher and performer with the Norwalk (Connecticut) Symphony Orchestra.

Goto has performed throughout Japan, Europe and the United States, and records under the Deutsche Grammophon label. He played at the World Trade Center site during the official Sept. 11 commemoration ceremony in 2003 and performed at the peace memorial concert in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2005. The 22-year-old Harvard graduate counts many musicians among his influences, including Jimi Hendrix.

“He’s a rising star and has a brilliant career in front of him,” Wieck says. “It will be inspirational for music students and audience members alike to hear him perform.”

Wieck and Hirose-Silver’s Chamber Music Institute continues the legacy of famed American violinist Joseph Fuchs, with whom they both studied at the Juilliard School. Fuchs was instrumental in restarting the Music School at Kneisel Hall in 1953 in honor of his teacher Franz Kneisel, and ran a summer chamber music program at the University of Maine in the 1970s.

Contact: Anatole Wieck, (207) 581-1260