The Zukerman Trio
The Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival has, over 45 years, become the reason to be on the Plateau in summer.
On June 28, that means one place in particular: the Martin Lipscomb Theater at the Highlands Performing Arts Center, where the 45th Anniversary Opening Gala Concert begins at 5:00 P.M. with The Zukerman Trio.
The chance to hear Pinchas Zukerman in a room this size does not come along often.
He arrived in the United States from Tel Aviv in 1962 to study with Ivan Galamian at Juilliard and has since built a career that spans more than five decades, more than 100 recordings, two Grammy Awards, and 21 nominations. He now chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music and serves as Artistic and Principal Education Partner of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
What distinguishes his playing is its directness – phrases built to carry, not decorate, with an emphasis on line and structure over display.
Cellist Amanda Forsyth meets him on equal footing. A Juno Award-winner and the daughter of composer Malcolm Forsyth, she trained with William Pleeth in London and Harvey Shapiro at Juilliard, then went on to serve as principal cellist of both the Calgary Philharmonic and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. She performs on a 1699 Carlo Giuseppe Testore cello, an instrument that brings warmth and depth to the trio’s sound. Her role is not accompaniment; she anchors and shapes the texture from within.
At the piano is Shai Wosner, an Israeli-American musician known for clarity and control. A student of Emanuel Ax at Juilliard and now on the faculty at the Longy School of Music, Wosner has earned an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award.
Within the trio, he provides the structural backbone – defining pace, supporting transitions, and keeping the ensemble tightly aligned without overpowering it.
The trio grew out of the Zukerman Chamber Players and has spent the past decade performing on major international stages, including Carnegie Hall.
A champagne reception with the artists follows the performance, sponsored by Ruth Gershon and Sandy Cohn.
Tickets are $80 for the concert and $125 for the concert and reception. Reservations are required and may be made by calling (828) 526-9060 or at h-cmusicfestival.org.
At 45, the festival opens its regular season with musicians who don’t need an introduction so much as the right room. This is that room.
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