Cheifetz and Guggenheim

October 24th, 2015 8:00pm at the Battelle Auditorium

Hamilton Cheifetz, cello and Janet Guggenheim, piano

Hamilton Cheifetz Web Site

About the Artists

Hamilton Cheifetz has been described in Fanfare Magazine as “unquestionably a magnificent player" for his solo recordings, and he has performed throughout North America and in Europe, Asia, and Australia. A native of Chicago, Cheifetz began playing cello when he was seven and first appeared as soloist with orchestra at the age of eleven. He studied with Janos Starker at Indiana University beginning at the age of 16 and later became the teaching assistant to Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at the University of Western Ontario. The winner of the Piatigorsky Prize at Tanglewood, he toured the United States and Canada on the Music from Marlboro concert series and performed at the White House for President Carter and the members of Congress. He presented a solo recital in the Sydney Opera House and has often been featured on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.” His playing was highlighted, together with jazz great Dave Frishberg and vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, on the CBS television special “Gary Larson’s Tales From the Far Side.” In 2001, he performed duos in concert with Janos Starker which were broadcast nationally on NPR, and he appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

Mr. Cheifetz presented solo recitals and gave master classes in China in the spring of 2010 in Beijing and Tianjin and returned to China for concerts in 2012. He has presented master classes in Korea and taught as Guest Lecturer at Indiana University. He has recorded for Koch, Delos, New World, and Gagliano Recordings and is featured on “Sound of the Five”, chamber music of Chen Yi, with Third Angle Ensemble. In the summer of 2014, he performed at Chamber Music Northwest and in Puebla, Mexico, and this summer he will be featured at Chamber Music Northwest and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Hamilton Cheifetz is professor of music at Portland State University and a founding member of the Florestan Trio, which is celebrating its 40th season this year. Together with pianist Janet Guggenheim and violinist Carol Sindell, the Florestan Trio has received international acclaim, including three tours of Japan and concerts in Europe. A dedicated teacher, Professor Cheifetz’s students have gone on to positions in orchestras such as the Boston Symphony and Atlanta Symphony. Hamilton Cheifetz plays a Matteo Goffriller cello made in 1704.

Hamilton Cheifetz can be heard live in concert in audio recordings and videos at his website at hamiltoncheifetz.com. He is a member of the Subud International Cultural Association, an organization dedicated to promoting original culture.

Janet Goodman Guggenheim began her piano studies with her father when she was five years old and, in her hometown, Spokane, also worked with Margaret Saunders Ott. At the age of ten she was accepted for summer master classes by the legendary piano teacher Rosina Lhevinne, who was her mentor for many years. She made her orchestral debut with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of sixteen. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she was awarded an Alfred Hertz Fellowship, she received her master's degree at Juilliard, where she was the recipient of the Josef Lhevinne scholarship. She coached under Dame Myra Hess in London and performed concerts throughout Europe. She was a recipient of a Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation grant. Prior to moving to Portland in 1995 she was on the music faculty at the University of California. She was founding pianist of the Chamber Soloists of San Francisco and has participated in numerous music festivals in the United States and Europe.

For over thirty years she collaborated with the celebrated violinist Itzhak Perlman, including concerts in Hong Kong, Taipei, Istanbul and Russia. The Moscow concert encores are included in the DVD, “Perlman Live in Russia”. She has been pianist numerous times on the Johnny Carson Show for Mr. Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, and Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg. Additionally she has collaborated with violinists Young Uck Kim, David Kim, Dong Suk Kang, Ivry Gitlis, Uto Ughi, Miriam Fried, Pinchas Zukerman, Stuart Canin, hornist Barry Tuckwell, cellists Pierre Fournier and Matt Haimovitz, and has recorded CDs of Rachmaninov and Prokofiev (Naxos) with cellist Michael Grebanier.