TOPELLI PIANO TRIO
Limor Toren-Immerman, Violin
Thomas Loewenheim, Cello
Peter Klimo, Piano
Free Admission, Seating is Limited. Please RSVP by 12/11/2024 by calling 559-222-4900 or email gwen@fresnosteinway.com
Program
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 ……………………..…………………… Felix Mendelssohn
I. Molto allegro agitato (1809-1847)
II. Andante con moto tranquillo
III. Scherzo. Leggiero e vivace
IV. Finale. Allegro assai appassionato
Piano Trio in A minor ………………………………………………………………Maurice Ravel
I. Modéré (1875-1937)
II. Pantoum: Assez vif
III. Passacaille: Très large
IV. Final: Animé
LIMOR TOREN-IMMERMAN has won numerous regional and national competitions and has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout United States, Israel, and Russia. Her concert career has additionally taken her through Europe, Middle East, Japan, and Canada, performing the American premiere of Leonid Desyatnikov’s Russian Seasons, and violin concerti of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, and Bach. She has collaborated with many internationally acclaimed artists, such as Rachel Barton, Lynn Harrell, Paul Coletti, Martin Beaver, Steven Tenenbom, Erika Raum, Patrick Gallois, and Guillaume Sutre, to name a few. She has held principal positions in many Southern California Orchestras and has performed under the batons of Zubin Mehta, Kurt Mazur, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Zanderling, and Charles Dutoit, among many others. Presently, she serves as Concertmaster for the Mozart Classical and Palm Springs Opera in the Park orchestras in Southern California, and performs as a Guest Concertmaster with the Fresno Philharmonic and other Southern California orchestras.
As a diverse chamber music player, Ms. Toren-Immerman performs music from Baroque to the twenty first century and is a member of the Fresno State Topelli Piano Trio and Trio Accento, who’s début CD Extant Blues, was released on Albany Records in December 2019. A recent collaboration with an acclaimed pianist Hatem Nadim has been commemorated in a new CD: Johannes Brahms – Violin Sonatas, released on Albany Records in March of 2022. Her latest CD Timeless Rhapsody presenting Solo Violin Sonatas by Bach, Bartók, and Ben-Haim is scheduled for release in June of 2024.
An enthusiastic educator, Dr. Toren-Immerman currently holds a Professor of Music in Violin and Viola position on the faculty of the California State University, Fresno. Prior to this appointment she served on the faculty of Shepherds University School of Music in Los Angeles and as a visiting Professor of Music at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She has also been a regularly featured guest of international music festivals, such as the Colburn School Summer Chamber Music Intensive, the International Music Academy and Competition in Cremona, Italy, Chamber Music Unbound in Mammoth Lakes, California, Fresno Opera and Orchestra Summer Academy in Fresno, CA, Chamber Music Roundup in Fort Worth, Texas, Music in the Mountains Festival and Conservatory in Durango, Colorado, InterHarmony International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy, and CSU Summer Music.
Dr. Toren-Immerman began her formal musical education in Russia, at the Moscow Gnessins’ College of Music. She holds Bachelor of Music and Artist Diploma from Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, Israel, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Throughout her career, Ms. Toren-Immerman has been distinguished and honored: she was the recipient of the USC Associates Musical Scholars Award, the USC Chamber Orchestra Ensemble Award, the Baroness Leni Fe Bland Award, the H.I.A.S. Award, and of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship and Jascha Heifetz Endowed Violin Scholarship. She was also elected to join honorable societies such as Mu Phi Epsilon and Pi Kappa Lambda.
THOMAS LOEWENHEIM maintains an international career that combines cello performance, conducting, and teaching. He has toured North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, performing as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.
A devoted educator, Loewenheim is frequently invited to present master classes both nationally and internationally. He is Professor of Cello and Director of Orchestras at California State University, Fresno, Music Director and conductor of the Youth Orchestras of Fresno, and founding Artistic Director of the FOOSA Festival/Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy.
Noted for his ability to lead any orchestra to peak performance level efficiently and enjoyably, Loewenheim is much in demand on the honor orchestra circuit. His unique combination of old-school reverence for music’s history and new-age passion for neglected and under-appreciated works has led to invitations to conduct throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. As conductor he has collaborated with numerous soloists, among them violinists Vadim Gluzman, Richard Lin, and Rachel Barton Pine, cellists Lynn Harrell, Clive Greensmith, and Brinton Smith, and pianists Peter Klimo, Steven Vanhauwaert, and Jeremy Denk.
As a cello soloist in his own right, he has most recently premiered Daniel Akiva’s Requests for Cello and Orchestra, a concerto dedicated specifically to Loewenheim. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with a wide range of musicians from cellist Lynn Harrell to violinist Martin Beaver to pianist Evelyne Brancart. Lately, with violinist Limor Toren-Immerman and pianist Peter Klimo, he has founded the Topelli Piano Trio.
Loewenheim has been a guest artist at prominent music festivals around the world, among them the Montecito International Music Festival, the Music in the Mountains Festival and Conservatory in Durango, Colorado, and, in California, both CSU Summer Arts in Fresno, and the Chamber Music Unbound Festival in Mammoth Lakes…as well as his own FOOSA Festival/Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy.
Loewenheim’s discography includes conducted works as well as works for cello solo. Newly released is a CD on the Tonsehen label of Loewenheim conducting Mahler 5 with the FOOSA Philharmonic. Upcoming recordings will feature the same orchestra in two works from the first quarter of the 20th century: Sergei Lyapunov's Piano Sextet and Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grosso. An upcoming solo CD features virtuosic works for cello by Bach, Handel, Rózsa, and Ysaÿe.
Loewenheim earned a doctorate in cello performance from the renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he studied with Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and was mentored in conducting by David Effron. He received a master’s degree from the University of Michigan under Erling Blöndal Bengtsson and a bachelor’s degree from the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance in Jerusalem. He plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume cello made in 1848.
Hungarian-American pianist PETER KLIMO has been fortunate to take his performing talents around the world and is always looking to share his passion for music and the piano. Following his 2nd prize victory at the 2014 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, Peter embarked on several concert tours, notably throughout Holland, the US, and South Korea. Having participated in several other international competitions as well, Peter won 3rd prize at the 2019 Bartók World Piano Competition, 3rd prize at the 2019 Bösendorfer International Piano Competition, as well as special prizes at the 2017 Maj Lind and 2014 Wideman International Piano Competitions.
Recent performance highlights include a concerto performance with the Youth Orchestras of Fresno conducted by Thomas Loewenheim, chamber music as part of CSUN’s annual Chamberfest, a solo recital at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington D.C. as part of the Embassy Recital Series, solo recitals at both California State University Northridge and California State University, Fresno, a concerto performance in Budapest, Hungary with conductor Nimrod Pfeffer and the Hungarian National Philharmonic, and two further concerto performances with the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra. Peter has performed concerti in Budapest with the HNPO under the baton of Zsolt Hamar as well as with Gergely Ménesi and the Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra; Phoenix, Arizona, with Matthew Kasper and the Phoenix Symphony; Seoul, South Korea with Hee-Chuhn Choi and the KBS Symphony Orchestra as well as with Dae-Jin Kim and the Seoul Arts Center Festival Orchestra; Los Angeles, California with John Roscigno and the 52nd American Liszt Society Festival Orchestra; and Columbus, Georgia with George del Gobbo and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
Also an avid chamber musician, Peter toured with violinist Tessa Lark in the US and Holland, and with the Belenus Quartet in Austria and Holland. He performed Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., at Sprague Hall at the Yale School of Music with all members playing from memory, throughout Holland in 2016 with winners of the International Tromp Percussion Competition, as well as at the Dakota Sky International Piano Festival. Most recently, Peter and his colleagues Limor Toren-Immerman and Thomas Loewenheim formed Trio Topelli, with performances throughout California.
A Los Angeles native, he began his piano studies at the age of nine with Vicharini and Rosanna Marzaroli and continued with Dr. Tyler Tom while attending the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Peter earned his bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music studying with Dr. Nelita True, his master’s degree from the Yale School of Music studying with Peter Frankl, an Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University with Dr. Tamás Ungár, and his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music with Alan Chow. Passionate about education and sustaining the art form, Peter has given masterclasses at Cal State University Northridge, Azusa Pacific University, Hardin Simmons University, at both Los Angeles and Orange County High Schools for the Arts, for the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic Society and the Steinway Society of Western Pennsylvania and served as a faculty member for the 2013 inaugural year of the DBS Summer Music Festival in Hong Kong. He is frequently called to adjudicate competitions both local and international, has maintained a private studio in Los Angeles, and is Assistant Professor of Piano at California State University, Fresno.
