4pm: “Music Our Mothers Love” with Orli Shaham and Deborah Buck

Sonatina in G Major for Violin and Piano

I Allegro risoluto

II Larghetto

III Molto vivace

IV Allegro

Romances for Solo Piano, Op. 21

Andante

Sonata No. 8 in G Major for Violin and Piano

I Allegro assai

II Tempo di minuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso

III Allegro vivace

Suite for Violin and Piano

Mother and Child & Gamin  

Deborah Buck, violin– Praised by The Strad for her “surpassing degree of imagination and vibrant sound,” violinist Deborah Buck has built a rich and varied musical career as a chamber musician, including 17 years with the celebrated Lark Quartet; as well as a concertmaster; pedagogue; soloist; recording artist; and artistic director.

Highlights of recent performances include recitals with pianist Orli Shaham at the Kauffman Music Center’s Musical Storefront series (NYC), Music for Food (NYC), and at Colorado’s Telluride Music Festival and Music off the Hook Arts Music Festival. Buck was awarded a 2019 Music Faculty Incentive Grant by the SUNY Purchase Conservatory that facilitated two commissions: John Harbison’s DeBut for solo violin, and Fantasia on Beethoven’s Spring Sonata for violin and piano by Bruce Adolphe. In October 2021, she joined Grammy Award-winning producer, Silas Brown, to record Harbison’s Suite for Solo Violin for a forthcoming album.

Buck made her Lincoln Center concerto debut in 1997 with the Little Orchestra Society of New York. As a recitalist, she has performed at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.; the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago for WFMT; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and over the airways via “Sunday’s Live” on Los Angeles’s KKGO. Buck served as the tenured concertmaster of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 2008-2013, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Guild and St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra (L.A), as well as many noteworthy ensembles in the northeast United States. The Lark Quartet (2002-2019) was especially recognized for its extensive commissioning and boundary-pushing programming. They were one of the first quartets to offer programs featuring quartet plus percussion, clarinet, voice, and piano, and recorded works by American composers such as John Harbsion, Jennifer Higdon, Aaron J. Kernis, and Paul Moravec; many of which are included in their extensive discography found on Endeavor, Koch, Arabesque, and Bridge Records.

Buck has also recorded extensively for the motion picture and television industry, including featured violin solos that helped breathe life back into the re-mastered American Silent Film classic, The Scarlet Letter (Turner Classic Movies). Her national television debut came by way of a featured guest spot on the Family Channel’s It Takes Two, hosted by Dick Clark.

 A seasoned leader, Buck was appointed as Concertmaster of Orchestra Lumos (formerly, Stamford Symphony) in 2022. She has also held the position of Head of Strings and Chamber Music Program and Assistant Professor of Violin at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music since 2014. Since 2011, Buck has served as Co-Executive Director and concert series curator of the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont.

A native of Los Angeles, Deborah Buck spent her primary years studying with Michael and Irina Tseitlin. She was a recipient of both a Starling scholarship and a Martin Kaltman Foundation scholarship while earning her Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki. Buck also holds a Master of Music Degree from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Robert Lipsett and was awarded the Jascha Heifetz Violin Scholarship. Her many awards also include a Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Corwin Foundation Grant, a Leni Fe Bland Career Grant, Winner of the National Contemporary Record Society Competition.

Learn more at www.deborahbuck.net.

Orli Shaham, piano– A consummate musician recognized for her grace, subtlety, and brilliance, the pianist Orli Shaham is hailed by critics on four continents. The New York Times called her a “brilliant pianist,” The Chicago Tribune referred to her as “a first-rate Mozartean,” and London’s Guardian said Ms. Shaham’s playing at the Proms was “perfection.”Orli Shaham has performed with many of the major orchestras around the world, and has appeared in recital internationally, from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. She is Artistic Director of Pacific Symphony’s chamber series Café Ludwig in California since 2007 and was Artist in Residence at Vancouver Symphony (USA) in 2022-2024.

Highlights of Ms. Shaham’s 2024-2025 concert season include Mozart’s Concerto No. 20 with Princeton Symphony, Mozart’s Concerto No. 17 with Utah Symphony and Hudson Valley Symphony, the Beethoven Triple Concerto with her brother, violinist Gil Shaham and a performance of a concerto written for her by Steven Mackey at Tanglewood. Chamber recitals across the country include Dumbarton Oaks, Music at Menlo, La Jolla, and more.

In 2024, Orli Shaham released the final volumes of the complete piano sonatas by Mozart to high critical acclaim, with the entire collection available as a limited-edition box set. Her discography includes over a dozen titles on Deutsche Gramophone, Sony, Canary Classics and other labels.

Orli Shaham is on the piano and chamber music faculty at The Juilliard School and is a Co-Host and Creative for the national radio program From the Top. She is also Artistic Director of the interactive children’s concert series, Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard, which she founded in 2010, and is chair of the Board of Trustees of Kaufman Music Center.

Orli Shaham is a Steinway Artist.