FORBIDDEN FRUIT: BSO cellist Mickey Katz and pianist Jane Hua at Faneuil Hall

CIC Friends & Colleagues:

Join the BRAI on Sunday for a virtual concert from Fanueil Hall!

FORBIDDEN FRUIT: BSO cellist Mickey Katz and pianist Jane Hua

6 pm (premiere), 7 pm (Zoom Q&A)

RSVP required on Eventbrite: https://forbiddenconcert.eventbrite.com/
Free registration is available. Ticket purchases and donations are shared by BRAI and the artists.

Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest is an adage that refers in part to love and in part to the attractions of things that are proscribed. Join Ballets Russes Arts Initiative for a virttual concert exploring both aspects. The program features one composition inspired by a vibrant and doomed love affair, and another that was a wedding present, while also including numerous works explicitly banned or more subtly buried by Soviet authorities for many decades.

BSO cellist Mickey Katz and pianist Jane Hua perform music by FRANCK, RACHMANINOFF, LIGETI, WEINBERG and SHOSTAKOVICH. Their performance, recorded live earlier this month, is part of a series being filmed by BRAI at historic Faneuil Hall (built 1742) thanks to a collaboration with the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (est. 1638). The performance, lasts an hour and is followed by a live virtual Q&A with the musicians. If you cannot join live, worry not: the concert can also be viewed on demand through March 7.

MICKEY KATZ has been a cellist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2004. A native of Israel, he has distinguished himself as a solo performer, chamber musician, and contemporary music specialist. He received the Presser Music Award in Boston, the Karl Zeise Prize as a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, and won first prizes at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Competition and the Rubin Academy Competition in Tel Aviv. A graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston, Mickey is now a faculty member there, as well at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

As soloist, he has performed with several Israeli orchestras and locally with the Civic Symphony of Boston, Symphony Pro Musica, and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. As a chamber musician, Mickey has appeared in such venues as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, and Salle Gaveau in Paris, as well as all the major venues of Israel. He participated in the Marlboro Festival and was invited to take part in the Musicians from Marlboro tour. He has collaborated with distinguished players such as violinists Pinkhas Zukerman and Gil Shaham, violists Tabea Zimmermann and Kim Kashkashian, members of the Juilliard and Guarneri string quartets, and pianist Gilbert Kalish. Mickey is a passionate interpreter of new music, making several American and Boston premieres of Elliott Carter's music, and also working with composers György Kurtág, John Corigliano, Leon Kirchner, and John Harbison in performing their music.

HUA YE (JANE) is a pianist born and raised in Urumqi, China. After earning a bachelor's degree in journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University, she moved to the U. S. to pursue her dream of classical music. Studying on full scholarship, Jane earned two M.M. degrees in Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano at Kansas State University and the UMass Amherst, respectively. She now performs as a solo and chamber musician in the Boston area while working as a piano teacher at several schools. Recent appearances in the Greater Boston audience include the Boston Public Library, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Longwood Cricket Club, 2Life Communities Brighton Campus, Belmont-Watertown United Methodist Church, Carriage House Violins Masterclass Series, and Groupmuse salon concerts. She teaches at the Brookline Chinese School, Note-Worthy Experience Music Studio, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and is Marketing and Fundraising Associate at the Cambridge Chamber Ensemble.