News Updated April 6th, 2008
Catalan Concertante
Hanani Joins The Ranks
of Great Cellists to play Kaddish
The brilliant Israeli Cellist Yehuda Hanani will perform Maestro Kaufman's much
heralded Concerto for Cello & Strings, "Kaddish" at the FIU Music Festival Grand
Opening on Thursday, November 2nd at 8PM in the Wertheim Performing Arts
Center on the FIU Campus.
Hanani's last performance of the work at Lincoln Center in 1986 brought
Kaufman some of his greatest reviews and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. "Kaddish"
was the runner up behind the winner of the Pulitzer that year, George Perle.
Since then, the work had been performed over 70 times in Russia, Israel, France,
England, Germany, The Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic & throughout the United States by some of the worlds greatest cello players.
"Both the Maestro & Hanani are delighted at the reunion and are looking forward
to many more such performances in the near future."
String Quartet #6, "The Urban"
Kaufman newest String Quartet, "The Urban," takes audiences and critics by
storm. Maetsro Kaufman's newest String Quartet, his 6th, written in the
Summer of 2005 received its premiere performance at the FIU Music Festival in
Miami, Florida in November.. It has since been performed at the Cincinnati
Music Festival, the Barge Concert Series in New York City, the Chameleon Series
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as well as the New Music Festival in Miami, Florida.
"Kaufman was back in town with one of his wildest and most exciting quartets
as exquisitely played by the Amernet String Quartet..."
- New Yorker Magazine
Plans call for additional performances and broadcasts of "The Urban" this year
throughout the United States and Europe by the Amernet String Quartet.
Kaufman has been so overwhelmed with audience response to the work and the
number of curtain calls received, that he has written a short encore piece to
accompany the work.
Fredrick Kaufman's "Urban Quart" proved to be a real
showstopper...one of Kaufman's best pieces. Frantic, ultra virtuosic string
writing captures the sights and sounds of a metropolis' urban pulse. Copland-
style lyricism leads to a sizzling viola cadenza and jazzy finale inflicted with a
hint of blue grass...reveled in the scores high-tech acrobatics and razzle-dazzle
pageantry.
- The Miami Herald
Kaufman's "The Urban" represents the composer at his best...relished the jazzy
cross rhythms of this New York inspired single movement work. The Quartet
reaches a stunning peroration as it builds on an ostinato figure towards its final
climax.
- Fort Lauderale Sun Sentinel
