An Evening with Elisa Kohanski and Jonathan Kolm
Friday, April 4, 2025
Enjoy an intimate performance with WSO Principal Cellist Elisa Kohanski and composer Jonathan Kolm, the two brains behind the new cello concerto set to be premiered at the WSO’s 95th Anniversary Celebration later this year.
“An Evening With” will feature chamber works by Jonathan Kolm for all combinations of clarinet, cello and piano. In addition, Elisa will be joined by her ensemble members of IonSound Project, Jack Kurutz (piano) and Kathleen Costello (Clarinet).
This chamber recital not only provides attendees the opportunity to hear Elisa perform in a smaller setting, but will provide exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into Elisa’s travels and her collaborative partnership with Jonathan.
Tickets for “An Evening With Elisa Kohanski and Jonathan Kolm” are $20, with student tickets costing $10. Tickets are available at this link or by calling the WSO box office at 304-232-6191. The performance will take place on April 4 at 7 pm at Vance Presbyterian Church.
If you are based in Pittsburgh or cannot make the April 4 performance, there will be a repeat event at Shadyside Presbyterian Church Chapel the following day. For more information on the Pittsburgh event, please contact the WSO office.
Saturday, April 5 at 2:30pm
Shadyside Presbyterian Church Chapel
5121 Westminster Place
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Featuring
Elisa Kohanski
Elisa Kohanski enjoys a diverse career as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, while championing unique artistic collaborations. She has performed on stage with Yo Yo Ma, the Miami String Quartet, Olivia Newton John, Robert Shaw, Gustavo Dudamel, John Williams, Harry Connick, Jr., and in performance venues around the world including Carnegie Hall; Royal Albert Hall; Schlossfestspiele in Heidelberg; and Stefaniensaal in Graz, Austria. Some of her less traditional concert spaces have included a basketball court in rural Mexico; a township bar in Cape Town, South Africa; and in Pittsburgh pop ups at locations including GNC, Target, Lowe’s, in front of a graffiti mural and a construction site. Elisa is Principal Cellist of Pittsburgh Ballet and Wheeling Symphony, a member of Pittsburgh Opera, performs regularly with Pittsburgh Symphony, Taconic Music and with many other groups. A founding member of Trio Nova Mundi and IonSound Project, Elisa’s recordings include TNM’s Canticum; IonSound’s CD by Jeremy Beck, and Daphne Alderson’s Joan of Arc. Her newest CD, IonSound Project’s Inspired By… is almost finished! She is adjunct faculty at Grove City and Washington and Jefferson Colleges and has taught and performed in festivals around Italy, Germany, Austria and Bosnia. Most recently she was instrumental in starting a small chamber music festival, Taconic International, in Padua, Italy. She earned her Bachelor’s from the Eastman School of Music and her Master’s from Carnegie Mellon University. A native Rhode Islander, Elisa returns home to perform with other native Rhode Islanders for the Music on the Hill festival. Elisa has performed on all seven continents, most uniquely on an Arctic iceberg in Antarctica for an audience of people and penguins and most recently in Australia!
Jonathan Kolm
The music of Jonathan Kolm has been performed across the United States and abroad. His works combine rhythmic intensity, haunting lyricism and rich harmonic colors and has been called "fluent in its diversity" (Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Classical Music Critic) and "deeply moving" (Chamber Music Today). His music has won prizes and awards in many competitions including the American Prize, the Swan Prize in Music Composition, the Percussive Arts Society Composition Competition, the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition, Voices of Change Composition Contest, the Austin Peay State Composition Competition, as well as many others. His music has been supported by such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wolftrap Foundation and he has been commissioned by a wide range of artists and ensembles. He has been composer in residence for the Mannasas Symphony, the Alexandria Choral Society and many others and won a President’s Sabbatical Award from the Virginia Community College System. His music has been heard at such festivals as June in Buffalo, highSCORE, Beijing International Composition Workshop, MUSICX and the Ernest Bloch Festival. He has had artist colony residencies at Ipark (Connecticut), Brush Creek Ranch Arts Center (Wyoming), the Kimmel Nelson Harding Center (Nebraska), and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His choral music has been performed by some of the leading choirs in the United States, including the New York Virtuoso Singers, VocalEssence, the Princeton Singers and the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus and his work for men's chorus "Songs for the People" was performed at Lincoln Center and appears on a recording label by the University of Michigan Men's Chorus. A new work for chorus was commissioned by the Washington Chorus and premiered at the Strathmore as well as Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capitol. He maintains an active performing career in new music and has appeared in recitals in many colleges and universities across the United States. In addition to his work as a composer and pianist, he teaches composition, piano and music theory at Northern Virginia Community College where he serves as Professor of Music and advocates for various environmental and social causes in the nation’s capital and maintains a community garden.
