Press

Amit Peled and the Mount Vernon Virtuosi Cello Gang, Bach 4 with 6

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By Jon Sobel, March 6, 2023

Composing accompaniment for iconic solo works is both audacious and potentially liberating. Sahun Hong has done just that for Bach’s Cello Suite No. 6. The illuminating result, warmly performed by cellist Amit Peled and three members of his Mount Vernon Virtuosi Cello Gang on a new CTM Classics recording, is a lovely listen.

Of course, Bach’s solo melodies imply harmonies, and these arrangements follow the “obvious” without taking harmonic liberties. Still, the new music sound original as well as familiar. It sets the faithfully retained melodies against revealing counterpoint and imaginative, historically informed beds of harmony.

Often, as in the first Gavotte, the quality of the attacks and the subtly elastic time create the sound and feel of consort of viols, vividly suggesting the historical setting of Bach’s music.

Indeed a sense of the flow of history pervades the recording, brought to life by Peled’s supremely fluid playing and the skill of his cohorts (all former students). They play fully in the spirit of Bach’s music even as they transport it - and the listener - somewhere new.

Mount Vernon Virtuosi founder develops a vision of free classical music for all

By Elizabeth Nonemaker, Baltimore Sun
December 3, 2021
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Growing up on a kibbutz leaves an impression. Just ask cellist Amit Peled, who spent his childhood in one of the Israeli collectives where wealth is shared among households.

Despite having spent the vast majority of his adulthood outside of Israel — while distinguishing himself as an internationally celebrated soloist and educator — Peled remains fiercely committed to the idea of music as a public right, as something that belongs to everyone.

His latest project, dubbed the Mount Vernon Virtuosi, is perhaps the clearest expression of this value.

Launched in 2018, the Virtuosi are a collective of young professional string players — primarily recent graduates from Maryland-area music schools. Headed by Peled, who’s taught cello at the Peabody Institute since 2003, they perform four programs around the state per concert season. That, by itself, is nothing particularly special — except that all their concerts are free, even while the musicians receive competitive pay.

For Peled, these dual missions are non-negotiable.

“There are two reasons why I founded the group,” he explained. “One is to try to keep the extraordinary young musicians that we teach in Maryland music colleges, in Maryland. From a selfish point of view, I want our communities to enjoy this level of playing. The second reason is I’ve always believed classical music should be free of charge for the public.”

So far, the plan seems to be working. The Virtuosi are primarily funded through gifts from private donors, many of whom, according to Peled, don’t even live in Maryland, but rather believe in his vision. That financial backing provides a strong incentive to Virtuosi members to stay local.

An example is Bronwyn Lee, who grew up in rural Alberta, Canada, and came to Baltimore to study viola performance at Peabody. She’s been with the Virtuosi since their start. At the time, she was a junior, but has since stayed on, even after graduating in 2019.

Now, she’s managing a career as a freelancing performer and teacher. “The goal is to stay in Baltimore,” Lee said. “MVV has definitely been part of that decision because it’s such a great opportunity.”

But Peled’s mission also resonated with Lee. She recalled her own early experiences with music-making: a guitarist father who put on barn dances for their community and took his family to perform at public halls and elder care facilities.

“He really showed me the importance of bringing people together and creating life in a community,” she said.
Moreover, Baltimore itself compelled Lee to stay. “When I first came here, I had never been confronted with the kind of poverty that’s here. It was really hard to process,” she said. But it got her “fired up” to be more involved.

That speaks directly to the larger vision for the Virtuosi: It doesn’t stop at four free programs a year.

Amit Peled is, after all, someone who thinks big. This is the man who, upon being loaned Pablo Casals’ cello, was not content simply to play it from time to time; instead, he resurrected the trailblazing cellist’s original programs and retraced Casals’ tours through American small towns.

Peled wants the Virtuosi to grow into a permanent post-graduate residency, physically installed in Baltimore and immersed in its communities.

“I want a lot, preferably an old church or something, ruined and [located] in the slums of Baltimore,” Peled said. “And I want to renovate it.”

“The whole thing is in my head,” he continued. He imagines a stage in the middle, like Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, surrounded by balconies and rooms that would house the resident musicians.

“When you live there, you would not have to care about food, lodging — everything is taken care of for two years. But you’re mine. One week out of the month, you’re my worker, which means I take you everywhere — jails, hospitals, you name it, and it’s free.”

Peled acknowledged that playing for, and teaching in, communities that might not have ready access to high-quality classical music is hardly a new idea, but he’s critical of the self-congratulatory aura that often hangs around this kind of work.

“I’ve done it all over the country — what we call outreach,” he said. “But the outreach we do is really to make us feel good. You go in, you play, you see how terrible it is because there’s no funding. Then you go out. It’s not changing anything.”

The Mount Vernon Virtuosi, he believes, could provide an alternative model. “I don’t want to force musicians to live here forever,” Peled clarified. What he does want is “to create better musical citizens. So that when they leave MVV in Baltimore, they will use classical music to engage with the community they live in.”

In the meantime, the group’s inclusive ethic underscores the atmosphere of their concerts. Peled recalled performing a Halloween program in the lobby of the Enoch Pratt library earlier this year. The concert took place during a weekday lunch hour, with people floating in and out of the building.

“Somebody came in to make a phone call from a computer. Policemen came in and out. I loved it. There was noise, there was an alarm. I didn’t even hear it, we were so engaged in that concert. That’s exactly what I envisioned for us.”

Concert Review: Mount Vernon Virtuosi presented by Candlelight Concert Society

By Susan Brall, Maryland Theatre Guide

May 10, 2021

On Saturday, May 8, 2021, the Candlelight Concert Society presented its first concert since the pandemic began. Mount Vernon Virtuosi, with Amit Peled conducting, performed at the Chrysalis at Symphony Woods in Columbia, Maryland.

It didn’t matter that the weather wasn’t anywhere near perfect — cold for May, with periods of rain and wind. The noise from airplanes, trees blowing, sirens, motorcycles on the road nearby, and children playing a bit too loudly didn’t detract from the pleasure of listening to music — great music — in person, with others who enjoy the arts.

The highlights of the performance were Haydn’s “Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major” and Ennio Morricone’s “Love Theme” from the film, “Cinema Paradiso.” Those pieces took Peled from the role of conductor and had him pick up his beloved cello. These two selections gave us a chance to hear Peled’s unique talent. Barber’s soft and sweet sounding “Adagio for Strings’ and Tchaikovsky’s airy but occasionally somber “String Quartet Op.11, No. 2 Andante cantabile,” perfectly rounded out the program while the audience hung on every live note.

Mount Vernon Virtuosi is a Baltimore-based orchestra established by Peled, a cello teacher at Peabody for the past 18 years, and comprised of former students of the music school. The non-profit group usually plays for free, often at schools, hospitals, and prisons. They also present community concerts. If you get a chance to see them perform, they are a delight.

Hopefully Candlelight Concert Society and other groups will continue to adapt to the elements this spring and summer until they can present offerings safely indoors. Until then, those of us who long to see the performing arts live and in-person again will be thrilled with wonderful outdoor events like this one.

To read Susan Brall’s interview with Amit Peled, click here.

Connecting Through Music: Program Brings Music to the Autistic Community

Madeleine Jansen

Feb 9, 2020

A few weeks ago, I was approached by my friend Nicholas to perform a string quartet concert on the Music for Autism series as part of ongoing community outreach by Mount Vernon Virtuosi, a Baltimore-based chamber orchestra that we play in together. As someone who is so committed to performing for diverse audiences that I plan to center my doctoral dissertation around this topic, I jumped at the chance to play. This weekend I chatted with Nicholas over the phone to gain his perspective on the series, the relationship between classical music and autism, and much more.

“You get very quick feedback with an audience like this. You know right away whether you are saying something; it distills for you what really makes good playing.”

Violinist Nicholas Pappone first began playing on the Music for Autism concert series in New York City last November. For him, the concerts were more than simply a way to give back to his community, they were personal. Nicholas’s wife, Candace Chien, who is a classical pianist, was diagnosed a few years ago as being on the autism spectrum.

“It’s been incredibly helpful to her to have a complete vision of who she is,” Nicholas says. After her diagnosis, Candace was inspired to reach out to the Music for Autism organization to offer to perform a concert on her birthday, alongside Nicholas and two of their musician friends.

Music For Autism, an organization that was founded in 2002 by John Lubbock and Christine Cairns, musicians and parents of a son with autism, seeks to share the joy of music with individuals with autism and their families. The organization hosts concerts around the United States in New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Boston and Texas, as well as in the United Kingdom. In recent seasons, Music for Autism has presented members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, concert violinist Stefan Jackiw, composer Caroline Shaw, and various Broadway singers.

The programs follow a specific design to appeal to individuals with autism — concerts are held in open halls with plenty of space for the audience to interact with the music through spontaneous dance and movement, and activities such as conducting and percussion-playing are incorporated to encourage communication through body language.

While the Music for Autism series is not exclusively limited to classical music, Nicholas thinks classical music works especially well in this setting.

“In classical music, there aren’t so many words. It’s not like a pop song where the words are so important to the meaning of the music.” Since one of the key ways in which autism presents is through early delay or regression in the development of speech, connecting to music through non-verbal means is essential for this audience.

“With classical music, there’s no one right way to feel. It allows them to be free, to think ‘this is my response, and it’s good and it doesn’t matter if it’s different,’” Nicholas explains.

Many scientists have studied the relationship of music and autism, through examining ways in which music can be used as a therapeutic tool for individuals with autism, but also through investigating the relationship between autism and genius. Many high-achieving people throughout history are speculated to have been on the autism spectrum: indeed, Mozart exhibited many traits that support theories that he may have been autistic.

Nicholas believes that Candace’s traits that make her different enable her to excel as a classical musician.

“She has an advantage, an ability to persist. The singleminded-ness is beneficial, because she’s not easily thrown off-course. It gives her a clear insight about why she’s doing it, why she’s a musician, and what she wants to do with the world.”

Nicholas also believes that she has a unique perspective when it comes to crafting Music for Autism concert programs.

“Her brain sees things from a different angle. She can still relate to children and understand what it’s like to be a child, to see the world through a kids’ eyes.”

Nicholas believes that playing these types of concerts can teach classical musicians a lot about themselves.

“The kids get excited, and start communicating when they wouldn’t normally talk very easily, and make all sorts of indications that they’re responding emotionally to the music. When you see their eyes light up… you realize that you want your playing to say something, to capture their attention. You quickly see whether you’re effectively communicating with your playing.”

“Even if it’s a Carnegie Hall concert, are you still playing in a way that the one kid on the spectrum up in the balcony is getting just as much out of it as the average classical music concertgoer? If you are, I think you’re playing the right way.”

BENDER JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OFFERS A FREE CLASSICAL CONCERT

Israeli-American Cellist and His Mount Vernon Virtuosi Ensemble Dance into the New Year

BY CHRIS SLATTERY

The farmer and the cello: Amit Peled grew up on a kibbutz — where he discovered the cello.

When he was a basketball-playing 10-year-old growing up on a kibbutz in northern Israel, Amit Peled developed a crush on a girl who was 14. “I didn’t know, really, what one should do at that age,” recalled Peled. “I thought that if I played cello, like her, she would basically marry me. So that’s what I did.” It worked out well. No, Peled didn’t get the girl — in fact  he barely even spoke to her. But he did find love: with the cello itself. “I combine teaching cello at the Peabody Conservatory, which is part of Johns Hopkins University, and performing as a cellist and conductor all over the world. That’s my life.” It’s a life in which performing, conducting, teaching and mentoring come together on the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 30, when Mount Vernon Virtuosi, the chamber ensemble Peled founded to employ his former students, performs a free concert at the Bender Jewish Community Center in Rockville. “I never decided that this is what I wanted to do,” he explained. “It was decided for me; I fell in love with it, really.” He was the only musician in his family, and no one ever had to remind him to practice because playing the cello was his passion. At 15, Peled chose the cello over basketball, not realizing that he eventually would grow to 6-foot, 5-inches, and started winning competitions and scholarships. “When I was 18, like any Israeli, I had to go into the army for three years,” he said. “I was lucky. I was drafted into the official Israeli Army String Quartet. We have only one, and I was picked to be the cellist, so at least I didn’t have to stop the cello.” After his discharge, Peled came to the United States on a full scholarship to Yale University, which he left to study with Bernard Greenhouse, complete his degree at the New England Conservatory of Music and then finish his graduate studies in Berlin. “When I was 28, basically just starting my career, I came to Baltimore to play a run-through concert before my Carnegie Hall debut,” he said. “The lady who hosted me was part of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and she knew the dean of the Peabody Conservatory and invited her to the concert.” The dean, Eileen Soskin, was impressed. Peled taught a master class at Peabody the next day, and a few months later, he was invited to audition for a spot on the faculty. With “my wife, two suitcases and a cello,” he moved from Israel to Baltimore. “Now, 16 years later, we have three kids and a life here,” he said. “We are American, and we’re happy, and I have generations of cellists that have been through my hands already.
“So it’s really an amazing story.”