The Hammond Performing Arts Series Presents Mickey Katz and Constantine Finehouse

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (February 19, 2016) - Saul Cohen, President of Hammond Residential Real Estate in Chestnut Hill, is pleased to announce that cellist Mickey Katz and pianist Constantine Finehouse will be performing works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Rossini, Piatigorsky, Martinu, and Paganini as part of the Hammond Performing Arts Series. The concert will take place on Sunday, March 6 at 3 p.m. at Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington. Admission is complimentary.

Israeli born cellist Mickey Katz has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2004. He received the Presser Music Award in Boston, the Karl Zeise Prize as a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, and he won first prizes as the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Competition and the Rubin Academy Competition in Tel Aviv. As soloist, he has performed with orchestras in Israel and around New England. A passionate performer of music, Katz premiered and recorded Menachen Wiesenberg’s Cello Concertowith the Israel Defense Force Orchestra and has performed several American and Boston premiers of Elliott Carter’s music, working with the composer. An active chamber musician, he participated in the Marlboro Festival and was invited to take part in the Musicians from Marlboro tour. Katz completed his mandatory military service in Israel as part of the “Distinguished Musician Program,” playing the Israel Defense Force String Quartet, a group that performs throughout the country both in classical concerts and in many outreach and educational concerts for soldiers and other audiences. He graduated from New England Conservatory in Boston, where he was a Piatigorsky scholarship student of Laurence Lesser. He is on the faculty of Tanglewood Music Center and New England Conservatory’s preparatory school.

Constantine Finehouse was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and attended New England Conservatory, Juilliard and Yale. His principal teachers included Fredrik Wanger, Natalia Harlap, Herbert Stessin, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Berman, and Bruce Brubaker. Praised by Rhein Main Presse Allgemeine Zeitung for his “interpretations of depth and maturity,” Finehouse has performed extensively in the US and abroad. His newest album with cellist Sebastian Bäverstam features the universally-admired Brahms Sonata, Opus 38 for piano and cello, as well as several new works in the High Romantic style by Boston composer, Tony Schemmer.

His 2009 solo recording, “Backwards Glance,” interweaves music of Johannes Brahms and Richard Beaudoin. The 2015-16 season brings recitals celebrating William Bolcom’s 75th birthday, in which Finehouse will be featured as a soloist as well as in chamber music performances across the United States. Of special note was a highly-praised solo recital at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in March, 2014. Finehouse has been awarded the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship from Juilliard, a 2004 St. Botolph Club Foundation Grant, and a 2006 Classics Abroad Project Award. He serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory and Extension Divisions in Boston and as Visiting Artist/Faculty at Westmont College, Santa Barbara.

The Hammond Performing Arts Series began in Chestnut Hill twenty-one years ago as a way to provide talented musicians with performance opportunities and to enrich the cultural life of the communities that Hammond’s network of offices serve. The series proved so successful in Chestnut Hill that it has been expanded to Boston, Concord, Hingham, Lexington, and Weston.

Reservations for the March 6 concert are currently being accepted. If you are interested in attending, please call 781-861-8100 x 1102.

To learn more, please visit http://www.hammondre.com/community-outreach/performing-arts-series.html.