Internationally Acclaimed Pianist James Tocco & Well-Known Cellist Mario DiFiore in Concert, 5/5

The Italian Heritage Society is proud to present world-renowned pianist James Tocco and cellist Mario DiFiore, a 50-year veteran of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, performing “An Afternoon of Music for Cello and Piano.”

The concert, featuring works by Vivaldi, Prokofiev, Gershwin (in arrangements by
Wild), de Falla, Fauré, and Cassado, takes place Sunday, May 5, 2013, 3:00 p.m., at the Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, 16 Lake Shore Drive (off Fisher Road), Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan 48236. A reception, offering food and drink, follows.

General-admission tickets are $25 ($15 for students), and may be purchased at the door or by calling (313) 886-6894 before April 21. (Call that number for further information.) Concert and reception are included in the ticket price.

Mario DiFiore and James Tocco, both native Detroiters, born to Italian-immigrant parents, have much in common—including their love of music and their virtuosity in their chosen instruments. This pair of extremely talented friends has teamed up to bring our community a not-to-be-missed afternoon of classical compositions.

James Tocco enjoys international acclaim as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. Beyond his vast repertoire of virtually the entire standard piano literature, he is widely regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of American masterworks, including Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, which he recorded with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC London, and the Corigliano Piano Concerto, of which he is acknowledged the definitive interpreter by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer. He has performed this spectacular work to great acclaim with the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, San Diego, Kansas City, Phoenix, and National Symphonies, and with the Louisville Orchestra, with which he recorded the work.

The pianist’s recent seasons included his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut in Amsterdam, performing the MacDowell Concerto and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in the Prokofiev Third Concerto. Mr. Tocco is also the founder and artistic director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Mario DiFiore credits his accomplishments as a cellist to the opportunities that were available to him in Detroit. He took up the instrument in the ninth grade at Denby High School. His teachers have included Paul Olefsky, Lazlo Varga, and Frank Miller, former principal cellists of the Detroit and Chicago Symphonies and the New York Philharmonic, respectively. A distinguished member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1959 until his retirement in 2011, DiFiore—one of the longest-serving members of that august body and one of its most prominent cellists—also has the distinction of being one of the founders and incorporators of Save Orchestra Hall, the committee that succeeded in bringing the DSO back to that acoustically perfect auditorium. An eminent Chamber Music player (a founder and program director of the Laudenslager Chamber Series), DiFiore toured and recorded with the Tipton Trio, 1965-1975; played with the Ventura Quartet; and frequently gave Chamber Music Performances (“Saturdays at Four,” Marygrove College and Grosse Pointe; “Brunch with Bach,” the DIA). He has taught at Wayne State University, Oakland University, and the University of Windsor. In retirement, he continues to teach and remains active as a solo and chamber-music player.

The Italian Heritage Society of Michigan (IHS) is dedicated to programs of the highest quality. It works to promote an appreciation of the arts, literature, languages, humanities, and sciences that have flourished since the Italian Renaissance.