The sanctuary of the Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Port Washington will be transformed into a classical concert venue, with a duet featuring Federico Teti, Director of Music at the church, and Isabelle Briner, violinist in the highly acclaimed Lucerne Festival Orchestra. The program will showcase selections from Vivaldi, Chopin, Scarlatti, and Bach to name just a few. There will be a reception following to meet the musicians. This event is FREE, but donations are greatly appreciated to help the church fund its ministry in the community.
Federico Teti studied Piano, Choral Conducting, Organ and Composition in Rome at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music where he graduated with the highest honors. He won the First Prize of the Competition for Young Organists “Rome 1981” and his performance given at the “Prize Winners’ Concert” was broadcasted on Italian National Radio (RAI). Since then, Mr. Teti has given solo recitals in his native Italy, the United States, Germany and Japan, and participated in Music Festivals and Competitions in Italy, France, Denmark, England, Scotland and Lithuania. Among his teachers and coaches are Daniel Roth, Ewald Kooiman, Giancarlo Parodi, Hedda Vignanelli Illy, Elio Solimini, Giorgio Carnini, Klemens Schnorr and Peter Westerbrink. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the “Accademia Musicale Chigiana” of Siena, Italy and a European Community Scholarship to study at the Academy of Italian Organ Music of Pistoia, Italy and he furthered his musical studies at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, where he took courses in Organ and Gregorian Chant. An active church musician, he was organist of the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in the historical center of Rome.. Mr. Teti attended the Juilliard School in New York City, where he completed advanced studies in Organ Performance under the direction of Dr. John Weaver and pursued his conducting studies with Judith Clurman, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Eduardo Browne and Isaac Karabtchevsky. While at Juilliard, he also studied Harpsichord with Lionel Party and Improvisation with Dr. Gerre Hancock. He made his Lincoln Center debut playing the Theodore Kuhn tracker organ in Alice Tully Hall and made his conducting debut at Juilliard Paul Hall, Lincoln Center, conducting the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2.
Violinist Isabelle Briner was born in Lucerne, Switzerland. She studied at the Music Academy Basle, Yale University School of Music and Manhattan School of Music, New York, where she received her Master of Music degree. Among her main teachers were Françoise Zeldy, Miriam Fried and Sylvia Rosenberg. While still studying at the Manhattan School of Music, Isabelle Briner began to pursue her professional orchestra career playing with the renowned Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Apart from her orchestra engagements, Isabelle Briner appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at the Lucerne Festival, the Foundation for Young Music Talents, Meggen, Switzerland, the Albert Konzerte Freiburg im Bresgau, Germany, the Festival International d’Art Lyrique, Aix en Provence, France, Gustav Mahler Festwochen Toblach, Italy, and the International Music Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
In 1998 Isabelle started playing in the newly founded Mahler Chamber Orchestra and collaborated with Claudio Abbado, Daniel Harding and other conductors, touring worldwide for the next 20 years. In 2019 Ms. Briner became a member of the Swiss Orchestra conducted by Lena-Lisa Wustendorfer.
Since its founding in 2003 by Claudio Abbado, lsabelle Briner has also been a violinist in the highly acclaimed Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Her main emphasis has always lain on Chamber Music; hence Isabelle Briner has often played in a duo with her sister Sibylle, an equally gifted pianist, or in a duo with violinist Henja Semmler. In 2004 the Violin Duo won the Advancement Award for artistic talent and outstanding achievement from the European Council and received the “Premio Internazionale Franco Gulli” in the same year.