Currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, Astral Artists is an organization that represents and promotes, throughout our region, the best and brightest emerging musicians. Astral was founded by Vera Wilson, whose vision it was to discover the most promising classical musicians residing in the United States, assist their early professional career development, and present their world-class artistry to the community through concerts and outreach programs. Wilson knew that nurturing and empowering the talent and ingenuity of these rising stars would ensure a rich musical legacy for generations to come. Among those who've benefited from Astral's assistance: pianists Charles Abromovic, Simone Dinnerstein and Natalie Zhu; violinists Soovin Kim, Nicolas Kendall and Ayano Ninomiya; vocalists Meredith Arwady, Indra Thomas and Robin Frye; ensembles like Time for Three and the Chiara String Quartet, and other musicians too numerous to mention.
We'll speak with Astral founder Vera Wilson, and two current Astral roster-mates, Julliard graduate flutist Julietta Curenton and Manhattan School of Music graduate pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine, both of whom have stellar credits to their names. Curenton and Moutouzkine will also perform duet and solo in WRTI's Performance Studio during the program.