ABOUT JOHN GILBERT...

Violinist John Haspel Gilbert, Professor of Violin at the Texas Tech University School of Music in Lubbock, TX. since 1995, has been praised by legendary performers such as the late Josef Gingold ("I have great admiration for this superb violinist"), Glenn Dicterow ("Obviously we are dealing with a very high level of artistry"), Camilla Wicks, Arnold Steinhardt, and the late Joseph Fuchs. An active soloist, recitalist, and chamber music collaborator, he performs regularly throughout the United States, having appeared from coast to coast in prestigious venues from Weill Recital Hall in New York City to Abravanel Hall in Santa Barbara (CA). Recent international engagements have included performances in Brazil, Italy, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. His former students have distinguished themselves in national and international competitions, perform in major orchestras, hold university positions, and are public school educators, throughout the US, Brazil, and Russia. 

Gilbert has served as concertmaster of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, the Baton Rouge Symphony, and the Knoxville Symphony. He has appeared as soloist in the concerti of Bach, Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Bruch, Corigliano, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Vivaldi, and Kurt Weill. Gilbert has previously served as faculty at the SMU Meadows School of Music, University of Memphis, and Hope College.  He is a member of the faculty of the Pienza(ITALY) Music Festival. Other summer festival affiliations have been at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Madeline Island (WI) Chamber Festival, Schlern (Italy) International Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, BRAVO! Summer String Institute, Eastern Music Festival, Heidelberg Castle Festival, Killington Music Festival, and the Spoleto Festival. 

Gilbert's principal studies were under the tutelage of Sally O'Reilly, Charles Castleman, and Oliver Steiner. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, the Yale University School of Music, and the Eastman School of Music, and has held fellowships at the Aspen Music School in both chamber music and orchestral performance. His chamber music studies were with current or former members of the Julliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, Fine Arts and Yale string quartets, and the Eastman and Rafael trios.   

Mr. Gilbert may be heard on the Centaur, Naxos and Innova labels. His recording of the Kurt Weill Concerto and the Alban Berg Kammerkonzert with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra was released on the Sono Luminus label in September of 2012 (Sono Luminus 92161). His most recent recording, of the Sonatas of Ernö Dohnanyi, Samuel Barber (world premier) and Richard Strauss, was released on the Fleur de Son label in 2019.

FANFARE March 2020  “The Strauss Violin Sonata in particular requires a great deal of endurance; Gilbert and Shteinberg make it sound like a joy to perform. And their energy is matched by a suppleness of rubato that tempers virtuosic passion with graceful elegance. Fans of Leonid Kogan’s performance will enjoy Gilbert and Shteinberg’s.” Myron Silberstein

ABOUT GEORGE WORK...

George Work holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he served as teaching assistant to Robert Sylvester. In addition to Robert Sylvester, his principal teachers include Paul Katz, Ronald Leonard, Gabor Rejto, and Carol Work. In 1981, he joined the Ames Piano Quartet, in residence at Iowa State University. The Quartet has released sixteen critically acclaimed CD recordings on the Sono Luminus, Musical Heritage, Dorian, and Albany labels, and has appeared in concert throughout the United States and Canada. International appearances include Kaliningrad, Russia, Salzburg, Austria, Paris and Marseilles, France, Taipei, Tainan, Kashiong and Taichung, Taiwan, Merida, Mexico and Cape Town, South Africa. The Quartet also performed in Cuba in 2000, the first American chamber ensemble to appear in concert there in more than forty years.

In addition to concertizing with the Quartet, Work has appeared as soloist with various orchestras in the U. S., as well as in Taiwan, R.O.C, Kaliningrad, Russia and Recife, Brazil. He was Visiting Professor of Cello at Drake University during 1997-98, and has taught and performed at numerous summer festivals, including the Schlern International Festival, Madeleine Island, the Texas Music Festival, and the Brevard Music Festival, among others. Work’s recording of the Ibert Concerto for Cello and Winds with the Baton Rouge Symphony Chamber Players, was released in September of 2012. He also appears on the double album Youthful Passions, featuring violin and cello sonatas of Samuel Barber, Richard Strauss and Erno Dohnanyi.