Solo Violin Sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach

Kevin Lawrence, violin



Solo Sonata no. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003

Grave 

Fuga

Andante

Allegro



INTERMISSION



Solo Sonata no. 3 in C major, BWV 1005

Adagio

Fuga

Largo

Allegro assai



The solo sonatas and partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach are pinnacles of the solo violin repertoire.

This program includes in the monumental C major sonata, music of inexpressible joy and exuberance.



"On one staff, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world."

 -- Johannes Brahms







Kevin Lawrence



Praised for his "vibrant intensity," (The Times, London) and playing "supremely convincing in its 

vitality," (Cleveland Plain Dealer) violinist Kevin Lawrence has consistently elicited superlative 

responses for his performances throughout the United States and Europe. His assertive style and 

strong musical personality have thrilled audiences at Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in 

New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and in Houston, Chicago, London, 

Frankfurt, Leipzig, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Sofia, St. Petersburg, and Amsterdam, where the 

Dutch press described him as "simply miraculous." (Het Vaderland).



Lawrence's release of the complete violin works of the American composer Arthur Foote on the New 

World label was "highly recommended" as "beautifully played" by the Washington Post, and heard 

on the Ken Burns series "Not for Ourselves Alone," broadcast on PBS; his second CD of American 

violin sonatas, recently released by New World, was hailed as "vital playing" and "a labor of love" by 

ClassicsToday.com. He is also heard with renowned flutist Carol Wincenc on a recording of American 

flute quintets released this summer by Bridge Records, and named as 2012 Critics Choice by 

American Record Guide. Lawrence has premiered sonatas by contemporary American compositional 

voices Laura Kaminsky and Judith Shatin, and chamber works by Michael Rothkopf and Lawrence 

Dillon. 



Kevin Lawrence received his musical education at The Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Ivan Galamian and Margaret Pardee. While at Juilliard he also studied chamber music with Felix Galimir and continued his chamber music study with Josef Gingold at the Meadowmount School in Westport, New York. Appointed to the Meadowmount faculty by Ivan Galamian in 1980, he taught there each summer until 1994, when he became the Dean of the Killington Music Festival in Vermont. After serving as Killington's Artistic Director from 1997 through 2004, he founded the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (www.gmcmf.org), which will hold its ninth season at the University of Vermont during the summer of 2013. Lawrence has given master classes throughout the United States, and in Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Venezuela; an extensive series of classes at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf is scheduled at the beginning of May. He currently serves as chairman of the string department at the North Carolina School of the Arts, which recognized him with its Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007.