'Soft Opening’ for The GSC with Joshua Halpern & Nathan Meltzer

Welcome to OtHA’s ‘soft opening’ of the 2023 Garden Concert Series at Sunrise Ranch’s indoor Pavilion. You can look forward to an afternoon of high-caliber music performance featuring cellist Joshua Halpern and violinist Nathan Meltzer, proceeded by a pre-concert wine and food reception.

• Pre-concert wine reception: 12:30 pm
• Concert: 1:30-3:30 pm
• Tickets: $32 for adults, $10 for students

Josh Halpern, founder and artistic director of the Cultural Caravan, is joined by Nathan Meltzer, 2nd prizewinner of the 2022 Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki, for a humorous romp through serious and not-so-serious repertoire for solo violin, solo cello, and violin and cello duo, including music never intended to be shared between these two instruments, such as Bach’s famous two-part inventions. Josh and Nathan also perform as part of the Emil Piano Trio with pianist Yannick Rafalimanana, with whom they present a program at the Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater on Sunday, April 2.

“Joshua Halpern approached difficult passages masterfully, with a natural, easy technique and a powerful, projecting tone that left nothing to be desired.”

— Westdeutsche Zeitung

“Meltzer draws from [the Ames, Totenberg Stradivarius] a hugely cultivated sound, with a sweetness to his tone and gorgeously shaped legato lines. As with his teacher Itzhak Perlman, Meltzer’s technique is of the sort that rarely draws attention to itself but enables a full expressive command of whatever he is playing. It is surely only a matter of time before a larger record label snaps him up.”

— Gramophone

has appeared on stages around the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal cellist. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists including Jonathan Biss, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Roberto Díaz, Viviane Hagner, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Anthony McGill, Olli Mustonen, and Itzhak Perlman, and appeared at music festivals including the Ravinia Steans Institute, the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Taos School of Music, La Jolla Summerfest, Musikiwest, and Krzyzowa-Music. During the 2019 season he served as guest principal cello of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, including on tours to Germany, Taiwan, and China, and in 2020 served as cellist with the Rolston Quartet.

Josh completed his Artist Diploma at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America with Curtis On Tour, and served as principal cello of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra during the 2016/17 season. At Curtis, he studied with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley. As an undergraduate at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, he studied with Desmond Hoebig and won the school’s concerto competition. He is currently a member of the Karajan Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker, in which he plays as a member of the Berlin Philharmonic and is mentored by Ludwig Quandt.

In 2018, Josh curated a solo tour across Colorado to bring classical music to unexpected places, including the state penitentiary, small-town saloons, bicycle shops, and more. Since then, he has continued bringing music to unique spaces, fostering connection and conversation with all types of people along the way. In 2021, Josh founded the Cultural Caravan in Boulder, CO, a nonprofit bringing together artists and local businesses to revitalize the community in the wake of the pandemic. In its inaugural spring/summer season, the Caravan presented 25 concerts through which Josh collaborated with over 20 local businesses and more than 30 artists, including not only his fellow classical artists, but also world-class folk musicians, Venezuelan jazz performers, Zimbabwean Afrofusion bands, and more.

As a teacher, Josh has presented master classes throughout the United States and South America and has taught at Curtis Summerfest and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and he’s on the faculty at the Brooklyn School of Music. He lives in Berlin.

Awarded Second Prize at the 2022 Sibelius Competition, the youngest ever to win the Windsor Festival Competition, and recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, violinist is establishing a holistic and multi-faceted career as a soloist and chamber musician, with passions for both standard and contemporary repertoire.

Nathan has performed as a soloist with numerous major orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Finnish RSO, and the Aalborg, Berlin, Charlotte, Concepción, Evansville, Helsinki, Indianapolis, Medellín, and Pittsburgh orchestras, among others, performing across Europe and the Americas.

As a chamber musician, Nathan has performed with celebrated musicians through the Parlance Chamber Concerts, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Kallos Chamber Music Series, the Terezin Music Foundation, Project Music Heals Us, and the Heidelberger Frühling, as well as at festivals including ChamberFest Cleveland, Krzyżowa Music, the Moritzburg Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the Perlman Music Program, and the Verbier Festival Academy. He is also the Artistic Director of Opus Illuminate, a non-profit chamber music organization dedicated to the works of composers from historically underrepresented communities.

A Juilliard graduate and student of Li Lin and Itzhak Perlman, Nathan is an artist partner of Rare Violins In Consortium.

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