Pianist Michael Arnowitt joins Eleva Chamber Players for two Waterbury concerts on Feb. 25

Feb. 14, 2023  |  By Waterbury Roundabout 

Michael Arnowitt. Courtesy photo

The Eleva Chamber Players present celebrated pianist Michael Arnowitt in a pair of concerts entitled “My Favorite Melodies” on Saturday, Feb. 25, in Waterbury. 

The program will include works by legendary composers Bach, Debussy, Schoenberg and Beethoven along with music written by Ukrainian composer Victoria Poleva and an original piece by Arnowitt himself. 

“It’s exciting to bring Michael back home to Central Vermont for a solo recital,” said Willie Docto, founder of the Eleva Chamber Players. “His fans really enjoy his delicately precise technique and gorgeous interpretations of piano music.” 

Arnowitt has appeared as soloist with many orchestras around the world including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Kiev Chamber Orchestra. Following a concert performed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post said Arnowitt “played with an exquisite sense of touch, color and musical imagination.” The Rheinische Post after a performance in Düsseldorf, Germany, said Arnowitt “played with a striking virtuosity and deeply felt passion.”  

Since 2018, Arnowitt has been living in Toronto, Ontario, where he is currently working on a new composition, Sound Essence, for jazz quartet and Indonesian gamelan orchestra. 

As an artist who is blind, he is also developing a new concept of a multi-sensory performance event where he will be collaborating with a fabric artist, a chef, a botanist, and technologists to create a novel concert that will pair music with related simultaneous experiences in all the senses – touch, smell, sight, and taste. 

Founded in Waterbury 2006, the Eleva Chamber Players is Central Vermont’s only professional string chamber orchestra with a mission of elevating the human spirit through music. Eleva’s concerts feature fine musicianship along with dialogue that is both educational and inspiring. The conductor-less orchestra operates with a collaborative process and is composed of professional musicians with distinguished international careers from throughout Vermont and the United States. 

The Feb. 25 performances are scheduled for 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the United Church of Christ/Waterbury Congregational Church. Admission: $25; $20 for seniors and students. Tickets are available online at elevachamberplayers.com or at the door.  

Eleva’s COVID-19 audience policy recommends masks and social distancing.