Violinist Johnny Gandelsman, a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, has been awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship – aka “genius grant.”
The MacArthur judges cited his work forging “connections among diverse musical cultures and global artistic threads. He uniquely synthesizes past and present, making the experience of listening to music wholly new and fresh for audiences.”
Gandelsman is the only classical musician among 21 artists, cultural historians and scientific researchers to be named a 2024 MacArthur fellow. Each will receive $800,000 over the next five years.
Born in Russia, the 46-year-old Gandelsman studied at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. He is a founding member of Brooklyn Rider, a string quartet specializing in contemporary music, and performed for 18 years in the Silk Road Ensemble, known for its explorations of non-Western art-music.
As a soloist, Gandelsman has performed and recorded the violin sonatas and partitas of J.S. Bach and his arrangements of Bach’s solo cello suites, as well as works by living composers, notably “This Is America,” a set of 28 pieces that he commissioned during the pandemic lockdown.
He also is a record producer, founder of the label In a Circle, and provided music for the Ken Burns documentaries “The Vietnam War” and “The U.S. and the Holocaust.”
Gandelsman and cellist James Wilson, artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, will perform in “Bach by Candlelight,” a sampler of the composer’s solo string works, on Dec. 16 at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter. Details: (804) 304-6312; http://cmscva.org