Concert by Mount Vernon Virtuosi Quartet with Amit Peled, Ismael Guerrero, and Martin Labazevitch
The KFDC
2025 O Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
We are delighted to invite you to a concert by Mount Vernon Virtuosi Quartet with Amit Peled, Ismael Guerrero and Martin Labazevitch performing Edvard Grieg, Gian Carlo Menotti, Robert Schumann and Grażyna Bacewicz.
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Free admission for the Kosciuszko Foundation Members!
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Founded in 2018 by internationally renowned cellist Amit Peled, Mount Vernon Virtuosi is a chamber orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. Comprised of seventeen string players, our mission is to provide a place of artistic growth for the young musician on the brink of their professional career.
By providing a platform for our musicians to continue developing their skills, we encourage their personal growth by engaging with audiences of all ages through exceptional performances and community engagement activities throughout the Baltimore and Washington DC region.
The Mount Vernon Virtuosi regularly performs at three venues in Maryland – the Pratt Library in Baltimore, Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, and the Bender JCC in Rockville. Through the generous contributions of dedicated individuals, all regular season performances are presented free of charge. We continue to develop meaningful partnerships with community organizations throughout the Baltimore area, with concerts and education initiatives in schools, prisons, hospitals, hospice, and in collaboration with local venues that expand our reach and provide easy access to community members.
Beyond regular season concerts in the Baltimore/Washington area, Mount Vernon Virtuosi has toured throughout the East Coast and records exclusively for the CTM Classics recording label. The orchestra’s first recording, “Mozart Live” was released in 2019.
Amit Peled
Internationally renowned cellist, conductor and pedagogue Amit Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. Having performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Seoul Arts Center in Korea and the Konzerthaus Berlin, Germany.
Peled has released over a dozen recordings on the Naxos, Centaur, Delos, and CTM Classics labels.
He is a cello professor at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and has performed in and presented master classes around the world, including at the Marlboro and Newport Music Festivals and the Heifetz International Music Summer Institute in the US, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove in England, and Keshet Eilon in Israel.
Embracing the new online era, Peled has established the Amit Peled Online Cello Academy reaching out to hundreds of cellists all over the world.
Peled is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Mount Vernon Virtuosi, former Music Director of CityMusic Cleveland and enjoys a growing international conducting career with orchestras all across the globe.
He is represented worldwide by CTM Classics.
Ismael Guerrero
Born in Havana, Cuba, Ismael Ariel Guerrero Bombut is an accomplished cellist who has won many competitions and performed all over the world. He has participated in masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Carlos Prieto, Laurence Lesser, Colin Carr, Clemens Hagen, Frans Helmerson, and Heidi Litschauer. As a soloist, Guerrero has performed in Mexico, Switzerland, Cuba, and throughout the United States; as a chamber musician, he has collaborated with eminent musicians such as Vadim Gluzman, Michael Kannen, Nicholas Kitchen, Yeesun Kim, Alon Goldstein, and Amit Peled. Guerrero is a member of the renowned Sphinx Virtuosi, featuring the nation’s top Black and Latinx soloists, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the group in its 2021/22 tour. He is also an active member of the Colour of Music Festival, which also promotes Black excellence in the arts. Guerrero has recorded multiple albums for CTM Classics as a member of the Peabody Cello Gang and as a principal cellist of the Mount Vernon Virtuosi . He has attended many summer festivals such as the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, Virginia; Keshet Eilon in Israel; and Manchester Music Festival in Vermont. Guerrero has made radio appearances on several occasions, one of which promoted his concert as a soloist with the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble conducted by Barak Tal in the Opera House of the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center.
Under the tutelage of Amit Peled, Guerrero completed his bachelor of music degree at the Peabody Conservatory. He recently graduated with a master of music degree from USC Thornton School of Music, where he worked with Ralph Kirshbaum and Marcy Rosen. He is grateful to have received full scholarships throughout his studies at these top institutions. He is extremely thankful to Cecylia Barczyk and the Borowsky Family for providing him with the opportunity to immigrate to the United States to pursue his studies and begin his career.
Guerrero loves teaching, a passion he discovered through the opportunity to give a masterclass for the PEG Program at the Heifetz International Music Institute in 2018. He recently taught masterclasses at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and George Mason University. He has also been involved in outreach programs that focus on working with music students of all ages and on bringing classical music to people who have little or no access to it. While at USC Thornton, he was part of the Thornton Community Engagement Program and had the chance to work with children from Los Angeles schools.
Martin Labazevitch
Praised by critics in Europe and the United States for his lyricism, virtuosity and an intensity of performance, pianist Martin Labazevitch
appeared in many concert halls and festivals in Poland, Ukraine, Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Peru and the United States.
Born in Poland, Mr. Labazevitch studied at the Odessa Conservatory in Ukraine and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. In 2019 he received Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Rome School of Music, Drama and Art in Washington D.C. He has been a soloist with leading orchestras in Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Japan, and the United States. Of his debut album release of the Chopin Concerto with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, ConcertoNet wrote, “…he pleasantly refrains from overtaxing Chopin’s conclusive Allegro vivace with shimmering grandeur and eloquent precision that could even rival that of Arthur Rubinstein.” After his debut at Carnagie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, The Strad Magazine wrote: “ … exuberant, multi-faceted, …gripping from first note to last.”
An enthusiastic educator, Mr Labazevitch has been sharing his passion for teaching with students at the Levine School of Music in Washington D.C. He is also the Co-Founder of the Puerto Rico International Piano Festival, in San Juan as well as the Artistic Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition and Chopin Piano Academy in Washington D.C. In 2022 Mr Labazevitch co-founded The Paderewski Academy, a pioneer hybrid piano academy based in Zurich, Switzerland. Mr Labazevitch is a Steinway Artist.
