Syracuse University faculty members William Knuth and Anne Laver explore the fabulous combination of violin and organ, including a Handel sonata, a contemporary Serenade by Chris DeBlasio, and the world premiere of Natalie Draper’s 2024 work Interlaced. The program also includes new solo organ music by Draper and excerpts of Bach’s Partita in D Minor for solo violin.
Join us for a midday break on Wednesday, February 26th at Sage Chapel at 12:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.
About the artists:
William Knuth
William Knuth, violinist and Fulbright Scholar, has earned recognition for his artistry as a solo and chamber musician. He is an assistant professor of violin and string department coordinator at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music and has a private teaching studio in Syracuse, New York.
As a member of Duo Sonidos with guitarist Adam Levin, Knuth has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Canary Islands, and South America. During the fall of 2024, he was a visiting professor of violin at the University of São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil. He joined the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra in 2024 as acting principal second violin.
Knuth has taken the role of assistant concertmaster of the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, and associate concertmaster of the vibrant Boston-based chamber orchestra Discovery Ensemble. He is a member of the esteemed New York City-based new music group Ensemble Signal and long-standing member of the Boston Philharmonic.
As Duo Sonidos, Knuth and Levin released their most recent album, "Duo Sonidos: Wild Dance," on the NAXOS label, which immediately rose to number three on the Billboard classical music charts. The duo was awarded First Prize at the 2010 Luys Milan International Chamber Music Competition in Valencia, Spain, and BBC Music Magazine chose the debut album, "Duo Sonidos," as the BBC Top Choice U.S. Release Album. Knuth is a Grammy Recording Academy voting member. Current projects include a planned record release of original new works commissioned by the duo for violin and guitar by internationally celebrated Brazilian composers Sergio Assad, Clarice Assad, João Luiz, Marco Pereira, and Egberto Gismonti.
Knuth’s concerts in the U.S. have included a debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall; performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Strathmore Center, Austin Chamber Music Center, Guitar Foundation of American International Festival, National Gallery of Art, University of Miami Frost School of Music, Fundacao Oscar Americano São Paulo, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Harvard Sanders Theater, Boston WGBH radio, Chicago WFMT radio, WCNY radio, Austin Classical Guitar, NPR radio, and Mayne Stage Chicago; guest solo appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata SESI (Vitoria, Brazil), Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston International Guitarfest; and ensemble work with Jacksonville Symphony, Discovery Ensemble, Signal Ensemble, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Harvard Group for New Music, IMPULS Festival Austria, June in Buffalo Festival, Big Ears Festival, and the Ojai Festival. Special projects have included collaborations with Sergio Assad, Clarice Assad, Joao Luiz, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Salvador Brotons, Eduardo Morales-Caso, Phillip Glass, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Lukas Foss, Norah Jones, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Goldfrapp, David Byrne, Jon Brion, Bright Eyes, and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Knuth holds an M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied violin with Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo Quartet; a Fulbright certificate for studies in Austria with Ernst Kovacic at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts; and a B.M. from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student of Lynn Blakeslee.
Anne Laver
Described by Fanfare magazine as a “complete musician, totally adept and utterly stylish in everything she plays,” Anne Laver maintains an active career as concert organist, scholar, and pedagogue. She has given organ concerts in Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and across the United States and has been a featured recitalist at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, and the Göteborg International Organ Academy (Sweden). In 2010, she was awarded second prize in the AGO National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP). Anne’s debut recording, “Reflections of Light” (Loft, 2019) received favorable reviews and has been aired on nationally syndicated radio programs, including WXXI FM’s With Heart and Voice and American Public Media’s Pipedreams.
Anne is a versatile musician, equally at home on antique and modern organs. Her programs are tailored to the specific organ at hand and center around themes ranging from the art of variation in seventeenth-century Germany, to music of women composers, to organ music with live dance. An advocate for new music and diversifying the organ repertoire, Anne has worked with composer Natalie Draper to offer programs for composers who want to write for the organ, and has given world premieres of works by Draper, Eric Heumann, Jordan Alexander Key, and Ivan Božičević.
Anne is passionate about advocacy for the organ and the encouragement of young organists. In her appointment as Associate Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, she helps educate the next generation of organists and church musicians. She also serves as artistic director for the Malmgren Concert Series at Hendricks Chapel, coordinates the annual Arthur Poister Competition in Organ Playing, and hosts educational programs for youth in collaboration with local chapters of the American Guild of Organists. Anne has taught and led outreach programs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, most recently serving as Visiting Professor of Organ from 2020-2022. She has also chaired national committees for the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, and the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboards.
As a scholar, Anne’s research interests focus on organ music at the nineteenth and twentieth century world’s fairs. Her articles have been published in the Journal for the Society of American Music, The American Organist, and Vox Humana. She is also a contributor and expert advisor for a soon-to-be-released open access online organ encyclopedia edited by Kimberly Marshall and Alexander Meszler. She has been able to involve student research assistants in her scholarship with the help of Syracuse University’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement.
Anne Laver is indebted to her teachers: Jacqueline Cratin Smith, Mark Steinbach, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Hans Davidsson, William Porter, and Ulrika Davidsson.
For more information, visit annelaver.com.
