Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra to present violinist Rachel Lee

The Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of principal conductor David Leibowitz, begins its 22nd season with violinist Rachel Lee performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto on Saturday evening, October 23, 8:30 p.m. at the Berner Middle School, Carmans Mill Road, Massapequa. Admission is free, no tickets are required and seating is limited. The orchestral selections include Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 in B-Minor and the Overture to La Forza del Destino by Verdi.

Lee, now 16 years old, was born in Chicago and began her violin lessons at age four. She gave her first public performance the same year and at age six, won her first competition. In 1996 Lee moved to New York to study with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in the Pre-College Division. She has performed regularly at the Aspen Music Festival as a soloist with the Aspen Young Artist Orchestra and has participated in master classes conducted by Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern and others. In 1997 Lee performed at the United Nations 50th anniversary celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human rights and in 1999/2000 she performed with the KBS Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras in Korea. She has also appeared at Avery Fisher Hall with Disney’s Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra in a production that was televised nationally. Recently Lee played with the Rochester Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestras. She was selected to represent the Juilliard School in a year-long filming project, American Masters, which was broadcast on PBS. Currently Lee studies violin with Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School.

The Massapequa Philharmonic is composed of about 70 local musicians and is one of the largest orchestras on Long Island. Principal conductor David Leibowitz, received his MA from CUNY’s Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, where his main studies were in oboe, conducting and composition. He also studied conducting with Carlo Maria Giulini and Herbert Blomstedt, and was a finalist in the International Masterplayers’ conducting Competition in Lugano, Switzerland in 1986. Leibowitz is the founder and current music director of the New York Repertory Orchestra, which is starting its 12th season. Recently he made his conducting debut to lead opera, ballet and concert performances at the prestigious Rome Festival. In the New York area, Leibowitz has appeared with the Greenwich Village, Brooklyn Heights and Centre Symphony Orchestras.