Internationally-acclaimed violinist Lara St. John to perform on November 17

Steeple Concerts at St. Paul’s will present violinist Lara St. John and jazz pianist Matt Herskowitz at 5:00 pm on Sunday, November 17 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 414 East Broad Street, Westfield, NJ. Free parking is available in the parking lot adjacent to the church or on St. Paul’s Street on the south side of the church.

Lara St. John has long been a collector of music from Eastern Europe, beginning with her first trip to Hungary at 11 years old. She met jazz pianist Matt Herskowitz several years ago, and he proved a catalyst to her idea that some of these tunes might be well heard anew. The program includes songs from Armenia, Palestine, the Jewish Diaspora, Russia, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Romania, and Hungary. Some are fully written, some are partly improvised, but they all come from tunes that she has known and loved for years.

Ms. St. John began playing the violin when she was two years old. She made her first appearance as soloist with orchestra at age four and began studying at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia at 13. She has performed around the world as a soloist with the orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, and with the Boston Pops, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, among many others. The Los Angeles Times wrote “Lara St. John happens to be a volcanic violinist with a huge, fabulous tone that pours out of her like molten lava. She has technique to burn and plays at a constant high heat.” Her album, Bach: The Six Sonatas and Partitas, of music for solo violin was the best-selling double album on iTunes in 2007. 

Pianist, composer, and arranger Matt Herskowitz is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His work combines the superlative technique of a classical virtuoso with prowess in jazz, world music and free improvisation.

Tickets to the concert are $25 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets and details about upcoming programs are available on the Steeple Concerts website at www.steepleconcerts.org and at the door. Steeple Concerts at St. Paul’s is presented by the Friends of Music, a 501(c)3 organization devoted to presenting the arts in Westfield.

Steeple Concerts is thrilled to present Lara St. John at St. Paul’s for the second program of the 2019-20 season. Join us on November 17 in Westfield!