“The essence of Berick & Martin can be summed up in one word . . . chemistry.”
Well established in their own careers as soloists and chamber musicians, it was a summer reading session in 2008 that prompted an immediate resolve for violinist Yehonatan Berick and pianist Pauline Martin to continue as a duo. “The instant rapport was uncanny, as if we had been playing together forever.” The duo's engaging style, keen artistry and thoughtful programming have earned kudos from presenters, critics and audience members alike.
A prizewinner at the 1993 Naumburg competition and a recipient of the 1996-97 Prix Opus, Yehonatan Berick is in high demand throughout North America, Europe and Israel as violinist, violist and pedagogue. He has been featured in the world's most important music centers from Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center to London's Wigmore Hall, Paris's Musee du Louvre and Milan's Sala Verdi. His many festival and chamber series’ credits include Marlboro, Ravinia, Seattle, Vancouver, Ottawa, Jerusalem, El Paso, Maui, Domaine Forget (Canada), Great Lakes (Michigan), Close Encounters with Music (Great Barrington, MA), Leicester (U.K.), Moritzburg (Germany), Lapland (Sweden), Riihimaki (Finland), Strings in the Mountains (Colorado), Alpenglow (Colorado), Four seasons (N. Carolina), Agassiz (Winnipeg), Killington (Vermont) and Bowdoin (Maine). Berick was also co-artistic director of the revived Quebec Chamber Music Society. On CD, Berick has recorded for the Centaur, Summit, Gasparo, Acoma, JMC and Helicon labels. His recording with the Amici ensemble, entitled Contrasts, has won rave reviews in the Canadian press. Other CD features include the Grand Concert for violin, piano and string quartet by Chausson; Chamber Music by Paul Ben Haim; The Impossible Dream by Gerhard Samuel; and Mordechai Seter's unaccompanied violin sonata. Many of his concerts are broadcast on Radio and TV in Canada, Europe and Israel. He has performed, among others, under Yoav Talmi, Mendi Rodan, Kees Baakels and Keith Lockhart, with the Quebec, Winnipeg, Windsor, Ann Arbor, Grand Junction, Jerusalem and Haifa Symphonies, and the Israeli, Cincinnati, Montreal and Manitoba Chamber Orchestras, Thirteen Strings and Ensemble Appassionata. He has presented numerous recitals with such pianists as Menahem Pressler, James Tocco, Louis Lortie, Stephen Prutsman and Michael Chertock, and collaborated with David Soyer and Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet, cellists Peter Wiley, Stephen Isserlis and Yehuda Hanani, clarinetists Wolfgang Meyer and James Campbell, flutist Julius Baker and many others from a long list of internationally renowned artists.
Beginning his musical studies at the age of six, Berick’s principal violin teachers were Ilona Feher, Henry Meyer, Kurt Sassmanshauss, and Dorothy Delay, and he attended masterclasses with such artists as Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Max Rostal and Josef Gingold. One of the brightest talents of Israel, Berick won several Clairemont Awards, and received yearly stipends from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Previously on faculty at McGill University and the Eastman School of Music, he is currently Professor of Violin at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He performs on an 1852 violin by Honore Derazy Pere and a 2003 viola by Stanley Kiernoziak.
Pauline Martin's Washington recital debut captured the Washington Post headline Pauline Martin's Dazzling Debut. She “performed rapturously and sensually… a fine recital rewarded by loud, sustained applause”, wrote Kenneth Townsend. The Canadian born pianist has since earned world-class recognition for her solo and chamber music performances and recordings and has been featured on national radio broadcasts in Canada, the US and Europe. Martin has performed as concerto soloist with such groups as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New American Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra London Canada and numerous others and appears regularly with the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings. Her March, 2009 performance of Mozart’s Concerto K. 365 with the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra was recorded by Chinese National Television for broadcast to an audience of over a billion viewers. Martin is currently Artistic Director of the Pro Mozart Society of Greater Detroit.
Pauline Martin is a founding member of the St. Clair Trio, whose credits include a first-round Grammy nomination for Hobson’s Choice (works by Sir Malcolm Arnold, Koch International Classics) and a 2000 Chamber Music America-WQXR/FM award for Old Acquaintances (works by Franz Waxman). She has collaborated with numerous leading instrumentalists: the Lafayette String Quartet, violinists James Ehnes and Andres Cardenes, flutists Bonita Boyd and Amy Porter, cellists Robert deMaine and Thomas Wiebe and hornist Eric Ruske, among others. As soloist and chamber musician, she has been featured at a host of regional and international festivals, including the Ann Arbor, Sarasota, Summer Serenades (Rockville, Maryland), Grove, Mackinac Island and (Detroit Symphony) Tchaikovsky and Meadowbrook Music Festivals, the Aria International Summer Music Academy and the Winter Days Festival of Scandinavia, and has served as artist-teacher for several Irving S. Gilmore Foundation events. Martin’s diversity in standard through contemporary repertoire is represented on Naxos’ American Classics CD Imaginary Creatures (works by James Hartway) and Postcard from Europe with clarinetist George Stoffan. Her world premieres have garnered praise from composers George Crumb, Lucas Foss, Leslie Bassett, Susan Botti, Sir Malcolm Arnold, James Hartway and others. A former faculty member at Michigan State, Wayne State and Oakland Universities, Pauline Martin in demand as a master teacher, lecturer and adjudicator. Her seminars on aspects of performance and technique have been presented at major North American Universities. Pauline Martin holds two degrees in piano performance from Indiana University, as a student of Menahem Pressler, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Gary Graffman, Theodore Lettvin and Andre Watts.
Berick & Martin ...impeccable artistry, seamless ensemble!
Contact: St. Clair Trio Presents! ~ 248.626.2165 ~ pauline@paulnemartin.com