When: Sunday March 1, 2020 at 5:00 PM
Venue: Amelia Plantation Chapel
36 Bowman Road – Fernandina Beach, FL – Directions…

Violinist Pamela Frank performs regularly as a recitalist with many of today’s foremost orchestras, including those of Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, New York as well as the Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Israel philharmonics. Her chamber music projects include performances with such artists as Peter Serkin, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and her father, the late pianist Claude Frank. Ms. Frank also makes frequent appearances with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Musicians from Marlboro. Recipient of a coveted Avery Fisher Prize, she is professor of violin at the Curtis Institute of Music.

The Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival is deeply saddened to announce the death of the originally scheduled pianist Peter Serkin from pancreatic cancer on February 1, 2020 and extends its sincere condolences to the Serkin family. For the Festival’s performance on March 1, pianist Stephen Prutsman will join violinist Pamela Frank. Mr. Prutsman, a renowned pianist, composer and conductor, frequently collaborates with Ms Frank.

Active as a classical and jazz pianist and composer Stephen Prutsman began performing in his teens with several art rock bands and was a regular on a nationally syndicated gospel television show. He was also during those years a solo jazz pianist playing in many southern California clubs and lounges and was the proud winner of television’s “The Gong Show” in 1976.

In the early 90’s his career as a classical pianist was launched after receiving the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winning medals at the Tchaikovsky (Moscow) and Queen Elisabeth (Brussels) Piano Competitions. Since then Stephen has performed the classical concerto repertoire as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and his classical discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Barber and McDowell concerti with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Solo piano recording projects have included Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier”, an album of Russian masterworks, and a CD of jazz piano originals, recently released entitled “Passengers”.

From 2004 – 2007 Stephen was Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and from 2009 – 2012 he was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Festival of Music, South America’s largest festival of its kind.
As a composer, Stephen’s long collaboration with Kronos Quartet has resulted in over 40 arrangements and compositions for them. Other leading artists and ensembles that have performed Stephen’s compositions and arrangements include Leon Fleisher, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Yo-Yo Ma, Spoleto USA and the Silk Road Project. His original compositions scored to accompany great silent films of the 1920s have been performed throughout the world. As a pianist or arranger outside of the classical music world he has collaborated with such diverse personalities as Tom Waits, Rokia Traore, Joshua Redman, Jon Anderson of “YES” and Asha Bhosle.

Spending much of his time in activities benefiting the developmentally disabled Stephen co-founded “Autism Fun Bay Area”, a non-profit organization that provides artistic performances and recreational environments for people on the spectrum and their families.