Featured Performers:
Ana-Maria Vera, Pianist

Pianist Ana-Maria Vera began her musical studies with her mother at the age of three, and has been performing across the globe since childhood. Her gifts were recognized and developed early on by superb teachers such as Ylda Novik and Leon Fleisher.

In the course of her unusual and prodigious career she has appeared as guest soloist with major orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony and the Danish Radio Orchestra, collaborating with conductors including Riccardo Muti, Yoel Levi, Edo de Waart, David Zinman, Eliahu Inbal, and James Conlon.

Born in the United States of Dutch-Bolivian parents, Vera is equally at home on both sides of the Atlantic, and has appeared in solo recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Herkulessaal in Münich, the Tivoli Theater in Copenhagen, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, and most recently at the Wigmore Hall in London.

Over the past decade Vera has devoted much time to chamber music, a world in which she has become highly regarded, forming close partnerships with artists such as Ivry Gitlis, Steven Isserlis and Joshua Bell.

Her activities continue to be extremely diverse. In 2000, Vera organised a memorable musical expedition to her native Bolivia involving outstanding musicians from all over the world. She has performed the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto in Germany with David Stern, the Grieg Concerto with the Tokyo Symphony in Tokyo and the Ulster Orchestra at the Belfast Proms, the Shostakovich 2nd Piano Concerto at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Ravel G major Piano Concerto with the Australian Chamber Orchestra across Australia.

In How Music Works, Ana-Maria accompanies Steven Isserlis on Dvorak's Romantic Piece No. 4.

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