Joyce Balint, mandolin, and Susan Jolles, harp, both of whom frequently appear with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, return to Downtown Music with a delightful program of Italian music for this unusual combination of instruments. Works of Lully, Paganini, and Calace will be featured.
This concert is made possible, in part, with a generous gift from Barbara Schwarz celebrating the contributions of Westchester County Legislator Ben Boykin to our community.
Joyce Balint has been the mandolin soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since l974. One of the country’s foremost classical mandolinists, she has performed many solo recitals and orchestral performances, including the Paris Opera, Dallas Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony. As a violinist, she has been an active free-lance performer in the New York metropolitan area, including the MET Opera, the Caramoor Festival Orchestra, the Westchester Symphony, and several opera companies. She currently performs with the Amore Opera in New York City and the Yonkers Philharmonic. She performed duo recitals with her late husband Sandor Balint, as the Balint Duo. Currently, Ms. Balint performs recitals with Susan Jolles, harpist, as the Balint-Jolles Duo and as the Flute/Strings Duo with Pamela Skla, flautist. “Joyce Balint Shines in String Recital” was the headline in the New York Times of her Carnegie Recital Hall debut where it said her playing of the mandolin “came close to the ideal” and she played with a “musicianly verve” on the violin. In another performance, the New York Times said of her playing of the Hummel Mandolin Sonata that she “made the most of its sunny, tuneful character.” Ms. Balint lives in Bronxville and is on the faculty of the Mozartina Musical Arts Conservatory in Tarrytown where she teaches both instruments.
Susan Jolles, harpist, has enjoyed a long and varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, teacher and arranger. A founding member of the Naumburg Award winning Jubal Trio, she also appears with daughter, Renee, violinist, as the Jolles Duo. Ms. Jolles is a member of the American Composers Orchestra, Percussia, Queens Symphony Orchestra and The Little Orchestra Society, and was associate harpist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for many years.
Ms. Jolles has been associated with contemporary music since receiving a Fromm Fellowship in contemporary music performance in 1963. Susan Jolles has an extensive discography that encompasses a full range of musical genres including classical, klezmer, jazz, cabaret and Broadway. Ms. Jolles is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and Hofstra University.