Honored Violinist Joins Pianist Kim for First Free “12@Hotchkiss” Concert of Season

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Violinist Nabeel Abboud Ashkar will be the special guest Friday, September 7 as the Washington College Music Department kicks off the second season of its popular “12@Hotchkiss” lunchtime concert series on campus.  The free public performances, which are hosted at noon in Hotchkiss Recital Hall on the first Friday of each month during the academic year, feature acclaimed musicians from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.

Pianist Grace Kim directs the
12@Hotchkiss concert series.

In the opening concert, Ashkar will collaborate with pianist and faculty member Grace Eun Hae Kim in a program that includes Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano E minor, K. 304 and Beethoven’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 5 in F major, “Spring.”  

Ashkar, a Palestinian native of Nazareth, has earned international praise for bringing young Arabs and Jews together through music. He founded the Polyphony Conservatory in Nazareth in 2006 with support from the Barenboim-Said Foundation. In 2011, he helped found the Polyphony Foundation and launch the Polyphony Youth Orchestra. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Washington College during Fall Convocation on Thursday, September 6. 

Hotchkiss Recital Hall is located in the Gibson Center for the Arts building at Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue. For more information on the 12@Hotchkiss series, please visit the Music Department website at http://music.washcoll.edu, or contact series director Grace Eun Hae Kim at gkim2@washcoll.edu.

A day after receiving an honorary degree from the College, violinist Nabeel
Ashkar will perform with Kim Friday, September,  in the first concert of the
 free lunchtime series on campus. The community is welcome.