Arctic Chamber Orchestra

Based in Fairbanks, Alaska, the Arctic Chamber Orchestra is led by Russian-born Music Director Eduard Zilberkant. Founded in 1970 by Gordon Wright, the ACO servees as a touring arm of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra. Its thirty-six musicians volunteer their time for annual tours that include performances, private lessons and workshops in schools and communities throughout Alaska. It has also represented the state of Alaska at a Pacific Rim Conference in Long Beach, and on tour in the People's Republic of China (1987). In addition, the ACO has toured Spain (1989), Switzerland, and the Scandinavian (1985) countries on private tours. The ACO has received a Governor's Award for the Arts and was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant in 1992, specifically for the purpose of building an endowment to ensure future touring within Alaska.

The Arctic Chamber Orchestra and its parent Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra are committed to music education beyond its touring, sponsoring the Fairbanks Youth Orchestra, North Star Strings, a Suzuki Institute workshop, a concerto competition and children's concerts. Eduard Zilberkant has been received enthusiastically by audiences and press alike throughout Europe, Canada and the United States, performing in such halls as The Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Curtis Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music, Artur Rubinstein Hall and Warsaw Philharmonic Hall in Poland, Teatro Sangiorgi in Catania, Sicily, Volgograd Opera House in Russia and Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in Anchorage. He is a returning guest artist at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City, and has been a guest artist at the Corfu Festival Ionian Concert Series in Greece, the Assisi International Piano Festival and Orazio Frugoni Music Institute in Italy, International Summer Music Festival in Switzerland, the Bellingham Music Festival in Washington, and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. He received a Solisten Diploma from the Freiburg Musik Hochschule, received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. He is chair of the Music Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, as well as professor of piano. His 2002 solo CD release, Zilberkant plays Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky has received critical acclaim.

For this performance, ACO will be playing Rossini's Overture to La Scala di Seta and Mozart's piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60.