FanFaire Foundation Presents From Paris To You 2014, featuring the Paris-based piano and viola duo of Zachary Deak and Virginie D’Avezac De Castera performing a program of music by Schubert, Schumann, Chopin and Clarke. The concert is part of FanFaire Foundation’s Free Family Concerts Series in partnership with the La Jolla-Riford Branch Library.

Unlike their 2012 performances which spanned Western music from the Baroque to the 20th century, this time the duo has as thoughtfully assembled a program of works by the well-known composers of the Romantic era and interestingly juxtaposes these with music by the late 20th century English-American woman composer and violist, Rebecca Clarke.

Clarke is acclaimed in music circles for the lush textures and harmonies of her compositions for the viola, which have been compared with works by Ravel and Bloch, as well as for her songs and choral pieces. Her “Sonata for Viola and Piano,” which is the final number in the program, is today a standard of the viola repertoire. The duo will also perform Schumann’s “Marchenbilder for Viola and Piano,” Schubert’s “Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958,” and Chopin’s “Two Nocturnes op.48.”

San Diego-born and raised (by an American mother and a Slovak father), Zachary Deak began his musical studies at the age of five as a pre-schooler in Encinitas. At age thirteen he began his studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris which awarded him various “diplomes” in 2004 and 2007, culminating in 2011 with the coveted “Diplome Superieure d’execution avec l’unanimite.”

Like Deak, Virginie d’Avezac de Castera began her musical studies at age five as a piano student. She entered the Bordeaux National Conservatory at age ten where a few years later at age fourteen she found her true musical calling and began studying the viola, receiving first prizes from the Bordeaux Conservatory in viola, chamber music, harmony and counterpoint. Virginie studied with two of France's most respected violists and has played in many prominent orchestras across France. A professor of viola at the Cognac Conservatory of Music and conductor of the school’s string orchestra from 2004-2010, she now lives in Paris.