TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
RAMSEY CONCERT HALL
with Alan Woo, piano
PROGRAM
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Ramsey Concert Hall
UGA Performing Arts Center
Sonata in F minor op.120 No 1
Allegro appassionato
Andante un poco Adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Vivace
Sonata in E flat Major op. 120. No 2
Allegro amabile
Allegro appassionato
Andante con moto
INTERMISSION
Sonata No 2
Molto moderato
Allegretto
Rhapsody No 2 (Folk Dances)
Lassu. Moderato
Friss. Allegro moderato
Levon Ambartsumian is Regent’s and Franklin Professor Professor of Violin at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Prior to coming to UGA in 1995, he was a Visiting Professor at Indiana University School of Music, replacing legendary American Violin Teacher Joseph Gingold. He also taught at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1978 where he taught for 15 years.
Ambartsumian is an alumnus of the Moscow Central Music School and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where his teachers were Felix Andrievski, Yury Yankelevitch, Leonid Kogan and Igor Bezrodny. In 1977 he became the First Prize winner of Zagreb International Violin Competition headed by Henryk Szeryng. Two years later he was a prize-winner of the Montreal International Competition, and in 1981 he won the All-Union Violin Competition in Riga.
In 1988 Amartsumian was distinguished as “Honored Artist of Armenia,” and was named “Honored Artist of Russia” in 1997. He has performed in the major cities of the United States of America, Russia, Eastern Europe, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, China, Japan, and South Korea, having collaborated as a soloist with conductors and composers such as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Maxim Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Alfred Schnittke, Karen Khachaturian, and many others.
In 1990 Ambartsumian founded the Moscow Chamber Orchestra ARCO which regularly performed in Russia and abroad and now resides in Athens, Georgia. Since its creation, Ambartsumian has led UGA’s ARCO Chamber Orchestra, commercially releasing 15 CDs and has performing four times in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. In 2011, ARCO was invited to perform at La Fenice, the world famous Opera House in Venice, Italy.
As a recording artist, Ambartsumian has over 50 commercially-released and internationallydistributed CD’s including music by Wieniawski, Sarasate, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich, Strauss, Schnittke, Vasks, Bronner, Arutiunian and other contemporary composers. As a teacher, Ambartsumian has given master classes in Russia, Armenia, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Portugal and France. His former students hold principal positions in major European orchestras in Germany, France, Portugal, Denmark, and the United States, as well as full time college teaching positions.
Praised by the New York Times as a pianist with “assurance and vitality,” Alan Woo made his Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully Hall performing with the Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He has since collaborated with conductors Daniel Hege, Miguel HarthBedoya, and Tito Muñoz in solo appearances with the Houston and Fort Worth Symphonies, and the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra. Other recent performances include solo recital engagements throughout the US, Puerto Rico, and Europe.
Woo has been featured on The McGraw Hill Financial Young Artists Showcase broadcasted on WQXR in New York and has performed in venues such as Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Recital Halls. An avid chamber musician, he has made appearances at the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Juilliard’s ChamberFest. Other accolades include prizes at the High Point University, Ima Hogg, Iowa and Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer piano competitions. Born in Arlington, Virginia, Woo is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Peabody Institute, where he completed degrees in piano performance under Robert McDonald and Yong Hi Moon. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Georgia, he served on the faculty at Elizabeth City State University.
TUES 9/9
THU 2/19
“REFLECTIONS”
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall
$18, Adult
$6, Student
Additional fees for online purchases apply.
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA w/ MATTHEW SHIPES, tuba
This evening features a wide variety of orchestral music, both classical and contemporary, including one featured concerto, Reflections on the Mississippi (2015) by Michael Daugherty. This piece, composed in memory of his father, Willis Daugherty (1929-2011), is a musical reflection on family trips during Michael’s childhood to the Mississippi River. The evening features UGA faculty soloist Matthew Shipes, tuba.
TUES 2/24
7:30 p.m.
Ramsey Concert Hall
FREE CONCERT
FACULTY RECITAL: EMELY PHELPS, piano
Praised by the Boston Globe for her “fleet, energetic, and bright-toned” playing, pianist Emely Phelps enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. Second prize winner of the 2023 Ernst Bacon Prize for American Music, Emely has given more than 50 performances over the past two years, with recent highlights including an all-American solo recital and educational residency in Ruth Crawford Seeger’s birthplace of East Liverpool, OH, chamber music performances with A Far Cry and the Cassatt Quartet, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Ohio University Wind Symphony, and duo recitals with violinist Christine Harada Li, flutist Jeiran Hasan, and trombonist Lucas Borges.
TUES 9/9
TUES 2/24
7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall
$18, Adult
$6, Student
Additional fees for online purchases apply.
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA WIND ENSEMBLE WITH COBB WIND SYMPHONY
University of Georgia Wind Ensemble with the Cobb Wind Symphony Program includes “Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Band” by Paul Creston performed by 2026 Concerto winner Yun Qu Tan, saxophone and the world premiere of “Jarabe Sinfónico No. 1” by Jose Hernandez, arranged by Gilbert Villagrana. Also featuring composers Alfred Reed, Frank Perkins, and arrangements of pieces by Billy Joel and Bjork.