Described as “ravishing” (Strad), “enlightened” (BBC), “explosive” (Virginia Gazette), and “irresistibly elegant” (Diario de Leon), violist Molly Carr and pianist Anna Petrova are rapidly compiling a remarkable list of accolades in recognition of their fiery musical expression, refined artistry, and relentless entrepreneurial dedication to social initiatives. Both acclaimed international soloists, as individuals they have won top prizes in several international competitions, and have been featured in such world-renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and Lincoln Center. They have participated in festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia, MozartFest, Music@Menlo, and the Perlman Music Program, and their performances have been broadcast on CNN, PBS, NPR’s “Performance Today,” WQXR, and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Carr and Petrova began playing together during their years at the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, and have since performed together across Europe, the Middle East and North America, in venues ranging from Lincoln Center to soup kitchens in New Orleans and schools in Gaza. Recent season highlights include a Carnegie Hall debut – praised by the Classical Post as “categorically astonishing in its beauty, ensemble, artistry, quality of sound, and almost uncanny ability to draw into the music” – as well as recitals at the Smithsonian Museum, Jerusalem Music Center, Malaga’s Sociedad Filarmonica Chamber Music Series, and Sala Clemente in Valencia. Their future engagements include a tour of China, performances and masterclasses in Spain, Israel, Italy and the US.
Their debut album “Novel Voices” was released on Melos Records in October 2019 to critical acclaim. Spain’s Classical Music Magazine Ritmo immediately chose it as one of their “Top 10 CDs of the Month,” while Fanfare Magazine reviewed the album as “magical” and a “recording to have and hold dear, […] one of the most successful viola and piano recitals – technically perfect and musically involving.” Codalario Magazine gave the album its seal of “Superior Quality,” listing the album as its top album of 2020 and stating, “It would be hard to debut better than this.”
In August 2018, the Duo launched an interdisciplinary project called the Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project (winner of Music Academy of the West’s Alumni Enterprise Award) – a venture designed to give voice and visibility to refugee communities while raising awareness and support for both local and international refugee-aid organizations. The project brought classical music performances and music workshops to refugee camps and aid-programs around the globe, commissioned a new work by composer Fernando Arroyo Lascurain, and will be the feature of an upcoming documentary by film-makers Victoria Stevens and Skyler Knutzen. In support of this project, and in celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, the Duo was honored at the United Nations and invited to perform and present the Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project in October of 2018.
The outgrowth of Novel Voices is now being developed under the non-profit Project: Music Heals Us (PMHU), for which the duo serves as an Ambassador Ensemble. In this next phase, called the Novel Voices: Distance Learning program, the duo will work with PMHU to return virtually to the places and people previously visited, to offer weekly digital music lessons, masterclasses, and teacher-training workshops to young refugee musicians as well as music organizations with limited access and resources around the globe.
The Duo’s connection with PMHU early in the pandemic was also instrumental in helping to launch a PMHU program of virtual bedside concerts that continues today, performing for hospitalized COVID patients across the US. Their concerts in Spring of 2020 were featured by news outlets around the world, including the New York Times, CNN, Forbes, and BBC World News.
Collectively, the Duo holds faculty positions at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the University of Louisville, and is represented by Iberkonzert Artistic Management.
Violist MOLLY CARR enjoys a diverse musical career as recitalist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. Hailed as “one of the most interesting interpreters of the viola today” (Codalario Spain) and praised for her “intoxicating” (New York Times) and “ravishing” (STRAD) performances, she has been the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Primrose International Viola Competition, Chamber Music America, ProMusicis Foundation, and the Davidson Institute. In 2018 she was named by the Sandi Klein Show as one of America’s leading “Creative Women,” honored at the United Nations, and awarded the International Father Eugène Merlet Award for Community Service for her work in prisons and with refugees around the globe as the Founding Director for Project: Music Heals Us, a non-profit which brings free music programming to marginalized populations with limited ability to access the Arts themselves. Her performances have taken her across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as on PBS, CNN, NPR, and BBC World News. She is the violist of the Juilliard String Quartet and the Carr-Petrova Duo, and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York City.
Praised for her “artistic, clear and enlightened” performances (BBC Magazine) of “technical brilliance and complete emotional engagement" (Fanfare Magazine), Bulgarian pianist ANNA PETROVA embraces a multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. She has been the recipient of top honors and awards at numerous competitions internationally, including the Queen Elisabeth and Jose Roca Competitions, MAW Alumni Enterprise Award, and the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture among many others. Petrova’s latest project is serving as the Co-artistic director of ATX Chamber Music and Jazz: an organization curating extraordinary musical and social experiences, while also offering educational opportunities to the local community.
Petrova serves as the Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. She enjoys offering regular masterclasses around the world at institutions from the Beijing Central and Tianjin Conservatories in Asia, to the Jerusalem Music Center and Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in the Middle East, Musical Arts Madrid and FORUM Festival in Spain, Meadowmount School of Music and Manhattan School of Music in the US, and Memorial University in Canada.
In 2018, Petrova was honored at the United Nations for her work with refugees around the globe through the Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project. Currently, she co-directs the Novel Voices Distance Learning branch of the musical non-profit Project: Music Heals Us, bringing weekly virtual lessons, masterclasses, and workshops to underserved students in Kenya, El Salvador and the Middle East.
As a soloist Petrova has appeared with the Virginia Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia, Louisville Orchestra, the Iasi and Timisoara Philharmonics, Valencia Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Wallonia, as well as all of the major orchestras in her native Bulgaria. She has collaborated with numerous world-renowned conductors including Paul Goodwin, JoAnn Falletta, Philippe Entremont, Roderick Cox, Jonathan Rush, Jonathan Pasternack, Max Bragado-Darman, Bruno Aprea, Ramón Tébar, Francisco Valero–Terribas, and Horia Andresecu.
Highlights of recent seasons include several highly-acclaimed solo and concerto appearances including a return engagement with the Monterey Symphony Orchestra in which Petrova was praised for “the vitality in her crisp playing… [brought out] an impetuous excitement that stirred the audience to its feet!” Other memorable performances include the Karel Husa Concertino for Piano and Wind Ensemble at the Žofín Palace in Prague, Czech Republic; the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Louisville and Port Angeles Orchestras; solo recital tours of China and Chile; the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto and the Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, Prokofiev First and Third Piano Concertos, Beethoven’s Fourth and Triple Concertos. Petrova has appeared in recitals in such revered venues as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the Jerusalem Music Center, the Oslo Concert Hall, the Auditorio Ciudad de Leon in Spain, and the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Spain.
A passionate chamber musician, Petrova has appeared as both a performer and teacher at festivals around the world, including Mozartfest, Musc@Menlo, Music Academy of the West, Virginia Arts Festival, Malaga Clasica, and the Holland Music Sessions among others. She has collaborated with such renowned artists as Andre-Michel Schub, Jinjoo Cho, Alexander Sitkovetsky, as well as members of the Dover, Escher and Juilliard Quartets. She is a member of two award-winning ensembles: the viola-piano Carr-Petrova Duo with violist Molly Carr and the clarinet-viola-piano Iris Trio with clarinetist Christine Carter and violist Zoë Martin-Doike.
Petrova’s debut album, Slavic Heart, released by the German label Solo Musica (2022,) received five-star reviews by Spain’s Ritmo Magazine which commented, “One would think this is an album for a virtuoso, but this Slavic Heart is also full of dreamy moments where the pianist is a narrator and a poet.” Fanfare Magazine also labeled the recording as “superb, a marvelous showcase for Petrova’s splendid pianism and artistry,” giving it the “highest recommendation.”
Additionally, the Carr-Petrova Duo’s debut album Novel Voices, released on the Melos label in 2018, was immediately chosen by Spain’s Classical Music Magazine Ritmo as one of its “Top 10 CDs of the Month,” praising the Duo’s performance of the Rebecca Clarke Sonata as “the best interpretation of this sonata to date.” Codalario Magazine also gave the album its “Superior Quality” award, named it as their “Top Album of 2020,” and stated, “It would be hard to debut better than this.” The Iris Trio’s 2019 release of Hommage and Inspiration on the Coviello Classics label was chosen by CBC as one of its “Top 10 Classical Albums to Get Excited About,” and reviewed by Fanfare as “superb […] a five-star stand-out release, writ large with the spirit of chamber music.” Other discography includes recording of Stravinsky’s Les Noces with the Virginia Symphony and conductor JoAnn Falletta (NAXOS, 2016).