Shank, Leslie

Violinist who attended Juilliard, the Mannes School of Music, the New York String Seminar and Roosevelt High School. Her teachers included Dorothy Delay, Felix Galimir, Shirley Givens, Maybeth Pressley and Emanuel Zetlin.

In January 1970, she performed with a variety of musicians at the Marlboro Music Festival. A few of the highlights: “Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; “Piano Sextet in D major, Op. 110” by Felix Mendelssohn; and, “String Trio No. 2” by Bohuslav Martinu.

She was the guest soloist of the Seattle Symphony in 1983 when they interpreted Samuel Barber’s “Violin Concerto”.

In 1984, she joined the ranks of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Other groups with whom she was worked include the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, the Baltimore Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, the Guys All-Star Shoe Band, the Hot Dish Trio, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Isles Ensemble, the Musicians from Marlboro, the National Orchestral Association, the Racine Symphony and the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra.

The Guys All-Star Shoe Band performed “Dinah”, “Jazz Me Blues” and “Weary/Farewell Blues” on A Prairie Home Companion on 24^th October 1998.

On 30^th July 2004, the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society offered up “Concertino” by Leos Janacek, “Five Pieces” by Ervin Schulhoff, “Quintet” by Zdenek Fibich, and “Romance” and “Serenade” by Antonin Dvorak at the Opera House in Stoughton.

They appeared at the Mineral Point Opera House on 29^th July 2005, when their program comprised “Chants de Linos” by Andre Jolivet, “The Masque of the Red Death” by Andre Caplet, “Quintet, Op. 115” by Gabriel Faure and “Sonata” by Claude Debussy.

In December 2007, members of the SPCO attended St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, where they interpreted Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg concertos.

Leslie and violist David Auerbach, cellist David Huckaby and violinist Michal Sobiesky performed the “Divertimento in D major” of Mozart at the inauguration of incumbent mayor Chris Coleman at the Union Depot on 4^th January 2010.

On 3^rd March 2011, the Hot Dish Trio, which was rounded out by pianist Susan Billmeyer and clarinetist Karrin Meffert-Nelson, entertained at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. The hot dishes served up: Victor Babin’s “Hillandale Waltzes”; Bela Bartok’s “Contrasts”; Johannes Brahms’ “Sonata in D minor, Op. 108”; and, Darius Milhaud’s “Suite, Op. 157b”.

Leslie and flautist Jean Larson Garver, oboist Erin Hannigan and trumpeter Steven Weger interpreted Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F, BWV 1047” at St. Columba Catholic Church on 19^th July 2012.

Recordings on which she appears include: Album by Angel Grant; Bela Bartok: Sonatas for Violin and Piano/Andante/First Rhapsody with Heather MacLaughlin; Glitter by Mariah Carey; Lake Wobegon U.S.A. by Garrison Keillor; The Morning After by Deborah Cox; Open My Heart by Yolanda Adams; Recital for Violin & Guitar with Joseph Hagedorn; and, The Velvet Rope by Janet Jackson.

In the field of music education, she has served as a teacher and an adjudicator at the SPCO Chamber Music Competition.

She performs here…

Sources:

Shank, Leslie

Navigation