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.
