Jorge Ávila, Artistic Director
Hailed as a strong violinist by The New York Times, Lich Gate Concerts’ Artistic Director JORGE ÁVILA has won attention as an outstanding soloist, recitalist, Concertmaster, and chamber musician. Honduran-born and a recipient of many awards and honors, Jorge received his green card under the “Extraordinary talent” category, later becoming a U.S. citizen. He was awarded First Prize at the 2001 Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Competition and the “Omar del Carlo” Fellowship at The Tanglewood Music Center. Jorge is the Concertmaster of the Ridgefield Symphony, Distinguished Concerts International New York, and Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series. He has appeared as Concertmaster with the Stamford, Westfield, and Greenwich Symphonies, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Long Island Masterworks, Grace Church Choral Society, and The Tanglewood Music Center. His concerto highlights include recent performances of the Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev No. 1, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Beethoven concerti, as well as Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with David Finckel and Wu Han. In 2008, Jorge appeared as Concertmaster for His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, in Yankee Stadium, and in 2015, for His Holiness, Pope Francis, in Madison Square Garden. Jorge’s solo debut CD of Spanish violin and piano sonatas can be found on the Centaur label.
Trudy Weaver Miller, Executive Director
TRUDY WEAVER MILLER, Executive Director, is known to Berkshire-area concertgoers through her 14 years as President & CEO of Berkshire Choral International, which was located for the first 35 years of its existence on the campus of Berkshire School here in Sheffield, with satellite venues in Canterbury, England; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Salzburg, Austria. Before that, Trudy was Program Director of the Schubertiade Festival at the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York for its ten-year run in the 1980s-1990s, working closely with its protagonist, the late German baritone Hermann Prey, and producing concerts featuring Mr. Prey, pianists James Levine and András Schiff, and the Tokyo String Quartet, Juilliard String Quartet, and the New York Chamber Symphony, among many others. As a Classical singer, she appeared in concerts and oratorios throughout the U.S. with regional orchestras.
Trudy Weaver Miller gives an impromptu pre-concert talk on Schubert iconography before the Sheffield Schubertiade concert, celebrating Schubert’s 226th birthday in January 2023.