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Biography |
William Terwilliger, Violin
Andrew Cooperstock, Piano
The award-winning Opus Two has been internationally recognized for its
“divine phrases, impelling rhythm, elastic ensemble and stunning
sounds,” as well as its commitment to expanding the
violin-piano duo repertoire. Seasoned chamber players, violinist
William Terwilliger and pianist Andrew Cooperstock specialize in the duo
literature and have developed an uncanny sense of musical unity.
Winners of the United States Information Agency’s Artistic
Ambassador Auditions in 1993, Opus Two embarked on a
30-concert tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, which
included performances, radio broadcasts and master classes throughout
Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama, the Dominican Republic and the
Bahamas. The overwhelming success of that tour launched the duo on a
distinguished concert career on four continents. Further international
engagements have included performances in France, Belgium, Holland,
England, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Latvia, Ukraine, Canada and
Australia. Opus Two has concertized across the United States, including
recitals in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit, Houston, Dallas,
Denver, Minneapolis and Baltimore.
In April 2006, Opus Two made its Asian debut, with recitals, concerto
appearances and master classes throughout China, Korea, Japan and the
Russian Far East, in such locales as Beijing, Tianjin, Nanning,
Shenzhen, Seoul, Sapporo, Okinawa, Kobe, Kanazawa, Khabarovsk and
Vladivostok, among others. Highlights of recent seasons include the
ensemble’s debut at London’s St. John’s, Smith Square,
following which The Strad remarked that “violinist William
Terwilliger played with supreme tenderness and finely judged control and
was partnered with assurance and sensitivity by Andrew
Cooperstock.” Opus Two’s recent festival appearances include
performances at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (Queensland),
Piccolo Spoleto (South Carolina), the Round Top International Festival-Institute (Texas),
and Brevard Music
Festival (North Carolina).
Opus Two’s radio and television credits include appearances on
National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and
Chicago’s WFMT, the BBC, Radio France, Radio Latvia and the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Their South American tours have
also included appearances on television in the Dominican Republic and
Bolivia.
Champions of American music, Opus Two has performed Aaron Copland’s
complete works for violin and piano extensively across the United States
and abroad. The duo’s recording of this same music (Azica Records)
features works never before recorded, including two early, unpublished
preludes. Of this recording American Record Guide remarks that
“it would be hard to imagine finer performances of these
works.” Leading Aaron Copland biographer Howard Pollack applauds
the duo’s “utterly compelling performances of Copland’s
music for violin and piano, full of tenderness and sensitivity in slower
passages and vigor and buoyancy in faster ones.” The
ensemble’s most recent recording, Chamber Music of Lowell
Liebermann, features performances with cellist Andres Diaz and the
Ying Quartet, and was praised as “splendid” by Strings
magazine. Earlier this year, the two won a grant from the American Music
Center’s Aaron Copland Recording Fund, which will be used to
release Souvenirs: Music of Paul Schoenfield in the 2006/07
season. Opus Two’s discography also includes two discs of works of
Robert Starer, one of which features the world premiere recording of
Dispositions with clarinetist Martha MacDonald, a work that was
composed especially for them.
In addition to their concerts as Opus Two, William Terwilliger and Andrew
Cooperstock frequently join forces with Martha MacDonald as members of
Trio Contraste. The Trio has been honored with the Centennial Chamber
Music Award for Outstanding Promotion of American Music from the
National Federation of Music Clubs. Additionally, William Terwilliger
and Andrew Cooperstock have collaborated together or individually with
members of the Takács, Emerson, and Juilliard String Quartets and
the Dorian Wind Quintet, violinists Oleh Krysa and James Buswell,
cellists Lynn Harrell and Yehuda Hanani, and hornists Eli Epstein of the
Cleveland Orchestra, William VerMeulen of the Houston Symphony and
Jerome Ashby of the New York Philharmonic.
Opus Two has commissioned a number of additions to the chamber music
repertoire including Sonata Lunaris by John Fitz Rogers, and with
Martha MacDonald, Meditations on Yeats by Donald Grantham for
Trio Contraste, among others. The list of awards and grants to their
credit includes grants from the American Music Center, Chamber Music
America, the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Arts
International Fund, to name but a few.
Andrew Cooperstock serves as chair of the keyboard department at the
University of Colorado. In addition to his concerts with Opus Two he has
the distinction of having performed as soloist or chamber player in most
of the fifty states. He has also given lectures and recitals at the
Hochschule für Musik Hans Eisler in Berlin, Germany, the Academy of
Music in Riga, Latvia, and the Universities of Bordeaux and Nice in
France, among others. William Terwilliger is professor of violin and
director of chamber music at the University of South Carolina. He has
held a faculty position at the University of Toledo and given master
classes on four continents in addition to directing the annual USC
String Quartet Workshop. Both regularly present for national meetings of
such organizations as the American String Teachers Association, the
College Music Society and the National Federation of Music Clubs. In
2005, they were jurors at the Music Teachers National Association
National Competition in Seattle, Washington.
William Terwilliger and Andrew Cooperstock also have the distinction of
being published authors and have written articles for Strings,
American String Teacher and Keyboard Companion, among
others.
William Terwilliger received his doctorate from the Eastman School of
Music, and Andrew Cooperstock is a graduate of The Juilliard School and
the Cincinnati and Peabody Conservatories.
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