Clarinetist to perform at Museum of Art Clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester, accompanied by pianist Anna Polonski, will perform in the Museum Concert Series at the North Dakota Museum of Art Sunday, Dec. 3, at 2 p.m. Born in Moncofa, Spain, into a family of clarinetists and Zarzuela singers, Jose Franch-Ballester has been called “that rare find, an artist whose brilliant mastery of his instrument is matched by sound and secure gifts as a musician,” by The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana), while The New York Sun proclaimed, “Young Concert Artists has a winner!” Franch-Ballester won first prize in the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He was also awarded the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, which sponsored his Washington, D.C. debut at the Kennedy Center, and the Claire Tow Prize, which sponsored his New York debut at the 92nd Street Y, as well as the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize, the Princeton University Concerts Prize, the La Jolla Music Society Prize, and the Fredericksburg (Md.) Festival of the Arts Prize. He is also on the roster of Astral Artistic Services in Philadelphia, having won first prize at their 2004 National Auditions. He began clarinet lessons at the age of nine with Venancio Rius Marti, gave his first recital in Valencia at the age of 16, and graduated from the Joaquin Rodrigo Music Conservatory in Valencia in 2000. He came to the U.S. to study at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied clarinet with Donald Montanaro and Ricardo Morales and chamber music with Pamela Frank and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2005. With the Symphony Orchestra of The Curtis Institute, he has played under the batons of Sir Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman, and Hans Vonk. Anna Polonsky is an accomplished soloist and chamber musician. She made her solo piano debut at the age of 7 at the Special Central Music School in Moscow, Russia. She immigrated to the United States in 1990, and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked with the renowned pianist Peter Serkin, and received her Master’s Degree with Jerome Lowenthal at the Juilliard School. Polonsky was a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2003. This presentation is supported by the Performing Arts Fund, a program by Arts' Midwest funded by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from General Mills Foundation, Land O’Lakes Foundation, and the North Dakota Council on the Arts. Tickets for the concert series can be purchased at the door or in advance at the North Dakota Museum of Art, Centennial Drive. Non-member tickets are $15 per concert at the door; member tickets are $13; student and military tickets are $5 per concert. Free admittance for children, middle school and under. Order your tickets today by calling 777-4195.