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SEAN LEE, VIOLIN Violinist Sean Lee has attracted audiences around the world with his lively performances of the classics. A recipient of the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee enjoys a multifaceted career as both performer and educator. Embracing the legacy of his late teacher, Ruggiero Ricci, Lee is one of the few violinists who perform Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices in concert, and his YouTube series, Paganini POV, continues to draw attention for its new perspective and insight for aspiring young violinists. As an artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee continues to perform regularly in New York City at Lincoln Center, as well as on tour in the 2016-17 season across the United States and Asia. Lee has called New York City home since moving at the age of seventeen to study at the Juilliard School with his longtime mentor, violinist Itzhak Perlman. He currently teaches at the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, as well as the Perlman Music Program, where he was a student. Lee performs on a violin originally made for violinist Ruggiero Ricci in 1999, by David Bague.

STEVEN BANKS, SAXOPHONE Winner of the prestigious 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Steven Banks is an ambassador for the classical saxophone, establishing himself as both a compelling and charismatic soloist, dedicated to showcasing the vast capabilities of the instrument, as well as an advocate for expanding its repertoire. Steven is also the first saxophonist to capture First Prize at the Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions (2019). He was also recently chosen to join WQXR’s 2022 Artist Propulsion Lab, a program designed to advance the careers of artists and support the future of classical music. Steven has recently appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Oregon Mozart Players, Colorado Music Festival, Colorado Symphony, Utah Symphony, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and on subscription with the Cleveland Orchestra, performing with such conductors as John Adams, Peter Oundjian, Earl Lee, Xian Zhang, Nicholas McGegan, and Rafael Payere. Upcoming orchestral engagements include the Kansas City Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Detroit Symphony, New World Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra. Prior to his invitation as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Steven appeared with the ensemble under conductors including Franz Welser-Most, Jahja Ling, Matthias Pintscher, Alain Altinoglu, and Roderick Cox. He can be heard on a Naxos recording as baritone saxophonist of the award-winning Kenari Quartet. Steven made his debut at the Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, SC with the St. Lawrence String Quartet and will reunite with the Quartet this season on the Stanford Live series at Bing Concert Hall. Upcoming and recent recitals include Festival Napa Valley, Usedomer MusikFestival, Spoleto Festival USA, and the San Francisco Symphony’s Spotlight Series at Davies Hall. His critically acclaimed recital debut was streamed from Merkin Concert Hall, and co-sponsored by Washington Performing Arts featuring world premieres by Carlos Simon, Saad Haddad, and one of his own compositions. An emerging composer, the music of Steven Banks showcases “a unique and ambitious blend of feelings and sounds” and portrays “a deep intimacy” and “a sense of vulnerability” (Cleveland Classical). Steven’s original composition for alto saxophone and string quartet titled Cries, Sighs and Dreams premiered at Carnegie hall alongside the Borromeo String Quartet, and was performed again this past summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He has also recently completed commissions for the Project 14 initiative at Yale University and the Northwestern University Saxophone Ensemble. Steven is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in music education, performance, and newly commissioned works in the classical realm. He presented at the TEDxNorthwesternU 2017 conference presenting his dynamic approach to overcoming institutionalized prejudices against women and people of color, and he has written and given lectures on the history of black classical composers. He also collaborated with flutist Anthony Trionfo and violinist Randall Goosby to create the Learning to Listen roundtable, a discussion on the nuances of the Black experience in classical music and beyond. In partnership with the Sphinx Organization, they also created the Illuminate! series, which opened three essential conversations on the subject of music education, artist activism, and the LGBTQIA+ community in classical music. Having previously served as Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Ithaca College, in the coming season Steven will hold the Jackie McLean Fellowship at the University of Hartford and also serve as a Visiting Faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he’ll offer individual saxophone lessons, as well as master classes, and other residency activities. Steven has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Saxophone Performance with a minor in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Master of Music degree from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music. His primary saxophone teachers have been Taimur Sullivan, Otis Murphy, Jr., and Galvin Crisp. Steven is an endorsing artist for Conn-Selmer instruments, D’Addario Woodwinds, lefreQue Sound Solutions, and Key Leaves.

CHEE-YUN, VIOLIN Chee-Yun has performed with many of the world's foremost orchestras and conductors. Orchestral highlights include her tours of the United States with the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas and Japan with the NHK Symphony, a concert with the Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Myung-Whun Chung that was broadcast on national television, and a benefit for UNESCO with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Avery Fisher Hall. Chee-Yun has performed with such distinguished conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Jaap van Zweden, Manfred Honeck, Hans Graf, James DePriest, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Krzysztof Penderecki, Neeme Järvi, Pinchas Zukerman, Giancarlo Guerrero, José Luis Gomez, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Carlos Kalmar. She has appeared with the Toronto, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Atlanta, and National symphony orchestras, as well as with the Saint Paul and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras. Other orchestral engagements include performances with the Orquesta Sinfonia Nacional and the Mobile and Pasadena Symphonies, in addition to appearances with the National Philharmonic, Colorado and Pacific Symphonies, and the Tucson, Detroit, and Pensacola symphony orchestras. A champion of contemporary music, Chee-Yun has performed Christopher Theofanidis’ Violin Concerto conducted by David Alan Miller as part of the Albany Symphony's American Festival, in addition to performing Kevin Puts’ Violin Concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist, Chee-Yun has performed in many major U.S. cities, including New York, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Career highlights include appearances at the Kennedy Center's "Salute to Slava" gala honoring Mstislav Rostropovich and with the Mostly Mozart Festival on tour in Japan, as well as a performance with Michael Tilson Thomas in the inaugural season of Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and the U.S. premiere of Penderecki’s Sonata No. 2 with pianist Barry Douglas. In 2016, Chee-Yun performed as a guest artist for the Secretary General at the United Nations in celebration of Korea's National Foundation Day and the 25th anniversary of South Korea joining the UN. Other career highlights include recitals in St. Paul, Buffalo, Omaha, Scottsdale, and Washington, D.C., duo recitals with cellist Alisa Weilerstein, a recital tour with pianist Alessio Bax, and a performance at American Ballet Theatre's fall gala. Firmly committed to chamber music, Chee-Yun has toured with Music from Marlboro and appears frequently with Spoleto USA, a project she has been associated with since its inception. Additional chamber music appearances include performances at the Ravinia, Aspen, Bravo! Vail Valley, La Jolla, Caramoor, Green Music, Santa Fe, Orcas Island, Hawaii Performing Arts, and Bridgehampton festivals in the U.S.; the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea; the Clandeboye Festival with Camerata Ireland in Northern Ireland; the Opera Theatre and Music Festival in Lucca, Italy; the Colmar Festival in France; the Beethoven and Penderecki festivals in Poland; and the Kirishima Festival in Japan. Chee-Yun has received exceptional acclaim as a recording artist since the release of her debut album of virtuoso encore pieces in 1993. Her recent recording of the Penderecki Violin Concerto No. 2 on Naxos was acclaimed as "an engrossing, masterly performance" (The Strad) and "a performance of staggering virtuosity and musicality" (American Record Guide). Her releases on the Denon label include Mendelssohn's E-minor Violin Concerto, Vieuxtemps' Violin Concerto No. 5, Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole and Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 with the London Philharmonic under the direction of Maestro Lopez-Cobos, and violin sonatas from Debussy, Fauré, Franck, Saint-Saëns, Szymanowski, Brahms and Strauss. Two compilation discs, Vocalise d'amour and The Very Best of Chee-Yun, feature highlights of Chee-Yun's earlier recordings. In 2007, Chee-Yun recorded the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Camerata Ireland, pianist Barry Douglas, and cellist Andrés Diaz for Satirino Records. In 2008, Decca/Korea released Serenata Notturno, an album of light classics that went platinum within six months of its release. Chee-Yun has performed frequently on National Public Radio's Performance Today and on WQXR and WNYC radio in New York City. She has been featured on KTV,a children's program on the cable network CNBC, A Prairie Home Companion, Public Radio International, and numerous syndicated and local radio programs across the world. She has appeared on PBS as a special guest on Victor Borge's Then and Now 3, in a live broadcast at Atlanta’s Spivey Hall concurrent with the Olympic Games, and on ESPN performing the theme for the X Games. In 2009, she also appeared in an episode of HBO's hit series Curb Your Enthusiasm. A short documentary film about Chee-Yun, “Chee-Yun: Seasons on the Road,” premiered in 2017 and is available on YouTube. Chee-Yun's first public performance at age eight took place in her native Seoul after she won the Grand Prize of the Korean Times Competition. At 13, she came to the United States and was invited to perform Vieuxtemps’ Concerto No. 5 in a Young People's Concert with the New York Philharmonic. Two years later, she appeared as soloist with the New York String Orchestra under Alexander Schneider at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. In 1989, she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and a year later she became the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. In Korea, Chee-Yun studied with Nam Yun Kim. In the United States, she has worked with Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Daniel Phillips, and Felix Galimir (chamber music) at The Juilliard School. In addition to her active performance and recording schedule, Chee-Yun is a dedicated and enthusiastic educator. She gives master classes around the world and has held several teaching posts at notable music schools and universities. Her past faculty positions have included serving as the resident Starling Soloist and Adjunct Professor of Violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and as Visiting Professor of Music (Violin) at the Indiana University School of Music. From 2007 to 2017, she served as Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Violin at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

MARIKO ANRAKU, HARP Mariko Anraku has won attention as one of the world’s outstanding harpists through numerous appearances as soloist and chamber musician. She has enchanted audiences with her virtuosity and “manifestation of grace and elegance” (Jerusalem Post). The New York Times has hailed her as a “masterful artist of intelligence and wit.” Since 1995, she has held the position of Associate Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Since her debut as soloist with the Toronto Symphony led by Sir Andrew Davis, Ms. Anraku has appeared with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, among others. As a recitalist, she has performed in major concert halls on three continents, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum, Opera Comique in Paris, Palazzo dell’Esposizioni in Rome, and the Casals, Kioi, and Oji Halls in Tokyo. Ms. Anraku’s impressive list of awards includes the Pro Musicis International Award, First Prize at the First Nippon International Harp Competition, First Prize in the Channel Classics Recording Prize, and the ITT Corporation Prizes at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York. She was also awarded Third Prize and the Pearl Chertok Prize for the best performance of the required Israeli composition at the International Harp Contest in Israel. Ms. Anraku’s strong commitment to contemporary music and the expansion of the boundaries of the harp repertoire has included an invitation to premiere works by Toshio Hosokawa in Germany collaborating with traditional Japanese musicians and monks. She also gave the USA premiere of Jean-Michel Damase’s Concerto “Ballade” with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra at the American Harp Society Conference, and has collaborated in a tribute to Takemitsu at Merkin Concert Hall in New York. Mariko Anraku has recorded exclusively for EMI Classics, including three solo recordings and a CD with eminent flutist Emmanuel Pahud. A compilation from her solo CDs has also been released. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and is a recipient of an Artist’s Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Her teachers have included Nancy Allen, Lanalee deKant, Judy Loman, and her aunt, Kumiko Inoue. Ms. Anraku also studied Oriental Art History at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. She has been on the faculty of the Pacific Music Festival since 2011.

BENJAMIN APPL, BARITONE “The way he navigated the song’s transformation, from disappointment to obsession, was so gripping and troublingly real, I heard people all around me exhale afterward, as if Mr. Appl had rendered them breathless.” — The New York Times Baritone Benjamin Appl is celebrated for a voice that “belongs to the last of the old great masters of song” with “an almost infinite range of colours” (Suddeutsche Zeitung), and for performances “delivered with wit, intelligence and sophistication” (Gramophone). A former BBC New Generation Artist (2014-16), Wigmore Hall Emerging Artist and ECHO Rising Star (2015-16), Benjamin was also awarded Gramophone Award Young Artist of the Year (2016). He signed exclusively to Sony Classical in the same year and has since begun a multi-album deal with Alpha Classics, releasing his first album Winterreise in February 2021 to enormous critical acclaim. Appl’s musical journey began as a young chorister at the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen, later continuing his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Mentored by the legendary Artist Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Appl describes the partnership as an “invaluable and a hugely formative influence. He [Fischer-Dieskau] is an inspiration – someone who is always searching and seeking a deeper understanding of music and of life. He was a role model for how to prosper as an artist, never just delivering, but each time creating.” An established recitalist, Appl has performed at Ravinia, Rheingau, Schleswig Holstein, Edinburgh, Heidelberg Frühling, and Oxford International festivals; Schubertiade Schwarzenberg; and at the KlavierFestival Ruhr. He has performed at major concert venues including Grand Théâtre de Genève, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Wigmore Hall London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin and Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Musée de Louvre Paris, and at Shanghai Symphony’s Music in the Summer Air Festival. In equal demand as soloist on the world’s most prestigious stages, his recent collaborators include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Klaus Mäkelä, Munich Philharmonic/Andrew Manze, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse/Ton Koopman, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Andreas Reize, NHK Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi, Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann, Philharmonia/Maxim Emelyanychev, Seattle Symphony/Thomas Dausgaard, Vienna Symphony/Karina Canellakis and many others. Some of Appl’s recent recital debuts include Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Performances, Dallas Opera, Boston Celebrity Series, New York’s Park Avenue Armory (of all three Schubert song cycles), Sydney Opera House, Mozarteum Salzburg, Festival St. Denis, and three presentations of Winterreise by the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. A creative and innovative programmer, Benjamin seeks out diverse and enriching onstage partnerships including with pianists James Baillieu, David Fray, Alice Sara Ott, Arthur & Lucas Jussen, and Jorge Viladoms; the Armida String Quartet; accordionists Martynas Levickis and Ksenija Sidorova; and lutenist Thomas Dunford.

November 20, 2022: Steven Banks, Saxophonist-Composer Xak Bjerken, Piano, Principal Strings of The Met Orchestra ERWIN SCHULHOFF (1894-1942) Hot Sonate for alto saxophone and piano November 20, 2022: Steven Banks, Saxophonist-Composer Xak Bjerken, Piano, Principal Strings of The Met Orchestra Erwin Schulhoff was a child prodigy who, in 1902 at the age of eight, so deeply impressed Antonín Dvořák with his playing and improvising on the piano that Dvořák advised him to begin composition studies immediately. Schulhoff studied first in Prague, then in Vienna, where he became a good friend of Alban Berg, and later in Leipzig, where he studied with Max Reger. He also took some lessons with Debussy in Paris shortly before World War I. Schulhoff’s musical interests varied widely. He collaborated with visual artists Däubler, Grosz, and Klee in Germany, where he had settled in 1923. A champion of modern music, he worked on the problems of quarter-tone music with Alois Hába after his return to Prague in 1929. His improvisatory skills naturally led to his dedication as a jazz pianist and to the incorporation of jazz in several of his own compositions. He also showed great interest in music of the distant past, unearthing and arranging medieval and Renaissance music of Bohemian composers. Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the great German music encyclopedia, characterizes Schulhoff as a “composer of extraordinary talent and creative power.” Alfred Einstein appreciated his gift for creating comical and grotesque effects in music. Schulhoff’s desire for social revolution led to his leftist political views. In 1932 he composed a cantata setting of the original German text of the Communist Manifesto of 1848. He was granted Soviet citizenship to protect him from arrest during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, but when the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941 Schulhoff was sent to the Wülzburg Concentration Camp where he died on August 18, 1942. Schulhoff composed his Hot Sonata on a commission from the Funk-Stunde (radio station) AG in Berlin, which premiered the work on April 10, 1930, with American saxophonist Billy Barton and the composer at the piano. By this time Schulhoff was recognized as a jazz expert, having even published a jazz method for piano. Jazz movements had become increasingly more frequent in his works and he used the title Hot-Sonate, using the American word “hot” that had become synonymous with jazz. The piece is laid out in four movements, each headed not by a tempo marking but by a metronome marking, though in the sultry third movement he asks the saxophone to play “lamentoso ma molto grottesco” against the piano’s “molto ritmico.” The jaunty first movement, which has something in common with Debussy’s Golliwog’s Cakewalk, is rife with jazz syncopations, swinging along merrily until its nonchalant ending. The second movement heats up the action with darting licks for the saxophone, an especially syncopated piano part, and a surprisingly abrupt ending. The bluesy third movement has the saxophonist bending pitch to slide into its destination notes while the piano keeps its steady beat. The final movement drives forward motorically until Schulhoff inserts a slow contrasting section. The momentum resumes, once again catching the listener off guard with the suddenness of the ending. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 4, 2015 – Richard Goode, piano WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Piano Sonata in F major, K. 533 and K. 494 October 4, 2015 – Richard Goode, piano Mozart’s F major Piano Sonata, K. 533 and K. 494, was published by Franz Anton Hoffmeister in 1790, perhaps assuaging part of the composer’s financial debt to his friend. But the work was not newly composed, nor had it all been written at the same time. The Rondo, K. 494, had been completed on June 10, 1786, and the Allegro and Andante, K. 533, on January 3, 1788. When Mozart decided to join these movements to form a complete sonata, he added a twenty-seven-measure “cadenza” toward the end of the Rondo for dramatic weight. Overzealous nineteenth-century editors began publishing the chronologically separated movements independently, fostering a certain reluctance to accept the Sonata as a whole and perhaps inhibiting more frequent performance. Yet the Sonata is regarded by many as a masterpiece and Mozart’s own authority that the components belong together should be trusted. The Allegro’s unpretentious beginning expands into a sonata form on a grand scale. Mozart displays his “late-period” fondness for contrapuntal textures—as in the Jupiter Symphony and other piano sonatas—and takes particular delight in the shift of melodic material between right and left hands. Harmonic adventures such as those in the development become even more pronounced in the expressive Andante, with its chromatic dissonances and bold diminished chords. The lighthearted Rondo refrain provides supreme contrast to the preceding introspection. The movement’s full proportions befit its origin as an independent piece, but it should also be borne in mind that Mozart lengthened rather than shortened the Rondo for inclusion in the Sonata. The music-box effect of the refrain is balanced by its final appearance at the end in the bass register. The “cadenza” that precedes the refrain’s deeper return serves to heighten the drama. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2016 AT 3 PM Philip Setzer, violin; David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano BUY TICKETS DAVID FINCKEL, CELLO “His playing has great warmth and expressiveness coupled with a noble, aristocratic restraint.” — Strings Magazine WU HAN, PIANO PHILIP SETZER, VIOLIN FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS On October 30 , New York City’s “Musical Power Couple,” cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han , will join Emerson Quartet violinist Philip Setzer for an afternoon of favorite piano trios. Shostakovich ’s youthfully ardent C-minor trio, composed at 17, was inspired by his first love, Tanya. Beethoven ’s Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1, was the publishing debut of the supremely confident 25-year-old genius who already sensed his power to permanently alter the musical landscape. The program will conclude with the 30-year-old Schubert ’s profound Trio in E-flat Major, the soulful outpouring of the still-young composer who knew he was nearing the end of his much-too-short life. “It’s hard to imagine a piano trio playing on a higher level of technical accomplishment and musical expressivity…” – Dallas Morning News PROGRAM Ludwig van Beethoven Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1 Program Notes Dmitri Shostakovich Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8 Program Notes Franz Schubert Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 100, D. 929 Program Notes Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel discuss the two Schubert piano trios: Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel perform Schubert’s Trio in B-flat, mvt 1:

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KENNY WASHINGTON, JAZZ DRUMS One of the many young hard-bop revivalists to have arrived on the scene in the late ’70s and early ‘80s, Washington has been in particular demand by much older musicians, playing with such legendary veterans as Lee Konitz, Betty Carter, Johnny Griffin, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, and Tommy Flanagan. Born in Brooklyn, Washington studied with the former Dizzy Gillespie drummer Rudy Collins and attended New York’s LaGuardia High School for Music & Art. Washington worked with Konitz while still in his teens, recording with the saxophonist’s nonet in 1977. He worked with Carter from 1978-9 and Griffin from 1980. A prolific freelancer, Washington has compiled an enormous discography, performing on dozens of sessions by many of jazz’s most prominent figures. Washington has a strong interest in jazz history; he’s written liner notes for and/or helped prepare classic jazz re-releases by Art Blakey and Count Basie, among others. He’s also taught jazz drumming at the New School in New York City, and worked as an announcer at the New Jersey jazz radio station WBGO.

SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022 AT 3 PM MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN THE “HAMMERKLAVIER” SONATA BUY TICKETS MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, PIANO “A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” — The New York Times FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The celebrated pianist Marc-André Hamelin is renowned for his compelling artistry, jaw-dropping technique, and inventive programming. His multifaceted Parlance debut will begin with a keyboard suite by CPE Bach followed by Hamelin’s own dazzling “Suite in the old style,” combining baroque and contemporary elements. His recital will culminate with Beethoven’s Olympian “Hammerklavier” Sonata of which his publisher wrote, “It excels above all other creations of this master not only through its most rich and grand fantasy, but also in regard to artistic perfection and sustained style, and will mark a new period in Beethoven’s pianoforte works.” “In everything he revealed himself to be a musician’s musician, a virtuoso in the most comprehensive sense of the word… jaw-dropping.” – John von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune PROGRAM C.P.E. Bach Suite in E minor Wq 62/12 Program Notes Marc-André Hamlein Suite à l’ancienne (Suite in the old style) (2020) Program Notes Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 “Hammerklavier “ Program Notes See Marc-André Hamelin perform Fauré’s Impromptu No.2, Op. 31: See Marc-André Hamelin perform Scarbo from Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit:

BENJAMIN BEILMAN, VIOLIN Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence”, and the Strad described as “pure poetry.“ Le Monde has described him as “a prodigious artist, who combines the gift of utmost sound perfection and a deep, delicate, intense, simmering sensitivity”. Benjamin's 2024/25 season included his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko on tour in the US, as well as returns to the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Antwerp Symphony. He also makes his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s concerto, and with the Tokyo Metropolitain Symphony performing Korngold. In the US, he also embarked on a recital tour with pianist Steven Osborne. Last season included Benjamin's subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony with Semyon Bychkov, and six weeks of performances in Europe, including concerts with the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart alongside Elim Chan, a return to the Kölner Philharmonie with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, and appearances at the Grafenegg Festival, Festpielhaus St. Pölten, and the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchester and Tabita Berglund. He also returned to play-direct the London Chamber Orchestra, and re-united with Ryan Bancroft for his debut with BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Meanwhile, performances in the US included his debut with the St Louis Symphony under Cristian Macelaru, as well as returns to the Minnesota Orchestra with Elim Chan. In past seasons, Benjamin has performed with many major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Sydney Symphony, and Houston Symphony. He has also extensively toured Australia in recital under Musica Aviva, and in 2022, became one of the youngest artists to be appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. In recent seasons Beilman’s commitment to and passion for contemporary music has led to new works written for him by Frederic Rzewski (commissioned by Music Accord), and Gabriella Smith (commissioned by the Schubert Club in St. Paul, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music). He has also given multiple performances of Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with Hannu Lintu and the Tonkünstler Orchester, as well as premiered Chris Rogerson’s Violin Concerto (“The Little Prince”) with the Kansas City Symphony and Gemma New. Conductors with whom he works include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Cristian Măcelaru, Lahav Shani, Krzysztof Urbański, Ryan Bancroft, Matthias Pintscher, Gemma New, Karina Canellakis, Jonathon Heyward, Juraj Valčuha, Han-Na Chang, Elim Chan, Roderick Cox, Rafael Payare, Osmo Vänskä, and Giancarlo Guerrero. Beilman studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank, and with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a London Music Masters Award. He has also recorded works by Stravinsky, Janáček and Schubert for Warner Classics. He performs with the ex-Balaković F. X. Tourte bow (c. 1820), and plays the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù from 1740, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.