Myra Presents: 2016-2017 Concerts in the Galleries

Chiara String Quartet
October 23, 2016 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
October 24, 2016 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

Sponsored by Devera Warcup

Program: Character Sketches
    Britten: Three Divertimenti
    Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, Op. 29
    Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in Bb Major, Op. 130
    with Grande Fugue, Op. 133

The Chiara String Quartet (Rebecca Fischer and Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; Gregory Beaver, cello) spent two years in Grand Forks, through a two-year residency set up by Chamber Music America. It had been ten years since a string specialist taught at the University of North Dakota (UND). Arriving in September 2000 and having just formed, the Quartet not only sharpen their style and learned repertoire, they transformed chamber music in the region. The strings program blossomed at both UND and the local Symphony Orchestra. Today the Chiara has established itself as among America’s most respected ensembles, lauded for its "highly virtuosic, edge-of-the-seat playing" (The Boston Globe). They are currently Hixson-Lied Artists-in-Residence at the Glenn Korff School of Music at the University of Nebraska¬–Lincoln and were the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University from 2008 to 2014. For the 2015-2016 season, the Chiara was quartet-in-residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Chiara String Quartet is known for playing its repertoire from memory. In addition to playing without printed parts, as demonstrated on the albums “Brahms by Heart” and “Bartók by Heart,” the Chiara also performs in a variety of unusual venues, such as bars and nightclubs, following its bywords, “Chamber music in any chamber.” The ensemble has taught at the Juilliard School of Music, the Greenwood Music Camp, and the Chamber Music Institute of the University of Nebraska. They have recorded on their eponymous label, as well as New Voice Singles, New Amsterdam, and Azica Records.

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Luminus Piano Trio
January 22, 2017 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
January 23, 2017 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

Jon Rumney,  Erik Anderson, and Dianna Anderson formed the Luminus Trio over a decade ago as music faculty at Minot State University. They have performed hundreds of regional programs exploring both traditional and modern repertoire, including several world premieres. Every June, Luminus serves as the resident faculty ensemble for Dakota Chamber Music, a week-long institute for chamber music study at MSU. Attendees in 2016 came from as far away as Mississippi and Vancouver. DCM has received nationwide recognition, and finished its 20th season last summer with additional faculty from Rochester, NY, Pittsburgh, PA, and Oxford, MS.  Composer Sean Neukom wrote “Evolution 3”, a trio dedicated to Luminus which was premiered that season.

Eric Anderson, a native of Washington State and principal cellist with the Minot Symphony Orchestra, earned his BM and MM from the University of Idaho, and completed his DMA at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Jon Rumney was Artistic Director of Dakota Chamber Music from its inception in 1996 to 2005. He has been Professor of Music at Minot State University since 1994 where he teaches violin, viola, chamber music, and music history. He received his BM, MM, and PhD in Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo, and American String Quartets.

Dianna Anderson is a founding member of Musicians at Play, with Erik Anderson and Adam Estes, an ensemble specializing in jazz and chamber music for clarinet or saxophone, cello, and piano. She has taken her degrees from the University of Idaho and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Gilles Vonsattel
February 5, 2017 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
February 6, 2017 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

Gilles Vonsattel performed the program “Revolution” on February 2, 2017 in a solo recital at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (New York), the same program he will perform three days later at the North Dakota Museum of Art. The concert features music related directly to human insurrection. This program was singled out by the New York Times as an upcoming highlight of the 2016/17 season.

Program:

Dussek The Sufferings of the Queen of France for Piano, Op. 23 (1793)
Beethoven Six Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 126 (1824)
Beethoven Sonata in E-flat major for Piano, Op. 81a, Das Lebewohl, Abwesenheit, und Wiedersehn (Good-byes) (1809-10)
Janáček Sonata 1.X.1905 (From the Street, 1 October 1905) for Piano (1905-06)
Liszt “Funérailles” from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses for Piano (1833-34)
Rzewski “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues” from “Four North American Ballads for Piano” (1978-79)

A winner of Canada’s 2009 Honens Piano Competition, Swiss-born, American pianist Gilles Vonsattel is also a top-prize winner at the Naumberg and Geneva competitions. Recently drawing acclaim for his “tightly conceived and passionately performed” recital programs, Mr. Vonsattel’s recently released album, ‘Shadowlines,’ was described by the New York Times as a “mesmerizing disc by the immensely talented pianist Gilles Vonsattel.” His 2011 recording for the Honens/Naxos label of music by Debussy, Honegger, Holliger, and Ravel was named one of Time Out New York’s classical albums of the year, while a 2014 release on GENUIN/Artist Consort received a 5/5 from FonoForum and international critical praise. Engagements in the 2015-2016 season include Mozart Concerti with the Florida Orchestra and Vancouver Symphony and recitals in Asheville NC and Bridgehampton and Beacon NY, as well as numerous appearances with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York and across the United States.

Reengaged by the San Francisco Symphony, Vonsattel has also soloed with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Québec, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Staatskapelle Halle, and L’orchestre de chambre de Genève. He has appeared in concert with the Pacifica, Orion, Ebène, Danish, Daedalus, Escher, and Borromeo Quartets.

He received his BA in political science and economics from Columbia University and his MFA from The Juilliard School. He is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and makes his home in New York City.

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Pius Cheung
February 26, 2017 | 4 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
February 27, 2017 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

Dubbed a “neo-Romantic marimba virtuoso”, Pius Cheung is widely known as a master soloist on his unusual instrument. His brilliant CD of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was written about in a feature story in The New York Times, which praised not only the technical feat of performing the intricacies of this keyboard work with 4 mallets, but also expressed admiration for his “deeply expressive interpretation, notable for its clear voicing, eloquent phrasing and wide range of color and dynamics.” The CD has been broadcast throughout the US and Canada on NPR and CBC Radio.

His second CD, Symphonic Poem, presents Cheung’s own compositions, and was released at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in 2009. As a composer, Mr. Cheung’s Three Etudes won First Prize in the Classical Marimba League’s Competition in 2007. He has also composed a Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra, and collections of preludes, etudes and sonatas.

Mr. Cheung’s engagements this season include an appearance as concerto soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra performing Colours of Crimson by Bright Sheng. He gives a solo recital at the prestigious Morgan Library and Museum in New York. Other concerts are in NYC’s Washington Square Music Festival, at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and the Manchester Music Festival (VT).
 
After winning the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Cheung made his New York solo recital debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, his Kennedy Center debut in Washington, DC, and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. As recipient of the Usedom Music Festival Prize, he was engaged to perform at that Festival in Germany. Cheung has appeared as concerto soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra as winner of their annual concerto competition at the Kimmel Center, performed Creston’s Marimba Concerto with the Simon Sinfonietta (MA) and with the British Columbia Chamber Orchestra and Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra in Canada. He has performed marimba recitals at the Boston Public Library, the University of Georgia, the Colonial Theatre (MA), The Paramount Theatre (VT), Jordan Hall in Boston, at Stratford Summer Music in Canada, in Denmark, Croatia, and at the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Pius Cheung moved from his native Hong Kong to Vancouver at the age of 12. He received his BM from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, his Artist Diploma from The Boston Conservatory, and his PhD from the University of Michigan. Currently he is Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Oregon.

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Amit Peled
April 2, 2017 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
April 3, 2017 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

Cellist Amit Peled performed in last season’s Concert Series at the North Dakota Museum of Art and Mayville State University. He returns as part of a wonderful “Peled Celebration” of the opening of his sister Zemer Peled’s  porcelain sculpture exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art. His performance in Grand Forks will take place on Sunday at 2 pm followed by a joint reception for the siblings and the opening of Zemer’s exhibition. Mayville’s concert begins at 7:30 the next day, Monday, April 3, 2017

Amit will perform the program, “Journey with my Jewishness.” This powerful and compelling program follows Amit’s personal, musical, and spiritual journey. From his childhood growing up in a small kibbutz in Israel—along with is sister Zemer—and listening to his mother singing the traditional tune Eli Eli, to playing Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei as a young cellist and personally connecting with the Yom Kippur message, Amit explores the ups and downs of life and the desire to balance tradition, identity, and self-expression. Among other works, the program features Mark Kopytman's heart-wrenching Kaddish and Ernest Bloch's beloved three scenes From Jewish Life.

Now an American citizen who performs everywhere from the United States—including North Dakota—to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, he is lauded as a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, and is acclaimed as one of the most exciting instrumentalists on the concert stage today. At 6 foot 5 inches tall, Peled started life as a basketball player. During the 2016/17 season, Mr. Peled will continue sharing with audiences around the world the sound of the historic cello of Pablo Casals. Mrs. Marta Casals Istomin, the widow of Maestro Casals, personally handed him the instrument, a Goffriler ca. 1733. Some of the upcoming highlights with this historic cello include a Bach Suite program at the Ravinia Festival, a new Naxos installment with the Tempest Trio, performances with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Das Junge Orchester, Fairfax Symphony, Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, and the Palm Beach Symphony. In addition to the previous engagements, Amit will make his debut with both the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria. He will also be recording Nadia Boulanger’s Three Pieces for Cello and Piano and will also make a return trip to Russia to perform and teach at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
 
Mr. Peled has performed as a soloist with many orchestras and in the world’s major concert halls such as: Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, New York; Salle Gaveau, Paris; Wigmore Hall, London; Konzerthaus, Berlin; and Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium. Following his enthusiastically received Alice Tully Hall concerto debut playing the Hindemith cello concerto, the New York Times stated: “Glowing tone, a seductive timbre and an emotionally pointed approach to phrasing that made you want to hear him again.”
 
In the fall of 2016, Amit will release his fifth Centaur Records CD, “Casals Homage” which features the legendary 1915 Pablo Casals program that Amit has been performing around the world since 2014. Amit also released a recording of the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Washington Chamber Orchestra earlier in 2016. These records follow four immensely successful installments, “Collage”, “The Jewish Soul,” “Collaboration” and “Reflections.”
 
Mr. Peled is also a frequent guest artist, performing and giving master classes at prestigious summer music festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Schleswig Holstein and Euro Arts Festivals in Germany, Gotland Festival in Sweden, Prussia Cove Festival in England, The Violoncello Forum in Spain, and the Mizra International Academy and Festival in Israel.
 
Amit Peled has been featured on television and radio stations throughout the world, including NPR’s “Performance Today,” WGBH Boston, WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, Deutschland Radio Berlin, Radio France, Swedish National Radio & TV, and Israeli National Radio & TV.
 
One of the most sought after cello pedagogues, Mr. Peled is a Professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University, one of the youngest cello professors ever to be appointed to a major conservatory in the United States.

Click here to read an extensive interview with Peled.

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