Chestnut Hill Concerts - Third in the Series

Mihae Lee

Hyunah Yu

Chestnut Hill Concerts, under the artistic direction of Ronald Thomas, will present a concert of instrumental and vocal chamber music by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) and Robert Schumann (1810-1856) on Friday, August 22 at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook. With soprano, French horn, violin, cello, and piano, the program offers a colorful variety of music by these two giants of the Romantic era. Cellist Ronald Thomas, artistic director of Chestnut Hill Concerts, is highly regarded for his artistry as a cellist and for the quality of the programming he has brought to Chestnut Hill Concerts and other chamber music organizations. Former principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, he performs internationally and is currently an Artistic Partner of the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego. Joining him for the program on August 15 the stage at The Kate will be violinist Jennifer Koh, making her CHC debut, and who, after winning the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition twenty years ago, has since established a dazzling international career. Returning to the series are soprano Hyunah Yu, who has an impressive and busy international career in recital, oratorio, and opera; hornist William Purvis, a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Yale Brass Trio, and Triton Horn Trio among his many credits; and pianist Mihae Lee, who in addition to performing regularly on the CHC series and serving as artistic director of Essex Winter Series, has an international career as soloist and chamber musician.

The program begins with Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70, for horn and piano, performed by William Purvis and Mihae Lee. Hyunah Yu will then perform a set of five of Schumann's most beloved songs with Mihae Lee, and William Purvis will join them for Schubert's famous work, "Auf dem Strom" (By the River).

All Chestnut Hill Concerts programs take place on Friday nights at 8:00 pm at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (The Kate), 300 Main Street in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Single tickets are $35 for orchestra seats and $30 for the balcony. Kids and Teens come free, when accompanied by an adult. To purchase tickets, contact The Kate box office at 860-510-0453, or visit www.thekate.org.

More about the artists

Ronald Thomas, cellist, has been Artistic Director of Chestnut Hill Concerts since 1989. He sustains one of the most active and varied careers in today's music world as performer, teacher, and artistic administrator. Former principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, he is the newly-appointed Artistic Partner of the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego. His solo appearances include performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Louis, Baltimore and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Handel and Haydn Society and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestras of Boston and the Blossom Festival Orchestra, among many others. Mr. Thomas has played recitals in virtually every state in the United States as well as New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston and Los Angeles, and numerous concerts in Europe and Asia. In great demand as a chamber music collaborator, Mr. Thomas is also co-founder and artistic director emeritus of the Boston Chamber Music Society and has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. Other chamber music appearances include the Seattle, Bravo! Colorado and Portland Chamber Music Festivals, and the Spoleto, Blossom and Yale at Norfolk Festivals, as well as the festivals of Dubrovnik, Edinburgh and Amsterdam. Mr. Thomas was a member of the Players in Residence committee and the Board of Overseers at Bargemusic in New York. While he was member of the Boston Musica Viva and the Aeolian Chamber Players he premiered countless new works, including compositions by Gunther Schuller, Michael Colgrass, Ellen Zwillich, Donald Erb, William Bolcom and William Thomas McKinley. Before winning the Young Concert Artists auditions at nineteen, Mr. Thomas attended the New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute. His principal teachers were Lorne Munroe, David Soyer, and Mary Canberg

Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. She is dedicated to performing the violin repertoire of all eras from traditional to contemporary, believing that the past and present form a continuum. Since the 1994-95 season when she won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has been heard with leading orchestras worldwide. Also a prolific recitalist, she appears frequently at major music centers and festivals. The exploration of Bach's music and its influence in today's musical landscape has played an important role in her artistic journey. Her "Bach and Beyond" recital series explores the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach's Sonatas and Partitas to works by modern day composers including commissions; she frequently performs all six Sonatas and Partitas in a single concert; and her "Two x Four" project, with her former teacher from the Curtis Institute of Music violinist Jaime Laredo, pairs Bach's Double Violin Concerto with newly commissioned double concerti. She recently launched a video series "Off Stage On Record" that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a concert artist on her YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/jenniferkohviolin. Ms. Koh regularly records for the Cedille label. Her recording featuring works from her first "Bach and Beyond" recital was chosen as one of the best recordings of 2012 by the New York Times. Her most recent album "Two x Four" was released in April 2014.

Praised by Boston Globe as "simply dazzling," Korean-born pianist Mihae Lee has captivated audiences throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in solo recitals and chamber music concerts, in such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Academia Nationale de Santa Cecilia in Rome, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, and Taipei National Hall. She is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and a founding member of the Triton Horn Trio with violinist Ani Kavafian and hornist William Purvis. Ms. Lee has appeared frequently at numerous international chamber music festivals including Dubrovnik, Amsterdam, Groningen, Festicamara (Colombia), Seattle, OK Mozart, Mainly Mozart, Music from Angel Fire, Chamber Music Northwest, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Rockport, Bard, Norfolk, Music Mountain, and Monadnock Music. She has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bargemusic, and Speculum Musicae; has collaborated with the Tokyo, Muir, Cassatt, and Manhattan string quartets; and has premiered and recorded works by such composers as Gunther Schuller, Ned Rorem, Paul Lansky, Henri Lazarof, Michael Daugherty, and Ezra Laderman. A graduate of The Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory, she has released compact discs on the Bridge, Etcetera, EDI, Northeastern, and BCMS labels. Ms. Lee is the Artistic Director of the Essex Winter Series and has performed at Chestnut Hill Concerts since 1989.

A native of Western Pennsylvania, William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott and Penderecki (New York Premiere), horn trios by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky, and Sonate en Forme de Préludes by Steven Stucky with Emanuel Ax in Carnegie Hall. Recent world premieres include Paul Lansky's Day Trips for Horn and Wind Ensemble in Carnegie Hall, and Elliott Carter's Retracing II for solo horn and Nine for Five with the New York Woodwind Quintet.

Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Yale Brass Trio and Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus and Fine Arts string quartets, as well as appearing at numerous international festivals. Mr. Purvis has recorded extensively on many labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, and Bridge, with a broad collection spanning from original instrument performance to standard solo and chamber music repertoire to contemporary solo and chamber music works, as well as numerous recordings of contemporary music as conductor. Among many critically acclaimed recordings are Mozart Horn Concerti with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Peter Lieberson Horn Concerto, Richard Wernick Horn Quintet with the Juilliard Quartet, and works of Robert and Clara Schumann and Paul Lansky. A Deep River resident, Mr. Purvis is Professor of Horn at The Yale School of Music, where he is also Coordinator of Winds and Brasses and Director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Hyunah Yu's star has risen quickly since 1999, when she appeared as a soloist in St. Matthew Passion with the New England Bach Festival, was a prizewinner at the Walter Naumburg International Competition, and was a finalist in both the Dutch International Vocal and Concert Artist Guild International competitions. Her promise was confirmed just a few years later as she received the coveted Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, followed closely by her acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut. She has enjoyed collaborations with many major orchestras, including the Bournemouth, Seattle, Baltimore, and Milwaukee Symphony orchestras, Rotterdam and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras, Concerto Koln, Salzburg Camerata, Boston Baroque, Sejong Soloists, and the Yale Cellos, to name a few. She has appeared at the Marlboro, Great Mountain, and Chamber Music Northwest festivals and performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with acclaimed conductors Myung Whun Chung, David Zinman, and Jaime Laredo. Ms. Yu also performed Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and of Valery Gergiev, and the Bach B minor Mass in Cologne with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk under Semyon Bychkov. In chamber music and recitals, Ms. Yu has enjoyed re-engagements with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Baltimore's Shriver Hall Concert Series, at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and at the Bemberg Foundation in Toulouse, France. Ms. Yu has premiered many pieces specifically written for her. Most recently, she premiered the Symphony of Meditations by Aaron Jay Kernis with the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz. A highlight of her impressive opera career was the title role in Mozart's Zaide in New York, London, and Vienna directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Louis Langrée. She has recorded Bach and Mozart arias for EMI and two solo recitals broadcast for the BBC. Ms. Yu also holds a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.