Chestnut Hill Concerts Season Opener Brings Brahms’s Great Piano Quintet to The Kate

Chestnut Hill Concerts will welcome five extraordinary artists to the stage of the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center for its 2014 season opener on Friday, August 1 at 8 p.m. The program includes chamber music by Mozart and Shostakovich, and concludes with the monumental Piano Quintet in F minor by Johannes Brahms. Three of the five performers –– violinists Jessica Lee and Jesse Mills along with violist Mark Holloway –– will make their Chestnut Hill Concerts (CHC) debut. Returning artists are the renowned Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa and CHC Artistic Director and cellist, Ronald Thomas.

The F minor Piano Quintet, the entire second half of the August 1 program, is considered by many to be Brahms’s crowning chamber music achievement. It is a work of powerful lyricism, in which small motivic ideas play key roles in carrying out a grandly conceived formal design. As it was with many of Brahms’s creations, the work had a difficult birth. First conceived as a string quintet and later re-written as a sonata for two pianos, the piece, with its exceptional richness and complexity of his musical ideas, found its ultimate form in its scoring for piano and strings.



In the first half of the program, Jesse Mills will perform Mozart’s delightful Violin Sonata in G major, K. 379, with pianist Rieko Aizawa.  Violinist Jessica Lee will join Aizawa and Ronald Thomas in Shostakovich’s highly emotional Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 67, written in 1944.

Chestnut Hill Concerts, celebrating its forty-fifth season in 2014, has expanded its roster of artists to enable performances of larger works such as the Brahms Piano Quintet. The second program on August 8, “Three Beethoven Masterpieces,” will include the “Moonlight” Piano Sonata, the “Kreutzer” Violin Sonata, and the “Archduke” Piano Trio; the third concert on August 15 will focus on the instrumental and vocal music of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann; and the fourth and concluding program on August 22 is themed “Hungarian Flair,” with music by Bartók, Dohnanyi, and Brahms.

The corporate sponsor of the August 1 concert is Guilford Savings Bank, and Essex Savings Bank sponsors CHC’s Kids and Teens Come Free program.

All concerts are Friday nights at 8:00 pm at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (The Kate), 300 Main Street in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Subscriptions to the four concerts are $120 (orchestra) and $100 (balcony). Single tickets are $35 for orchestra seats and $30 for the balcony. Contact The Kate box office at 860-510-0453, or visit www.thekate.org.

About the artists

RONALD THOMAS 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. 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 with which he appears regularly and which has produced a number of highly acclaimed recordings. He has also 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. Mr. Thomas is former principal cellist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in St. Paul, Minnesota was recently appointed as artistic partner of San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival. Before winning the Young Concert Artists auditions at 19, Mr. Thomas attended the New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute. His principal teachers were Lorne Munroe, David Soyer and Mary Canberg.

Japanese pianist RIEKO AIZAWA, discovered at age 13 by the late Alexander Schneider has since established her own unique musical voice. Praised by the NY Times for her "impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing," Ms. Aizawa has performed in solo and orchestral engagements throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Boston's Symphony Hall and Chicago's Orchestra Hall. Highlights of recent seasons have included acclaimed performances with the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa, the English Chamber Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, the Festival Strings Lucerne in Switzerland under Rudolf Baumgartner, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under Hugh Wolff, among many others.

 As a recitalist, Ms. Aizawa has been heard in many North American cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, St. Louis, Seattle, Boulder, Los Angeles, Houston, and Toronto; at the Caramoor International Festival; at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival; Ravinia Festival, Gilmore Keyboard Festival. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Aizawa has performed with the Guarneri Quartet, the Orion Quartet, the Shanghai Quartet and the Amelia Piano Trio, and she has appeared in numerous festivals, such as the Marlboro Music Festival, U.S.A.; the Kammermusik Festival Moritzburg, Germany; and the Evian Festival, France. Ms. Aizawa is a founding member of Horszowski Trio as well as the prize-winning ensemble Duo Prism. Ms. Aizawa became the artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010.

Ms. Aizawa received her Masters Degree from the Juilliard School, where she worked with Peter Serkin. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was awarded the prestigious Rachmaninoff Prize.

 Violist MARK HOLLOWAY is a chamber musician sought after in the United States and abroad. He has appeared at prestigious festivals such as Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Caramoor, Banff, Cartagena, Taos, Music from Angel Fire, Mainly Mozart, Music at Plush, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. Performances have taken him to far-flung places such as Chile and Greenland, and he plays regularly at chamber music festivals in France and Switzerland, and at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England. Around New York City, he frequently appears as a guest with the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus. Mr. Holloway has been principal violist at Tanglewood and of the New York String Orchestra, and has played as guest principal of the American Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Camerata Bern, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has performed at Bargemusic, the 92nd Street Y, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and on radio and television throughout North and South America, and Europe, most recently a Live From Lincoln Center broadcast. Hailed as an "outstanding violist" by American Record Guide, and praised by Zürich's Neue Zürcher Zeitung for his "warmth and intimacy," he has recorded for the Marlboro Recording Society, CMS Live, Music@Menlo LIVE, Naxos, and Albany labels. A former member of Chamber Music Society Two and a current artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mr. Holloway was a student of Michael Tree at The Curtis Institute of Music and received his bachelor's degree from Boston University.

 A native of Virginia, JESSICA LEE began playing the violin at age three and quickly captured national attention with a feature article in LIFE magazine. She was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen and graduated with a bachelor's degree under the tutelage of Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian. In 2005, she was the First Prize Winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Ms. Lee recently made her European solo debut, in a concerto performance with the Plzen Philharmonic and in recital at the prestigious Rudolfinum in Prague, Czech Republic. Back in the U.S., she performed the Tchaikovsky Concerto on one-week notice with the Minot Symphony Orchestra after a whirlwind autumn season of performances with the Long Bay, Pine Bluff, and Stamford Symphonies. She has also appeared with the Modesto Symphony, Fort Smith Symphony, and made her debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, as well as making festival appearances at the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival and Santa Fe Music Festival. Her 2006 concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, was broadcast twice on WQXR-FM.

Recent recital highlights include Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on the CAG/Winners Series, as well as recitals at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Caramoor Festival in New York, Asociacion National de Conciertos in Panama and Purdue University. Her recital for the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock was selected by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette as one of the "Top Ten Classical Concerts of 2007." An active chamber musician, Jessica Lee became a member of the Johannes String Quartet in 2006, which toured with the legendary Guarneri String Quartet in its farewell season. She joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS 2 program in the 2009-10 season. She has toured frequently with 'Musicians from Marlboro,' including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Gardner Museum, and is a member of the conductor-less string ensemble ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), with which she has performed at Town Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Ms. Lee has also appeared on the Concerti di Mezzogiorno Recital Series at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Festival de Musica de Camera in Lima, Peru and New York's FOCUS! Festival. She has performed as guest soloist with such orchestras as the American Chamber Orchestra, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Hampton Youth Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She has been a participant at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute for Young Artists as well as at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.

Two-time Grammy nominated violinist JESSE MILLS enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention. Since his concerto debut at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Mr. Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has been a soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, the Denver Philharmonic, the Teatro Argentino Orchestra (in Buenos Aires, Argentina), and the Aspen Music Festival's Sinfonia Orchestra. 

 As a chamber musician Jesse Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Boston's Gardener Museum, Chicago's Ravinia Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. He has also appeared at prestigious venues in Europe, such as the Barbican Centre of London, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, Amsterdam's Royal Carré Theatre, Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Mills is co-founder of Horszowski Trio and Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa, which earned First Prize at the Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006. With Ms. Aizawa, Mills became co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010. Mills is also known as a pioneer of contemporary works, a renowned improvisational artist, as well as a composer. He earned Grammy nominations for his performances of Arnold Schoenberg's music, released by NAXOS in 2005 and 2010. He can also be heard on the Koch, Centaur, Tzadik, Max Jazz and Verve labels for various compositions of Webern, Schoenberg, Zorn, Wuorinen, and others. As a member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001-2003, Mills performed music composed during the last 50 years, in addition to frequent world premieres. As a composer and arranger, Mills has been commissioned by venues including Columbia University's Miller Theater and the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland, OR.

Jesse Mills began violin studies at the age of three. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School in 2001. He studied with Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann and Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Mills lives in New York City, and he is on the faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College. In 2010 the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC honored him with the 'Rising Star Award' for musical achievement.