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.
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