CONCERTS
THE 25/26 SEASON
Bringing the world’s greatest chamber ensembles to Dallas
THE EHNES QUARTET
September 29, 2025 | 7:30pm
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EHNES QUARTET
James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violins
Che-Yen Chen, viola
Edward Arron , cello
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Hailed as “a magnificent quartet” (The Strad) with a “dream-team line-up” (Strings), the Ehnes Quartet is comprised of four internationally renowned musicians: violinists James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violist Che-Yen Chen, and cellist Edward Arron.
Formally established in 2010 at the Seattle Chamber Music Society, where they maintain a yearly residency, the Ehnes Quartet’s highly refined, sensitive and expressive performances have delighted audiences and critics across North America, Europe, and Asia, and have made them one of the most sought after chamber groups performing today. Recent and upcoming performances include appearances in Seoul, Los Angeles, San Diego, Cleveland, Dallas, Toronto, Paris, Evian, Bilbao, Madrid, and annual concerts and residencies in Seattle, Montreal, Miami, Detroit, and London’s famed Wigmore Hall. Recent additions to their critically acclaimed discography include works of Barber, Beethoven, Schubert, Shostakovich, and Sibelius.
James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most celebrated violinists on the international stage. Recent concerto appearances include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra. His extensive discography has won many awards including 2 GRAMMY awards, 3 Gramophone awards, and 12 Junos. He is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Professor at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Academy of Music, and a member of both the Order of Manitoba and the Order of Canada. Ehnes plays the “Marsick, Ehnes” Stradivarius of 1715.
Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti is equally versatile as chamber musician, concertmaster, soloist, and educator. Former concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra and Oregon Symphony, she has been Director of the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University since its inception in 2007, where she holds the Caroline Paul King Chair and has developed and curates the Fabian Concert Series. She has premiered concertos for GRAMMY winner Matt Catingub and her Mercer colleague Christopher Schmitz and has served as guest concertmaster for such symphony orchestras as Atlanta, Houston, and Pittsburgh. She has recorded for Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Onyx Classics, CBC Records, BCMF/Naxos and Sono Luminus.
Che-Yen Chen is the first prize winner of the 2003 Primrose Viola Competition. As the founding and former member of the Formosa Quartet, he won the first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. A professor of music at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music, his previous positions include principal viola of the San Diego Symphony, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and professor of viola at USC's Thornton School of Music. He has given masterclasses and appeared as guest principal viola with various major orchestras across North America. As an avid chamber musician and educator, he frequently participates in major music festivals across North America and Asia.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, cellist Edward Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has since appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He is the artistic director of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In January of 2021, his recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics label. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Arron has served on the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst since 201
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Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13
Leoš Janáček: String Quartet No. 2 "Intimate Letters"
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59, No. 1 “Razumovsky”
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THE DANISH QUARTET
November 17, 2025 | 7:30pm
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DANISH STRING QUARTET
Frederik Øland & Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violins
Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello
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The Danish String Quartet celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2022-23, and the GRAMMY®- nominated quartet continues to assert its preeminence among the world’s finest string quartets. Formed when they were in their teens, they are renowned for impeccable musicianship, sophisticated artistry, exquisite clarity of ensemble, and, above all, and an unmatched ability to play as one. Performances are characterized by a rare musical spontaneity, giving audiences the sense of hearing even treasured canon repertoire as if for the first time. They exude a palpable joy in music-making that has made them one of today’s most highly acclaimed and in-demand classical quartets, performing sold-out concert halls around the world. Their inventive and intriguing programming and repertoire choices have produced critically acclaimed original projects and commissions as well as popular arrangements of Scandinavian folk music.
This season, the Danish String Quartet continues its DOPPELGÄNGER series, an ambitious four-year international commissioning project. DOPPELGÄNGER pairs world premieres from four renowned composers—Bent Sørensen, Lotta Wennäkoski, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Thomas Adès—with late major chamber works by Schubert. Each season, the Quartet performs a world premiere on a program with its doppelgänger—the Schubert quartet or quintet that inspired it—culminating in 2024 in the premiere of a quintet by Adès, after the String Quintet in C major. This season’s new work, by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, premieres in April 2023 and is paired with Schubert’s String Quartet in A Minor, "Rosamunde." The DOPPELGÄNGER pieces are commissioned by the Danish String Quartet with the support of Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures, Vancouver Recital Society, Flagey in Brussels, and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. The Quartet performs 28 concerts in North American this season over the course of three separate tours. Additionally, they are Artist in Residence at London’s Wigmore Hall.
The Danish String Quartet’s most recent recording project is PRISM, a series of five discs on ECM New Series that explores the symbiotic musical and contextual relationships between Bach fugues, Beethoven string quartets, and works by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Bartok, Mendelssohn, and Webern. Four of the five recordings have been released on ECM, and the fifth, PRISM V, is slated for 2023. The most recently released is PRISM IV (2022), which was an “Editor’s Choice” in Limelight magazine. The Quartet’s discography reflects the ensemble’s special affinity for Scandinavian composers, with the complete quartets of Carl Nielsen (DaCapo, 2007 and 2008) and Adès, Nørgård & Abrahamsen, their debut on ECM in 2016. They also released two discs of traditional Scandinavian folk music, Wood Works (Dacapo, 2014) and Last Leaf (ECM, 20127), which was one of the top classical albums of the year, as chosen by NPR, Spotify and The New York Times, among others. A third folk recording is planned for release in 2023 on ECM.
The Quartet takes an active role in reaching new audiences through special projects. In 2007, they established the DSQ Festival, which takes place in intimate and informal settings in Copenhagen. In 2016, they inaugurated a concert series, Series of Four, in which they both perform and invite colleagues to appear.
They are the recipients of many awards and prestigious appointments, including Musical America’s 2020 Ensemble of the Year and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. The Quartet was named in 2013 as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and appointed to The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). The Quartet was the awarded the 2010 NORDMETALL-Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany, and in 2011, they received the Carl Nielsen Prize, the highest cultural honor in Denmark.
Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørenson and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a music summer camp where they played soccer and made music together. As teenagers, they began the study of classical chamber music and were mentored by Tim Frederiksen of Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music. In 2008, the three Danes were joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin.
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Igor Stravinksy: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Jonny Greenwood: Suite from “There will be Blood”
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135
Arrangements & compositions by the Danish String Quartet
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KERSON LEONG, VIOLIN
December 15, 2025 | 7:30pm
GILLES VONSATTEL, PIANO
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KERSON LEONG, violin
Kerson Leong has been described as “not just one of Canada’s greatest violinists but one of the greatest violinists, period” (Toronto Star). Forging a unique path since his First Prize win at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in 2010, he continues to win over colleagues and audiences alike with “a mixture of spontaneity and mastery, elegance, fantasy, intensity that makes his sound recognizable from the first notes” (Le Monde).
His latest album, featuring the Britten and Bruch violin concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Patrick Hahn for Alpha Classics, was released to widespread critical acclaim, including having been awarded ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone, ‘The Strad Recommends’ by The Strad, and the ‘Choc de Classica’ by Classica as well as five-star recommendations from the Sunday Times and Diapason among others.
Recent season highlights include solo performances with such ensembles as the Royal, Oslo, Brussels, Kansai, and Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, the Seattle, Singapore, Toledo, Montreal, Tucson, Bilkent, Toronto, Vancouver, Stavanger, and Wuppertal Symphony Orchestras, a tour of Sweden with the Camerata Nordica, a recital tour of the Midwestern United States, and recording John Rutter’s Visions with the composer himself and the Aurora Chamber Orchestra, after giving its world premiere in London, UK.
As a sought-after soloist, he was hand-picked by Yannick Nézet-Séguin to be his artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain during the 18/19 season and has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium du Louvre and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
As a passionate chamber musician, he has performed at such international festivals and concert series as the Verbier Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Flâneries musicales de Reims, and Bergen International Festival among others.
Passionate about pedagogy and music outreach, he has been invited to give masterclasses and teach at various festivals and universities including the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Gustav Mahler Academy, the Domaine Forget Festival Academy, the University of Ottawa, and Dalhousie University among others.
Fostering a significant audience away from the concert hall as well, he is cementing his noteworthy role in reaching young people, aspiring musicians, and potential music lovers alike with his art in creative and engaging ways on social media. He is an associate artist of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where he was mentored by Augustin Dumay.
He has always been keen on making connections between music and other fields. Ever since his dad started introducing him to physics concepts about string resonance, they have strongly influenced his playing and philosophy on sound production. Together with his dad, he has given lectures about this subject in places such as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Barratt-Due Music Institute in Oslo, and various universities in California.
Kerson performs on the ‘ex Bohrer, Baumgartner’ Guarneri del Gesu courtesy of Canimex Inc, Drummondville (Quebec), Canada.
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GILLES VONSATTEL, piano
A "wanderer between worlds" (Lucerne Festival), "immensely talented" and "quietly powerful pianist" (New York Times), Swiss-born American Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, laureate of the Honens, Cleveland, and Dublin competitions, and winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions as well as the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, while performing recitals and chamber music at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ravinia, Tokyo’s Musashino Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bravo! Vail, Music@Menlo, the Gilmore festival, the Lucerne festival, and the Munich Gasteig. His 2014 New York solo recital was hailed as “tightly conceived and passionately performed…a study in intensity” by The New York Times.
As a soloist he has also appeared 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. Chamber partners include musicians such as James Ehnes, Frank Huang, Ilya Gringolts, Nicolas Altstaedt, David Shifrin, David Finckel, Stefan Jackiw, Jörg Widmann, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, David Requiro, Paul Huang, Anthony Marwood, Paul Neubauer, Paul Watkins, Philip Setzer, Emmanuel Pahud, Karen Gomyo, David Jolley, Stella Chen, and Ida Kavafian. He has appeared in concert with the Emerson, Pacifica, Orion, St. Lawrence, Ebène, Danish, Miró, Daedalus, Escher, and Borromeo Quartets. Mr. Vonsattel is Principal Pianist of Camerata Pacifica, a member of the Swiss Chamber Soloists, and plays alongside Ida Kavafian and David Jolley in Trio Valtorna. Deeply committed to the performance of contemporary works, he has premiered numerous works both in the United States and Europe and worked closely with notable composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, and George Benjamin. His recording for the Honens/Naxos label of music by Debussy, Honegger, Holliger, and Ravel was named one of Time Out New York’s 2011 classical albums of the year, while a 2014 release on GENUIN/Artist Consort received a 5/5 from FonoForum and international critical praise. His solo release (2015) for Honens of Scarlatti, Webern, Messiaen, Debussy, and George Benjamin’s Shadowlines received rave reviews in Gramophone, The New York Times, and the American Record Guide.
Recent highlights include a performance of Carlos Chávez's Piano Concerto in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium with The Orchestra Now, a debut at Mainly Mozart in San Diego, a critically acclaimed recording of music by Richard Strauss and Kurt Leimer with The Bern Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago for the Schweizer Fonogramm label. In 2025, Vonsattel begins a three year complete Beethoven piano sonatas cycle for Camerata Pacifica. He will perform the entire cycle over the 2026-7 season for both Music@Menlo and at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Mr. Vonsattel received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Columbia University and his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. He is Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Gilles Vonsattel is a Steinway Artist. -
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1016
Edvard Grieg: Sonata No. 2 in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op 13
Clara Schumann: Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op 22
Johannes Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 78
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All our performances take place in Caruth Auditorium at Southern Methodist University
7:30pm | Performance
6:45pm | Pre-concert lecture
CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY
OF LINCOLN CENTER
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CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
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The artistic evolution of Ludwig van Beethoven changed the course of music, and nowhere is that stunning transformation experienced better than in this all-Beethoven program. From this program, one can sense the tremendous vitality that would propel him to stardom within a decade. Beethoven’s hand also broadened the possibilities of both the sonata for violin and piano, and the piano trio, here illustrated by his last and greatest example, the “Archduke.”
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Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in E-flat major for Violin and Piano, Op. 12, No. 3
Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio in D major for Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 9, No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio in B-flat major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 97, “Archduke”
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January 19, 2026 | 7:30pm
GOLDMUND QUARTET
March 2, 2026 | 7:30pm
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GOLDMUND QUARTET – 25/26 NEXT GEN ARTISTS
Florian Schötz, violin
Pinchas Adt, violin
Christoph Vandory, viola
Raphael Paratore, cello——————————————————
The Goldmund Quartet is known to feature “exquisite playing” and “multi-layered homogeneity” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) in its interpretations of the great classical and modern works of the quartet literature. Its inwardness, the unbelievably fine intonation and the phrases worked out down to the smallest detail inspire audiences worldwide.
As evident from their 2024/25 season calendar, the Quartet is now counted amongst the leading string quartets of the younger generation worldwide. Highlights include another substantial tour of North America taking in Montréal, Indianapolis and Memphis, amongst others, and a tour of Japan on the occasion of the Nippon Foundation’s 50th anniversary at Suntory Hall with Ray Chen, Camille Thomas, Maria Dueñas and as soloists with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble will debut at prestigious festivals such as Schubertiade Hohenems and the HarzClassixFestival while other debuts include performances on Cyprus and in Split, at the Teatro Liceu de Salamanca and in Florence in the renowned series of the Amici della Musica Firenze. Returns will lead the Quartet to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Oraniensteiner Konzerte and the Bodensee Festival. The Goldmund Quartet presents their own chamber music festival at Kloster Irsee in May 2025. Additionally, the Goldmund Academy will be held for the very first time offering guidance for young string quartets and providing a platform for emerging talent.
Following the 2020 release on Berlin Classics of Travel Diaries - the Quartet's third album including works by Wolfgang Rihm, Ana Sokolovic, Fazil Say and Dobrinka Tabakova - the Goldmund Quartet published an album dedicated to Franz Schubert and released a limited vinyl release of Prisma in 2023. The latter featured contemporary works by Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass and Uno Helmersson alongside two newly commissioned pieces by Pascal Schumacher and Sophia Jani. Collaborations with composers such as Kaan Bulak, Jörg Widmann and others give evidence of their dedication to commissioning and performing contemporary music. These efforts alongside educational projects are supported by the Friends of Goldmund Quartett e.V. The next CD release, of an album of works by Felix Mendelssohn, is planned for Spring 2025.
Winners of the renowned 2018 International Wigmore Hall String Competition and the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Goldmund Quartet was selected by the European Concert Hall Organisation as Rising Stars of the 2019/20 season. Since 2019, they have been performing on Antonio Stradivari's Paganini Quartet of instruments, provided by the Nippon Music Foundation. In addition, the Quartet was awarded the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Music Prize in March 2020 and the Freiherr von Waltershausen Prize in December 2020. In 2016, the Quartet won the Bavarian Arts Promotion Prize and the Karl Klinger Prize of the ARD Competition.
The Goldmund Quartet has performed alongside artists such as Jörg Widmann, Ksenija Sidorova, Sabine Meyer, Pablo Ferrández, Nino Gvetadze, Noa Wildschut, Martynas Levickis, Maximilian Hornung, Elisbeth Brauß, Christian Gerhaher and Fazil Say.
In addition to studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and with members of the Alban Berg Quartet, Günter Pichler at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia, and the Artemis Quartet in Berlin, masterclasses and studies with members of the Hagen, Borodin, Belcea, Ysaye and Cherubini Quartets, Ferenc Rados, Eberhard Feltz and Alfred Brendel gave the quartet important musical inspiration.
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Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, D. 87
Mieczyslaw Weinberg: String Quartet No. 5, Op. 27
Johannes Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2
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STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO
April 27, 2026 | 7:30pm
CONNIE SHIH, PIANO
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STEVEN ISSERLIS, cello
Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster.
As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Philharmonic and Zurich Tonhalle orchestras. He gives recitals every season in major musical centres, and plays with many of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras, including the Australian, Mahler, Norwegian, Scottish, Zurich and St Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classical programmes.
Recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Mozartwoche; the US premiere of Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, following world and UK premieres in Lucerne and at the BBC Proms, and a further performance of the work in Amsterdam with the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by the composer; Prokofiev’s Concerto Op. 58 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, in London and at the Dresden Music Festival; and Haydn’s C major Concerto with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Adam Fischer.
As a chamber musician, he has curated series for many of the world’s most famous festivals and venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the 92nd St Y in New York, and the Salzburg Festival. These specially devised programmes have included ‘In the Shadow of War’, a major four-part series for the Wigmore Hall to mark the centenary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War; explorations of Czech music; the teacher-pupil line of Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Ravel; the affinity of the cello and the human voice; varied aspects of Robert Schumann’s life and music; and the music of Sergei Taneyev (teacher of Steven’s grandfather, Julius Isserlis) and his students. For these concerts Steven is joined by a regular group of friends which includes the violinists Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Pamela Frank, and Janine Jansen, violist Tabea Zimmermann, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Stephen Hough, Alexander Melnikov, Olli Mustonen, Connie Shih, and Dénes Várjon.
He also takes a strong interest in authentic performance. This season’s projects include a recording of the Chopin Cello Sonata and other works with Dénes Várjon for Hyperion, using ones of Chopin’s own piano; and a recital of Russian sonatas with Olli Mustonen. In recital, he gives frequent concerts with harpsichord and fortepiano. Recent seasons have featured a special performance with Sir Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, using Beethoven’s own cello; and performances and recordings (selected for the Deutsche SchallplattenPreis) of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano with Robert Levin, using original or replica fortepianos from the early nineteenth century. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, he has performed and recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach as well as sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti. This season, they tour together in the US.
He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil (as well as several other pieces by Tavener), Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, Stephen Hough’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Left Hand (Les Adieux), Wolfgang Rihm’s Concerto in One Movement, David Matthews’ Concerto in Azzurro, and For Steven and Hilary’s Jig by György Kurtág. In 2016, he gave the UK premiere of Olli Mustonen’s of Frei, aber einsam for solo cello at the Wigmore Hall.
Writing and playing for children is another major enthusiasm. He has written the text for three musical stories for children – Little Red Violin, Goldiepegs and the Three Cellos, and Cindercella – with music by Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley; these are published by Universal Edition in Vienna. He has also given many concerts for children, for several years presenting a regular series at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Steven Isserlis’ books for children about the lives of the great composers – Why Beethoven Threw the Stew and its sequel, Why Handel Waggled his Wig – are published by Faber and Faber, and have been translated into multiple languages. His latest book, a commentary on Schumann’s famous Advice for Young Musicians, was published by Faber and Faber in September 2016, and will be published in the US by Chicago University Press this season.
As an educator Steven Isserlis gives frequent masterclasses all around the world, and since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, where his fellow-professors include Sir Andras Schiff, Thomas Adès and Ferenc Rados.
As a writer and broadcaster, he contributes regularly to publications including Gramophone, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, has guest edited The Strad magazine, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio including on the Today programme, Soul Music, as guest presenter of two editions of Saturday Classics, and as writer and presenter of a documentary about the life of Robert Schumann. Most recently, he presented a documentary on BBC Radio 4 ‘Finding Harpo’s Voice’, about his hero Harpo Marx.
His diverse interests are reflected in an extensive and award-winning discography. His recording of the complete Solo Cello Suites by J.S. Bach for Hyperion met with the highest critical acclaim, and was Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year and Critics’ Choice at the Classic BRITS. Other recent releases include the Elgar and Walton concertos, alongside works by Gustav and Imogen Holst, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Paavo Järvi; Prokofiev and Shostakovich concertos with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, also under Paavo Järvi; Dvořák’s Cello Concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding; and recital discs with Stephen Hough, Thomas Adès and (for BIS) a Grammy-nominated album of sonatas by Martinů, as well as works by Mustonen and Sibelius, with Olli Mustonen. His latest recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and – as director and soloist – concertos by Haydn and CPE Bach, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Forthcoming recordings include a special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih, including works performed on a travel cello – now known as “the Trench Cello” – played in the trenches by WWI soldier Harold Triggs.
The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’s honours include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the USA. He is also one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award in Dresden, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music.
He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.
CONNIE SHIH, piano
Canadian pianist Connie Shih is considered to be one of Canada’s most outstanding artists. In 1993 she was awarded the Sylva Gelber Award for most outstanding classical artist under age 30. At the age of nine, she made her orchestral debut with Mendelssohn's first Piano Concerto with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. At the age of 12, she was the youngest ever protégé of Gyorgy Sebok, and then continued her studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with Claude Frank, himself a protégé of Arthur Schnabel. Later studies were undertaken with Fou Tsong in Europe.
As soloist, she has appeared extensively with orchestras throughout Canada, the U.S.A. and Europe. In a solo recital setting, she has made countless appearances in Canada, the U.S., Iceland, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan and China. Connie has given chamber music performances with many world-renowned musicians. To critical acclaim, she appears regularly in recital with cellist Steven Isserlis. Including chamber music appearances at the Wigmore and Carnegie Halls, she performs at the prestigious Bath Music Festival, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Weill Hall, and at the Kronberg Festival. Her collaborations have included Maxim Vengerov, Tabea Zimmerman, and Isabelle Faust. Recent recordings include her CD with Steven Isserlis on the BIS label. -
Ludwig van Beethoven: Twelve Variations on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' for Cello and Piano, Op. 66
Robert Schumann: Fantasiestücke for cello and piano, Op. 73
Gabriel Fauré: Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 117
Nadia Boulanger: Three pieces for cello and Piano
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69
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