Guest Artists
Jennifer Koh, Violin
October 4, 2008
Violinist Jennifer Koh mesmerizes audiences with playing that combines intensity of temperament with a patrician poise and elegance, qualities that she brings to music old and new in equal measure. As a virtuoso whose natural flair is combined with a probing intellectual acuity, Ms. Koh is committed to exploring connections between the pieces she plays, searching for similarities of voice between different composers, as well as within the works of a single composer. Accordingly, her programs often present rare and revealing juxtapositions, offering works by composers as divergent as Mozart and Ligeti, Schubert and Saariaho. Having received both a bachelor's degree in English literature from Oberlin College and a performance diploma in music from the Oberlin Conservatory, Ms. Koh maintains a profound interest in writing and literature and has dedicated herself to the study of the Central European core of music and letters.
Ms. Koh has performed with many of America's most important orchestras and on leading recital series. When she appeared in recital at New York's Metropolitan Museum, the seasoned critic Allan Kozinn wrote in The New York Times:
"Ms. Koh offered a gripping solo performance of Esa-Pekka Salonen's "Lachen Verlernt" (2002), a piece that begins with a songlike simplicity but gradually becomes a study in full-throttle virtuosity. She also played Ravel's Sonata in G with a combination of Gallic sensuality and American flexibility. In the central Blues movement, Ms. Koh's bent pitches and throaty tone color were exactly what the score needs: Stephane Grappelli couldn't have made it sound more bluesy." (April 2005)
Upcoming engagements in the 2008-09 season include solo appearances with the orchestras of Atlanta, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Houston, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC. She will be heard in recital in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia; and in chamber music in New York at the 92nd Street Y. Besides performing various contemporary works such as Saariaho’s violin concerto “Graal theater,” Ms. Koh is scheduled to play the Brahms, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Mozart Concerto No. 4, as well as the Beethoven Triple Concerto.
Ms. Koh records regularly for the American Cedille label and has released four discs to date, including the complete Schumann violin sonatas; music by such varied composers as Bach, Schubert, Szymanowski, Martinů, Schoenberg, and jazz great Ornette Coleman, a CD of the Szymanowski and Martinů violin concertos entitled "Portraits," and most recently she released "String Poetic" with world premieres of works by Jennifer Higdon and Lou Harrison as well as music by John Adams and Carl Ruggles. Ms. Koh's first Cedille recording was an imaginative program centered on Bach's great Chaconne (with solo chaconnes by turn of the century contemporaries Richard Barth and Max Reger).
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, Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras and conductors around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, the New World Symphony, and Montreal Symphony. She has appeared with the Czech Philharmonic, the BBC London Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Iceland Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Lahti Symphony, Moscow Radio Symphony, the Brandenburg Ensemble, and the Singapore Symphony. In the 2005-06 season Ms. Koh performed the Ligeti Violin Concerto (with a cadenza written expressly for her by John Zorn) with the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva and at The Holland Festival at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A prolific recitalist, Ms. Koh appears frequently at major music centers and festivals including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Marlboro, Wolf Trap, Spoleto, and The Festival International de Lanaudiere in Canada. As a dedicated chamber musician, Ms. Koh has performed the complete Beethoven String Trios with her string trio, the Variation Trio and is often heard with colleagues including Kim Kashkashian, Andreas Haefliger, and Jaime Laredo in venues such as New York’s 92nd Street Y. In Asia she has performed in Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore.
A committed educator, Ms. Koh has also won high praise for her performances in classrooms throughout the United States under her innovative Music Messenger outreach program. Now in its sixth year, the program continues to form an important part of her musical activities. "The majority of children in this country have not been given an opportunity to learn music as a form of self-expression," she asserts, "and I want to share the experience of creating and listening to music with them." Ms. Koh's outreach efforts have taken her to classrooms all over the country to perform challenging music – whether it be Bach, Paganini, or Bartók -- for thousands of students who have little opportunity to hear classical music in their daily lives. "Music is a visceral experience which can create a positive outlet for emotions and a place for inner expression that is more compelling than time spent in front of the television or at a mall," she adds. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Foundation for the Advancement for the Arts, a scholarship program for high school students in the arts.
Born in Chicago of Korean parents, Ms. Koh currently resides in New York City. Ms. Koh is a graduate of Oberlin College and an alumna of the Curtis Institute, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir. Ms. Koh is grateful to her private sponsor for the generous loan of the 1727 Ex Grumiaux Ex General DuPont Stradivari she uses in performance.
Alon Goldstein, Piano
December 13, 2008
Mr. Goldstein has played with major North American orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco, Houston, Saint Louis, Dallas, Baltimore and Vancouver Symphonies. Recent seasons also featured a successful Philadelphia Orchestra re-engagement, debuts with the Seattle, Delaware, Santa Barbara, Dayton and Quad City Symphonies, and participation in a gala concert for the America Israel Cultural Foundation at the new Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Internationally, he has performed with the Orchestra national d'Ile de France in Paris, the "George Enescu" Philharmonic in Bucharest, the National Radio orchestra of Bulgaria, and the Orchestra Siciliana in Palermo, Italy. He has played under such conductors as Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, Leon Fleisher, Peter Oundjian, and Klaus Peter Flor.
Selected performance highlights of the current season include the complete Beethoven Concerto cycle in Rockford, IL, an appearance with the Tokyo String Quartet at the 92 Street Y in New York, a recital engagement at the Kravis Center, re-engagements with Orchestre national d'Ile de France and the Dayton Symphony Orchestra, as well as his Columbus Symphony debut.
Mr. Goldstein has played with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra under the batons of Maestro Zubin Mehta and Yoel Levi and returns in 2007-08 performing Beethoven's Concerto No. 1 with Herbert Blomstedt. He has also been heard with all other major orchestras in Israel. He has given recitals in major cities throughout the U.S. and Europe including recitals in New York, Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Paul, St. Louis and Houston. He has also performed on such prestigious series as Ravinia's Rising Stars, the Klavier Festival in Rühr, Germany, the Purcell Room in London, and has been heard on WQXR in New York and BBC Radio 3.
Mr. Goldstein's appearanced at the Gilmore, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Marlboro, Seattle, and Steamboat (Colorado) festivals in the US as well as Prussia Cove (England) and the Verbier (Switzerland) Festival. He performed at the Hollywood Bowl as well as at the newly opened Millennium Park in Chicago. Over the past several years he has also taught and played at the "Tel Hai" International piano master classes held in Israel.
Born in Israel, Mr. Goldstein began his piano studies at the age of seven. He graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel-Aviv University where he studied under Prof. Victor Derevianko and Prof. Arie Vardi. A ten-time winner of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships, Mr. Goldstein went on to study with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Following graduation in 1997, Mr. Goldstein became a "Performance Fellow" at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In this unique and flexible post that was created for Mr. Goldstein's unique musical and interpersonal skills, he initiated an innovative chamber music concert series, collaborating with students and faculty members as well as constructing annual festivals devoted to the 4-hands piano repertoire.
After his time in London, Alon spent two seasons as "Artist-in-Residence" at the Theo Lieven International Piano Foundation in Lake Como Italy. In this inspiring environment, as one of only eight promising young pianists in residence from around the world, he was able to enjoy private master-classes with world-renowned musicians.
He is the winner of numerous competitions, among them the Nena Wideman Competition in the US and the Francois Shapira competition in Israel. He is also the recipient of the 2004 Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. In 2003, the Phillips Collection in Washington DC released their first CD - a live recording of Alon's recital there. Summer 2005 saw the release of two new CD's - one a solo recital program through the Jerusalem Music Center "Mishkenot Sha'ananim" and the other through the Israeli Music Institute featuring works by Israeli composers.
Dísella Làrusdóttir, soprano
January 24, 2009
The winner of the Vocal Division of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2007 Albert M. Greenfield Competition, she debuted with the Orchestra in January 2008, under Christoph Eschenbach, at its 151st Academy Concert & Ball. Ms. Làrusdóttir was a prizewinner in the 2006 Loren L. Zachary Society National Vocal Competition for Young Opera Singers, the winner of New Jersey’s 2004 National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition, and a recent semi-finalist in Operalia, Plácido Domingo’s World Opera Competition, in Valencia, Spain. She has given recitals at Westminster Choir College, in Reykjavík and Stykkishólmur in her native Iceland, and for Ballroom Morning Musicales at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. Ms. Làrusdóttir holds a Master of Music degree from Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
Alessio Bax, Piano
May 2, 2009
Alessio Bax's extensive concerto repertoire has led to appearances with over 70 orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Tenerife Symphony, Spanish Radio Television, Rome Symphony, Hungarian Symphony, NHK Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, and Yomiuri Symphony. He has worked with a number of esteemed conductors such as Marin Alsop, Petr Altrichter, Sergiu Commissiona, Alexander Dimitriev, Jonathan Nott, Vernon Handley, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Owain Arwel Hughes, Ken-ichiro Kobayashi, Dimitry Sitkovetsky and Sir Simon Rattle. He joins Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two (CMS Two) residency program for outstanding young artists for three seasons beginning in 2009-10.
Mr. Bax's festival appearances include London's International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, England's Aldeburgh and Bath festivals, the Ruhr Klavierfestival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, BeethovenFest, and Musikfestspiele Saar in Germany. He has performed in recital at music halls in Rome, Milan, Madrid, Paris, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, New York, Washington DC, and Mexico City. Also an active chamber musician, he has collaborated with Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, Andres Diaz and Nobuko Imai, among others.
He joins the prestigious Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two (CMS Two) residency program for outstanding young artists for three seasons beginning in 2009-10.
His 2004 recording for Warner Classics, Baroque Reflections , received rave reviews and was selected as "Editor's Choice" by Gramophone magazine and "Best Buy" by Classical FM magazine. In 2003, Bax recorded with his wife, Lucille Chung, the complete works for two pianos and piano-for-four-hands of György Ligeti on Dynamic Records. In 2005, they recorded Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals with conductor Miguel Hart-Bedoya and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded the complete works for piano and organ of Marcel Dupré on Naxos, and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, live with the New Japan Philharmonic, for Fontec. Also on Fontec, Bax released a live recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Hamamatsu Symphony Orchestra.
In January 2005, Alessio Bax was selected to play the Fugue of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata for Maestro Daniel Barenboim in Barenboim on Beethoven . The documentary was produced by Channel 13/PBS, in conjunction with Bel Air Media, BBC, and NHK Japan. It was broadcast worldwide and released as a DVD box set in 2006 on the EMI label. His performances are often broadcast live on the BBC, CBC (Canada), RAI (Italy), RTVE (Spain), NHK (Japan), WDR, NDR and Bayerische Rundfunk (Germany), Hungarian Radio Television, Serbian RTE, among others.
Alession Bax graduated with top honors at the record age of 14 from the conservatory of his home town, Bari, Italy, under Angela Montemurro. He studied in France with François-Joël Thiollier, and attended the Chigiana Academy in Siena under Joaquín Achúcarro. In 1994, he moved to Dallas to further his studies with Mr. Achúcarro at the Meadows School of the Arts, where he is now on the teaching faculty.
