Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle at Bard Announces 2007 Concert Season
HUDSON VALLEY CHAMBER MUSIC CIRCLE AT BARD ANNOUNCES 2007 CONCERT SEASON
Three June concerts feature Pacifica String Quartet, Claremont Trio, and Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio with violist Michael Tree and clarinetist Ricardo Morales
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The 2007 Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle series at Bard College presents three concerts in June by world-renowned musicians. The Saturday evening concerts, presented by The Bard Center, begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. A subscription to the three-concert series is $60 ($50 for senior citizens). Single-concert tickets are $28; for senior citizens, $20; for students, $5.
On Saturday, June 2, the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle presents the Pacifica String Quartet, “one of the most vibrant chamber ensembles around” (Chicago Sun Times). The Quartet—violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad, and cellist Brandon Vamos—perform Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 12; Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 5; and Smetana’s Quartet No. 1 in E Minor, “From My Life.”
Performing on Saturday, June 16, is the first recipient of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, the Claremont Trio, which has “the kind of fresh approach that keeps chamber music alive” (Cincinnati Enquirer). The Trio—violinist Emily Bruskin, cellist Julia Bruskin, and pianist Donna Kwong—perform Beethoven’s Trio in D Major, Op 70, No. 1, “Ghost”; Bates’s “String Band”; and Dvorák’s Trio in E Minor, Op. 90, “Dumky.”
The 2007 series concludes on Saturday, June 23, with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, “foremost trio with the greatest longevity . . . bring[ing] to worldwide audiences their expressive and exhilarating interpretations” (Musical America). The Trio—pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo, and cellist Sharon Robinson—with guests violist Michael Tree and clarinetist Ricardo Morales, perform Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 495; Danielpour’s Piano Quartet, “Book of Hours”; and Brahms’s Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114.
The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle, an association of chamber music lovers that is celebrating its 57th season, was founded by Helen Huntington Hull and two friends from Staatsburg, New York. enlisted the help of violinist Emil Hauser, then a member of the Bard College faculty and original first violinist of the Budapest Quartet, to invite the best musicians of the time to perform at the Mills and Vanderbilt Mansions. In 1979, the concert series became a program of The Bard Center. The HVCMC continues to attract many of the world’s preeminent chamber music artists. In 2000, Robinson and Laredo assumed artistic directorship of the chamber music series.
These performances are made possible, in part, through the generosity of the Homeland Foundation and the Leon Levy Endowment at Bard College. For further information, call 518-537-6665.
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About the Artists
Saturday, June 2
“One of the finest and most energetic quartets of the younger generation” (Gramophone), the Pacifica Quartet became only the second chamber music ensemble to be awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. The Quartet has also received three of chamber music’s most important international awards: Grand Prize at the 1996 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, top prize at the 1997 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. The Quartet was honored in 2002 with Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award and was appointed a member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program for gifted young musicians. The Pacifica’s 2005–06 season included a European tour; a three-concert series in Chicago; two concerts at Lincoln Center in New York; two in Washington, D.C.; and concerts across the country, from Boston to New Orleans to Tucson. Celebrating its 10th anniversary during the 2004–05 season, the Quartet had its first tour of Japan, first appearance at Wigmore Hall in London, a performance of all five Elliott Carter quartets for San Francisco Performances, a concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the release of the complete Mendelssohn string quartets on the Cedille label, and more than 60 concerts across the country. An ardent advocate of contemporary music, the Pacifica has commissioned and performed as many as eight new works a year, and has performed Elliott Carter’s five quartets in New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago, and at the Edinburgh International Festival. The Pacifica Quartet serves as faculty quartet in residence at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and quartet in residence at the University of Chicago.
Saturday, June 16
Twin sisters Emily Bruskin and Julia Bruskin formed the Claremont Trio (hailed as “deft, exhilarating, and imaginative” by Strings Magazine) with Donna Kwong in 1999 at The Juilliard School. After winning the 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Trio launched its touring career with an acclaimed New York debut at the 92nd Street Y. During the 2006–07 season, the Claremont Trio embarked on a concert tour throughout every region of the United States, including performances at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, La Jolla Music Society, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Los Alamos Concert Association, Des Moines Art Center, Worcester’s Mechanics Hall. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Shostakovich’s birth, the Trio released a recording of his piano trios coupled with Arensky’s Trio in D Minor, Op.32. The Trio’s debut CD of Mendelssohn trios was released on the Arabesque label in 2004 to enthusiastic critical acclaim. The Claremont Trio has been featured on television and radio stations throughout the United States and abroad. Highlights of previous seasons include performances at the American Academy in Rome; Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; Merkin Concert Hall; Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and with the chamber music societies of Cincinnati, Detroit, Utica, Kansas City, Louisville, Buffalo, and Sedona. During recent summers the Claremont Trio has appeared at the Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Ravinia, Bard, Norfolk, Moab, Deer Valley, Cape Cod Chamber Music, and Great Lakes Festivals. The group has also performed with many distinguished guest artists, including Toby Appel, Martha Katz, Ida Kavafian, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Richard Young. Deeply committed to expanding the piano trio repertoire, the group has commissioned and premiered compositions by Daniel Kellogg, Mason Bates, and Hillary Zipper. The Trio is also extensively involved in music education and has been recognized for its engaging and interactive programs for students of all ages. The Claremont Trio is based in New York City near their namesake: Claremont Avenue.
Saturday, June 23
“One of the best-blended, most sensitive, and intelligent piano trios in the world today,” (The New York Times). Since making their debut as the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio at the White House for President Carter’s Inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo, and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature for thirty years. As one of the only chamber ensembles today with all its original members, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio balances the careers of three internationally acclaimed soloists while it makes annual appearances at many of the world’s major concert halls, commissioning spectacular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda. The 2006–07 season saw major commemorations of the Trio’s 30th anniversary at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and the Kennedy Center, in addition to other important venues in the United States. Carnegie Hall celebrated the Ensemble’s 30-year milestone in April with a program of Mozart, Kirchner, and Schubert that included Pinchas Zukerman, viola, and Harold Robinson, bass. In addition, the Trio’s 2006–07 tour brought them to Philadelphia, Boston, La Jolla, Miami, Fort Worth, El Paso, Tucson, Princeton, and Calgary. In January the Trio embarked on a European tour to Hamburg, Oldenburg, and Erlangen (Germany); Lisbon (Portugal); and Copenhagen (Denmark). On the recording front, the Ensemble entered an exciting new partnership with KOCH International Classics, with the release of their new Arensky and Tchaikovsky disc. KOCH will also rerelease many of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio’s hallmark recordings, including chamber works of Maurice Ravel; A Child’s Reliquary (piano trio) and In the Arms of the Beloved (double concerto) by Richard Danielpour; the complete sonatas and trios of Shostakovich; trios by Pärt, Zwilich, Kirchner, and Silverman written especially for the group, and their beloved collection of the complete Beethoven Trios. Musical America named the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio the Ensemble of the Year for 2002, and they are the recipients of the first annual Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Foundation for Recorded Music. The 2003–04 season was their first as chamber ensemble in residence at the Kennedy Center.
A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ricardo Morales began studies at the Escuela Libra de Musica, along with his five siblings, all of whom are now distinguished musicians. He later attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory and Indiana University before launching his professional career as principal clarinet of the Florida Orchestra. In 1993, at the age of 21, he was appointed principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; he now holds that position in the Philadelphia Orchestra. Morales has been a soloist with the Chicago and Cincinnati Symphonies and with the Met Orchestra under James Levine in Carnegie Hall and on two European tours. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and on NBC’s Today. He serves on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, and, during the summer, the Verbier Academy in Switzerland.
In 1954 the New York Herald Tribune wrote “A twenty-year-old American violinist, Michael Tree, stepped out upon Carnegie Hall stage last night and made probably the most brilliant young debut in the recent past . . . the violinist evidenced not one lapse from the highest possible musical and technical standards.” Since then Tree has appeared as violin and viola soloist with the Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, New Jersey, and other major orchestras. He has participated in leading festivals, including Marlboro, Casals, Spoleto, Israel, Taos, Aspen, and Santa Fe. Since 1964, as a founding member of the Guarneri String Quartet, Tree has played in major cities throughout the world. In 1982, Mayor Ed Koch presented the Quartet with the first New York City Seal of Recognition. One of the most widely recorded musicians in America, Tree has recorded more than 95 chamber music works, including 10 piano quartets and quintets with Arthur Rubinstein, and two complete Beethoven Quartet cycles. These works appear under Columbia, RCA, Sony, Phillips, Nonesuch, Arabesque, and Vanguard labels. His television credits include repeated appearances on the Today Show and the first telecast of Chamber Music Live from Lincoln Center. Tree serves on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Bard College Conservatory of Music, and University of Maryland. He lives in New York City and Marlboro, Vermont.
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(5/01/07)
(Editor’s Note: To schedule interviews with the musicians in advance of the concerts, e-mail