The Seattle Series: Efe Baltacigil, Zachary DePue, & Benjamin Hochman, with Noah Geller
$55-$65 ($35 student/ages 25 & under)
- Efe Baltacıgil, cello
- Zachary DePue, violin
- Benjamin Hochman, piano
- Noah Geller, viola
Franz Joseph Haydn — Piano Trio No. 44 in E major, Op. 86, No. 2, Hob. XV:28
Gilad Cohen — Circling Time (composed for Benjamin Hochman)
Gabriel Fauré — Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15
The Seattle Series, featuring world-class Seattle-based artists and their special guests, continues its second season with Efe Baltacıgil, Principal Cello of the Grammy-winning Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
Turkey's String Player of the Year, 2013, and awardee of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Baltacigil is lauded for his risk-taking, passionate performances that immediately capture the heart and imagination. For his second appearance with The Seattle Series, he has invited two outstanding guest artists; Time for Three founder Zachary DePue, who The Strad Magazine called one of America's leading concertmasters during his decade-long tenure as the ISO leader; and Benjamin Hochman, pianist, conductor, and recording artist. Hochman's most recent recording for Avie Records – in which he performs and conducts the Mozart Piano Concerti Nos. 17 and 24 with the English Chamber Orchestra – exemplifies the elegance and musical sensitivity which has propelled his career as a concerto soloist, recording artist, chamber collaborator, recitalist, and conductor across Europe and the United States.
For one of the evening's many highlights, Seattle Symphony Concertmaster Noah Geller will join the ensemble as violist for the Fauré, Piano Quartet No. 1.
About The Seattle Series
The Seattle Series is a chamber-festival-meets-recital series, featuring ad hoc combinations of awe-inspiring artists who perform together for one evening to create a magical moment in time. Outstanding Seattle artists are given the opportunity to invite their colleagues from around the nation and globe to join them for a unique collaboration, unavailable elsewhere.
http://theseattleseries.orgAbout Efe Baltacıgil, cello
Principal Cello of the Grammy-winning Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Turkey’s String Player of the Year, 2013, and awardee of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Baltacıgil is lauded for his risk-taking, passionate performances that immediately capture the heart and imagination.
Recipient of the Peter Jay Sharp Prize, the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize, and first prize in concerto competitions of Istanbul, New York, and the Allentown, Pennsylvania Schadt String Competition, Baltacıgil experienced early acclaim as winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Recipient of a bachelor’s degree from the Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul and an artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, Efe began his professional career in the United States as Associate Principal Cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra before joining the Seattle Symphony as Principal Cello in 2011.
https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/about/artists/strings/efe-baltacigil/About Zachary DePue, violin
Violinist Zachary DePue, described by The Strad as a leading American concertmaster during his decade-long tenure with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, has few if any limitations in his musical talents. Founding member of the Time for Three ensemble in 2003, DePue toured and recorded with the boundary-breaking group while holding fort in Indianapolis as the youngest person to be awarded the ISO’s concertmaster position. Following Time for Three, DePue and his prodigious brothers, producers of an inventive “grassical” merger of traditional bluegrass and classical genres, continued the musical journey into uncommon territory.
DePue is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he served as concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra before his quick rise in classical music with the ISO appointment during which he also served as co-artistic director with the ISO music director.
Mr. DePue is regarded as a rare talent who transcends conventional bounds yet exemplifies the best that classical music has to offer.
https://theindianapolisquartet.uindy.edu/biography/About Benjamin Hochman, piano
Pianist and conductor Benjamin Hochman’s most recent recording for Avie Records, in which he performs and conducts the Mozart piano concerti no.s 17 and 24 with the English Chamber Orchestra, exemplifies the elegance and musical sensitivity which has propelled his career as a concerto soloist, recording artist, chamber collaborator, recitalist, and conductor across Europe and the United States. Winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hochman is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, among them the Partosh Prize by the Israeli Minister of Culture, the Outstanding Pianist citation at the Verbier Academy, and the Festorazzi Award from the Curtis Institute of Music. His recording Variations with Avie Records was selected by The New York Times as one of the best recordings of 2015.
Since his Carnegie Hall debut with the Israel Philharmonic, Hochman has enjoyed an international performing career, appearing as soloist with the New York, Los Angeles, and Prague Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestras under conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, John Storgårds, and Joshua Weilerstein. His performance venues include Konzerthaus Wien; Berlin Konzerthaus; Amsterdam Concertgebouw; the Louvre, Paris; Liszt Academy, Budapest; Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg; New York’s 92nd Street Y; and Suntory Hall, Tokyo. Festival highlights include IMS Prussia Cove, Israel Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Lucerne, Santa Fe, Spoleto, and Verbier.
Hochman is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Claude Frank, and the Mannes College of Music, where he studied with Richard Goode. A graduate of The Juilliard School’s conducting program where he received the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award, Hochman trained under Alan Gilbert from 2016-2018. Conducting highlights include the English Chamber Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now at Bard Music Festival, and the Florida and Juilliard Orchestras. Mr. Hochman is a Steinway artist.
https://www.benjaminhochman.com/About Noah Geller, viola
Noah Geller is the David and Amy Fulton Concertmaster of the Grammy- and Gramophone-winning Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Named to that post at the conclusion of a multi-year search, Mr. Geller is among a small cadre of elite violinists who serve as both leaders and featured performers for the nation’s acclaimed orchestras. He will perform the Saint-Saëns la muse et le poète double concerto with Principal Cello Efe Baltacigil for the symphony’s 2022-23 opening night concert in September and the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Seattle Symphony in March 2023. He has previously brought to life the Glazunov and Mendelssohn concerti, Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending, Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade, and Mozart Requiem in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.
In addition to serving as SSO concertmaster, Mr. Geller has performed as guest concertmaster with the Symphony Orchestras of Pittsburgh, Houston, and Beijing (China National Symphony) and as acting assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. An in-demand chamber musician, he has performed in the Marlboro, Kingston, Saratoga, Seattle, and Taos festivals and has appeared in numerous concert series including those of Lyon & Healy Hall, Dolce Suono Ensemble, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Lyric Chamber Music Society. A student of Jennifer Cappelli, Geller received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with Hyo Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, and Donald Weilerstein. He now resides in Seattle with his wife, percussionist Mari Yoshinaga, and their canine companion, Monkey.
An enthusiastic supporter of contemporary makers, Mr. Geller performs on a c. 2020 violin by Philadelphia luthier Justin Hess, from whom he has commissioned a second instrument, using a c. 1830 bow by Claude Joseph Fonclause for Etienne Pajeot.
https://seattlesymphony.org/en/about/meetthemusicians/theorchestra/artists/first-violin/geller-noah