Sunday, July 16, 2023 @ 3:00pm – 5:00pm (PDT)
Online and in-person
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In person: $60 ($25 student/ages 30 & under) | Stream: $30

The seventh of twelve concerts, join us this Summer, In-Person or Online, for the world’s best chamber music party!

From 12 concerts in Benaroya's Nordstrom Recital Hall, to 3 Concerts in the Park, 18 concerts aboard The Concert Truck, and the debut of Jazz@SCMS, our 2023 Summer Festival is our most ambitious yet!

This concert will be preceded by a free 30-minute Pre-Concert Recital at 2pm in the Nordstrom Recital Hall.

About 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 Che-Yen Chen, viola

Taiwanese-American violist Che-Yen Chen has established himself as an active performer and educator. Since winning First Prize in the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition and the "President Prize" of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, he was described as a musician whose "most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music." As the founding and former member of the Formosa Quartet, he won the first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition, founded the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan, and has released recordings on EMI, Delos, New World, and Bridge Records. Chen was the principal violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra for eight years and has appeared as guest principal viola with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony. A former Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two member, Chen frequently performs and teaches at music festivals across North America and Asia. Professor of Viola Performance and Chamber Music at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Chen has previously served on the faculty of USC Thornton School of Music, UC San Diego, San Diego State University, California State University Fullerton, and McGill University. A native of Taipei, Chen began his viola study with Ben Lin and became a four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan. As a fourteen- year-old, he came to the U.S.A. to matriculate at The Curtis Institute of Music under the mentorship of Michael Tree and Joseph de Pasquale and later at The Juilliard School studying viola performance and string quartet with Paul Neubauer and The Juilliard Quartet. Chen joined the renowned Ehnes Quartet in 2023.

https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/about/artists/strings/che-yen-chen/

About Edward Arron, cello

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. Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes String Quartet and he is a regular performer at the Boston and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Society, Bargemusic, and Caramoor, and his performances are frequently broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today. In 2021, Mr. Arron's recording of Beethoven's Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics record label. The recording received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Arron has served on the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst since 2016.

https://edwardarron.com/

About James Ehnes, violin

James Ehnes is recognized as one of the world's foremost violinists and is a favorite guest of many of the world's most celebrated orchestras and concert halls. Recent orchestral highlights include the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, London Symphony, Gedwandhausorchester Leipzig, New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

http://jamesehnes.com

About Noah Geller, violin

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