SCMS Summer Festival: Ravaei, Prokofiev, Brahms
In person: $60 ($25 student/ages 30 & under) | Stream: $30
- Noah Geller, violin
- Tessa Lark, violin
- Jonathan Vinocour, viola
- Astrid Schween, cello
- Paul Watkins, cello
- Joyce Yang, piano
- Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano
- Andrew Wan, violin
- Bion Tsang, cello
Sergei Prokofiev — Cello Sonata in C minor, Op. 119
Johannes Brahms — Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8
The eighth 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 6:30pm in the Nordstrom Recital Hall.
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-noahAbout Tessa Lark, violin
Violinist Tessa Lark is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. In 2020 she was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category and received one of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Awards, the special Hunt Family Award. Other recent honors include a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Silver Medalist in the 9th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition. A budding superstar in the classical realm, she is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky, delighting audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music and inspiring composers to write for her.
Tessa has been a featured soloist at numerous US orchestras, recital venues, and festivals since making her concerto debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age 16. She has appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; the Louisville Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic; the Albany, Indianapolis, Knoxville and Seattle symphonies; and has been presented by such venues as Carnegie Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Music Center at Strathmore, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, San Francisco Performances, Ravinia, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Australia’s Musica Viva Festival, and the Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Bridgehampton, and La Jolla summer festivals.
Highlights of her 2021-22 season include debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall; return appearances for recital series such as Cal Performances and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and numerous concerto engagements, including the world premiere of Michael Schachter’s violin concerto, Cycles of Life, with the Knoxville Symphony in April 2022.
Tessa’s debut commercial recording – SKY, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for her by Michael Torke and performed with the Albany Symphony Orchestra – earned a 2020 GRAMMY nomination, and Tessa’s discography has been expanding ever since. Recordings include Fantasy, an album on the First Hand Records label that includes fantasias by Schubert, Telemann and Fritz Kreisler, Ravel’s Tzigane, and Tessa’s own Appalachian Fantasy; Invention, a debut album of the violin-bass duo Lark and Thurber that comprises arrangements of Two-Part Inventions by J.S. Bach along with non-classical original compositions by Tessa and her fiancé, Michael Thurber; and a live performance recording of Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, released in 2021 by the Buffalo Philharmonic in honor of Piazzolla’s 100-year anniversary.
Tessa’s belief in music’s power to foster global connection and community across boundaries manifests in her genre-defying collaborations. Along with the Lark and Thurber duo, new projects include a string trio with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman and a duo partnership with jazz guitarist Frank Vignola.
https://www.tessalark.com/About Astrid Schween, cello
About Paul Watkins, cello
About Joyce Yang, piano
About Andrew Wan, violin
About Bion Tsang, cello
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
200 University St.Seattle, WA 98101
United States