CMNW Spotlight Recital: Très Coloré et Élégant

• Hyunah Yu, soprano
• Diana Adamyan, violin
• Zitong Wang, piano
• Soovin Kim, piano
• Efe Baltacıgil, cello

In chamber music, as in life, relationships are everything. For today's recital, hear the beginnings of composer David Serkin Ludwig's relationship with poet Katie Ford in his 2012 piece Our Long War. We'll explore the intimate connection between poetry and music in some of Gabriel Fauré's exquisite songs, and longtime musical friends and collaborators Soovin Kim and Efe Baltacigil partner on Ravel's homage to his unlikely friend and fellow composer Claude Debussy.

About Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW)

Chamber Music Northwest serves more than 50,000 people annually in Oregon and SW Washington with exceptional chamber music through over 100 events annually, including our flagship Summer Festival, year-round concerts, community activities, educational programs, broadcasts, and innovative collaborations with other arts groups. CMNW is the only chamber music festival of its kind in the Northwest and one of the most diverse classical music experiences in the nation, virtually unparalleled in comparable communities.

Chamber Music Northwest's mission is to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education, and reflection.

About Diana Adamyan, violin

Diana Adamyan is quickly gaining an international reputation as one of her generation’s most outstanding violinists. After winning First Prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, the world’s most prestigious prize for young violinists, she went on to receive First Prize at the 2020 Khachaturian Violin Competition.

In 2022, Ms. Adamyan made her debut at the Aspen Festival performing Dvorak with Lionel Bringuier, and with the Boston Pops Orchestra performing Mendelssohn at Boston Symphony Hall. Ms. Adamyan has received numerous invitations to participate in concerts around the world, from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, to the Seiji Ozawa Academy in Switzerland, and the Matsumoto International Music Festival in Japan.

Following an invitation from Maestro Pinchas Zukerman to participate under his guidance in summer masterclasses of the Ottawa National Arts Center, Ms. Adamyan was invited to appear as a soloist in Gala Concert of NAC, alongside Mr. Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Jessica Linnebach, and other renowned musicians. Later, she also appeared alongside Mr. Zukerman playing the Bach Double Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic at Cadogan Hall in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Born in 2000 in Yerevan, Armenia, to a family of musicians, Ms. Adamyan currently studies at the Munich University of Performing Arts with world-renowned teacher Professor Ana Chumachenco, whose distinguished students have included Lisa Batiashvili, Julia Fischer, and Veronika Eberle. Previously, she studied at the Tchaikovsky School of Music (Yerevan) with Professor Petros Haykazyan and at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory with Professor Eduard Tadevosyan. Ms. Adamyan is the recipient of a scholarship from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and under the patronage of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and “YerazArt” organization in Boston.

About Zitong Wang, piano

Award-winning Chinese pianist Zitong Wang made her solo recital debut at age 13 in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. She has performed at such venues as the Steinway Hall in New York, Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and Severance Hall in Cleveland. She has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Yakima Symphony, and Waring Festival Orchestras. She has worked with conductors Jahja Ling, Xian Zhang, Lina Gonzalez-Granados, José Trigueros, and Yang Yang.

Among others, she won first prize in the Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition and Virginia Waring International Concerto Competition, second prize in the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, and first prize in the Princeton Festival Competition and France Music Competition. In 2022, she won first prize and the “Nelson Freire Prize” for the best performer of a piece by Frederick Chopin in the XXXIII Ferrol International Piano Competition.

About Soovin Kim, piano

Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season. When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the first violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini's demanding 24 Caprices, and a two-disc set of Bach's complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.

Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all third- through fifth-grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim's work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015. In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became Artistic Directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston, and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.

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.