SCMS Winter Festival: Beethoven, Walker, Elgar
From $65
- Edward Arron, cello
- Jeewon Park, piano
- Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
- Grace Park, violin
- Che-Yen Chen, viola
- Ani Aznavoorian, cello
- Adam Neiman, piano
- James Ehnes, violin
- Njioma Grevious, violin
- Cynthia Phelps, viola
- Efe Baltacıgil, cello
George Walker — String Quartet No. 1
Edward Elgar — Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84
Join us this Winter as we explore the unbelievably fertile period of musical history taking place in the British Isles. Alongside works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and other great masters, each concert will feature music from Britain's greatest composers of the first half of the 20th Century. SCMS Artistic Director James Ehnes is joined by the world's greatest musicians to present a musical journey that you won't want to miss.
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 Jeewon Park, piano
About Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
Amy Schwartz Moretti has a distinguished musical career of broad versatility. Since 2007, she has been Director of the McDuffie Center for Strings and has developed the Fabian Concert Series; she also holds the Caroline Paul King Chair, teaching in the Mercer University Townsend School of Music. A performing artist with an affinity for chamber music, she enjoys touring with the Ehnes Quartet and maintains an active schedule of solo, chamber and concertmaster appearances. Recent performances include the 2019 premiere of Schmitz's Violin Concerto written for her. Her other festival appearances this summer include Bridgehampton, ChamberFest Cleveland, La Jolla, Meadowmount, and Manchester Music Festival. Moretti is former concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony and Florida Orchestra. She has served as guest concertmaster for the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Houston, Pittsburgh; the New York Pops and Hawaii Pops; and the festival orchestras of Brevard, Colorado and Grand Teton. The Cleveland Institute of Music has recognized her with an Alumni Achievement Award and she is the 2014 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Fanfare Honoree. In December 2018, Moretti was selected as one of Musical America's "Top 30 Professionals of the Year."
http://www.amyschwartzmoretti.com/About Grace Park, violin
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 Ani Aznavoorian, cello
Cellist Ani Aznavoorian has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the world including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops. Aznavoorian is an avid chamber musician and teacher. She is the principal cellist of Camerata Pacifica, and she appears regularly at chamber music festivals around the globe. She has also served on the music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, and has spent summers as faculty of the Great Mountains Music Festival and School in South Korea. She is the recipient of the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award for her playing and artistry, has been named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and is a prize winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition. She is a proponent of new music and has premiered concertos by Auerbach and Laderman and the chamber music repertoire by Harbison, Bruce, and Sheng. Aznavoorian records for Cedille Records and she proudly performs on a cello made by her father Peter Aznavoorian in Chicago.
https://www.aniaznavoorian.com/About Adam Neiman, piano
Hailed as one of today's preeminent American classical pianists, Adam Neiman has cultivated a breathtaking career spanning more than three decades and traversing four continents. Possessed of an encyclopedic repertoire, Mr. Neiman has been acclaimed as a thought-provoking, charismatic, and highly virtuosic performer.
Mr. Neiman has performed as soloist with numerous major orchestras, including those of Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, and Slovenia, as well as the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C. His recitals have spanned many of the great concert halls and festivals across the globe.
Mr. Neiman is an accomplished composer, with a catalogue of compositions that includes two symphonies, two piano concertos, a string quartet, and various solo and chamber works. Recent commissions include his Piano Concerto No. 2, Piano Trio No. 2 for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano, and his String Quartet.
Mr. Neiman is a tenured Associate Professor of Piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he also serves as Chair of the Music Conservatory. From 2016–2022, he served as Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont, and he is CEO of Aeolian Classics, LLC.
http://www.adamneiman.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.comAbout Njioma Grevious, violin
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/Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
200 University St.Seattle, WA 98101
United States