CMNW Opening Night: Beethoven, Brahms, & Bunch!
$35-$67.50 ($20 ages 19-40, $10 ages 18 & under)
- Alessio Bax, piano
- Nina Bernat, double bass
- Kenji Bunch, viola
- Nicholas Cords, viola
- Jeff Garza, French horn
- Alexander Hersh, cello
- Soovin Kim, violin
- Jessica Lee, violin
- Amelia Lukas, flute
- Carin Miller Packwood, bassoon
- Paul Neubauer, viola
- Monica Ohuchi, piano
- Ian David Rosenbaum, percussion
- Frank Rosenwein, oboe
- David Shifrin, clarinet
- Peter Stumpf, cello
Kenji Bunch — Ralph's Old Records
Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36 (arr. Jopfen Music for chamber ensemble)
Opening Night of CMNW's 54th Summer Festival will be a not-to-be missed event celebrating Beethoven's influence on the last two centuries of chamber music! Our first concert of the summer features many of our favorite CMNW artists, including violist Paul Neubauer and renowned pianist Alessio Bax performing an exquisite Brahms Viola Sonata. We will "replay" the delightful Ralph's Old Records by Portland's own Kenji Bunch. A new arrangement for chamber ensemble of Beethoven's stunning Second Symphony will conclude the evening. A truly epic start to the summer!
Two performances:
- Thursday, June 27, 7:30pm at Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
- Saturday, June 29, 8pm at Kaul Auditorium at Reed College
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.
https://cmnw.org/About Alessio Bax, piano
About Nina Bernat, double bass
Nina Bernat is emerging as one of the world's foremost exponents of the double bass as solo instrument and is the recipient of the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the 2023 CAG Elmaleh Competition. She enjoys a versatile career as an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and Music@Menlo, and currently serves as the double bass faculty at Stony Brook University.
The daughter of Korean and Polish parents, Ms. Bernat began her studies with her father, double bassist Mark Bernat, and performs on a rare and sonorous early-18th century bass, handed down from him and attributed to Guadagnini.
https://www.ninabernat.com/About Kenji Bunch, viola
About Nicholas Cords, viola
About Jeff Garza, French horn
About Alexander Hersh, cello
About Soovin Kim, violin
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.
https://cmnw.org/artists/artists/soovin-kim/28/About Jessica Lee, violin
https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/discover/meet-the-musicians/first-violins/lee-jessica/
About Amelia Lukas, flute
About Paul Neubauer, viola
Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing led The New York Times to call him "a master musician." Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras globally.
http://www.paulneubauer.com/About Monica Ohuchi, piano
About Ian David Rosenbaum, percussion
About Frank Rosenwein, oboe
https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/discover/meet-the-musicians/oboes/rosenwein-frank/
About David Shifrin, clarinet
An artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1989, Mr. Shifrin served as its Artistic Director from 1992 to 2004. He has toured extensively throughout the United States with CMSLC and hosted and performed in several national television broadcasts on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center. He also served as Artistic Director of Portland's Chamber Music Northwest from 1981 through 2020 and is currently Artistic Director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Festival.
http://www.davidshifrin.com/