Image Credit: Juergen Frank

Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle at Bard Announces 64th Concert Season for June 2014

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle (HVCMC) series at Bard College presents three chamber music concerts in June. The Saturday evening concerts, presented by The Bard Center, begin at 7 p.m. in Olin Hall. A subscription to the three-concert series is $70. Individual tickets are $30; for students, $5. For ticket information, call 845-339-7907 or send an e-mail to [email protected]. Additional information can be found at hvcmc.org.

Saturday, June 7
Concert 1: Menahem Pressler, piano; Jaime Laredo, violin; Michael Tree, viola; and Sharon Robinson, cello

Franz Schubert, Sonata for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op. Post. 137, No. 1 (D384)

Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Op. 5, No. 2

Antonin Dvořák, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87 

Saturday, June 14

Concert 2: The Dover Quartet

Franz Joseph Haydn, Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No. 1

Viktor Ullmann, String Quartet No. 3, Op. 46

Ludwig van Beethoven, Quartet in F Major, Op. 135

Saturday, June 28

Concert 3: Jennifer Koh, violin, and Benjamin Hochman, piano

Johannes Brahms:

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78

Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108

The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle was started in 1950 when Helen Huntington Hull joined with two Staatsburg friends – Mrs. Lydig Hoyt and Mrs. Jonas Borak – and enlisted the help of Emil Hauser (then a Bard faculty member and former first violinist of the Budapest Quartet) to bring the best classical musicians of the time to the Hudson Valley to play for appreciative neighbors. The annual summer concert series has been associated with Bard College since 1979. Season tickets are reserved for members of the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle who subscribe in advance to the series. We invite you to join the Circle early next year when a subscription letter is sent out. Subscribers may use their season tickets to attend any of the three concerts in the series by calling in advance. For further information, call 845-339-7907 or send an e-mail to [email protected], or go to hvcmc.org.

About the Artists:

Concert 1, Saturday, June 7

Menahem Pressler, founding member and pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio, has established himself among the world’s most distinguished and honored musicians, with a career that spans almost six decades. Now, at 89 years old, he continues to captivate audiences throughout the world as performer and pedagogue, performing solo and chamber music recitals to great critical acclaim while maintaining a dedicated and robust teaching career. For nearly 60 years, Pressler has taught on the piano faculty at the world-renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he currently holds the Charles Webb Chair as Distinguished Professor of Music.  Among his numerous honors and awards, Pressler has received honorary doctorates from the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Nebraska, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the North Carolina School of the Arts; six Grammy nominations (including one in 2006); lifetime achievement awards from Gramophone magazine and the International Chamber Music Association, Chamber Music America’s Distinguished Service Award; and the Gold Medal of Merit from the National Society of Arts and Letters.

As a founding member of the Guarneri String Quartet, violist Michael Tree has performed at virtually every concert series throughout the world and has been awarded the New York City Seal of Recognition. He has recorded more than 80 chamber music works for the Columbia, RCA, Philips, Arabesque, Nonesuch, and Vanguard labels. Tree has also participated in leading festivals, including Casals, Spoleto, Marlboro, Israel, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, and Aspen. He is on the faculties of the University of Maryland, Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard School, and Bard College Conservatory of Music. Tree joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1968.

Winner of the Avery Fisher Recital Award, the Piatigorsky Memorial Award, the Pro Musicis Award, and a Grammy nominee, cellist Sharon Robinson is recognized worldwide as a dynamic artist and one of the most outstanding musicians of our time.  Whether as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, or a member of the renowned Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, critics, audiences, and fellow musicians worldwide respond to what the New York Times called “an artistic personality that vitalizes everything she plays.” Her guest appearances with orchestra include the National Symphony; the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Boston, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco Symphonies; and in Europe, the London Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Zürich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, and the English, Scottish, and Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestras. Appointed to the renowned cello faculty of Indiana University School of Music in 2005, Robinson divides her time between teaching, solo engagements, performing with her husband, violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo, and touring with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. 

Through concerts in 30- plus countries on five continents, and in more than 40 recordings, Jaime Laredo has won the hearts of millions with performances of style and passion. From coast to coast his artistry has earned him the reputation not only as one of the world’s premiere violin virtuosi and as a conductor “a consummate collaborative musician” (New York Times, 2013). In all that he does, he is a performer of depth and versatility.

Concert 2, Saturday, June 14

Considered one of the most remarkably talented string quartets ever to emerge at such a young age, the Dover Quartet swept the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, winning the Grand Prize as well as all three Special Prizes: the R.S. Williams & Sons Haydn Prize for the best performance of Haydn, the Székely Prize for the best performance of Schubert, and the Canadian Commission Prize for the best performance of a newly commissioned work. In addition, the Quartet has been named the first quartet-in-residence at the venerated Curtis Institute of Music and the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-In-Residence at the Caramoor Festival for the 2013-14 season. The Grand Prize winner of the 2010 Fischoff Competition, the Dover formed at Curtis in 2008, when its members were just 19 years old. The Quartet draws from the musical lineage of both the Vermeer and Guarneri Quartets, but brings a youthful enthusiasm and musical conviction to the repertoire that is truly its own. The Strad recently raved that the Quartet is “already pulling away from their peers with their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement and taut ensemble.”

The Dover Quartet won prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, and has taken part in Chamber Music Northwest, Artosphere, La Jolla SummerFest, and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. Recent performances include those for such influential series as the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Peoples’ Symphony, Schneider Concerts, Kneisel Hall, and the Houston Friends of Chamber Music. The Quartet continued its close collaboration with violist Roberto Díaz on an extensive European tour in spring 2013, which included performances throughout Germany, Austria, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The summer of 2013 featured performances at the Bard Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Highlights of the 2013–14 season include a number of performances at the Curtis Institute of Music and Caramoor Festival, as well as a debut at the Heidelberg Festival in Germany.

Members of the Quartet have appeared as soloists with some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic. The group’s recording of the Mendelssohn and Debussy quartets received high praise: “The maturity in these interpretations is phenomenal and disproportionate to the age [of the group].” For more information go see www.doverquartet.com/.

The ensemble has studied with such renowned chamber musicians as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Arnold Steinhardt, Joseph Silverstein, and Peter Wiley, and was the Quartet-in-Residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music until May 2013. In addition, the Quartet is an active member of Music for Food, an initiative by musicians to help fight hunger in their home communities.

Concert 3, Saturday, June 28

Violinist Jennifer Koh is known for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. She performs repertoire of all eras from traditional to contemporary, both in recital and with leading orchestras worldwide. She has curated projects including “Bach and Beyond,” a recital series that explores the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach to works by modern-day composers and new commissions; and “Two x Four,” a double concerti program that celebrates the teacher/student relationship. She performed the solo violin role of Einstein in Glass’s Einstein on the Beach and she often plays Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas in a single marathon concert. She recently launched a video series on YouTube called “Off Stage On Record,” which chronicles the life of a performing violinist. For more information, go see jenniferkoh.com/.

Winner of 2011’s prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, pianist Benjamin Hochman has been described by the New York Times as a “gifted, fast-rising artist.” His eloquent and virtuosic performances have earned him critical acclaim and his rare combination of bravura and poetry has excited audiences and critics alike. His engagements have brought him to prestigious concert halls in major cities as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber music collaborator with celebrated conductors and colleagues. A passionate interpreter of diverse composers from Bach and Mozart to Berg and Kurtag with a penchant for juxtaposing familiar works with the unfamiliar, Hochman has proven to be adept in expressing the essential heart of each composer. He records for Avie Records and is currently on the piano faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College. Hochman is a Steinway Artist and lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Jennifer Koh. For more information, go see benjaminhochman.com.

For further information, call 845-339-7907 or send an e-mail to [email protected], or go to hvcmc.org.

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May 15, 2014

This event was last updated on 05-16-2014

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