Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: 5 things to know about touring ensemble's Vancouver concert
The New York City quartet features pianists Wu Han and Wu Qian, violinist Bella Hristova, and cellist Dmitri Atapine
Wu Han.
Friends of Chamber Music presents Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on March 26 at 3 pm at Vancouver Playhouse
THE CHAMBER MUSIC Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is a mighty organization: led by co-artistic directors Wu Han and David Finckel, it is one of 11 constituents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. With an evolving roster of leading artists, it’s touring widely across North America this spring, with an upcoming stop in Vancouver featuring Han (piano), pianist Wu Qian, violinist Bella Hristova, and cellist Dmitri Atapine. Here's all you need to know about the Friends of Chamber Music presentation.
The quartet will perform CMS’s Delight & Drama program, which showcases works by Johannes Brahms and Anton Arensky.
On the program are Arensky’s Six Children's Pieces for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 34 and Trio No. 1 in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 32, both from 1894; and, by Brahms, Selected “Hungarian Dances” for Piano, Four Hands (1868, 1880) and Trio in C major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 87 (1880 to 82).
“Quintessential Russian and Viennese styles abound in this pairing of composers deeply embedded in their singular cultures,” CMS notes. “The Slavic melancholy of Arensky gives way to the exuberant flair of Brahms as we juxtapose works in both popular and formal idioms: Arensky’s miniatures for children and Brahms’s Hungarian Dances show the composers at their crowd-pleasing best, while their two piano trios reveal the depth and mastery that earned each legendary status and lasting appeal.”
Wu Han (pictured at top), recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award, is one of the world’s most influential classical artists. Not only is she co-artistic director of CMS (with her cellist husband), she holds the same role with Silicon Valley’s chamber music festival Music@Menlo, which she founded; Artistic advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, she’s also artistic director for La Musica in Sarasota, Florida. Oh, and she’s the founder and AD of ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, Internet-based recording label. She has performed virtually the entire chamber repertoire countless times across North America, Asia, and Europe. In between touring and residencies, she splits her time between New York’s NYC and Westchester County.
Wu Qian. Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Winner of a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award as well as classical music’s bright young star award for 2007 by The Independent, pianist Wu Qian has performed as a soloist everywhere from Wigmore Hall to the Kennedy Center and with Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchester, the Brussels Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, European Union Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Symphoniker, to name just a few. She is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio.
Bella Hristova. Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Violinist Bella Hristova earned a 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prizes in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and Michael Hill International Violin Competition. She recently performed 10 different works as soloist with orchestra, from Mozart to Sibelius to Bartók, as well as concertos by Florence Price (with the Knoxville Symphony) and David Ludwig (Hawaii Symphony and Symphony Tacoma). Her recording Bella Unaccompanied (A.W. Tonegold Records) features works for solo violin by Corigliano, Kevin Puts, Piazzolla, Milstein, and Bach.
Dmitri Atapine.
Dmitri Atapine, who has been described as a cellist with “brilliant technical chops” (Gramophone), is a regular at chamber-music festivals such as Music@Menlo, La Musica Sarasota, and Aix-en-Provence. His recordings include a critically acclaimed world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s complete works for cello and piano. With a doctorate from the Yale School of Music, Atapine is a professor of cello at the University of Nevada, Reno; the artistic director of Apex Concerts and the Ribadesella Chamber Music Festival; and artistic co-director of the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City.
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