Curtis on Tour: Cello Quintet

Cellist playing instrument

In February 2022, Curtis on Tour offered a program of cello quintets. The brilliant Quintet in C major, D. 956, written by Franz Schubert for two violins, viola, and two cellos, is one of the finest and most compelling works in the chamber music repertoire. Schubert’s masterpiece was be paired with a new companion piece, co-commissioned by Curtis for this tour, by composition faculty Richard Danielpour. The ensemble was led by faculty members and renowned chamber musicians Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley, both former members of the internationally-acclaimed Beaux Arts Trio.

Artists

  • Ida Kavafian, violin

    Internationally acclaimed as a violist as well as a violinist, the versatile Ida Kavafian is an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and former violinist of the Beaux Arts Trio. For 34 years she has been artistic director of Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico, where some 200 Curtis students have participated in the Young Artist Program to date. She was a founder of the Bravo! Colorado festival, serving as its artistic director for ten years; and co-founded the chamber ensembles Opus One, Tashi, and Trio Valtorna. She also performs as a soloist and in recital with her sister, violinist Ani Kavafian.

    Ms. Kavafian has premiered numerous works, including concertos by Toru Takemitsu and Michael Daugherty, whose Fire and Blood she recorded with the Detroit Symphony. She has toured and recorded with jazz artists Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis, and with fiddler/composer Mark O’Connor.

    Born in Istanbul of Armenian parentage, Ms. Kavafian is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with Oscar Shumsky. She made her debut through Young Concert Artists with the pianist Peter Serkin, and also received the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. She resides with her husband, violist Steven Tenenbom, in Philadelphia and Connecticut, where they breed and train prizewinning Hungarian vizsla show dogs.

    Since 1998 Ms. Kavafian has served on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she received the 2013 Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. She also teaches at the Juilliard School and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

  • Lun Li ('20), violin

    Lun Li, a native of Shanghai, China, is an in-demand recitalist and chamber musician in both Asia and the United States. A winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied under the tutelage of renowned violinist and violist Ida Kavafian. While at Curtis, Mr. Li was the Jean J. Sterne Fellow. In 2012, as a result of winning second prize at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music’s second Haydn Chamber Music Competition, his quartet was invited to perform at the Helsinki Music Centre Festival.

    He has participated in masterclasses with Arnold Steinhardt, Midori Goto and Pierre Amoyal. In 2017, he served as the concertmaster of the Pacific Festival Orchestra under the conductor Valery Gergiev. His festival appearances include Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, and the Verbier Festival Academy. Mr. Li is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Juilliard School with Catherine Cho and Joseph Lin.

  • Cara Pogossian ('21), viola

    Armenian-American violist Cara Pogossian is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree under the tutelage of Hsin-Yun Huang and Misha Amory. She served as co-principal viola of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra during the 2019–20 season, which included a U.S. tour in early 2020. Prior to her studies at Curtis, Ms. Pogossian attended the Colburn Music Academy, where she studied with Paul Coletti and Che-Yen (Brian) Chen. As an Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Scholarship recipient, she has performed at several high-profile concerts, including a joint recital with her brother, Edvard, at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Pogossian is an alumna of NPR’s “From the Top” radio show, and her quartet was the Junior Bronze Medal winner of the 2017 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition. An avid chamber musician, she has attended numerous summer festivals, including the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Taos School of Music, Perlman Music Program, and Yellow Barn Young Artists Program. Committed to musical outreach, Ms. Pogossian has frequently performed at schools, retirement centers, and hospitals in the greater Los Angeles and Philadelphia areas, and is also an organizer of several Music for Food performances, raising funds for local food banks.

    Ms. Pogossian is lucky enough to have an entire family of musicians, with whom she frequently performs. During the pandemic, the Pogossian/Manouelian Clarinet Quintet collaborated with composers Timo Andres, Ian Krouse, Artashes Kartalyan, and Aida Shirazi, premiering each of their works in a series of online concerts. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian.

  • Peter Wiley (’74), cello

    Peter Wiley, a 1974 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, has played at leading festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, for which he also tours and records. As a recitalist he has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. A member of the Beaux Arts Trio from 1987 to 1998, Mr. Wiley also succeeded his teacher, David Soyer, as cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet from 2001 to 2009. He is a member of the piano quartet Opus One, with Curtis faculty members Ida Kavafian and Steven Tenenbom and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott.

    Mr. Wiley entered Curtis at age thirteen. At twenty he was named principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony, after one year with the Pittsburgh Symphony. He made his concerto debut at Carnegie Hall in 1986 with the New York String Orchestra conducted by Alexander Schneider.

    A past recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Wiley joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1996. He also teaches at the University of Maryland and Bard College Conservatory of Music.

  • Francis Carr ('21), cello

    Born into a family of string players, Francis Carr, from Oxford, England, started playing the cello at age four. Early career highlights include a radio broadcast in the Netherlands, concerto appearances with the Oxfordshire Youth Orchestra and the Abingdon Symphony Orchestra, and chamber and solo appearances in Munich, Warsaw, Montpellier, New York, and throughout the United Kingdom.

    Mr. Carr has given recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Milton Court in Surrey, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Brussels Bozar, and Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw. He has attended the Greenwood Music Camp, Four Seasons Winter Workshop, and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival. Additional festival appearances throughout the United States and Europe have included Loon Lake Live Summer Concert Series, Stichting Kamermuziek Amsterdam, Young Pianists Foundation Piano Concours Amsterdam, Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy, and Music from Angel Fire.

    Mr. Carr has studied with Melissa Phelps, Thomas Carroll, Darrett Adkins, Carter Brey, Peter Wiley, and his father, the cellist Colin Carr. He has worked closely with Johannes Goritzki, Joel Krosnick, Gary Hoffman, and the Chiara, Emerson, and Juilliard string quartets and has attended the Juilliard and Yehudi Menuhin Schools and the Curtis Institute of Music. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, kayaking, reading, and bird watching.

Dates

CANCELLED: Santa Rosa, Calif.*
Thursday, February 10 at 1:30 p.m.
Berger Center
Presented by Music at Oakmont


CANCELLED: Burlingame, Calif.*
Sunday, February 13 at 7 p.m.
Kohl Mansion
Presented by Music at Kohl Mansion


Buffalo, N.Y.
Tuesday, February 15 at 8 p.m.
Kleinhans Music Hall
Presented by Buffalo Chamber Music Society


New York, N.Y.
Friday, February 18 at 7:30 p.m.
92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall
Presented by 92nd Street Y as part of Curtis at 92Y


CANCELLED: Brevard, N.C.*
Tuesday, February 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Brevard Music Center, Parker Concert Hall
Presented by Brevard Music Center

 

Philadelphia
Friday, February 25 at 8 p.m.
Field Concert Hall
Presented by Curtis Institute of Music

*Out of an abundance of caution and following local restrictions on gatherings for some tour venues, Curtis on Tour cancelled the West Coast and North Carolina portions of its cello quintet tour.

Program

RICHARD DANIELPOUR        String Quintet (“A Shattered Vessel”)
FRANZ SCHUBERT Quintet in C major, D. 956

About String Quintet (“A Shattered Vessel”)

String Quintet (“A Shattered Vessel”) was co-commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music for this tour, along with Music from Angel Fire (lead commissioner), Chamber Music Monterey Bay, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and Linton Chamber Music.

From the composer:

This String Quintet, scored for two violins, viola, and two cellos, was completed on December 31, 2018. The subtitle “A Shattered Vessel,” refers to a great mystery of life, that in order for something of value to live, something else must often die. In this way death can be understood not only as a part of life, but also as a part of nature. The work is also about healing. The first movement subtitled “Things Fall Apart,” depicts a crisis and a struggle. The second movement, “Harvest of Sorrows,” reflects the natural mourning process that occurs after a crisis and a loss. The third movement, “The Healing Fields,” is a dance of renewal and regained strength. The fourth and final movement, “Homeward,” is a hymn of thanks and gratitude for the very gift of life with both its joys and its sorrows. This work is dedicated to Ida Kavafian.

—Richard Danielpour

Media

The Dover Quartet and Brook Speltz, performing under the auspices of Curtis on Tour, recorded this program for a virtual concert presented by Chamber Music Monterey Bay in November 2020. View excerpts below.

View selections from previous touring ensembles

 

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