Emerald City Music presents the iconic Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for a limited time on ETV. About the performance: The United States has been greatly enriched by the influences of its many distinguished visitors, including artists who came to perform, create, teach, or simply to be inspired by this country’s natural beauty and welcoming spirit. In a program celebrating America’s imported musical diversity, we will enjoy the sublime music of Dvořák twice, once through his “American” voice in the Sonatina, composed in Spillville, Iowa, and through his quintessentially Czech mode with his iconic Piano Quintet. In between, the stage is shared by the Belgians and English, as we hear the touching “Child’s Dream” by Eugène Ysaÿe, who led the Cincinnati Symphony from 1918-22, and the stunning Piano Quintet by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who as an Afro-British composer felt a kinship to the Black American folk song tradition, incorporating those tunes into a tapestry of rich orchestration. This experience and admiration was mutual and multiple chapters of the Coleridge-Taylor society were established in the early 1900s by American audiences to promote his music.
The recipient of a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, American violinist Stella Chen is the winner of the International Queen Elisabeth Grand Prize - Queen Mathilde Prize in the 2019 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition. Stella has been lauded for her “phenomenal maturity” and “fresh and spontaneous, yet emotionally profound and intellectually well-structured performance” (The Jerusalem Post).
In the past season alone, Stella made her debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Chicago Symphony. Upcoming projects include the U.S. premiere of Jorg Widmann's Concerto No. 2, conducted by the composer. Other recent engagements include appearances with the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonia, and Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.
Stella is also the first recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, the top prize winner of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition and youngest ever prize winner of the Menuhin Competition. Stella has collaborated with such notable artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Levin, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Matthew Lipman, and the Silk Road Ensemble.
Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura, and profound musicianship. Minnesota’s Pioneer Press writes, “Sussmann has an old-school sound reminiscent of what you'll hear on vintage recordings by Jascha Heifetz or Fritz Kreisler, a rare combination of sweet and smooth that can hypnotize a listener.”
A thrilling musician capturing the attention of classical critics and audiences around the world, he has recently appeared as a soloist with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the Vancouver Symphony, and the New World Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel, London’s Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the White Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg, the Dresden Music Festival in Germany, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. He has also given concerts at the OK Mozart, Moritzburg, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, Seattle Chamber Music, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Moab Music festivals.
Mr. Sussmann has performed with many of today’s leading artists including Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Gary Hoffman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Wu Han, David Finckel and Jan Vogler.
Violist Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician. Mr. Neubauer exults in his instrument’s dark, rich, sumptuous tone.”
He recently made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti as well as his Mariinsky Orchestra debut at the White Nights Festival. He also gave the U.S. Premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han.
Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki, Picker, Suter, and Tower and has been featured on CBS's Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time GRAMMY nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical. Mr. Neubauer is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.
Hailed by The New Yorker as a “superb young soloist,” Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, captivating audiences throughout the United States and abroad. In The New York Times his playing was praised as "impassioned ... the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis's rich, alluring tone."
Canellakis's recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Virginia Albany, Stamford, Delaware, Lansing, and Bangor Symphonies, the Erie Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, and the New Haven Symphony as Artist-in-Residence; Europe and Asia tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, including appearances in London's Wigmore Hall, the Louvre in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center, and the Shanghai and Taipei National Concert Halls; and recitals throughout the United States with his long-time duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown. In addition, he was recently named Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona, in Arizona.
Filmmaking and acting are special interests of Mr. Canellakis. He has produced, directed, and starred in several short films and music videos, including his popular comedy web series "Conversations with Nick Canellakis.” His latest film, “Thin Walls,” has been nominated for awards at many prominent film festivals.
Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott is a consummate artist who balances a versatile career as a soloist and collaborator. She performs over 100 concerts a year in a combination of solo recitals, concerti and chamber music. Her repertoire choices are eclectic, spanning from Bach and Haydn to Prokofiev and Scriabin to Kernis, Hartke, Tower, and Wuorinen.
In addition to her many achievements, Anne-Marie McDermott has been named the Artistic Director of the famed Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado, which hosts the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony in addition to presenting over 40 chamber music concerts throughout the summer. She is also Artistic Director of two new Festivals; The Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival and The Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curacao.
As a chamber music performer, Anne-Marie McDermott was named an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995 and performs and tours extensively with CMS each season. Ms. McDermott is also a member of the renowned piano quartet, Opus One, with colleagues Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom and Peter Wiley. She continues to perform each season with her sisters, Maureen and Kerry in the McDermott Trio.
