Artistic Director Kristin Lee writes, ”As we close our season at ECM, I wanted to mark the significance of not only celebrating our seventh season of Emerald City Music, but also what this number meant back in 2020. When I was stranded in New York City during the height of COVID in that year, I – along with many New Yorkers – was able to get through these times, looking forward to dusk every day. What felt like a deserted and a silent city other than the sounds of the sirens during the day changed at seven o’clock each evening… With sounds of clapping, cheering, music, the clinking of kitchen items, and all sorts of joyous noise filled the city to thank the frontline workers and also encourage the neighbors around us. It was one of the most uplifting things from the pandemic. It was really what kept us all going every day for a whole year! Andrea Casarrubios commemorates this shared experience with her piece and the program finishes with one of the most celebratory pieces ever written for chamber music- Beethoven’s Septet.
Hailed by The New York Times for her "inexhaustible virtuosity", clarinetist Yoonah Kim is rapidly earning recognition as a young artist of uncommon musical depth and versatility. Yoonah is a winner of the 2016 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. The first solo clarinetist to win CAG in nearly 30 years, this Korean-Canadian artist joins the ranks of prominent solo clarinetists discovered by CAG, including David Shifrin, Michael Collins, and David Krakauer.
Yoonah tours regularly with the ensembles FOUNDERS and Frisson, and has appeared at chamber music festivals, including the Marlboro Music Festival, Mainly Mozart Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, California’s Festival Napa Valley, Maine’s Bay Chamber Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Sarasota Music Festival, and The Banff Centre Music Festival and the Thessaloniki Festival in Greece.
In addition to her appearances on stage, Yoonah is also committed to teaching. With a fellow colleague from Ensemble Connect, Yoonah co-founded Chime for Children, an initiative to bring joy and inspiration through interactive performances to children with limited exposure and access to music. Born in Seoul and raised in British Columbia, Yoonah is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at The Juilliard School as the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow.
Called “superb” by the Washington Post and “stunningly virtuosic” by the New York Times, Peter Kolkay is the only bassoonist to receive an Avery Fisher Career Grant and to win first prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. A season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has given recent chamber music performances at Music@Menlo and Bridgehampton summer festivals, and appeared on the Emerald City, Camerata Pacifica, and String Theory series. He actively engages with composers in the creation of new works for the bassoon and has premiered solo works by Joan Tower, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Tania León, among others.
His 2021-22 season included a performance and recording of the Christopher Rouse Bassoon Concerto with the Albany Symphony, and the premiere of a new work for bassoon and piano by Reinaldo Moya. He is a member of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee, and has also served as guest principal bassoon of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, he is Associate Professor at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and has given master classes throughout the United States and Mexico.
Eric Reed is an internationally recognized horn player, chamber musician, and educator. Based in New York City, Reed has performed and presented master classes on five continents in a variety of ensembles and musical styles. He is a member of the American Brass Quintet (ABQ) and serves on the horn and chamber music faculties at Juilliard, where the ABQ is in residence.
In addition to his work with the ABQ, Reed performs regularly with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Reed is a former member of the Canadian Brass and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. He has also been a member of the Oregon, New World, and Harrisburg Symphonies. Reed is a member of the Ensemble Échappé, a sinfonietta dedicated to 21st-century music. He has given premiere performances of music by composers John Zorn, Eric Ewazen, William Bolcom, Wolfgang Rihm, Robert Paterson, Timo Andres, Kenneth Fuchs, and Eric Nathan.
Reed spends his summers teaching and performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Round Top Festival Institute, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival and the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Reed resides in the Bronx with his wife, violinist Sarah Zun, and their son, Oliver.
A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and educator. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”
Lee has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Tacoma Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Nordic Chamber Orchestra of Sweden, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic and many others. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Steinway Hall’s Salon de Virtuosi, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Ravinia Festival, Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live, (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. An accomplished chamber musician, Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at Lincoln Center in New York and on tour with CMS throughout each season, as well as a member of Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, sitting as the Bernard Gondos Chair.
Recent and upcoming highlights include concerts presented by the San Francisco Symphony with Itzhak Perlman, Amarillo Symphony, Chamber Music Sedona, a tour with the Silk Road Ensemble, Music@Menlo, Parlance Chamber Concerts, Moab Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, Town Hall Seattle, Lyra Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival, North Carolina New Music Initiative and the Leicester International Music Festival, as well as performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Camerata Pacifica.
Lee’s many honors include awards from the 2015 Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, 2011 Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation. She is also the unprecedented First Prize winner of three concerto competitions at the Juilliard School: in the Pre-College Division in 1997 and 1999, and in the College Division in 2007.
Born in Seoul, Lee began studying the violin at the age of five, and within one year won First Prize at the prestigious Korea Times Violin Competition. In 1995, she moved to the United States and continued her musical studies under Sonja Foster. Two years later, she became a student of Catherine Cho and Dorothy DeLay in the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. In January 2000, she was chosen to study with Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Emerald City Music in Seattle.
Violist Dana Kelley, praised for her rich and beautiful tone, has been a top prizewinner in the Sphinx Music Competition and the Irving M. Klein International String Competition. She is a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and a former member the Argus Quartet, named the First Prize Winners of both of the 2017 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the 2017 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, and were recipients of the 2018 Classical Recording Foundation Award and the 2018 Salon de Virtuosi Award.
Dana has collaborated with artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Nobuko Imai and Miriam Fried, pianists Leon Fleisher, Anne-Marie MacDermott and Misha Dichter, and Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet. She participated in Ravinia’s Steans Musicians on Tour and frequently performs with The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, A Far Cry, and The Knights chamber orchestras. She has attended festivals such as Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Lucerne Academy, the International Summer Academy of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Schiermonnikoog International Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Thomas Mesa, Cuban-American cellist, has established himself as one of the most charismatic, innovative, and engaging performers of his generation. He was the winner of the $50,000 First Prize in the 2016 Sphinx Competition and the Astral Artists 2017 National Auditions. He has appeared as soloist at the Supreme Court of the United States on three occasions and with major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons include curating and performing chamber music programs with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, soloist with Sphinx Virtuosi touring at major venues across the U.S. with Jessie Montgomery’s Divided for solo cello and orchestra, almost 100 recitals, a residency at Colburn Conservatory, and many new commissions, premieres, and recording proejcts. Venues will include places such as Carnegie Hall, the MET Museum, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, The Supreme Court of the United States, Colburn School of Music, Kohler Foundation, and many more.
Winning first and grand prizes in the Florida Orchestra Young Artists’ Competition, Jennifer’s professional musical career began at age 15. She has performed in the Aspen Music Festival, Verbier Festival with the Curtis Orchestra, Grand Tetons, Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. She has substituted with the Pittsburgh Symphony since 2010 on European tours and at Heinz Hall. Prior to bass performance, she competed in golf ranking second in Florida in her category. After receiving the International Baccalaureate Diploma, Jennifer studied at Rice University with Paul Ellison and the Curtis Institute with Hal Robinson.
