Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
October 16, 2021 – 8:00pm
Sleepy Hollow High School Auditorium, Sleepy Hollow, NY
Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Stella Chen, violin; Matthew Lipman, viola; Sihao He, cello; Anthony Manzo, bass; Bixby Kennedy, clarinet; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; and Dan Wions, french horn.
Program
Chacony in G minor. Purcell (1659 – 1695); arr. Benjamin Britten (1948, rev. 1963)
Octet, Op. 4 (1933). Howard Ferguson, (1908 – 1999)
INTERMISSION
Octet in F, for clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello, and bass, Op. 166, D. 803 (1824) Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828)
View Program Notes in PDF format
About the Musicians
Praised for her “phenomenal maturity” and “fresh and spontaneous, yet emotionally profound and intellectually well-structured performance” (Jerusalem Post), American violinist Stella Chen garnered worldwide attention with her first-prize win at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition, followed by the 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. After debuts with the Chicago Symphony and Chamber Orchestra of Europe in summer 2021, her auspicious 2021-22 season sees her recital debut at Carnegie Hall and recital, concerto, and chamber music appearances throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America, including debuts with Kremerata Baltica, German State Philharmonic, and New Japan Philharmonic. She also appears with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both in New York and on tour as a member of CMS’s Bowers Program. Her most recent engagements include appearances with the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ravinia, and Kronberg Academy Festivals. She has appeared as a chamber musician in festivals including the Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, the Sarasota Festival, and Yellow Barn. She is 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.
A member of the New York Woodwind Quintet and St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Marc Goldberg is principal bassoonist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, NYC Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Riverside Symphony, and a member of the American Symphony Orchestra. Previously the associate principal bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, he has also been a frequent guest of the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, touring with these ensembles across four continents and joining them on numerous recordings. Solo appearances include performances throughout the US, in South America, and across the Pacific Rim with the Brandenburg Ensemble, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Saito Kinen Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Riverside Symphony, Jupiter Symphony, New York Chamber Soloists, and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. He has been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Camera Society of Houston, Musicians from Marlboro, Music@Menlo, the Brentano Quartet, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. Summer festival appearances include Spoleto, Ravinia, Chautauqua, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Saito Kinen/Ozawa Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, and Marlboro. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Mannes College, New England Conservatory, The Hartt School, Bard College Conservatory of Music, Columbia University, and NYU.
Sihao He first came into international prominence in 2008 as a 14-year old cellist winning first prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Croatia. Later that same year, he won the National Cello Competition in his native China. He is also the Grand Prize winner of the prestigious 3rd Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in Japan and third prize recipient at the 2019 ARD International Competition in Munich, Germany. As a soloist, he has performed with many leading orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Münchener Kammer orchester, Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, and Orquestra the Sinfônica de Piracicaba in Brazil. In the US, important performances took place before audiences at the Metropolitan Museum, the U.S Supreme Court Historical Society in Washington, DC, and a recital at the Myra Hess Concert series in Chicago. As a chamber musician, he appeared at the Shanghai Electronic Music Week, in the US at Music@Menlo, and in Europe at the Rome Festival. He has performed with the Joseph Silverstein, Pinchas Zukerman, Donald Weilerstein, and the Calidore Quartet. Before coming to the US his string Quartet, Simply Quartet, won first prize at the Haydn Invitational Chamber Music Competition in Shanghai, and was awarded “The Most Promising Young String Quartet” at the 4th Beijing International Chamber Music Competition. He is a member of CMS’s Bowers Program.
Admired for his “suppleness and beauty of tone” (Allan Kozinn, New York Times), Bixby Kennedy is one of the most versatile clarinetists of his generation. He has performed concertos with the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and New Haven Symphony Orchestras. As a chamber musician, he has performed throughout the US and Europe in venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Marlboro Music Festival, and is the clarinetist for the “explosive” New York City based chamber ensemble Frisson. As an orchestral musician, he currently holds titles as the Associate Principal Clarinetist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Associate Principal in the Albany Symphony, and the Principal Clarinetist of Symphony in C. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has held teaching appointments at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Vanderbilt University, and Tennessee State University. On period instruments, he performs classical repertoire on original and replica instruments throughout the US. He is a former member of Ensemble Connect and works as a teaching artist throughout the US. He loves traveling, trying new foods, laughing, hiking, and playing tennis.
Violinist Cho-Liang Lin is lauded the world over for the eloquence of his playing and for superb musicianship. In a concert career spanning the globe for more than 30 years, he is equally at home with orchestra, in recital, playing chamber music, and in the teaching studio. Performing on several continents, he has appeared with the orchestras of New York, Detroit, Toronto, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, San Diego, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; in Europe with the orchestras of Bergen, Stockholm, Munich, and the English Chamber Orchestra; and in Asia with the orchestras of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. An advocate of contemporary music, he has collaborated with and premiered works by Tan Dun, Joel Hoffman, John Harbison, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lalo Schifrin, Paul Schoenfield, Bright Sheng, and Joan Tower. Also an avid chamber musician, he has made recurring appearances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. As music director of La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest from 2001 to 2018, Lin helped develop the festival from one that focused on chamber music into a multidisciplinary festival featuring dance, jazz, and a new music program. He also serves as artistic director of the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival. In 2000 Musical America named him its Instrumentalist of the Year. He is currently a professor at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He plays the 1715 “Titian” Stradivarius.
American violist Matthew Lipman has been praised by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing.” He has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Minnesota Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and the Juilliard Orchestra, and has been a featured soloist at the Aspen Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, Wigmore Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Strad praised his “most impressive” 2019 Cedille Records debut album Ascent, which included world premiere recordings of Shostakovich and Clarice Assad, and his recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and Sir Neville Marriner on the Avie label topped the Billboard Classical Charts. A former artist-in-residence for the American Viola Society, he was featured on WFMT Chicago’s list “30 Under 30” of the world’s top classical musicians. Additionally, he has appeared multiple times on PBS, Now Hear This, and Live from Lincoln Center. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he performs regularly at the Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, and Rheingau festivals. He was the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a major prize winner in the Primrose, Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Stulberg International Competitions, and he studied at The Juilliard School with Heidi Castleman and at the Kronberg Academy with Tabea Zimmermann. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and performs on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola on generous loan from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation.
Anthony Manzo’s vibrantly interactive and highly communicative music making has made him a ubiquitous figure in the upper echelons of classical music, performing at noted venues including Lincoln Center in New York, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the Spoleto Festival in Charleston. He appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society, both in New York and across the country. He serves as the solo bassist of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra and as a guest with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and A Far Cry. He is a regular guest with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Society, and the Baltimore Symphony when he happens to be near his home in Washington, DC. Formerly the solo bassist of the Munich Chamber Orchestra in Germany, he has also been guest principal with Camerata Salzburg in Austria, where collaborations have included a summer residency at the Salzburg Festival and two tours as soloist alongside bass/baritone Thomas Quasthoff, performing Mozart’s “Per questa bella mano.” He is an active performer on period instruments, with groups including The Handel & Haydn Society of Boston (where his playing was lauded as “endowed with beautiful and unexpected plaintiveness” by the Boston Musical Intelligencer), Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, and Opera Lafayette in Washington, DC. He is on the double bass and chamber music faculty of the University of Maryland. Manzo performs on a double bass made around 1890 by Jerome Thibouville Lamy in Paris (which now has a removable neck for travel!).