‘Curtis Presents’ Features Internationally Acclaimed Violinist and Violist Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music on February 2

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2013-14 SEASON

‘Curtis Presents’ Features Internationally Acclaimed Violinist and Violist Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music on February 2

PHILADELPHIA, PA – January 21, 2014 – Joined by an exciting all-star lineup of Curtis alumni, celebrated violinist and violist Ida Kavafian performs on the Curtis Institute of Music’s new recital series, Curtis Presents, at Field Concert Hall on Sunday, February 2 at 3 p.m.

Ms. Kavafian presents this concert as a celebration of music, friends, and colleagues: she performs with her husband, Steven Tenenbom (Viola ’79); former students Benjamin Beilman (Violin ’12) and Bella Hristova (Violin ’08); and close musical colleagues Jeong-Hyoun Lee (Cello ’13), Yekwon Sunwoo (Piano ’11), and pianist Jungeun Kim, director of instrumental accompaniment at Curtis.

Ms. Kavafian opens the concert with Dallapiccola’s Tartiniana seconda with Ms. Kim, followed by Strauss’s lyrical and technically demanding Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18 with Mr. Sunwoo. The concert closes with a flourish with Ms. Kavafian and Mr. Sunwoo performing Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet alongside Mr. Beilman, Ms. Hristova, Mr. Tenenbom, and Ms. Lee.

The recital takes place in Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia. Tickets are $35 and are available from the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902 or www.curtis.edu. Proceeds from the concert directly benefit current Curtis students. The Curtis Presents season is sponsored by Blank Rome LLP.

Internationally acclaimed as a violist as well as violinist, Ida Kavafian holds the prestigious Nina von Maltzahn Chair in Violin Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. Ms. Kavafian is an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and former violinist of the Beaux Arts Trio. She performs as a soloist; in recital with her sister, Ani; as a guest with distinguished ensembles; and as artistic director of Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico. She is founder of the Bravo! Colorado festival and cofounder of the chamber ensembles Tashi and Opus One.

Ms. Kavafian has premiered numerous works, including concertos by Toru Takemitsu and Michael Daugherty. She has toured and recorded with jazz greats Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis, and fiddler/composer Mark O’Connor and has had a solo feature on CBS Sunday Morning. Recent recordings include Fire and Blood by Michael Daugherty with the Detroit Symphony and O’Connor’s String Quartets, recorded with the composer.

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 under 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.

Ms. Kavafian teaches at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Juilliard, and joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1998. She will be a master class clinician at the Young Artist Summer Program as part of Curtis Summerfest 2014.

Violinist Benjamin Beilman‘s “handsome technique, burnished sound and quiet confidence showed why he has come so far so fast” (New York Times). He is the recipient of both a 2012 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2012 London Music Masters Award. In 2010 he won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and YCA’s Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship. He performed acclaimed debut recitals in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York, sponsored by the Summis Auspiciis Prize, and in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center. A winner of Astral Artists’s 2009 National Auditions, he was also awarded the Milka/Astral Violin Prize, designated for a violinist invited to join Astral’s roster. This season Mr. Beilman makes his Carnegie Hall concerto debut with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium; additional concerto debuts this season include appearances with the London Philharmonic at Royal Festival Hall, the Los Angeles and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestras, the Buffalo and Chicago Philharmonics, and the Fort Worth and Greenville Symphonies. He also makes his Carnegie Hall recital debut at Weill Hall in a program that includes the premiere of a new work by David Ludwig, commissioned by Carnegie Hall. Other recital highlights include appearances at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Zürich’s Tonhalle, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, and Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series.

Recently recognized with a prestigious 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Bella Hristova is a young musician with a growing international career as a soloist and recording artist. The Strad has said, “Every sound she draws is superb”, and the Washington Post’s The Classical Beat has stated she is “a player of impressive power and control”. Ms. Hristova is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including First Prize in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the 2013-14 Gordon and Harriet Greenfield Foundation Fellowship of YCA, First Prize in the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, and Laureate of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Ms. Hristova is the first recipient of YCA’s Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship, and has been honored with the Miriam Brody Aronson Award, the Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, and the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists. Engagements of note during the 2013-14 season include her leading/performing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic; performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; a national tour with the Musicians from Marlboro; a solo violin recital at Vermont’s Brattleboro Music Center; a Christmas Eve performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E, Op. 64 at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra, and two world premieres written specifically for her: David Ludwig’s concerto with the Mobile Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Anthony Richie’s violin concerto with New Zealand’s Southern Sinfonia. Abroad Ms. Hristova also appears with New Zealand’s Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. 

Jungeun Kim has won numerous awards, including the Young Musicians Foundation Competition and VOCE Competition in Los Angeles. In addition Ms. Kim has performed as a recitalist and guest artist with orchestras and ensembles in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia, and she has appeared on CBS, CBC, Voice of America, and NPR broadcasts. She has been featured in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s chamber music series and has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Sarah Chang, Ida Kavafian, Ruggiero Ricci, Aaron Rosand, Peter Wiley, Riccardo Chailly, James Depreist, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, and Wolfgang Sawalish. From 2002 to 2005, Ms. Kim served as director of the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival and Institute, and in 2005 she founded the New York Summer Music Festival, where she serves as the executive director. Ms. Kim became a staff pianist at the Curtis Institute of Music in 1999, administrative coordinator of concerts and recitals in 2004, and director of instrumental accompaniment and outside performances in 2009.

Cellist Jeong-Hyoun Lee is a recent graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she was the recipient of the Milton Levy Fellowship and studied with Orlando Cole and Peter Wiley. Ms Lee served as co-principal cello of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with such renowned conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Simon Rattle, and Alan Gilbert. In 2010 Ms. Lee was selected as a member of Curtis on Tour in Europe, which performed in Paris, Berlin, and Valencia. She was a member of the Young Artist Program of the 2009 Music from Angel Fire Chamber Festival in Taos, New Mexico and as a Rising Star at the Caramoor Center of Music and the Performing Arts. A native of Seoul, Korea, Ms. Lee has performed with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Korean American Youth Cultural Foundation Orchestra, at the Seoul Arts Center and the Young San Art Hall. She is currently pursuing cello studies at the Juilliard School of Music.

As winner of the 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competition, Yekwon Sunwoo performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Lockington. He has also performed as soloist with Orchestre National de Belgique with Marin Alsop, l’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie with Paul Goodwin, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra with Christopher Wilkins, and l’Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc, Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra, and Daegu Orchestra. Mr. Sunwoo made his New York City debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2009 as winner of the Florida International Piano Competition. Other awards include First Prize in the 2012 Piano Campus International Concours, a laureate in the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, First Prize in the 2009 Concours International de Piano (Interlaken Classics), First Prize in the Daegu Broadcasting Competition, First Prize in the Ewha-Kyung Hyang Competition, and Grand Prize in the Kukmin-Ilbo/Hansei University Competition.

Violist Steven Tenenbom has established a distinguished career as a chamber musician, soloist, recitalist, and teacher. He has worked with composer Lukas Foss and jazz artist Chick Corea, and appeared as guest artist with such eminent ensembles as the Guarneri and Emerson String Quartets, the Beaux Arts and Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trios, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has performed as soloist with the Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and toured with the Brandenburg Ensemble throughout the United States and Japan. His festival credits include Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Ravinia, Marlboro, June Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, and Bravo! Colorado. A recipient of the prestigious Coleman Chamber Music award and a former member of the Galimir Quartet, he is currently a member of the renowned group TASHI and the piano quartet OPUS ONE. He has recorded on RCA Records with TASHI and the Guarneri String Quartet, and can also be heard on the Arabesque, Delos, ECM, Marlboro Recording Society, and Sony Classical labels.

The Curtis Institute of Music educates and trains exceptionally gifted young musicians for careers as performing artists on the highest professional level. One of the world’s leading conservatories, Curtis provides its 168 students with full-tuition scholarships and personalized attention from a celebrated faculty. Its distinctive “learn by doing” approach has produced an impressive number of notable artists, from such legends as Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber to current stars Jonathan Biss, Juan Diego Flórez, Alan Gilbert, Hilary Hahn, Jennifer Higdon, and Lang Lang. Curtis alumni hold principal chairs in every major American orchestra, and each season they are featured as guest soloists with the world’s leading orchestras, opera houses, and chamber music series.

Curtis’s innovative programs encourage students to perform often and hone 21st-century musical skills. The school’s facilities offer superb spaces for music-making, as well as state-of-the-art technologies to enhance learning. In addition to more than 200 performances in and around Philadelphia each year, students perform internationally with Curtis On Tour. When they graduate, they become musical leaders, making a profound impact on music around the globe. To learn more, visit www.curtis.edu.

Curtis Presents: Ida Kavafian, violin
Sunday, February 2 at 3 p.m.
Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia

DALLAPICCOLA     Tartiniana seconda
Ida Kavafian, violin
Jungeun Kim, piano

STRAUSS             Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18
Ida Kavafian, violin
Yekwon Sunwoo, piano (’11)

CHAUSSON          Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet
Ida Kavafian, violin
Yekwon Sunwoo, piano (’11)
Bella Hristova, violin (’08)
Benjamin Beilman, violin (’12)
Steven Tenenbom, viola (’79)
Jeong-Hyoun Lee, cello (’13)

Tickets: $35, available from the Curtis Patron Services Office at (215) 893-7902 or www.curtis.edu.

Ida Kavafian holds the Nina von Maltzahn Chair in Violin Studies.

The Curtis Presents season is sponsored by Blank Rome LLP.

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