Wu Han, piano; Tara Helen O'Connor, flute; Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Yura Lee, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Nicholas Canellakis, cello

Program:
Beethoven: Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola, Op. 25
Beethoven: Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 70, No. 1 "Ghost" Trio
Brahms: Quartet No. 1 for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 25


Background :
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is one of twelve constituents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. Along with other constituents such as the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center Theater, and The Metropolitan Opera, the Chamber Music Society has its home at Lincoln Center, in Alice Tully Hall. Through its performance, education, and recording/broadcast activities, it draws more people to chamber music than any other organization of its kind.

CMS presents annual series of concerts and educational events for listeners ranging from connoisseurs to chamber music newcomers of all ages. Performing repertoire from over three centuries, and numerous premieres by living composers, CMS offers programs curated to provide listeners a comprehensive perspective on the art of chamber music. The performing artists of CMS, a multi-generational selection of expert chamber musicians, constitute an evolving repertory company capable of presenting chamber music of every instrumentation, style, and historical period (see Artists of the Society and Guests). Its annual activities include a full season of concerts and events, national and international tours, nationally televised broadcasts on Live From Lincoln Center, a radio show broadcast nationwide, and regular appearances on National Public Radio’s Performance Today.

As the nation’s premier repertory company for chamber music, CMS is committed to bringing audiences the finest performances of an extraordinary body of repertoire, dating as far back as the Renaissance and continuing through the centuries to the finest works of our time.

MEET THE ARTISTS
Cellist Nicholas Canellakis continues to receive critical approbation for his performances. The New York Times has described his playing as “impassioned” with “the audience seduced by [his] rich, alluring tone.” A frequent guest at Bargemusic, he has performed at the festivals of Santa Fe, Mecklenburg, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Moab, Sedona, Aspen, Music from Angel Fire, and Verbier, and has given concerts at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel halls, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Jordan and Disney halls, among others. He was a founding member of the Vertigo String Quartet, which received First Prize in the Musicatri International Competition in Italy in 2006. He graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Orlando Cole and Peter Wiley, and holds a master's degree from the New England Conservatory, where he worked with Paul Katz and received the Gregor Piatigorsky Award. A prizewinner in the Johansen International Competition in Washington, DC, he has been principal cellist of the New York String Orchestra and the Haddonfield Symphony. He also was a Fellow in the Academy of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Institute. Mr. Canellakis is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege and Hotchkiss Summer Portals and is a member of Chamber Music Society Two.

Violinist/violist Yura Lee, recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2007, is enjoying a career that spans almost two decades and takes her all over the world. As a soloist, she has performed with numerous major orchestras including those of New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Saint Louis. She has given recitals in London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. At age 12, she became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the Performance Today awards given by National Public Radio. She received numerous international prizes, including the first prize and the audience prize at the 2006 Leopold Mozart Competition, the first prize at the 2010 UNISA International Competition, and top prizes in the Indianapolis, Hannover, Kreisler, and Paganini competitions. Her CD with Reinhard Goebel and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, titled Mozart in Paris, received the prestigious Diapason d’Or Award. As a chamber musician, she regularly takes part in the festivals of Marlboro, Salzburg, Verbier, Caramoor, Ravinia, Kronberg, and Aspen. She was awarded two artist diplomas, by Indiana University in Bloomington and the New England Conservatory in Boston, and her main teachers included Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Thomas Riebl, Ana Chumachenko, and Nobuko Imai. Ms. Lee is a member of Chamber Music Society Two, as both violinist and violist.

Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing distinguish him as one of this generation's quintessential artists. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he is the chamber music director of the OK Mozart Festival in Oklahoma and artistic director of the “Chamber Music Extravaganza” in Curaçao. His recording of Joan Tower's Purple Rhapsody, commissioned for him by seven orchestras and the Koussevitsky Foundation, was recently released by Summit Records. A two-time Grammy nominee, he recorded a disc of works by Schumann with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and he has also recorded three pieces that were composed for him: Wild Purple for solo viola by Joan Tower; Viola Rhapsody, a concerto by Henri Lazarof; and Soul Garden for viola and chamber ensemble by Derek Bermel. His recording of the Walton Viola Concerto was recently re-released on Decca. He has appeared with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; the National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and the Santa Cecilia, English Chamber and Beethovenhalle orchestras. He gave the world premiere of the revised Bartók Viola Concerto as well as concertos by Tower, Penderecki, Picker, Jacob, Lazarof, Suter, Müller-Siemens, Ott, and Friedman and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College. Mr. Neubauer has been an Artist of the Chamber Music Society since 1989.

Last season flutist Tara Helen O'Connor performed The Art of Fugue with the Orion String Quartet and Windscape in Michigan, Virginia, and at the Kennedy Center, a concerto with the NY String Seminar at Carnegie Hall under Jaime Laredo, Golijov's Ayre with the Andalusian Dogs and Dawn Upshaw in Spain, and collaborates with Eliot Fisk at the 92nd Street Y. This season's highlights include a premiere of a new chamber work by John Zorn, appearances at the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival and the Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curaçao, and concerts in Hawaii and Georgia with CMS. She has appeared at Zankel Hall, Symphony Space, Music@Menlo, the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, the Banff Centre, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.  She is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble and a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, teaches at the Bard College Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, is professor of flute and head of the wind department at Purchase College Conservatory of Music, and holds a summer flute master class at the Banff Centre in Canada. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player to participate in the CMS Two program and is now an Artist of the Chamber Music Society. 

Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Arnaud Sussmann is a multi-faceted and compelling artist who has performed as a soloist throughout the United States, Central America, Europe, and Asia, and at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Smithsonian Museum, and the Louvre. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Monaco Chamber Orchestra, Nice Orchestra, Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, El Salvador National Symphony Orchestra, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Highlights of the 2011-12 season includes a tour of Israel, concerts with CMS in Germany and at Wigmore Hall in London, and a performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto at the Dresden Festival. He has performed with many of today's leading artists: Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Joseph Kalichstein, Miriam Fried, Fred Sherry, and Gary Hoffman. Winner of several international competitions including the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, the Andrea Postacchini Competition, and the Vatelot/Rampal Competition, he has recently recorded works of Beethoven and Dvořák with CMS artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han. He studied at The Juilliard School with Boris Garlitsky and Itzhak Perlman, who chose him to be a Starling Fellow, an honor qualifying him as Mr. Perlman's teaching assistant for two years. A former member of Chamber Music Society Two, he is an Artist of the Society this season.

Co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society, pianist Wu Han ranks among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. She has risen to international prominence through her wide-ranging activities as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural entrepreneur. In high demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, Wu Han has appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious concert series and venues across the United States and around the world. She is a frequent collaborator with many of today’s finest musicians and ensembles, and appears extensively each season as duo pianist with cellist David Finckel. In addition to her distinction as one of classical music’s most accomplished performers, Wu Han has established a reputation for her dynamic and innovative approach to the recording studio. In 1997 Wu Han and David Finckel launched ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, whose catalogue of 13 albums has won widespread critical acclaim, including BBC Music Magazine’s coveted Editor’s Choice award for the label’s Russian Classics album. Wu Han has achieved universal renown for her passionate commitment to nurturing the careers of countless young artists through a wide array of education initiatives. For many years, she taught alongside the late Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. In 2009, under the auspices of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Wu Han and David Finckel established chamber music training workshops for young artists in Korea and Taiwan. They are also the founding artistic directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute in Silicon Valley, and were named the 2012 Musicians of the Year by Musical America.