Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center returns in February

The renowned Chamber Music Society (CMS) of Lincoln Center will return to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts to perform music by Erno Dohnányi, Antonín Dvorák and Johannes Brahms, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6 in Watson Hall, which is located in the School of the Music complex on the UNCSA campus, 1533 S. Main St.

The concert’s musicians will include pianist Wu Han, violinist Arnaud Sussmann, violist Paul Neubauer and cellist David Finckel. The program will feature Dohnányi’s “Serenade in C Major for Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 10”; “Dvorák’s Sonatina in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100”; and Brahms’ “Quartet No. 1 in G Minor for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 25.”

 Tickets are $25, $20 for students with a valid ID. Order tickets online or call the box office at 336-721-1945.

Local residents can attend concerts by nationally acclaimed artists for a fraction of what you’d pay in New York City.

Music Dean Brian Cole

“Our relationship with the Chamber Music Society offers an exciting opportunity for both our students and our Triad audience,” says Brian Cole, Dean of the School of Music. “Interacting with some of the best performers of chamber music enhances the education of UNCSA’s aspiring musicians. Local residents can attend concerts by nationally acclaimed artists for a fraction of what you’d pay in New York City.”

Wu Han and Finckel, also CMS co-artistic directors, will lead a master class for UNCSA students at 2 p.m. Feb. 6 in Watson Hall, continuing a collaboration between CMS and UNCSA’s Chrysalis Chamber Music Institute. The master class is free and open to the public.

The partnership, which began in October 2015,  brings CMS artists to UNCSA for concerts and master classes at least twice a year. They last visited UNCSA in November 2018. Institute students also have the opportunity to participate in master classes at Lincoln Center.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is known for the extraordinary quality of its performances, its inspired programming and for setting the benchmark for chamber music worldwide: No other chamber music organization does more to promote, to educate and to foster a love of and appreciation for the art form. Whether at its home in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, on leading stages throughout North America or at prestigious venues in Europe and Asia, CMS brings together the very best international artists from an ever-expanding roster of more than 150 artists per season, to provide audiences with the kind of exhilarating concert experiences that have led to critics calling CMS “an exploding star in the musical firmament” (Wall Street Journal).

About David Finckel

Cellist David Finckel’s multifaceted career as concert performer, artistic director, recording artist, educator, and cultural entrepreneur distinguishes him as one of today’s most influential classical musicians. A recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year award, he appears annually at the world’s most prestigious concert series and venues, as both soloist and chamber musician. He tours extensively with pianist Wu Han, in trios with Philip Setzer, and in a quartet with Daniel Hope and Paul Neubauer. Together with Han, he serves as co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and they are the founding artistic directors of Music@Menlo, the San Francisco Bay Area’s premier summer chamber music festival and institute. In East Asia, he serves as founding co-artistic director of Chamber Music Today, an annual festival in Seoul. His wide-ranging musical activities include the launch of ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company. BBC Music Magazine saluted the label’s 20th anniversary with a cover CD featuring Finckel and Han. This new recording is to be released on the ArtistLed label in the fall. He is professor of cello at The Juilliard School and artist-in-residence at Stony Brook University. Through a variety of educational initiatives, including directing the LG Chamber Music School in Seoul under the auspices of CMS, he has received universal praise for his passionate commitment to nurturing the artistic growth of countless young artists. Finckel served as cellist of the Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet for 34 seasons.

About Paul Neubauer

Violist Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician.” In 2018 he made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti and his Mariinsky Orchestra debut with conductor Valery Gergiev. He also gave the US premiere of the newly discovered impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han. In addition, his recording of the Aaron Kernis Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia was released on Signum Records and his recording of the complete viola and piano music by Ernest Bloch with pianist Margo Garrett was released on Delos. 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; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras. 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,” on “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. 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 as well as a visiting professor at DePaul University. 

About Arnaud Sussmann

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 young musician capturing the attention of classical critics and audiences around the world, he has appeared on tour in Israel and in concert at 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 been presented in recital in Omaha on the Tuesday Musical Club series, New Orleans by the Friends of Music, Tel Aviv at the Museum of Art, and at the Louvre Museum in Paris. He has also given concerts at the OK Mozart, Moritzburg, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, Seattle Chamber Music, Bridgehampton, and the Moab Music festivals. Sussmann has performed with many of today’s leading artists including Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Gary Hoffman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Wu Han, David Finckel, Jan Vogler, and members of the Emerson String Quartet. An alum of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two), he regularly appears with CMS in New York and on tour, including performances at London’s Wigmore Hall. 

About Wu Han

Pianist Wu Han ranks among the most influential classical musicians in the world today. Leading an unusually multifaceted artistic career, she has risen to international prominence as a concert performer, artistic director, recording artist, educator, and cultural entrepreneur. A recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year award, she appears annually at the world’s most prestigious concert series and venues, as both soloist and chamber musician. She tours extensively with cellist David Finckel, in trios with Philip Setzer, and in a quartet with Daniel Hope and Paul Neubauer. Together with David Finckel, she serves as co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and founding co-artistic director of Music@Menlo, the San Francisco Bay Area’s premier summer chamber music festival and institute. In East Asia, she serves as founding co-artistic director of Chamber Music Today, an annual festival in Seoul. Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts recently appointed Wu Han artistic advisor for Chamber Music at the Barns. Her wide-ranging musical activities include the launch of ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company. BBC Music Magazine saluted the label’s 20th anniversary with a cover CD featuring David Finckel and Wu Han. This new recording is to be released on the ArtistLed label in the fall. Through a multitude of educational initiatives, including directing the LG Chamber Music School in Seoul under the auspices of CMS, she has received universal praise for her passionate commitment to nurturing the artistic growth of countless young artists.  

by Ken Keuffel