2027 Season Preview
2/19, 4/02, 6/04
Location: Grand Ballroom
Women’s University Club of Seattle
1105 6th Ave., Seattle, WA 98101
Friday, February 19, 2027, 7:30 pm
Efe Baltacigil, Principal Cello
Seattle Symphony
Helen Kim, Associate Concertmaster
Seattle Symphony
Nothing Gold Vocal Ensemble
joined by
Anna Polonsky, piano
New York, NY
Efe Baltacigil, the Marks Family Foundation Principal Cello of the Seattle Symphony orchestra, Turkey’s String Player of the Year, 2013, and awardee of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, is lauded for his risk-taking, passionate performances that immediately capture the heart and imagination.
Recipient of the Peter Jay Sharp Prize, Washington (DC) Performing Arts Society Prize, and a first-prize awardee in concerto competitions of Istanbul, New York, and the Pennsylvania Schadt String Competition, Baltacigil experienced early acclaim as winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He later served as Associate Principal Cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra before joining the Seattle Symphony as Principal Cello.
A highly sought-after and respected chamber musician, Mr. Baltacigil performs for such renowned festivals as Seattle Chamber Music Society, Marlboro, Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, La Jolla, Kingston (Rhode Island), Saratoga, and Taos, and chamber series such as Lyric Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Lyon & Healy Hall, and The Seattle Series. Recent highlights include the Shostakovich No. 1, Brahms Double, Camille Saint-Saëns Le Muse et le Poete, Dvorák, and Haydn concerti with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Baltacigil received his Bachelor’s degree from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory, Istanbul, and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, where he studied with Peter Wiley and David Soyer and was awarded the Curtis Institute’s Jacqueline DuPré Scholarship.
Mr. Baltacigil resides in Seattle with his wife, attorney Heather MacClintock, and their precocious, cello-playing, and vocalist daughter.
Helen Kim, praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “astoundingly gifted”, was named Associate Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony in 2022, having previously served as Associate Principal Second Violin of the San Francisco Symphony.
In recent seasons, she has performed concertos under conductors Peter Oundjian, Jun Märkl, and Nicholas McGegan, amongst others. In 2025, her performance of the Vivaldi Four Seasons with the Seattle Symphony was hailed in The Strad, the international periodical of strings: “Abounding with surprises, Kim’s playing showed a gift for making even the most familiar passage feel freshly imagined, avoiding eccentricity while underscoring Vivaldi’s innovation. . . . It was also a deeply collaborative performance, . . . echoing bird calls with fellow strings and engaging in spirited dialogue with cellist Meeka Quan DiLorenzo.”
Of special note for Seattle patrons, Kim will perform the Vaughn Williams Lark Ascending concerto on February 8 and 10, 2027, with the Seattle Symphony.
In addition to orchestral work, Ms. Kim is a dedicated interpreter of contemporary music and has performed such works as Salvatore Sciarrino’s Sei Capricci on San Francisco Symphony’s Soundbox series as well as Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes II and Morton Feldman’s evening-length For John Cage on the Pulitzer Arts Foundation’s contemporary music series.
Ms. Kim resides in Seattle with her husband, composer Samuel Adams, and their two sons.
Nothing Gold is a newly established, Seattle-based vocal ensemble composed of nine conservatory-trained musicians dedicated to performing distinguished choral works spanning from the Renaissance to the Contemporary. Vocalists include Maria Männistö, soprano; Danielle Reutter-Harrah, soprano; Nori Heikkinen, alto; John Garlid, alto; Carson Truett Lott, tenor; Lyon Stewart, tenor; James Wilcox, bass; Scott Fikse, bass; and Andrew Jones, bass.
The Seattle Series is pleased to welcome the members of Nothing Gold, who will join Efe Baltacigil to kick off the opening night concert of the 2027 season.
https://nothinggold.org/
Our Seattle artists’ guest for the evening is the widely acclaimed pianist Anna Polonsky.
Anna Polonsky has collaborated with the Guarneri, Orion, Juilliard, and Shanghai Quartets, and such musicians as Mitsuko Uchida, Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode, and Emanuel Ax. She has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia—presenting concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and on Carnegie Hall’s Stern, Weill, and Zankel stages—and is a frequent guest at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The 2025/26 season marked Polonsky’s third return to Carnegie Hall’s Stern stage as soloist with the New York String Orchestra.
Ms. Polonsky made her solo piano debut at age seven at the Special Central Music School in Moscow, Russia, and emigrated to the United States in 1990, where she attended high school at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, under Peter Serkin, and of The Juilliard School, under Jerome Lowenthal. In addition to performing, Ms. Polonsky serves on the piano faculty of Vassar College and the summer Marlboro and Kneisel Hall chamber music festivals. She is a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award.
Together with violinist Jaime Laredo, violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Sharon Robinson, Polonsky is a member of the Espressivo! Piano Quartet. With the clarinetist David Shifrin and cellist Peter Wiley, she performs with the Polonsky-Shifrin-Wiley Trio.
Ms. Polonsky is a Steinway Artist.
https://www.annapolonsky.com/
Program TBD
Friday, April 2, 2027, 7:30 pm
Mari Yoshinaga, marimba
Noah Geller, Concertmaster
Seattle Symphony
Meeka Quan DiLorenzo, Associate Principal Cello
Seattle Symphony
joined by
Amy Yang, piano
Curtis Institute of Music
Mari Yoshinaga, Seattle-based marimbist, percussionist, and recording artist, is known for exceptional versatility and musicianship across solo, chamber, and orchestral settings. In the world of chamber music, she is recognized for collaborative work with a wide range of ensembles and a passion that extends to commissioning and performing music by such composers as Paul Chihara, Nick DiBerardino, Ted Hearne, Paul Lansky, Steven Mackey, Juri Seo, Christopher Theofanidis, Alejandro Viñao, and James Wood.
Ms. Yoshinaga appears frequently with the Seattle Symphony and as a featured artist with Seattle Chamber Music Society, Emerald City Music, Vancouver Recital Society, On The Boards, Music on the Strait, and the Seattle Japanese Garden. She has premiered numerous new works and was a founding member of arx duo and The Percussion Collective.
As a recording artist, Ms. Yoshinaga can be heard on “Partita: Suite for Guitar and Percussion” by Paul Lansky with guitarist David Starobin (Bridge Records); “Cloud Polyphonies” by James Wood (NMC Recordings); “The Harmonic Canon” by Dominic Murcott (Nonclassical); Memoir by Steven Mackey, recorded with the Dover Quartet (Bridge Records); and Ambient Resonances (Bridge Records), an arx duo’s keyboard percussion album featuring new commissions.
Also an in-demand pedagogue, Ms. Yoshinaga has presented masterclasses at Princeton University, Boston Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Musashino Conservatory in Tokyo, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she also served on the faculty of the Young Artist Summer Program. She holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music.
Ms. Yoshinaga resides in Seattle with her husband, violinist Noah Geller; their son, Jonah; and their lovely dog Monkey.
Mari Yoshinaga serves as artist endorser for Adams, Evans, Pearl, Vic Firth, and Zildjian instruments.
Noah Geller, Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, was named to that post at the conclusion of a multi-year search, placing him among a small cadre of elite violinists who serve as both leaders and featured performers for the nation’s acclaimed orchestras.
On April 9 and 11, 2026, Mr. Geller performed the West Coast premiere of Theofanidis’ Double Concerto with percussionist Svet Stoyanov, concluding a string of double concerti, including Brahms Double with SSO Principal Cello Efe Baltacigil, J.S. Bach Concerto for Two Violins with SSO Principal Second Violin Elisa Barston, and Saint-Saëns la muse et le poète, with Mr. Baltacigil.
It has been recently announced that on February 8 and 10, 2027, Mr. Geller will perform the Lalo Symphonie espagnole concerto under the baton of Music Director Xian Jiang at Benaroya Hall. Prior solo concerti with the Seattle Symphony have included Mozart No. 5, Bartók No. 2, Glazunov, Mendelssohn, and Vaughan Williams.
A significant and sought-after chamber musician, Mr. Geller’s appearances include prestigious festivals, such as Marlboro, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Tanglewood, Kingston (Rhode Island), Olympic, and Seattle Chamber Music Society, and chamber series, such as Lyon & Healy Hall (Chicago), Lyric Chamber Music Society (NY), Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Seattle Series.
Mr. Geller is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Hyo Kang, Donald Weilerstein, and Cho-Liang Lin. He began his career as a first violin and, subsequently, Acting Assistant Concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra before appointment as Concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony, leaving the latter post for the Seattle Symphony in 2018.
An avid supporter of modern makers, Mr. Geller performs on a commissioned 2023 violin by Philadelphia luthier Justin Hess using a bow by Paris-based Delphine Petijean.
Noah resides with his wife, distinguished percussionist Mari Yoshinaga, their son Jonah, and their canine companion Monkey in Seattle’s Whittier Heights.
Meeka Quan DiLorenzo, a multi-award-winning cellist who thrills audiences with playing described as “incredibly nuanced” and “exquisitely beautiful,” began her professional career as first-prize winner of the Khuner Concerto Competition at age 15 and debuted soon after, performing the Antonín Dvořák Cello Concerto with the Pacific Symphony under the direction of Carl St. Clair.
A graduate of the Young Artist Program of the Cleveland Institute of Music and subsequent recipient of the Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance, Ms. Quan DiLorenzo was awarded the highly competitive position of Associate Principal of the Utah Symphony in her inaugural professional audition and remained with that ensemble for five years before joining the Seattle Symphony orchestra, where she is the current Associate Principal Cello.
Recent concerto highlights include the duo cello suite When We Were Trees (composer Giovanni Sollima) with the Seattle Symphony orchestra, which was praised in the international periodical of strings, The Strad: “DiLorenzo’s beautifully calibrated vibrato traded off with Abel (Selaocoe’s) relentless intensity and vivid musical gestures in Sollima’s exploration of a kaleidoscopic panoply of styles.”
Ms. Quan DiLorenzo resides in Seattle with her husband, Emmy Award-winning composer, trumpet soloist, and Grammy-nominated recording artist Tony DiLorenzo, their son Luca, and their sweet canine companion.
Our Seattle artists’ guest for the evening is the prolific, award-winning pianist Amy Yang.
Amy Yang (yông), winner of the Kosciuszko National Chopin Piano Competition and the 2018 Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia prize, is an alumna of the Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and Yale School of Music, where she received the Parisot Award for Outstanding Pianist and the Alumni Association Prize. She is currently the director of Chamber Music and Piano Studies at Curtis Institute of Music and a member of Merz Trio, with which she tours extensively. Ms. Yang is a prolific performer; in addition to Merz Trio, she appears as soloist and chamber musician across the United States in leading festivals and series, too numerous to recount.
Collaborating with trailblazing musicians, Ms. Yang has toured with Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Tito Muñoz, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and premiered large-scale chamber works by Michael Hersch at Cal Performances, Ojai Music Festival, and Aldeburgh Festival. Additional collaborations include, amongst many, performances with Richard Goode, Anne-Marie McDermott, Ida and Ani Kavafian, Miriam Fried, Hsin-Yun Huang, Paul Huang, Alexi Kenney, Bomsori Kim, Tessa Lark, Roberto Díaz, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Neubauer, Tara Helen O’Conor, David Shifrin, Joseph Silverstein, Philippe Tondre, Danbi Um, members of Guarneri String Quartet, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and numerous leading quartets, including Dover, Aizuri, Jasper, and A Far Cry.
As if that were not enough, Ms. Yang’s energetic exploration of contemporary voices has led to world-premiere performances of works by today’s leading composers, including Caroline Shaw, Richard Danielpour, Avner Dorman, Michael Hersch, Ezra Laderman, Paul Wianko, and commissioned works from Edward Babcock, Alistair Coleman, and Hua Yang.
Ms. Yang’s discography includes the solo album Resonance (MSR Classics), a world premiere recording of piano music by Ezra Laderman (Albany Records), a world premiere recording of Michael Hersch’s “I hope we get a chance to visit soon” (Live from Aldeburgh Festival, New Focus Records), Curtis Studio’s A Century of New Sounds with David Shifrin and Patrick Williams; Live from Spoleto 2024’s three-disc release with Inon Barnatan, Pedja, Todd Palmer, and Ian Rosenbaum; and albums with violinists Itamar Zorman (BIS Records), Tessa Lark (First Hand Records), and Danbi Um (Avie Records), tubist Carol Jantsch, and clarinetist José Franch-Ballester (iTinerant Records).
Amy Yang is a Steinway artist.
https://www.amyjyang.com/about
Program
J.S. Bach solo, marimba
Piazzolla, Histoire du Tango, Nightclub
Golijov, Mariel for marimba and cello
Violin Sonata TDB
Intermission
Lansky, Horizons
Schumann Piano Trio No. 3
Friday, June 4, 2027, 7:30 p.m.
Cameron Daly, Associate Principal Second Violin
Seattle Symphony
Katie Liu, Associate Principal Viola
Seattle Symphony
Ursula Steele, Fourth Chair Viola
Seattle Symphony
Nathan Chan, Assistant Principal Cello
Seattle Symphony
Eric Han, Fourth Chair Cello
Seattle Symphony
joined by
Mark Steinberg, first violin
Brentano String Quartet
Albert Cano Smit, piano
New York, NY
Cameron Daly, a passionate chamber musician, joined the Callisto Quartet shortly after graduation from the Yale School of Music, leading that ensemble as first violin until his recent appointment as Associate Principal Second Violin of the Seattle Symphony orchestra.
Cameron has performed chamber music alongside notable artists, including Andres Diaz, Stephen Drury, James Ehnes, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Jose Franch-Ballester, Benjamin Hochman, and Peter Winograd, and has been invited to perform at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as the Taos, Tanglewood, and Aspen music festivals.
Mr. Daly graduated cum laude (B.A. Global Affairs ‘18) at Yale University prior to earning a Master’s degree in Violin Performance (M.M ‘20) under the tutelage of Wendy Sharp, Ani Kavafian, and the Brentano Quartet. He received the Yale School of Music’s Alumni Association prize and Yale’s Wrexham and Sharp prizes for musical performance.
Mr. Daly resides in Seattle with his fiancée, Emerson Millar, Seattle Symphony Assistant Concertmaster.
Katie Liu, recently appointed Seattle Symphony Associate Principal Viola, is an active chamber musician, with appearances in the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Aspect Chamber Music series, and Music on Park Avenue series with pianist Per Tengstrand. Festival experiences include NUME Academy, YellowBarn, Verbier Festival Academy, Music@Menlo’s International Program, and Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World program. Ms. Liu, previously the principal violist of the American Youth Symphony and violist in the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, performs as a substitute with the New York Philharmonic.
A semi-finalist at the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition and 2023 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition, Ms. Liu changed from violin to viola during her final year at Princeton University, from which she holds a degree in Operations Research and Financial Engineering, with minors in Computer Science and Musical Performance, and from where she was awarded the Princeton University Concerto Competition prize. She received a Master of Musical Arts degree at the Yale School of Music under Ettore Causa, and a Master of Music degree at the Colburn School with Paul Coletti and Teng Li.
Ms. Liu plays a viola made for her by Frédéric Chaudière in 2024.
Ursula Steele completes the leadership of the Seattle Symphony viola section. A graduate of the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University under Atar Arad, Ms. Steele was awarded the Viola Concerto Competition prize, the Kuttner Quartet Scholarship, mentorship with the Pacifica Quartet, and a quartet residency at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. In addition, her quartet, while at Jacobs, was invited to participate in the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar, the Ashkenazi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar at Heifetz International Music Institute, and the Chamber Music Residency at the Banff Center. Ms. Steele holds Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degrees and an Artist Diploma from the Jacobs School.
Through a trial period for co-principal viola, Ms. Steele had the opportunity to play in the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm and subsequently joined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra before appointment to the Seattle Symphony in the fall of 2024.
Nathan Chan, Assistant Principal Cello of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, has performed as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, working with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, James Gaffigan, Alexander Prior, and Donato Cabrera, among others.
Identified at a young age as a prodigy to watch, Nathan was featured in the three-part documentary “World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies,” and was chosen to participate in Classe d’Excellence du Violoncelle with world-renowned cellist Gautier Capuçon. Winner of the 2015 Aspen Low Strings Concerto Competition playing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D Major, Nathan was a recipient of the 2016 Samuel Mayes Memorial Cello Award at Tanglewood. Recently completing a year as Vancouver (BC) Symphony Orchestra Principal Cello, Nathan has returned to the Seattle Symphony to the relief of his many Seattle-based fans.
Eric Han, a Korean-born, Canadian cellist, completes the leadership quartet within the Seattle Symphony’s cello section and is a distinguished chamber musician, having participated as both an artist and Artist-in-Residence in numerous festivals, including Moritzburg, La Jolla, Music@Menlo, and Sarasota, with regular appearances in the Seattle Symphony chamber series.
Mr. Han made his concerto debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the age of fourteen, leading to further engagements with ensembles such as the Toronto Sinfonietta, Toronto Chamber Players, and Boston’s Symphony by the Sea. In addition to studies with David Hetherington at the Glenn Gould School, he holds a Bachelor of Music from the Colburn School of Music under Ronald Leonard and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Peter Wiley and Carter Brey.
Mr. Han performs on a cello made by Frank Ravatin on generous loan from the Maestro Foundation.
Our Seattle artists’ guests for the evening are the revered violinist Mark Steinberg and the award-winning pianist Albert Cano Smit.
Mark Steinberg, first violinist and founding member of the Brentano String Quartet, has performed extensively in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea, Israel, and Colombia. As a member of Brentano, which is ensemble-in-residence at Yale School of Music, he has compiled an extensive discography and been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the inaugural Cleveland Quartet Award, and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for best debut in the UK.
In addition to quartet performances, Mr. Steinberg has often appeared in duo and trio ensembles with pianist Mitsuko Uchida, with whom he presented the complete Mozart sonata cycle in London’s Wigmore Hall and recorded Sonatas for Piano and Violin (Philips). Solo appearances include those with the London Philharmonia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kansas City Camerata, Auckland Philharmonia, and the Philadelphia Concerto Soloists, with conductors such as Kurt Sanderling, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
Mr. Steinberg holds degrees from Indiana University and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Louise Behrend, Josef Gingold, and Robert Mann. An in-demand pedagogue, he is currently a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music and CUNY The Graduate Center, and an active competition adjudicator at such events as the Banff International Quartet Competition, London Quartet Competition, Mozart International Quartet Competition in Salzburg, and the Naumburg Violin Competition. He has been invited to teach at Banff Centre for the Arts, the Aspen Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Taos School of Music, and presented masterclasses at Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Britten-Pears Institute in Aldeburgh, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Guildhall School, Amsterdam Conservatory, and Yellow Barn, among many others.
Mr. Steinberg is counted among Cameron Daly’s most influential teachers, having changed his understanding of and approach to music. We are thrilled to welcome him to The Seattle Series.
https://www.brentanoquartet.com/
Albert Cano Smit, a Spanish/Dutch pianist praised as “a moving young poet” (Le Devoir of Montreal), is noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality, and nuanced musicality. First Prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists Wadsworth International Auditions and the 2017 Naumburg International Piano Competition, among many additional honors, Mr. Cano Smit is in a rarified group amongst his peers. He has appeared as soloist with major symphony orchestras, such as Seattle, Las Vegas, San Diego, Montréal, Colorado Music Festival, St. Luke’s, Barcelona, Catalonia, and Manchester Camerata, and performed recitals internationally, including Fondation Louis Vuitton of Paris, streamed live globally; the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater; Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, and Auditori de Barcelona. He has been in residence at France’s Festival de Musique de Wissembourg for seven years, a piano fellow at both Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Tippet Rise Art Center, and debuted in Asia at Xiamen’s Banlam Grand Theater.
In 2017, Mr. Cano Smit was First Prize winner at the Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, and a Finalist and CMIM Grant winner at the Concours Musical International de Montréal. Additional special prizes at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions include The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ).
A polyglot of five languages, Mr. Cano Smit was born in Geneva, the son of a Dutch mother and a Spanish father, who left home at 9 to join the Escolania de Montserrat choir school, where hours of daily rehearsal strongly influenced his musical development. An alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy and Ravinia Steans Institute, he recently completed an Artist Diploma and Master’s Degree with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano; holds a BA in Piano Performance from the Colburn School with Ory Shihor; and studied with Marta Karbownicka and Graham Caskie at Chetham’s School of Music.
Mr. Cano Smit currently resides in New York City.
https://www.albertcanosmit.com/
