2024 Season Program
Friday, January 12, 2024, 7:30 pm
Elisa Barston, Principal Second Violin, Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Amy Yang, Curtis Institute of Music, piano
Sarah Rommel, Artist in Residence-cello, Univ. of Washington
Noah Geller, Concertmaster, Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Elisa Barston, Seattle Symphony Principal Second Violin and multi-award-winning artist, has performed as soloist with world-leading orchestras, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Taipei, and, at the request of Sir Yehudi Menuhin, made her European debut with the English Chamber Orchestra. Notable performances include the U.S. premieres of two previously unpublished violin concerti by Antonio Vivaldi, Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” with the Seattle Symphony.
Amy Yang, winner of the 2018 Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia prize and the Kosciuszko National Chopin Piano Competition, is an alumna of Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, and Yale School of Music, where she received the Parisot Award for Outstanding Pianist and the Alumni Association Prize. Collaborating with leading musicians, Ms. Yang has toured with Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Tito Muñoz, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and premiered music by Michael Hersch at Cal Performances, Ojai Music Festival, and Aldeburgh Festival. Additional collaborations include performances with Richard Goode, Anne-Marie McDermott, Ida and Ani Kavafian, Miriam Fried, Bomsori Kim, Roberto Díaz, Kim Kashkashian, Tessa Lark, Paul Neubauer, Tara Helen O’Connor, Joseph Silverstein, members of Guarneri String Quartet, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Dover Quartet, Aizuri String Quartet, Jasper String Quartet and A Far Cry.
Sarah Rommel, a top prizewinner of the 2014 George Enescu International Cello Competition, has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Grant and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Award. She has collaborated with leading composers and musicians such as John Adams, Jennifer Higdon, Kaija Saariaho, Jonathan Biss, Lucy Chapman, Kim Kashkashian, and Peter Wiley, and received invitations to major chamber series across the nation. The current Artist in Residence-cello and faculty at the University of Washington, Ms. Rommel’s former teachers include Efe Baltacigil, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Peter Wiley, Curtis Institute of Music.
Noah Geller is the David and Amy Fulton Concertmaster of the Grammy- and Gramophone-winning Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Named to that post at the conclusion of a multi-year search, Mr. Geller is among a small cadre of elite violinists who serve as both leaders and featured performers for the nation’s acclaimed orchestras. He performed the Saint-Saëns la muse et le poète double concerto with Principal Cello Efe Baltacigil for the symphony’s 2022-23 opening night and the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Seattle Symphony in February 2023. He has previously brought to life the Glazunov and Mendelssohn concerti, Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending, and Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.
Friday, March 29, 2024, 7:30 pm
Efe Baltacigil, Principal Cello, Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Meeka Quan DiLorenzo, Associate Principal Cello, Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Nathan Chan, Assistant Principal Cello, Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Sarah Rommel, Artist in Residence-cello, Univ. of Washington
Joshua Roman, cello
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 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.
Multi-award-winning cellist Meeka Quan DiLorenzo, 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.
Nathan Chan, the current 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.
Sarah Rommel, a top prizewinner of the 2014 George Enescu International Cello Competition, has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Grant and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Award. She has collaborated with leading composers and musicians such as John Adams, Jennifer Higdon, Kaija Saariaho, Jonathan Biss, Lucy Chapman, Kim Kashkashian, and Peter Wiley, and received invitations to major chamber series across the nation. The current Artist in Residence-cello and faculty at the University of Washington, Ms. Rommel’s former teachers include Efe Baltacigil, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Peter Wiley, Curtis Institute of Music.
Joshua Roman is a solo cellist, accomplished composer, and curator whose performances embrace musical styles from Bach to Radiohead. Roman was named a TED Senior Fellow in 2015 and is currently the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s inaugural Artist in Residence. Before setting off on his unique path as a soloist, Roman was the Seattle Symphony’s principal cellist – a job he won at 22. He has since earned renown for genre-bending repertoire and wide-ranging collaborations. A Gramophone review of his recording of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Cello Concerto (written for Roman) proclaimed, “Roman’s outstanding performance of the cello concerto is the disc’s highlight… [He] combines the expressive control of Casals with the creative individuality and virtuoso flair of Hendrix himself.”
Friday, May 3, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Sean Osborn, clarinet
Patricia Hoy, piano
Zachary DePue, violin
Sean Osborn, clarinetist, composer, and pedagogue, was the youngest clarinetist to be appointed to the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has since presented master classes across continents and performed as guest Principal Clarinet with leading American orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Seattle Symphony. With rave reviews from The New York Times (“…an excellent clarinetist,”), the Boston Globe ( “…a miracle,”), and Gramophone (“…a master,”) and over forty concertos in his repertoire, he has recorded dozens of CDs for London, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Albany, and others, as well as premiered works by Philip Glass, John Adams, John Corigliano, Chen Yi, and Jennifer Higdon.
Pianist Patricia Hoy has concertized throughout Canada and the United States and most recently has been invited to tour East Asia and India. Winner of numerous competitions, her tenure in the United States resulted in widespread recognition as a pianist to watch. Awarded a Graduate Fellowship at USC, she was recognized as the top graduating doctoral student and was named the most promising young artist in Los Angeles by the Armand Hammer Foundation. Dr. Hoy has been featured as a soloist with such orchestras as the Montreal Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Quebec Chamber Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, and the Ventura Symphony, and has been a featured pianist on CBC and PBS.
Violinist Zachary DePue, described by The Strad as a leading American concertmaster during his decade-long tenure with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, has few if any limitations in his musical talents. Founding member of the Time for Three ensemble in 2003, DePue toured and recorded with the boundary-breaking group while holding fort in Indianapolis as the youngest person to be awarded the ISO’s concertmaster position. DePue and his prodigious brothers, producers of an inventive “grassical” merger of traditional bluegrass and classical genres, continued the musical journey into an uncommon territory. Mr. DePue is regarded as a rare talent who transcends conventional bounds yet exemplifies the best that classical music has to offer.
