Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien
NEW POWERHOUSE TRIO OF CMNW FAVORITES
Returning to CMNW this fall are three of classical music’s most brilliant musicians: the exceptional clarinetist and Avery Fisher Prize-winner Anthony McGill, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, and our own Artistic Director, pianist Gloria Chien! Their new Trio Afiori will present one of our most unique programs yet, as these three illuminating musical minds join forces with repertoire specially arranged for the triple-threat of mezzo-soprano, clarinet, and piano. Come for an evening of stunning music by Brahms, Kian Ravaei’s mesmerizing Gulistan—a 2023 CMNW commission—and two brand-new works commissioned by CMNW for this outstanding trio: Moon Allegory by Alex Ho and Angels by Valerie Coleman.
“Fleur Barron, Anthony McGill, and Gloria Chien are excited to offer a program on the theme of ‘Heritage,’ featuring works composed or arranged expressly for their trio.”
— MKI Artists
This concert is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, including a 20 minute intermission.
PSU, College of the Arts, Lincoln Performance Hall
Saturday, 11/8 • 7:30 pm
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- BRAHMS “Zwei Gesänge” (Two Songs), Op. 91 (Arr. Kian Ravaei)
BRAHMS Zwei Gesänge (Two Songs) for Voice, Viola, and Piano, Op. 91
(1833–1897)
Arr. Kian RavaeiI. Gestillte Sehnsucht (Stilled longing)
II. Geistliches Wiegenlied (A sacred cradle-song)Johannes Brahms wrote the two songs of Op. 91–more accurately chamber works for mezzo-soprano, viola, and piano—for his good friends and colleagues Joseph and Amalie Joachim. In 1863, Brahms composed the cradle song, Geistliches Wiegenlied, (Sacred Lullaby) for the Joachims to celebrate the birth of their first child. The song, based on the opening bars of the German Christmas carol Josef lieber, Josef mein, features a gentle rocking movement that continues throughout, suggesting Mary singing to baby Jesus asleep in her arms. Twenty years later, an altogether different set of circumstances prompted Brahms to compose Gestille Sehnsucht (Stilled Longing) for the Joachims. At this time, Joseph had become convinced—wrongly—of Amalie’s infidelity. In the hope of saving their troubled marriage, Brahms wrote a love song to a text by Friedrich Rückert. The poem uses recurring nature imagery, particularly soft wind in the trees, to soothe desire. It was Brahms’s hope that the Joachims would rediscover the fond feelings from their early years together in this song; Brahms even entertained the idea that the two might perform the song together. Unfortunately, the rift proved permanent, and the Joachims eventually divorced.
In both songs, the viola provides a second interpretive voice and partners equally with the mezzo. The similar range of both viola and mezzo provide an added richness and intimacy.
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- ALEX HO “Moon Allegory” (2025)
ALEX HO (b. 1993) Moon Allegory for mezzo-soprano, clarinet in B-flat, and piano (8’)
WORLD PREMIERE • CMNW COMMISSION
For the last 3,000 years, the goddess of the Moon, Chang’e, has been celebrated during the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is tradition to gather with loved ones to share mooncakes and give thanks to the prosperity and joy we have around us.
Moon Allegory is an imagined portrait of Chang’e. It is said that she was exiled to the moon having drunk the elixir of immortality. Separated from her husband for eternity, Chang’e symbolises the enchantment of the moon in its distant beauty, its beguiling otherworldliness, and its comforting omnipresence.
—© Alex Ho
- BRAHMS Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2 (1894)
I. Allegro amabile
II. Allegro appassionato
III. Andante con moto — AllegroIn the fall of 1890, Brahms decided that he was through composing. At 57, he felt that he had said the things he wanted to, and he intended that his String Quintet in G Major, completed the summer before, should be his last work. He began clearing out his files, destroying old manuscripts he did not want to keep and publishing a few pieces he did. But he was fairly sure there would be no new music.
Then in 1891 Brahms met the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld and was captivated by his playing. Mühlfeld (1856-1907) had originally joined the Meiningen orchestra as a violinist. He taught himself to play the clarinet and soon became the principal clarinetist of that orchestra and later of the Bayreuth orchestra. So enthusiastic was Brahms about Mühlfeld’s playing that he came out of retirement and began to compose for him: from 1891 came a Clarinet Trio and the great Clarinet Quintet. Three years later Brahms wrote his final instrumental works for Mühlfeld, two sonatas for clarinet and piano.
Both sonatas share the autumnal quality of Brahms’s late music, though the Second Sonata is the more immediately friendly of the two. The opening tempo marking, Allegro amabile, sets the tone for the entire work, for this is indeed music full of love. The clarinet enters immediately with a lyric theme that seems to flow endlessly, and this quality of continuous lyricism extends throughout the movement. The poised and noble second subject (Brahms marks it sotto voce) helps maintain the mood of calm acceptance that characterizes this sonata. The Allegro appassionato is in the standard scherzo-and-trio form. The clarinet’s surging, twisting opening establishes the high energy level of this movement, and the trio section of characteristically Brahmsian nobility is all the more effective by contrast. The Andante con moto is a set of variations based on the clarinet’s opening theme. That theme undergoes four variations, all in 6/8 time, and then Brahms provides an unusual conclusion by shifting to 2/4 for the final variation and suddenly speeding the music up.—© Eric Bromberger
- VALERIE COLEMAN “Angels” (2025)
VALERIE COLEMAN (b. 1970) Angels for Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet & Piano
WORLD PREMIERE • CMNW COMMISSIONAngels for Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet & Piano (18’)
I. Colossus
II. Human Family
III. PrayerInspired by a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address that appeals to the “better angels of our nature,” Angels is a three-movement work calling for global healing for our times. There is a common thread of storytelling within each movement, which transforms into the stirring of resiliency through anthems (by way of simple songs and driving grooves) meant to reach all walks of life.
The first movement, Colossus, sets and amplifies the words from poet Emma Lazarus’s iconic poem, “The New Colossus,” whose words were inscribed on a plaque inside the statue’s pedestal in 1903. A siren of emergency from the clarinet begins the moment, building from inaudible and distant into an ear-splitting presence. This wail is met with a war-like crash from the piano, whose force melts into an introductory cadenza depicting the remnants of the industrial age. The iron-forging sounds coalesce into a laboring march that brings in the mezzo-soprano and the first lines of the poem: “not like the brazen giants of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land.” The brutal yet profitable conditions and apathy is challenged by “A mighty woman with a torch whose flame is the imprisoned lightning.” Whereas the poem brings into focus the contrasts between conquerors and the statues’ compassionate identity as “Mother of Exiles,” the somber, low, and driving tone of the beginning eventually leads into a lighter current of water through a rippling groove of cooling and healing. The waves of the Atlantic lead into and crash against the base of the monument depicted twice by stepwise motion in clarinet and piano, the waves are met with the mezzo-soprano defiantly announcing, “Keep! Ancient lands, your storied pomp,” before subsiding into the last section of the poem, which is perhaps one of the most familiar moments in American literature:
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, the homeless, tempest-rosy to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!Unleashing the ferocity between clarinet and piano within Human Family, the second movement tour-de-force, gave me the opportunity to address the cruelties of the world and how it has led to a time of divisiveness and trauma. However, it would be too easy to incorrectly label this fiery movement as an angry work. I hope to challenge the listener to instead find the message of hope through the lens of life-preserving determination, courage, resiliency, and defiance. A quieter contemplative sound ends the work acknowledging the “better angels of nature” within us all, inspired by Afiori Trio member Anthony McGill’s powerful moment of “Two Knees.”
Imagining Fleur Barron’s voice humming a lullaby of love and safety to children all over the world was my inspiration behind the start of the third movement, called Prayer. This movement is a benediction of peace—through the embrace of humanity. To make its message clear, I chose to deliver (in contrast to a modern aesthetic that prizes intellectual complexity as sophistication) a simple melody powerfully sung without words but with intention, seven times—the divine number of completion.
—© Valerie Coleman
Commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with the generous support of the CMNW Commissioning Fund.
- KIAN RAVAEI “Gulistan” for Voice, Piano & Cello (2023)
KIAN RAVAEI (b. 1999) Gulistan (15-20’)
Commissioned by CMNW Commissioning Club, World Premiere 2023Part 1 (Sari Gelin/Wildwood Flower)
Part 2 (Saye Chaman/Seeds of Love)In Gulistan, I bring together traditional songs from my Western and Middle Eastern heritage. The title comes from the thirteenth-century Persian poet Sa’di, whose monumental work Gulistan (“flower garden” in Persian) uses flowers as a metaphor for wisdom. Folk songs may be said to represent the collective wisdom of a culture, preserving generations of values and worldviews. Inspired by Sa’di, I chose folk songs that make reference to flowers, each with different metaphorical implications.
Part 1 combines the traditional Azerbaijani song Sari Gelin with the American folk song Wildwood Flower. The former describes a man helplessly longing for his distant lover, while the latter tells the story of a heartbroken woman whose lover has abandoned her. I intertwine the songs, suggesting a dialogue between two inconsolable lovers, each pining for the other.
Part 2 unites two metaphorical commentaries on the nature of love: the traditional Iranian song Saye Chaman and the English folk song Seeds of Love. I set the Iranian melody in an American folk style, and the English melody in a style evoking Iranian classical music. The melodies are often presented in counterpoint—a kind of musical metaphor for the mixture of cultures in my own life.
This work was written expressly for mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, who shares in common with me a diverse heritage comprising Eastern and Western cultures.
—© Kian Ravaei
Artists
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Trio Afiori
Mezzo-soprano, Clarinet & Piano
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The boundary-defying Trio Afiori brings together three of today’s most dynamic artists—clarinetist Anthony McGill, mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, and pianist Gloria Chien—in a vivid exploration of bold storytelling, collaboration, music, and cultural heritage. The trio actively commissions and premieres works by today’s leading composers, including Valerie Coleman, Gabriel Kahane, Julia Adolphe, Alex Ho, and Kian Ravaei. Blending classical traditions with folk, jazz, and contemporary influences, the trio creates performances that are both intimate and daring, where new voices and timeless influences meet in conversation. Highlights of their 2025-26 season include a week-long residency and concerts at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and performances at Apex Concerts at the University of Nevada, Reno, Chamber Music Northwest, and Chamber Music at Beall - University of Oregon. Future seasons include extensive North American touring and a debut disc recording.
Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, is celebrated for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound and rich character” (The New York Times). A two-time Avery Fisher honoree and 2024 Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year, McGill has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Deeply committed to music education and social equity, he serves on the faculties of The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron is acclaimed for her magnetic stage presence and deeply communicative artistry. Known for her genre-spanning repertoire, she regularly appears with leading orchestras and opera houses, including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Festival, and Aix-en-Provence Festival. A passionate curator and advocate for cross-cultural dialogue, the Singaporean-British artist draws on her multicultural upbringing across Asia, Europe, and North America to craft performances that bridge languages, eras, and traditions.
Gloria Chien is a Taiwanese-born pianist whose artistry and entrepreneurial spirit have earned her acclaim as both performer and leader. She has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at major venues including Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, and Taipei’s National Concert Hall. Chien serves as co-artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest and Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University, combining her performance career with a deep commitment to fostering community through music.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien (currently selected)
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Fleur Barron
Mezzo-soprano
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Hailed as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron is a 2025 Grammy Award winner for Best Opera Recording, in which she sang the title role in Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater with the San Francisco Symphony under Esa-Pekka Salonen. A passionate interpreter of opera, symphonic works, and chamber music ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, Fleur is mentored by Barbara Hannigan.
Fleur opens her 2025-26 season with a debut at the Salzburg Festival, teaming up once again with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Peter Sellars for One Morning Turns into an Eternity, a staged creation in which Fleur performs Mahler’s “Abschied” from Das Lied von der Erde. Fleur continues her collaboration with Peter Sellars in a return to the title role in Kaija Saariho’s Adriana Mater for her debut at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. She also makes a house and role debut as Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Maggio Musicale in Florence; performs a staged version of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde directed by Lemi Ponifasio at The Barbican; George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, conducted by the composer, at the Tongyeong Festival in Korea; Piacere in Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with La Nuova Musica under David Bates at Wigmore Hall; and workshops for Bryce Dessner’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a monodrama being conceived for Fleur, directed by Kaneza Schaal.
Fleur’s 2025-2026 symphonic calendar reflects her artistic versatility across a broad range of repertoire. She debuts with the New York Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel in the world premiere of David Lang’s oratorio The Wealth of Nations; debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which also tours to the Salzburg Easter Festival; returns to both the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony at the invitation of Nathalie Stutzmann for Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s B Minor Mass. Fleur also solidifies her reputation as a Mahler interpreter, singing the Kindertotenlieder with both the Czech Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Torino; Das Lied von der Erde with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot and with the Britten Sinfonia; and Symphony No. 3 at both the Palau de la Musica Valencia and the Colorado Music Festival. Other symphonic performances include Alma Mahler’s Fünf Lieder with RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Respighi’s Il Tramonto with CBSO under Carlo Rizzi and Mason Bates’s Passage with Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero.
Highlights of the 2025-26 recital platform include a French song program with Kirill Gerstein at Festival Ravel; a U.S. tour with Trio Afiori, a voice-clarinet-piano trio she has newly formed with Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien. The trio has a residency and concert at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center before heading to Reno, Portland, and Eugene. With long-time duo partner Julius Drake, she gives concerts in Genoa, South Korea, Paris, London, Leeds, and Germany. Fleur joins the Australian String Quartet at the Helsinki Festival and the Parker Quartet at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. Fleur also undertakes a residency with LIFE Victoria Barcelona, for which she performs two recitals with Kunal Lahiry and coaches the young artists.
Fleur is committed to exploring the many ways music can facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and healing. She is passionate about curating inclusive chamber music programming that amplifies the voices of diverse communities. An active mentor and educator, Fleur has led vocal masterclasses and seminars at Manhattan School of Music, Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, the Malaysian Philharmonic, Temple University, and King’s College London, and has also mentored young musicians privately. Born to a British father and Singaporean mother in Northern Ireland, Fleur grew up in the Far East and has also spent considerable time in New York and the U.K. She is currently based in London.
Fleur holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with highest honours from Columbia University and a Masters in Vocal Performance from Manhattan School of Music.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien (currently selected)
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Gloria Chien
Piano & Artistic Director
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Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade.
In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in 2020. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic.
Most recently, Gloria was named Advisor of the newly launched Institute for Concert Artists at the New England Conservatory of Music. Gloria released two albums—her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.
Gloria received her bachelor, master’s, and doctoral degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien (currently selected)
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Anthony McGill
Clarinet
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Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound, and rich character” (The New York Times), clarinetist Anthony McGill enjoys a dynamic international solo and chamber music career and is Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—the first African American principal player in the organization’s history. He is the recipient of the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards.
McGill appears as a soloist with top orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. He performed alongside Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece by John Williams. As a chamber musician, McGill is a collaborator of the Brentano, Daedalus, Guarneri, JACK, Miró, Pacifica, Shanghai, Takács, and Tokyo Quartets, and performs with leading artists including Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Gloria Chien, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, Midori, Mitsuko Uchida, and Lang Lang.
He serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is the Artistic Director for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. He holds the William R. and Hyunah Yu Brody Distinguished Chair at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2020, McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees campaign protesting the death of George Floyd and historic racial injustice went viral.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien (currently selected)