FREE Open Rehearsal: ALISTAIR COLEMAN “Ghost Art Canticles”
Go behind the scenes and observe CMNW’s world-class musicians working together to put the finishing touches on the music for upcoming performances.
Summer Festival artists take the stage to rehearse Alistair Coleman’s Ghost Art Canticles for string quartet and double bass-commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest!
An informal Q&A follows the rehearsal.
All Open Rehearsals are sponsored by Debbie & George Olsen.
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Wednesday, 7/16 • 11:00 am
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- ALISTAIR COLEMAN (b. 1998) “Ghost Art Canticles” for String Quartet & Double Bass (2025)
ALISTAIR COLEMAN (b. 1998)
Ghost Art Canticles for String Quartet & Double Bass (2025)I. Sunburst
II. Evensong
III. PerpetuaWORLD PREMIERE | CMNW COMMISSION
Ghost Art Canticles, composed for String Quartet and Double Bass, is inspired by Austin, the final work of American artist Ellsworth Kelly. The only building Kelly ever designed, Austin takes the form of a chapel with vibrant stained-glass windows, a cross-shaped layout, 12 abstract panels evocative of the Stations of the Cross, and other religious allusions. However, Kelly conceived Austin as a “secular chapel,” stripping away sacred function to create “a place of calm and light.” It embodies what The New Yorker describes as Kelly’s lifelong pursuit of Ghost Art: “a translation from reality into something fully real, itself, only different.”
Growing up singing in a local church choir, one of my earliest memories was hearing Bach’s organ music fill the church with a roar of sound. Writing a new piece for Chamber Music Northwest’s festival celebrating Bach made me reflect on how deeply his music, like mine, was influenced by the church. While Bach primarily wrote for liturgical settings, his music is now performed in concert halls, allowing performers and listeners to draw new, secular meanings. I see a parallel in Kelly’s Austin—a space where traces of religious symbols remain, but their purpose has shifted. Ghost Art Canticles imagines music inhabiting this in-between space, drawing from both Kelly and Bach, where spiritual symbols become afterimages—ghosts of their former selves—that inspire new meanings.
The first movement, Sunburst, begins with a simple idea that gradually expands through canons, echoing Bach’s contrapuntal techniques and shifting light patterns in Austin. The second movement, Evensong, is a chorale, a direct nod to Bach’s meditative works. The final movement, Perpetua, spins out in relentless motion, evoking the restless play of color and light within the chapel. This title refers to both moto perpetuo (perpetual motion) and lux perpetua, an “everlasting light” in sacred texts—an idea that reflects Bach’s timeless influence on my music and others.
Ghost Art Canticles was commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest with generous support from Ravi Vedanayagam & Ursula Luckert. The piece is written for, and dedicated to, Nina Bernat and the Viano Quartet.
—© Alistair Coleman
Artists
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Nina Bernat
Bass
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American double bassist Nina Bernat, acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity, emerges onto the world stage with awards and accolades, thrilling audiences everywhere. She was hailed by Star Tribune as a “standout” for her recent concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, praising her performance as “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical…technically precise and impressively emotive.”
In 2023, Nina was honored as a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the CAG Elmaleh Competition. Recent 1st prizes include the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, the Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the 2019 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition.
Engaged in all aspects of double bass performance, she has been invited to perform as guest principal bassist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic, serving under the batons of conductors such as András Schiff and Osmo Vänskä. Nina is in demand as a passionate chamber musician. She began her involvement with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as a member of the Bowers Program in 2025. She has spent summers at Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Music@Menlo, and Chamber Music Northwest.
She is quickly becoming a sought-after pedagogue, having given masterclasses at the Colburn School, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and University of Texas at Austin, among others. She is on the faculty of Stony Brook University.
Nina performs on an instrument passed down from her father, Mark Bernat, attributed to Guadagnini.
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Alistair Coleman
Composer
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Alistair Coleman is a composer from Maryland and the 2023–25 Composer-in-Residence of Young Concert Artists. Recent commissions include concertos for violinist Soovin Kim and cellist Zuill Bailey, a trombone sonata for Joseph Alessi (premiered on tour in China and Japan), and Moonshot, premiered by the Abeo Quartet in collaboration with Glenstone Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
The 2024–25 season features premieres at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall by percussionist Michael Yeung, a marimba concerto for Ji-Su Jung, and a commission from the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Other projects include a European tour of a new chamber work for Philharmonische Gesellschaft Bremen’s 200th anniversary and a bass quintet for the Viano Quartet and Nina Bernat, commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest.
Recent highlights include performances by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and National Philharmonic; collaborations with pianists Alessio Bax, Gloria Chien, Avery Gagliano, and Janice Carissa in collaboration with Steinway; and commissions from Chamber Music Lexington and the Lake Champlain Festival. He has received three ASCAP Morton Gould Awards as well as prizes from Juilliard, American Composers Forum, the Society for New Music, and NPR.
In 2020, he founded a composition mentorship program with the Opportunity Music Project, in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s PlayUSA. He also serves on the Curtis Institute’s Musical Studies Faculty and teaches at Hidden Valley’s Emerging Composers Intensive.
A graduate of Curtis and Juilliard, Alistair begins PhD studies at Princeton University as a Roger Sessions Fellow in fall 2025.
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Aiden Kane
Viola
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American violist Aiden Kane has performed in North America, Europe, and Asia as a current member of the Viano Quartet, First Prize Laureates of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and recipients of the 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant.
After leaving violin for the dark side, Aiden first studied viola with Daniel Foster through the National Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Fellowship Program. She subsequently earned a Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees (in viola performance and chamber music studies, respectively) at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Paul Coletti. During her undergraduate years at Colburn, Aiden discovered her love for quartet life as the violist of the Calla Quartet, which received the Silver medal at the 2015 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and presented Colburn’s inaugural Musical Encounters outreach program. Since she joined the Viano Quartet, Viano has won international competitions, weathered a pandemic, moved from one coast to another, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence program, and joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program—and Aiden loves quartet life even more for it all.
When she isn’t playing the viola, Aiden enjoys hiking, composing, and keeping an assortment of remarkably self-reliant houseplants.
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Lucy Wang
Violin
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Canadian violinist Lucy Wang is a recipient of the prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a founding member of the Viano Quartet. Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the quartet rose to international acclaim as First Prize winners of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and are Bowers Artists at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2024–2027.
Lucy performs widely across North America, Europe, and Asia, and collaborates with leading artists such as pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Sir Stephen Hough, and Jon Kimura Parker, violinists James Ehnes and Pinchas Zukerman, guitarist Milos Karadaglic, soprano Fleur Barron, mandolinist Avi Avital, and singer-songwriter Vienna Teng. She has performed at renowned venues including London’s Southbank Centre, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, and Hong Kong City Hall Theatre.
Committed to both core and contemporary repertoire, Lucy regularly collaborates with leading composers including Sir Stephen Hough, Kevin Lau, and Caroline Shaw, and will premiere a new work by Reena Esmail in 2026. She has mentored young artists at institutions such as Music@Menlo, the Colburn Academy, Stanford University, the University of Victoria, Northwestern University, and Duke University.
Her discography includes Voyager (Platoon Records, 2025) and Portraits (Curtis Studio, 2023), featured on CBC, BBC, and Performance Today. She maintains a vibrant social media presence with 50 million views and 600,000 followers worldwide.
Lucy graduated from the Curtis Institute and the Colburn Conservatory, where she studied with Martin Beaver. She plays on the ca. 1700 Bell Giovanni Tononi violin, generously on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Tate Zawadiuk
Cello
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Canadian cellist Tate Zawadiuk is known for connecting with audiences through his dynamic and zestful musicianship. He’s a founding member of the Viano Quartet, recipients of the 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant and currently in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program (2024-2027). The quartet won first prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and has performed on some of the world’s most iconic stages, including Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Konzerthaus, and Flagey.
As a soloist, Tate has performed with orchestras like the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra. He’s also had the chance to collaborate with incredible musicians like Emanuel Ax, James Ehnes, Marc-André Hamelin, and Johannes Moser.
Whether playing for a crowd of thousands or a small group of chamber music fans, Tate’s focus is always on sharing a story through his music that hopefully resonates with each listener. Tate studied at the Curtis Institute of Music as part of the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence and earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he trained with Clive Greensmith and Ronald Leonard. In his spare time, Tate enjoys running, brewing specialty coffee, and is most likely somewhere trying on a new suit.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Hao Zhou
Violin
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“Personal, impassioned, courageous, and unostentatiously brilliant” (Musical America), American violinist Hao Zhou rose to international acclaim as both the Grand Laureate and Audience Favorite of the 2019 Concours Musical International de Montréal and a First Prize winner of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. In 2025, he was a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.
An accomplished soloist and chamber musician, Hao made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 12. He made solo appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Downey Symphony Orchestra, and Peninsula Symphony Orchestra alongside conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alexander Shelley, and Thierry Fischer. Hao is a founding member of the award-winning Viano Quartet, in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program from 2024-2027, and has performed worldwide alongside such internationally distinguished artists as Emanuel Ax, Roberto Diaz, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Marc André-Hamelin.
Hao is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and has been invited to perform at the Kronberg Academy Festival. He was the first recipient of the Frances Rosen Violin Prize at the Colburn Conservatory, where he studied with Martin Beaver and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Hao plays on a 1910 Vincenzo Postiglione violin, on generous loan from Nathan Cole.
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Viano Quartet
String Quartet
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Lucy Wang, violin
Hao Zhou, violin
Aiden Kane, viola
Tate Zawadiuk, celloPraised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet has quickly soared to international acclaim as one of the most dynamic and in-demand string quartets of their generation. The ensemble has captivated audiences worldwide ever since they were awarded First Prize at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, with appearances at renowned venues such as Lincoln Center in New York, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, Hong Kong’s City Hall, and London’s Wigmore Hall. The Viano Quartet are Bowers Program Artists at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2024–2027.
Viano Quartet’s 2025–26 season includes debut performances at London’s Southbank Centre, the Frick Collection in New York, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Vivo Performing Arts, Coast Live Music, Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, Apex Concerts, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the Fortas Series at the Kennedy Center, Premiere Performances HK, and a mainstage full recital debut at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. This season also features collaborations with Avi Avital, Sir Stephen Hough, Gilbert Kalish, Anthony McGill, Miloš Karadaglić, and Vienna Teng. The quartet will premiere a newly written piece by composer Reena Esmail in the summer of 2026.
In 2025, the quartet received the Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as released their first full-length album, Voyager, with Apple Music/Platoon Records.
The Viano Quartet was formed in Los Angeles at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in 2015. The quartet is grateful for the unwavering support from their mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory.
Upcoming Concerts & Events