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Americana: “Appalachian Spring”

Americana: “Appalachian Spring”

Join us for the opening concert of our 56th Summer Festival as we celebrate some of our rich chamber music heritage! Aaron Copland’s quintessentially American Appalachian Spring is featured in its original 13-instrument chamber arrangement, alongside Leonard Bernstein’s jazz-influenced Songs from West Side Story. The evening also includes Bluegrass-crossover legend Mark O’Connor’s and other composers’ interpretations of American folk tunes. Don’t miss this evening celebrating some of the most iconic voices in American music.

First United Methodist Church
Saturday, 6/27 • 7:00 pm

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Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN Songs from “West Side Story”

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–1990) Songs from West Side Story, Arr. Alistair Coleman

This arrangement of three songs from West Side Story—“Maria,” “Tonight,” and “America”—reimagines Leonard Bernstein’s iconic score through the distinctive lens of the chamber ensemble from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Scored for the same 13 instruments (with added percussion), the arrangement draws a subtle line between two composers whose artistic lives were deeply intertwined.

Before meeting in 1937, a teenage Bernstein regarded Copland as a musical hero, often performing his Piano Variations. After moving to New York in 1941, Bernstein found in Copland “my first friend in New York,” sparking a range of collaborations—from Bernstein’s transcription of El Salón México to an at-home recording of the two composers playing a four-hand reduction of Fancy Free for Jerome Robbins’s dance rehearsals. As Bernstein’s conducting career grew, he became a tireless advocate for Copland’s music through performances and commissions worldwide. In his later years, Bernstein often described Copland as the closest he came to a true composition teacher. Though separated by 18 years, they died within six weeks of each other in 1990.

In this arrangement, Bernstein’s iconic songs take on a more transparent character in this chamber context. “Maria” becomes intimate and suspended, its lyricism carried by spare, fleeting textures. In “Tonight,” the dialogue between Tony and Maria dovetails across the ensemble, amplifying the different voices and emotions of this duet. “America,” with its rhythmic vitality, finds a sharper edge in this lean setting, where its signature syncopations and buoyant energy come vividly to the fore.

Set in the sound world of Appalachian Spring, these arrangements seek to reveal a new perspective on Bernstein’s theatrical voice. We are very grateful to the Leonard Bernstein Office for their permission to create this arrangement.

—© Alistair Coleman

TRADITIONAL FOLK Selections

TRADITIONAL FOLK I’m Just a-Goin’ Over Jordan
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Deep River
TRADITIONAL FOLK Shenandoah

To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, Gloria Chien asked if I might include some American folksongs together with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Deep River, a work I first performed some years ago at CMNW. Coleridge-Taylor’s setting of this beloved spiritual was originally written for solo piano, part of a group of arrangements in which he treated African American spirituals with the same artistry he brought to his concert works. The deeply expressive melody speaks to a longing for freedom, with the “Deep River” symbolizing the Ohio River and the hoped-for crossing from slavery into liberation. The piece was later arranged for violin and piano by the great American violinist Maud Powell; the version heard tonight is my own adaptation of her arrangement for viola and piano.

The other pieces take me back to my earliest days with the viola. When I was a young student, my godfather, the violist Paul Doktor, gave me a book of his arrangements that became very dear to me: Solos for the Viola Player. Among them were I’m Just a-Goin’ Over Jordan, which likewise refers to crossing the “Jordan” River, and the beautiful folk song Shenandoah, often associated with travelers along the Missouri River. You can hear wonderful performances of these pieces by Paul Doktor on YouTube. It means a great deal to me that the viola heard on those recordings is the instrument I will be playing in tonight’s program.

—© Paul Neubauer

MARK O’CONNOR Selections

MARK O’CONNOR (b. 1961)

Appalachia Waltz (7’)

F. C.’s Jig (4’)

Fiddle player and composer Mark O’Connor (b. 1961) has built his career at the confluence of American folk, bluegrass, and classical music. Winner of three Grammy Awards, O’Connor’s staggering output includes nine concertos and appearances on over 450 albums.

In 1996, O’Connor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Edgar Meyer released Appalachia Waltz, a seminal album that topped the Billboard classical charts for seven months. Its title track, a gentle country waltz, is O’Connor’s best-known composition. “I say I wrote Appalachia Waltz in 20 minutes,” O’Connor recalls of this seemingly timeless melody, “but I also did play music for 35–40 years to get to the point to do that.”

The initials in F. C.’s Jig, a song written at Yo-Yo Ma’s request for the same album, stand for “Fiddle Concerto,” alluding to the tune’s origin in O’Connor’s 1990 Violin Concerto. This virtuosic, dynamic duet is a fine example of what O’Connor calls “American Classical string music.” 

—© Ethan Allred

AARON COPLAND Appalachian Spring (1944)

AARON COPLAND Appalachian Spring (1944)

Aaron Copland wrote many of the best-known works of his Americana period during World War II. Drawing on symbols deeply ingrained in American culture, works like Fanfare for the Common Man and Lincoln Portrait deftly combined Copland’s leftist politics and American nationalism. It was Copland’s 1943–1944 collaboration with choreographer Martha Graham, Appalachian Spring, however, that made the strongest impact on the public.

Graham, a native of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, was one of the great choreographers of the 20th century. Copland recalled, “Nobody else seems quite like Martha…there’s something prim and restrained, simple yet strong, about her which one tends to think of as American.”

The story of Appalachian Spring takes place in rural Pennsylvania, where a newlywed couple prepares to make a life for themselves on the American frontier. The central focus of Copland’s score is a theme and variations on “Simple Gifts,” a song from the pacifist Shaker community of 19th century New England. Though unsung, the song’s lyrics emphasize one of the ballet’s primary themes: “’Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free.”

Indeed, it is the folk-like simplicity of Copland’s music that has made it so enduringly popular. His lush, evocative sounds captured the United States’ landscape and historical values at a time when modern warfare threatened to eclipse any hold on those traditions. Graham’s story, meanwhile, presented an egalitarian vision of American culture in stark opposition to fascism; men and women come together and share the burden of building their idealistic frontier community.

Copland would later arrange Appalachian Spring for full orchestra, but he preferred the original chamber instrumentation’s “clarity,” describing it as “closer to my original conception than the more opulent orchestrated version.”

—© Ethan Allred

Artists

Jessica Bodner Jessica Bodner Viola

Jessica Bodner, described by The New York Times as a “soulful soloist,” is the violist of the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet. A native of Houston, TX, Jessica began her musical studies on the violin at the age of two, then switched to the viola at the age of twelve because of her love of the deeper sonority.

Ms. Bodner has recently appeared at venues such as Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Library of Congress, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Wigmore Hall (London), Musikverein (Vienna), Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Seoul Arts Center, and has appeared at festivals including Chamber Music Northwest, Chamberfest Cleveland, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Yellow Barn, Perigord Noir in France, Monte Carlo Spring Arts Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Istanbul’s Cemal Recit Rey, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hitzacker, and Heidelberg String Quartet Festival. As a member of the Parker Quartet, she has recorded for ECM, Zig-Zag Territoires, Nimbus, and Naxos.

Recent collaborators include mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, clarinetists Charles Neidich and Jörg Widmann, pianists Menahem Pressler, Shai Wosner, Gloria Chien, and Orion Weiss, violinists Soovin Kim and Donald Weilerstein, violists Kim Kashkashian and Roger Tapping, cellists Deborah Pae, Marcy Rosen, Natasha Brofsky, and Paul Katz, and percussionist Ian Rosenbaum.

Jessica is a faculty member of Harvard University’s Department of Music as Professor of the Practice in conjunction with the Parker Quartet’s appointment as Blodgett Quartet-in-Residence. She has held visiting faculty positions at the New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music, served as faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Yellow Barn Festival, and has given masterclasses at institutions such as Eastman School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory, Amherst College, University of Minnesota, and at the El Sistema program in Venezuela.

Outside of music, Jessica enjoys cooking, running, practicing yoga, and hiking with her husband, violinist Daniel Chong, their son, Cole, and their vizsla, Bodie.

 

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Victor Caccese Victor Caccese Percussion

Victor Caccese is a founding member of the Brooklyn-based quartet Sandbox Percussion and a Grammy-nominated percussionist. With Sandbox, he has performed worldwide and taught at institutions such as the Peabody Conservatory, the Curtis Institute, Yale School of Music, Michigan State University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Kansas. He has collaborated with composers such as Amy Beth Kirsten, Andy Akiho, David Crowell, James Wood, John Luther Adams, and Thomas Kotcheff. Also a composer and arranger, he has written several pieces for percussion which have been performed by Sandbox multiple times throughout the U.S. Caccese holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music and serves on faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory as a percussion instructor and Ensemble-in-Residence with Sandbox Percussion. He is also on faculty at the New School College of the Performing Arts and Peabody Conservatory and has served as visiting artist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with Sandbox Percussion.

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Gloria Chien Gloria Chien Piano & Artistic Director

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 Phillips Collection, 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. Most recently, she 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.

Chien studied extensively 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.

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Marilyn de Oliveira Marilyn de Oliveira Cello

Brazilian cellist Marilyn de Oliveira enjoys an active career as a symphonic and chamber musician. Since joining the Oregon Symphony as the Assistant Principal cellist in 2009, Marilyn has been a founding member of Mousai Remix and Pyxis String Quartets, cellist of Third Angle and 45th Parallel Universe, and a guest with prestigious festivals such as Grand Teton Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, and Chamber Music Northwest.

In addition to her many performance engagements, Mrs. de Oliveira is also an educator, orchestral coach, and music activist. She is part of the music faculty at Reed College, maintains a private studio with graduates now in renowned music schools worldwide, and founded the Oregon Symphony Musician’s Caroling Project— a collaborative effort which has brought music to those in need during the holidays for over a decade.

Prior to joining the OSO, Marilyn served as Acting Assistant Principal cellist and section member of the San Antonio Symphony and was a fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami, FL. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University, her Master of Music degree at Rice University, and was the Bronze Award Winner in the senior division of The Sphinx Competition in 2006.


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Isabelle Ai Durrenberger Isabelle Ai Durrenberger Violin

American violinist Isabelle Ai Durrenberger is praised for her imaginative, striking performances and her ability to communicate with sincere artistry. Currently based in New York City, Isabelle was recently appointed first violinist of the renowned Aeolus Quartet and was a 2023-25 fellow of Carnegie Hall’s renowned Ensemble Connect program. Isabelle also enjoys exploring music through teaching: she has a private violin studio in New York City and serves on the violin faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston where she teaches violin and coaches chamber music.

An avid chamber musician, Isabelle is recognized nationally for her unique collaborative instincts. Her 2025-26 season features solo and collaborative invitations including performances with the Boston Chamber Music Society, tours with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall (NYC), collaboration with NYC dance company Dual Rivet at Art Bath, and appearances with Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, The Knights, the Grammy-nominated conductorless chamber orchestra, A Far Cry (Boston), and Agarita in San Antonio.

In 2022, she completed her graduate studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Soovin Kim and Don Weilerstein. Isabelle spent this summer performing at Chamber Music Northwest, with ECCO, at Tippet Rise, Lake Champlain Chamber Music, VIVO Festival in Columbus, OH, and in San Antonio with Agarita.

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Jose Franch-Ballester Jose Franch-Ballester Clarinet

The multi-award-winning Spanish clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester is recognized as one of the leading classical soloists, chamber musicians, and music educators of our time. Acclaimed for his “technical wizardry and tireless enthusiasm” (The New York Times), he has forged an international career marked by artistic excellence and versatility.

A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of both Young Concert Artists and Astral Artists auditions, Franch-Ballester has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, BBC Concert Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, London Sinfonia, Orquesta de Radio Televisión Española, Orquesta Nacional de México, and Orquesta de Valencia, among many others. He performs widely throughout Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia.

He’s an active and committed chamber musician who appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and serves as Principal Clarinet of the Santa Barbara-based Camerata Pacifica. He has collaborated with distinguished ensembles including the Pacifica, Dover, Miró, American, St. Lawrence, Jupiter, and Modigliani String Quartets.

Franch-Ballester has played a significant role in expanding the clarinet repertoire, commissioning and premiering works by composers such as Jake Heggie, Oscar Navarro, Paul Schoenfield, Clarice Assad, William Bolcom, George Tsontakis, and Huang Ruo.

He has served since 2017 as Associate Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and is a frequent guest artist at institutions worldwide.

His recordings appear on Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Music, Harmonia Mundi, and Itinerant Classics. Born in Moncofa, Spain, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and is a Backun Artist, performing on CG Carbon Clarinets.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Yoko Greeney Yoko Greeney Piano

Collaborative pianist and visionary arts advocate Yoko Greeney has been hailed as “one of the most significant members of Portland’s classical music scene” (Oregon ArtsWatch). Her multifaceted career—spanning performing, directing, program curating, teaching, and community-based work—is rooted in a deep commitment to artistic excellence and arts accessibility.

At the heart of Greeney’s work is collaboration—onstage and beyond. Celebrated for her sensitivity and stylistic range, she is a sought-after collaborative pianist who has performed at numerous venues and music festivals. Since settling in Portland, Oregon in 2010, she has shared the stage with a wide range of organizations, including the Oregon Symphony, Chamber Music Northwest, 45th Parallel Universe, Oregon Ballet Theatre, BodyVox, and Third Angle New Music, in addition to numerous live performances and recording projects with All Classical Radio.

A passionate advocate for arts accessibility, in 2022 Greeney co-founded SoundsTruck NW, a nonprofit organization that brings outdoor live music concerts directly to neighborhoods and communities where access is limited by utilizing its custom-built, solar-powered mobile stage. Described as “revolutionizing Portland’s concert landscape” (The Oregonian), SoundsTruck NW has been recognized internationally for its social impact, including being named a finalist for the 2024 SXSW Innovation Awards in Urban Design and a two-time prize winner at the 2024 International Sound Awards in Hamburg, Germany.

Originally from Osaka, Japan, Greeney has followed a global path—living and working in cities across Japan, Mexico, and the United States—before making Portland her home. She holds a Master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University and currently teaches at Lewis & Clark College.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Clive Greensmith Clive Greensmith Cello

Former Principal Cellist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Clive Greensmith has a distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. From 1999 until 2013 he was a member of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet, giving over 100 performances each year in the most prestigious international venues. As a soloist, he has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI Orchestra of Rome. Over 25 years, he has built up a catalogue of landmark recordings, most notably the complete Beethoven string quartet cycle for Harmonia Mundi with the Tokyo String Quartet. He was appointed professor at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2013. In 2019, he became the Artistic Director of the Nevada Chamber Music Festival and was appointed director of chamber music masterclasses at the Chigiana International Summer Academy in Siena, Italy. He regularly performs at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and in 2026 will join the faculty of the Kirishima International Festival. He performs on a cello made in 2021 by Stefano Gibertoni & Valerio Nalin in Milan and is a Pirastro Strings Artist.

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Braizahn Jones Braizahn Jones Bass

Braizahn Jones is a double bassist, educator, and entrepreneur based in Portland, Oregon. He serves as Assistant Principal Bass of the Oregon Symphony and is on the faculty at Portland State University and Reed College. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he maintains a multifaceted career spanning orchestral performance, chamber music, and teaching.

As an orchestral musician, Jones has appeared extensively as a substitute with major ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony, and has performed at festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Bellingham Music Festival, and the Pacific Music Institute. He has performed with many of today’s leading conductors and soloists.

Jones has been on the faculty of the National Orchestral Institute since 2019. He is the founder of Umami Bass, an international workshop and performance initiative dedicated to bass pedagogy and community building. The project has hosted successful programs in Japan and the United States, with further expansion underway.

Known for his precise, detail-oriented teaching, Jones works with students at all levels to develop sound musical clarity, and artistic confidence. Through his work as a performer, teacher, and organizer, Jones aims to foster musical environments that value depth, curiosity, and meaningful collaboration.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Hye-Jin Kim Hye-Jin Kim Violin

Violinist Hye-Jin Kim is renowned for her musical sensitivity and deeply engaging performances that transport audiences beyond technical virtuosity. Her distinguished career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician includes winning First Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition at age nineteen and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Kim has performed as soloist with major orchestras worldwide, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, New Haven Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra (UK), Seoul Philharmonic (Korea), Pan Asia Symphony (Hong Kong), and Hannover Chamber Orchestra (Germany). She has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Kimmel Center Verizon Hall, the Kravis Center, Salzburg’s Mirabel Schloss, and London’s St. John’s Smith Square and Wigmore Hall. At the invitation of Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, she served as a cultural representative through concerts and outreach engagements in Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, including performances at the U.N. Headquarters in Geneva and New York.

A passionate chamber musician, Kim has appeared at renowned festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Four Seasons, Music from Angel Fire, Music@Menlo, Taos School of Music, Seoul Spring, Bridgehampton, Music in the Vineyards, and Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music in England. Deeply committed to nurturing young talent, she frequently presents masterclasses throughout the United States and founded the Summer Chamber Music Institute at East Carolina University for gifted pre-college musicians. Her debut CD, From the Homeland, recorded with pianist Ieva Jokūbavičiūtė, features works by Debussy, Smetana, Sibelius, and Janáček. American Record Guide praised the recording as “superb—warm, polished, expressive.”

Born in Seoul, Korea, Kim entered the Curtis Institute of Music at age 14 and completed her Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Violin at East Carolina University and teaches at Taos School of Music as a member of the Cooperstown Quartet. Kim is the Founder and Artistic Director of Lullaby Dreams, a nonprofit organization bringing the healing power of music to babies, families, and medical staff in NICUs and children’s hospitals.

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Jessica Lee Jessica Lee Violin

Violinist Jessica Lee has built a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue, Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra until the 2023-2024 season, and now as Associate Concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony. She was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and has been hailed as “a soloist which one should make a special effort to hear, wherever she plays.” Her international appearances include solo performances with the Plzen Philharmonic, Gangnam Symphony, Malaysia Festival Orchestra, and at the Rudolfinum in Prague. At home, she has appeared with orchestras such as the Houston, Grand Rapids, and Spokane symphonies. 

Jessica has performed in recital at venues including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Ravinia “Rising Stars,” the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and the Kennedy Center.

A long-time member of the Johannes Quartet as well as of The Bowers Program (formerly the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two), Jessica has also toured frequently with Musicians from Marlboro, including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Gardner Museum, and with the Guarneri Quartet in their farewell season.  Her chamber music festival appearances include Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton, Santa Fe, Seoul Spring, Caramoor, Olympic, and Music@Menlo. She also put together a six-video chamber music series during the pandemic which was a collaboration between the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Clinic to bring chamber music from iconic spaces in Cleveland to the greater Cleveland community.

Jessica has always had a passion for teaching and has served on the faculties of Vassar College, Oberlin College, as Head of the Violin Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and currently as Distinguished Artist at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer College. She was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen following studies with Weigang Li, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree under Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian. She completed her studies for a Master’s degree at the Juilliard School.

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Kristin Lee Kristin Lee Violin

Violinist Kristin Lee, celebrated as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director, has been praised by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for her “flawless technique” and “artistic maturity,” and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”

As a soloist, Lee has appeared with major orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai‘i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony of China, and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of the Dominican Republic. In 2026, she makes her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut with her program American Sketches, joined by pianist John Novacek and debuts with the Baltimore Symphony.

A dedicated chamber musician, Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing frequently at Lincoln Center and on tour. She is also a committed educator, having served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and currently serving as a Co-Director of Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Emerald City Music, a boundary-breaking chamber music series in Washington state.

Lee’s numerous honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant among other top prizes in major international competitions. Born in Seoul, she holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Her 1759 Gennaro Gagliano violin is generously on loan from Paul and Linda Gridley.

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David McCarroll David McCarroll Violin

David McCarroll was appointed concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2022, holding the Rachel Mellon Walton Concertmaster Chair. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestras including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich (Simone Young, Grafenegg), Hong Kong Sinfonietta (Christoph Poppen), and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Manfred Honeck). He regularly performs in major concert halls such as Konzerthaus Berlin, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, 92nd Street Y, and Carnegie Hall.

Also an active chamber musician, he served from 2015 to 2022 as the violinist of the renowned Vienna Piano Trio with whom he toured and recorded extensively. The Trio’s recording of the complete Brahms piano trios was awarded the 2017 Echo Klassik prize and in 2020 the Trio’s Beethoven recording won the Opus Klassik award.

Recent performances have included Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Pittsburgh premiere of Schumann’s Violin Concerto, touring with Musicians from Marlboro, and performances of György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments for violin and soprano.

In demand as a teacher, David is on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music. He has previously taught at Salzburg’s Mozarteum University and has given masterclasses in violin and chamber music at Ravinia’s Steans Institute, at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and at the San Francisco Conservatory.

David plays a 1761 violin made by A&J Gagliano.

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Carin Miller Carin Miller Bassoon

Carin Miller is Principal Bassoon with the Oregon Symphony and previously held principal bassoon positions with the Jacksonville and Shreveport Symphony Orchestras. Miller has frequently been invited to perform as guest principal bassoon with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as the Oregon Bach Festival and Grant Park Festival Orchestras.

Locally she enjoys performing chamber music with the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Northwest, Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Classical Up Close, and 45th Parallel Universe. She has given recitals through Chatter PDX, Friends of Chamber Music, and All Classical Radio 89.9 FM, and was recently featured as soloist with the Oregon Symphony.

A native of Queens, New York, Miller holds a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, a Master of Music from Rice University, and an Advanced Certificate from the University of Southern California. Her teachers include Whitney Crockett, Frank Morelli, Stephen Maxym, and Benjamin Kamins.

A passionate educator, Miller is the Founder and Director of the online symposium Bassoons Without Borders and has recently served as faculty at Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, Sarasota Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, and the National Youth Orchestra of Carnegie Hall. She has presented masterclasses for the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Schulich School of Music at McGill University, and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory, and coaches for the Portland Youth Philharmonic and Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Miller had the great privilege of serving for a year as visiting Adjunct Associate Professor of Bassoon at Indiana University in 2021-2022 and has served on the board of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Miller is currently Adjunct Professor at Oregon State University and Portland State University, as well as curating a private teaching studio from her home in Portland, Oregon.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Paul Neubauer Paul Neubauer Viola

Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing led The New York Times to call him “a master musician.” In 2025 he will release two albums for First Hand Records that feature the final works of two great composers: an all-Bartók album including the revised version of the viola concerto, and a Shostakovich recording including the monumental viola sonata.

At age 21, Mr. Neubauer was appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic, and he held that position for six years. He has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; Chicago, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Mariinsky, Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras.

He has also premiered viola concertos by Béla Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Reinhold Glière, Gordon Jacob, Henri Lazarof, Robert Suter, Joel Phillip Friedman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Detlev Müller-Siemens, David Ott, Krzysztof Penderecki, Tobias Picker, and Joan Tower. He performs with SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, with a wide range of repertoire including salon style songs.

He has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning, 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.

Mr. Neubauer appears with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College

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Tara Helen O’Connor Tara Helen O’Connor Flute

Tara Helen O’Connor, who Art Mag has said “so embodies perfection on the flute that you’ll forget she is human,” is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a two-time Grammy Award nominee, and a recipient of the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. A Wm.S. Haynes artist, she is a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She is professor of flute at the Yale School of Music and is the Artistic Director of the “Music from Angel Fire” Festival and in 2026, the Essex Winter Series.

Tara has also appeared on numerous film and television soundtracks including Barbie, Respect, The Joker, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Only Murders in the Building, and Schmigadoon! Festival appearances include the Bravo! Vail festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music, the Great Mountains Music Festival, and Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival.

A charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era, O’Connor has collaborated with such distinguished artists as vocalists Jennifer Johnson Cano, Susanna Phillips and Dawn Upshaw, violinist Jaime Laredo, clarinetist David Shifrin, guitarist Eliot Fisk, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Peter Serkin, and Stephen Prutsman, and with such revered ensembles as the Emerson, Orion, and St. Lawrence string quartets.

Tara has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings and Bridge Records.

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Suggested Event

6/25  •  8:00 pm Reed College, Kaul Auditorium Americana: “Appalachian Spring”   Americana: “Appalachian Spring”



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