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FREE Open Rehearsal: Donghoon Shin “Sonnets to Orpheus”

FREE Open Rehearsal: Donghoon Shin “Sonnets to Orpheus”

Go behind the scenes and observe Chamber Music Northwest’s world-class musicians working together to put the finishing touches on the music for upcoming performances. CMNW Summer Festival artists take the stage to rehearse a new CMNW-commissioned premiere by Donghoon Shin, Sonnets to Orpheus.

An informal Q&A follows the rehearsal.

Sponsored by Debbie & George Olsen.

Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Wednesday, 7/8 • 12:00 pm

Free

Program

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

DONGHOON SHIN “Sonnets to Orpheus” U.S. Premiere

DONGHOON SHIN (b.1983) Sonnets to Orpheus (15’)

U.S. Premiere | CMNW Co-Commission

Sonnets to Orpheus was composed for string quartet and countertenor (or alternatively mezzo-soprano), inspired by and using the text of Rilke’s work of the same name.

This song cycle, consisting of five movements, sets excerpts from Sonnets I-I, II, IX, XXVI, and XXV. Through these texts, it seeks to shape a narrative reflecting the emotional progression found in Rilke’s original poetry—namely, grief and anger in the face of death, resignation, reconciliation with it, and ultimately a transcendence beyond life.

—© Donghoon Shin

Artists

Jennifer Frautschi Jennifer Frautschi Violin

Two-time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient violinist Jennifer Frautschi has appeared as soloist with innumerable orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and St Paul Chamber Orchestra. She is an artist-member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and has appeared as chamber musician at Chamber Music Northwest, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise Art Center, Toronto Summer Music, and the Bridgehampton, Cape Cod, Charlottesville, Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, Moab, Ojai, Salt Bay, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Spoleto Festivals. Her extensive discography for the Albany, Artek, and Naxos labels includes the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerti with the Seattle Symphony. Born in Pasadena, California, Jennifer attended the Colburn School, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. She performs on a 1722 Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the “ex-Cadiz,” on generous loan from a private American foundation with support from Rare Violins in Consortium. She teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Alexander Hersh Alexander Hersh Cello

A top laureate of the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition, Alexander Hersh is widely recognized as one of the most creative and versatile cellists of his generation. Praised for his 2022 Carnegie Hall debut recital, he has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the Houston Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Symphony, and Boston POPS, and received top prizes from the Pro Musicis International Award, Astral Artists National Auditions, and Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant.

An avid chamber musician, Hersh has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and performed at leading festivals, including Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Ravinia, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Lucerne, and IMS Prussia Cove. He is Co-Artistic Director of NEXUS Chamber Music, an artist-led collective dedicated to breaking down the barriers for how classical music is experienced through intimate performances, multimedia projects, and new commissions.

His debut album, ABSINTHE (2023) received critical acclaim, and he was recently featured on PBS’s Now Hear This series in an episode exploring the music of Boccherini.

A fourth-generation string player, Hersh’s parents are both active professional violinists; his grandfather, Paul Hersh, taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 49 years and his great-grandfather, Ralph Hersh, was a member of the WQXR and Stuyvesant String Quartets and Principal Violist of the Dallas and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.

Raised in Chicago, Hersh began playing the cello at the age of five. He received his B.M. and M.M. from New England Conservatory and continued his studies in Berlin at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik. His teachers have included Laurence Lesser, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Kim Kashkashian, Nicolas Altstaedt, and Paul Katz. He plays a G.B. Rogeri cello, courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins. In his spare time he composes original music and creates short films that marry classical music with narrative, viewable on his YouTube channel: @AlexanderHersh.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Jennifer Johnson Cano Jennifer Johnson Cano Mezzo-soprano

Jennifer Johnson Cano’s portrayal of Michele in the recent premiere of The Righteous at Santa Fe Opera earned her accolades from The New York Times, which noted how she “voluptuously captured” the pain and strength of her character; Opera Today called Ms. Cano’s arias in The Righteous “flawless combinations of radiant, poised, attractive singing invested with heartfelt delivery.”
After creating the role of Michele in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’s The Righteous with Santa Fe Opera in summer 2024, she was invited back to sing the role of Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw as well as Schwertleite in Wagner’s Die Walküre in summer of 2025. Her 2025-2026 season includes engagements with the Chicago, San Francisco, Colorado, and Seattle Symphonies and The Apollo Orchestra. The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents Ms. Cano in recital with pianist Christopher Cano and violist Beth Guterman Chu. Tours include a project with Simone Dinnerstein and her ensemble Baroklyn as well as a week with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. Ms. Cano returns to the MET Opera in her role debut as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She premieres a new song cycle by Gregory Spears at the Tucson Desert Song Festival.

Ms. Cano joined the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera after winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Among her honors are Winner of the Young Concert Artist International Auditions, a Sara Tucker Study Grant, a Richard Tucker Career Grant, and a George London Award.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Lesley Robertson Lesley Robertson Viola

After celebrating a final 34th year with the internationally celebrated St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), Lesley Robertson (viola) continues at Stanford University (1998–present), where she and her St. Lawrence colleagues direct Chamber Music in the Department of Music. Ms. Robertson teaches viola, coaches chamber music, and spearheads both the Emerging String Quartet Program and the annual St. Lawrence Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford. A graduate of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, she also holds a degree from the University of British Columbia, where she studied with her mentor Gerald Stanick. A founding member of the SLSQ, Ms. Robertson toured regularly with the ensemble, performing 100+ concerts worldwide per season (in Berlin, Florence, London, Paris, New York, and Toronto), while nurturing close ties to the Stanford community through performances in classes, dormitories, laboratories, hospitals, and Stanford’s glorious Bing Concert Hall. She participated in the Marlboro Festival for several years and toured with Musicians from Marlboro before co-founding the SLSQ. She has served on the jury of international competitions including the Banff, Melbourne, Geneva, and Wigmore Hall string quartet competitions. Summer festivals include Spoleto Festival USA, Norfolk, Banff, Santa Fe, Rockport, Bravo Vail, Music@Menlo, and more. Robertson plays a viola (1992) by fellow Canadian John Newton and a bow (2016) by François Malo.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Donghoon Shin Donghoon Shin Composer

Born in South Korea in 1983, Donghoon Shin studied composition at Seoul National University with Sukhi Kang and Uzong Choe. He moved to London in 2014, studying with Julian Anderson at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with Sir George Benjamin at King’s College London.

In 2010, Donghoon Shin won the Gran Prix of the ANM-BBVA International Composition Concours, followed by the Goethe Award in 2013 from the Goethe Institut and Tongyeong International Music Festival. Major awards over the past decade include the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2016, a UK Critics’ Circle Music Award for Young Talent in 2019, and the Claudio Abbado Prize in 2022. In 2017-18 he served as Young Composer in Residence with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group through Sound and Music’s Embedded Scheme and in 2019 was selected as a composer laureate for three years by Ricordilab.

Donghoon Shin’s music has been performed and commissioned by prominent orchestras, ensembles and festivals such as the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Ensemble Recherche, Festival d’Automne à Paris, and Tongyeong International Music Festival.

Recent works include Threadsuns (2024), concerto for viola and orchestra, premiered by Amihai Grosz and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Tugan Sokhiev, with further performances in Seoul, Minnesota, Vienna, and Tokyo. Nachtergebung (2022), concerto for cello and orchestra, inspired by the Austrian Expressionist poet Georg Trakl’s poems, was first performed by Bruno Delepelaire and the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko, has travelled to Edinburgh and was toured in Korea by the BBC Scottish Symphony in 2024. A new Piano Concerto for Seong-Jin Cho and the London Symphony Orchestra by Maxime Pascal was premiered in November 2025 in London.

Donghoon’s music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

  • FREE Open Rehearsal: Donghoon Shin “Sonnets to Orpheus”  (currently selected)
Claire Wells Claire Wells Violin

American violinist Claire Wells is acclaimed by audiences and press for her expressive musicality and rich, singing quality of sound. Claire has won numerous major prizes in renowned international competitions such as the Sibelius, Michael Hill, and Indianapolis competitions, and has collaborated with orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and others. Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, and Teatro Degollado.

Having always held a special place in her heart for chamber music, Claire has been invited to perform at several international festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World, the Gstaad Festival, Krzyzowa Festival, and the Verbier Festival. Claire has the pleasure of frequently collaborating with some of the world’s top young musicians, as well as sharing the stage with world-renowned musicians such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Anders Tomter, and Enrico Pace, amongst others.

Since 2022, Claire Wells has studied with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage. Claire plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Suggested Events

7/9  •  7:30 pm Patricia Reser Center for the Arts Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet   Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet

7/11  •  8:00 pm Reed College, Kaul Auditorium Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet   Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet



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