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NEW@NIGHT: Across the Americas

NEW@NIGHT: Across the Americas

Every one of our composers for this special New@Night brings us music from the many corners and traditions of the Americas—north to south, east to west. We’ll hear selections from the great Brazilian master Heitor Villa-Lobos and Chinese Canadian composer Vivian Fung, plus dynamic new works by seven-time Grammy nominee Curtis Stewart, rising-star pianist/composer Clayton Stephenson, and the esteemed David Serkin Ludwig.

Come join our artists for lively conversation about these exciting contemporary works both before and after their performances.

Sponsored by Beth Fry.

The Old Church
Wednesday, 7/15 • 7:00 pm

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Program

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

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS “Assobio a Jato” (The Jet Whistle), W 493

HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS (1887–1959) Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle), W 493

I. Allegro non troppo
II. Adagio
III. Vivo
IV. Prestissimo

By the 1950s, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) had lived an incredible life. Considered a national hero, he had helped establish both a Brazilian style of classical music and an excellent national music education program. Internationally, audiences considered him a leading composer, whose music skillfully blended Brazil’s folk music with a tasteful dose of modernist technique.

Villa-Lobos composed Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle), W 493, in 1950 in New York City. He originally scored it for flute and cello, exploiting the differences in pitch and timbre between the two instruments for humorous effect.

Its first movement ventures through the sounds of the valsa-choro (street waltz), a genre Villa-Lobos learned as a teenager playing guitar on the streets of Rio. The middle movement, on the other hand, with its languorous harmonies, exhibits Villa-Lobos’s admiration for the French modernists, especially Debussy.

The title Assobio a Jato comes from the finale, which concludes with a musical recreation of the sound of a jet engine taking off. The score directs the flutist to blow as though “warming up the instrument on a cold day.” When played on a violin, other measures will no doubt be necessary to achieve the intended effect.

—© Ethan Allred

CURTIS STEWART Invention No. 1 “Double Down”

CURTIS STEWART (b.1986) Invention No. 1 “Double Down”

Invention No. 1 “Double Down” for two violins is a play on words—the two-hand invention made canonic by Bach, the double down violin bow stroke which lends extra energy to rhythmic music, and doubling down on virtuosic elements presented in the Wieniawski and Prokofiev duos for two violins. It is a scherzo moving between colorful chromatic runs and gospel riffs, wild bariolage and songful passage work, funk grooves and thrown bow strokes. “Double Down” was commissioned by the Sphinx Organization for Tai Murray and Njioma Grevious, two of my own violin inspirations—get down!

—© Curtis Stewart

DAVID SERKIN LUDWIG “Shekhinah”

DAVID SERKIN LUDWIG (b. 1974) Shekhinah (2025) (6’)

“Shekhinah” is a Hebrew word for the Divine Presence—the light of holiness that dwells among us. It evokes a sacred energy that surrounds all beings, linking the earthly to the spiritual.

I’ve increasingly turned toward tradition and ceremony not only as an expression of my own Jewish identity, but as a lens on the present. We live in a medieval moment—an age of faith in the unseen and distrust of the evident, the provable, the scientific—where devotion to imagined communities often eclipses independent thought and action. To that end, I sought to draw on the musical language of medieval composers while leaning into the meditative and mystical aspects of Hebrew chant.

Shekhinah opens in reverent awe and gradually builds in pace and intensity toward moments of ecstatic joy. It returns to stillness at the end—but in that return suffused with a quiet hope.

The piece was written for Romie de Guise-Langlois and Dr. Gloria Chien with admiration and gratitude.

—© David Serkin Ludwig

VIVIAN FUNG “Rhapsody”

VIVIAN FUNG (b. 1975) Rhapsody (7’)

This work was written as a project initiated by the Banff Centre for the Arts as part of a gala concert honoring Canadian composer Violet Archer, who was also my composition teacher when I was a student in Edmonton, Alberta. Rhapsody was written in the summer of 1995 and premiered on July 5th by Jens Lindemann, trumpet, and David Morox, piano.

Rhapsody draws its inspiration from jazz, with extended harmonies, syncopated rhythms, and a lively texture. It is in three distinct sections: a fast opening, in which the trumpet announces at the outset a triumphant phrase that becomes the main material for the work; a slow, sultry section that displays some of the various colors of the trumpet mutes; and a driving closing section, featuring virtuosic writing for both the trumpet and piano.

—© Vivian Fung

CLAYTON STEPHENSON Jazz Transcriptions

CLAYTON STEPHENSON (b. 1999) Jazz Transcriptions

Artists

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.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Jonah Ellsworth Jonah Ellsworth Cello, Protégé

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jonah Ellsworth started playing the cello at age five. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. His principal teachers have been Laurence Lesser, Kim Kashkashian, Lluís Claret, Natasha Brofsky, Andrew Mark, Peter Wiley, and Paul Watkins. At Yale, he was awarded the Aldo Parisot Prize and the Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize. He joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra cello section in 2023. After a year and a half playing with the BSO, he participated in the exchange program with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester. This exchange was created by Andris Nelsons, the conductor of both orchestras. After spending six months with the Gewandhaus Orchester, Jonah decided to take an audition with this orchestra and now is a member of the Leipzig Gewandhaus cello section. He started this job in September 2025.

Along with orchestral playing, Jonah has been featured as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Symphony By the Sea, and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia. In 2016, Jonah filled in for Nicolas Altstaedt on 72 hours’ notice to play the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Jacksonville Symphony in Florida. He also toured Europe as soloist in 2015 with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, alternating solo performances with Natalia Gutman. He has participated in many music festivals, including Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Steans Institute of Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Rockport Music Festival, and Orford Musique Academy. Jonah has devoted much of his professional life to honing his skills as a chamber musician. He spent eight years with the Boston Trio, and with them he performed in some of the most prestigious concert venues in the United States including Carnegie Hall, Newport Music, and Jordan Hall.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Soovin Kim Soovin Kim 2026 YAI Faculty, Violin & Artistic Director

Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart, and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season. When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.

Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015. In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became artistic directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Dovas Lietuvninkas Dovas Lietuvninkas Trumpet

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Dovas Lietuvninkas received degrees in trumpet and music education at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with James Thompson. In 2017, he received a U.S. Fulbright grant to study trumpet and Lithuanian folk instruments in Vilnius, Lithuania, where, in 2018, he joined the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trumpet. Before returning to the United States in 2023, he received his Master’s degree in trumpet from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under the tutelage of Pasi Pirinen and spent a season as a member of the academy of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Dovas is now based in Providence, Rhode Island, and is currently Principal Trumpet of both the Hartford and New Haven Symphony Orchestras in Connecticut. He is a proud alumnus of the Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale (Edward Carroll, Director) where, in 2023, in collaboration with fellow trumpeters Bailey Paugh and Demian Spindler, the contemporary collective “something something trumpet” was born. SST seeks to break down traditional barriers surrounding contemporary music and bring new and unusual musical experiences to audiences who might not have been exposed to them otherwise. Dovas is a passionate educator and advocate of new music, having commissioned and premiered many new works for trumpet, and is always seeking to cross boundaries and build bridges across all audiences and musics, from folk to the avant-garde.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

David Shifrin David Shifrin Clarinet & Artistic Director Emeritus 1981–2020

David Shifrin began performing with Chamber Music Northwest in 1978 and served as its Artistic Director from 1981 to 2020. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1982 and served as its Artistic Director from 1992 to 2004.

Shifrin received Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Avery Fisher Prize, as well as numerous awards and prizes competitions and organizations worldwide.

David Shifrin is the Samuel S. Sanford Professor in the Practice of Clarinet at the Yale School of Music where he teaches a studio of graduate-level clarinetists and coaches chamber music ensembles. He is also the Artistic Director of Yale’s Oneppo Chamber Music Society and the Yale in New York concert series. Previously, Shifrin served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii. He has appeared with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad and has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of New Haven, Honolulu, and Dallas. Shifrin also continues to broaden the clarinet repertoire by commissioning and championing more than 100 works of 20th and 21st-century American composers. Shifrin’s recordings have consistently garnered praise and awards including three Grammy nominations and “Record of the Year” from Stereo Review.

Shifrin is represented by CM Artists in New York and performs on Backun clarinets and Légère reeds.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Clayton Stephenson Clayton Stephenson Composer & Piano

American pianist Clayton Stephenson’s love for music is immediately apparent in his joyous charisma onstage, expressive power, and natural ease at the instrument. Hailed for interpretations that are “fresh, incisive, and characterfully alive” (Gramophone), he is committed to making an impact on the world through his music-making. Growing up in New York City, Clayton found musical inspiration in community programs. As he describes it, the “Third Street Music School jump-started my music education; the Young People’s Choir taught me phrasing and voicing; Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program introduced me to formal and rigorous piano training, which enabled me to get into Juilliard Pre-College; the Morningside Music Bridge validated my talent and elevated my self-confidence; and the Boy’s Club of New York exposed me to jazz.” He received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2024 and is a 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence honoree. Recent and upcoming highlights include the New York Philharmonic and Houston and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras; and Grant Park, Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center, Fondation Louis Vuitton, and 92NY.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

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

7/1  •  7:00 pm The Old Church NEW@NIGHT: Echoes of Home   NEW@NIGHT: Echoes of Home

7/8  •  7:00 pm Alberta Rose Theatre SPECIAL EVENT | NEW@NIGHT: “Lost Freedom: A Memory”   SPECIAL EVENT | NEW@NIGHT: “Lost Freedom: A Memory”



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