Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet

America is, indeed, a musical confluence—a land of many traditions, cultures, and voices that merge to create something entirely new. From Dvořák’s “American” Quintet, influenced by his visit to North America, and our country’s grande dame of composers, Joan Tower’s Petroushskates, to groundbreaking works by the innovative Henry Cowell and Chickasaw American composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, this concert weaves together a rich tapestry of our cultures and traditions, celebrating America’s incredibly diverse musical heritage that continues to evolve to this day.
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Monday, 6/29 • 8:00 pm
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- JOAN TOWER “Petroushskates”
JOAN TOWER (b.1938) Petroushskates (6’)
The title Petroushskates combines two ideas that are related to this piece. One refers to Stravinsky’s Petroushka and the opening Shrovetide Fair scene which is very similar to the opening of my piece. The celebratory character and the busy colorful atmosphere of this fair provides one of the images for this piece. The other is associated with ice skating and the basic kind of flowing motion that is inherent to that sport. While watching the figure skating event at the recent winter Olympics, I became fascinated with the way the curving, twirling, and jumping figure are woven around a singular continuous flowing action. Combining these two ideas creates a kind of carnival on ice—a possible subtitle for this piece.
—© Joan Tower
- JEROD IMPICHCHAACHAAHA’ TATE “Pisachi” (Reveal)
JEROD IMPICHCHAACHAAHA’ TATE (b. 1968) Pisachi (Reveal) (13’)
Pisachi (Reveal) is composed in six epitomes (sections) and was commissioned by ETHEL, as an homage to the American Indian Southwest. In my early teaching career, I was blessed to mentor Diné and Hopi youth and the spirit of Pisachi is nested in this dynamic and joyous time. The work is dedicated to my late friend and colleague, James Lujan (Taos Pueblo), and the music is influenced by Pueblo and Hopi styles. Pisachi was composed to honor my Southwest Indian cousins through expressive classical repertoire.
Pisachi is the Chickasaw word for reveal and is pronounced pih-sah-chee.
—© Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha’ Tate
- HENRY COWELL “Set of Five,” HC. 779
HENRY COWELL (1897 - 1965) Set of Five, HC. 779 (20’)
I. Largo sostenuto
II. Allegro
III. Andante
IV. Presto leggiero
V. Vigoroso
Why aren’t we more familiar with the music of Henry Cowell? Even classical aficionados are largely unacquainted with his work. The answer may lie in Cowell’s insatiable curiosity; Cowell once declared, “I have never deliberately concerned myself with developing a distinctive ‘personal’ style, but only with the excitement and pleasure of writing music as beautifully, as warmly, and as interestingly as I can.”
Beginning in the 1920s, Cowell, along with other California avant-garde composers, including John Cage and Cowell’s student, Lou Harrison, expanded the sonic possibilities of Western classical music by incorporating instruments, scales, and aesthetics from Asian cultures.
Set of Five fuses Baroque and Classical idioms with percussion timbres and instruments from outside the Western tradition. Oregon Arts Watch Senior Editor Brett Campbell, reviewing a performance in the Bay Area, writes, “An American classic, Set of Five seamlessly embraces elements from throughout Cowell’s career, from tone clusters to American hymnody to non-Western techniques, and … does so in a completely organic and universally appealing way.”
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- ANTONIN DVOŘÁK String Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 (“American”)
ANTONIN DVOŘÁK (1841–1904) String Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 (“American”) (35’)
I. Allegro non tanto
II. Allegro vivo – Un poco meno mosso
III. Larghetto with 5 variations
Variation I: Un poco più mosso
Variation II: Poco più mosso
Variation III: Un poco più mosso
Variation IV: Poco meno mosso
Variation V: Un poco più mosso
IV. Finale: Allegro giusto“The Americans expect great things of me,” wrote Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) when he arrived in New York City in 1892. For a 25-fold increase in salary, he had accepted an appointment as artistic director of the National Conservatory of Music, where American music lovers hoped he would foster what he described as “a new, independent art, in short a national style of music!”
Dvořák started off by learning about the music that made the United States unique, including African American spirituals, Native American melodies, and various European-derived traditions. By the summer of 1893, though, he needed a break. Instead of returning home to Bohemia, he brought his family out to join him in, of all places, Spillville, Iowa. This thriving Czech immigrant community offered him an opportunity to enjoy the comforts of his own food and culture while getting to know the American interior.
The summer proved productive for Dvořák, despite the town’s “old, antediluvian, square cornered, and yellowing” piano. After quickly finishing the Opus 96 String Quartet, he began the String Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 (“American”) in late June, completing it in less than three weeks.
Dvořák described the quintet, which he wrote for string quartet with an extra viola, as “an endeavor to portray characteristics, such as are distinctly American.” In particular, he found inspiration in a group of Native American salesmen who visited Spillville in early July to market their traditional medicines by performing traditional songs and dances. Their influence first emerges in the quintet’s sunny first movement (Allegro non tanto), which contrasts a cheery first theme with a second theme reportedly inspired by one of the salesmen’s songs. Their drumming may also have influenced the vibrant rhythms of the Allegro vivo. Its sprightly opening melody captures the spirit of “prairie optimism” that would define American classical music for much of the 20th century.
Before he traveled to Spillville, Dvořák wrote a new melody for the patriotic song “My Country `Tis of Thee” in hopes that it would replace the standard English melody the Americans usually sang, originally from “God Save the King.” Although that never came to pass, he re-used his lovely tune as the basis for the quintet’s third movement theme and variations.
Dvořák later wrote that his goal for the quintet was “to write something really melodious and simple.” This certainly comes to fruition in the Allegro giusto finale, full of delightful music that could equally be heard back home in Bohemia or at a Spillville dance night.
—© Ethan Allred
Artists
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet
- Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet
- NEW@NIGHT: Across the Americas
- Protégé Spotlight Recital: Jonah Ellsworth, Cello
- Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”
- Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”
- Universal Harmony: Schumann Piano Quintet
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- SPECIAL EVENT | NEW@NIGHT: “Lost Freedom: A Memory”
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- FREE Open Rehearsal: Joan Tower “Petroushskates”
- Chamber Party: An Evening with Marilyn de Oliveira, Sunmi Chang & Brian Hsu
- Chamber Coaching with CMNW’s ECE Trio featuring BRAVO
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
-
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
- FREE Open Rehearsal: Joan Tower “Petroushskates”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
-
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
- Jazz Notes: Gershwin Piano Concerto
- NEW@NIGHT: Echoes of Home
- FREE Open Rehearsal: Joan Tower “Petroushskates”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- FREE Open Rehearsal: Joan Tower “Petroushskates”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
-
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
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
-
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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- FREE Open Rehearsal: Joan Tower “Petroushskates”
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet
- Voices of Our Land: Dvořák “American” Quintet (currently selected)
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”
- Americana: “Appalachian Spring”

