Latticework & Legends
Be the first to hear legendary musicians Leila Josefowicz and Paul Watkins shine in their World Premiere of Sean Shepherd’s Violin & Cello Duo, Latticework, written especially for them. Josefowicz and Gloria Chien will pair next for Igor Stravinsky’s Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss, showcasing their exquisite artistry. The evening concludes with an all-star ensemble performing Brahms’s profound and emotionally resonant Sextet in B-flat Major.
COMPOSER CONVERSATION
6-6:30 pm | Musical Conversation with Sean Shepherd (moderated by Soovin Kim)
PRELUDE PERFORMANCE
7 pm | Inside Kaul Auditorium Prelude Performance with local young artists
We have a special tradition of “picnics” before concerts at Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium. Reed’s catering service Bon Appétit offers food and drink service beginning at 6pm. Alternately, you can bring your own picnic, but alcoholic beverages must be purchased on-site.
Our community partner, Cognizart by MetroArts Inc., will be tabling in the lobby for this performance.
CMNW Commission • World Premiere
Sean Shepherd’s Latticework has been co-commissioned by CMNW with the support of the CMNW Commissioning Fund.
This concert is sponsored by:
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Saturday, 7/26 • 8:00 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- SEAN SHEPHERD “Latticework” for Violin & Cello
SEAN SHEPHERD (b. 1979) Latticework for Violin & Cello (2025)
Part I
Ornament I
Long Strands
Flicker I
Dervish
Ornament IIPart II
Flicker II
Mime
Ornament III
The Silk Spinner
Flicker IIIThe assignment, as it was presented on the phone now a while back, was tough: create a major work lasting some twenty minutes for (the classic treble/bass string duo, for which, interestingly to me, there are relatively few works, and yet still, it’s only) two players. But among those few pieces are the masterworks of those like Ravel and Kodaly, who both do incredible things with very large orchestras, but who were able to give a very distinctly honest (in my opinion) essence of themselves writ small, clear, and direct.
I also thought of those like Berg, Bartok, and Dutilleux, for whom the size of an ensemble was not an impact on the scope—be it structural, spiritual or psychological—of the pieces they composed; one could argue rather the opposite in pieces like the Lyric Suite, the String Quartets, or Ainsi la Nuit, respectively. I thought of the overlapping range of these two instruments—the violin’s lowest string sounds a pitch below the cello’s highest. And I began working with ideas of interweaving as abstractly as possible, and images of twisting shapes, veins on tree leaves, spiders creating intricate webs, and any number of ideas in textiles—threads, stiches, machines like looms—permeated the early footprint of the piece. The way the players (for me an equal-privilege, equal-responsibility pair throughout) interact with each other rests on these mental images.
The result is frankly a little burdensome to describe! I tend to think that roadmaps have their place but its not in the car while, say, the Grand Tetons are the view out of the passenger window. I think the view is point in music (and in Wyoming), but all the same: one could say this piece has two sections and be correct; one could say six, and one could say ten. While four of the named movements might be self-contained, they aren’t really there to stand on their own—they play a role in the structure of each Part. And two kinds of music that I’ve named Ornament and Flicker do lots of returning and bookending as the piece progresses. The music of Ornament, presented in differing textural settings upon each return, is essentially static; Flicker is dynamic and follows a fluid, musically developmental path. The ways these many musical objects work together each play out differently, and at different rates, over time—each gear and rotor in the engine is spinning at an independent speed, but we plan our best to arrive together.
Latticework is dedicated to Leila and Paul, for whom craft and passion (in performance and in their beings) are as deeply intertwined as any two to ever pick up the instruments.
—© Sean Shepherd
- IGOR STRAVINSKY Divertimento from “The Fairy’s Kiss”
IGOR STRAVINSKY Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss
I. Sinfonia
II. Danses suisses
III. Scherzo
IV. Pas de deuxIn one of Igor Stravinsky’s many interviews with his friend and colleague Robert Craft, the composer recalled the genesis for his 1928 ballet The Fairy’s Kiss: “In 1928 Ida Rubinstein commissioned me to compose a full-length ballet. The thirty-fifth anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s death was 1928…and I therefore conceived my compatriotic homage as an anniversary piece. I chose [Hans Christian] Andersen’s The Snow Maiden because it suggested an allegory of Tchaikovsky himself. The fairy’s kiss on the heel of the child is also the muse marking Tchaikovsky at his birth, though the muse did not claim Tchaikovsky at his wedding, as she did the young man in the ballet, but at the height of his powers…My only precept in selecting the music was that none of the pieces should have been orchestrated by Tchaikovsky—i.e., my selection would have to come from piano music and songs. I was already familiar with about half of the music I was to use; the other pieces were discoveries. At this date [1962], I only vaguely remember which music is Tchaikovsky’s and which mine.”
The divertimento Stravinsky created from The Fairy’s Kiss includes approximately half the music from the full ballet and is an ingenious blend of Tchaikovsky’s melodies stitched together with Stravinsky’s transitions. Its four movements condense the ballet’s plot but preserve its general outline. In the Sinfonia, a mother and child become separated during a violent storm, and fairies spirit the child away into the night. The Danses suisses (Swiss dances) provide a festive atmosphere for the child’s (now grown into a young man) engagement party. The twinkly-eyed Scherzo is a blend of Tchaikovsky’s signature lyrical melodies with Stravinsky’s off-beat rhythmic energy, and the closing Pas de deux showcases two young lovers dancing together.—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- BRAHMS String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 18
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Andante ma moderato
III. Scherzo. Allegro molto
IV. Rondo. Poco Allegretto e graziosoJohannes Brahms completed the first of his two string sextets in 1860, when he was 27. At this time, Brahms, an excellent pianist, was most familiar with his own instrument and had little experience writing for strings; before 1859 all his compositions included or featured piano. Brahms was also intimidated by the prospect of writing a full symphony (it took him almost 20 years to complete his first). A typical string sextet—two violins, two violas, and two cellos—can function like a micro-orchestra, which made it a more approachable medium for composition. As chamber music, a sextet would also not garner the kind of scrutiny Brahms’s colleagues would give to larger work like a symphony.
Given all his trepidations, Brahms was likely pleasantly surprised to discover that the String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 18 became his most popular work after it was published in 1862. It remained so until 1868, when Brahms premiered his German Requiem.
In Op. 18, Brahms immersed himself in the rich interplay of melody, countermelody, harmony, and rhythm and savored the lower sonorities of the cellos and violas. A cello opens the Allegro with the main theme, fragments of which return throughout the movement. Dotted and triplet rhythms abound, and Brahms also confounds our ears with a four-beat theme in ¾ time.
Listeners may recognize the Andante’s theme and variations; Clara Schumann liked it so much that Brahms gave her a piano transcription of it for her 41st birthday. The Scherzo contrasts Brahms’s unexpected harmonic shifts with propulsive bursts of rhythm. In the closing Rondo, Brahms splits the sextet into two trios: violins and one viola vs. cellos and second viola. The two groups trade themes, counterthemes, melodies, and harmonies and the music ends with a flourish.
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
Artists
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Gloria Chien
Piano & Artistic Director
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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 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. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic.
Most recently, Gloria was named Advisor of the newly launched Institute for Concert Artists at the New England Conservatory of Music. Gloria 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.
Gloria received her bachelor, master’s, and doctoral degrees 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
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Beth Guterman Chu
Viola
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Beth Guterman Chu is one of the most sought after violists of her generation. Before joining the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2013 as principal, she was an Artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and enjoyed a varied career as a chamber musician and recitalist—including collaborations with Kim Kashkashian, Leon Fleisher, Mitsuko Uchida, Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, James Ehnes, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, and Orion quartets. As a recording artist, she has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Tzadik, Naxos, and the CMS Studio Recordings.
Chu has performed as soloist with many distinguished conductors including Hannu Lintu, Nicholas McGegan, Bramwell Tovey, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, and James DePreist. Of a recent concerto performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Dispatch wrote, “Beth Guterman Chu was up to the challenge as soloist in this amphetamine-paced rendering of the best-known work for viola. She brought out the dazzlingly mellow richness of her instrument… Chu showed off her pyrotechnic chops, plowing through frenzied runs with tremendous feeling and passion.”
During the summer Chu performs and works with young musicians at the Marlboro Music Festival, National Youth Orchestra-USA, and the Taipei Music Academy and Festival. In recent years, she has also performed chamber music at festivals in Seattle, Washington; Lake Champlain, Vermont; Portland, Maine; Toronto, Canada; and Bridgehampton, New York.
Beth Guterman Chu received her Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory studying with Kim Kashkashian and her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Masao Kawasaki and Misha Amory. She grew up in the Boston area and attended NEC Prep for 10 years. She currently lives in St. Louis with her husband Jonathan, another violist, and their three children. She plays on a Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola made in 2022.
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Zlatomir Fung
Cello
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Cellist Zlatomir Fung burst onto the scene as the first American in four decades (and youngest musician ever) to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division. Subsequent accolades, critical acclaim, and standing ovations at performances around the world have established him as one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Astounding audiences with his boundless virtuosity and exquisite sensitivity, the 25-year-old has already proven himself a star among the next generation of world-class musicians.
In the 2024–2025 season, Fung gives recitals in New York City, Boston, and St. Louis, and performs the complete Bach Cello Suites at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts and in Arcata, California, following summer appearances at the Aspen and Ravinia Festivals. He joins orchestras in Rochester, San Antonio, and Billings, among others. Internationally, he performs in Europe and Asia with the London Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, and others, and offers a recital tour of Italy. In January 2025, Signum Records released Fung’s debut album, a collection of opera fantasies and transcriptions for cello and piano.
Fung served as Artist-in-Residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2023–2024 season; recent debut appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, and BBC Philharmonic, as well as Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, and Kansas City Symphonies.
Fung made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2021 and was described by Bachtrack as “one of those rare musicians with a Midas touch: he quickly envelopes every score he plays in an almost palpable golden aura.” Fung was a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Winner in 2022.
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Leila Josefowicz
Violin
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Leila Josefowicz’s passionate advocacy of contemporary music for the violin is reflected in her diverse programs and enthusiasm for performing new works. A favorite of living composers, Josefowicz has premiered many concertos, including those by Colin Matthews, Luca Francesconi, John Adams, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, all written especially for her.
Josefowicz’s 2024/25 season includes performances of Luca Francesconi’s Duende – The Dark Notes with New York Philharmonic and Susanna Malkki, and the British premiere of Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo at the Aldeburgh Festival. Further engagements include Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, and Houston, San Diego, KBS, Singapore, City of Birmingham, Prague, and BBC symphony orchestras.
Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with Berliner Philharmoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, London, Oslo, Helsinki and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Chicago, San Francisco, The Cleveland, and The Philadelphia orchestras, where she worked with conductors at the highest level, including Paavo Järvi, Matthias Pintscher, John Storgårds, Cristian Măcelaru, Thomas Søndergård, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Dalia Stasevska, Hannu Lintu, and John Adams.
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Soovin Kim
2025 YAI Faculty, Violin & Artistic Director
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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.
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David McCarroll
Violin
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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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Sean Shepherd
Composer
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Sean Shepherd has earned wide acclaim for his “fantastic gift for orchestral color” (The New York Times), and commissions from major ensembles and performers across the US and Europe. His music has been commissioned and performed by the BBC, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Gewandhaus, Minnesota, Montréal, National, New World symphony orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, radio orchestras in Austria, France, and Germany, and by leading European ensembles including Ensemble intercontemporain, the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
Conductors who champion Shepherd’s work include Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Cristian Macelaru, Susanna Mälkki, Andris Nelsons, Donald Runnicles, and Franz Welser-Möst. His works have been performed at festivals in Aldeburgh, Heidelberg, La Jolla, Lucerne, Santa Fe, Aspen, the Grand Tetons, and Tanglewood.
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra commissioned Shepherd to write a Quadruple Concerto for its principal winds, led by Fabio Luisi in April of 2025. 2023 saw the world premiere of On A Clear Day, a large-scale work for conductor Kent Nagano, cellist Jan Vogler, the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, and a choir of young singers from around the world. The piece, setting poetry by Ulla Hahn, was premiered at Carnegie Hall, followed by performances at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and Dresden Musikfestspiele.
After composing Magiya for the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America’s inaugural season and tour, he developed the NYO-USA’s Composer Apprentice program with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, which he continues to direct. He lives in New York with his husband and two children, and his music is published by Boosey and Hawkes.
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Burchard Tang
Viola
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Burchard Tang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra viola section in September 1999. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in May 1999 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph DePasquale (retired Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Viola), and Choong-Jin Chang (the orchestra’s current Principal Viola). Mr. Tang has served as Principal Viola with the Curtis Symphony and the New York String Seminar, and has performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble.
A 1993 winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, Mr. Tang performed with the orchestra as a soloist. As a chamber musician, he has performed at festivals across the country including Marlboro, Seattle, Lake Champlain, Angel Fire, Caramoor, Kingston, and Ravinia.
Mr. Tang plays on a viola made for him in 2022 by Samuel Zygmuntovicz.
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Paul Watkins
Cello
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Acclaimed for his inspirational performances and eloquent musicianship, Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished career as concerto soloist, chamber musician and conductor.
He is the Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit (since 2014), the cellist of the Emerson String Quartet (2013-2023) and Visiting Professor of Cello at Yale School of Music (since 2018). He took first prize in the 2002 Leeds Conducting Competition, and has held the positions of Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra.
As a cellist, Watkins has given regular concerto performances with prestigious orchestras across the globe. Also, a dedicated chamber musician, Watkins was a member of the Nash Ensemble (1997-2013) and the Emerson String Quartet (2013-2023). After 44 successful seasons, the quartet decided to retire, and undertook an extensive series farewell tours, culminating in their final performances in New York Lincoln Center in October 2023. This concert was filmed for a documentary by filmmaker Tristan Cook, and the release of their final recording of Berg, Chausson, Schoenberg, and Hindemith with prestigious guests soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou.
As a conductor, Watkins has conducted all the major British orchestras and a wide range of international orchestras. In 2006 he made his opera debut conducting a critically praised new production of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine for Opera North.