PROTÉGÉ SPOTLIGHT: Claire Wells & Chloe Mun
Not one, but two of the world’s most acclaimed emerging musicians take the stage for this Protégé Spotlight Recital. Pianist Chloe Mun is the winner of both the prestigious Geneva International Competition and Italy’s Busoni Competition. Joining her is violinist Claire Wells, the 2021 winner of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize. Prepare to be amazed by these accomplished musicians, who are already in demand from major orchestras and musical festivals across the globe.
This concert is sponsored by Joan Levers & David Manhart.
PSU, College of the Arts, Lincoln Recital Hall
Tuesday, 7/23 • 12:00 pm
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- J. S. BACH Violin Sonata in C Minor, BWV 1017
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Violin Sonata in C Minor, BWV 1017
I. Siciliano – Largo
II. Allegro
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro- BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100 (20’)
I. Allegro amabile
II. Andante tranquillo – Vivace
III. Allegretto grazioso, quasi AndanteCharacterized by gracious melodies and an easy partnership between violin and piano, the Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major offers some of Brahms’s most idiomatic writing for the violin. The score is littered with his constant reminders: dolce, teneramente (tenderly), espressivo, sempre dolce. Even the tempo indication for the first movement spells out clearly the mood Brahms wishes to project: Allegro amabile – “Fast, [but with] love.” The movement begins with a graceful, flowing melody for piano, its phrases always answered by the violin. The violin soon picks up this melody and later shares the equally relaxed second subject with the piano.
The second movement combines the slow movement and the scherzo. The Andante tranquillo gives way to a tautly sprung Vivace, and these sections alternate through the movement. The music comes to a quiet close, then Brahms ends with a quick joke: a seven-bar fragment of the scherzo jumps up to bring the movement to its real close.
The violin has the stirring main theme of the concluding Allegretto grazioso. Alternating episodes grow more impassioned as the movement proceeds, but the noble main idea carries the music to its close.
—© Eric Bromberger
- FRITZ KREISLER “Syncopation”
FRITZ KREISLER (1875–1962) Syncopation for Violin & Piano
- FRITZ KREISLER “Midnight Bells”
FRITZ KREISLER (1875–1962) Midnight Bells for Violin & Piano
- FRITZ KREISLER “La Gitana”
FRITZ KREISLER (1875–1962) La Gitana for Violin & Piano
Artists
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Chloe Mun
Piano, Past Protégé
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At the age of 18, pianist Chloe Jiyeong Mun was brought to the world’s attention in 2014 when she won first prize at the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland. In 2015, she also won the Busoni International Competition in Italy. Since then, she has gained a reputation as one of the most sought-after musicians of her generation.
She has collaborated with the world’s leading conductors, including Myung-whun Chung, Alexander Shelley, Yuri Bashmet, James Judd, Roberto Beltran Zavala, Victor Pablo Perez, Mario Venzago, and Eiji Oue, with renowned orchestras such as Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Soloists, Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Trieste Verdi Orchestra, Nuova Orchestra Ferruccio Busoni, St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Palermo Festival Orchestra, MAV Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid (ORCAM), Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and Korean National Symphony Orchestra.
For recitals, she has appeared at the Gewandhaus, Wigmore Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic, Salle Cortot, Philharmonie Arthur Rubinstein in Bydgoszcz, and Seoul Arts Center, as well as performing at the prestigious festivals including Chopin and His Europe, Duszniki Chopin Festival, Arthur Rubinstein Piano Festival, Festival Omaggio di Michelangeli, and Pharos Music Festival. Chloe released her first album, Schumann Piano Sonata No.1 & Fantasie, with Deutsche Grammophon.
Also as a committed chamber musician, she is annually invited to perform at Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber music and Seoul International Music Festival. In 2021, she gave the world premiere of Jeajoon Ryu’s Sonata for Viola and Piano at the Seoul Arts Center with violist Sangjin Kim.
Born in Yeosu, South Korea in 1995, Chloe began studying piano at the age of five. She studied with Professor Daejin Kim at the Korea National University of Arts from 2010 to 2020, then with Sir András Schiff as an Artist Diploma student at the Barenboim Said Academy.
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Claire Wells
Violin, Past Protégé
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Born in 2001, Claire Wells is an American violinist who is fast emerging as an original, distinctive musical voice on the international scene. As an artist, Claire’s work is shaped by an instinctive curiosity that guides her across periods and styles, drawing her toward music she finds genuinely compelling, from early repertoire to contemporary works.
Highlights in the upcoming 2026 season include Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 1 with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and past highlights include performing Kaija Saariaho’s Graal théâtre with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dima Slobodeniouk in May 2025, as well as working on and performing Jörg Widmann’s Etude No. 3 alongside the composer as part of CMNW’s 2024 Summer Festival.
As a soloist, Claire has performed with orchestras including the Dallas Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmoniker, Czech Orchestra Prague, Auckland Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Webern Kammerphilharmonie, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, working with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Dima Slobodeniouk, Pietari Inkinen, Robert Kružík, and Andrew Litton, among others.
Having won major prizes at many internationally renowned competitions including the Michael Hill, Sibelius, Mirecourt, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and Indianapolis violin competitions, Claire was the 2023 scholarship winner of the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund, and was most recently the winner of the 2025 Susan Wadsworth Young Concert Artists International Auditions.
Having always held a love and passion for chamber music, Claire appears at leading festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World in collaboration with Christian Tetzlaff and Steven Isserlis, the IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Festival in Cornwall, the Verbier Festival Academy, Tippet Rise Chamber Festival in Montana, and the Kryzyowa Festival in Kreisau, Poland. As well as performing regularly with top young artists of today, Claire has collaborated with many distinguished musicians, including Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Enrico Pace, and Nobuko Imai, among others.
Claire is represented worldwide by Young Concert Artists. She currently resides in Berlin, and is studying at the Kronberg Academy under the tutelage of Mihaela Martin, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage. Claire Wells plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.
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