Premiering Vesper Flight & Les Adieux

Artists

Michael Anderson Clarinet

Michael Anderson is Principal Clarinet of the Eugene Symphony and Santa Fe Pro Musica. He was Principal Clarinet of the Oregon Bach Festival and Oregon Ballet Theater for many years. Michael is Artistic Director of the chamber ensemble microphilharmonic, in residence at The Shedd Institute in Eugene, Oregon, and has performed with Chamber Music Northwest, the festival Le Domaine Forget, the Oregon Symphony, and the Smithsonian Chamber Players.

Michael Anderson premiered Tomas Svoboda’s Clarinet Concerto in April 2013 with the Eugene Symphony, broadcast internationally on American Public Media’s Performance Today. He performed on the Oregon Bach Festival’s Grammy Award-winning recording of Penderecki’s Credo and the Grammy-nominated Das Lied von der Erde recorded by Santa Fe Pro Musica and the Smithsonian Chamber Players.

Anderson has served in leadership roles for the Oregon Bach Festival, Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Eugene Opera and as Director of Artistic Administration for the Oregon Bach Festival. Over his career as an administrator, he has produced hundreds of performances of symphony, oratorio, opera, ballet, pops, chamber music, and period instrument ensembles.

In 2017, Michael Anderson was the recipient of the Eugene Arts and Letters Award, which honors an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the arts and culture of Eugene, Oregon. He studied clarinet with David Shifrin (USC); John McManus, Robert Vagner, and Wayne Bennett (University of Oregon); and Catherine Palladino (Portland State University). Michael has taught at the University of Oregon, Willamette University, and Lane Community College; and currently at Woodwinds at Wallowa Lake.

Kenji Bunch Composer & Viola

Kenji Bunch writes music that looks for commonalities between musical styles, for understandings that transcend cultural or generational barriers, and for empathic connections with his listeners. Drawing on vernacular musical traditions, an interest in highlighting historical injustices and inaccuracies, and techniques from his classical training, Bunch creates music with a unique, personal vocabulary that appeals to a diverse array of performers and audiences. With his work frequently performed worldwide and recorded numerous times, Bunch considers his current mission the search for and celebration of shared emotional truths about the human experience from the profound to the absurd, to help facilitate connection and healing through entertainment, vulnerability, humor, and joy.

As the first student to receive dual graduate degrees in viola and composition from The Juilliard School, Mr. Bunch has been widely recognized for his groundbreaking works for viola, and remains active as an innovative performer, comfortable in traditional, experimental, and improvisational musical contexts. He currently serves as artistic director of the new music group Fear No Music and is deeply committed to music education in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife, pianist Monica Ohuchi, their two children, and two dogs.

Artist's Website

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 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.

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• EXCLUSIVE DONOR CONCERT: Emerson Quartet Farewell with Gloria Chien

Martin Hébert Oboe

Martin Hébert has served as the principal oboe of the Oregon Symphony since his appointment in 2006. Previously, he held that position with the Florida Orchestra, the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, and the Mexico City Philharmonic. Martin has also performed as guest principal oboe with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago.

Born in Cleveland, Martin attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Mack, principal oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Martin has been a featured soloist with the Oregon Symphony, as well as with other ensembles throughout the United States and Mexico. From 2002-2005, he was an Artist in Residence and soloist with the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to his orchestral experience, Martin has played with opera and ballet companies in Portland, Honolulu, Atlanta, Tampa, Savannah, and Cleveland. As a chamber musician, he has performed in Oregon with Chamber Music Northwest, fEARnoMUSIC, Third Angle, and the Oregon Bach Festival.
Music is the Hébert family business. Martin’s father William was principal piccolo of the Cleveland Orchestra for 41 years, while his uncle Richard is the former principal bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Martin’s brother Britton is a freelance bassoonist.

Martin has toured with orchestras in Japan, Hong Kong, Western Europe, and South America. He has recorded with the Mexico City Philharmonic on Decca, the Atlanta Symphony on Telarc, and the Oregon Symphony on Pentatone.

Active as a teacher, adjudicator, and clinician, Hébert maintains a private studio of pupils, and he coaches youth groups across Oregon.
When not performing, teaching, or making reeds, Martin enjoys bicycling, theater and hiking in the magnificent Columbia Gorge.

Braizahn Jones Bass

Braizahn Jones is the Assistant Principal Bassist of the Oregon Symphony and a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer. Originally from Las Vegas, NV, he began his studies with Paul Firak before attending The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University under Jeffrey Weisner, later transferring to Curtis in 2014.

Braizahn has performed and toured with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony and is an active freelance musician, appearing at Chamber Music Northwest, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Bellingham Music Festival, and the Jackson Hole Chamber Music Festival.

A dedicated educator, he serves on the faculty of the National Orchestral Institute and Reed College, maintains a full private studio, and has taught at the Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu as well as various international double bass workshops.

Soovin Kim 2025 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

• Violin Masterclass with Soovin Kim (2021)

Sarah Kwak Violin

The Oregon Symphony welcomed Concertmaster Sarah Kwak to the orchestra in August 2012, when she performed as soloist on Carlos Gardel’s Tango on the annual Waterfront Park Bowl concert program. Since then, she has performed to critical acclaim throughout Oregon. Hailed as a “world-class soloist,” Kwak is renowned for her “lyrical depth, thoughtful phrasing, myriad shadings of tone, and easy technical prowess.” After her concerto debut with the Oregon Symphony, The Oregonian said she “tore it up in a performance as dazzling as any recent star guest soloist.”

Sarah joined the Oregon Symphony after serving as first associate concertmaster in the Minnesota Orchestra from 1988 to 2012 and as that orchestra’s acting concertmaster from January 2010 to September 2011. Kwak, a 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship winner, has been soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Curtis Chamber Orchestra, and she has toured internationally with the Casa Verde Trio, including a three-and-a-half-week tour of China. She was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, which made its New York debut in 1996 and was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2000. The first artist ever to capture all three memorial awards at the Washington International Competition, Kwak also won the 1989 WAMSO Young Artist Competition. She has served on the faculty of Princeton University and at the University of Nevada at Reno.

She has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest Winter Festival, Portland Piano International Summer Festival, Pensacola Festival, Pittsburgh Summerfest, Bargemusic of New York, Festival Mozart in France, and the Siletz Bay and Astoria festivals. She is the concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival and has toured with Asia Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung. In addition, she has served as guest concertmaster with the Utah Symphony.

Born in Boston and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Kwak entered Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute at 12, studied briefly at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, and graduated from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 1983. Among her teachers were Joseph Sivo, Ivan Galamian, and Szymon Goldberg.

Kwak is a founding member of Classical Up Close, a non-profit organization whose mission is to present free chamber music concerts in neighborhoods around the metro area and to make classical music accessible to all.

Paul Laraia Viola

Praised by The Strad for “eloquent” and “vibrant” playing, violist Paul Laraia enjoys a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, and advocate for new music. He has appeared as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Nashville Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Filharmonica De Bogata, at festivals including the Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Vail International Dance, Festival Del Sole, Incheon Music Hic Et Nunc!, Hong Kong Generation Next Arts, Sitka, Banff, Grand Canyon, and Cornell’s Mayfest. He has performed chamber music with Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Jorg Widmann, Vadim Repin, Edgar Meyer, Donald Weilerstein, Cho-Liang Lin, Roger Tapping, Anthony Marwood, Daniel Phillips, and Paul Huang. Laraia recently recorded a solo debut album of Bach, Reger, Hindemith, and Henze for the White Pine label.

The New Jersey native first studied viola with Brynina Socolofsk, and later with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory of Music. He was First Prize Winner of the 2011 Sphinx Competition, and in 2019, won First Prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition under whose auspices he made his recital debut at Wigmore Hall in London in 2020.

Paul Laraia is Associate Professor of Viola at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He performs on a Hiroshi Iizuka viola in the “viola d’amore” style, and a Belgian bow by Pierre Guillaume awarded by the Bishops Strings Shop in London.

Artist's Website

David Serkin Ludwig Composer

David Serkin Ludwig’s first musical memory was singing Beatles songs with his sister; his second was hearing his grandfather perform at Carnegie Hall ­– and a diverse career collaborating with many of today’s leading musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, and writers was to follow. His choral work “The New Colossus,” opened the private prayer service for President Obama’s second inauguration; in the next year NPR Music named him in the world’s “Top 100 Composers Under Forty.” Ludwig holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, he recently received the prestigious 2018 Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage Fellowship.

David lives in Philadelphia with his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their four beloved cats.

Artist's Website

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

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Viola Masterclass with Paul Neubauer (2023)

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.

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Flute Masterclass with Tara Helen O’Connor (2021)

Monica Ohuchi Piano

Monica Ohuchi’s “commanding pianism” (The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini), performing “with beauty, clarity and drive…[offering a] warmth…expressiveness [that’s] irresistible and deeply moving” (Barre Montpelier Times Argus) allows her an active career as a piano soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. “Dutifully and gracefully” (San Francisco Classical Voice) attentive to musical depth and detail, Ohuchi is the pianist and executive director of Fear No Music, and performs locally with Chamber Music Northwest, Classical Up Close, 45th Parallel, and the Chintimini Chamber Music Festival, among many others. Ohuchi’s engagements include collaborations with David Parsons Dance Company and the Oregon Ballet Theater, and soloing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Marin Symphony Orchestra, and Newport Symphony Orchestra. She is a frequent guest clinician and adjudicator for the Oregon State and Washington State Music Teacher Associations, as well as the Oregon state chapter of the National Federation of Music, and a regular performer on All Classical Radio. Her solo album released on Helicon Records, Monica’s Notebook, is a series of piano études written expressly for her by her husband, Kenji Bunch. Ohuchi is currently the program director of music performance at Reed College, where she also teaches piano and chamber music. Ohuchi holds advanced degrees from the Juilliard School in Piano Performance. She most enjoys spending her time with her husband, their two children, and two pitbull-mix rescue dogs.

Artist's Website

William Purvis Horn

William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, he has participated in numerous premieres including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott, Krzysztof Penderecki (New York premiere), and Paul Lansky; horn trios by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky; Sonate en Forme de Préludes by Steven Stucky; and recent premieres by Elliott Carter, Retracing II for Solo Horn and Nine by Five with the New York Woodwind Quintet. He is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Yale Brass Trio, and the Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Mr. Purvis has been a frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and has collaborated with many of the world’s most esteemed string quartets, including the Juilliard, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus, and Fine Arts string quartets. Recent Festival appearances have included the Sarasota, Norfolk, Sebago Long Lake, Chestnut Hill, and Phoenix Chamber Music Festivals in the U.S., the Great Mountain, Busan and Gimhae Chamber Music Festivals in South Korea, and the Kitaruizawa Festival in Japan. He has participated in performances on historical instruments with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and a recording of the Quintets for Piano and Winds will be released in Spring of 2020. He has recorded extensively on numerous labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, Naxos, Koch, and Bridge. Mr. Purvis is currently Professor in the Practice of Horn and Chamber Music at the Yale School of Music, where he is also coordinator of winds and brasses, and serves as Director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Fred Sherry Cello

Fred Sherry has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time for over five decades. He was a founding member of TASHI and Speculum Musicae, artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble and the Galimir String Quartet. He has also enjoyed a close collaboration with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea.

Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steve Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen, and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry, and he has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Jason Eckardt, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Donald Martino, and Toru Takemitsu among others.

Fred Sherry’s vast discography encompasses a wide range of classic and modern repertoire; he has been soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings. Mr. Sherry was the organizer for Robert Craft’s New York recording sessions from 1995-2012. Their longstanding collaboration produced celebrated performances of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto, all four String Quartets, and the String Quartet Concerto as well as major works by Stravinsky and Webern.

Mr. Sherry’s book 25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2011, the revised edition was released in 2019. C.F. Peters unveiled his treatise on contemporary string playing, A Grand Tour of Cello Technique, in 2018. He is a member of the cello faculty of The Juilliard School, The Mannes School of Music, and The Manhattan School of Music.

Artist's Website

David Shifrin Clarinet & Artistic Director Emeritus 1981–2020

Clarinetist David Shifrin graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 1967 and the Curtis Institute in 1971. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra having won the Orchestra’s Student Competition in 1969. He went on to receive numerous prizes and awards worldwide, including the Geneva and Munich International Competitions, the Concert Artists Guild auditions, and both the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000).

Shifrin received Yale University’s Cultural Leadership Citation in 2014 and is currently 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. Shifrin previously 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.

Shifrin served as artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 1992 to 2004 and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon from 1981 to 2020. He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras in the United States and abroad and has served as Principal Clarinet with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (under Stokowski), the 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

• Clarinet Masterclass with David Shifrin (2021)
• EXCLUSIVE DONOR CONCERT: The Emerson Quartet with David Shifrin