San Francisco's Home for Great Concerts since 1970

Jennifer Kloetzel & Aileen Chanco – Sunday, November 20 at 4 pm

*** LIVE STREAM LINK HERE ***

Jennifer Kloetzel, cello
Aileen Chanco, piano

Ernest Bloch Meditation Hébraïques
Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata in C for cello & piano, Op. 102, No. 1
Fazil Say Four Cities
John Williams Elegy
Astor Piazzolla Le Grand Tango

Bay Area favorites cellist Jennifer Kloetzel and pianist Aileen Chanco present a distinctive concert of masterworks by Bloch, Beethoven, and Piazzolla, alongside Four Cities by Fazil Say.

A graduate of The Juilliard School and a Fulbright Scholar, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. A founding member of the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet (1996-2016), Ms. Kloetzel has toured the globe and performed at such renowned venues as Lincoln Center, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Chautauqua Institute and the Ravinia Festival, the Lobkowicz Palaces in both Vienna and Prague, as well as prominent colleges and conservatories worldwide.

Ms. Kloetzel is known for her elegant playing and vibrant tone. She is a sought-after recitalist, performing concerts for San Francisco Performances and on WQXR in New York. The Strad magazine raved, “Cellist Jennifer Kloetzel is impressively passionate…” The Cello Museum proclaimed that her “energy, ceaseless intellectual curiosity, and virtuosic command of the instrument unite in exceptional musicianship, making her truly a hero of the cello.” Ms. Kloetzel has recorded 36 CDs, including the entire cycle of Beethoven’s quartets and Brahms’ sextets on the Avie label. Most recently, she released Beethoven: The Conquering Hero, the complete works for cello and piano (with Robert Koenig), which was chosen as Recording of the Month by BBC Music Magazine in March 2022 and stated, “If only more cellists would play like this—and at this level of ceaseless musicianship … Kloetzel’s playing responds unerringly to the shift of creative tone at each stage of the composer’s development.” The review went on to state Ms. Kloetzel’s playing was “a masterclass in how to engage with the most powerful creative personality music has known.” Gramophone magazine hailed the Beethoven collection for “cello playing that’s notable for its warmth, inward expressiveness … Kloetzel comes across as so utterly natural.”

A champion of new music, Ms. Kloetzel received the Copland Award for engaging living American Composers, commissioning and premiering over 50 works, including five concertos written specifically for her. In 2016, Ms. Kloetzel was invited to join the faculty at University of California Santa Barbara, where she is Professor of Cello and serves as both Head of the String and Performance Areas. For more information, visit jkcello.com.

Pianist Aileen Chanco has performed as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada and the Philippines. Described as“steeped in expressiveness and tastefulness to the core” [San Jose Mercury News], she has soloed with the San Francisco Symphony, Boston Pops, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, Lima Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Cruz Symphony and Berkeley Symphony among others. Internationally, she has appeared with the Banff Festival Orchestra, the Manila Symphony Orchestra and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, debuting with John Adams’ “Century Rolls”.
An avid chamber musician and founding director for Music at the Mission Chamber Music Series, Aileen appears regularly in concert at Old Mission San Jose in Fremont. Her solo discography includes, “Images of Three Centuries” which was produced by the Con Brio Recordings Label and has been described as “intensely virtuosic” by MusicWeb-International and “imaginatively worked out, beautiful delivered” by the American Record Guide. Aileen received both her BM and MM degrees from the Juilliard School and currently lives in the Bay Area where she enjoys fencing, hiking and good wine.

 

Old First Concerts has volunteer opportunities available!

Our concerts rely on the generosity of volunteers to assist with simple tasks like:

ushering

distributing programs

box office

set-up and clean-up

Scheduling is flexible — you choose when to work! We especially need helping hands for our Friday and Saturday night performances.

An excellent opportunity for students, seniors, or anyone who possesses a love for music!

If you’d like to consider volunteering with Old First Concerts, please contact curtishuth@oldfirstconcerts.org for more information.