Kloetzel Chapman Duo
The Women of Note Project
Jennifer Kloetzel, cello
Allegra Chapman, piano
Works by Hélène Liebmann, Luise Le Beau, Mel Bonis, and Leokadiya Kashperova
Women of Note is a multi-season project celebrating cello and piano repertoire by women. Through concerts, educational performances, and recordings, Jennifer Kloetzel and Allegra Chapman bring to life works that have been forgotten or overlooked. Thoughtfully curated programs demonstrate that this music belongs at the center of the cello and piano repertoire, not at its margins. Currently, the project spans almost 250 years from the early 1800s through today.
The duo came together in 2023 to record a new cello sonata composed for Kloetzel by Richard Aldag. They quickly found a shared mission: to bring to light the rich and largely overlooked repertoire of works for cello and piano written by women composers. That mission now drives their ongoing project, Women of Note, through which they are committed to performing and recording these deserving works for audiences who have rarely, if ever, had the chance to hear them.
Recently, the Kloetzel Chapman Duo has performed for Berkeley Chamber Performances, Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, and Point Reyes Chamber Concerts, and has been featured on KALW Radio’s On the Arts and KWMR Radio. Kloetzel and Chapman are both graduates of The Juilliard School.
Praised for her “ceaseless musicianship” (BBC Music Magazine) and “impressively passionate performances” (The Strad), cellist Jennifer Kloetzel has performed as soloist and chamber musician at Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival and San Francisco Performances. Her international credits include Harpa Concert Hall (Reykjavik), Izumi Hall (Osaka) and the Eroica-Saal (Vienna). Jennifer’s engaging programs offer audiences a surprising mix of repertoire by Shostakovich, Mel Bonis, Frank Bridge, John Williams, and Philippe Hersant. She has premiered over 80 solo and chamber works, including five concerti written specifically for her.
Fascinated with performance projects that create community, Jennifer’s Mission:Bach—A Pilgrimage of Sound tour has included nearly 60 concerts at all 21 California Missions, performing Bach’s Cello Suites and commissioned companion pieces. These concerts with conversation explore local history and musical connections across centuries. Her Inspired By America project brought a multi-media collaboration to large concert halls, exploring what it means to be an American through live chamber music combined with film.
Jennifer’s Beethoven: The Conquering Hero, (the complete works for cello and piano with Robert Koenig), was chosen as “Recording of the Month” by BBC Music Magazine in March 2022. Other highlights include recording Elena Ruehr’s Cello Concerto ‘Cloud Atlas’ with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, as well as the entire cycle of Beethoven’s quartets and Brahms’ sextets. Jennifer has been featured regularly in both concerto and chamber performances on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Among her 38 CDs, many have been broadcast on radio stations in South Africa, Romania, Brazil, Germany and Australia.
A Fulbright scholar, Jennifer holds two degrees from The Juilliard School, winning the institution’s top award at graduation. A founding member of the Cypress String Quartet, she now performs with Quartet ES and the jazz quintet Bow & Mallet. Jennifer serves as Professor of Cello and Head of the String Area at the University of California Santa Barbara, and she regularly offers masterclasses and workshops along with her mainstage performances.
Acclaimed by the San Francisco Chronicle for her “fervid but impeccably controlled” performances, pianist Allegra Chapman is driven by her passion for connecting audiences with historically overlooked and living composers. Allegra is a member of Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the award-winning Chordless duo with soprano Sara LeMesh. She has performed internationally at venues including Cal Performances, Alice Tully Hall, San Francisco Jazz Center, and Xi’an Concert Hall.
A graduate of the Bard Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School, Allegra is Artistic Director of Point Reyes Chamber Concerts and a Contributing Writer for the San Francisco Symphony. She is on faculty at Pre-College of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and makes her home in San Francisco with her family and over 1000 books.
