Concert program for Ensemble Ari

Friday, September 25, 2020 at 8 pm

Download a copy of the program here.

Ensemble ARI
Jiwon Evelyn Kwark, violin; Sarah Hong, cello; Sharon Lee Kim, piano

PROGRAM

Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Romance for violin and piano, Op. 23 (1893)

Addie Camsuzou (b. 1994)
Etude No. 1 for piano (2018)

Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)
selections from Ten Preludes for Solo Cello (1974)
            Prelude 1. Staccato – legato
            Prelude 2. Legato – staccato
            Prelude 3. Con sordino – senza sordino
            Prelude 5. Sul ponticello – ordinario – sul tasto
            Prelude 7. Al taco – da punta d’arco

Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Piano Trio, Op. 150 (1938)
            Allegro
            Lento espressivo
            Allegro con brio

The Composers

Amy Beach was the first American woman to write a symphony. Started as a child prodigy, she was one of the most famous pianists and composers during her generation. During her marriage to Henry Beach, M.D., her performance was limited but she continued to compose over 300 works. Following the death of her husband in 1910, she resumed performing and continued to compose and publish most of her works. Today, she is often named as a symbol for leaders of the women composers.

Addie Camsuzou is a composer and violinist from the central coast of California. She graduated magna cum laude from Sacramento State University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory/Composition; while there, she studied music composition with Stephen Blumberg and violin with Ian Swensen and Anna Presler. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in music composition at University of California, Davis. Her music has been featured at events such as the Pacific Rim Music Festival and the Festival of New American Music. Additionally, she was a winner of the Festival of New American Music Student Composers Competition and a finalist in the 2018 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.

She describes her piece as a journey of resonance. “I wanted the etude to explore how contrasts in register, dynamics, and articulation affect the resonance of the piano, and tried to show this in each section of the piece.“ Visit her website at addiecamsuzou.com for more information.

Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol, in the Tatar Republic of the then Soviet Union, in 1931. After studying piano at the conservatory of Kazan, she moved to Moscow to take composition classes with maestros like Nikolai Peiko – Shostakovich’s assistant – and Vissarion Shebalin. In 1975 she formed the Astreja Ensemble with colleagues Viktor Suslin and Vyacheslav Artyomov, devoted to exploring the folk music and instruments of Central Asia. As a composer she would subsequently employ some of these instruments in her scores. She first garnered international attention in the 1980s, thanks partly to the determined advocacy of musicians like violinist Gidon Kremer, the dedicatee of her masterly violin concerto Offertorium (1980, revised in 1986), the work that would carry its author’s name beyond the borders of the Soviet Union and lay the foundations of her worldwide repute. The strong spiritual and religious temperament informing Gubaidulina’s oeuvre caused friction with the Soviet authorities, to the extent that in 1979 she was added to the blacklist of composers seen as suspect by the regime. Gubaidulina remained in Russia until 1992, then moved to a small town outside Hamburg in Germany, where she has lived ever since. –Fundación BBVA

The Performers

Ensemble ARI
“Ari” is a Korean word with multiple meanings: big river, wisdom and beauty. Ensemble Ari is a group of musicians in the Bay Area who share this quality with the community. The ensemble gave its debut concert in October 2014 as a Korean War Memorial Concert and has been given concerts at Artshare L.A., University of the Pacific, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Old First Concert Series, Maybeck House, among others. Sound recordings can be found at facebook.com/EnsembleAri

Violinist Jiwon Evelyn Kwark holds a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, a master’s from Yale School of Music, and Professional Studies from Manhattan School of Music in the Orchestral Performance Program. Her primary teachers were Glenn Dicterow, Ani Kavafian, Masao Kawasaki, and Alexander Treger. Since making her solo debut with the Amabile Orchestra in Korea at the age of 9, Ms. Kwark has performed with numerous orchestras in the U.S. and Korea. She has toured Canada with the Young Orchestra of Americas as the associate concertmistress and toured the cities of Germany with the Penderecki Musik Academie Orchestra as the concertmistress and soloist of the orchestra under the baton of renowned composer, Maestro Penderecki. Ms. Kwark performs regularly as the Associate Principal Second Violinist of the Marin Symphony and violinist of Symphony Silicon Valley. She has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and New Century Chamber Orchestra. (jiwonevelynkwark.com)

Acclaimed by music critics as “free, warm and a very expressive” performer, cellist, Sarah Hong was born in Seoul Korea. She began studying cello at the age of six and was selected as most promising young cellist in the nation at the age of 16, her performance broadcasted nationwide by KBS. She made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall as a winner of Artists International. Ms. Hong studied at the Juilliard School with Zara Nelsova and Joel Krosnick while receiving both of the BM and MM degrees. She finished her artist certificate in chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the direction of Bonnie Hampton. Ms. Hong lives in Los Altos where she balances a busy career as a soloist, collaborative artist, and teacher. Currently, she is a cellist of Le Due Muse with a pianist Makiko Ooka, Ensemble Ari, and San Francisco Cello Quartet. She teaches string orchestra at the King’s Academy and cello sections at CYS and KAMSA youth orchestras. She has started the ‘Phos (φῶς)’ Benefit Concert Series to help support various non-profit organizations serving children all over the world in 2014. (cellistsarahhong.com)

Native to the Bay Area, pianist Sharon Lee Kim actively performs as solo and chamber pianist, vocal coach, music director, choral and vocal accompanist, and is a highly demanded piano instructor. She is a frequent recitalist, collaborating with the top instrumentalists and opera singers in the world. Ms. Kim joined the Saint Mary’s College Music Faculty in 2008. As Adjunct Associate Professor her roles include: Asst. Director/Accompanist of the choral program, Lecturer in piano, chamber music, and music history, and Director of the Faculty Concert Series. Aside from her roles at the college, Sharon is the pianist of Ensemble Ari, the co-founding member of Duo Camaraderie together with flutist Laura Scarlata, a collegiate staff pianist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, freelances as a solo, vocal, and chamber pianist, and maintains a thriving private studio teaching piano and vocal coaching singers. Sharon is a member of the Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC) and adjudicator for local competitions. Sharon holds degrees from UC Berkeley (BA) and New England Conservatory (MM and GD). Her primary teachers were Irma Vallecillo, Kayo Iwama, John Greer, Barbara Shearer, and Margret Elson. (sharonleekim.com)

Director/Conductor Jean Ahn’s creative output includes works ranging from solo instruments to full orchestra, as well as choral, dance and electroacoustic music. Recent Awards include 2019 Isadora Duncan Award for her collaborative work Saltdoll and being the finalist for League of American Orchestras competition. Jean’s works have been performed by Oakland Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Seoul Chamber Orchestra, SF Choral Artists, Earplay, Leftcoast Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Ensemble Sur Plus, Contemporaneous Ensemble, Untwelve, Piano Talk, Enhake, Pakk-Calloway Duo, Muse Trio, and others. Ms. Ahn finished her B.A. and M.M. at Seoul National University and Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, where she currently teaches. (jeanahn.com)