9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival

Stephen Prutsman & TNTeague Duo: Steelpan & Piano Masterworks

Stephen Prutsman, piano
Liam Teague, steelpan
Jaden Teague-Núñez, steelpan & piano

The festival welcomes father and son duo Liam Teague and Jaden Teague-Núñez in their festival debut, featuring the endlessly varied and colorful music for steelpan and piano. Active in performance, composition, and education, Liam Teague is renowned as a virtuoso leader on his instrument. Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University, Mr. Teague directs the internationally acclaimed NIU Steelband. Rising star Jaden Teague-Núñez has already established himself as a prominent voice in the music world through his performances with the Chicago Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and his solo and duo performances broadcast internationally. The program opens with a special appearance by festival favorite Stephen Prutsman, inimitable pianist, composer, and improviser. Don’t miss this uniquely exciting evening.

The San Francisco International Piano Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Ross McKee Foundation.

About the artists

Liam Teague is Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and leads the renowned NIU Steelband. He is the recipient of an NIU Board of Trustees Professorship Award (2022); Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor Award (2018); and an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award (2023).

Hailed as the “Paganini of the Steelpan”, he has received several honors from Trinidad and Tobago, his country of birth, including the Hummingbird National Award (Silver), the Ansa McAl Caribbean Award for Excellence, and the Keys to the City of San Fernando.  In 2024, the Fox Valley Orchestra honored Teague with its Champion of the Arts award.

As a soloist, Teague has performed with diverse ensembles such as: National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Panama National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Vermeer String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Hannaford Street Silver Brass Ensemble, River City Brass Band, Nexus, Dartmouth Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Symphonic Band, and the BpTT Renegades Steel Orchestra. Teague has also collaborated with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels, Zakir Hussain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, and regularly concertizes with the steelpan and harp duo Pangelic, which he founded with Faye Seeman.  Liam has also appeared at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and international educational institutions.

Many of his compositions and arrangements are published with Panademy, MaumauMusic, RamajayMusic, and Wendeln Music Works. Teague has commissioned several outstanding composers to write for the steelpan; these include Michael Colgrass, Jan Bach, Libby Larsen, Andy Akiho, Deborah Fisher Teason, Joey Sellers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross, Kevin Bobo, David Gordon, Robert Chappell, Geof Bradfield, Casey Cangelosi, Gustavo Leone, Victor Provost, Etienne Charles, James Gourlay, and Reggie Thomas.

He is also the author of a steelpan method for beginners published by the Hal Leonard Corporation and has created arrangements for Panorama -the most celebrated steelband competition in the world. Teague has many recordings to his credit including Hands Like Lightning, Open Window, and Sorcerer.

Jaden Teague-Núñez is 18 years old and was born in Panama City, Panama. The son of Trinidadian and Panamanian parents, he began studying steelpan and piano at age 8 and 10, respectively.

He became the first steelpan soloist in the world to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after winning the CSO’s Crain-Maling Foundation Young Artists Competition in 2024. In 2025, he was named YoungArts Winner with Distinction (classical percussion) by the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists. His work has been covered by Chicago’s WGN-Television and in several newspapers which include the Trinidad Newsday and The Guardian.

Jaden has guested with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Fox Valley Orchestra, Wheaton Municipal Band, and the Northern Illinois University Steelband, and he has performed for the Nassau Music Society in the Bahamas and the 50th anniversary of Crop Over in Barbados. Teague-Núñez has played at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and at the 2023 Tuba Bach Festival and concertizes with his father Liam Teague as the duo TNTeague. He has also collaborated with virtuoso pianist Jodie Desalvo on her Piano Talks concert series. Jaden also practices mixed martial arts at United Elite MMA.

Stephen Prutsman has been described as one of the most innovative musicians of his time. Moving easily from classical to jazz to world music styles as a pianist and composer, Prutsman continues to explore and seek common ground and relationships in the music of all cultures and languages.

In the early 2000s Stephen was Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he wrote several new works for the orchestra, led performances of other composers as a conductor and pianist, and developed the orchestra’s contemporary and world music series. Later he was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Festival of Music, South America’s largest festival of its kind, programming and curating concerts with themes ranging from Mozart celebrations, to eclectic evenings of folk and popular music of the Americas, to hybrid programs fusing art and dance music of multiple musical dimensions.

In the early 90’s he was a medal winner at the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elisabeth Piano Competitions, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then Stephen has performed the classical concerto repertoire as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and his classical discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Barber and McDowell concerti with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, recordings of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and a solo jazz album entitled “Passengers”.

Born in Los Angeles, Stephen first began playing the piano by ear at age 3 before moving on to more formal music studies. In his teens and early 20s he was the keyboard player for several art rock groups including Cerberus and Vysion (and was a winner of television’s “The Gong Show”!) During those years, he worked regularly as a solo jazz pianist playing in many southern California clubs and lounges and was the music arranger for a nationally syndicated televangelist program.

As a composer, Stephen’s long collaboration with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet has resulted in over 40 arrangements and compositions for them. Other leading artists and ensembles who have performed Stephen’s compositions and arrangements include Leon Fleisher, Dawn Upshaw, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Spoleto USA, and the Silk Road Project. In 2010, his song cycle “Piano Lessons” was premiered by Ms. Upshaw and Emanuel Ax at Carnegie Hall (New York), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Disney Hall (Los Angeles) and the Barbican Centre (London). As a pianist or arranger outside of the classical music world he has collaborated with such diverse personalities as Tom Waits, Rokia Traore, Jon Anderson of “YES”, Sigur Rós and Asha Bhosle. He has scored for a variety of ensembles 15 silent films from the 1920s which are regularly presented at various venues throughout the world.

He is a board member of several organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area promoting the well-being of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and regularly produces and curates “Azure Concerts” musical performances tailored for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families. He was recently named Creative Director for Phenotypic Recordings, a new company specializing in recordings of contemporary music, and in January of 2023 Prutsman began a 2-year appointment as Visiting Artist at Stanford University.

9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival

Festival Finale: Symphonic Dances

Elizabeth Dorman, piano (Festival debut)
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
Karina Tseng, piano
Liam Teague, steelpan
Jaden Teague-Núñez, steelpan & piano

George Gershwin Cuban Overture for 2 pianos
Kevin Bobo Rhapsody in Steel
Liam Teague A Visit to Hell
Sergei Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances for 2 pianos

The festival concludes its kaleidoscopic journey with a program of dazzling musical fireworks. Beginning with Gershwin’s irresistible Cuban Overture for two pianos, the program includes performances from Liam Teague and Jaden Teague-Núnez that showcase the versatility and virtuosity of the steelpan. The festival will close with Rachmaninoff’s final masterpiece, the Symphonic Dances (1940). Written while Rachmaninoff was living in the United States, it would prove to be his last major composition. This two-piano score was given its private premiere with the composer and Vladimir Horowitz in Beverly Hills in August of 1942. Originally subtitled Noon, Twilight, and Midnight, the three movements of this expansive work weave together driving rhythms of city life, endlessly beautiful melodies, shadowy chromaticism, and allusions to Rachmaninoff’s own first symphony with the Dies Irae chant that haunted his music throughout his life.

The festival is proud to welcome Elizabeth Dorman to the stage in her festival debut. A San Francisco native, Ms. Dorman has performed nationally and abroad to great acclaim, including appearances with the Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, as keyboardist with the San Francisco Symphony, and as recitalist and chamber musician at prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and the Banff Centre. Dorman is joined by founder and artistic director Jeffrey LaDeur, pianist and educator known for his musical leadership and compelling performance style. Don’t miss this thrilling conclusion to the season!

The San Francisco International Piano Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Ross McKee Foundation.

About the artists

Praised by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle for her “elegance and verve,” pianist Elizabeth Dorman enjoys performing music both new and old as a soloist and chamber musician. A prizewinner of the 2018 Leipzig International Bach Competition and the 2017 Pro Musicis Father Merlet Award, Elizabeth has been widely recognized as a leading performer for her inquisitive interpretations of Bach’s music on the modern piano. Elizabeth has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Louisville Orchestra, the Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the California Symphony, the Vallejo Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Folsom Lake Symphony, the Stanford Summer Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, as a soloist for interdisciplinary projects at New World Symphony, and she can be heard regularly performing as guest Keyboard at the San Francisco Symphony. She has recorded for Navona and Delos records, including as a soloist with Santa Rosa Symphony. Elizabeth was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University where she studied with Gilbert Kalish.

Jeffrey LaDeur is known for his rare blend of insight, spontaneity, and approachable, communicative stage presence. Clic Musique Magazine (France) lauded “… an irreproachable legato, a beautiful palette of nuances, and an always well-balanced sound.” Having inherited a rich tradition of pianism and interpretation from Annie Sherter, student of Vlado Perlemuter and Alfred Cortot, LaDeur has established himself as a compelling exponent of classic and new repertoire. In March of 2018, LaDeur made his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall on the centennial of Claude Debussy’s death. He appears regularly with orchestra and maintains a repertoire of over 40 concerti. LaDeur is the founder and artistic director of the San Francisco International Piano Festival and president of the American Liszt Society, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.

2023-2024 season highlights include engagements at the International Piano Series, College of Charleston, Mendocino Music Festival Piano Series, Rossmoor Chamber Music Society, and the Vallejo Symphony led by Marc Taddei. LaDeur’s most recent solo recording features music of Liszt and was released by Music & Arts in April of 2022. Critic Henry Fogel wrote, “The beauty of his coloration, the rightness of his phrasing, and his sensitive dynamic shaping, all draw the listener into Liszt’s world.” A chamber musician of distinction, Jeffrey’s collaboration with mezzo soprano Kindra Scharich has produced To My Distant Beloved, an album exploring the connections between Beethoven and Schumann through cycles in song and solo piano works. LaDeur has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Robert Mann, Bonnie Hampton, Ian Swensen, Axel Strauss, Geoff Nuttall, and the Alexander String Quartet.

An active educator, Jeffrey offers masterclasses frequently as guest artist in universities throughout the United States and coaches gifted pre-college piano and string ensembles at Young Chamber Musicians in Burlingame, California. LaDeur holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music in piano performance and chamber music, respectively. Jeffrey counts among his teachers Mark Edwards, Douglas Humpherys, Yoshikazu Nagai, and Robert McDonald.

JeffreyLaDeur.com SFPIANO.OR

Liam Teague is Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and leads the renowned NIU Steelband. He is the recipient of an NIU Board of Trustees Professorship Award (2022); Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor Award (2018); and an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award (2023).

Hailed as the “Paganini of the Steelpan”, he has received several honors from Trinidad and Tobago, his country of birth, including the Hummingbird National Award (Silver), the Ansa McAl Caribbean Award for Excellence, and the Keys to the City of San Fernando.  In 2024, the Fox Valley Orchestra honored Teague with its Champion of the Arts award.

As a soloist, Teague has performed with diverse ensembles such as: National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Panama National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Vermeer String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Hannaford Street Silver Brass Ensemble, River City Brass Band, Nexus, Dartmouth Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Symphonic Band, and the BpTT Renegades Steel Orchestra. Teague has also collaborated with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels, Zakir Hussain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, and regularly concertizes with the steelpan and harp duo Pangelic, which he founded with Faye Seeman.  Liam has also appeared at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and international educational institutions.

Many of his compositions and arrangements are published with Panademy, MaumauMusic, RamajayMusic, and Wendeln Music Works. Teague has commissioned several outstanding composers to write for the steelpan; these include Michael Colgrass, Jan Bach, Libby Larsen, Andy Akiho, Deborah Fisher Teason, Joey Sellers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross, Kevin Bobo, David Gordon, Robert Chappell, Geof Bradfield, Casey Cangelosi, Gustavo Leone, Victor Provost, Etienne Charles, James Gourlay, and Reggie Thomas.

He is also the author of a steelpan method for beginners published by the Hal Leonard Corporation and has created arrangements for Panorama -the most celebrated steelband competition in the world. Teague has many recordings to his credit including Hands Like Lightning, Open Window, and Sorcerer.

Jaden Teague-Núñez is 18 years old and was born in Panama City, Panama. The son of Trinidadian and Panamanian parents, he began studying steelpan and piano at age 8 and 10, respectively.

He became the first steelpan soloist in the world to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after winning the CSO’s Crain-Maling Foundation Young Artists Competition in 2024. In 2025, he was named YoungArts Winner with Distinction (classical percussion) by the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists. His work has been covered by Chicago’s WGN-Television and in several newspapers which include the Trinidad Newsday and The Guardian.

Jaden has guested with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Fox Valley Orchestra, Wheaton Municipal Band, and the Northern Illinois University Steelband, and he has performed for the Nassau Music Society in the Bahamas and the 50th anniversary of Crop Over in Barbados. Teague-Núñez has played at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and at the 2023 Tuba Bach Festival and concertizes with his father Liam Teague as the duo TNTeague. He has also collaborated with virtuoso pianist Jodie Desalvo on her Piano Talks concert series. Jaden also practices mixed martial arts at United Elite MMA.

Mike Greensill & Friends

Celebrating Greensill’s 80th birthday and 40th anniversary of performing at Old First Concerts

Mike Greensill, piano

with special guests:

Roberta Donnay, vocals
Kellie Fuller, vocals
Gale Terminello, vocals
Noel Jewkes, saxes
Bill Klingelhoffer, French horn
Ruth Davies, bass
Brad Buethe, guitar

Acclaimed jazz pianist, arranger, and accompanist Mike Greensill will mark two milestones with a special all-star concert at Old First Concerts. The performance celebrates Greensill’s 80th birthday, which falls on September 5, as well as his 40th year performing in the Old First Concerts series.

A beloved figure in the Bay Area jazz community since arriving from England in 1977, Greensill is known for his decades-long collaboration as musical director and accompanist for his late wife, renowned vocalist Wesla Whitfield with whom he recorded 20 albums. Throughout his distinguished career he has played at many of San Francisco’s most heralded clubs, bars and honky tonks, including The Plush Room, Feinstein’s at The Nikko, Stars, The Washbag, Moose’s, and more, and has shared the stage and recording studio with an impressive roster of musicians, many of whom will join him for this special anniversary performance.

Featured vocalists include Roberta Donnay, whose recent CD Blossoming—a tribute to Blossom Dearie—was arranged and performed by Greensill; Kellie Fuller, a frequent collaborator with Greensill in performances at the Blue Note in Napa and Gale Terminello, whose latest recording with Greensill is titled I’m Old Fashioned.

The concert will also reunite Greensill with renowned multi-instrumentalist Noel Jewkes. In 1991, Mike and Noel recorded the critically acclaimed album American Lullaby. Together, they will revisit selections from that celebrated recording. A special highlight of the afternoon will feature French horn virtuoso Bill Klingelhoffer, principal horn with San Francisco Opera. Greensill famously incorporated a quartet of horns led by Klingelhoffer on Wesla Whitfield’s album Livin’ on Love, and Klingelhoffer will perform several selections during the concert.

Anchoring the rhythm section will be two of Greensill’s longtime musical colleagues: acclaimed bassist Ruth Davies and guitarist Brad Buethe, whose artistry and sensitivity have made them valued collaborators over the years.

For jazz enthusiasts and longtime admirers alike, this special event celebrates the beginning of Greensill’s ninth decade and forty years of appearances with Old First Concerts, offering a rare opportunity to experience a gathering of some of the Bay Area’s finest musicians honoring one of its most cherished artists.

Kevin Lee Sun, piano & Friends

Look to This Day

Kevin Lee Sun, piano
Hyo-shin Na, composer
Daniel De Togni, composer & shakuhachi
Wallis Lucas, soprano 

Daniel De Togni Death Poems (2025) for shakuhachi and piano West Coast Premiere
Hyo-shin Na Rain Study (1999) for piano solo
Hyo-shin Na Autumn Study (2023) for piano solo
Daniel De Togni Songs of Becoming (2024) for soprano and piano West Coast Premiere

Kevin Lee Sun is Assistant Professor of Piano at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In 2021, he was the sole pianist to be named Finalist of that year’s Berlin Prize for Young Artists in Germany. A native of Sacramento and an alumnus of Stanford and SFCM, Sun returns to California for this concert.

Sun’s program Look to This Day presents music by two living composers—Hyo-shin Na and Daniel De Togni—who will be in attendance. The program is centered around the difficulty, ephemerality, and cherishment of life. “Lord let me suffer much / and then die / Let me walk through silence / and leave nothing behind not even fear.” So begins a Polish poem by Anna Kamieńska that inspired Hyo-shin Na to compose her Autumn Study. Na’s other piece on the program, Rain Study, was inspired by a Korean folk song: “The sun that sets will rise again tomorrow. A life that passes will never return.”

Complementing Hyo-shin Na’s music are the West Coast Premieres of two duo works by Daniel De Togni. Death Poems for shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) and piano was inspired by Japanese haikus that act as momento mori. The composer himself will perform on the shakuhachi. For the program’s second half, Pittsburgh-based soprano Wallis Lucas joins Sun for Songs of Becoming, a 30-minute song cycle that sets De Togni’s original text and an ancient Sanskrit poem. Partially in response to his experiences and feelings while living in San Francisco, De Togni’s six songs explore themes of personal growth, dreaming, homelessness, depression, and the preciousness of each day.

Noël Wan, harp

Les fleurs du mal

Sergei Rachmaninoff, transcr. Wan Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5
Gabriel Jenks Stalk (2008)
Gabriel Fauré Une chatelaine en sa tour …, Op. 110
Clifton Callender Arches and Strings (2024-26)
Giacomo Puccini, transcr. Katz/Wan Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums)
Per Nørgård Consolazione: Flos ut rosa (2002)
Richard Wagner, transcr. Blassel Isoldes Liebestod 

“Did you spring out of heaven or hell, O Beauty?” (Baudelaire) 

One of classical harp’s most distinctive emerging soloists, Noël Wan brings together her unique artistic voice and intellectual imagination in an all-new solo program, Les fleurs du mal. Pairing pieces by beloved late Romantic composers with exquisite twenty-first century works, she and her harp conjure a tangled, efflorescent world of decadence, perversion, and beauty.

Lauded as “a huge talent with hidden power and amazing maturity” (Bart van Oort) and “not [a harpist] to be slept on” (The Globe and Mail), Taiwanese-Canadian-American Noël Wan 萬依慈 commands a remarkably fresh creative voice, bridging charismatic artistry and intellect in her work as an international prize-winning solo harpist and interdisciplinary scholar.

Unparalleled in her musical versatility and technical virtuosity, Noël has garnered top prizes at major competitions, including the Astral Artists National Competition, USA International Harp Competition, Prix Orford Musique, and World Harp Competition. Her solo work spans classical repertoire to jazz transcriptions to experimental improvisation and has been supported by the Chimei Arts Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and Florida State University.

Recent seasons include debut solo recitals in Chicago, Auckland, Hong Kong, China (Fuzhou, Wuxi), and Atlantic Canada; performances of Pull No More, Liliya Ugay’s award-winning solo electroacoustic harp work, at the Chicago Electro-Acoustic Festival, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, and CAMPGround Festival; and the premiere of The Angel of Death, an electroacoustic harp-sculpture designed by installation artist Tra Bouscaren. In July 2026, she will make her Elora Festival recital debut and give the world premiere of Jovian and Telluric, op. 54, Caroline Lizotte’s new work for flute and electroacoustic harp at One Harp World in Toronto.

An alumna of the University of Illinois (BM, DMA) and the Yale School of Music (MM), Noël is currently the Assistant Professor of Harp and Entrepreneurship at Florida State University and harp faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Atom String Quartet

Dawid Lubowicz, violin
Mateusz Smoczyński, violin
Michał Zaborski, viola
Krzysztof Lenczowski, cello

Atom String Quartet is one of the most original chamber ensembles in the world. It combines the tremendous skills of a classical string quartet with broadly understood improvisation, inspired by Polish folklore, world music, as well as contemporary and classical music. In its repertoire the group constantly blazes new paths, looking for their own sound and formal solutions that escape any classification. All graduates of the Warsaw Chopin University of Music, they all also compose and successfully lead their own solo projects. Since winning the Grand Prix at the 13th Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa in 2011, the ensemble has been regularly performing on the most important Polish and international music stages.

The musicians of Atom String Quartet are regularly invited to recording sessions and collaborate with leading Polish and international artists and orchestras. Their musical partners include artists and bands such as: Branford Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, Gil Goldstein, Vladislav Adzik Sendecki, Mino Cinelu, Paolo Fresu, Leszek Możdżer, Lars Danielsson, Zohar Fresco, Jerzy Maksymiuk, André Ochodlo, Urszula Dudziak, Anna Maria Jopek, Marek Moś, Natalia Kukulska, Kayah, Aga Zaryan, Adam Sztaba, Grzech Piotrowski, Krzysztof Herdzin, Andrzej Smolik, Orkiestra AUKSO, NFM, Orkiestra Symfoniczna Filharmonii Szczecińskiej, Orkiestra NFM Leopoldinum, Sinfonia Varsovia, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Sinfonia Iuventus.

In the 2017/2018 season, Atom String Quartet was artist-in-residence at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin. In March 2021, Atom String Quartet, together with pianist Hania Rani, performed Max Richter’s piece Testament. Commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the composition was written and dedicated to the artists as a tribute to Krzysztof Penderecki, who passed away in 2020. The premiere performance was recorded by TVP Kultura.

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.

Ensemble ARI

Jiwon Evelyn Kwark, violin
Heeguen Song, violin
Sarah Hong, cello
Sharon Lee Kim, piano
Jean Ahn, composer & director

Luke Dzwonczyk Cosmos in the Flowerbed for video and piano trio
Danny Clay Six Threads for video and piano trio
Jean Ahn Life Has Seasons for video and piano quartet
Gabriel Fauré Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15

“Ari” is a Korean word with multiple meanings: big river, wisdom, and beauty. Ensemble Ari is a group of Korean American musicians in San Francisco who aim to share these qualities with the community. The ensemble made its debut in October 2014 in their Korean War Memorial Concert which contributed toward the SF Presidio’s Korean Memorial. Since then, ARI has been featured at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Saint Mary’s College, University of the Pacific, L.A. Art Share, Old First Concerts, Maybeck, and other venues. ARI is a two-time recipient of the InterMusic SF grant and was also awarded the Barlow Grant to commission Laurie San Martin for a new work. This year, ARI commissioned Luke Dzwonczyk to write a work for video and piano trio. During ARI’s 10th anniversary season, the ensemble toured Korea with three sold-out concerts featuring commissioned works as well as Schumann’s Piano Quintet. Sound recordings can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@ensembleari1695.

Violinist Jiwon Evelyn Kwark made her solo debut at age 9 with the Amabile Orchestra, then toured Canada with the Young Orchestra of the Americas as the Associate Concertmaster, invited to Fondation Des Ecoles d’art Americaines de Fontainebleau in France, and toured Germany with the Penderecki Musik Akademie Orchestra as the concertmaster and soloist under the baton of composer, Maestro Penderecki. She has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and New Century Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Kwark currently performs regularly as the acting Principal Second Violinist of the Marin Symphony and is the violinist of Celeste Ensemble. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Yale School of Music, and Manhattan School of Music.

Violinist Heeguen Song is Associate Concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and is a member of Beaubliss Quartet and Ensemble Ari, and has appeared at the Yale Chamber Music Society, Osaka City Hall and Daejeon Chamber Music Festival among others. A prize winner of the Henryk Szeryng International Competition, Heeguen made her solo debut at Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and has appeared as a soloist with SF Ballet Orchestra, Ensemble 212, Oberlin Orchestra and others. Heeguen has studied at Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, Yale School of music and Rutgers University under the direction of Almita Vamos, Masao Kawasaki, Peter Oundjian, and Arnold Steinhardt.

Born in Seoul, Korea, cellist Sarah Hong gained national acclaim as Korea’s most promising young cellist at 16 through a KBS-broadcast performance, holds BM and MM degrees in cello performance from The Juilliard School, and completed the Artist Certificate in chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory under Bonnie Hampton. She has won international competitions and collaborated with renowned musicians at prestigious festivals, including Salzburg, Nice, Seoul, and New York. A member of Le Due Muse and Ensemble Ari, Ms. Hong also founded and directs the AMASE Cello Ensembles and the ‘Phos (φῶς)’ Benefit Concert Series, supporting underprivileged children and students with special needs.

San Francisco Bay Area native, pianist Sharon Lee Kim is an active chamber musician, director, vocal coach, and instructor. She is a frequent recitalist and has performed and recorded throughout the nation and internationally. She has performed in Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, and Symphony Hall, among other stages. Sharon works at the San Francisco Conservatory as Faculty Collaborative Pianist and at UC Berkeley as Piano Program Coordinator and Staff Pianist. Sharon maintains a thriving studio, teaching piano and vocal coaching students of all ages. She was a professor of music at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga for the past 16 years. Sharon holds degrees from UC Berkeley (BA) and New England Conservatory (MM and GD).

Director/Composer Jean Ahn earned her B.A. and M.M. degrees from Seoul National University and her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, where she currently serves as a Lecturer. She is also the music director for CHIM studio where she teaches music for special needs students. Deeply committed to cultural dialogue, Ahn’s Folksong Revisited has recently been published by Hildegard Publishing Company.

Luke Dzwonczyk is a composer, creative technologist, and researcher whose work centers on engaging emerging technologies with multimedia composition. He incorporates elements of electronic music into his work, influenced from his time as a DJ, and explores audio-visual relationships by creating bespoke software tools. A frequent collaborator, he has worked with dancers, singers, and visual artists in the Bay Area and abroad. Outside of the U.S., his work has been shown in France, England, India, and most recently in China, at the 2026 International Choral Festival in Beijing. A Ph.D. student in Music at UC Berkeley, Luke is currently living in Paris on the George Ladd Prix de Paris, spending two years collaborating with composers and researchers at IRCAM.

Danny Clay is a composer and teaching artist based in San Francisco. Danny teaches music composition to curious folks of all ages, from kindergarteners to doctoral students. As both an artist and educator, he strives to create situations where simple creative inquiries are transformed into community sandboxes for communication and collaboration. He has worked with artists and ensembles such as Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, Wu Man, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and his current interests lie in designing interactive web games that facilitate creative exploration and discovery. For more information, visit: https://www.dclaymusic.com/

 We recognize the challenges that we still face: the slow return of live audiences after the pandemic, a shift in the funding landscape by major Foundations, and the economic uncertainties brought about by inflation, conflict and climate change. When you give to Old First Concerts, you invest in the local arts community and stand with us as we overcome these challenges together! 

 Your donation to Old First Concerts:  

• Helps keep our prices incredibly affordable – you might have to pay twice as much to hear the same artists at another venue. We also provide $5 tickets for low-income seniors and students to nearly every concert. 
• Supports local musicians and keeps them in our community. Our series has hosted many first post-pandemic performances. 
• Ensures a safe space for music by women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) composers. Performers of this music seek out Old First Concerts as the venue of choice for this programming.   

 This year, we hope you would consider of gift of $125 or another amount that feels right to you. We deeply appreciate all gifts and acknowledge them in our printed programs and on our website.

If you would prefer to mail a check, please send it to:
Old First Concerts
1751 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

Old First Concerts is a registered 501(c)3 Charitable Organization (Tax ID#:94-2898233).