Legendary clarinetist Charles Neidich performs a striking, klezmer-influenced work by Jewish-Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. Shostakovich’s haunting wartime trio and Prokofiev’s infectious sextet fuse Jewish folk music with the unmistakable sound of the 20th-century Russian greats.
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Clarinet
Clarinetist and conductor, Charles Neidich has gained worldwide recognition as one of the most mesmerizing virtuosos performing today. With a tone of hypnotic beauty and a dazzling technique, Mr. Neidich has received unanimous accolades from critics and fellow musicians both in the United States and abroad; but it is his musical intelligence in scores as diverse as Mozart and Elliott Carter that has earned for Mr. Neidich a unique place among clarinetists. In the words of The New Yorker, "He's an artist of uncommon merit - a master of his instrument and, beyond that, an interpreter who keeps listeners hanging on each phrase."
An ardent exponent of new music and a composer himself, he has expanded the technical and expressive possibilities of the clarinet and has championed the works of many of the world’s most important composers. He is a leading performer on period instruments and has restored and reconstructed original versions of works composers from Mozart to Copland.
In wide demand as a soloist, Mr. Neidich has collaborated with some of the world's leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the MDR, the Berlin Radio Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, San Diego Symphony, New City Chamber Orchestra of San Francisco, Yomiuri Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Tafelmusik, the Handel/Haydn Society, the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, the Juilliard, Guarneri, American, Mendelssohn, and Parker String Quartets and the Peabody Trio. He has made his mark not only as an instrumentalist, but also as an innovative programmer and student of period instrument performance practice. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Neidich is a member of the renowned New York Woodwind Quintet and is a member emeritus of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Mr. Neidich commands a repertoire of over 200 solo works, including pieces written, commissioned or inspired by him, as well as his own transcriptions of vocal and instrumental works. A noted exponent of 20th century music, he has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Edison Denisov, William Schuman, Ralph Shapey, Joan Tower, and other leading contemporary composers. With a growing discography to his credit, Mr. Neidich can be heard on the Chandos, Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Pantheon, Bridge, and Bremen Music Hall labels. His recorded repertoire ranges from familiar works by Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, and Brahms, to lesser-known compositions by Danzi, Reicha, Rossini, and Hummel, as well as music by Elliott Carter, Gyorgy Kurtag, and other contemporary masters. Mr. Neidich received a rave review from Heuwell Tircuit in Fanfare for his Sony recording of Robert Schumann's Sonatas Op. 105 and 121 and the Three Romances, Op. 94: “... Indeed, the First Sonata (a major masterpiece) seems even more expressive on clarinet -- at least as Neidich plays it. Besides sheer enjoyment, I found myself moved by this performance."
Mr. Neidich has performed at numerous summer festivals and appears regularly at the Marlboro Music Festival, the Sarasota Summer Music Festival, the Orford and Domaine Forget Festivals in Canada, and the International Stichting Masterclass Apeldoorn in the Netherlands and the Kyzowa Music Festival in Poland.
A native New Yorker of Belarussian and Greek descent, Charles Neidich had his first clarinet lessons with his father, and his first piano lessons with his mother. Mr. Neidich's early musical idols were Fritz Kreisler, Artur Schnabel and other violinists and pianists, rather than clarinetists. The clarinet, however, won out over time, and he pursued studies with the famed pedagogue Leon Russianoff. Although Mr. Neidich became quite active in music at an early age, he opted against attending a music conservatory in favor of academic studies at Yale University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Anthropology. While at Yale, he received the Selden Prize for musicianship and scholarship. In 1975 he became the first American to receive a Fulbright grant for study in the former Soviet Union. He attended the Moscow Conservatory for three years where his teachers were clarinetist, Boris Dikov and pianist, Kirill Vinogradov.
In 1985 Mr. Neidich became the first clarinetist to win the Walter W. Naumburg Competition, which brought him to prominence as a soloist. He then taught at the Eastman School of Music and during that tenure joined the New York Woodwind Quintet, an ensemble with which he still performs. His European honors include top prizes at the 1982 Munich International Competition sponsored by the German television network ARD, and the Geneva and Accanthes International Competitions.
Charles Neidich has also been gaining greater and greater recognition as a conductor. For several years he has been the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Queens College Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he has appeared as guest conductor with orchestras throughout the US, Europe, and in Asia most recently in acclaimed Beethoven programs with the Hyogo PAC Orchestra and Mozart programs with the Tokyo Philharmonic in Japan. He has also been featured in programs in the triple role of Conductor, Soloist, and Composer with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the San Diego Symphony.
Mr. Neidich has achieved great recognition as a teacher in addition to his activities as a performer, and currently a member of the artist faculties of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.. In 2004, he was awarded the William Schuman Award for performance and scholarship at the Juilliard School. Already in its 12th season, together with his wife, Ayako Oshima, he founded the Kitakaruizawa Music Seminar. Just this year, he was awarded a lifetime membership in honor of his artistic achievements by the International Clarinet Society and a medal for lifetime achievement from the National Society of Arts and Letters. This medal has been awarded only to three other musicians: the pianist Menahem Pressler, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and the flutist Carol Wincenc.
Violin
Australian violinist Alexandra Osborne was appointed to the National Symphony Orchestra by Christoph Eschenbach as the youngest member of the violin section in 2009, and most recently was the Acting Assistant Concertmaster.
Recent highlights include tours across Australia and the USA with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a concert on the “King Louis XIV” Amati at the Smithsonian American History Museum, founding board member and violinist of Jackson Hole Chamber Music, Guest Concertmaster with the Auckland Philharmonia, the Dvorak Piano Quintet with Maestro Eschenbach, the Fortas Chamber Music Series,and concerts at the Lucerne, Bonn, Grafenegg and Rostropovich Festivals, and the BBC Proms.
A chamber music lover, Ms. Osborne has appeared at the Taos, Pan Pacific, Kneisel Hall, Sarasota and Colorado Music Festivals, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Fortas Chamber Music Series and was a featured artist in Symphony Magazine. She is a laureate of the 2001 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, winner of the Gisborne International Music Competition, and a gold medalist of the Symphony Australia Young Performers Award.
A graduate of Curtis and Juilliard, she currently plays with the Omega Ensemble in Sydney, the 21st Century Consort, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, Gourmet Symphony and frequently performs with The Last Stand Quartet. With a keen interest in fostering young talent, she is a teaching artist for the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the NSO's Youth Fellowship and Summer Music Institute programs, and recently joined the faculty of the Hawaii Youth Symphony, whilst maintaining a private teaching studio in Washington, DC.
Violin
Domenic Salerni is a violinist, composer, arranger, and teacher. A member of the multiple GRAMMY© Award-winning Attacca Quartet, Domenic is based in Brooklyn, NY. As a musician with wide-ranging interests, Domenic is always excited to collaborate with creatives from all walks of life.
Recently, Attacca Quartet was featured on Sylvan Esso’s “Live from Electric Lady,” playing arrangements by Gabriel Kahane including “Will the Night,” a tune by the late Mimi Parker of the band Low. In addition to a busy touring schedule including appearances at Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, Kings Place, London, the Amsterdam Strijkkwartet Biënnale, the Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao, and the Petit Palau de la Musica, Barcelona this season, Attacca looks forward to performing this summer at the Ojai Festival, Kronos Quartet Festival in San Francisco, and an appearance at Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center made possible by Carnegie Hall.
Last summer, Domenic and the rest of his quartet mates were asked to compose original music for the podcast “The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome” produced by Project Brazen and Goat Rodeo Productions.
Domenic looks forward to the premiere of his Piano Trio No. 2 “Elegiac” based on Ukrainian themes at Richmond, Virginia’s newest chamber music series, The Belvedere Series, in April. In August, he will join the Palaver Strings at the Screen Door Festival in Maine, where he will perform his own original arrangements of 60s Civil Rights Era protest songs (The Freedom Singers, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, and more) with tenor Nicholas Phan. This set of songs will be recorded by Palaver with engineer Alan Bise on Azica Records in September.
In the summer of 2021, Domenic’s first string quartet, “Trilobites,” after a short story by Breece D J Pancake, was premiered at the inaugural Appalachian Chamber Music Festival in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Domenic was the first violinist of the Dalí Quartet from 2016-2020, where he collaborated extensively with musicians like Ricardo Morales and Olga Kern. The Dalí Quartet recorded the Brahms and Shostakovich piano quintets with Kern for Delos Records in 2019. With the Dalí Quartet, Domenic was a recipient of the Atlanta Symphony Talent Development Program’s 2019 Aspire Award.
As a guest artist of the Chiarina Chamber Players, Domenic was a recipient of a 2020 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant for the song cycle “The Best Cuisine” by Carlos Simon, which was premiered with guest bass-baritone Carl DuPont in 2021.
In 2020, as part of his response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Domenic helped set up the Philadelphia Musicians Relief Fund which has since raised over $100,000 in aid and continues to provide support for Philadelphia area musicians.
In 2010, while a graduate student at the Yale School of Music, Domenic composed and performed an original film accompaniment to the first full-length Italian feature film, Giuseppe De Liguoro’s “Dante’s Inferno” (1911). Domenic holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music, where he was a winner of the 2010 Yale Chamber Music Society Award.
Domenic can be found on albums released by Nonesuch Records, Sony Classical, Better Company Records, Loma Vista Recordings, Delos Music, Artek and his more experimental projects can be found on Bandcamp.
Viola
Philip Kramp is a versatile performer and teacher whose playing has been heard worldwide. Praised by the New York Times for his “impressive” performances, he has participated in chamber music festivals at Marlboro, Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Sarasota and many others.
Based in Washington, DC, Phil is a former violist in the Kansas City Symphony and a former faculty member of the University of Kansas. Currently, Phil is on the faculty at the University of Maryland and he plays regularly with the National Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has performed on tours worldwide with many orchestras and can be heard on recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Metropolis Ensemble and The Roots. Phil can also be heard on many motion picture soundtracks and television shows.
In chamber music settings, Phil plays regularly with the Chiarina Chamber Players, as well as in concerts with members of the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a past participant of the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed on several tours with Musicians from Marlboro. He is also a regular participant and the Twickenham Music Festival and the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, Colo. Phil has also enjoyed collaborating with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has performed alongside many of the world’s greatest artists, such as Richard Goode, Peter Wiley, Michael Tree, Arnold Steinhardt, Marcy Rosen, Miriam Fried and many others.
In competitions, Phil has won prizes in the Irving Klein String Competition, Chicago Viola Society Competition, NEC Concerto Competition and has participated in the Stulberg Competition and the HAMS Viola Competition. Phil received his formal training at the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory. His primary mentors include Michael Tree, Roberto Diaz, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Joe DePasquale, Peter Wiley and Steven Tenenbom.
Cello
A versatile and promising performer bringing “sonorous life” to the stage [Cleveland Plain Dealer], cellist Carrie Bean Stute’s musical endeavors cover the span of solo, chamber, and orchestral playing. Since 2014 she has held a position with “The President’s Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra in Washington, DC, where she performs in such diverse settings as the White House, State Department, area public schools, and the Phillips Collection. She is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Capitol Hill-based chamber music seriesthe Chiarina Chamber Players. Appearing on most of Chiarina’sconcerts alongside leading regional players, she also manages programming and outreach for a growing audience base.
Carrie was a fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, and at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was recipient of the Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Award. As a soloist noted for her “style and virtuosity” [ClevelandClassical], Carrie has performed with the Florida Orchestra and the Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra of Cleveland. She appeared at the Norfolk (CT) and Sarasota (FL) chamber music festivals, and at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburgh, England. While living in New York, she performed in such notable venues as Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and an in-house educational residency at the 92nd Street Y. She has collaborated with such artists as Jaime Laredo, Sarah Chang, Charles Neidich, and Rolf Schulte. Her work with small ensembles and orchestras can be heard on the Albany, Avie, BSO Classics, and GlorClassics recording labels.
As a performer who seeks out the work of today’s composers, Carrie was a member of the New York-based ensemble Hotel Elefant and participated in the 2013 Carnegie Hall workshop "New Voices, New Music," led by David Lang and the International Contemporary Ensemble. She has collaborated with DC’s Inscape Chamber Orchestra and with such diverse composers as John Adams, Oliver Knussen, Michael Gordon, Richard Carrick, SahbaAminikia, and Mary Kouyoumdjian. She took part in Tanglewood’sElliott Carter Centennial celebration and was soloist in a premiere reading of Fang Man’s Tao for Sheng, Cello, and Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival.
Carrie is currently an instructor at the DC Youth Orchestra Program and the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop’s Suzuki program. Sheserved as an adjunct instructor at CUNY Queens College, where she taught cello and chamber music. In 2016 she was a teaching artist and performer at the Alonso Marín National Music Festival in Caldas, Colombia. In 2014 and 2012 she served as a guest teaching artist for the National Youth Orchestra of Honduras, in an initiative sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. Carrie taught previously at the Harlem Opus 118 School in New York and at the Eastman Community Music School in Rochester. With the Atlas Piano Trio, she held a two-year residency at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. At the Bowdoin Music Festival, she was a teaching assistant to Professor Steven Doane. In her earlier collaborations with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, she took part in toursto Central America, South America, and Europe, interacting with local youth orchestras in projects designed to mentor young musicians. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of YOA’s expanding pilot program, the Global Leader Program, which offers fieldwork opportunities for teaching artists and a related curriculum.
Carrie holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Indiana University, where she was also a recipient of a faculty-awarded Performer’s Certificate (ESM), Arts Leadership Certificate (ESM), and Jacobs Scholar Award (IU). She was recipient of an Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, where she is completing doctoral studies. Her teachers include Steven Doane, Janos Starker, Marcy Rosen, Sharon Robinson, and Scott Kluksdahl. She studied chamber music with members of the Tokyo, Artis, and Ying Quartets, and with the Kalichstein–Laredo–Robinson Trio. She has performed in master classes for such cellists as FransHelmerson, Paul Katz, and Timothy Eddy.
Piano
Pianist Efi Hackmey is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players, together with cellist Carrie Bean Stute. Mr. Hackmey is an active soloist and chamber musician in NYC and in the DC area. In 2013 he released an album on the Naxos label, which includes several world premiere recordings (Polish Violin Music with violinist Kinga Augustyn). Efi has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, Kennedy Center, Bargemusic, Arion Chamber Music, and the Friends of Mozart series in NYC. He performed many additional concerts in Alabama, California, DC, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming. In his native Israel he performed as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Jerusalem Music Center, and in special concerts presented by the Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society. He has performed on Israeli TV Channel 2, and his recordings have been broadcast on the Israeli National Public Radio,and in the US on WTSU, WRWA and WTJB. A review of one of his New York performances quotes “excellent Israeli musician... under his fingers the piano sounded noble, and each phrase was full of character”, and further praises his “highly personal, thought through interpretation.” (Roman Markowicz, “Nowy Dziennik”).
Mr. Hackmey has served on the piano faculty at DePauw University, and he also taught at the Indiana University system, Montgomery College in Rockville, MD, and Levine School of Music in Washington, DC. He holds a Doctor of Music degree in piano performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and degrees in piano and conducting from Tel Aviv University. He studied with Menahem Pressler, Pnina Salzman and Dina Turgeman, and has had additional coaching with Lazar Berman, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Janos Starker, David Zinman, Richard Stoltzman and Jaime Laredo.