INTERSECTIONS: Songs of the Earth

Sarah Frisof

Flute

Equally at home in the solo, chamber, and orchestral stages, Sarah Frisof is a passionate flutist and educator.  As a soloist, Ms. Frisof was the second-prize winner of both the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and the Heida Hermanns International Woodwind Competition, and she was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Kobe International Flute Competition. As a committed proponent of contemporary music, Ms. Frisof frequently premieres major works. In June of 2016, Ms. Frisof and her collaborative partner, Daniel Pesca, piano, released their first album, The Flute Music of Joseph Schwantner, an authoritative recording of all of Schwantner’s major works for flute.  Her second album, Beauty Crying Forth, a survey of music by female composers across time, was released in August of 2020.

In addition to Ms. Frisof’s work as a solo artist, she is an active orchestral and chamber musician, having worked with major symphony orchestras across the country, including the Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Kansas City Symphony and many others. In the summers, Ms. Frisof plays with several festival orchestras including the Sunflower Festival (Topeka, KS), and Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO). Ms. Frisof is an active member of Sound Impact, a chamber collective of musicians dedicated to serving communities and igniting positive change in the US and abroad through live performance, educational programs, and creative collaborations with other artists and art forms. Ms. Frisof currently serves as the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Maryland.

Thalea String Quartet

String Quartet

The Thalea String Quartet brings their signature vibrancy and emotional commitment to dynamic performances that reflect the past, present, and the future of the string quartet repertoire while  celebrating diverse musical traditions from around the world. Fueled by the belief that chamber  music is a powerful force for building community and human connection, the Thalea String  Quartet has performed across North America, Europe, and China, and has appeared at the  Kennedy Center, Massey Hall, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. They have shared the stage with  luminaries of the chamber music world, including members of the Emerson, Borromeo and St  Lawrence String Quartets, and they have performed alongside celebrated artists including  Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, violist Lawrence Power, acclaimed Canadian  band BADBADNOTGOOD, and visionary hip hop artist Jay Electronica. 

Committed to shaping and contributing to the future of the string quartet repertoire, the Thalea  String Quartet has premiered dozens of new works and have collaborated on new commissions  with composers including Paola Prestini, Anthony R. Green, Akshaya Avril Tucker, and Tanner  Porter. 

Winners of the 2021 Ann Divine Educator Award from the Fischoff National Chamber Music  Competition, the members of the Thalea String Quartet have been celebrated for their innovative  approach to education and community engagement. Pioneers of virtual educational program ming, TSQ has developed a variety of digital content, including two digital video series for stu dents of all ages and the CHAMPS Virtual Chamber Music Seminar, which brought together stu dents from across North America for an eight-week intensive study of the music of Florence B.  Price, Joseph Haydn, and Antonín Dvořák. The members of the TSQ have presented master classes and workshops at institutions across North America, including the Berklee College of  Music, the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and San Francisco State University. They have presented lectures and led discussions at institutions including the University of  Maryland, Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, and Wayne State Medical School in Detroit,  where they presented a workshop on non-verbal communication to first year medical students  alongside the Emerson String Quartet. 

The Thalea String Quartet is the Doctoral Fellowship String Quartet at the University of Maryland. The quartet has also held fellowship positions at the University of Texas at Austin and the  San Francisco Conservatory. They served as Associated Artists at the Queen Elisabeth Music  Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium for the 2019-20 season and were the 2019-20 Ernst Stiefel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. They were top prize winners at the 2018 Fischoff Competition and 2018 Chamber Music Yellow  Springs Competition. 

Christopher Whitley (violin) is originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Kumiko Sakamoto (violin) is from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada; Lauren Spaulding (viola) is from San Antonio,  Texas; and Alex Cox (cello) is from West Palm Beach, Florida.

Carrie Bean Stute

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.

Steven Beck

Piano

Pianist Steven Beck continues to gather acclaim for his performances and recordings. Recent career highlights include performances of Beethoven’s variations and bagatelles at Bargemusic, where he first performed the Beethoven sonata cycle.

An experienced performer of new music, Beck has worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Fred Lerdahl, and has performed with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae and the New York New Music Ensemble. He is a member of the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Knights, and the Talea Ensemble. He is also a member of Quattro Mani, a piano duo specializing in contemporary music. As an orchestral musician he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Orpheus, the Mariinsky Orchestra and many others.

Mr. Beck’s discography includes Peter Lieberson's third piano concerto (for Bridge Records) and a recording of Elliott Carter’s “Double Concerto” on Albany Records. He is a Steinway Artist.

Patrick Morgan

Clarinet

Patrick Morgan’s playing has been praised by the Washington Post as “riveting” and “...a mystical experience.” He has been performing in the DC area since 2008. Patrick accepted a position with the United States Marine Band and Chamber Orchestra at the age of 22, and was appointed principal clarinet in 2015. As a teacher, he has given masterclasses at universities across the country, including Northwestern, Eastman, Baylor, and the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he was a student of Howard Klug. He lives in Springfield, VA with his wife and two children.