Principal Underwriter: Silvercrest Asset Management Group

Miami String Quartet Children’s Concert Underwriter: The Watterson Foundation

Program

Fauré	Elegie for Cello & Piano in C minor, Op. 24
Debussy	String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
Ravel	Piano Trio
Chausson	Concerto in D Major for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, Op. 21

Artist Biographies

Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinston Trio Bio

Since making their debut as the KALICHSTEIN-LAREDO-ROBINSON TRIO at the White House for President Carter’s Inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature for thirty years. As one of the only chamber ensembles with all its original members, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio balances the careers of three internationally-acclaimed soloists while making annual appearances at many of the world’s major concert halls, commissioning spectacular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda.

The 2006-07 season sees major commemorations of the Trio’s 30th anniversary at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y and the Kennedy Center, in addition to other important venues in the United States. In celebration of their first appearance at the Y 30 years ago, the Trio will open the season for the 92nd Street Y in New York with the complete Brahms piano trios in October/November 2006, followed by the trio-version of Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht (arranged by Edward Steuermann) in December. Also in December, the Trio will give the world premiere of composer Richard Danielpour’s Piano Quartet, a work commissioned for their 30th anniversary by 10 presenting organizations nationwide, at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. The other commissioners, including the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Kennedy Center, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Islip Arts Council, Detroit Chamber Music Society, Tucson Friends of Music, Richard and Judith Hurtig, Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle and El Paso Pro Musica, will present the new work either this season or next.

In April, Carnegie Hall will celebrate the Ensemble’s 30-year milestone with a program of Mozart, Kirchner and Schubert that includes Pinchas Zukerman, viola, and Harold Robinson, bass. In addition, the Trio’s 2006-2007 tour will bring them to Philadelphia, Boston, La Jolla, Miami, Fort Worth, El Paso, Tucson, Princeton and Calgary. A European tour to Hamburg, Oldenburg and Erlangen (Germany), Lisbon (Portugal) and Copenhagen (Denmark) is also scheduled for January 2007.

On the recording front, The Ensemble will enter an exciting new partnership with KOCH International Classics. The projected release date for their new Arensky & Tchaikovsky disc is set for October 2006. KOCH will also re-release many of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio’s hallmark recordings, including chamber works of Maurice Ravel, A Child’s Reliquary (piano trio) and In the Arms of the Beloved (double concerto) by Richard Danielpour, the complete sonatas and trios of Shostakovich, trios by Pärt, Zwilich, Kirchner and Silverman written especially for the group, and their beloved collection of the complete Beethoven Trios. Other highlights of their vast discography include a critically acclaimed all-Haydn CD (Dorian), recordings of the complete Mendelssohn and Brahms Trios (Vox Cum Laude), Beethoven’s Kakadu Variations and the Archduke Trio (MCA Classics), as well as Beethoven Triple Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra (Chandos).

In December 2001, Musical America named the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio the Ensemble of the Year for 2002. More recently, they were awarded the first annual Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award by the Foundation for Recorded Music. And the 2003-04 season was their first as Chamber Ensemble in Residence at the Kennedy Center. The steady stream of honors marks the high esteem the classical music field holds for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

For the past seasons (2004-06), the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio maintained a heavy touring and teaching schedule, with dates in Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, Dallas, Cincinnati, Portland, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, as well as two European tours in November 2005 and May 2006, including appearances in Great Britain (Wigmore Hall, London), Lisbon, Amsterdam (the Concertgebouw), Spain and Germany. They’ve collaborated extensively with the Miami String Quartet and the Guarneri Quartet, allowing opportunities to explore the rich literature for strings and piano. Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music in 2005, while Joseph Kalichstein continued as a long-revered teacher at The Juilliard School.

Memorable concerts over the years include the Kalichstein Laredo Robinson Trio’s performance on Carnegie Hall’s Centennial Series; several tours of Japan, New Zealand and Australia; a Brahms series with the Guarneri Quartet featuring his entire literature for piano and strings; the Beethoven cycle on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series – the first time the complete Beethoven piano trios were performed at Lincoln Center – and performances with orchestras across America and Europe of new concertos written especially for the Trio by David Ott and Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

In Europe, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio has performed in Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lisbon, London, Vienna, and Paris, as well as at major international music festivals in Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Granada, Helsinki, Highlands, South Bank, Stresa and Tivoli. They have toured the British Isles with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in performances of solo, double and triple concertos and have recorded the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra for Chandos.

The Trio is honored that the Chamber Music Society of Detroit has created the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (KLRITA), an initiative with a two-fold purpose: to salute the Trio’s contribution to chamber music worldwide and to encourage and enhance the careers of promising young piano trios. The KLRITA, in which 20 presenters nationwide participate, is awarded to a new ensemble every two years. The first ensemble is the exciting young American group, the Claremont Trio, and the second award has just been presented to the Trio con Brio Copenhagen of Denmark.

MIAMI STRING QUARTET bio

IVAN CHAN, violin CATHY MENG ROBINSON, violin CHAUNCEY PATTERSON, viola KEITH ROBINSON, cello

Praised in the New York Times as having “everything one wants in a quartet: a rich, precisely balanced sound, a broad coloristic palette, real unity of interpretive purpose and seemingly unflagging energy,” the Miami String Quartet has quickly established its place among the most widely respected quartets in America. Their diversity in programming, poise in performance, keen sense of ensemble and impeccable musicality has made the Miami String Quartet one of the most sought after quartets in chamber music today.

In the spring of 2003, the Miami Quartet was named visiting Quartet in Residence at the Hartt School in Hartford, CT. In the fall of 2004, the Miami Quartet began as faculty members of Kent State University in Ohio, where the quartet serves as Quartet in Residence. Winners of the Cleveland Quartet Award presented by Chamber Music America, the Miami String Quartet has served as Quartet in Residence at Florida International University and was also the resident ensemble of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Chamber Music Society Two” from 1999-2001.

The Miami String Quartet has appeared extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Highlights of recent seasons include performances in New York at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, engagements in Boston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Paul, and its own concert series in Palm Beach, Florida. International highlights include appearances in Bern, Cologne, Istanbul, Lausanne, Montreal, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Taipei and Paris. The Quartet has recently toured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and they appear annually with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. In 2002 the Miami String Quartet made its debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The Miami String Quartet is in demand at many of the country’s great festivals. For the last several years, the Quartet has served as resident ensemble at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, and has appeared at Chamber Music Northwest, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Rutgers Summerfest, Music from Angel Fire, Virginia Arts Festival – where it is the resident ensemble – and at the festivals of La Jolla, Santa Fe, and Pensacola. In addition to these, the MSQ performed at the 2004 Brevard Festival.

The ensemble’s interest in new music has led to many commissions and premieres. In March 2000, the players gave the world premiere of Augusta Reed Thomas’ Invocations. In the 1997-98 season, the Quartet presented the American premieres of Quartet Nos. 1 and 2 by Peteris Vasks, which met with enormous acclaim and were subsequently recorded; Vasks’ Quartet No. 3 has since become a signature piece for the ensemble. Among other new music highlights are a commissioning grant from Chamber Music America for a piano quintet from Maurice Gardner, world premiere performances of the quartet Whispers of Mortality by Bruce Adolphe, a quartet by Philip Maneval, Maurice Gardner’s Quartet No. 2 and Concertino as well as premieres of Robert Starer’s Quartet Nos. 2 and 3, and David Baker’s Summer Memories. Recent commissions include a new work by composer Annie Gosfield, commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, a joint commissioning by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the VA Arts Festival of a new piano quintet by Bruce Adolphe, and a new work by composer Stephen Jaffe commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The Miami Quartet has also performed works with symphony orchestras, such as the American Sinfonietta, the New World Symphony, and the Miami Chamber Symphony.

The Miami String Quartet’s first recording of the first two quartets of Alberto Ginastera was released in 1994. Their second CD, of Saint-Saëns Quartets 1 and 2 and Faure’s String Quartet, was released in the fall of 1997 on BMG Conifer. The aforementioned 1999 BMG recording of Peteris Vasks’ Quartet Nos. 1, 2 and 3 garnered unqualified praise on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1992, the Miami String Quartet became the first string quartet in a decade to win First Prize of the Concert Artists Guild New York Competition. The Miami String Quartet has also won recognition in competitions throughout the world; as laureate of the 1993 Evian Competition, 1991 London String Quartet Competition, and as the 1989 Grand Prize Winner of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

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