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Montreal, April 25th, 2022. As part of its Cartes Blanches series, Pro Musica is proud to present the Webcast starting May 1st of the concert Le merveilleux voyage… Amérique, performed by the New Orford Quartet, accompanied by guest pianist Stéphane Lemelin. The concert has been recorded at PHI Center last March 20.
Sharing the same desire to pursue a career as an orchestral musician, soloist, teacher and chamber musician, four musicians with exceptional backgrounds, Jonathan Crow (violin), Andrew Wan (violin), Sharon Wei (viola) and Brian Manker (cello) form the New Orford String Quartet. Stéphane Lemelin, also a chamber musician and teacher, is the guest pianist to perform the Amy Beach Quintet. Their goal is to bring together four solo musicians from elite orchestras on a regular basis to present chamber music of the
highest level.
Program
Antonín Dvořák, String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, known as the “American”
Jessie Montgomery, “Strum”
Amy Beach, Quintet for piano and string quartet, op.67
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was born in Nelahozeves, near Prague. In 1893, while he was director of the conservatory in New York, he chose to spend his summer vacation in the countryside, in Spillville, Iowa, a place where he met up with fellow Czechs, to compose his twelfth quartet, the beloved American.
Jessie Montgomery, a native New Yorker, is an award-winning composer, violinist and educator. Highly involved in equality and diversity issues, at age 40 she was named the 6th female composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Amy Beach (1867-1944), born in New Hampshire, was a piano prodigy and composer recognized by her peers. Considered one of the most important American composers of the early twentieth century, her work includes more than 300 pieces, many of them chamber music, such as the Piano Quintet, Op. 67.
A laureate of the Robert Casadesus International Competition in Cleveland, Stéphane Lemelin is director of the collection Musique française 1890-1939: Découvertes for Atma Classique, in which he has recorded works by Samazeuilh, Ropartz, Pierné, Migot, Dupont, Dubois, Rhené-Bâton, Rosenthal, Alder, Lekeu and Vierne. Stéphane Lemelin studied with Yvonne Hubert in Montreal, Boris Berman and Claude Frank at Yale University, where he received a doctorate in music. He has been a professor at the University of Alberta and at the University of Ottawa, where he was Director of the School of Music from 2007 to 2012. Since 2014 he has been Professor of Piano and Chair of the Department of Performance at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.
Jonathan Crow has been concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) since 2011. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Performance from McGill University, where he studied with Yehonatan Berick. Mr. Crow became Associate Principal Second Violin of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at age 19, and was selected five months later to take the position of Associate Concertmaster. He became the youngest concertmaster in a major North American orchestra when he was appointed concertmaster in 2002. Jonathan is currently Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Toronto, and Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Andrew Wan was appointed concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) in 2008. As a soloist, he has performed throughout the world under such conductors as Vengerov, Petrenko, Labadie, Rizzi, Oundjian, Stern and DePreist. He has performed with many artists including the Juilliard String Quartet, Repin, Hamelin, Trifonov, Pressler, Widmann, Ax, Ehnes and Shaham. Sharon Wei has performed as a concerto soloist with orchestras such as the Kingston Symphony, Sinfonia Toronto, Southern Utah Symphony, San Fransico Chamber Orchestra, and the Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra. Wei has been the guest violist for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company and the Ensemble Matheus in Paris. Wei was educated at Yale University and Stanford University.
She currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Viola at Western University.
Brian Manker has been principal cellist of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra since 1999 and has pursued a diverse musical career as a performer and teacher. In addition to being a frequent performer with the MSO, Mr. Manker has won Juno and Opus awards.
Webcast (on request) from May 1st to 29th
Information and tickets : https://promusica.qc.ca/cartes-blanches/
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