Concerts in the Galleries 2023-24
ABOUT THE SERIES
“Not too long ago, audience members would storm out of the concerts if the musicians played anything new, but as time went by, the audience began to appreciate the new stuff, until the new stuff became the highlight of each show.”
— Laurel Reuter, Director Emerita, North Dakota Museum of Art
TICKETS
Tickets are available at the door, in advance online, or by calling (701) 777-4195.
Non-member tickets: $35 per concert
Member tickets: $30 per concert
Student and Military tickets: $10 per concert
Children 12 and under: Free
To avoid processing fees, tickets may be purchased in person with cash or check
TRIO CON BRIO COPENHAGEN
OCTOBER 22, 2023
2 PM, NORTH DAKOTA MUSEUM OF ART
Soo-Jin Hong | Violin
Soo-Kyung Hong | Cello
Jens Elvekjaer | Piano
“We can now see the Con Brio as the worthy successors of the legendary Beaux-Arts Trio. That says it all!” – Díapason
“Radiant Russian memorials and unforgettable playing…” – BBC Music Magazine
Recognized as one of the world’s finest piano ensembles, the Trio con Brio Copenhagen’s multifaceted members are not only performing artists who tour extensively, but also esteemed recording artists, artistic directors and educators. The Trio appears regularly at the world’s leading venues and concert series, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez-Saal, the Concertgebouw and many more. Trio con Brio is a recipient of the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Award, one of Denmark’s most prestigious prizes.
Trio con Brio Copenhagen is a fusion of two overlapping “musical pairs:” two sisters, violinist Soo-Jin Hong and cellist Soo- Kyung Hong, are from South Korea; pianist Jens Elvekjaer, Soo-Kyung’s spouse, is from Denmark. Founded at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in 1999, the Trio is now based in Copenhagen and is recognized for its exceptional musicianship, fresh approach to the core repertoire, adventurous programming and a commitment to bringing music to young people through their highly creative concerts.
The ensemble’s recordings have received tremendous critical acclaim. The latest album of Shostakovich and Arensky trios (Orchid Classics) was a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice” and also singled out by BBC Music Magazine as a “Chamber Choice” of the month. The disc also just won the German Record Critics’ Award (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik), and was singled out among other winning titles including the Berlin Philharmonic, Frank Peter Zimmermann, and Quatuor Ebène. An album featuring the complete Beethoven piano trios (Orchid Classics) garnered broad, enthusiastic praise from critics and fans alike with the BBC Music Magazine calling it “a triumph.” The Trio has also recorded the work of leading Scandinavian composers, including Per Nørgård, Bent Sørensen and Sven-David Sandström, who have written works for the group.
As visionary artistic directors who are known for their insatiable curiosity, inventive programming and engaging children’s concerts, Trio con Brio Copenhagen plays a vital role in the cultural life of Denmark. This season they are collaborating with leading Danish actor Søren Sætter-Lassen on their new musical production of “The Little Prince” set to open at The Royal Danish Theatre. A tour is planned the following year.
Trio con Brio Copenhagen serves as artistic directors of the annual festival, Chamber Music at Lundsgaard, and the Hellerup Chamber Music Society in Copenhagen.
Soo-Jin plays an Andrea Guarneri violin, Soo-Kyung plays a Grancino cello, and Jens is Denmark’s first Steinway Artist. Both string players are endorsed by Jargar Strings and Thomastik-Infeld Vienna.
AMIT PELED, CELLO
NOVEMBER 19, 2023
2 PM, NORTH DAKOTA MUSEUM OF ART
“a glowing tone” – The New York Times
“fiery and intelligent” – Strad Magazine
Praised by The Strad magazine and The New York Times, internationally renowned cellist Amit Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. Having performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Konzerthaus Berlin, Peled has released over a dozen recordings on the Naxos, Centaur, Delos, and CTM Classics labels. He is on the faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and has performed in and presented master classes around the world including at the Marlboro and Newport Music Festivals and the Heifetz International Music Summer Institute in the US, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove in England, and Keshet Eilon in Israel. Embracing the new era of the pandemic, Peled has established the Amit Peled Online Cello Academy reaching out to cellists all over the world. Moreover, his home studio in Baltimore has turned into a virtual art gallery promoting and supporting local artists while teaching and livestreaming to a worldwide audience.
Raised on a kibbutz in Israel, Amit Peled began playing the cello at age 10. He is represented worldwide by CTM Classics.
ITALIAN SAXOPHONE QUARTET
FEBRUARY 4, 2024
2 PM, NORTH DAKOTA MUSEUM OF ART
Federico Mondelci | Soprano
Julian Brodski | Alto
Silvio Rossomando | Tenor
Michele Paolino | Baritone
“As close to a religious experience as you could get without being in church.” — L.A. Observed“A perfect ensemble . . . spectacular . . . ” – Gazzetta Del Sud
The Italian Saxophone Quartet, with its 40 year history, is one of the longest-lived groups currently active on the world stage. Shortly after their founding, the ISQ won a number of important chamber music competitions, including the unanimous First Prize at the prestigious Premio Ancona. Since then, they have been giving exciting and eclectic performances to adoring crowds from New York to Moscow, Athens to Tokyo.Over 40 compositions written by eminent contemporary composers have been dedicated to the ISQ. The ISQ has performed the world and/or European premieres of many eminent composers such as Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino, Franco Donatoni, Henri Pousseur, and the American composer Joe Harnell.In 1992 the ISQ organized the 10th World Saxophone Congress in Pesaro (Italy), the birthplace of Rossini, in the city’s historic Rossini Theatre named for the great famous composer. This festival drew an unprecedented 550 soloists and groups from 22 countries around the world, and was awarded the “Kaleidoscope Award” by the commission of the European Community.Highlights of the ISQ’s international touring include two concerts on the venerable Dumbarton Oaks series in Washington, DC and four on the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles; the Bermuda International Festival; the Alicante Festival (Spain), the Oleg Kagan Musikfest in Munich (Germany, and the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut (Lebanon).The ISQ has given over 140 concerts in the last four years alone. Their 2019/20 schedule includes important festivals such as Festival delle Nazioni (Italy), the Palaces of St. Petersburg Festival (Russia), the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Chamber Series (Russia), Palaces of Crimea International Music Festival, and performances in concert series in in the USA, Berlin, Vienna, Cairo, Yerevan (Armenia) and many Italian cities.
PAVEL HAAS QUARTET
MARCH 10, 2024
2 PM, NORTH DAKOTA MUSEUM OF ART
Veronika Jarůšková | Violin
Marek Zwiebel | Violin
Šimon Truszka | Viola
Peter Jarůšek | Cello
“One of the 10 best string quartets of all time.” – BBC Music Magazine
“These musicians are at their best: their playing is virtuosic, their tone sensational, and they listen to each other like their lives depend on it. In short, wonderful.” – Edinburgh News
The Pavel Haas Quartet is revered across the globe for its richness of timbre, infectious passion and intuitive rapport. Performing at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and having won five Gramophone Awards and numerous others for their recordings, the Quartet is firmly established as one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles.
The Quartet appears at major venues including Wigmore Hall, London; Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Berlin; Musikverein, Vienna; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; Tonhalle, Zürich; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; BOZAR, Brussels; NCPA, Beijing; LG Arts Centre, Seoul and Carnegie Hall, New York. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Quartet was invited to be on the cover of The Strad’s June 2022 issue and was the featured interview in BBC Music Magazine in the same month. They were included in the latter magazine’s 10 greatest string quartet ensembles of all time and were described as “stylistically powerful and richly sonorous, [and] known for its passionate and fearless performances”.
In the 23/24 season, the Quartet returns to the Wigmore Hall for four concerts; Rudolfinum Prague; Teatro La Fenice; Liverpool Philharmonic Hall; Göteborgs Konserthus; National Concert Hall, Dublin; Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; Philharmonie Luxembourg. Further afield, the Quartet tours the United States in March 2024 and Asia in May 2024.
Since September 2022, the Pavel Haas Quartet has been Artist-in-Residence at the Dvořák Prague Festival and curate the chamber music concerts including programming all the Dvořák String Quartets and chamber music works over the three seasons.
The Pavel Haas Quartet records exclusively for Supraphon. Their most recent recording of the Brahms Viola and Piano Quintets with Boris Giltburg and their former member, Pavel Nikl, was released to critical acclaim in May 2022. The recording was described as “radiant and vivacious” by The Strad, and was Presto Classical’s Recording of the Week. For their previous album of Shostakovich String Quartets (2019), they received the Recording of the Year by Classic Prague Awards and were named one of the 100 best records of the year by The Times.
The Quartet received their five Gramophone Awards for their recordings of Dvořák, Smetana, Schubert, Janáček and Haas, as well as Dvořák’s String Quartets No.12 ‘American’ and No.13, for which they were awarded the most coveted prize, Gramophone Recording of the Year in 2011. The Sunday Times commented: “their account of the ‘American’ Quartet belongs alongside the greatest performances on disc.” Further accolades include BBC Music Magazine Awards and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in 2010 for their recording of Prokofiev String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2.
Since winning the Paolo Borciani competition in Italy in 2005, further highlights early on in their career have included the nomination as ECHO Rising Stars in 2007, the participation in the BBC New Generation Artists scheme between 2007–2009 and the Special Ensemble Scholarship the Borletti-Buitoni Trust awarded to them in 2010.
The Quartet is based in Prague and studied with the late Milan Škampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet. They take their name from the Czech-Jewish composer Pavel Haas (1899–1944) who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in 1941 and tragically died at Auschwitz three years later. His legacy includes three wonderful string quartets.
JI SU JUNG, MARIMBA
APRIL 14, 2024
2 PM, NORTH DAKOTA MUSEUM OF AR
“Ji Su Jung’s performance was dazzling—filled with breathtaking virtuosity but also beautifully shaped with extraordinary color and nuance.” – JoAnn Falletta
The first solo percussionist to ever receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ji Su Jung has a distinctive musical voice that is instantly recognizable for its depth and lyricism.
Born in South Korea, Ms. Jung began studying marimba at age three, a rarity among percussionists. Since launching her career as a soloist, she has performed concertos with such leading orchestras and conductors as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with Marin Alsop, the Houston Symphony with Daniel Hege, the Aspen Festival Orchestra with Michael Stern, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic with JoAnn Falletta, the Grand Rapids Symphony with Marcelo Lehninger, and the Boise Philharmonic with Eric Garcia.
“Ji Su Jung’s performance of the Kevin Puts Marimba Concerto was dazzling—filled with breathtaking virtuosity but also beautifully shaped with extraordinary color and nuance,” remarked conductor JoAnn Falletta about Ms. Jung’s performance with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Ms. Jung has recorded the Marimba Concerto of Puts, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, with the Baltimore Symphony and Marin Alsop, to be released on the Naxos label in early 2023.
Equally at home as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and collaborative artist, Ms. Jung has performed solo recitals in such venues as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ newly renovated David Geffen Hall. An active chamber musician, she frequently performs with The Percussion Collective, an all-star collection of young percussionists, of which she has been a core member since its inception. As part of The Percussion Collective, she has recorded Garth Neustadter’s Seaborne, anticipated to be released in 2023. As a collaborative artist, she has also appeared at Yellow Barn and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, where she performed with notable artists such as Gilbert Kalish and the late Roger Tapping.
The recipient of numerous awards and competition prizes, in 2022, she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, becoming the first percussionist to receive the award. She won both First Prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2018 Ima Hogg Competition of the Houston Symphony, as well as a top prize at the 2015 International Marimba Competition in Linz, Austria. She has also appeared as a young artist in residence with American Public Media’s highly popular radio program Performance Today, hosted by Fred Child.
Recognized internationally as a pedagogue, Ms. Jung serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. She has taught master classes at New York University’s Steinhardt School, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Michigan State University, and Beijing Central Conservatory in China, among other schools.
Ms. Jung holds a bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where she attended thanks to a generous grant from The Brookby Foundation. She also holds a master’s degree and an artist diploma from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Robert van Sice.
Ji Su is a musical ambassador for Adams Percussion, Pearl/Adams, and Vic Firth percussion companies.
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