The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors

Pianos/Pianists – A Celebration of the Keyboard

INON BARNATAN, Piano
GILBERT KALISH, Piano
ANNE-MARIE MCDERMOTT, Piano
ANDRÉ-MICHEL SCHUB, Piano
GILLES VONSATTEL, Piano
WU HAN, Piano

The blossoming career of pianist Inon Barnatan takes him to some of the most important music centers and festivals worldwide. In recent seasons, in addition to making his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall, he has appeared at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Salla Verdi, the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein, the Louvre, Shanghai's Arts Theater, and the Rising Stars series of the Ravinia and Gilmore festivals. In the 2007-08 season, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw will present a three concert project, conceived and organized by Mr. Barnatan, featuring the solo, chamber, and song output of Schubert's last year. The project will feature Mr. Barnatan along with the Belcea Quartet, baritone Christopher Maltman, and pianist Jonathan Biss, among others. His orchestral appearances include performances with the Houston Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Shanghai Symphony. An enthusiastic chamber musician, he has appeared at festivals in the United States and Europe with the Jerusalem String Quartet, Cho-Liang Lin, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, and Liza Ferschtman. His debut CD, of piano works by Schubert, was released by Bridge Records in 2006 to enthusiastic critical response; he also appears on Deutsche Grammophon's DG Concert label with the Chamber Music Society. Mr. Barnatan is a member of Chamber Music Society Two.

Pianist Gilbert Kalish's profound influence as an educator, and as pianist in myriad performances and recordings, has established him as a major figure in American music-making. He was awarded the Peabody Medal by the Peabody Conservatory in May of 2006 for his outstanding contributions to American music. Having toured last season with Musicians from Marlboro, he appears this season at the Gilmore Festival, performs in Taiwan, and, as a guest artist, plays a series of concerts with the Emerson and Juilliard quartets. Pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players for 30 years, he was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a group that flourished during the 1960s and 1970s in support of new music. He is particularly well known for his partnership of many years with mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani, as well as current collaborations with soprano Dawn Upshaw and cellists Timothy Eddy and Joel Krosnik. As an educator and performer he has appeared at the Banff Centre, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, the Marlboro Music Festival, and Music@Menlo; from 1985 to 1997 he served as chairman of the Tanglewood faculty. His discography of some 100 recordings embraces both the classical and contemporary repertories; of particular note are those made with Ms. DeGaetani and that of Ives’ Concord Sonata. He is a Distinguished Professor at SUNY Stony Brook. This is Mr. Kalish's second season as an Artist of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

A versatile musician, Anne-Marie McDermott is at home with a wide range of repertoire, from Bach and Mozart to Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. This season she continues her partnership with violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg by performing recitals across the US. She also recently appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, was the curator and featured performer in a three-concert Shostakovich Centennial Celebration at the Chamber Music Society, and presented Bach's Goldberg Variations on the Great Performers at Lincoln Center Series. In 2003 she performed the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas together with his complete chamber music works at the Lincoln Center Festival and Chamber Music Northwest, later recording both sets for the Arabesque label. Her other recordings include a critically praised all-Bach CD that was chosen as Gramophone magazine's Editor's Choice. Ms. McDermott, who debuted with the New York Philharmonic in 1997, has appeared with the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Seattle, as well as the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Brandenburg Ensemble. A winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions, she is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and the Joseph Kalichstein Piano Prize. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Dalmo Carra, Constance Keene, and John Browning. Ms. McDermott has been an Artist of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1995.

Pianist André-Michel Schub has been described by The New York Times as “pianistically flawless... a formidable pianist with a fierce integrity." This past summer he appeared at the Glasgow International Piano Festival, the Yale Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, La Jolla SummerFest, and the Virginia Arts Festival, where he has been artistic director of chamber music since 1997. Last season, to commemorate the tenth season of the Virginia Arts Festival, he participated in a recording project of Mozart's music. He also made orchestral appearances in Memphis, Santa Barbara, and Williamsburg, Virginia, and played solo recitals in Washington, DC, and Phoenix. Recipient of a 1977 Avery Fisher Career Grant, he won the l974 Naumburg International Piano Competition and the 1981 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He regularly appears at Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Ravinia, the Blossom Festival, Wolf Trap, and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. He has performed with the Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, St. Louis, and Milwaukee symphonies; the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras; the Los Angeles, New York, and Rochester philharmonics; the Royal Concertgebouw; the Bournemouth Symphony, and the New York Pops in Carnegie Hall. Born in France, he was a student of Rudolf Serkin at The Curtis Institute of Music and he is currently a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Schub has been an Artist of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2002.

The Swiss-born pianist Gilles Vonsattel began touring after capturing the top prize at the prestigious 2002 Naumburg International Piano Competition. He made his Alice Tully Hall debut that same year and has since performed with the Utah, Santa Fe, Nashville, and Grand Rapids symphonies, the New Century Chamber Orchestra (with which he toured California), the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Pops Orchestra. During the summer of 2007, he gave recitals at France's La Roque d'Anthéron Festival and at Warsaw's Chopin Festival, in addition to performing at the Davos Festival and at Caramoor. He also performed Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion with Jerome Lowenthal at Santa Barbara's Music Academy of the West. He will give his debut recital at Zurich's Tonhalle in December and, in 2008, will present recitals at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, at Atlanta's Spivey Hall, and at the La Jolla Music Society. In 2006 he won the international piano competition Concours de Genève and his recording of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with Orchestre de Chambre de Genève will be released at the end of 2007. A member of Chamber Music Society Two, Mr. Vonsattel received his bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Columbia University and his master's degree in music from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal.

Pianist and co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society, Wu Han ranks among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. Her career has taken her to many of the world's most prestigious venues, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Washington's Kennedy Center. She has toured North and South America, Europe, and the Far East, and her regular summer festival appearances include Aspen, Santa Fe, Chamber Music Northwest, Caramoor, and Music@Menlo. Wu Han is active as a concerto soloist as well, recently appearing with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in a performance of the Beethoven Triple Concerto. In 2007, with cellist David Finckel, Wu Han gave the world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s double concerto, Compadrazgo. Wu Han is a frequent collaborator with many of today's finest musicians and ensembles, including the Borromeo, Emerson, Pacifica, and St. Lawrence Quartets. With David Finckel, Wu Han performs extensively across the United States and Europe and has given three critically acclaimed Wigmore Hall recitals. In February 2006, Wu Han and David Finckel made their Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center recital debut. Wu Han's wide-ranging musical activities include the founding of ArtistLed, classical music's first musician-directed, Internet-based recording company. All nine ArtistLed recordings have received critical acclaim and are available via the company's website. The label's Russian Classics recording received BBC Music Magazine's coveted Editor's Choice Award. ArtistLed's recent Brahms disc features Wu Han's second solo recording for the label, coupling the composer's Opus 118 Six Pieces for Solo Piano with the two cello sonatas. In recent years, Wu Han and David Finckel have become widely recognized for their initiatives in expanding audiences for classical music, and for guiding the careers of countless young musicians. They are the founders and Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival in Silicon Valley. Prior to launching Music@Menlo, Wu Han and David Finckel served for three seasons as Artistic Directors of La Jolla SummerFest.