Musically Inspired
| 1. | Introduction | 00:00:56 |
| 2. | Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin for Wind Quintet | 00:16:42 |
| 3. | Schubert: Quartet in A minor for Strings, D. 804, Op. 29, No. 1, "Rosamunde" | 00:40:51 |
PROGRAM
|
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) |
Le tombeau de Couperin for Wind Quintet (1919) Sooyun Kim, Flute; James Austin Smith, Oboe; Romie de Guise-Langlois, Clarinet; Marc Goldberg, Bassoon; Eric Reed, Horn |
|
Franz Schubert (1797–1928) |
Quartet in A minor for Strings, D. 804, Op. 29, No. 1, "Rosamunde" (1824) Escher String Quartet; Adam Barnett-Hart, Violin I; Danbi Um, Violin II; Pierre Lapointe, Viola; Brook Speltz, Cello |
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Escher String Quartet
Sooyun Kim
James Austin Smith
Marc Goldberg
Eric Reed
The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Quartet has performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its hometown of New York, the ensemble appears frequently with CMS.
Highlights of the 2024–25 season find the Quartet performing in many of the great venues and organizations in the United States, including Alice Tully Hall, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Shriver Hall Concert Series, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, University Musical Society at University of Michigan, Spivey Hall, and Chamber Music Houston. In addition to their North American engagements, the Quartet returns to Wigmore Hall for a BBC live broadcast recital as well as other engagements in Germany and continental Europe.
The Quartet has made a distinctive impression throughout Europe, with recent debuts including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s Kings Place, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, Les Grands Interprètes Geneva, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Auditorium du Louvre. The group has appeared at festivals such as the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, Dublin’s Great Music in Irish Houses, the Risør Chamber Music Festival in Norway, the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia. The Quartet continues to flourish in its home country, performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, OKM Festival, Chamber Music San Francisco, Music@Menlo, and the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals.
Beyond the concert hall, the Quartet is proud to announce the creation of a new nonprofit entity, ESQYRE (Escher String Quartet Youth Residency Education). ESQYRE’s mission is to provide a comprehensive educational program through music performance and instruction for people of all ages. The quartet has also held faculty positions at Southern Methodist University and the University of Akron.
Within months of its inception in 2005, the ensemble came to the attention of key musical figures worldwide. Championed by the Emerson String Quartet, the Escher quartet was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet in Residence at each artist’s summer festival.
The Escher String Quartet takes its name from the Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.
Since her concerto debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, flutist Sooyun Kim has enjoyed a flourishing career performing with orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Boston Pops. She has appeared in recital in Budapest’s Liszt Hall, Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, and the Louvre Museum in Paris. She is a winner of the Georg Solti Foundation Career Grant and ARD International Flute Competition. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, she studied at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Paula Robison. She is recently appointed Assistant Professor of Flute at University Cincinnati College-Conservatory and teaches summer courses at Orford Musique. Kim plays on a rare 18-karat gold flute made especially for her by Verne Q. Powell Flutes and has recorded for labels including ArtistLed, Naxos, Toccata Classics, and BR-Klassik. Her album Confluence was released to great acclaim in 2025 on the Musica Solis label.
Performer, curator, and on-stage host James Austin Smith “proves that an oboist can have an adventurous solo career” (The New Yorker). Smith appears at leading national and international chamber music festivals, as Co-Principal Oboe of the conductor-less Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and as an artist of the International Contemporary Ensemble. As Artistic and Executive Director of Tertulia Chamber Music, Smith creates intimate evenings of music, food, and drink in New York and San Francisco, as well as an annual festival in a variety of global destinations. He serves as Artistic Advisor to Coast Live Music in the San Francisco Bay Area and mentors graduate-level musicians as a professor of oboe and chamber music at Stony Brook University and as a regular guest at London's Guildhall School. A Fulbright scholar and alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and CMS’s Bowers Program, he holds degrees in music and political science from Northwestern and Yale University.
A member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and New York Woodwind Quintet, Marc Goldberg is principal bassoonist of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Ballet Theater, the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and the NYC Opera. Previously the associate principal bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, he has also been a frequent guest of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, touring with these ensembles across four continents and joining them on numerous recordings. A long-time season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has been a guest of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Brentano Quartet, Music@Menlo, Musicians from Marlboro, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band. Goldberg is on the faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Mannes College, New England Conservatory, the Hartt School, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Eric Reed is the horn player of the American Brass Quintet, and co-principal horn of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Also a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Eric is a former member of the Canadian Brass, Ensemble Connect, and the New Jersey, Oregon, New World, and Harrisburg symphonies. He serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School, New York University, and Mannes School of Music. Eric is a member of Brassology, a genre-bending brass octet formed in 2023, and Ensemble Échappé, a sinfonietta dedicated to music of the 21st century. Recent world premieres include chamber works by Tyshawn Sorey, Jennifer Higdon, John Zorn, Nina C. Young, Anthony Barfield, William Bolcom, David Biedenbender, Philip Lasser, Kenneth Fuchs and Timo Andres. Recent festival appearances include Aspen, Bridgehampton, Bard, Emerald City, North Shore, Crescent City, Cape Cod, Steamboat Springs, and Mostly Mozart. Eric resides in the Bronx with his wife, violinist Sarah Zun, and their sons Oliver and Elliot.