Simply Britten
| 1. | Introduction | 00:00:50 |
| 2. | Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C major for Strings, Op. 36 | 00:34:19 |
| 3. | Britten: Simple Symphony for Strings, Op. 4 | 00:23:20 |
PROGRAM
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Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) |
Quartet No. 2 in C major for Strings, Op. 36 (1945) Jeffrey Myers, Violin; Ryan Meehan, Violin; Jeremy Berry, Viola; Estelle Choi, Cello |
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Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) |
Simple Symphony for Strings, Op. 4 (1934) Chad Hoopes, Violin I Kristin Lee, Violin I; Danbi Um, Violin I; Arnaud Sussmann, Violin I; Bella Hristova, Violin I; Francisco Fullana, Violin II; James Thompson, Violin II; Daniel Phillips, Violin II; Sean Lee, Violin II; Paul Neubauer, Viola; Jeremy Berry, Viola; Matthew Lipman, Viola; Dmitri Atapine, Cello; Sihao He, Cello; Mihai Marica, Cello; David Finckel, Cello; Blake Hinson, Double Bass |
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Francisco Fullana
Chad Hoopes
Bella Hristova
Kristin Lee
Sean Lee
Ryan Meehan
Danbi Um
Matthew Lipman
Paul Neubauer
Daniel Phillips
Arnaud Sussmann
James Thompson
Dmitri Atapine
Estelle Choi
Sihao He
David Finckel
Mihai Marica
Blake Hinson
Violinist Francisco Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2023 Khaledi Prize, has collaborated with conducting greats like Sir Colin Davis, Hans Graf, and Gustavo Dudamel. Besides his career as a soloist, which includes recent debuts with the Philadelphia and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras and a residency with Apollo’s Fire, he is also an innovative educator, having created the Fortissimo Youth Initiative and co-founded San Antonio’s Classical Music Institute. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the University of Southern California, Fullana performs on the 1735 Mary Portman ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
American violinist Chad Hoopes is a consistent and versatile performer with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Paris, l’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the Minnesota and National Arts Centre orchestras, as well the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, and National symphonies. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been a guest of the Moritzburg Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, and Aspen Music Festival, and has been featured on recordings including the recent Moritzburg Festival Dvořák album with cellist Jan Vogler, released by Sony Classical, and with the MDR Leipzig and conductor Kristjan Järvi performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto on the Naïve label. He has performed in recital at the Ravinia Festival, the Tonhalle Zürich, and the Louvre, as well as on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. He is a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and appeared as the cover feature on the November 2021 edition of The Strad. Hoopes attended the Cleveland Institute of Music before studying with Ana Chumachenco at the Kronberg Academy. He plays the 1991 Samuel Zygmuntowicz, ex Isaac Stern violin.
Acclaimed for her passionate, powerful performances, beautiful sound, and compelling command of her instrument, violinist Bella Hristova has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across the US, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and New Zealand. She was the featured soloist for an eight-orchestra concerto commission, written by her husband, composer David Serkin Ludwig, and recently recorded it with the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta. Her discography also includes the complete Beethoven and Brahms sonatas with pianist Michael Houstoun. A champion of new music, her project Lineage features six new solo violin commissions by Dai Wei, Gloria Kravchenko, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Eunike Tanzil, Joan Tower, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. She is a recipient of a 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first-prize winner of the Michael Hill and YCA competitions. Hristova studied with Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo, is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, and plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin.
A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as a top-prize winner of the International Naumburg Violin Competition and the Astral Artists’ National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Lee has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and many others. She is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of Emerald City Music in Seattle. Lee released her critically acclaimed debut solo album, American Sketches, on First Hand Records in November 2024. In 2026, she will collaborate with Grammy-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion, featuring a new commission by Vivian Fung. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul and Linda Gridley. She is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program.
With performances described by the New York Times as “breathtakingly beautiful,” violinist Sean Lee has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for over a decade, following his participation in CMS’s Bowers Program. A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, and Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice. Originally from Los Angeles, Lee studied with Robert Lipsett of the Colburn Conservatory and legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci before studying at the Juilliard School with his longtime mentor, violinist Itzhak Perlman. Lee performs on violins made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 1995 and David Bague in 1999, and a bow made circa 1890 by Joseph Arthur Vigneron.
Violinist Ryan Meehan has been hailed for his “singing tone” (New York Times) and his “remarkably polished and sophisticated playing” (Chicago Tribune). As a member of the Calidore String Quartet he is a recipient of a BBC Music Magazine Award, Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship,Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He also toured internationally alongside violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter as part of her Virtuosi ensemble. Ryan regularly performs in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, Berlin Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and at festivals, including the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo, Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. With the Calidore, he has released nine commercial recordings including a recent release of the late Beethoven String Quartets.
As a soloist, Ryan has garnered top prizes in competitions, including the Washington International Competition, ASTA National Solo Competition and NFAA Young Arts. He has performed as soloist with the Colburn Orchestra and the Bellingham Festival Orchestra and played recitals throughout the North America, South America, Asia and Europe. As a chamber musician, he won grand prize at the $100,000 M-Prize, Coleman, Chesapeake and St. Paul chamber music competitions, as well as prizes at the ARD Munich, Hamburg and Fischoff competitions. He has collaborated with such esteemed musicians as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Julia Fischer, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Anthony McGill, Lawrence Power and the members of the Emerson and Ebène String Quartets.
Ryan serves on the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music as Associate Professor of Violin and co-directs the UD Graduate Fellowship Quartet Program and Calidore String Quartet Seminar. He also served as the String Chamber Music Director at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance and artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto and Stonybrook University. In response to the 2020 summer festival cancellations caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, Ryan co-founded the Virtuosi Virtual Summer Academy (VVSA), which connected a diverse group of young violinists and pianists with the world’s leading soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians. In the summer season, he serves on the faculty of Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute and Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan.
A dedicated teacher, Ryan’s violin students have won top prizes and awards in national and international violin competitions such as the Klein, Cooper, Sphinx, Concert Artist Guild Competitions (Grand Prize) and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. They have been invited to prestigious summer festivals such as the Verbier Festival Academy, Perlman Music Program and Music@Menlo, performed as soloist with numerous orchestras and were accepted to prestigious collegiate conservatory programs such as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, Colburn School and the Harvard/New England Conservatory dual degree program. His students perform professionally as soloists, chamber musicians and in orchestras across the world.
Ryan is a graduate of the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. His teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos, Robert Lipsett, Arnold Steinhardt, Julia Fischer, Günther Pichler with significant influence from Ana Chumachenco. He plays a violin by Vincenzo Panormo c. 1775 and is sponsored generously by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.
Violinist Danbi Um is a Menuhin International Violin Competition Silver Medalist, a winner of the prestigious 2018 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and a recent top prizewinner of the Naumburg International Violin Competition. Recent and upcoming engagements include appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Cleveland Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music San Francisco, and the Rockport, Moab, Saratoga Performing Arts (SPAC), Santa Fe, and North Shore Music Festivals. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Ms. Um moved to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she earned a bachelor’s degree. She also holds an Artist Diploma from Indiana University. She is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and plays a 1683 “ex-Petschek” Nicolo Amati violin, on loan from a private collection.
American violist Matthew Lipman has made recent appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. He has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Zürich Tonhalle, and has recorded on the Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Cedille, and Avie labels. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with CMS. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and major prize winner at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University. He performs on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola.
Violist Paul Neubauer, hailed by the New York Times as a “master musician,” released two new albums in 2025 on First Hand Records, featuring the final works of two great composers: an all-Bartók album including the revised version of the Viola Concerto, and a Shostakovich recording that includes the monumental Viola Sonata. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at the age of 21, Neubauer has appeared as soloist with the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki Philharmonics; the Chicago, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth Symphonies; and the Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle Orchestras. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki, Picker, Suter, and Tower. A two-time Grammy nominee, Neubauer is artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and Mannes College.
Violinist Daniel Phillips co-founded the Orion String Quartet, which gave its last concert in April 2024 at CMS after an illustrious 37-year career. A graduate of Juilliard, he counts among his teachers his father Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Végh, and George Neikrug. Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, and San Antonio symphonies. He appears regularly at festivals including Music from Angel Fire, where he is co-artistic director. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of Bard College Conservatory and Juilliard. He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and their two dachshunds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has recently appeared as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony and the New World Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Tel Aviv Museum, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. He has also given concerts at the Moritzburg, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, Seattle Chamber Music, Chamber Music Northwest, and Moab Music festivals. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Sussmann is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach and Co-Director of Music@Menlo’s International Program, and teaches at Stony Brook University. In September 2022, he was named Founding Artistic Director of the Boscobel Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Sussmann plays a 1731 Stradivarius violin on loan from a private owner.
Violinist/violist James Thompson enjoys a multifaceted career as a chamber musician, concertmaster, educator, and lecturer. He is a recent graduate of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. Thompson performs regularly for chamber music organizations across the country, and he serves as the director of Music@Menlo’s annual winter residency in California. Solo engagements include appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Asheville Symphony, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and the Cleveland Pops orchestra. He currently serves as concertmaster of the Erie Philharmonic, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, and the Caroga Arts Ensemble. As a guest artist, he has recently led classes for the Eastman School of Music and the Music Institute of Chicago, among others. Thompson holds bachelor’s, master’s, and artist diploma degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music; his primary teachers include Jaime Laredo, William Preucil, and Paul Kantor.
Cellist Dmitri Atapine has been praised for his “brilliant technical chops” (Gramophone) and performances that are “highly impressive throughout” (The Strad). He has appeared at leading venues worldwide and performs frequently with CMS, where he is an alum of the Bowers Program. He has been featured at festivals including Music@Menlo, La Musica Sarasota, Aldeburgh, and Aix-en-Provence. His recordings appear on Naxos, Bridge, MSR, and other labels, and include a world-premiere release of cello sonatas by Lowell Liebermann. He has received awards including first prize at the Carlos Prieto Cello Competition and top honors at the Premio Vittorio Gui and Plowman competitions. He holds a doctorate from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. Atapine is cello professor at the University of Nevada, Reno; Artistic Co-Director of Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City; founder of Apex Concerts (Nevada); and Co-Director of Music@Menlo’s Young Performers Program.
Cellist Estelle Choi has been praised by the Los Angeles Times for “giving the impression that music and the room are a single living being.” She is a founding member of the Calidore String Quartet, which made international headlines when they won the Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. The Calidore is an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, BBC 3 New Generation Artist, recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist award and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, and alums of CMS’s Bowers Program. She serves on the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music as Associate Professor of Violin and co-directs the UD Graduate Fellowship Quartet Program and Calidore String Quartet Seminar. She studied with John Kadz and went on to work with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music and Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory.
Sihao He first came to international prominence as a 14-year-old cellist winning first prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition. He is also the grand-prize winner of the prestigious 3rd Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition. As soloist, he has performed with leading orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Brussels Philharmonic. As a chamber musician, he has appeared at Music@Menlo, Bravo!Vail, and the Meadowmount School of Music. As a member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, he won the 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and joined the Concert Artists Guild roster. He is the newest member of the renowned Shanghai Quartet and a full-time faculty member at the Tianjin Juilliard School. He is a former faculty member at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University and an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program.
Co-Artistic Director of CMS since 2004, cellist David Finckel’s dynamic musical career has included performances on the world’s stages in the roles of recitalist, chamber artist, and orchestral soloist. The first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich, he joined the Emerson String Quartet in 1979, and during 34 seasons garnered nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize. His quartet performances and recordings include quartet cycles of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorák, Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich, as well as collaborative masterpieces and commissioned works. In 1997, he and pianist Wu Han founded ArtistLed, the first internet-based, artist-controlled classical recording label. ArtistLed’s catalog of more than 20 releases includes the standard literature for cello and piano, plus works composed for the duo by George Tsontakis, Gabriela Lena Frank, Bruce Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, Edwin Finckel, Augusta Read Thomas, and Pierre Jalbert. In 2022, Music@Menlo, an innovative summer chamber music festival in Silicon Valley founded and directed by David and Wu Han, celebrated its 20th season. As a young student, David was winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s junior and senior divisions, resulting in two performances with the orchestra. Having taught extensively with the late Isaac Stern in America, Israel, and Japan, he is currently a professor at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University, and oversees both CMS’s Bowers Program and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. David’s 100 online Cello Talks, lessons on cello technique, are viewed by an international audience of musicians. Along with Wu Han, he was the recipient of Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year Award.
Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a first-prize winner of the Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile, as well as the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer. He is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. He recently joined the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded master's and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program.
Blake Hinson is a New York–based performer and educator. Assistant Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic since 2016, and a member of the bass section since 2012; he maintains an active career that blends orchestral work, chamber music, and teaching. Beyond the Philharmonic, he has performed with Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra in its 2022 and 2023 seasons and has recorded on major film soundtracks, including West Side Story (2021), In the Heights, and Don’t Worry Darling. Previously, he served as Principal Bass of the Grand Rapids Symphony and performed with the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center. An avid chamber musician, Hinson appears frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, and on the Philharmonic’s Merkin Hall series. He teaches at the Manhattan School of Music and has held faculty and guest teaching roles at leading institutions.