Summer Evenings III
Program
Haydn Trio in C major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Hob. XV:27 (1795-96)
Mendelssohn Quartet in C minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 1 (1822)
Brahms Selected Hungarian Dances for Piano, Four Hands (1868, 1880)
Bernstein Three Meditations from Mass for Cello and Piano (1971, arr. 1977)
Gershwin Cuban Overture for Piano, Four Hands, and Percussion (1932)
Jerome L. Greene Foundation is the 2026–2027 CMS Season Sponsor.
All CMS digital programming is supported by the Hauser Fund for Media and Technology.
Additional support for CMS digital programming provided by the Sidney E. Frank Foundation.
The Summer Evenings Audience Engagement Initiative is underwritten, in part, by Robert S. Feldman and Katherine Vorwerk, the Musicians Advocacy Fund, Leon Levy Foundation, Judy and Alan Kosloff, and with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This concert features members of the Bowers Program, CMS’s residency for young professional musicians of exceptional quality. The Bowers Program is supported by the Estate of Ann S. Bowers. Additional support by the Marion F. Goldin Charitable Fund, Colburn Foundation, Dr. Nancy Maruyama and Mr. Charles Cahn Jr., and Patricia Kopec Selman and Jay E. Selman, MD.
The Chamber Music Society acknowledges with sincere appreciation Ms. Tali Mahanor’s generous long-term loan of the Hamburg Steinway & Sons model “D” concert grand piano.
This season is supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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Ian Rosenbaum
Michael Stephen Brown
Nicholas Canellakis
Sahun Sam Hong
Lun Li
James Thompson
Praised for his “spectacular performances” (Wall Street Journal), and his “unfailing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune), percussionist Ian Rosenbaum has developed a musical breadth far beyond his years. As a passionate advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Rosenbaum has premiered dozens of new chamber and solo works, and his recordings have been nominated for eight Grammy awards. In 2012, Mr. Rosenbaum joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) as only the second percussionist selected in the program’s history. Mr. Rosenbaum is a founding member of Sandbox Percussion, and is on faculty at the Peabody Institute, the Mannes School of Music, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Michael Stephen Brown is a composer and pianist hailed by the New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” He has appeared as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, Phoenix Symphony, and Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum, and performs at major festivals worldwide. The recipient of the 2026 Andrew Wolf Award, Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he was recently in residence at MacDowell and Yaddo. Recent highlights include a recital at Alice Tully Hall with CMS and collaborations with longtime artistic partner Nicholas Canellakis, as well as Pinchas Zukerman, Kristin Lee, and Arnaud Sussmann. His first album devoted entirely to his own music, Twelve Blocks, was released in 2026 to critical acclaim. Current projects include The Carnival of Endangered Wonders and the score for Angeline Gragasin’s film Look But Don’t Touch. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Brown lives in New York City with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria.
Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, praised in the New Yorker as a “superb young soloist.” Recent highlights include solo debuts with the Virginia, Albany, Bangor, and Delaware symphony orchestras; concerto appearances with the Erie Philharmonic, the New Haven Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra; Europe and Asia tours with CMS; and recitals throughout the US with his longtime duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he is a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals. Canellakis is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (where he was recently appointed to the cello faculty) and New England Conservatory.
Renowned for his “imaginative, intoxicating . . . high-voltage” playing (Sindelfinger Zeitung) and “wide range of rich colors” (San Diego Story), Korean-American pianist Sahun Sam Hong commands the world’s most prestigious stages with his distinctly magnetic tone and effortless vitality. He is a prize winner of numerous international competitions, including the Naumburg Competition, Vendome Prize, Beethoven Competition Vienna, and the American Pianists Awards. In addition to performing, Hong is a prolific arranger and orchestrator recognized for his innovative transcriptions that are featured in the touring programs of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mount Vernon Virtuosi, and ensemble132, which he co-directs. His primary mentors have included John Owings, Leon Fleisher, and Yong Hi Moon. A member of CMS’s Bowers Program and a Steinway Artist, Hong is currently based in New York City and serves on the faculty of CUNY Queens College.
Violinist Lun Li, a native of Shanghai based in New York, is the First Prize winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. He has appeared on major stages including Carnegie Hall, Helsinki Music Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kulturpalast Dresden, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Verizon Hall, and has recently made recital and concerto debuts at Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Tokyo Symphony, the Osaka Symphony, and the Kyoto Symphony. An avid chamber musician, he has performed at the Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Verbier, Tippet Rise, Newport, and Bard music festivals. A member of CMS’s Bowers Program, Li holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where his teachers included Ida Kavafian, Catherine Cho, and Joseph Lin. He plays the 1735 “Samazeuilh” Stradivarius, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
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.