Invitation to the Dance
Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 7:30 pm
Alice Tully Hall
2 hours, including intermission
“Last week I gave a ball in my own rooms . . . we began at 6 in the evening and stopped at 7—what? only an hour?—no, no—at seven in the morning.” — W. A. Mozart
Beginning with Mozart, who was an avid and reportedly expert dancer, this program offers a unique opportunity to enjoy the special synergy between music and dance: from composers who created dance music for social gatherings like the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss, Jr., to artistic representations of folk dances by Johannes Brahms and David Serkin Ludwig. Double bassist Nina Bernat performs Chopin’s dazzling polonaise, and a quartet of CMS musicians presents Shostakovich’s comical, almost sarcastic take on the polka.
Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791)5 Contredanses for Flute, Strings, and Drum, K. 609
(1791)Franz Schubert
(1797–1828)Polonaise in E major for Piano, Four Hands, D. 824, Op. 61, No. 6
(1826)David Serkin Ludwig
(b. 1974)Three Yiddish Dances for Piano, Violin, and Cello
(2010)Dmitri Shostakovich
(1906–1975)Two Pieces for String Quartet
(1931)Igor Stravinsky
(1882–1971)Duo Concertant for Violin and Piano
(1932)Johannes Brahms
(1833–1897)Selected Hungarian Dances for Violin and Piano
(arr. Joseph Joachim) (1868, 1880)Frédéric Chopin
(1810–1849)Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major for Double Bass and Piano, Op. 3
(1829-30)Alexandre Tansman
(1897-1986)Fantaisie sur les valses de Johann Strauss for Two Pianos
Johann Strauss, Jr.
(1825-1899)Schatz-Walzer for Two Violins, Viola, Cello, Piano, and Harmonium, Op. 418
(1885)
Sahun Sam Hong
Hyeyeon Park
Aaron Boyd
Bella Hristova
Daniel Phillips
Estelle Choi
Nina Bernat
Sooyun Kim
Pianist Sahun Sam Hong is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including the Vendome Prize at Verbier, International Beethoven Competition Vienna, and Naumburg International Piano Competition. He has been invited to perform at major chamber music festivals, and is a prolific arranger of chamber music and orchestral works. He is the Co-Artistic Director of ensemble132, a chamber music collective that presents his transcriptions on annual tours all around the world. Hong’s primary mentors have included John Owings, Leon Fleisher, and Yong Hi Moon. A member of CMS’s Bowers Program, Hong is currently based in New York City and serves on the faculty of CUNY Queens College. Hong is a Steinway Artist.
Described as “a pianist with power, precision, and tremendous glee” (Gramophone) and praised for her "very sensitive" (Washington Post) playing, Hyeyeon Park has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician on major concert stages around the world, performing with orchestras such as the Seoul Philharmonic, KNUA Symphony Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic, Gangnam Symphony, and Seoul Festival Orchestra. A Seoul Arts Center “Artist of the Year” in 2012, she is also a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including Oberlin, Ettlingen, Hugo Kauder, Prix Amadèo, Corpus Christi, Vittorio Gui, and Plowman. She has appeared on such stages as the Philips Collection, Zankel Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Seoul Arts Center. As an active chamber musician, she has performed at festivals including Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, Yellow Barn, and Santander. She released a critically acclaimed world-premiere recording of Lowell Liebermann’s works for cello and piano, and her solo CD Klavier 1853 was released in 2017. She holds a doctorate degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and degrees from Yale School of Music and Korea National University of Arts. She counts among her teachers Peter Frankl, Claude Frank, Yong Hi Moon and Daejin Kim. Park is artistic co-director of Apex Concerts (Nevada), co-director of Young Performers Program at Music@Menlo and piano professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Violinist Aaron Boyd enjoys a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, recording artist, lecturer, and teacher. Since making his New York recital debut in 1998, he has concertized throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Formerly a member of the Escher String Quartet, he was a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Martin E. Segal prize from Lincoln Center, and was also awarded a Proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for his musical accomplishments. A passionate advocate for new music, he has been involved in numerous commissions and premieres, and has worked directly with such legendary composers as Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and Charles Wuorinen. He is also founder of the Zukofsky Quartet (quartet-in-residence at Bargemusic); the only ensemble to have played all of Milton Babbitt's notoriously difficult string quartets. As a recording artist, he can be heard on the BIS, Music@Menlo Live, Naxos, Tzadik, North/South and Innova labels. He has been broadcast in concert by NPR, WQXR, and WQED, and was profiled by Arizona Public Television. Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. Boyd began his studies with Samuel LaRocca and Eugene Phillips and graduated from The Juilliard School where he studied with Sally Thomas and coached extensively with Paul Zukofsky and cellist Harvey Shapiro. He now serves as Director of Chamber Music and Professor of Practice in Violin at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and lives in Dallas with his wife Yuko, daughter Ayu, and son Yuki.
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.
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.
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.
Double bassist Nina Bernat is a recipient of the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a member of CMS’s Bowers Program. First prizes include the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, the Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the 2019 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. She has performed as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and as guest principal with the Israel Philharmonic and Oslo Philharmonic. Bernat has quickly established herself as a sought-after pedagogue, giving masterclasses around the country while also serving on the faculty of Stony Brook University. She has given debut recitals at venues such as Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall. Bernat performs on a beautiful and sonorous early-18th-century bass, attributed to Guadagnini and handed down to her from her father.
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.
