Baroque Wind Concertos
Sun, Dec 6 - Tue, Dec 8, 2026
Alice Tully Hall
2 hours, including intermission
During the Baroque period, composers explored new ways of writing for wind instruments, affording wind players an equal place with string players at the musical table. With wind soloists in every work, this program illuminates a golden musical era from a sonically refreshing and delightful perspective.
Program
Antonio Vivaldi
(1678–1741)Concerto in G minor for Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, and Continuo, RV 103
(c. 1720)Benedetto Marcello
(1686-1739)Concerto in C minor for Oboe, Strings, and Continuo
Giuseppe Torelli
(1658–1709)Sonata a cinque No. 1 in D major for Trumpet, Strings, and Continuo, G. 1
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(1714–1788)Concerto in D minor for Flute, Strings, and Continuo, H. 484.1
(1747)Antonio Vivaldi
(1678–1741)Concerto in A minor for Bassoon, Strings, and Continuo, RV 497
(after 1720)Antonín Reichenauer
(1694-1730)Concerto in B-flat major for Oboe, Bassoon, and Continuo
Georg Philipp Telemann
(1681–1767)Sonata in D major for Trumpet, Strings, and Continuo, TWV 44:1
Kenneth Weiss
Ani Kavafian
Kristin Lee
James Thompson
Inbal Segev
Nina Bernat
Adam Walker
James Austin Smith
Peter Kolkay
Caleb Hudson
Born in New York, Kenneth Weiss began his musical studies on piano. After attending the High School of Performing Arts he entered the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. It was through his studies on organ and harpsichord that he became aware of the vast early keyboard repertoire and decided to devote his professional life to it. He continued his studies with Gustav Leonhardt at the Amsterdam Conservatory and in 1985 settled in France, where he is still based today. Kenneth Weiss has worked as an accompanist, vocal coach, opera continuist, chamber musician, conductor, and soloist for several decades, performing extensively in Europe, North America, and Asia. A dedicated teacher, he is currently professor of chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.
Violinist Ani Kavafian enjoys a prolific career as a soloist, chamber musician, and professor. She has performed with many of America’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony. In the 2019-20 season, she continued her longtime association as an artist of the Chamber Music Society with appearances in New York and on tour. Last summer she participated in several music festivals, including the Heifetz International Institute and the Sarasota Chamber Music, Bridgehampton, Meadowmount, Norfolk, and Angel Fire festivals. She and her sister, violinist and violist Ida Kavafian, have performed with the symphonies of Detroit, Colorado, Tucson, San Antonio, and Cincinnati, and have recorded the music of Mozart and Sarasate on the Nonesuch label. She is a Full Professor at Yale University and has appeared at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall numerous times with colleagues and students from Yale. She has received an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions award and has appeared at the White House on three occasions. Her recordings can be heard on the Nonesuch, RCA, Columbia, Arabesque, and Delos labels. Born in Istanbul of Armenian heritage, Kavafian studied violin in the US with Ara Zerounian and Mischa Mischakoff. She received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School under Ivan Galamian. She plays the 1736 Muir McKenzie Stradivarius 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.
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.
Inbal Segev has appeared with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony, collaborating with such prominent conductors as Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, Lorin Maazel, Cristian Macelaru, and Zubin Mehta. She has commissioned new works from Timo Andres, John Luther Adams, Anna Clyne, Avner Dorman, and others. A native of Israel, at 16 Segev was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her cello studies in the US, where she earned degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School, before co-founding the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. Segev’s cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.
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.
At the forefront of a new generation of wind soloists, Adam Walker was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2009 at the age of 21 and received the Outstanding Young Artist Award at MIDEM Classique in Cannes. In 2010 he won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award and was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Outstanding Young Artist Award. An ambassador for the flute with a ferocious appetite for repertoire, he regularly performs with the major UK orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony, Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Elsewhere he has performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Grant Park Festival, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, Seoul Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Malaysian Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Solistes Européens, Luxembourg, and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. A committed chamber musician with a curious and creative approach to repertoire, 2018 saw Adam take up his place on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Bowers Program. Recital highlights over recent seasons have included Wigmore Hall, LSO St. Luke’s, De Singel, Musée du Louvre, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper, and the Utrecht, West Cork, Delft, and Moritzburg Chamber Music Festivals. Born in 1987, Adam Walker studied at Chetham’s School of Music with Gitte Sorensen and later at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Cox. He was appointed professor at the Royal College of Music in 2017.
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.
Called “stunningly virtuosic” by the New York Times and “superb” by the Washington Post, Peter Kolkay is the only bassoonist to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In addition to performing with CMS, he regularly appears as a chamber musician at the Sarasota, Music@Menlo, and Bridgehampton summer festivals. Kolkay has commissioned and premiered solo works by Joan Tower, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Elliott Carter, and Tania León, among many others, and his most recent recordings include an album of music for bassoon and strings with the Calidore String Quartet, and the Christopher Rouse concerto with the Albany Symphony. He is Professor of Bassoon at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music and has given master classes throughout the US, Mexico, and South Korea. Kolkay is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, and holds degrees from Lawrence University, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. He is a native of Naperville, Illinois.
Caleb Hudson has carved out a unique space in the world of classical trumpet. A member of the esteemed Canadian Brass for over a decade and a co-founder of the trio Triple Cortado, he has been hailed by the New York Times as “brilliantly stylish.” In March 2024 Hudson released his debut solo album, Nothing Less. He is acclaimed for his renditions of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, which he performs on both the modern piccolo trumpet and the historical baroque trumpet. This expertise has enabled solo engagements with renowned ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, and Philharmonia Baroque. Beyond performance, Caleb is a prolific arranger and composer, and is deeply committed to expanding the brass repertoire. Currently, Caleb serves as the Associate Professor of Trumpet at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. A native of Lexington, Kentucky, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School.
