Greatest Hits
Tue, May 4, 2027, 7:30 pm
Alice Tully Hall
2 hours, including intermission
Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik returns to CMS after an absence of 28 seasons, in the company of recent works paying tribute to this famous piece. Mozart’s skill in serenade composing is revealed in his Serenata notturna, preceded by another masterpiece less frequently performed on major concert stages: Pachelbel’s ingenious Canon, together with its sparkling Gigue. Boccherini provides acrobatics for guitar and strings, and Aaron Jay Kernis ends the program with his own unashamedly crowd-pleasing guitar quintet.
Program
Aaron Jay Kernis
(b. 1960)Mozart en Route (or, A Little Traveling Music), for Violin, Viola, and Cello
(1991)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791)Eine kleine Nachtmusik for Strings, K. 525
(1787)Bruce Adolphe
(b. 1955)I'm Inclined to New Music for String Quartet
(1991)Johann Pachelbel
(1653-1706)Canon and Gigue in D major for Three Violins and Continuo
(c. 1680)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791)Serenade in D major for Strings, K. 239, "Serenata notturna"
(1776)Luigi Boccherini
(1743–1805)Quintet No. 4 in D major for Guitar and String Quartet, G. 448, "Fandango"
(1798)Aaron Jay Kernis
(b. 1960)100 Greatest Dance Hits for Guitar, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello
(1993)
Wu Han
Cho-Liang Lin
Scott Pingel
Jason Vieaux
Victor Caccese
Viano Quartet
Pianist Wu Han, recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award, enjoys a multi-faceted musical life that encompasses artistic direction, performing, and recording at the highest levels. Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004 as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Silicon Valley’s innovative chamber music festival Music@Menlo since 2002, she also serves as Artistic Advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, and as Artistic Director for La Musica in Sarasota, Florida. Her recent concert activities have taken her from New York’s Lincoln Center stages to the most important concert halls in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to countless performances of virtually the entire chamber repertoire, her concerto performances include appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, internet-based recording label, which has released her performances of the staples of the cello-piano duo repertoire with cellist David Finckel. Her more than 80 releases on ArtistLed, CMS Live, and Music@Menlo LIVE include masterworks of the chamber repertoire with numerous distinguished musicians. Wu Han’s educational activities include overseeing CMS’s Bowers Program and the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. A recipient of the prestigious Andrew Wolf Award, she was mentored by some of the greatest pianists of our time, including Lilian Kallir, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. Married to cellist David Finckel since 1985, Wu Han divides her time between concert touring and residences in New York City and Westchester County.
Cho-Liang Lin’s concert career launched in 1980 with his debut playing the Mendelssohn Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. He has since performed as soloist with virtually every major orchestra in the world. At age 31 he joined the faculty of the Juilliard School, and in 2006 was appointed professor at Rice University. He was music director of La Jolla SummerFest for 18 years, currently serves as artistic director of the Beare’s Premiere Music Festival in Hong Kong, and recently founded the Taipei Music Academy and Festival. Many of today’s composers have written for him, including John Harbison, Christopher Rouse, Tan Dun, John Williams, Steven Stucky, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bright Sheng, Paul Schoenfield, Lalo Schifrin, and Joan Tower. Lin performs on Stradivari and Samuel Zygmuntowicz violins. His recordings can be heard on the Sony Classical, Decca, BIS, Delos, and Ondine labels.
Scott Pingel has served as Principal Bass of the San Francisco Symphony since 2004, and has appeared numerous times at CMS, Music@Menlo, Mostly Mozart, and Music in the Vineyards. Versatile in a variety of styles, Pingel has performed in venues from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note in New York City and Fasching in Stockholm, and his solo work with the iconic heavy metal band Metallica has been seen by millions worldwide and was hailed as “show-stopping” by Rolling Stone. He has taught masterclasses throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, and was among the first bassists selected to teach for Tonebase, the preeminent online music learning platform. He served as Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and is currently a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.
Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today's classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is described by NPR as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.”
His appearances at San Francisco Performances, Caramoor Festival, Ravinia Festival, Round Top Festival, PCMS, 92nd St Y, CMS, Wolf Trap, and others, have cemented his reputation as one of the world’s leading guitarists. He has performed as soloist with over 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Toronto, Houston, Nashville and St. Louis, working with renowned conductors such as Giancarlo Guererro, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, and David Robertson.
His strong presence on radio and streaming services continues with his long-awaited Bach Volume 2: Works for Violin, released in April 2022 to rave reviews from Gramophone and others. Shining Night, a CD featuring his duo with acclaimed violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, was released in May 2022 on Avie Records to great acclaim. He recorded Pat Metheny’s Four Paths of Light (dedicated to Jason) for Metheny’s 2021 album Road to The Sun on BMG Modern. Of his Grammy-winning 2014 solo album Play, the Huffington Post declared that the album is “part of the revitalized interest in the classical guitar.”
Victor Caccese is a founding member of the Brooklyn-based percussion quartet Sandbox Percussion and a Grammmy-nominated percussionist. As a member of Sandbox, he has performed over 200 concerts worldwide and taught at institutions such as University of Missouri-Kansas City, the New School College of the Performing Arts, the Peabody Conservatory, the Curtis Institute, Yale School of Music, Michigan State University, Vanderbilt University, University of Kansas, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Victor has collaborated with composers such as Amy Beth Kirsten, Andy Akiho, David Crowell, James Wood, John Luther Adams, and Thomas Kotcheff. This past summer Victor taught and performed at the eighth annual Sandbox Percussion Seminar, a chamber music festival accepting students from around the world to study and perform some of today’s leading contemporary percussion pieces. Also a composer and arranger, Victor has written a number of pieces for percussion. His works have been performed by Sandbox Percussion more than 50 times throughout the United States. While music is at the core of his professional life, Victor has also worked as a photographer and videographer. As head of media and content development for Sandbox Percussion, he has developed and maintained a YouTube presence consisting of performance videos, workshop documentaries, and travel vlogs. Victor holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. He is also a member of The Percussion Collective, a stunning ensemble founded by performer and pedagogue Robert van Sice. Victor serves on faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory as a percussion instructor and ensemble-in-residence with Sandbox Percussion. He also is on faculty at the New School College of the Performing Arts, and has served as visiting artist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with Sandbox Percussion.
Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet has quickly soared to international acclaim as one of the most dynamic and in-demand string quartets of their generation. Winners of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2025, the ensemble has captivated audiences worldwide ever since they were awarded First Prize at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, with appearances at renowned venues such as Lincoln Center, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, Hong Kong’s City Hall, and London’s Wigmore Hall. The Viano Quartet are members of CMS’s Bowers Program from 2024 to 2027.
Highlights of the Quartet’s 2025–26 season include debut performances at London’s Southbank Centre, the Frick Collection in New York, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Coast Live Music, Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, Apex Concerts, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the Fortas Series at the Kennedy Center, Premiere Performances HK, and a mainstage full recital debut at CMS. The quartet also makes return appearances at Stanford Live, Forte Chamber Music, the Beaches Fine Arts Series, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society’s Slee Series (for the second half of their Beethoven cycle), Chamber Music Albuquerque, and the Sanibel Music Festival. The Quartet looks forward to visiting residencies this season at Stanford University through the St. Lawrence Legacy Series, the University of Victoria, Music in the Morning in Vancouver, and the Auditorium Chamber Music Series at the University of Idaho. This season also features collaborations with mandolinist Avi Avital, pianist Sir Stephen Hough, pianist Gilbert Kalish, clarinetist Anthony McGill, guitarist Miloš Karadaglic, and singer-songwriter Vienna Teng.
Equally committed to both beloved masterworks and contemporary repertoire, the Viano Quartet actively collaborates with today’s leading composers, including Sir Stephen Hough, Kevin Lau, Chris Rogerson, and Caroline Shaw. They are set to premiere a newly written string quartet by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail in the summer of 2026. Their first full-length album, Voyager, was released in summer 2025 with Apple Music/Platoon Records, and features Beethoven’s Op. 130 alongside Alistair Coleman’s Moonshot. Their debut EP Portraits was released in 2023 as one of the first albums to be launched on the Curtis Studio label, featuring works by Schubert, Florence Price, Tchaikovsky, and Ginastera.
The Viano Quartet was formed in Los Angeles at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in 2015. Each member of the quartet is grateful for the unwavering support from their mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, including members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets.