The King, The Cat, and the Fiddle!
Sun, Apr 14, 2024, 2:00 pm
Alice Tully Hall
75 minutes, no intermission
Does the king really need live music at the palace? The fiddling cat knows the answer in the comical, fantastical story by Yehudi Menuhin and Christopher Hope with music by Bruce Adolphe.
For children who are curious, they can try out instruments featured in the program at our Instrument Petting Zoo from 1:00–1:50 PM, guided by CMS performing artists and teaching artists. Children will also have the opportunity to talk to the artists, ask questions, and take photographs at the Meet the Artists! booth prior to the performance from 1:00–1:30 PM.
All patrons, including small children sitting in laps, must have a ticket to enter. All performances are appropriate for ages 6+ as long as guests are not disruptive to other patrons' enjoyment of the performance. Please be aware that anyone causing a disturbance during a performance, regardless of age, will be asked by an usher to leave the hall.
Program
Bruce Adolphe
(b. 1955)The King, the Cat, and the Fiddle for Narrator, String Quintet, and Piano
(2019)
Bruce Adolphe
Mika Sasaki
Kristin Lee
Clara Neubauer
Resident lecturer and director of family concerts for CMS since 1992, Bruce Adolphe is a composer of international renown, much of whose output addresses science, history, and the struggle for human rights.
Resident lecturer and director of family concerts for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1992, Bruce Adolphe is a composer of international renown, much of whose output addresses science, history, and the struggle for human rights. His works are frequently performed by major artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Fabio Luisi, Joshua Bell, Daniel Hope, Angel Blue, the Brentano String Quartet, the Washington National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Human Rights Orchestra of Europe, and over 60 orchestras worldwide. Among his most performed works are the violin concerto I Will Not Remain Silent, the violin/piano duo Einstein’s Light, and Tyrannosaurus Sue: A Cretaceous Concerto.
Pianist Mika Sasaki is an imaginative and versatile soloist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances have taken her around the world. Her debut album, Obsidian: Mika Sasaki plays Clara Schumann, released on Yarlung Records in 2016, was highly acclaimed by the Online Merker as “illuminat[ing] the artistic inspiration and creative exchange between three Romantic souls,” Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. Her performances have been broadcasted on WQXR, WFMT, KQAC, and Radio Sweden. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sinfonia of Cambridge, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and, more recently, with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York, performing Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto. She is the pianist of Ensemble Mélange and appears regularly with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Manhattan Chamber Players, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and with her duo partners. Her festival appearances include Music@Menlo, Tanglewood, Chigiana, Taos, Yellow Barn, Aspen, Focus!, Icicle Creek, Mannes Beethoven Institute, Caramoor, Shandelee, Weekend of Chamber Music, Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival, and many others. An advocate of both old and new repertoire, she can be heard championing works from the Baroque to the present, and has commissioned chamber music and solo works by Max Grafe, Emily Cooley, Andrew Hsu, and Jonathan Dawe. An alumna of the Peabody Conservatory, Ensemble Connect, and the Juilliard School, Sasaki is now a faculty member at Juilliard. Her teachers have included Benjamin Pasternack, Gilbert Kalish, and Joseph Kalichstein.
Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of the Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including those of Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Violin, and she is also the Founding Artistic Director of Emerald City Music (ECM). Her honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, the Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, the Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul and Linda Gridley.
Praised for her “seductive artistry” and “rare grace” (Classical Voice North America), violinist Clara Neubauer is a recent recipient of the Ana Chumachenco Award from the Kronberg Academy and the Peter Mennin Prize from the Juilliard School. Clara has appeared at festivals including the Ravinia Festival, Taos School of Music, Music@Menlo, Four Seasons, Music from Angel Fire, Olympic Music Festival, and Marlboro Music Festival. This season includes performances with the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Perlman Music Program, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, collaborating with artists including Mitsuko Uchida, Christoph Richter, Ida Kavafian, Alexi Kenney, Peter Wiley, Jennifer Frautschi, and Edward Aaron. Winner and recipient of the silver medal at the National YoungArts competition, Clara has appeared as soloist with the Wu¨rttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Symphony of Westchester, the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, the Little Orchestra Society, Ensemble 212, and the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra. She has won prizes at the Adelphi Competition, the Symphony of Westchester Young Artist Competition, Ensemble 212 Young Artist Competition, and the Young Musicians Competition at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Clara was a Musical Ambassador for the Doublestop Foundation as winner of their Artist in You Competition and was featured on WQXR as part of their Young Musicians Showcase. Clara received her bachelor’s degree and is currently pursuing a master’s from the Juilliard School as a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship and a student of Li Lin and Itzhak Perlman. Born on 9/11/2001, Clara can be heard as the voice on the audio guide at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum along with Robert De Niro.