Vienna, VA
String MagicFri, Apr 19, 2024, 7:30 pm
The Barns at Wolf Trap
Two hours, including intermission
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Trio in E-flat major for Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 3
(before 1794)Jean Françaix
(1912–1997)Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello
(1933)Frank Bridge
(1879–1941)Lament for Two Violas
(1912)Felix Mendelssohn
(1809–1847)Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Cello, Op. 87
(1845)Chad Hoopes
Bella Hristova
Matthew Lipman
Timothy Ridout
Sihao He
American violinist Chad Hoopes is a consistent and versatile performer with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Paris, l’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the Minnesota and National Arts Centre orchestras, as well the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, and National symphonies. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been a guest of the Moritzburg Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, and Aspen Music Festival, and has been featured on recordings including the recent Moritzburg Festival Dvořák album with cellist Jan Vogler, released by Sony Classical, and with the MDR Leipzig and conductor Kristjan Järvi performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto on the Naïve label. He has performed in recital at the Ravinia Festival, the Tonhalle Zürich, and the Louvre, as well as on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. He is a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and appeared as the cover feature on the November 2021 edition of The Strad. Hoopes attended the Cleveland Institute of Music before studying with Ana Chumachenco at the Kronberg Academy. He plays the 1991 Samuel Zygmuntowicz, ex Isaac Stern violin.
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 for her 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, she has commissioned works by Joan Tower, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich for her project Lineage. She is a recipient of a 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first-prize winner of the Michael Hill and Young Concert Artists competitions. Hristova studied with Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo, is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, and plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin.
American violist Matthew Lipman has been praised by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing” and by the Chicago Tribune for a “splendid technique and musical sensitivity.” Recent seasons have included appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. He has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, and the Zürich Tonhalle; was invited by Michael Tilson Thomas to be a soloist at the New World Symphony Viola Visions Festival; and has appeared in chamber music with Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, and on Deutsche Grammophon Stage+. An alum of the Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he occupies the Wallach Chair. In 2022, he made his Sony Classical debut on The Dvořák Album, and his 2019 solo debut recording, Ascent, was released by Cedille Records, marking world premieres of the Shostakovich Impromptu and Clarice Assad Metamorfose. Additionally, he recorded the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by the late Sir Neville Marriner. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and major prize winner at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, he studied with Heidi Castleman at Juilliard and Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and performs on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola, made for him in New York.
Timothy Ridout, a former BBC New Generation Artist, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2020 winner, and recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society 2023 Young Artist Award, is one of the most sought-after violists of his generation. The 2023–24 season sees him join the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra alongside the likes of Kazuki Yamada and Sir Simon Rattle. Further highlights include his return to America with Camerata Pacifica and his debut with Royal Northern Sinfonia. Recent seasons have included appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lille, Camerata Salzburg, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra. Across his engagements he has worked with conductors such as Sakari Oramo, Lionel Bringuier, Sylvain Cambreling, Nicholas Collon, and Sir András Schiff, and performed as far and wide as South America and Australia. In 2020 Ridout won Hamburger Symphoniker’s inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize and in 2021 he joined CMS’s Bowers Program. Born in London in 1995, Ridout studied at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. He completed his master’s at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai in 2019 and, in 2018, took part in the Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World. He plays a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c. 1565–75 on loan from a generous patron of Beare’s International Violin Society.
Sihao He first came to international prominence in 2008 as a 14-year-old cellist winning first prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Croatia. Later that year, he won the National Cello Competition in his native China. He is also the grand-prize winner of the prestigious 3rd Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in Japan and third-prize recipient at the 2019 ARD International Competition in Munich, Germany. As a soloist, he has performed with many leading orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Münchener Kammerorchester, and Orquestra Sinfônica de Piracicaba in Brazil. In the US, important performances have taken place before audiences at the Metropolitan Museum, at the US Supreme Court Historical Society in Washington, DC, and in recital at the Myra Hess concert series in Chicago. As a chamber musician, he has appeared at Music@Menlo, Bravo! Vail, and the Meadowmount School of Music. As a member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, he won the 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and joined the Concert Artists Guild roster. Before coming to the US his string quartet, Simply Quartet, won first prize at the Haydn Invitational Chamber Music Competition in Shanghai, and was awarded “The Most Promising Young String Quartet” at the 4th Beijing International Chamber Music Competition. He is a faculty member at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University and a member of CMS’s Bowers Program.