This program offers an intimate journey through the heart of chamber music, blending Romantic lyricism and classical elegance. Glière’s Ten Duos for Two Cellos highlights a rich interplay of resonant melodies between the two instruments. Amy Beach’s Romance for Violin and Piano envelops listeners in lush, lyrical beauty, while Schumann’s Märchenbilder paints a series of fantastical scenes for viola and piano. The program concludes with Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, a work that embodies both balance and charm. It marks a transitional moment in Beethoven’s career, bridging the Classical elegance of his early works with the bold, expressive style that would define his Romantic-era compositions.
Program
Reinhold Glière
(1875–1956)Selections from Ten Duos for Two Cellos, Op. 53
(1911)Amy Beach
(1867–1944)Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23
(1893)Robert Schumann
(1810–1856)Märchenbilder for Viola and Piano, Op. 113
(1851)Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Quartet in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 16
(1796, rev. 1810)
Hyeyeon Park
Aaron Boyd
Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt
David Finckel
Dmitri Atapine
Pianist Hyeyeon Park has appeared on major concert stages around the world, performing with orchestras including the Seoul Philharmonic, Incheon Philharmonic, Gangnam Symphony, and Seoul Festival Orchestra. Named Artist of the Year by the Seoul Arts Center in 2012, she is also a laureate of numerous international competitions, including Oberlin, Ettlingen, Hugo Kauder, Prix Amadèo, Corpus Christi, Vittorio Gui, and Plowman. Her solo and chamber recordings including Klavier 1853, Wavelength, and The Complete Cello-Piano Sonatas by Lowell Liebermann. She is a graduate of the Peabody Institute, Yale School of Music, and the Korea National University of Arts; her teachers include Yong Hi Moon, Peter Frankl, Claude Frank, Daejin Kim, and Kyungsook Lee. Piano Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, together with cellist Dmitri Atapine, Park shares the Artistic Directorship of Apex Concerts and the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, co-leads the Music@Menlo Smith Family Young Performers Program, and will begin as Artistic Co-Director of Music@Menlo in 2027.
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.
Violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt has appeared as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, and has performed in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall. She was the founding violist of the Dover Quartet, and played in the group from 2008 to 2022. In 2013 the Dover Quartet was the first-prize winner and recipient of every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, and won the gold medal and grand prize in the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Her numerous awards also include first prize of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and top prizes at the Sphinx Competition and Tokyo International Viola Competition. Pájaro-van de Stadt has degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Co-Artistic Director of CMS since 2004, cellist David Finckel’s dynamic musical career has included performances on the world’s stages in the roles of recitalist, chamber artist, and orchestral soloist. The first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich, he joined the Emerson String Quartet in 1979, and during 34 seasons garnered nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize. His quartet performances and recordings include quartet cycles of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorák, Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich, as well as collaborative masterpieces and commissioned works. In 1997, he and pianist Wu Han founded ArtistLed, the first internet-based, artist-controlled classical recording label. ArtistLed’s catalog of more than 20 releases includes the standard literature for cello and piano, plus works composed for the duo by George Tsontakis, Gabriela Lena Frank, Bruce Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, Edwin Finckel, Augusta Read Thomas, and Pierre Jalbert. In 2022, Music@Menlo, an innovative summer chamber music festival in Silicon Valley founded and directed by David and Wu Han, celebrated its 20th season. As a young student, David was winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s junior and senior divisions, resulting in two performances with the orchestra. Having taught extensively with the late Isaac Stern in America, Israel, and Japan, he is currently a professor at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University, and oversees both CMS’s Bowers Program and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. David’s 100 online Cello Talks, lessons on cello technique, are viewed by an international audience of musicians. Along with Wu Han, he was the recipient of Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year Award.
Cellist Dmitri Atapine has been praised for his “brilliant technical chops” (Gramophone) and performances that are “highly impressive throughout” (The Strad). He has appeared at leading venues, including Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill halls, the National Auditorium of Spain, and Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall. He performs frequently with CMS, where he is an alum of the Bowers Program. He has been featured at festivals including Music@Menlo, La Musica Sarasota, Aldeburgh, and Aix-en-Provence. His many recordings include a world-premiere release of Lowell Liebermann’s cello sonatas. He has received multiple performance and teaching awards, including first prize at the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition. He holds a doctorate from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. Atapine is Professor of Cello at the University of Nevada, Reno. Together with pianist Hyeyeon Park, he serves as Artistic Co-Director of Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City and Apex Concerts (Nevada). He is also the Artistic Co-Director designate of Music@Menlo.