The evening begins with a selection of movements from Bruch’s Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 83, a collection of expressive miniatures that blend lyricism with rich harmonic color. The chosen movements highlight Bruch’s gift for warmth and contrast, from the tender Andante con moto to the spirited Allegro vivace, ma non troppo. Brahms’ Horn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40, follows—a work of striking emotional depth and textural richness. Written in memory of his mother, it moves seamlessly between melancholy, playfulness, and triumph, with noble horn calls, soaring violin lines, and intricate piano writing. After intermission, Dohnányi’s Sextet in C major, Op. 37, brings the program to a thrilling close. Composed in 1935, this vibrant and rarely heard work blends late-Romantic lyricism with jazz-influenced harmonies and bold rhythmic drive. From the fiery Allegro appassionato to the exuberant Finale, it showcases chamber music at its most dynamic and virtuosic. Together, these works explore a vast spectrum of expression, from intimate introspection to exuberant brilliance.
Program
Max Bruch
(1838–1920)Selections from Pieces for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 83
(1909)Johannes Brahms
(1833–1897)Trio in E-flat major for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Op. 40
(1865)Ernő Dohnányi
(1877–1960)Sextet in C major for Clarinet, Horn, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, Op. 37
(1935)
Hyeyeon Park
Kristin Lee
Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt
David Finckel
Radovan Vlatković
Tommaso Lonquich
Described as “a pianist with power, precision, and tremendous glee” (Gramophone) and praised for her "very sensitive" (Washington Post) playing, Hyeyeon Park has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician on major concert stages around the world, performing with orchestras such as the Seoul Philharmonic, KNUA Symphony Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic, Gangnam Symphony, and Seoul Festival Orchestra. A Seoul Arts Center “Artist of the Year” in 2012, she is also a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including Oberlin, Ettlingen, Hugo Kauder, Prix Amadèo, Corpus Christi, Vittorio Gui, and Plowman. She has appeared on such stages as the Philips Collection, Zankel Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Seoul Arts Center. As an active chamber musician, she has performed at festivals including Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, Yellow Barn, and Santander. She released a critically acclaimed world-premiere recording of Lowell Liebermann’s works for cello and piano, and her solo CD Klavier 1853 was released in 2017. She holds a doctorate degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and degrees from Yale School of Music and Korea National University of Arts. She counts among her teachers Peter Frankl, Claude Frank, Yong Hi Moon and Daejin Kim. Park is artistic co-director of Apex Concerts (Nevada), co-director of Young Performers Program at Music@Menlo and piano professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
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.
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.
Radovan Vlatković has performed extensively around the globe and popularized the horn as a recording artist and teacher. He is the winner of numerous competitions, including the Premio Ancona in 1979 and the ARD Competition in 1983. He has premiered works by Elliott Carter, Sofia Gubaidulina, Heinz Holliger, and several Croatian composers; he premiered Penderecki's horn concerto, Winterreise, in Bremen in 2008 with the composer as conductor. As a chamber musician, he has performed at Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaus, Svyatoslav Richter's December Evenings in Moscow, and András Schiff's Mondsee, as well as the Marlboro Festival, Prussia Cove, and the Casals Festival. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, such as the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Mozarteum Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, Melbourne Orchestra, the NHK Orchestra in Tokyo, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The recipient of several German Record Critics’ Awards, he has recorded Mozart and Strauss concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra and Jeffrey Tate for EMI, two-horn concertos by Leopold Mozart and Johann Friedrich Fasch with Hermann Baumann and Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, and the Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with the Oriol Ensemble in Berlin. Vlatkovic is on the faculty of the Mozarteum Salzburg, Hochschule Zürich, and holds the Canón horn chair at the Queen Sofia School in Madrid. He recently became an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.
Italian clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich enjoys a distinguished international career, having performed on the most prestigious stages of four continents. Praised by reviewers for his “passion, sumptuous tone, magical finesse, and dazzling virtuosity,” he is Solo Clarinetist with Ensemble MidtVest, the acclaimed chamber ensemble based in Denmark. As a chamber musician, he has partnered with Christian Tetzlaff, Pekka Kuusisto, Carolin Widmann, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Nicolas Dautricourt, David Shifrin, David Finckel, Nicolas Altstaedt, Wu Han, Gilbert Kalish, Anneleen Lenaerts, Yura Lee, Gilles Vonsattel, and the Danish and Vertavo string quartets. As a guest principal in several orchestras, he has collaborated with conductors including Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Fabio Luisi, and Leonard Slatkin. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Radio Television Orchestra of Slovenia, Orchestra Canova, and the Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico of Vicenza, among others. He is Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Schackenborg Musikfest, a summer festival set in a royal castle in Denmark. He has conceived several collaborative performances with dancers, actors, and visual artists and has been particularly active in improvisation, leading workshops at the Juilliard School. He has given master classes at the Manhattan School of Music, the Royal Danish Academy, and the Royal Welsh College of Music. Lonquich can be heard on more than twenty albums and is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program. Alongside his artistic career, he is a practicing psychoanalyst and co-founder of the International Center for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Ljubljana, Slovenia.