Madison, NJ
Parisian VoicesSat, Apr 11, 2026, 7:30 pm
Concert Hall at Drew University
2 hours, including intermission
Paris has long been a haven for innovative composers, whose music exists in an endless variety of delightful textures—from Saint-Saëns’s classically elegant trio to Fauré’s tempestuous piano quartet. At the heart of this program is the incomparable soprano Erika Baikoff, who lends her “absolutely beautiful voice” (Bachtrack) to Ravel’s shimmering take on The One Thousand and One Nights.
Program
Camille Saint-Saëns
(1835–1921)Trio No. 1 in F major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 18
(1864)Henri Duparc
(1848-1933)"L'Invitation au voyage" for Voice and Piano
(c. 1870)Maurice Ravel
(1875–1937)Shéhérazade for Voice, Flute, and Piano
(1903)Gabriel Fauré
(1845–1924)Quartet No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 15
(1876–79)
Erika Baikoff
Ken Noda
Orion Weiss
Lun Li
Matthew Lipman
David Requiro
Sooyun Kim
Russian-American soprano Erika Baikoff is a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. As a Lindemann Young Artist, she sang the roles of Xenia in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. At Maestro Nézet-Séguin's invitation, she joined the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra’s tour of Das Rheingold and the Orchestre Métropolitain as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor. She has also recently made her debut with the Ulster Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Rustioni, and the Schubertíada festival, where she gave the inaugural recital in Vilabertran in 2023. She is the first-prize winner of the 2019 Helmut Deutsch Liedwettbewerb and the 10th Concours international de chant-piano Nadia et Lili Boulanger with her duo partner, Gary Beecher. Other awards include the 6th Prize, Oratorio-Lied Prize, and Schubert Prize at the Tenor Viñas Contest, George London Foundation Award, Sullivan Foundation Career Development Grant, 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Semi-finalist, Career Bridges Grant, Mondavi Young Artist Founders’ Prize, and the Bouchaine Young Artist Scholarship. Baikoff is an alum of the Atelier Lyrique at the Verbier Festival and the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in French Studies from Princeton University and a Master of Music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Ken Noda is Musical Advisor to the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He has been a coach and teacher at the Met since 1991. He is also a guest coach at the Verbier Festival, Salzburg Mozartwoche, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. He has performed with CMS since 1989. Born in New York to Japanese parents in 1962, Mr. Noda worked as a solo pianist in the 1980s with Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Rafael Kubelik, James Levine, and André Previn with such orchestras as the Berlin, Vienna, New York, Israel, and Los Angeles Philharmonics; the London, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies; the Cleveland Orchestra; and Orchestre de Paris. He has performed chamber music with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, and Nigel Kennedy, Cho-Liang Lin, and the Emerson Quartet. As a vocal accompanist, he has collaborated with Kathleen Battle, Hildegard Behrens, Maria Ewing, Aprile Millo, Kurt Moll, James Morris, Jessye Norman, Matthew Polenzani, Frederica von Stade, and Dawn Upshaw. He worked closely from the 1990s to 2010s with Marilyn Horne and Renata Scotto at their invitations as a faculty member in their training programs for young singers.
One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (Washington Post). He has performed with dozens of orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic and at major venues and festivals worldwide.
Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with violinists Augustin Hadelichand James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand, Yarlung, and Artek labels.
Weiss has been awarded the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.
A native of Shanghai currently based in New York, violinist Lun Li won first prize in the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. He has appeared on major stages around the world, including Helsinki Music Centre, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kulturpalast Dresden, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center. He recently made his solo recital debuts in Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center in New York and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as well as his concerto debut at Lincoln Center. An avid chamber musician, he has participated in the Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Verbier, and Angel Fire music festivals. He is a member of CMS’s Bowers Program and holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School; his mentors include Ida Kavafian, Catherine Cho, and Joseph Lin. Li plays the Stradivarius “Samazeuilh” 1735 violin, on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
American violist Matthew Lipman has made recent 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 and the Zürich Tonhalle, and has recorded on the Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Cedille, and Avie labels. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with CMS. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and major prize winner at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University. He performs on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola.
First Prize winner of the 2008 Naumburg International Violoncello Competition, David Requiro (pronounced re-KEER-oh) is recognized as one of today’s finest American cellists. After winning First Prize in both the Washington International and Irving M. Klein International String Competitions, he captured a top prize at the Gaspar Cassadó International Violoncello Competition in Hachioji, Japan, coupled with the prize for the best performances of works by Cassadó. He has appeared as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and numerous orchestras across North America. His Carnegie Hall debut recital at Weill Hall was followed by a critically acclaimed San Francisco Performances recital at the Herbst Theatre. Soon after making his Kennedy Center debut, he completed a cycle of Beethoven’s cello sonatas at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and is a founding member of the Baumer String Quartet. Mr. Requiro serves as Associate Professor of Cello at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he joined faculty in 2015. He has previously served as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Puget Sound and Guest Lecturer at the University of Michigan. His teachers have included Milly Rosner, Bonnie Hampton, Mark Churchill, Michel Strauss, and Richard Aaron.
Since her concerto debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, flutist Sooyun Kim has enjoyed a flourishing career performing with orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Boston Pops. She has appeared in recital in Budapest’s Liszt Hall, Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, and the Louvre Museum in Paris. She is a winner of the Georg Solti Foundation Career Grant and ARD International Flute Competition. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, she studied at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Paula Robison. She is recently appointed Assistant Professor of Flute at University Cincinnati College-Conservatory and teaches summer courses at Orford Musique. Kim plays on a rare 18-karat gold flute made especially for her by Verne Q. Powell Flutes and has recorded for labels including ArtistLed, Naxos, Toccata Classics, and BR-Klassik. Her album Confluence was released to great acclaim in 2025 on the Musica Solis label.