Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Duet in E-flat major for Viola and Cello, WoO 32, "With Two Eyeglasses Obbligato"
York Bowen
(1884–1961)Two Duos in G major for Two Violas
(1920)Fritz Kreisler
(1875–1962)Praeludium and Allegro (in the Style of Pugnani) for Violin and Piano
(1910)Fritz Kreisler
(1875–1962)Syncopation for Violin and Piano
(1924)Fritz Kreisler
(1875–1962)Tambourin chinois for Violin and Piano
(1910)Camille Saint-Saëns
(1835–1921)Quintet in A minor for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 14
(1855)
Wu Han
Richard Lin
Julian Rhee
Paul Neubauer
Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt
Jonathan Swensen
Pianist Wu Han, recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award, enjoys a multi-faceted musical life that encompasses artistic direction, performing, and recording at the highest levels. Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004 as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Silicon Valley’s innovative chamber music festival Music@Menlo since 2002, she also serves as Artistic Advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, and as Artistic Director for La Musica in Sarasota, Florida. Her recent concert activities have taken her from New York’s Lincoln Center stages to the most important concert halls in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to countless performances of virtually the entire chamber repertoire, her concerto performances include appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, internet-based recording label, which has released her performances of the staples of the cello-piano duo repertoire with cellist David Finckel. Her more than 80 releases on ArtistLed, CMS Live, and Music@Menlo LIVE include masterworks of the chamber repertoire with numerous distinguished musicians. Wu Han’s educational activities include overseeing CMS’s Bowers Program and the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. A recipient of the prestigious Andrew Wolf Award, she was mentored by some of the greatest pianists of our time, including Lilian Kallir, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. Married to cellist David Finckel since 1985, Wu Han divides her time between concert touring and residences in New York City and Westchester County.
Richard Lin rose to international prominence after winning the Gold Medal at the 2018 Indianapolis International Violin Competition. He is also a top prizewinner of the Sendai, Joseph Joachim, Singapore, and Michael Hill International Violin Competitions.Since his Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium recital debut in 2022, he has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras worldwide, including the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Taiwan Philharmonic, among others. He is also an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program. His recordings include albums on Azica Records and Fontec, and he is on the faculty of the National Taipei University of Education. Lin performs on the 1714 Antonio Stradivarius “Joachim-Ma,” generously loaned by the YAGEO Foundation, Taiwan.
Winner of the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Korean-American violinist Julian Rhee rose to international prominence following his prize-winning performances at the 2024 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition and Silver Medal at the 11th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. He has appeared with orchestras including the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Pacific Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and San Diego Symphony. Highlights of the 2026–2027 season include debuts with the Gürzenich-Orchester and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, La Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia and Daniel Raiskin, and returns to the Richmond and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras. He is a member of CMS’s Bowers Program and has performed at festivals including Marlboro, Rockport, Bridgehampton, Music@Menlo, and North Shore Chamber Music Festivals. Rhee is the recipient of the 1699 “Lady Tennant” Antonio Stradivari violin and a Jean Pierre Marie Persoit bow on extended loan through the Mary B. Galvin Foundation and the Stradivari Society.
Last summer, violist Paul Neubauer premiered a new viola concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich with conductor JoAnn Falletta at the Brevard Music Center. This season, he will record and perform the work with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2025, he released two albums on First Hand Records featuring the final works of two great composers: an all-Bartók album including the revised version of the Viola Concerto, and a Shostakovich recording that includes the monumental Viola Sonata. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at the age of 21, Neubauer has appeared as soloist with the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki Philharmonics; the Chicago, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth Symphonies; and the Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle Orchestras. A two-time Grammy nominee, Neubauer is artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and Mannes College.
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.
Cellist Jonathan Swensen is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and joint first prize of the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and was featured as “One to Watch” in Gramophone. He made his concerto debut performing the Elgar Concerto with Portugal’s Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, and has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Mobile Symphony, Greenville Symphony, and the Aarhus, Odense, and Iceland symphonies. He has captured first prizes at the Windsor International String Competition, Khachaturian International Cello Competition, and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Swensen continued his studies with Torleif Thedéen at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and Laurence Lesser at New England Conservatory, where he received his Artist Diploma. He is now an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel working with Gary Hoffman, and a member of CMS’s Bowers Program.