Sarasota, FL
Brandenburg ConcertosWed, Dec 3, 2025, 7:30 pm
Sarasota Opera House
2 hours, including intermission
Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos stand at the pinnacle of Baroque musical art. His addictive melodic ideas, his consummate contrapuntal technique, and his instrumental ingenuity combine in works that have gained true musical immortality. His six masterpieces unfailingly provide spiritual fulfillment for music lovers of all faiths and beliefs, inspiring strength at year's end and a vision of the brightest future
Program
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
(1720)Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046
(1720)Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
(1720)Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
(1720)Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051
(1720)Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750)Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049
(1720)
Mika Sasaki
Francisco Fullana
Bella Hristova
Daniel Phillips
Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu
Matthew Lipman
Paul Neubauer
Dmitri Atapine
Nicholas Canellakis
Sterling Elliott
Nina Bernat
Sooyun Kim
Tara Helen O'Connor
Randall Ellis
James Austin Smith
Stephen Taylor
Marc Goldberg
Stewart Rose
Hugo Valverde
David Washburn
Pianist Mika Sasaki is a soloist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances have taken her around the world. Her performances have been broadcasted on WQXR, WFMT, WCRB, KQAC, Vermont Public, and Radio Sweden. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sinfonia of Cambridge, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and, more recently, with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York. She is a member of Ensemble Mélange, Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and Decoda, and has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Manhattan Chamber Players, Orpheus, and A Far Cry, as well as in festivals such as Tanglewood, Chigiana, Yellow Barn, Taos, Chamber Music Northwest, and Music@Menlo. An alum of the Peabody Conservatory, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and the Juilliard School, Sasaki is now a faculty member at Juilliard.
Spanish-American violinist Francisco Fullana has been praised by BBC Music Magazine for “managing to combine Itzhak Perlman’s warmth with the aristocratic poise of Henryk Szeryng.” Recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Fullana makes concerto appearances across three continents this season, including debuts with the San Francisco and Utah Symphonies, and serves as artistic advisor to the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and The Orchestra San Antonio. As Outhere Music’s newest recording artist, he will release an album of Lalo and Ginastera concertos under Carlos Miguel Prieto. His passion for curating audience experiences continues with a new project centered on Goya’s The Forge, premiering at the opening night of the Frick Collection’s Music at the Frick series in fall 2026. Fullana performs on the 1735 “Mary Portman” ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù, generously loaned by Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova has won international acclaim for her “expressive nuance and rich tone” (New York Times) and “impressive power and control” (Washington Post). A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, she is known for a diverse repertoire, bold programming, and a warmly beguiling stage presence. Hristova has performed as a soloist with orchestras across the United States, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and New Zealand, and has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A devoted champion of living composers, she has premiered new concertos by Anthony Ritchie and her husband, David Serkin Ludwig. Her commissioning project, Lineage, features six new solo violin works and will be released as an album on Azica Records in 2027. She plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin once owned by Louis Krasner.
Violinist/violist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. A graduate of Juilliard, he counts among his teachers his father, Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sándor Végh, and George Neikrug. He co-founded the Orion String Quartet, which played worldwide for 37 years. Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as soloist with many major orchestras. Along with his wife, Tara Helen O’Connor, he is the Co-Artistic Director of Music from Angel Fire. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of Bard College Conservatory and Juilliard. He plays a violin made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 2017 and a 1702 Stradivarius, and a viola made by his grandfather, Benjamin F. Phillips.
Praised by the Seattle Times as “Simply marvelous,” violinist/violist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu has enjoyed a career as a performer, artistic director, and educator throughout America, Europe and Asia. Cindy has collaborated with artists such as Yefim Bronfman, James Ehnes, Lynn Harrell, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Thomas Quasthoff, Yuja Wang, and members of the Alban Berg, Emerson, Guarneri, Miró, and Tokyo string quartets. She has also collaborated as guest violist with the Dover, Orion, and Shanghai quartets. A recipient of many awards including the Milka Violin Artist Prize from the Curtis Institute of Music, she has taught at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California and the summer programs at Curtis and the Yale School of Music. She is the Music Director of New Asia Chamber Music Society and founder of Sunkiss’d Mozart in Salinas. Cindy performs on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz, a 1918 Stefano Scarampella, and a 1734 Domenico Montagnana.
American violist Matthew Lipman, recognized by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing,” has made recent appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra; and at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Zürich Tonhalle. He made his recording debut with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has since recorded on Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Lipman has premiered works by Clarice Assad, Andreia Pinto Correia, Joel Thompson, and John Williams, and made his film debut in A. Rimbaud, playing the role of Paul Verlaine. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and is a visiting professor at Juilliard.
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.
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.
Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, praised in the New Yorker as a “superb young soloist.” Recent highlights include solo debuts with the Virginia, Albany, Bangor, and Delaware symphony orchestras; concerto appearances with the Erie Philharmonic, the New Haven Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra; Europe and Asia tours with CMS; and recitals throughout the US with his longtime duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he is a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals. Canellakis is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (where he was recently appointed to the cello faculty) and New England Conservatory.
Acclaimed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and winner of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. He has appeared with major orchestras including the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras; the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics; and the Boston, Dallas, and Detroit Symphonies. In 2025–26 Sterling debuts with the Phoenix Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic, and at the BBC Proms. As featured soloist with the Sphinx Virtuosi, he will perform during a mutli-city tour at Carnegie Hall, Shriver Concert Series, and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. He also continues his residency in CMS’s Bowers Program, performing at Alice Tully Hall and on tour throughout the United States, as well as in trio performances with Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien. He performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.
Double bassist Nina Bernat has established herself as one of the leading solo voices for her instrument. The Star Tribune praised her concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra as “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical.” In 2023, she became the first female bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant and won first prize in the Concert Artists Guild Elmaleh Competition. She has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, and Long Island Symphony, and her performances have been featured on NPR's Performance Today. Her debut album, Crossroads, will be released in fall 2026. She is a member of the CMS’s Bowers Program and has appeared at major music festivals such as Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, and Bridgehampton. She is Professor of Double Bass at Stony Brook University and performs regularly with ROCO and Sejong Soloists, and has appeared as guest principal with the Israel and Oslo Philharmonics.
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.
Tara Helen O’Connor, recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, was the first wind player to participate in CMS’s Bowers Program. A regular performer at major music festivals around the country, she is also the Co-Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico, the Artistic Director of the Essex Winter Series, a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, and a founding member of the Naumburg Award–winning New Millennium Ensemble. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings, and Bridge Records, and can be heard on numerous film and television soundtracks. She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion, St. Lawrence, and Emerson String Quartets. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, O’Connor is on faculty at Yale School of Music. Additionally, she teaches at Bard College and the Manhattan School of Music.
Randall Ellis was principal oboist of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra from 1988 until 2016. He is principal oboist of the Little Orchestra Society and solo English horn in the New York Pops Orchestra. He is a member of the Emmy-winning All-Star Orchestra and former member of Windscape Woodwind Quintet. He is principal oboist of the Eastern Music Festival and was also principal oboist of the New York Chamber Symphony, where he received two Grammy nominations. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, American Symphony, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has been a soloist with the New England Bach Festival, the International Bach Festival of Madeira, the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and Chamber Music at 92Y. Ellis attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and Stony Brook University, where he was a student of Ronald Roseman. He teaches oboe and chamber music at Skidmore College.
Performer, curator, and on-stage host James Austin Smith “proves that an oboist can have an adventurous solo career” (The New Yorker). Smith appears at leading national and international chamber music festivals, as Co-Principal Oboe of the conductor-less Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and as an artist of the International Contemporary Ensemble. As Artistic and Executive Director of Tertulia Chamber Music, Smith creates intimate evenings of music, food, and drink in New York, San Francisco, and beyond. He serves as Artistic Advisor to Coast Live Music in the San Francisco Bay Area and mentors graduate-level musicians as a professor of oboe and chamber music at Stony Brook University. Smith’s April 2027 Carnegie Hall debut recital, Elemental, connects the oboe to ancient, global traditions of double reed playing, asserting its role in the human soundscape. A Fulbright scholar and alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and CMS’s Bowers Program, he holds degrees in music and political science from Northwestern and Yale University.
Stephen Taylor is solo oboist with the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, the American Composers Orchestra, and the New England Bach Festival Orchestra, and is co-principal oboist of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Among his more than 300 recordings are Bach arias with Kathleen Battle and Itzhak Perlman, and Elliott Carter’s Oboe Quartet, for which he received a Grammy nomination. He has performed and recorded many of Carter’s works, giving several world and US premieres. He was awarded a performer’s grant from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University and has collaborated with the Vermeer, Shanghai, Orion, American, and Artis-Vienna String Quartets, among others. Taylor is on the faculties of the Manhattan, Juilliard and Yale schools of music. He plays rare James Caldwell model Lorée oboes, and spends as much time as possible with his old wooden boats in Maine.
A member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and New York Woodwind Quintet, Marc Goldberg is principal bassoonist of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Ballet Theater, the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and the NYC Opera. Previously the associate principal bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, he has also been a frequent guest of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, touring with these ensembles across four continents and joining them on numerous recordings. A long-time season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has been a guest of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Brentano Quartet, Music@Menlo, Musicians from Marlboro, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band. Goldberg is on the faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Mannes College, New England Conservatory, the Hartt School, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Stewart Rose has performed as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra horn section, as acting principal with New York City Ballet Orchestra, and as acting associate principal with the New York Philharmonic. He has been guest principal with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Saito Kinen Orchestra. A native New Yorker, he began playing with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in the 1980s and has been principal horn with Orchestra of St. Luke’s since its inception. He also served as principal horn with New York City Opera at Lincoln Center for 25 years. Rose’s first solo recording, From the Forest, a collection of early classical works for horn and orchestra by Haydn, Telemann, Leopold Mozart, and Christoph Forster with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, was released on St. Luke’s Collection to great critical acclaim.
Horn player Hugo Valverde enjoys a prolific career in the United States and abroad as an orchestral player and soloist, currently holding the Second Horn position at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City. Other commitments as an orchestral musician include performances with the National Symphony Orchestra of his native Costa Rica, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, and the New York City Ballet Orchestra, as well as major festivals. He is a faculty member at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Precollege Division at Manhattan School of Music. Valverde studied at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas, Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida, and the National Music Institute in San José, Costa Rica. His main teachers are Daniel León, Luis Murillo, Gregory Miller, and William VerMeulen.
David Washburn is the principal trumpet of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and associate principal trumpet of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Previously, he served as principal trumpet and soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Redlands Symphony. He has been a featured soloist with such orchestras as the Los Angeles, St. Louis, Hong Kong, and California philharmonics; the Los Angeles, San Diego, St. Matthew’s, and South Bay chamber orchestras; and the Berkeley, Burbank, and Glendale symphonies. Active in the recording studio, he has played principal trumpet for the soundtracks of many major films. He is currently Artist in Residence at Biola University. He received his master’s degree with distinction from the New England Conservatory and his bachelor’s degree from the Thornton Music School at the University of Southern California.