Emerald City Music Announces Season 08
L-R: Sybarite 5, Kinan Azmeh’s CityBand
Sybarite 5 photo credit: Shervin Lainez | CityBand photo credit: Liudmila Jeremies
Emerald City Music Announces Season 08
Fourteen Concerts from October 2023 through May 2024
in Seattle and Olympia
Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director
Season Opening Weekend: Evolution of Improvisation
With Kristin Lee, Anthony Tidd, Steve Coleman, Miles Okazaki, Dafnis Prieto, Julio Elizalde
Friday, October 20, 2023 at 8pm | 415 Westlake | Seattle, WA
Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 7:30pm | The Minnaert Center for the Arts
2011 Mottman Rd. | Olympia, WA
Tickets & Information: www.emeraldcitymusic.org
Seattle & Olympia, WA – Continuing under the leadership of Artistic Director and violinist Kristin Lee, Emerald City Music (ECM) presents fourteen concerts during Season 08 between October 2023 and May 2024 at its two signature venues – in Seattle at 415 Westlake and in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts – as well as at Olympia’s Washington Center for the Performing Arts in November and Capitol Theater for a special performance in May. Emerald City Music is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for a casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition since its founding in 2015. The Seattle Times says of ECM: "ECM isn’t falling back on the tried-and-true, under the assumption that a new listener is an unadventurous, easily frightened-off listener. Instead, they’re betting that the tried-and-true could be precisely one of the barriers to sparking interest that classical-music organizations need to overcome." The concept of the concert series as a platform where artists and audiences transform one another breathes life into every element of what ECM does – from the casual open-bar setting of its flagship Seattle concert experiences, to the bustling community that faithfully assembles in its concert halls in Olympia and beyond. At Emerald City Music concerts, the audience’s presence matters, transforming the artists, the community, and the future of classical music.
Emerald City Music’s focus during Season 08 is on connection – between performer and audience, between genres, and across time periods. “Our theme this season is ‘connection,” explains Kristin Lee. “My goal was to connect the dots of time, genre, art forms, and more – hence juxtaposing jazz and classical in our opening program, Gamelan and classical in our December concert, film with storytelling in our May concert, music mentor to mentee (Calidore Quartet and Abeo Quartet) in our March concert, and cultural exchange through a brand new, world premiere work in February. By creating programs that highlight these connections, we ultimately connect the people in the audience with those on the stage.”
From exploring the evolution of improvisation from baroque to jazz, to hosting major ensembles such as the New York Classical Players, the University of British Colubmia Balinese Gamelan Ensemble, two string quartets – the Calidore Quartet and the Abeo Quartet – and more, this season is packed full of opportunities to connect with music and with one another
Watch the Season 08 Introduction:
As in past seasons, all of ECM’s Mainstage performances will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.
Emerald City Music’s Season 08 Mainstage Performances:
Evolution of Improvisation – October 20-21, 2023: Artistic Director and violinist Kristin Lee and bass player/producer Anthony Tidd (a collaborator of a myriad of artists, from Steve Coleman to Lady Gaga and The Black Eyed Peas) co-curate the newest program in ECM’s Evolution Series: Evolution of Improvisation, a comprehensive historical journey spanning 250 years through the art of improvisation, from the baroque to modern jazz. They collaborate with saxophonist Steve Coleman, guitarist Miles Okazaki, drummer Dafnis Prieto, and pianist Julio Elizalde for a performance blending the work of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach with Okazaki’s Improvisation For Solo Guitar, Prieto’s Improvisation For Solo Drums, and Coleman’s Spontaneous Composition Collective.
New York Classical Players with Dongmin Kim, conductor – November 10-11, 2023: The New York Classical Players and 2017 Cliburn Piano Competition gold medalist Yekwon Sunwoo make their West Coast debut collaborating on a program crafted with the richness of Romantic-era music by Tchaikovsky and Chopin, as well as living composer David Ludwig’s (b. 1957) Moto Perpetuo, For Solo Violin (2016).
Inspired by Gamelan – December 15-16, 2023: The Balinese Gamelan stands as one of the world’s most fascinating, hypnotic, and transporting experiences of music. In this concert-length evening, experience the Gamelan alongside the works of three 20th Century composers that found their influence in this music: Steve Reich, Claude Debussy, and Lou Harrison. This concert features performances by Kristin Lee, violin; Michael Stephen Brown, piano; Svet Stoyanov, percussion; and the University of British Colubmia Balinese Gamelan Ensemble, which will provide a 30 minute experience of the gamelan as the second half of the performance. It is supported in part by the American-Indonesian Cultural & Educational Foundation.
Oboe / Oboe – February 9-10, 2024: Superstar oboists Titus Underwood and James Austin Smith collaborate on a program that highlights their instrument’s versatility and presence throughout time, performing music from 18th century baroque works to a world-premiere by Ghanaian-American composer Fred Onovwerosouke, commissioned by ECM. Performers include Titus Underwood, oboe; James Austin Smith, oboe; Kristin Lee, violin; Ling Ling Huang, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, cello; Rachel Calin, bass; and Oksana Ejokina, piano and harpsichord.
Quartet(s) in Spotlight: Calidore Quartet & Abeo Quartet – March 8-9, 2024: For this Quartet-in-Spotlight program, the Calidore Quartet and Abeo Quartet join together to perform a program that features the brilliance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet, alongside Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 11, Op. 122 performed by the Abeo Quartet and Mozart’s String Quartet No. 16, K. 428 performed by the Calidore Quartet.
Evening with Jinjoo Cho – April 19-20, 2024: Emerald City Music welcomes award-winning violinist Jinjoo Cho in a full-length multimedia concert for solo violin that will feature music from the 17th century, to J.S. Bach’s famed “Chaconne” from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, to Juri Seo’s 2022 work Toy Store For Violin And Fixed Media Electronics.
Mother – May 17-18, 2024: The finale program of Season 08 aligns the mediums of film and live music to explore the true diverse stories of Pacific Northwesterners expounding on the simple but profound question, “What is a mother?” The evening will feature the premiere of a new film by Carlin Ma presented alongside music by Anna Clyne, Antonín Dvorák, and more.
For Emerald City Music’s Complete Schedule and Concert Details, visit www.emeraldcitymusic.org/calendar.
Emerald City Music’s 2023-2024 concerts take place on Fridays at 8pm at 415 Westlake in Seattle, WA and on Saturdays at 7:30pm at The Minnaert Center for the Arts in Olympia (2011 Mottman Rd) Washington Center for the Performing Arts, or Capitol Theater in Olympia (206 5th Ave SE). Season tickets and tickets to individual concerts are now on sale at www.emeraldcitymusic.org.
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director:
Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.
As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee became a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center after winning The Bowers Program audition and completing the program's three-year residency. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin. Lee is also the founding artistic director of Emerald City Music (ECM), a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State.
Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation.
Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
About ECM:
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.
ECM has gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Artistic Director Kristin Lee –– a touring violinist awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center –– is regarded for her innovative programming that both honors the tradition of chamber music while expanding the genre’s boundary past common limits. Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.
ECM values real, authentic connection and holds the belief that music possesses the innate power to connect people, inclusive of varying backgrounds and perspectives. Over eight years, artists from every corner of the globe have visited Emerald City Music to prove just that: there exists a special connection between artist and listener that only music can facilitate.
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