May 17-18: Emerald City Music Presents Mother – Two Evenings of Music and Visual Storytelling Featuring the World Premiere of a Film by Carlin Ma

Photo of Carlin Ma by Elle Logan. Hi-Resolution available here.

Emerald City Music Presents Mother
Two Evenings of Music and Visual Storytelling
Featuring the World Premiere of a Film by Carlin Ma

“[Emerald City Music is] creating a welcoming and more inclusive
environment for intimate music-making” – The Seattle Times

Friday, May 17, 2024 at 8pm
415 on Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets

Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – For its Season 08 finale, Emerald City Music (ECM) –– deemed “the beacon for the casual-classical movement” by City Arts Magazine –– presents a special program titled Mother, over two evenings on Friday, May 17, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 on Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW). Featuring the world premiere of an ECM-commissioned documentary by filmmaker Carlin Ma, this Mother’s Day-minded program blends Ma’s community-based visual storytelling with the music of Antonín Dvorák, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Anna Clyne, and Johannes Brahms, performed by Mezzo Soprano Erica Convery; Pianist Oksana Ejokina; Violinists Kristin Lee, Sunmi Chang, Vanessa Moss, Karin Choo, Sol Im, Annika Kounts; Violists Erin Wight, Aaron Conitz, Elizabeth Boardman Cellists Christine Lee, Page Smith-Bilks, and Holly Reeves; Bassists Mas Podgorny, Ross Gilliland, and Ramon Salumbides.

Mothers are foundational to the human experience: a figure in the lives of every person – whether one associates as positive or negative, joyful or complex feelings with their own mother. Yet center-lane celebrations of Mother’s Day do not provide a wholly adequate platform for expressing the immensity of these complex relationships. In this collaborative initiative, Emerald City Music aligns the mediums of film and live music together to explore the true diverse stories of Pacific Northwesterners that coalesce to define one word: “mother.” These challenging and inspirational accounts – as told by community members and captured by filmmaker Carlin Ma – are presented alongside works by Dvorák, Brahms, Anna Clyne, and more that musically give voice to this ubiquitous theme.

Ma says of her film’s meaning and what she hopes comes from watching her work:

“To understand our essence and story, we must understand what formed us… our mothers. We need to recognize inherited patterns and decide whether to grasp or let go. It has been a humbling journey, collecting the kaleidoscope of human experiences and weaving them together into a cohesive mosaic, with representation across age, class, and race.

Short film chapters are juxtaposed between each musical selection. This way, audiences may digest their emotional reactions to each film through the music. My goal is to spark earnest conversations, so that we can share what really matters to our being, from the beautiful to the challenging. We need to listen and learn from one another. Then, we can truly connect, building towards hope and healing.”

Emerald City Music is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for its casual environment combined with performances by award-winning musicians, ECM encourages attendees to enjoy its flagship “date-night experience” at 415 on Westlake, which features an open bar and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” praising its “nontraditional atmosphere” which allows for “artists [to] mingle with the audience during the intermission.” To reach audiences beyond its live presentations, all of ECM’s concerts are recorded and made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

About Carlin Ma: Seeking means of discovery and expression, Carlin Ma has dedicated her life to music and the arts, including filmmaking, photography, solo piano, chamber music, and interdisciplinary projects.  As a professional photographer and filmmaker, she has collaborated with institutions such as Aspen Music Festival, Seattle Symphony, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Music@Menlo. Special merit recognitions include front page feature in Symphony Magazine, publications in major news outlets like New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and 1st place Aspen Chamber of Commerce Photo Contest. Carlin has been the resident photographer for Emeraldy City Music since their opening 2016.

As a pianist, she has performed at international prestigious venues including the Kennedy Center, Ravinia Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Capella Hall (Russia), and more. She finds it equally meaningful to initiate performances in local venues, including the inaugural Seattle Musicians@Google. As a pedagogue, she credits her mentors, including Menahem Pressler, Yoshi Nagai, Arnaldo Cohen, Evelyne Brancart, Emile Naoumoff, and Karen Taylor. Carlin was the Associate Instructor at Indiana University. In 2021-2023, Steinway & Sons awarded her with “Top Piano Teacher in Seattle” for her private studio.

Carlin finds music and film/photo emerging from the same internal chord, which has led to many interdisciplinary projects. He is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Hawaii International Music Festival, creating projects that interweave classical music with Hawaiian inspirations. Seattle Symphony also invited her as an interdisciplinary artist in Octave 9’s inaugural season. Fostering perpetual discovery for herself and others is her committed passion.

About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director: Emerald City Music’s founding 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. Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions. 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. 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.

Follow ECM on Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

Emerald City Music Presents Violinist Jinjoo Cho in Two Immersive Multimedia Performances on April 19 and 20

Jinjoo Cho, photo by Kyu-Tae Shim available in high resolution HERE.

Emerald City Music Presents Violinist Jinjoo Cho
in Two Immersive Multimedia Performances on April 19 and 20

Friday, April 19, 2024 at 8pm
415 on Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets (Seattle)

Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets (Olympia)

“[Emerald City Music is] creating a welcoming and more inclusive environment for intimate music-making”
– The Seattle Times

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – Emerald City Music (ECM), deemed “the beacon for the casual-classical movement” by City Arts Magazine, presents two concerts featuring South Korean violinist Jinjoo Cho in immersive, multimedia performances on Friday, April 19, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 on Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW). A charismatic soloist, dynamic chamber musician, dedicated teacher, artistic director, and published writer, Jinjoo Cho is a versatile classical virtuoso of the 21st Century. Her program for Emerald City Music is anchored by artistic and historical contrast, featuring the music of Baroque masters Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Johann Sebastian Bach alongside a new work dedicated to Cho by Korean-American composer and pianist Juri Seo with projections created by visual artist Changyeob Ok

Emerald City Music is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for its casual environment combined with performances by award-winning musicians, ECM encourages attendees to enjoy its flagship “date-night experience” at 415 on Westlake, which features an open bar and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” praising its “nontraditional atmosphere” which allows for “artists [to] mingle with the audience during the intermission.” To reach audiences beyond its live presentations, all of ECM’s concerts are recorded and made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

“We are thrilled to welcome the dynamic and thrilling virtuoso violinist Jinjoo Cho to the ECM stage for the very first time! Not only is Jinjoo a mesmerizing violinist, but her creativity in sculpting innovative and eclectic programs is what makes her an outstanding artist,” says Emerald City Music Artistic Director Kristin Lee. “I am especially excited for her performance of Toy Store by composer Juri Seo which will be presented with multimedia visual art by artist Changyeob Ok. These will be one-of-a-kind evenings, which reinvent our venues at 415 on Westlake and the Minnaert Center as immersive multimedia experiences!”

The three vastly different works on this solo violin program create a “circle of life” narrative over the course of the evening. Beginning with the wandering mysteriousness of Biber’s Passacaglia for Solo Violin (1670) – one of the world’s oldest surviving solo violin works – the night gives way to Bach’s stately Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (1717-20), widely considered the apogee of violin repertoire. The centerpiece of Cho’s program is Juri Seo’s multimedia work Toy Store, a reflective journey through the various experiences of childhood that live on in our minds as adults. Drawing inspiration from punk jazz, John Adams, 19th century presto movements, and video game music, the first movement, Jack-in-the-Box, is a dramatic portrayal of surprise, humor, and obsession as experienced in a childlike mind. The second movement, Monster Truck, combines heavy metal and 18th century Chaconne to create a musical narrative that is at once violent and hilarious. Mobile, explores the feelings of comfort and fear associated with falling asleep, as one experiences a taste of death. In the penultimate movement, Roller Skates, resolution begins to take shape as the violin and prerecorded track participate in multi-part canonic unison. Finally in “Bubbles,” the ethereal soundscape of pizzicati, harmonics, and tremolo evokes lightness and release.

About Jinjoo Choo: Jinjoo Cho is the First Prize Winner of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and Concours Musical International de Montréal in addition to the Buenos Aires, Schoenfeld, and Stulberg Competitions. She has toured the world since the age of 11 and continues to perform at distinguished concert halls and festivals including the Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Banff Centre, Festival de Lanaudière, La Seine Musicale, Aigues-Vives Music Festival, Kronberg Academy, Schwetzingen Festspiele, Herkulessaal, Teatro Colón, Seoul Arts Center, and more. Cho has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonic, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Ensemble Appassionato, Seoul Philharmonic, and the North Carolina, Phoenix, and Charlotte symphonies. She is the founding Artistic Director of the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute and an Assistant Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She previously served as faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. Jinjoo is deeply passionate about sharing her love of music, in whatever form that it takes. Her creative explorations range from commissioning new works by composers Juri Seo and Andrew Rindfleisch to collaborating with artists of other disciplines including choreographer Jinyeob Cha. A consummate recording artist, Jinjoo Cho has recorded four albums on the Azica, Naïve Classique, Analekta, and Sony Classical labels. In 2021, her first book, Would I Shine Someday, was listed as a bestseller on major book platforms in Korea. For more information, visit www.jinjoocho.com.

About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director: Emerald City Music’s founding 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. Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions. 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. 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.

Follow ECM on Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

March 8-9: Emerald City Music Presents Quartet in Spotlight: Abeo Quartet and the Calidore Quartet

Emerald City Music Presents
Quartet in Spotlight: Abeo Quartet and the Calidore Quartet

Featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20
Plus Music by Dimitri Shostakovich and W.A. Mozart

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director

Friday, March 8, 2024 at 8pm
415 Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets & Information

Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets & Information

“[Artistic Director Kristin Lee] wants to show you, through Emerald City Music’s concert series, just how varied and innovative chamber music can be.” 
– The Seattle Times

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, March 8, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents its annual Quartet in Spotlight series, featuring not one, but two exceptional string quartets sharing the stage: the Abeo Quartet (Njioma Grevious, violin; Rebecca Benjamin, violin; James Kang, viola; Macintyre Taback, cello) and the Calidore Quartet (Jeffrey Myers, violin; Ryan Meehan, violin; Jeremy Berry, viola; and Estelle Choi, cello).

The collaboration of these two ensembles celebrates a very meaningful relationship and built legacy: the multi-award winning Calidore has served as mentors and teachers to the emerging Abeo Quartet at the University of Delaware. Each ensemble will perform a work on their own in the spotlight. The Calidore performs W.A. Mozart’s Quartet No. 16 (1783), a tuneful work that redefined the possibility of musical form and bearing a dedication to his contemporary Joseph Haydn.

The Abeo performs Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 122 (1966), a cryptic suite of seven movements that bitterly elegizes the passing of Vasili Shrinsky, a close friend of Shostakovich and a member of the Beethoven Quartet to whom he dedicated four quartets. The Calidore and Abeo Quartets finally join together to perform arguably among the most resplendent pieces of music ever written: Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat Major (1825). Written at the mere age of sixteen, Mendelssohn’s prodigious symphonic vision met his affection late in life as he called it: “my favorite of all of my compositions.”

Of this thoughtfully curated program, Artistic Director Kristin Lee says:

“As a part of our Quartet in Spotlight segment, we couldn't overlook the fact that we are celebrating our Eighth Season at ECM and decided to feature these two fantastic quartets to join forces on one of the most beloved pieces of the chamber music repertoire- Mendelssohn's Octet. The Calidore Quartet mentored the Abeo String Quartet at University of Delaware in the recent years, so it will be such a special performance to witness the leading quartet of our time collaborating with the next generation of up and coming string quartets. It's a program not to be missed!”

For the performance at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The second performance of the program in Olympia will take place at the Capital High School Performing Arts Center.

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for their casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition from several high-profile publications like Seattle Times, The City Arts deemed ECM “the beacon for the casual-classical movement.” Unique to only ECM attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes, enjoy the open bar and walk around in order to increase the satisfaction of each of the ECM concerts. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” noting its “nontraditional atmosphere,” which often “doesn’t have a stage separating performers from the audience, and artists mingle with the audience during the intermission.”

This performance, and all of ECM’s mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

For more about the artists, visit: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season-artists

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

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.

Follow ECM on Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

Emerald City Music to Receive $15,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Commissioning New Work by Fred Onovwerosuoke

Composer Fred Onovwerosuoke

Emerald City Music to Receive $15,000 Grant
from the National Endowment for the Arts

Commissioning New Work by Fred Onovwerosuoke

Premiere Performances February 9 & 10
Presented by Emerald City Music in Seattle & Olympia

Concert Details: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/oboe-oboe

Seattle, WA — Emerald City Music is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $15,000. This grant will support a core pillar of Emerald City Music’s mission and history: supporting the creation of new works for chamber music settings –– specifically the commissioning of a new composition by Fred Onovwerosuoke titled Concertino for Two Solo Oboes and String Quintet (A Tale of the Fisherfolks), which will be premiered at Emerald City Music’s next concerts on February 9 and 10, 2024. This project was sparked in collaboration between the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music and Emerald City Music.

In total, the NEA will award 958 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $27.1 million that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to Emerald City Music, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”

Kristin Lee, Artistic Director of Emerald City Music says:

“We are deeply honored to receive this distinguished grant from The National Endowment for the Arts—our first time in the eight seasons of Emerald City Music's history! This award not only gives us the opportunity to present the innovative composition by Fred Onovwerosuoke but also solidifies our organization's role within the vibrant communities of Seattle and Olympia.”

Onovwerosuoke’s new composition, Concertino for Two Solo Oboes and String Quintet (A Tale of the Fisherfolks), features an unusual, yet intentional, instrumentation: two oboes and string quintet. Works with this instrumentation are extremely rare and were only popular in the baroque era with composers like Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi. Bringing a new contemporary voice to this instrumentation opens opportunities for myriad future arts presenters to similarly diversify the canon of classical music.

Commissioned composer Fred Onovwerosuoke was born in Ghana of Nigerian parents, and writes music that bears influences from Africa, the Caribbean and the American Deep South. “FredO,” as friends call him, has spent time in over thirty African countries researching and analyzing some of Africa’s rich music traditions. About his music, he writes: "I see hidden across Africa a gold-mine of unlimited musical scales and modes, melodic and harmonic traditions, and, yes, rhythms - abundant yet largely untapped. My compositions are informed by my travels around the world, and each piece is harnessed and nurtured by an African sensibility that is unmistakable and genuine."

Onovwerosuoke’s influences are wide and varied, and he is much at home discussing Beethoven, Debussy and Stravinsky as well as foremost exponents of various traditional musics. In 1994 he founded the St. Louis African Chorus to help nurture African choral music as a mainstream repertoire for performance and education in America. Today, the organization’s mission has broadened to include classical/art music by lesser-known composers particularly of African descent and renamed Intercultural Music Initiative. ​​​Onovwerosuoke’s numerous awards include multiple ASCAP Awards, American Music Center Award, Meet-The-Composer Award, and Brannen-Cooper Brothers Award. He has published several books: Songs of Africa in several volumes, Twenty-Four Studies in African Rhythms, Twelve African Songs for Solo Voice & Piano and Afro Caribbean Mass for Mixed Voices & Piano. Fred Onovwerosuoke serves on the boards of various professional bodies and maintains an active schedule as composer-in-residence, guest conductor or speaker on the subject of art music by African descent composers.

About Emerald City Music:

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.

For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Emerald City Music Presents Oboe / Oboe – Featuring James Austin Smith and Titus Underwood in a World Premiere by Fred Onovwerosuoke

Emerald City Music Presents Oboe / Oboe

Featuring Oboists James Austin Smith and Titus Underwood
in the World Premiere of a New Work by Fred Onovwerosuoke
for Two Solo Oboes and String Quintet
(2024 ECM Commission)

Plus Music by Marina Dranishnikova, Tomaso Albinoni,
Mark O’Connor, and W.A. Mozart

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director

Friday, February 9, 2024 at 8pm
415 Westlake
415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/oboe-oboe

Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts
2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA

Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/oboe-oboe-olympia

“[Artistic Director Kristin Lee] wants to show you, through Emerald City Music’s concert series, just how varied and innovative chamber music can be.” 
– The Seattle Times

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, February 9, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents Oboe / Oboe – a program dedicated to highlighting the artistry of the oboe, through works composed for the woodwind instrument by a diverse group of composers from around the world and from throughout many different eras in time.

Emerald City Music showcases the dextrous versatility of the oboe – a traditionally solo instrument – as a duo. The program was created with two specific superstar oboists in mind: returning artist James Austin Smith and Emerald City Music debut artist Titus Underwood. Also featured as guest performers for this concert are violinist and ECM Artistic Director Kristin Lee, violinist and best-selling author, Ling Ling Huang, violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, bassist Rachel Calin, and pianist/harpsichordist Oksana Ejokina.

The evening explores historical keystone pieces written for the oboe – from the baroque era to classical, mid-20th century, and finally to the contemporary sounds of 2024. The flurry of oboes is interjected with a light hearted and virtuosic piece by Mark O'Connor: String Quartet For Violin, Viola, Cello, And Bass: I. Fast And Cheerful (2019). The program features a world premiere by Fred Onovwerosuoke commissioned by Emerald City Music, written for two solo oboes and string quintet. The American composer, who was born in Ghana of Nigerian parents, writes music that bears influences from across Africa, the Caribbean, and the American Deep South.

Instrumentation that features two oboes in double-soli is exceedingly rare and the works with this configuration were primarily popular in only the baroque era. The program platforms one of these works, Tomaso Albinoni's Concerto, published in 1722, bookending the evening with Fred Onovwerosuoke’s modern counterpart. Additionally, the program will also feature Marina Dranishnikova’s Poem For Oboe and Piano (1953) and W.A. Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370 (1781).

Of this thoughtfully curated program and the decision to showcase the oboe in particular, Artistic Director Kristin Lee says:

“This program from our Seventh Season, Oboe/Oboe, is perhaps the one I’m looking forward to with the most anticipation. It’s the only program from this season that features a variety of instruments like the oboe, strings, and harpsichord. In addition, we will be featuring a mix of returning and brand new artists to our ECM stage.

The biggest reason for it being the highlight is the feature of our world premiere performance of Fred Onovwerosuoke’s brand new concertino for Two Oboes and String Quintet. I encountered Fred’s music through learning about the friendship between him and Titus Underwood, one of the featured oboists on this program. The essence to creation and process of music making stems from human relationships so I’m excited to share their friendship and new friendships with our audience. It’ll be a joyful evening of music over decades –– the perfect way to kick off our spring season!”

For the performance at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The second performance of the program in Olympia will take place at the Capital High School Performing Arts Center.

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for their casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition from several high-profile publications like Seattle Times, The City Arts deemed ECM “the beacon for the casual-classical movement.” Unique to only ECM attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes, enjoy the open bar and walk around in order to increase the satisfaction of each of the ECM concerts. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” noting its “nontraditional atmosphere,” which often “doesn’t have a stage separating performers from the audience, and artists mingle with the audience during the intermission.”

This performance, and all of ECM’s Mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

For more about the artists, visit: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season-artists

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.

Follow ECM on Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Twitter: www.twitter.com/emeraldctymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

Emerald City Music Presents Inspired by Gamelan – Featuring the Washington State Debut of Gamelan Gita Asmara led by Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka

Emerald City Music Presents Inspired by Gamelan
Featuring the Washington State Debut of Gamelan Gita Asmara
led by Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka

Plus Percussionist Svet Stoyanov, Violinist Kristin Lee,
and Pianist Michael Stephen Brown

with Music by Steve Reich, Claude Debussy, and Lou Harrison

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director

Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8pm
415 Westlake
415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA

Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/inspired-by-gamelan

Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 7:30pm
Capital High School Performing Arts Center
2707 Conger Avenue NW | Olympia, WA

Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/inspired-by-gamelan-olympia

“[Artistic Director Kristin Lee] wants to show you, through Emerald City Music’s concert series, just how varied and innovative chamber music can be.” 
– The Seattle Times

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 7:30pm in Olympia at the Capital High School Performing Arts Center (2707 Conger Avenue NW), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents Inspired by Gamelan –– a concert program dedicated to Balinese gamelan, featuring Gamelan Gita Asmara, founded by Dr. Michael Tenzer and led by Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka, in the ensemble’s Washington State debut. Violinist and ECM Artistic Director Kristin Lee, percussionist Svet Stoyanov, and pianist Michael Stephen Brown will also be returning to ECM as featured performers. The first half of the performance will feature Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, III. Fast (1987), Claude Debussy’s Estampes For Solo Piano, L.100 (1903), and Varied Trio For Violin, Piano And Percussion by Lou Harrison (1987), followed by a 30 minute experience of the gamelan as the second half of the performance. The concerts are supported in part by the American-Indonesian Cultural & Educational Foundation.

Composers over the centuries found inspiration in folk music from around the world, and in the late 20th century, many composers found their influence in gamelan music from Indonesia. ECM presents an experience of the Balinese gamelan alongside three chamber music works that transform the indelible instrument into each composer’s own style and setting. Debussy paints with its harmonic color palette and common melodic shapes. Steve Reich lives within its rhythmic systems and poignant expression through repeated figures, while Lou Harrison captures its overall textures and tells an evocative story through the sense of gamelan’s coordinated interlocking parts. The concerts promise to transport audiences with the gamelan in both its urtext and re-textualization.

Of their upcoming Washington State performance debut, Gamelan Gita Asmara says:

“Gamelan Gita Asmara performs traditional and contemporary music of Bali, Indonesia, using a set of instruments called gamelan semaradana, imported from Bali. The group was founded in Vancouver in 1996 by Michael Tenzer, a Professor in the School of Music at UBC. It performs every year throughout British Columbia, and played an extensive tour of Bali in 2013. In these, our first concerts in Washington, we will present two early twentieth-century compositions by the celebrated composer Wayan Lotring, and premiere a new work, Sekar Ura, by our Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka.”

For the performance at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The second performance of the program in Olympia will take place at the Capital High School Performing Arts Center.

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for their casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition from several high-profile publications like Seattle Times, The City Arts deemed ECM “the beacon for the casual-classical movement.” Unique to only ECM attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes, enjoy the open bar and walk around in order to increase the satisfaction of each of the ECM concerts. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” noting its “nontraditional atmosphere,” which often “doesn’t have a stage separating performers from the audience, and artists mingle with the audience during the intermission.”

This performance, and all of ECM’s Mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

For more about the artists, visit: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season-artists

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.

Follow ECM on Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Twitter: www.twitter.com/emeraldctymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

Emerald City Music Presents the New York Classical Players with Yekwon Sunwoo, Violinist Kate Ardndt, and Cellist Samuel DeCaprio

Emerald City Music Presents the New York Classical Players
with 2017 Cliburn Gold Medalist Yekwon Sunwoo,
Violinist Kate Ardndt, and Cellist Samuel DeCaprio
Conducted by Dongmin Kim

Featuring Music by David Ludwig, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director

Friday, November 10, 2023 at 8pm
415 Westlake
415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA

Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/new-york-classical-players

Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 7:30pm
The Washington Center for the Performing Arts
512 Washington St SE | Olympia, WA

Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/new-york-classical-players-olympia

“...start a new [tradition] with your family at a night out at Emerald City Music.”
– Thurston Talk 

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, November 10, 2023 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts (512 Washington St SE), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents the New York Classical Players, led by Dongmin Kim in their Pacific Northwest performance debut. These concerts also mark the first time ECM will present a chamber orchestra on its stages. For these performances, ECM also welcomes 2017 Cliburn Piano Competition gold medalist Yekwon Sunwoo, violinist Kate Ardndt, and cellist Samuel DeCaprio. These exemplary musicians will join together to perform a program infused with the richness of Romantic-era music by Tchaikovsky and Chopin, as well as Moto perpetuo (2016) –– a contemporary work for solo violin by living composer David Ludwig (b. 1957).

Of Ludwig’s Moto Perpetuo (2016), Allan Kozinn of the Portland Press Herald says, “Ludwig’s interest is in extending the violin’s palette with timbres and effects. [T]he violin tones bend, stretch, whisper, slide and rasp, and the virtuosity involved is both technical…and conceptual.” The work was commissioned by violinist Jennifer Koh for the "Shared Madness" project and premiered at National Sawdust in New York City. Tchaikovsky's capricious and whimsical Pezzo Capriccioso is a work written over a single week as the composer was preoccupied with the illness of his close friend. The young 19-year-old Chopin wrote his lyrical Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 – a work filled with romantic and soaring melodic passages – as an homage to his Warsaw School muse, Polish soprano Konstancja Gładkowska. Closing the evening is the soul-stirring cello melodies in Tchaikovsky’s timeless Serenade, a piece the composer wrote "by the impulse of an intimate conviction... a piece that comes from the bottom of my heart."

On New York Classical Players making their Pacific Northwest debut with Emerald City Music and collaborating with three stellar soloists, conductor Dongmin Kim says:

“I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the New York Classical Players (NYCP) for our debut concerts in the Pacific Northwest, presented by Emerald City Music (ECM). To bring our music to new audiences, and in such beautiful settings, is truly special. The excitement only grows as we will be sharing the stage with Yekwon Sunwoo, an incredible pianist and winner of the 2017 Van Cliburn Competition. Together, we'll journey through an array of both classical and contemporary works. It's this blend that I believe really showcases what NYCP and ECM are all about: honoring tradition while embracing innovation. I can't wait to connect with you all through these performances. There's something magical about sharing live music together - it creates a bond. So please join us on this exciting musical adventure with ECM!”

For the performance at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The second performance of the program in Olympia will take place at the newly renovated Washington Center for the Performing Arts.

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for their casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition from several high-profile publications like Seattle Times, The City Arts deemed ECM "the beacon for the casual-classical movement". Unique to only ECM attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes, enjoy the open bar and walk around in order to increase the satisfaction of each of the ECM concerts.

This performance, and all of ECM’s Mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

About the New York Classical Players:

New York City’s outstanding young chamber orchestra, the New York Classical Players is an ensemble dedicated to the highest standards of artistry, collaboration, and virtuosity. Under the leadership of music director Dongmin Kim, the group performs across the United States, in South America and in Asia. Dongmin Kim is quickly establishing himself as one of the most inspiring and versatile conductors. His recent and upcoming engagements on the world's prestigious stages include Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Herbst Theatre, Faulkner Performing Arts Center, Seoul Arts Center, and the Lotte Concert Hall, to name a few. Since founding NYCP in 2010, Mr. Kim has led the group in over 200 concerts including a US tour with superstar soprano Sumi Jo and a host of prominent artists have appeared with the orchestra including Miriam Fried, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Cho-Liang Lin, Pamela Frank, Charles Neidich, Peter Wiley, Carol Wincenc, Chee-Yun, Stefan Jackiw, Jasmine Choi, and Richard O'Neill.

About Dongmin Kim:

Dongmin Kim is the Music Director of the celebrated chamber orchestra New York Classical Players. Since founding NYCP in 2010, he has conducted hundreds of concerts for New Yorkers, three international tours from Asia to South America, and throughout the US. Most recently, he led a series of concerts with NYCP for the last minute stepping in to fill the English Chamber Orchestra's US tour. Dongmin has conducted various prestigious ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Arts Center Festival Orchestra, Round Top Festival Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Jacksonville, and Winnipeg. He was awarded the Herbert von Karajan Fellowship by the Vienna Philharmonic, which led to a residency at the Salzburg Music Festival. As the Indianapolis Symphony's Schmidt Conducting Fellow, Dongmin worked alongside Mario Venzago and Raymond Leppard.

He has recorded chamber orchestra pieces by renowned composer Samuel Adler for Toccata Classics, which received praise from Luxembourg's Pizzicato Magazine. Additionally, he recorded Korean Art Songs with Haeran Hong for Warner Classics. As a violist, Dongmin has performed in various countries, including the United States, South America, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and has been a principal violist for the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra under MTT. Born in Seoul, Dongmin studied Orchestral Conducting and Viola at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His distinguished mentors include Kurt Masur, Janos Starker, Leonard Slatkin, Imre Pallo, and David Effron.

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.

Follow ECM on Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Twitter: www.twitter.com/emeraldctymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

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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