"Endowed with irreproachable technique and armed with four sumptuous Stradivariuses, the musicians of the Tokyo Quartet seize upon the attentive listener with the sheer force and integrity of their gimmick-free musical vision."

-Globe and Mail

Jean-Michel Fonteneau

The Tokyo String Quartet has captivated audiences and critics alike since it was founded almost 40 years ago. Regarded as one of the supreme chamber ensembles of the world, the Tokyo Quartet--Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola) and Clive Greensmith (cello)--has collaborated with a remarkable array of artists and composers, built a comprehensive catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings and established a distinguished teaching record. Performing over a hundred concerts worldwide each season, the Tokyo String Quartet has a devoted international following that includes the major capitals of the world and extends to all four corners, from Australia to Estonia to Scandinavia and the Far East.

Officially formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music, the quartet traces its origins to the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, where the founding members were profoundly influenced by Professor Hideo Saito. Soon after its formation, the quartet won First Prize at the Coleman Competition, the Munich Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. An exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon firmly established it as one of the world's leading quartets, and it has since released more than 40 landmark recordings. The ensemble now records on the Harmonia Mundi label.

The members of the Tokyo String Quartet have served on the faculty of the Yale School of Music as quartet-in-residence since 1976. Deeply committed to coaching young string quartets, they devote much of the summer to teaching and performing at the prestigious Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. They also conduct master classes in North America, Europe and the Far East throughout the year.

The ensemble performs on the "Paganini Quartet", a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments named for legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during the 19th century. The instruments have been on loan to the ensemble from the Nippon Music Foundation since 1995, when they were purchased from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

The program will include the Schubert masterpiece Quintet in C Major for Cello and String Quartet.  This beloved work is generally acknowledged as a pinnacle, not only of chamber music, but of Western art. The added cellist will be Jean-Michel Fonteneau.

Jean-Michel Fonteneau, currently Chair of String and Piano Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, is a founding member of the Ravel String Quartet, an ensemble which won two prizes at the Evian String Quartet Competition, and the first French Grammy Award "Les Victoires de la Musique Classique".  The quartet toured extensively around the world and established the first string quartet residency program in France.

Mr. Fonteneau performs frequently with such renowned artists as Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Kim Kashkashian, members of the Amadeus, Juilliard, Pro Arte, and Fine Arts Quartets. A passionate and devoted teacher, he served on the faculty of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, France until 1999, when he moved to the United States to join the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His students have won national and international competitions, appeared on "From the Top", and one was honored as a Presidential Scholar. Fonteneau appears regularly at such summer festivals as the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Domaine Forget, Oberlin at Casalmaggiore, MYA, and ARIA. Mr. Fonteneau's recordings can be found with Musidisc-France and Albany Records.

SCHUBERT String Quintet in C Major

Other works to be announced.

the Tokyo Quartet website

Concert Sponsored by Janet and Sol Weingarten

"The most perfect piano playing conceivable"

– The Guardian

"A virtuoso who begins where others leave off"

– Washington Post

Stephen Hough is widely regarded as one of the most important pianists of his generation; in recognition of his achievements, he was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2001.

Mr. Hough appears with most of the major European and American orchestras and plays recitals regularly in the major halls and concert series around the world. He is also a guest at festivals such as Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Edinburgh and the BBC Proms. Recent engagements have included performances with the New York, Los Angeles and London Philharmonics, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, London Symphony, the Russian National Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance with Sir Simon Rattle, televised worldwide.

Many of his catalogue of over 40 CDs have garnered international prizes, including the Diapason d'or, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Magazine Awards.

Stephen Hough is also an avid writer and composer. In addition to CD liner notes and articles for music publications, he has written for The Guardian and The Times. His cello concerto was premiered by Steven Isserlis, his choral works have been performed at Westminster Abbey, and his chamber music has been performed by members of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Berlin Philharmonie.

BEETHOVEN Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight"
HOUGH Sonata for Piano "broken branches"
SCRIABIN Sonata No. 4
SCRIABIN Sonata No. 5
LISZT Sonata in B minor

Stephen Hough 's website

Concert sponsored by the Diablo Regional Arts Association.

“ Kern's musicality radiates off the stage and saturates the hall, and it is joyously, intensely alive. Call it star quality.”

— Washington Post

BEETHOVEN Variations on a Theme by Salieri, WoO 73

ROBERT SCHUMANN Carnaval

RACHMANINOFF Etudes Tableaux (selections)

SCRIABIN Etudes (selections)

LISZT Hungarian Rhapsodies No. 2 and No. 10

Concert Sponsored by Denise and Ed Del Beccaro

Richard Stoltzman

"If Mr. Stoltzman is not one of a kind, who might the others be?”

— The New York Times

Eliot Fisk

"The king of the American classical guitar”

— The New Yorker

RICHARD STOLTZMAN

ELIOT FISK

Eliot Fisk , known for his adventurous repertoire and his willingness to take his music into such unusual venues as logging camps and prisons, belongs, as his mentor Andres Segovia wrote, "at the top line of our artistic world."

He has transformed the repertoire of the classical guitar through his ground-breaking transcriptions (of works by Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Paganini, Albeniz etc.) through countless works dedicated to him, and through his daring creative collaborations with other musicians in classical, flamenco, jazz and world music styles.

Many of Fisk's recordings have been best sellers on the Billboard charts; his two most recent CDs, released at the end of 2010 by Wildner Records to international acclaim, are "The Red Guitar" and "Ein Kleines Requiem", which features the world premiere recording of a new work by Kurt Schwertsik "written for and with Eliot Fisk".

In 2006, by order of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Eliot was awarded the prestigious "Cruz de Isabel la Catolica" for his service to the cause of Spanish music. Earlier recipients have included Andres Segovia and Yehudi Menuhin.

Eliot Fisk is Founder and Director of the annual Boston Guitar Fest , which has been praised by U.S. Senators John Kerry, Scott Brown and the late Edward Kennedy, as well as Congressman Barney Frank and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Boston Guitar Fest VI will run June 15 to 19, 2011 (Please see www.bostonguitarfest.org ).

Eliot Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andres Segovia and also studied interpretation with legendary harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale. He is Professor at the Universitaet Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the New England Conservatory where in 2010 he was deemed "teacher of the year."

Eliot Fisk lives in Boston and whenever possible in Granada, Spain, with his wife, acclaimed guitarist Zaira Meneses, and their ten year old daughter Raquel.

Eliot Fisk 's website

BARTOK Roumanian Folk Dance

BERIO Selected Duetti (arr. of Violin Duetti)

REICH New York Counterpoint for Clarinet and Tape

BACH Suite for Guitar

BEASER Mountain Songs

ROSSINI Aria, Theme and Variations

Concert Sponsored by Denise and Michael Weiner

SERGEY KHACHATRYAN , VIOLIN

Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 2:30 pm

Sergey Khachatryan

"For all his youth, Khachatryan certainly has deep experience. His sound is both sturdy and beautiful, and he paces and phrases everything with intelligent eloquence, always allowing the music to breathe.  Most impressive, though, is the emotional and spiritual depth he shows. ”

— The Sunday Times

see a video of his playing here

Sergey Khachatryan was born in 1985 in Yerevan, Armenia. In December 2000 he won First Prize in the VIII International Jean Sibelius competition in Helsinki, becoming the youngest ever winner in the history of the competition. In 2005 he claimed the First Prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels.

Sergey has performed with all the major UK orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and regularly with the Philharmonia Orchestra. In July 2005 Sergey made his debut at the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic performing the first Shostakovich violin concerto. His international profile initially developed through collaborations with orchestras such as the Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony in Tokyo, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre national de France and Kurt Masur and Frankfurt Radiosinfonieorchester with Daniel Harding.

In August 2005 he made his debut at the Ravinia and Blossom festivals, and in March 2006 with the Baltimore Symphony orchestra before undertaking a major US concert tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, including venues in Boston, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New Jersey. In summer 2006 Sergey made his New York debut performing the Beethoven concerto at the Mostly Mozart festival.

Highlights of Sergey's 2006-07 season included the Beethoven concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi, the first Shostakovich concerto with the RSO Berlin and Marek Janowski, the Sibelius concerto with the Munich Philharmonic and James Conlon, Prokofiev's second concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Beethoven concerto with the BBC Philharmonic and Gianandrea Nosseda at the Vienna Konzerthaus and a third visit to the Cleveland Orchestra.

During the 2006-07 season, Sergey also made debuts with the New York Philharmonic and Kurt Masur, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Hatink, the Los Angeles Philharmonis with Stephane Deneve, the San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra with Valery Gergiev and the Berlin Philharmonic with Dmitri Kitajenko.

Performances during the 2007-08 season included the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra with Peter Oundjian and a debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Charles Dutoit at the Saratoga Festival.

2008-09 season engagements included the Brahms concerto with the Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Ingo Metzmacher, a tour with the Gothenburg Symphony with Gustavo Dudamel, the Santa Cecelia Orchestra in Rome with Masur and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London with Sir Charles Mackerras. Other highlights included performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kurt Masur, the Russian National Orchestra and Mikhail Pletnev, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra as well as performances with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra with Valery Gergiev in St Petersburg, Yerevan, Moscow and at the festivals in Mikkeli and Baden-Baden.

The 2009-10 season saw his debut with the Spanish National Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Bamberger Symphoniker.

With sister Lusine Khachatryan he has performed recitals at Wigmore Hall, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the National Auditorium in Madrid and at Carnegie Hall, as well as the Theatre des Champs Elysees Paris, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Following the success of his Sibelius & Khachaturian concerto recording released in October 2003, Sergey's relationship with Naïve Classique continues with a double Shostakovich concerto disc with the Orchestre national de France conducted by Kurt Masur, recording of the Shostakovich and Franck sonatas for violin and piano with sister Lusine in February 2008 and more recent the full set of the Sonatas & Partitas by Bach in 2010.

Sergey plays the 1740 "Ysaye" Guarneri 'del Gesu' violin on kind loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata in A major (“Kreutzer”)
BACH Sonata No. 1 in G minor for solo violin
BACH Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin

Sergey Khachatryan 's website

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