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““A once-in-a-generation talent incapable of playing a routine or pedestrian phrase””

—The Flying Inkpot

Truly a “musician’s musician,” Zlata Chochieva’s recording of the complete Chopin Etudes was hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the most consistently inspired, masterfully executed and beautiful-sounding versions I can recall” and was subsequently included in that magazine’s list of the top fifty greatest Chopin recordings in history!  Since then, she has become known for her distinctive musical “voice” and has risen to the top ranks of amongst pianists worldwide.  She has a rare ability to focus the audience’s attention, and indeed to make time stand still.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra,  Vancouver Chopin Society, the Berliner Klavierfestival and the Hamburg Camerata at the Elbphilharmonie.   Chochieva has appeared at such prestigious concert halls as Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Philharmonie de Paris, the Serate Musicali series in Milan and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. She has performed with such major orchestras as the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice.

She is invited to leading music festivals, including the Miami International Piano Festival, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Lucerne and “Il Progetto Martha Argerich” in Lugano.

Chochieva, now signed exclusively with Naïve Records, is set to release her second disc on that label this season. Her first album on Naïve, “Chiaroscuro” (May 2022), is a combination of Mozart and Scriabin, coinciding with Scriabin’s 150th anniversary year and was designated a Critic’s Choice in International Piano Magazine. Chochieva’s previous disc “(re)creations” on Accentus is a collection of piano transcriptions by Rachmaninov, Liszt, and Friedman, winning a Schallplattenkritik award in the keyboard category and was selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone.

Born in Moscow, Chochieva is now a resident of Berlin. She established the International Festival at Rachmaninov’s estate in Ivanovka and has been its director since 2018.

This performance is dedicated to the memory of CMSF Board member Fred Terman (1929-2023).

“Tiffany Poon is one of those rare phenomena that come along once in every generation to upend our preconceptions.”

—Bachtrack

Hong-Kong born pianist Tiffany Poon has appeared with orchestras and in recital throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and China since she was first accepted to the Juilliard pre-college program at the age of eight. In addition to live performances, she is also dedicated to building an audience for classical music and demystifying classical music.

In recent seasons she has given debut recitals at the Dresden Music Festival, Monheimer Kulturwerke and Mänttä Music Festival, as well as Munich’s Herkulessaal and Kennedy Center. Chamber Music San Francisco was proud to give Ms Poon her San Francisco debut in 2022.

Other recital appearances include Klavierfestival Ruhr, Rheingau Musikfestival, Zurich’s Tonhalle-Orchester and the NeueNamen series in Münster and Bielefeld, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Gilmore Keyboard Festival’s Rising Star Series. She also had a concerto debut in Salzburg with the Philharmonie Salzburg. Chamber music collaborators include acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler, with whom she has performed and recorded extensively.

Her social media following of over 317,000 subscribers has led to unique online opportunities including having a drink named after her in 2018 on Minnesota Public Radio, collaborating with the New York Philharmonic’s ‘Practice 30’ campaign and with Teen Vogue for their web series ‘The Lead Up.’ Through her ‘Get Ready with Me’ videos and her practice vlogs, she has created an online community to inspire all generations to appreciate classical music and to “Be Kind and Keep Striving.” In 2020, Tiffany founded the charity Together with Classical, dedicated to supporting musicians and music education.

Ms Poon received a full scholarship from the Columbia University/Juilliard School exchange program and studied piano with Emanuel Ax and the late Joseph Kalichstein and, in 2018, graduated from Columbia University with a degree in philosophy. She is the laureate of many international competitions, including the prestigious Naumburg Competition.

““The lyricism and airy limpidity of the four performers give them profoundity as well as an unexpected allure.”

— Diapason (France)

By winning the first prize and sweeping four of the special prizes (among them the Mozart and Beethoven prizes) at the 2018 London Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition the Esmé Quartet made a sensational entrance into the string quartet world. Subsequently, they were invited and started touring internationally playing concerts at festivals and concert halls such as the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the Wigmore Hall and throughout the UK, at the Flagey Musiq3 Festival in Brussels, Auditori di Barcelona, the Opéra de Lille, the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival, the Haydn String Quartet Festival in Schloss Esterházy in Fertöd, Hungary and Classic Esterházy in Eisenstadt, Austria. In the summer of the same year, they were named as the quartet in residency at the Aix-en-Provence festival and also appeared at the McGill International String Quartet Academy in Montreal.

In 2019, the quartet was awarded the HSBC Laureate of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as well as the first prize of the 55th Possehl Musikpreis Lübeck. Their debut recording, on Alpha Classics, of works by Beethoven, Unsuk Chin, and Frank Bridge, was released in 2020 and has garnered critical acclaim with a 5 star review from Diapason d’Or, and was named as one of the best classical albums of 2020 by WQXR radio in New York.

In the 2020-21 season, they were named the first Artists in Residence at the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul. They also returned to Wigmore Hall and the Musiq3 Festival, and toured Italy, Germany and Portugal. In 2022 the quartet made their debuts in North America and Japan.

The name of the quartet — Esmé — derives from an Old French word meaning ‘being loved‘. Based in Germany, the group was formed in 2016 at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne and its members have been friends since their youth. The quartet has been mentored in masterclasses by Alfred Brendel as well as by members of the Alban Berg, Artemis and Casals Quartets.

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Besides winning the Gold Medal at the Cliburn Competition (the first South Korean to do so) pianist Yekwon Sunwoo has won first prizes at such prestigious competitions as the William Kapell, the Vendome Prize (at Verbier) and Interlaken. He now is sought after as a soloist by orchestras worldwide, and is an active chamber musician.

“One of the most finely honed pianists of his generation, his playing is full of flair and charm and sparkles with wit and character. He conveys both serious intent and huge enjoyment, giving the music shape and driving momentum. Do hear him.”

— BBC Music Magazine

In October 2005, in a spectacular outing the then 20 year old Polish virtuoso Rafal Blechacz swept the field at the Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw:

The Gold Medal (unanimously awarded; the Silver Medal was not granted)

Best Performance of the Mazurkas

Best Performance of the Polonaises

Best Performance of a Concerto

Best Performance of a Sonata

Thus, Mr. Blechacz won every prize it was possible to win.

His coup in Warsaw electrified the musical world, and doors immediately opened for him at the world’s most prestigious concert halls.   He has performed with such orchestras as London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NDR Hamburg, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Camerata Salzburg, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich.

He gives recitals in such major halls as Philharmonie Berlin, Prinzregententheater in Munich, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, La Scala, Vienna Konzerthaus, and BOZAR in Brussels, as well as in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Vancouver, Tokyo, Korea, and Taiwan.

In 2014 Blechacz capped his own achievements by earning the esteemed Gilmore Artist Award, which includes a $300,000 cash prize.

Rafał Blechacz records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. His debut CD of Chopin Preludes won Platinum Record status in his native Poland, as well as the German Echo Klassik and French Diaspason D’or. His recording of works by Debussy and Szymanowski was awarded “Recording of the Month” by Gramophone magazine, and “Solo Recording of the Year” by Echo Klassik. These were followed by recordings of Chopin Polonaises and, most recently, works by Bach.

Each time we present this stunning artist, he sells out Herbst Theatre and the crowds go wild. Don’t miss his triumphant return in 2024!

“Sovereignly balanced sound and, when called for, wild contrapuntal virtuoso playing”

— Das Orchester

Three exceptional artists comprise this brilliant trio, remarkable for its transparency and vibrancy of expression.  String trios are a far rarer species than string quartets and the Boccherini Trio is in the top rung of the breed, recently releasing much-acclaimed recordings of the complete string trios of Beethoven on the Genuin Classics label. The Trio performs in such venues as Wigmore Hall and Konzerthaus Berlin, as well as the most important festivals. The string trio repertoire, though small, is rich with masterpieces, and we will hear some of the best of the best.

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Violinist Suyeon Kang – born in South Korea and raised in Canada & Australia – has been based in Germany since 2007.  At age 16, she was named “Australian Young Performer of the Year,” went on to win prizes at many international violin competitions, and has never looked back. Now navigating a whirlwind of festivals, orchestral engagements and chamber music, she is concertmistress of the Kammerakademie Potsdam and also holds a post in the Camerata Bern. She is regularly invited as guest leader (usually in a “play/direct” capacity) by leading European chamber orchestras such as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, CHAARTS Chamber Artists, Baroque Orchestra of Sevilla, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Ensemble Resonan.

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Praised by the New York Times for her “probing introspection” and by the Philadelphia Inquirer for her “voluptuous tone,” prizewinning violist Vicki Powell has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony and the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and has been a featured artist at the Verbier, Ravinia, Caramoor and Marlboro festivals. Chamber music partners have included Mitsuko Uchida, Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis and Pamela Frank.  Ms. Powell is Principal Violist of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and has been invited to perform as Guest Principal Viola by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Bern.

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First prize winner at the J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, cellist Paolo Bonomini is currently Principal Cellist of the Salzburg Camerata, and performs as soloist with such noted ensembles as Camerata Bern, Sinfonie Orchester Biel, Pauliner Kammerorchester, Odessa Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi di Praga, among others.  His first solo CD, “Violoncello Italiano” (on Genuin Classics), received glowing reviews and was chosen as “CD of the month” by Fono Forum, a leading German music journal.  Paolo has been a guest principal cellist at the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Bern, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen, as well as the Bayerischen Rundfunks and Luzern Festival orchestras.

“Fiery dexterity and swashbuckling vivacity”

–– The New York Times

Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a uniquely varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. He appears with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; and gives recitals every season in major musical centres. As a chamber musician, he has curated concert series for such prestigious venues as Wigmore Hall, 92nd St Y and the Salzburg Festival. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello.

He has a strong interest in historical performance, working with many period-instrument orchestras and giving recitals with harpsichord and fortepiano. He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works, including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, and Gyorgy Kurtag’s ‘For Steven’.

Steven’s award-winning discography includes Bach’s Cello Suites for Hyperion (Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year); Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano with Robert Levin; and the Elgar and Walton concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra/Paavo Jarvi. His latest recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and – as director and soloist – concertos by Haydn and CPE Bach, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Forthcoming recordings include a special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih, including pieces performed on a travel cello which was played in the trenches.

Since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Cornwall. He also enjoys playing for children, and has created three musical stories, with the composer Anne Dudley. His two books for children, published by Faber’s, have been translated into many languages; and his latest book, a commentary on Schumann’s famous Advice for Young Musicians, has recently been published by Faber’s.

The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’ honours include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the USA. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music.

He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.

“The most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré.”

— The Observer (UK)

Daniel Hope has toured the world as a virtuoso soloist for 25 years and is celebrated for his musical versatility as well as his dedication to humanitarian causes. Winner of the 2015 European Cultural Prize for Music (whose previous recipients include Daniel Barenboim, Plácido Domingo and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), Hope appears as soloist with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, also directing many ensembles from the violin. Since the start of the 2016/17 season, Daniel Hope is Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra – an orchestra with whom he is closely associated since his early childhood.

Daniel Hope, raised in London, was the youngest ever member of the Beaux Arts Trio during its final six seasons.  Today he is an international star, involved with an extraordinary range of projects as writer, producer and violinist. He performs at all the world’s greatest halls and festivals, from Carnegie Hall to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, from Salzburg to Schleswig-Holstein, and from Aspen to the BBC Proms and Tanglewood. He solos with such preeminent orchestras as Boston, Chicago, Berlin, Paris, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo.

Hope is a prolific classical recording artist, with over 25 albums to his name. His recordings have won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the Diapason d’Or of the Year, the Edison Classical Award, the Prix Caecilia, seven ECHO-Klassik Awards and numerous Grammy nominations. His Mendelssohn album with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe was named one of the best of the year by the New York Times. His recording of Alban Berg’s Concerto was voted Gramophone Magazine’s “top choice of all available recordings“. His recording of Max Richter’s Vivaldi Recomposed, which reached No. 1 in over 22 countries is, with 160,000 copies sold, one of the most successful classical recordings of recent times. Hope has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2007.  In 2017, the documentary film “Daniel Hope – The Sound of Life” was screened in European movie theatres.

For many years Hope was Associate Artistic Director of the Savannah Music Festival, is currently Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra as well as Artistic Director of the Frauenkirche Dresden.  In addition, since 2018 he has been Music Director of San Francisco’s  New Century Chamber Orchestra. Daniel Hope plays the 1742 “ex-Lipiński” Guarneri del Gesù, placed generously at his disposal by an anonymous family from Germany. He lives with his family in Berlin.

“A distinctive ensemble personality that blends virtuosity and visceral expression”

— Boston Globe

The Viano String Quartet was the First Prize Winner of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and is the String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. Formed in 2015 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, the quartet has performed all over the world in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Place Flagey, Izumi Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

The 2022-2023 season brings the Viano String Quartet on extensive tours throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States, with recital debuts in New York City, Hannover, Zurich, Budapest, Cologne, Heidelberg, Eisenstadt, San Diego, Denver, Calgary, Newport, and Philadelphia, among other cities. The quartet will also return to Southern Methodist University, where they are in residence through the 22/23 season.

The quartet achieved incredible success in their formative years, with a blazing series of victories. In addition to their career-defining showing at Banff, they received major prizes at the 2019 ENKOR International Music Competition, the 2019 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition, the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition before – astonishingly – any of the members turned 20.

The group, which was the inaugural ensemble-in-residence at the Colburn Conservatory of Music from 2019-2021, has been coached by such leading artists as David Finckel, Gary Hoffman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and members of the Alban Berg, Brentano, Emerson, Miró, Shanghai, St. Lawrence, and Takács String Quartets. The Viano Quartet performs with such artists such as Emanuel Ax, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Eliso Virsaladze, Orion Weiss, Inon Barnatan and Roberto Diaz.

The name “Viano” was created to describe the four individual instruments in a string quartet interacting as one. Each of the four instruments begins with the letter “v”, and like a piano, all four string instruments together play both harmony and melody, creating a unified instrument called the “Viano”

“Ms. Kamio had technique to burn, but she was distinguished by her warmly luxurious, buttery tone and long, seamless phrases.”

—New York Times

In 2007 this extravagantly gifted Japanese artist won the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition.

Mayuko Kamio had made her concerto debut in Tokyo at the age of ten under the baton of Charles Dutoit, in a concert broadcast on NHK television. Since then, she has appeared as soloist with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich with Mstislav Rostropovich, NHK Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta.

She has toured with the National Philharmonic of Russia, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Prague Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic. In Japan she has appeared as soloist with the Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo and Yomiuri Nippon symphony orchestras; and the Japan, Tokyo and Tokyo City philharmonics.

As a recitalist, she has performed in such major cities as New York, Washington DC, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Frankfurt, Warsaw, and Tokyo.

As winner of the 1998 Menuhin Violin Competition (the youngest artist ever to win the award), Ms. Kamio performed with the Orchestra National de Lille with Lord Menuhin conducting. In 2000 she took first prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and in 2004 she won the first Monte Carlo Violin Masters Competition. As part of this award, she made concerto appearances at the Salle Gaveau in Paris and in Monte Carlo. That same year, she was awarded the gold medal at the first International David Oistrakh Violin Competition in Ukraine.

She has released four recordings on the SONY and BMG labels, a sonata recording of Franck, Brahms and Strauss, a concerto recording of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev Concerti, a collection of violin solo works with piano of Chausson, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Waxman and Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin.

Mayuko Kamio plays on the 1735 “Sennhauser” made by Joseph Guarneri del Gesu, kindly offered by the Strad Society in Chicago.

“There’s something attractively straightforward about his approach; an elegance and lightness of touch…”

​— The Guardian

Bruce Liu captured the world’s attention in 2021, when he won the Gold Medal at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Following this stellar success, he immediately embarked on a world tour, appearing at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Wiener Konzerthaus, BOZAR Brussels, Tokyo Opera City, Sala São Paulo, Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, a U.S tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic.

Upcoming highlights include debuts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker at Musikverein as well as festival appearances at la Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau, Edinburgh, Chopin and his Europe, Duszniki, and Gstaad Menuhin.

An exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon, his first album featuring his winning performances from the Chopin Competition won a Fryderyk Award and received international acclaim including both the Critics’ choice and Editor’s choice from the Gramophone Magazine, as well as being included in its list of Best Classical Albums of 2021.

Born in Paris to Chinese parents, Bruce Liu grew up in Montreal. His life has been steeped in cultural diversity, which has shaped his differences in attitude, personality and character. He draws on various sources of inspiration for his art: European refinement, Chinese long tradition, North American dynamism and openness. He follows his artistic path with optimism and a smile.

Bruce Liu’s performance is sponsored by James Meehan.