Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, op. 56
Allegro
Largo (attacca)
Rondo alla polacca
L.v. Beethoven (1810 - 1849)
Alex Kerr, Violin / Mark Kosower, Cello / Min Kwon, Piano
*You are kindly asked to silence your cell phones before the concert
Performers
Jun Kim, Artistic Director / conDuctor
Commended as having snappy energy and a terrific ear for detail by Milwaukee Magazine, and as bestowing “stylish support” by the Baltimore Sun on Schumann Cello Concerto Recording, Korean-American Conductor, Jun Kim has extensively conducted orchestras in North America and Europe.
After winning a prize in the 2012 International Conducting Competition in Romania, Kim went on to win several more prestigious awards, including the first prize in the inaugural Malta Phiharmonic Orchestra Conducting Competition in Malta, the second prize in the Orquesta de Cordoba Conducting Competition in Spain.
As the winner of the L’Academie Lyrique Conductor’s Award, Kim was invited to guest conduct the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the oldest orchestras in Europe, at the Smetana Hall in the heart of Prague. Jun Kim was awarded the Beethoven Conducting Prize, given to the best conductor each year by the European Music Academy. After being selected as a Discovery Series Conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival under Maestro Helmuth Rilling, Kim was personally selected by Maestro Kurt Masur for the Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar in New York.
Over the span of his career, Kim has appeared with orchestras in the U.S, including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Duluth Symphony Orchestra, and Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and orchestras in Canada, the U.K., Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Malta. Jun Kim was selected to participate at the St. Magnus Festival in the U.K. and conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was also chosen as an emerging conductor to work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Equally adept as an Opera Conductor, Kim was the first prize winner of the 2015 American Prize in Opera Conducting. He has conducted opera productions by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Offenbach, Ravel, and Purcell, among others.
Jun Kim holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and an Artist Diploma from the University of CincinnatiCollege Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music degree from Indiana University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University. Jun Kim has worked under the Maestros such as Dumitru Goia, Johannes Schlaefli, Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Jorma Panula, Xian Zhang, and Markand Thakar. and he has studied violin with Miriam Fried, Victor Danchenko, and Won-Bin Yim.
Jun Kim is the Director of Orchestral Activities, Music Director of UWM Symphony Orchestra & Opera Theater, and an Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and he is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Washington Chamber Orchestra in D.C.
Performers
ㅡAlex Kerr, Violin
Alexander Kerr’s expressive and charismatic style has made him one of the most accomplished and versatile violinists on the international music scene today. In 1996 at the age of 26, Mr. Kerr was appointed to the prestigious position of Concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After nine successful years at that post, he left in June, 2006 to assume the endowed Linda and Jack Gill Chair in Music as Professor of Violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In addition to his teaching responsibilities in Bloomington, he maintains a busy concert schedule appearing with orchestras and in recital and chamber music performances throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe.
In 2008 he began his tenure as Principal Guest Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and in September 2011, he assumed his role as Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Regarded by the press as a masterful virtuoso with an elegant, old-world sound, Mr. Kerr has appeared as soloist with major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, working with such renowned conductors as Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Gimeno, Fabio Luisi, Peter Oundjian, Donald Runnicles, Robert Spano, Alan Gilbert, Jaap van Zweden, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman.
An active chamber musician, Mr. Kerr has collaborated with Martha Argerich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, Cho-Liang Lin, James Ehnes, Edgar Meyer, Truls Mørk, Menahem Pressler, Vadim Repin, Alisa Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian and Maxim Vengerov in performances at festivals in Aspen, Santa Fe, Caramoor, La Jolla, Seattle, Stavanger, and throughout Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands.
Mr. Kerr’s CD releases include the Dvorak Piano Quintet with Sarah Chang and Leif Ove Andsnes on the EMI label, music by Dutch composer Julius Röntgen on the NM Classics label, Horn Trios of Brahms, Leshnoff and Lennox-Berkeley on Naxos and the Shostakovich Romance on a series of discs including “Violin Adagios” and “Evening Adagios” released by Decca. A live DVD and CD recording of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben with Mr. Kerr, the RCO and Maestro Mariss Jansons was released in 2005 on the RCO’s own label: RCOLive!
A Cuban American, born in Miami, Florida and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Mr. Kerr began his studies at age seven with members of the National Symphony Orchestra. He went on to study with Sally Thomas at the Juilliard School, and with Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute of Music where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1992.
Performers
ㅡMark
Kosower, Cello
A modern player with a “signature sound” and distinctive style of playing, cellist Mark Kosower embodies the concept of the complete musician performing as concerto soloist with symphony orchestras, in solo recitals, and as a much admired and sought-after chamber musician. He is Principal Cello of The Cleveland Orchestra and a scholar and teacher of cello. Mark’s performance repertoire and discography are testaments to a deep devotion, not only to frequently heard repertoire such as Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and concertos of Haydn, Walton, Elgar and Dvořák but, significantly, to less well-known concertos of Alberto Ginastera, Miklos Rozsa, Frederich Gulda and Victor Herbert.
Mr. Kosower has recorded for the Ambitus, Delos, Naxos International and VAI labels, including as the first cellist to record the complete music for solo cello of Alberto Ginastera (Naxos). He was described as a “powerful advocate of Ginastera’s art” by MusicWeb International, and Strings Magazine noted of his Hungarian music album (also with Naxos) that “the music allows Kosower to showcase his stunning virtuosity, passionate intensity, and elegant phrasing.”
During the 2024-25 season Mr. Kosower will perform the Dvorak Concerto with the Pasadena Symphony and Costa Rica Philharmonic; the Ginastera Concerto No. 2 with the Puerto Rico Symphony, and Dutilleux’s “Tout un monde lointain” with The Cleveland Orchestra among other concerto appearances. He also premiere’s Samuel Adler’s 2 Toccatas with pianist Min Kwon at Rutgers University and, together with violinist Alexander Kerr, performs the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Washington Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Kosower also performs chamber music in New York City with violinist Vadim Gluzman and pianist William Wolfram.
Mr. Kosower has appeared as soloist on five continents including performances with the Orchestre de Paris, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, and in the United States with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Florida, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Oregon, Seattle, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra in addition to twenty-seven concerto performances with The Cleveland Orchestra. He has collaborated as soloist with Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Gustavo Gimeno, and Franz Welser-Möst. Recital appearances include the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the National Gallery of Art, and the Great Performer’s Series at Lincoln Center.
An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient Mark Kosower Mark Kosower is a frequent guest at international chamber music festivals and has appeared at the Aspen, Eastern, Santa Fe, North Shore, and Pacific (of Japan) music festivals in addition to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Seattle Chamber Music Society. His chamber music appearances have included performances with Yefim Bronfman, James Ehnes, Leon Fleisher, Vadim Gluzman, Robert Mann, Janos Starker, Schmuel Ashkenasi, Jorg Widmann, and the Juilliard String Quartet.
Performers
Min Kwon, Piano
Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in a versatile career that encompasses concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music appearances, while in high demand around the world as pedagogue, arts advocate, and administrator. She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries on seven continents and all 50 U.S. states, and currently is the Professor of Piano at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2002. Dr. Kwon is also the founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a nonprofit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young musicians, and it is through CME that she has commissioned the composers for America/Beautiful. liard School, where she later served as a member of The Juilliard Council, the first alumnus to be invited to do so.
As soloist, Min Kwon has performed extensively in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, with such orchestras as Philadelphia, North Carolina, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Fort Worth, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Orquesta Estaudo Mexico, Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, Wiener Residenz Orchester, Bacau Philharmonic, as well as all major orchestras in Korea on several nationally televised concerts. Since her Avery Fisher (now David Geffen) Hall, Lincoln Center debut in 1992 with the Juilliard Orchestra, she has appeared with many of New York’s leading ensembles, including New York Classical Players, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Sinfonietta. Among the distinguished conductors with whom she has collaborated are James Conlon, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Alan Gilbert, Vaktang Jordania, Gerhardt Zimmerman, and Xian Zhang.
As recitalist, Kwon has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, where she returns each year as Artistic Director of critically acclaimed, themed concerts featuring Rutgers pianists. Additionally, she has appeared in such major cities as Boston, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, and Sydney. The New York Concert Review wrote of her Weill Recital: an “impassioned performance, in full technical command, she allowed for both simplicity and opulence, and the results were gratifying…Ms Kwon made the trek with enviable ease and calm but gave plenty of horrorfilm drama amid booms of sonic thunder and pianistic lightning.”
Min Kwon holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, completing post-doctoral studies in Salzburg. From 2015-2018, she served on the Juilliard Council as the first and only alumnus/a to be invited. She counts among her teachers and mentors Eleanor Sokoloff, Martin Canin, Leon Fleisher, Hans Leygraf, Dorothy DeLay, Jerome Lowenthal, and Leif Ove Andsnes. Kwon is a Steinway Artist.
Performers
Violin
yunHee aHn**
SaeJong cHang
JuMi iM
kiMbeRLy gaLva
Seon yeong cHoe
Makiko tagucHi
eunJu kWak*
JooHyun JuLia yoon
HyunJi Lee
yeokyeong kiM
yuan Ju Liu
Washington Chamber orChestra
Jun Kim, music Director/conDuctor
Viola
Rebecca HenRy*
PatRick LeStRange
becky JoHnSon
MaRyLin MeLLo
Cello
WonHee kiM*
WeSLey HoRnPetRie
Doyeon kiM
caLeb PaRk
Double bass
kiMbeRLy JoHnSon*
Flute
MeLinDa WaDe -engLiSH
DeniS SaveLyev
oboe
Jiyoon oH
MaRy RiDDeLL
Clarinet
JiHoon cHang
Santana MoReno
bassoon
caitLin oLDHaM
Qun JiMMy Ren
Horn
kat RobinSon
gRace cHan trumpet
JuLia tSucHiya
-MayHeW
DyLan Rye timpani
gLenn PauLSon
** Concertmaster *Prinicipal
Special Thanks: Joel Conrad, LTH Audio
Kun Sik Lee, Photographer
Program Notes
L.v. Beethoven, Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op.21
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his First Symphony in the final years of the eighteenth century and premiered and published it in the opening years of the nineteenth. This timing during the shift from the Classical to Romantic eras is fitting; the work bears unmistakable signs of symphonic traditions established by two of the greatest names in classical music and Beethoven’s most influential predecessors, W. A. Mozart and Joseph Haydn, as well as clear indicators of where Beethoven would take the symphonic genre in the years to come. Mozart and Haydn had together transformed the symphony from a relatively light and simple form of entertainment to something weightier and more musically complex. However, the genre would not reach its true zenith until the mantle was passed to Beethoven.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 premiered alongside works by Mozart and Haydn on April 2, 1800 at a benefit concert that served to announce the young composer and his music to Vienna. Compared with his revolutionary later symphonies, the First is often heard with modern ears as surprisingly cautious, conservative, and reserved. But alongside the typical classical forms, instrumentation, and four movement structure are the sudden and unexpected shifts in tonality, the inclusion of the not-yetstandard clarinets, and the more prominent use of the woodwind section at large that pointed toward Beethoven’s later ingenuity. Context is key: with the benefit of some two hundred intervening years, we can now hear the symphony as the remarkable combination of tradition and innovation it is.
Beethoven’s First Symphony begins with a slow, searching introduction that evades the home key of C major until the very end. It then launches directly into the energetic first theme of the Allegro proper, emphasizing the point by driving the tonic C home over and over. The lyrical second theme features the woodwinds in striking contrast to the strings of the first theme. An adventurous, almost aggressive coda closes the movement. The slow second movement provides some respite from the force of the first. Its mood is both pleasant and elegant, though the conspicuous timpani and trumpet sonorities are quite unusual for a classical slow movement.
The third movement is labeled a minuet, but its swift tempo stamps it as the first of Beethoven’s symphonic scherzos. Wit, energy, and a driving momentum propel the movement forward into the finale. This closing movement starts off with another slow introduction made up of snippets of scales that go on to build the main motivic material. Playfulness and spirited energy tempered with strict adherence to classical form shows Beethoven’s indebtedness to Mozart’s and Haydn’s influences, but the victorious conclusion boldly asserts his own character and foreshadows his innovation to come.
- Laney Boyed
Program Notes
L.v.
Beethoven, Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56
Performers
By the early 1800s, Ludwig van Beethoven had become a prominent figure in Vienna’s musical world, known as both a brilliant pianist and a composer of great promise. However, his rising success was soon overshadowed by a devastating personal crisis: the onset of deafness. At not yet 30 years old, Beethoven began to realize his hearing was deteriorating, a cruel fate for a musician whose craft depended on his auditory perception. This painful realization led to deep despair, which he expressed in the poignant “Heiligenstadt Testament,” a letter written to his brothers in 1802. In it, Beethoven revealed how his worsening condition drove him to contemplate ending his life, with only his commitment to his art preventing him from doing so.
Despite this profound struggle, Beethoven channeled his anguish into a period of remarkable creativity. The early 19th century saw the creation of some of his greatest works, including his second through sixth symphonies, the “Razumovsky” string quartets, and his only opera, Fidelio. Among these was the Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra, composed between 1803 and 1804. Written during a time of personal turmoil, the work stands out for its lightheartedness, lyricism, and the intricate interplay among the solo instruments.
The Triple Concerto is unique in Beethoven’s oeuvre as his only concerto for multiple soloists. Combining the classic piano trio—piano, violin, and cello—with a full orchestra, the work creates a dynamic conversation between the soloists and the ensemble. Beethoven skillfully maintains a balance, often allowing the trio to take center stage with minimal orchestral accompaniment, preserving the distinct voices of each soloist while blending them harmoniously with the orchestra.
Structured in three movements, the Triple Concerto begins with an expansive Allegro, where Beethoven contrasts classical themes with his inventive style. The serene Largo follows, seamlessly transitioning into the final movement, a spirited Rondo based on the lively polonaise, a Polish dance. This concluding section highlights the concerto’s lighthearted and courtly nature, showcasing Beethoven’s mastery in merging classical forms with engaging, rhythmic elements.
Premiered in Vienna’s Augarten in 1808, the Triple Concerto exemplifies Beethoven’s ability to rise above adversity. Its grace, humor, and technical brilliance have solidified its place as a cherished work in the concerto repertoire, reflecting the composer’s enduring spirit.
-
Kenneth Bean
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