Between January and March 2018, the following musicians performed at the Flagler Museum. Concert programs have been included for each performance.
2018 Music Series sponsored by:
Between January and March 2018, the following musicians performed at the Flagler Museum. Concert programs have been included for each performance.
2018 Music Series sponsored by:
Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication. In the past few years she has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, and Donald Runnicles. Born in 1996, Simone made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony and her international debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at age 13. In 2015, Simone was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Recent highlights include Mendelssohn with New Jersey Symphony, Brahms with Pacific Symphony and an extensive tour throughout the US including concerts with the Santa Rosa, Amarillo, Pasadena, Fairfax and Midland Symphonies; the Rochester, Westchester, Orlando and Great Bay Philharmonics; the Sarasota Orchestra and the Northwest Sinfonietta. With the cessation of live concerts Simone continued to record streamed events with Seattle, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Greater Bridgeport Symphonies. Beginning with the Aspen festival where she is a frequent guest, in July 2021 she resumed a full season of orchestral and recital concerts to include Denver, North Carolina, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Quebec, Sarasota, Bakersfield, Princeton and Monterey Symphonies and recitals including Boston where the program includes the world premiere of a commission from composer Reena Esmail.
Reviews:
Palm Beach ArtsPaper: "Violinist Porter brilliant, stylish in wide-ranging Flagler recital"
Recognized as one of the most celebrated violinists of her generation, Elissa Lee Koljonen has thrilled audiences and critics in more than one hundred cities throughout the world. Ms. Koljonen received international acclaim when she became the first recipient of the prestigious Henryk Szeryng Foundation Award and the silver medalist of the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition. Her playing has been hailed by the Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki) as “sparkling, sensual and personal,” and the Chicago Tribune has said she displays “boundless technique and musicianship.”
Ms. Koljonen has performed with such orchestras as the Boston Pops, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic, as well as the symphony orchestras of Bilbao, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Helsinki, and Seoul. She garnered critical acclaim for her appearance with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo in a special concert celebrating the 700th anniversary of the Grimaldi Dynasty. She has collaborated with such noted conductors as Matthias Bamert, Dirk Brossé, JoAnn Falletta, Lawrence Foster, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Neeme Järvi, James Judd, Andrew Litton, José-Luis Novo, the late James DePreist, and the late Bryden Thomson.
Ms. Koljonen has performed in some of the world's most venerated concert venues, including the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Barbican Centre and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Seoul Arts Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Symphony Hall in Boston, and the Academy of Music and Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Koljonen appears regularly at festivals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Ms. Koljonen is a protégée of the late Aaron Rosand, with whom she studied at the Curtis Institute of Music. Incorporating his influence, she carries on the legacy and tradition of Leopold Auer and his legendary school of violin playing.
Elissa Lee Koljonen will be accompanied by pianist Sheng-Yuan.
Celebrating its 14th season as the ensemble-in-residence at Georgia’s Kennesaw State University, the critically acclaimed Summit Piano Trio continues to impress and delight audiences with its highly refined, dynamic performances, and has firmly established itself as one of the Southeast’s preeminent chamber ensembles. Offering an eclectic repertoire ranging from the beloved classics to the latest of the avant-garde, SPT is regularly heard on Atlanta’s NPR station and throughout the country.
Cuarteto Latinoamericano is one of the world's most renowned classical music ensembles, for more than thirty years the leading proponent of Latin American music for string quartet. Founded in Mexico in 1982, the Cuarteto has toured extensively throughout Europe, North and South America, Israel, China, Japan and New Zealand. They have premiered more than a hundred works written for them and they continue to introduce new and neglected composers to the genre. Winners of the 2012 and 2016 Latin Grammys for Best Classical Recordings, they have been recognized with the Mexican Music Critics Association Award and three times received Chamber Music America/ASCAP's "Most Adventurous Programming" Award.
The Aznavoorian sisters' first public performance was at the ages of 4 and 8 at their Armenian church in Evanston, IL. They won First Prize in the Illinois Bell Young Performers Competition, resulting in a live performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on PBS.
Since then, they have toured France, Armenia, and Finland, performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and presented countless programs in their hometown of Chicago including a major fundraiser for the Armenian earthquake in 1988. This season, the Aznavoorian Duo embarks on a tour of California, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society presents them in a winter residency.
The Aznavoorian Sisters went on to win the National Foundation for the Arts Award, leading to their appointment as Presidential Scholars in the Arts and performances at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at The White House, where Ani met President Bill Clinton and Marta met President George H. W. Bush.
In 2022, the Aznavoorian Sisters released their début album, Gems from Armenia, on the Cedille Label. The CD features Armenian music and a world premiere recording written for the duo by composer Peter Boyer and Vache Sharafyan. The CD has been receiving rave reviews in the press.
Ani Aznavoorian is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician with some of the most recognized ensembles, and she has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras. Ani studied with Aldo Parisot at the Juilliard School, where she won First Prize in the Concerto Competition, the youngest cellist in the history of the competition to do so. This season marks her fifteenth year as Principal Cellist with Camerata Pacifica.
“A pianist of exceptionally finished technique and purity of musical impulse” (Boston Globe), Marta Aznavoorian is known for her inspiringly spirited playing and vast emotional reach. The multi Grammy-nominated artist made her professional début at the age of 13 performing Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Chicago Symphony at the invitation of Sir Georg Solti.
Since forming in 2010, Neave Trio – violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov, and pianist Eri Nakamura – has earned enormous praise for its engaging, cutting-edge performances. The group’s 2019 album Her Voice, on Chandos Records, was named one of the best recordings of the year by both The New York Times and BBC Radio 3. The Boston Musical Intelligencer reports, “it is inconceivable that they will not soon be among the busiest chamber ensembles going,” and “their unanimity, communication, variety of touch, and expressive sensibility rate first tier.”