March 3-4: UK's Sitkovetsky Trio Makes Emerald City Music Debut
UK’s Sitkovetsky Trio Makes Emerald City Music Debut
Performing the Music of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms
Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director
Photo by Cal Vincy
Friday, March 3, 2023 at 8pm 415 Westlake 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/the-sitkovetsky-trio-seattle
Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 7:30pm Good Shepherd Lutheran Church 1601 North Street SE | Olympia, WA
Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/the-sitkovetsky-trio-olympia
“[Emerald City Music] loves to host exploratory concerts that both educate and inspire.” – Local News Today
www.emeraldcitymusic.org
Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, March 3, 2023 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, March 4, 2022 at 7:30pm in Olympia at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (1601 North Street SE), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents the Sitkovetsky Trio in their Emerald City Music debut. The world-renowned trio will travel from the UK for two performances which peek into the musical friendship of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, exploring one of the most storied and complicated love triangles of the classical music world: the relationship of Robert and Clara Schumann and their beloved friend, Johannes Brahms. Known through correspondence, this soap-opera-worthy tale explores degrees of musical respect, infatuation, care, and romantic propriety in the 19th century.
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 be held at the intimate and acoustically resonant Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Robert Schumann’s Phantasiestüke, Op. 88, was written shortly after his marriage to Clara, a brilliant pianist and composer. While her concert touring career was skyrocketing, he melancholically returned home to regain his confidence, penning an incredible six chamber music works, of which this was the last. Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 1 was the first chamber music work published by the twenty-one-year-old rising star. He meticulously labored over this work, throwing most drafts in the fire. At the end of his life, with countless masterworks to his name, he still returned to this trio perplexed and republished a revised work, making this piece unique in that it bears the handwriting and genius of both a young and old Brahms.
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 Sikovetsky Trio
The Sitkovetsky Trio has established itself as an exceptional piano trio of today, with sensational performances in the foremost concert halls around the world. Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin) and Wu Qian (piano) were joined recently by German-Korean cellist Isang Enders to continue their journey of successful appearances. Their thoughtful and committed approach have brought the ensemble critical acclaim and invitations to renowned concert halls around the world.
First prize-winners of the International Commerzbank Chamber Music Award, the trio is also a recipient of the NORDMETALL Chamber Music Award at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and the Philharmonia-Martin Chamber Music Award. They have been supported by the Hattori Foundation, the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Fidelio Trust and the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation.
They released their first recording for BIS Records in 2014 including works by Smetana, Suk and Dvořák to much critical acclaim. This led to further releases of works by Brahms and Schubert on the Wigmore Live Label and another recording for BIS of Mendelssohn Trios in 2015. Recently, they have recorded their third and fourth discs for BIS; Beethoven’s Trios Op.1 and Op.70, and Allegretto in B-flat major for Piano Trio WoO 39 as part of their complete Beethoven cycle, and Ravel Trio and Saint-Saens Trio no 2
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director
A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis PostDispatch, 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.
In addition to her dynamic performing career, Lee was recently appointed to the faculty of University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Violin. She is the artistic director of Emerald City Music in Seattle, a chamber music series she co-founded in 2015. Also an accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at Lincoln Center in New York and on tour with CMS throughout each season, as well as a member of Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, sitting as The Bernard Gondos Chair.
Kristin Lee has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, and many others. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery.
Born in Seoul, Lee began studying violin at age five and within one year won First Prize at the Korea Times Violin Competition. In 1995, she moved to the US to continue her studies under Sonja Foster and in 1997 entered The Juilliard School’s Pre-College. In 2000, Lee was chosen to study with Itzhak Perlman after he heard her perform with the Pre-College Symphony. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. 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 in its South Lake Union home venue, 415 Westlake. Catch them on tour also in residence in Olympia, Bellingham, and New York City.
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 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 who is 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.
Follow ECM on Social Media
Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic Twitter: www.twitter.com/emeraldctymusic Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic
# # #