Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8:00PM
$25 (Seniors/Students $20) – All General Admission

Nordstrom Auditorium at Benaroya Hall
Tickets: $25 (seniors/students $20) All General Admission

Click here to download the flyer.

The Program

1. M. Glinka – 2 Romances: “Eagerful fire is burning my blood,” and “I remember the wonderful instant.”
S. Rachmaninov – 3 Romances: “Don’t sing beautiful before me” (“Ne poi krasavitsa pri mne”) op.4; “I am hurt” (“Kak mne
bolno”) op.21; and “Spring Waters” (Vesennie vody), op.14
Gypsy song “Dark eyes” (“Ochi chernye”)
Artists: Holly Boaz-soprano and Deborah Dewey-piano

2. A. Borodin – String Quartet #2 in D-Major for two violins, viola, and cello
Artists: Elisa Barston-violin, Jennifer Caine-violin, Mara Gearman-viola, and Amos Yang-cello

3. S. Rachmaninov – Sonata for Cello and Piano, op.19
Artists: Amos Yang-cello and Natalya Ageyeva-piano

Winter Nights Concert Performers

Amos Yang has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, the Far East, and Europe, including performances at the Aspen Music Festival, the American Academy in Rome, Wigmore Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. He has collaborated in chamber music with the Ying Quartet, the Turtle Island String Quartet, pianists Ann Schein and Melvin Chen, violinist Earl Carlyss, and composer Bright Sheng. Mr. Yang’s awards include the Performer’s Certificate at Eastman School of Music and first prizes in the American String Teacher’s Association and Grace Vamos competitions. He was finalist in the Pierre Fournier International Cello Competition, and for outstanding musical contribution he was awarded the CD Jackson Prize at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

As cellist of the Maia String Quartet from 1996-2002, Mr. Yang was involved in many educational programs, performing throughout the country for schools under the auspices of such organizations as Arts Excel, Young Audiences Inc., and the Midori Foundation. During this time he also served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Iowa, Grinnell College, and the Interlochen Advanced String Quartet Institute. Mr. Yang holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School of Music. His primary teachers have included Irene Sharp, Channing Robbins, Paul Katz, and Steven Doane.

Before joining the San Francisco Symphony, Amos Yang was a member of the Seattle Symphony, maintaining a private teaching studio as well as cultivating an active solo and chamber music life. He makes regular appearances with the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Olympic Music Festival and looks forward to collaborating with colleagues in the San Francisco Symphony. Born and raised in San Francisco, he is a graduate of Lowell and was a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and San Francisco Boys Choir. Outside of work, family outings to “kid-friendly” places are what he enjoys the most. His family includes his wife, violinist Alicia Yang, and their two young children, Isabel and Noah.

Natalya Ageyeva has dazzled audiences throughout the United States and internationally, including Italy, Austria, and Israel, as well as on tour in her native Russia. Her performances have also been broadcast several times locally on KING-FM in Seattle and televised in Moscow and Chicago. She has appeared at a broad range of venues, including the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia, Carnegie Hall in New York, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and the Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow. Her pianism prompted one reviewer to write “Immediately apparent was a tremendous technique at the command of a sharp musical intelligence and fingers of steel.”

Her artistry has earned her awards and recognition around the world, including the Young Artist Competition in Moscow, Rotary Club Scholarship in Chicago, Brechemin Scholarship at the University of Washington, Solo Competition Award from the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle, the Green Lake Music Festival Competition in Wisconsin, the Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in Italy, and First Place in the Bradford & Buono International Piano Competition in New York. An artist of great versatility, Ageyeva has performed as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras internationally. She has also been an active participant in many music festivals, including the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, Methow Valley Music Festival in Winthrop (WA), the Green Lake Music Festival in Wisconsin, and the Annas Bay Festival in Union (WA).

Ageyeva began formal piano lessons at the age of thirteen when she was accepted by the prestigious Special Music School for Talented Children in Moscow, and graduated with honors in the Masters Program from the world-renowned Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where she studied with Valeriy Kastelsky. While at the Moscow Conservatory, Ageyeva was offered extensive solo and orchestra appearances throughout the former Soviet Union. She completed her doctoral degree at the University of Washington with distinguished pianists Bela Siki and Robin McCabe. While at the UW, she appeared as a School of Music Concerto Competition finalist with the Symphony, conducted by Peter Erös. She has also worked with well-known pianists John O’Conner, Victor Merjanov, and Helene Grimaud, and collaborated with conductors Vladimir Vais and Alexander Rudin.

Ageyeva is currently focusing on her solo career and is performing extensively in the U.S. She previously taught at Moscow Conservatory and University of Washington, and has adjudicated piano competitions in Chicago and Seattle.

Ageyeva is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Russian Chamber Music Foundation of Seattle. For more information, please visit www.russianchambermusic.org.

Praised for her “glowing sound” and “technical aplomb”(The Strad), violinist Elisa Barston is currently the Principal Second Violinist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She previously served as the Associate Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and was a first violin section member of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Ms. Barston’s principal violin teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos, Robert Lipsett, and Josef Gingold. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music Cum Laude. At Indiana University, where she earned a Master of Music degree, Ms. Barston was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate, the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship, and the Starling Foundation Grant.

Among her awards, Ms. Barston has garnered top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, First Prize at the Julius Stulberg Auditions, Grand Prize at the International Kingsville Young Performers’ Competition, and First Prize in the Seventeen-General Motors National Music Competition.

As a soloist, Ms. Barston has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, with the major symphony orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, Seattle, and Taipei, among numerous others. In 1986, she made her European debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at the request of Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

In recent seasons, soprano Holly Boaz appeared with the Seattle Symphony, Aldeburgh Festival, Hartford Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Connecticut Opera, Tacoma Opera, Music of Remembrance, and Opera Quad Cities. She is a recent member of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, where she sang Alice Ford in Peter Kazaras’ production of Verdi’s Falstaff and Micaëla in The Tragedy of Carmen. She is a winner of the LMC Seattle Competition, and has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, The Richardson Awards, and Sun Valley Opera. She was a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and Music Academy of the West and holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the Hartt School. She completed residencies at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme and at the Art Song Festival at Baldwin-Wallace College, where she studied Russian song with Sergei Leiferkus, Semjon Skigin and Vladimir Chernov. This season, she will be performing with the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera, the Bellevue Philharmonic, and in a faculty recital at Pacific Lutheran University, where she is a member of the music department.

Jennifer Caine, first prize winner of the 2004 Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Competition in the U.K, is a versatile solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. She has been a recipient of the Isolde Menges Prize, Polonsky Foundation Grant, Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for Musicians, and Alpha Delta Kappa Foundation Grant, among other awards, and has given recitals and performed in venues including the Phillips Collection, Weill Recital Hall, the Barbican, and Nordstrom Recital Hall in Seattle. Formerly a member of the Knox Piano Trio, with whom she toured England and Northern Ireland, Ms. Caine is currently Resident Violinist at the Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth, Washington, where she is a member of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio. With colleagues Sally Singer and Oksana Ezhokina, she recorded the Ravel and Schubert E flat piano trios, recently released under the Con Brio label. A sought-after chamber musician in the Seattle area, Jennifer has performed with Simple Measures, odeonquartet, Seattle Chamber Players, and at the Olympic Music Festival. As an orchestral musician, she has appeared with the Seattle Symphony, the Oxford Philomusica, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Jennifer holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard in Music and Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Masters degrees in Performance and Musicology from the Royal College of Music and Oxford University respectively. Her teachers and coaches have included Grigori Zhislin, Zinaida Gilels, Olga Yanovich, Robert Lipsett, Elisabeth Adkins, Robert Levin, and Daniel Stepner.

Deborah Dewey has earned a reputation throughout the United States for her pianistic talent. Critics have praised the “sparkling passage work,” “warm operatic lyricism,” “thoughtful interpretation,” and “sense of dramatic urgency” in her playing. Dewey has performed extensively as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and chamber musician. She was guest soloist with the Oakland Symphony, Flint Symphony, Spokane Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia and Peter Britt Festival Orchestra, among others. She has performed at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Methow Chamber Music Festival and with the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet in addition to participating in duo-recital tours. National Public Radio stations in Connecticut, Michigan and throughout the West have broadcast many of her performances. Together with pianist Lisa Bergman, she formed VENTIDITA (twentyfingers), the celebrated four-hand duo that has performed throughout the state of Washington.

Acclaimed for her sensitive musicianship and technical mastery, Ms. Dewey won numerous national and regional piano competitions throughout her years of study with Margaret Ott, Theodore Lettvin, Donald Currier and John Perry. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Wellesley College and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the Yale School of Music. Devoted to the development of young musicians, she has been a member of the piano faculties at the University of Washington, Whitworth College, The Cornish Institute and Yale University. She is currently in great demand as a competition judge, lecturer, piano instructor and performer and resides in Seattle, Washington with her two children.

Violist Mara Gearman performs regularly with innovative chamber groups such as the American String Project and Seattle Chamber Players. She has collaborated with prestigious performers such as Ani Kavafian, Peter Wiley, Vladimir Feltsman, and Dale Clevenger, legendary principal horn of the Chicago Symphony.

Additionally, Mara is a founding musician of Trio Tara, with pianist Oksana Ezhokina and clarinetest Laurie DeLuca, and the Barston String Quartet.

With solo awards at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, Mara has performed viola solos ranging from American composer’s Alan Shulman and Derek Bermel, to Hungarian Miklos Rozca. She is a proponent for solo viola with ease yet captivating presence and sound production.

Mara is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. Her primary teachers were Roberto Diaz, Pinchas Zukerman, and Karen Tuttle in the United States. Further courses in Canada, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland with Nobuko Imai, Barbara Westphal, and Gerard Causse were influential and multi-laterally invaluable.

Additionally Mara has held orchestral appointments, including a principal viola position at age 20 with Maestro Rossen Milanov. She was further appointed viola positions with the Oregon Symphony under Music Director’s James DePriest and the Seattle Symphony with Gerard Schwarz.

Sean MacLean, the afternoon host at Seattle’s Classical 98.1 King FM, is an international award-winning composer and pianist whose works have been performed by North American and European choirs and orchestras, including London’s BBC Symphony. He received his masters in composition from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Pulitzer Prize winners Lukas Foss and Jacob Druckman. Fascinated by each link in the chain of music production, from composer all the way to listener, he started a recording business, Standing Wave Audio, while living in Paris for five years. He followed with radio production for WGBH in Boston. Longing for a life in Seattle, where he had run in rainforests and paddled with otters, he made the move to King FM in 2005. In his free time, Sean plays guitar and Remora, an electroacoustic harp-guitar of his own invention. He is a published travel photographer, but now concentrates on his Northwest surroundings, where he enjoys moonlight kayaking, telemark skiing, and kitesurfing.