Saturday, October 23 at 8:00 p.m.
Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall

Adults $27/Seniors $20/Students $10/Under 10 free
(Tickets available at Benaroya Hall)

Artists

Natalya Ageyeva, piano
Brittany Boulding, violin
Mara Gearman, viola
Megumi Stohs, violin
Andrey Tchekmazov, cello

Program

A. Alyiabyev – Piano Trio in A Minor
A. Glazunov – Five Novelettes for String Quartet, op.15
D. Shostakovich – Piano Quintet in G Minor, op.57

Sean MacLean, Host

Artistic Director and pianist 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, Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition in New York, and the Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in Italy. 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), Mostly Nordic Chamber Music Series in Seattle, Second City Chamber Series in Tacoma (WA), First Sunday at the Commons Series in Bainbridge Island (WA), Seattle Symphony Chamber Music Series in Seattle (WA), Olympic Music Festival (WA), and Green Lake Music Festival (WI).

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. She has also worked with well-known pianists John O’Conner, Victor Merjanov, and Helene Grimaud, and collaborated with conductors Vladimir Vais, Alexander Rudin, and Peter Erös. Ageyeva 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, which is in its third successful year of bringing high-level chamber music to the Seattle area. More information can be found at www.russianchambermusic.org. In addition to growing the Foundation, she is currently focusing on her solo career and chamber music performances. For more information, please visit www.natalyapiano.com.

Violinist Brittany Boulding recently moved back to Seattle where she performs as Concertmaster and Soloist of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra and in the Bellevue Philharmonic and 5th Avenue Theater. Other recent solo appearances have been with the New Haven Symphony, Spoleto Festival and National Repertory Orchestra. She also performs regularly with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. During the summer season Ms. Boulding attends the Bellingham Festival of Music and in the past has appeared as Concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center, Banff Center and Spoleto USA orchestras. Ms. Boulding received her BM from Rice University as a student of Kenneth Goldsmith and her Professional Studies Certificate from the Colburn Conservatory under the tutelage of Robert Lipsett. Ms. Boulding’s violin career also extends past her experience as a classical musician. Since the age of 6 she has been performing with her family the internationally acclaimed MAGICAL STRINGS, touring throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan and Ireland. She has recorded on five of their sixteen albums and been a featured soloist at their annual Celtic Yuletide Concerts, a celebrated Northwest tradition.

“A busy violist about town,” Mara Gearman is accomplished in chamber music, orchestral, and solo settings. She regularly performs with the Seattle-based American String Project and Simple Measures. Recent concerts included the Olympic Music Festival, Methow Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, and a debut with the Barston String Quartet and pianist Simon Trcepski at Benaroya Hall.

Ms. Gearman won Principal Viola at age twenty with the former Haddonfield Symphony, and recently with the Kansas City Symphony. Previously a tenured member of the Oregon Symphony, she was appointed Third Chair Viola with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra beginning in 2009-2010.

As a solo performer Ms. Gearman has won awards at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions and performed solo compositions ranging from American Alan Shulman to Hungarian Miklos Rozca. She recently perfomed the Bartok Concerto with the New Symphony, BULGARIA, and is featured in Harold in Italy this fall with the Cascade Symphony.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, her primary teachers included Roberto Diaz, Pinchas Zukerman, and Karen Tuttle. Ms. Gearman is a recent addition to the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Violinist Megumi Stohs, originally from Portland, Oregon, received her Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music where she studied with Lucy Chapman, and her Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying under Camilla Wicks and Ian Swensen.

In 2006 she toured, along with Courtenay Vandiver, a fellow Crier, with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and band. They both survived a month of living and playing on the bus, waking up in a new city every morning and playing for wildly supportive fans every night.

As a soloist Ms. Stohs has appeared with the Brockton, Columbia, and Olympia Symphonies, as well as the San Francisco Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Sinfonietta, the Young Artists Orchestra, and the Sapporo Philharmonic of Sapporo, Japan. Ms. Stohs, a founding member of the award-winning Brando and Chabrier string quartets, has recently helped in the formation of the “Music from Blue Hill” series in Jersey City.

She has taken part in the Yellowbarn, Taos, Kneisel Hall, Marrowstone, Olympic, Aspen and Masterworks Music Festivals, and has worked in seminars with the Takács, Miró, and Alexander String Quartets. Ms. Stohs also enjoys fiddling and playing a wide range of musical styles, and has received honors from the Willamette Valley Fiddling Association.

Hailed by critics as an “extraordinary musician” (Washington Post), cellist Andrey Tchekmazov is known for his versatility as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.

Mr. Tchekmazov was the Grand Prize winner of the Vittorio Gui International Chamber Music Competition and the Premio Trio di Trieste, and has performed extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, Russia and Asia, appearing at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Osaka Symphony Hall in Japan, New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Brazil’s Sala Cecilia Mereles, Sala Sao Paulo and Teatro Alfa with orchestras such as the São Paolo Symphony, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Brazil National Symphony, the Kiev Philharmonic and the Teatro Alfa Symphony. He has also been a top prizewinner at the Koussevitzky Cello Competition in New York, the Schadt Competition, Artists International, Premio della Critica in Trieste and the Russian National Competition in Moscow.

Since his critically acclaimed debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Mr. Tchekmazov has enjoyed an active career as recitalist and chamber musician, performing at such renowned venues as Zankel Hall, the Caramoor Music Center, Barge Music, the Rhode Island Chamber Music Series, Bar Harbor Festival, Merkin Concert Hall in New York City and Hampden Sydney, where he was invited to perform by the members of The Emerson String Quartet.

As a regular performer with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C, Mr. Tchekmazov “impressed his audiences with a big, warm tone and Russian brand of virtuosity” (The Strad) by introducing them to rarely-performed jewels of classical music alongside the works of great masters. He has premiered works by contemporary composers such as George Warren, Ira Cremer and Ralf Ytrehus and has recently recorded the Cello Sonata by David Winkler and “Byzantine Chants, The Sacred Concerto for Solo Cello,” by Margarita Zelenaia, both which were written and dedicated to him. He has also participated in ambitious, unique projects such as performing Dmitri Shostakovich’s entire chamber music repertoire for cello at the Phillips Collection.

An active educator, Mr. Tchekmazov has been a faculty member at the Rio de Janeiro Cello Encounter, the Lakewood Festival, Russish Abend in Germany and the Brasilia International Music Festival. He has also performed at Westminster College and Brown, Bowdoin, Seton Hall and Princeton Universities. As an orchestral musician, Mr. Tchekmazov was appointed principal cellist of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the São Paolo Symphony. His performances have been featured on WQXR, WGBH, NPR and other TV and radio stations across Eastern and Western Europe and South America.

Born in Moscow into a family of professional pianists, Mr. Tchekmazov studied piano and later cello at the Gnessin Academy. He continued his education at the Moscow State Conservatory with Nataliya Shakhovskaya and later at the Juilliard School as a Leonard Rose full scholarship student of Harvey Shapiro. At Juilliard he worked closely with members of the Juilliard and Guarneri String Quartets. Mr. Tchekmazov has made several recordings including a recent release on NAXOS with the Russian National Phiharmonic as well as a recording for the Delos label.