Saturday, October 15 at 8:00 p.m.
Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
Artists
Natalya Ageyeva, piano
Nino Merabishvili, piano
Cindy Wu, violin
Andrey Tchekmazov,cello
Program
M. Glinka Trio Pathetique in D Minor for violin, cello, and piano
S. Prokofiev Violin Sonata No.2 in D Major
I. Stravinsky Suite Italienne for cello and piano
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 Er?s. 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.
A native of Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, pianist Nino Merabishvili has captivated audiences around the world with her musical versatility and powerful yet sensitive performances. Having debuted at age nine with the Georgia State Philharmonic, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488 in A Major, she has since gone on to perform with the major orchestras in her native country. She has toured extensively as both soloist and chamber musician in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, working under the baton of imminent conductors such as Roman Koffman, Timur Minbaev, Vladimir Ponkin, Jansug Kahidze, and many others.
As a distinguished pianist in her native country, Merabishvili’s solo performances won her great acclaim, and now, as an in-demand soloist and chamber musician in this country and abroad, Ms. Merabishvili has collaborated with many of the world’s great artists including Bela Davidovitch, Vera Gornostaeva, Stanislav Neuhaus, Byron Janis, Yakov Milstein, Helene Grimaud, and others. Debut venues include Great Hall of Tbilisi State Conservatory, Tbilisi Opera House, Small Hall of Moscow State Conservatory, Great Hall of Sverdlovsk Conservatory , Symphony Hall in Tbilisi, Great Hall of Liszt’s Music Academy in Budapest, Concert Hall Estonia in Tallin. Merabishvili has been a featured performer on chamber music concerts at Seattle’s Nordstrom Recital Hall, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Second City Chamber Music Festival. She also continues to maintain a regular performance schedule.
Making her home in the Pacific Northwest where she is known not only as a great performer, but also as one of the region’s pre-eminent music educators, Merabishvili serves as a distinguished member of the piano faculty at Music Works Northwest and maintains a large piano studio of private students in Bellevue, Washington.
Merabishvili is a recipient of numerous awards in teaching and performing. Merabishvili studied with Professor Teimuras Matureli at Tbilisi State Conservatory and with Boris Zemliansky at Moscow State Conservatory and holds graduate (M.M.) and post-graduate (PhD) Diplomas with Excellency and a highest degree in Piano Performance, Chamber Music, Accompaniment and Pedagogy . Merabishvili’s teachers include professors Irina Orekhovskaia, Teimuras Matureli, and Boris Zemliansky. In the United States, Merabishvili has worked closely with professors John Pickett and Craig Sheppard.
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 Sao 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 Sao 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.
Violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and a chamber musician, having performed with renowned musicians and ensembles in Europe, the United States and Asia. Praised by the Liberty Times (Taiwan) for “capturing the spirit of the music astonishingly,” she has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and Taipei Symphony Orchestra in her native country, as well as with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra.
As solo recitalist and chamber musician, Ms. Wu has performed extensively in Taiwan, Europe and North America, at such prominent venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, and throughout major cities in the United States including Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Artists with whom she has collaborated in concerts include: Atar Arad, Pamela Frank, Gary Graffman, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Ralph Kirshbaum, William Preucil, Thomas Quasthoff, and members of the Alban Berg, Guarneri, Tokyo, and Vermeer string quartets. In the spring of 2009, Ms. Wu appeared as guest violist with the Orion String Quartet during their tour of Asia.
Summer festival appearances include the Marlboro Music Festival, Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, Verbier Festival and Academy, and she had served as a chamber music coach at the ENCORE School for Strings.
Dedicated to musical community engagement in the U.S. and in Taiwan, Ms. Wu frequently leads master classes and lectures to inspire students toward music-making and to promote classical music appreciation and involvement among the younger generation. Media appearances include performances on WHYY TV and Radio in Philadelphia and NPR’s “From the Top”, as well as multiple on-air interviews with Philharmonic Radio Taipei and IC Broadcasting of Taiwan. Additionally, she has been featured on TVBS Television and in a special column of the September 2004 issue of Marie Claire Taiwan called “Young Power”.
Among Ms. Wu’s many honors and awards are the gold medal in the 18th Stulberg International String Competition, and third prize in the David Oistrakh International Violin Competition. In 2005, Ms. Wu graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music and was awarded the Milka Violin Artist Fellowship. In 2009 she graduated from the Thornton School of Music of University of Southern California and received awards for excellence in both solo string instrument and chamber music. The following fall, she had also joined the faculty of the Thornton School of Music as an adjunct professor on violin and chamber music.
Ms. Wu’s former teachers include Midori Goto at the Thornton School of Music, Ida Kavafian, Victor Danchenko, and Steven Tenenbom(on viola) at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang at the Juilliard School.
She performs on a 1734 Domenico Montagnana violin.