Schenectady, N.Y. (March 5, 2002) – Musicians from Marlboro, the touring extension of the renowned Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, features exceptional young musicians from the summer Festival, together with seasoned artists, in chamber music programs of
rarely-heard works and masterpieces of varied instrumentation. Jeremy Denk, Michi Wiancko, Samuel Rhodes, and Sumire Kudo will perform at Union's Memorial Chapel as part of the Union College Concert Series, on Monday March 18, at 8 p.m.
The performance will include Beethoven's Piano Trio in G, Op. 1, No. 2; Hindemith's String Trio No. 1; and Faure's Piano Quartet No. 2 in g, Op. 45.
Each year, more that 25 outstanding artists take time from their regular activities to bring Musicians from Marlboro concerts to cities around
the country. The Musicians from Marlboro touring program has introduced many of today's leading solo and chamber music artists to American audiences; among them are pianists Richard Goode, Murray Perahia and Andras Schiff, violinists Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo and Shlomo Mintz, flutist Paula Robison, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and soprano Benita Valente.
Now in its 35th season, Musicians from Marlboro offers audiences across North America a sample of varied programs and spirit of music-making so characteristic of Marlboro, the Washington Post has called them “a virtual guarantee of musical excellence.”
Pianist Jeremy Denk is a 1998 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the 1997 Young Concert Artists Auditions. He made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in April 1997. Since then, he has given recitals in Washington, at the Kennedy Center; at New York's Town Hall and Metropolitan Museum of Art; on the Ravinia Festival's Rising Stars series; in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music; and at the Spoleto Festival in
Italy. Mr. Denk was recently honored with the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, given to a pianist who makes an outstanding contribution to chamber music.
In addition to spending several summers at Marlboro, Mr. Denk has participated in the Aspen, Caramoor and Ravinia Festivals. He received a B.A. in chemistry and a B.M. in music from Oberlin, a master's in music from Indiana University, and a doctorate from the Juilliard School. Mr. Denk serves on the faculty of Indiana University's School of Music.
Cellist Sumire Kudo was born in Tokyo in 1978, and began learning cello at the age of 6. She went on to study at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, and continued her studies with Harvey Shapiro at the Juilliard School. Miss Kudo is a member of the Avalon String Quartet, which is currently in residence at the Juilliard
School.
She has won numerous awards, including first prize at the 1992 Sapporo Junior Cello Competition, second prize at the Japan Music Competition in 1993, the Nagano-Aspen Music Festival Award in 1994 and the New Artist's Award at the Ogaki Music Festival in 1997. In 2001, her second CD was
released on Phillips and received the Best Recording Award in Japan.
Miss Kudo has given many recitals and chamber music performances, and has appeared as soloist with the New Japan
Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony
Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and Nagoya Symphony Orchestra.
Violist Samuel Rhodes is celebrating his 33rd year as a member of both the
Juilliard String Quartet and the faculty of the Juilliard School. He serves as co-chair of the viola department at Juilliard, and is also a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music
Center, a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival since 1960 and a coach for the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshops.
Mr. Rhodes' solo appearances have included several recitals at the Library of Congress in Washington, a concert series at Weill Hall in New York City featuring works of Hindemith, a similar series at Columbia University and an unaccompanied recital
at the Juilliard School highlighted by world premieres of works by Babbitt and Weisberg. Most recently, he performed
in the 10th anniversary of the “Viola Space” series at Casals Hall in Tokyo.
As a member of the Juilliard Quartet, Mr. Rhodes has toured throughout Europe, North and South America, the Near East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand; has recorded an extensive catalogue of the string quartet literature on CBS Masterworks and Sony Classical; has won three Grammy Awards; and has commissioned and performed several world premieres. He has also appeared as a guest artist with the Beaux Arts and Mannes Trios, and with the American, Brentano, Cleveland, Galimir, Guarneri, Mendelssohn, Pro Arte and Sequoia String Quartets.
A native New Yorker, Mr. Rhodes studied viola with Sydney Beck and Walter Trampler. He has a B.A. from Queens College in New York and an M.F.A. from Princeton University, where he studied composition with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim; as a composer he wrote a String Quintet which has been performed several times and was recently recorded by the Pro Arte Quartet with the composer as guest.
Violinist Michi Wiancko, a native of Southern California, began playing the violin at the age of 3. She earned her bachelor of music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Donald Weilerstein.
Currently, she is working toward her master of music degree at the Juilliard School and studying with Robert Mann. Ms. Wiancko has won several national competitions and performed
as soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with whom she made her debut in 1997 performing the Barber Violin Concerto.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Wiancko has performed several times in both Carnegie Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New
York, as well as throughout California, Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1995 she
attended the Aspen Festival Center for Advanced Quartet Studies as well as the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Wiancko performs with the Boston/New York based ensemble, Metamorphosen, and is the newest member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet.
Tickets at $15 ($7 for students) are available in advance at the Office of Communications, Union College (518) 388-6131 and at the door at 7 p.m. For more information, call 372-3651.
The Union College Concert Series is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; additional support comes from the Times Union Newspapers.
Memorial Chapel is located near the center of the Union College campus.
Parking is available on campus and nearby side streets.