Steven Copes

Violinist Steven Copes leads a diverse and enthusiastic musical life as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. He joined the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as Concertmaster in 1998, and since then has led the SPCO from the first chair in many highly acclaimed, eclectic programs. He appears frequently as soloist with the SPCO, having performed concerti by Bach, Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Hartmann, Hindemith, Kirchner, Korngold, Lutoslawski, Martin, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Piazzolla, Prokofiev, Schnittke and Weill. In addition, he has performed as soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the Colorado Symphony, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Boston, the Sao Paolo State Symphony, the Orlando Philharmonic, The Knights, and the Mexico City Philharmonic.

A zealous advocate of the music of today, he gave the world premiere of George Tsontakis' Grammy-nominated Violin Concerto No. 2 (2003), which won the 2005 Grawemeyer award and has been recorded for KOCH Records, and also gave the NY premiere of Lutoslawski's Subito (1992) for Violin and Piano. In June of 2017 he gave the World Premiere of Pierre Jalbert's Violin Concerto with Thomas Zehetmair conducting the SPCO. He performed John Novacek's Four Rags with the composer on NPR's Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, and has also appeared on the PBS series Now Hear This.

Other recent and upcoming solo engagements include the Berg Chamber Concerto with pianist Kirill Gerstein at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Hartmann's Concerto Funebre with the SPCO, the Berg Violin Concerto with the Orlando Philharmonic and Eric Jacobsen, Frank Martinâ€™s Polyptyque with Josh Weilerstein and the SPCO, the Bartok Violin Concerto # 2 with the Colorado College Summer Music Festival Orchestra, the Shostakovich Violin Concerto #1 with Scott Yoo and the Mexico City Philharmonic, and a new arrangement of Prokofievâ€™s Violin and Piano Sonata #1 (for solo violin and Chamber orchestra) by Stephen Prutsman, which will be recorded with the SPCO for Phenotypic Records. He recently led a program with the New World Symphony in Miami which included Hartmannâ€™s Concerto Funebre, and also performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Boston and the SPCO last spring. In June , he performed Bergâ€™s Violin Concerto (in a reduction for chamber orchestra) with Gabor Takacs-Nagy conducting the SPCO, and recently played Mozartâ€˜s Sinfonia Concertante with violist and SPCO Artistic Partner Tabea Zimmerman.

An avid chamber musician, Copes has performed at festivals and concert series such as Aspen, Boston Chamber Music Society, Bravo! Vail, Caramoor, Cartagena, Chamber Music Northwest, Chestnut Hill, La Jolla Summerfest, Mainly Mozart, Marlboro, Moritzburg, Mozaic, Norfolk, Olympic Music Festival, Piccolo Spoleto, Salt Bay Chamberfest, Santa Fe, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Styriarte, and at other festivals across the globe. He co-founded the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado as well as Accordo, a chamber music collective in the Twin Cities made up of musicians from the SPCO and the Minnesota Orchestra, now nearing the end of its second decade.

A frequent guest Concertmaster/Leader, Copes has recorded and toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the US with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and has performed in the same capacity with the Cincinnati Symphony, Halle Orchestra, Houston Symphony, London Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, NDR ElbPhilharmonie Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony under conductors such as Haitink, Rattle, Temirkanov, I. Fischer, Masur, Nezet-Seguin, Gilbert, Harding, Jurowski, Nelsons and Tilson Thomas.

A dedicated teacher as well, he has taught and coached at the Banff Centre in Canada, Curtis Institute of Music Summerfest, New World Symphony in Miami, Colorado College Summer Festival, East Carolina University, University of South Carolina, (Columbia), National Orchestral Institute in Maryland, Western Michigan University, Indiana University, University of Minnesota, University of Texas (Austin), Roosevelt University in Chicago, and Orford Academy in Quebec.

A native of Los Angeles, he holds degrees from The Curtis Institute and Juilliard, and his main teachers include Robert Lipsett, Aaron Rosand, Robert Mann and Felix Galimir for chamber music. He lives in St. Paul with his wife, two daughters and their 100-pound Bernese Mountain dog.

Such was also the case with the concert-opening performance of Alban Berg's Violin Concerto, with SPCO Concertmaster Steven Copes as soloist. Like the second movement of the "Eroica," this concerto from 1935 is a reflection upon death, in this case a requiem for a young friend that ended up being the composer's final piece.

While built upon the 12-tone system of composition that Berg pioneered with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, it might be the most tumultuously emotional work to emerge from that school. Copes proved an eloquent guide to all of its extremes, emphasizing delicacy and grace in the opening movement and delivering the difficult opening minutes of the second movement with confidence and clarity. And it's hard to imagine how the finale's eventual ascent heavenward could have been executed more beautifully.

The soloist then assumed his role as leader of the orchestra's musicians by bidding farewell to two musicians who will be leaving after this weekend. Violinist Daria Adams is retiring after 37 years with the orchestra, taking her playing and programming skills to California's Napa Valley as co-artistic director of the Music in the Vineyards chamber music festival. Also departing is principal French horn James Ferree, who will take the same position with the Baltimore Symphony.

SPCO audiences will miss the skills of each, not only as players, but Adams for her curation and hosting of concerts and Ferree for such arrangements as an orchestration of J.S. Bach's keyboard work, the "Goldberg" Variations. In tribute to the pair, Copes, violist Maiya Papach and cellist Julie Albers performed a movement from Dmitry Sitkovetsky's string trio version of that piece.

June 8, 2024Rob HubbardStar Tribune
read more

9/14/24

Friday night’s opening concert of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s 66th season felt like a superbly executed soundtrack to the ongoing tug-of-war so many of us experience between positivity and negativity.
Here was an excellent orchestra expertly interpreting music of Mozart, Sergei Prokofiev and 20th century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz in front of a large and enthusiastic audience at St. Paul’s Ordway Concert Hall, doing so in the company of SPCO artistic partner Tabea Zimmermann. Referred to by the orchestra’s concertmaster, Steven Copes, as “the greatest violist in the world,” she went on to demonstrate that she’s certainly among the top handful.

So where does the negativity come in? Well, the SPCO musicians’ contract expired this summer and negotiations continue on a new one, with the understanding that there would be no management lockouts or musician strikes before October. When asked for an update, neither management nor musicians wished to comment, so stay tuned.

If you’re inclined toward worrying about possible potential outcomes, this program features some music to fit your mood. Such as the opening minutes of Mozart’s Overture to his opera, “Don Giovanni,” which contain the most menacing music he ever wrote. And Bacewicz may have given a Mozartean title to her Divertimento for Strings, but it’s permeated with an unease that’s understandable when you consider it a product of 1965 Poland, where Cold War tensions were high.
Yet if you prefer celebrating what life offers you, there’s much more music for that on this tremendously enjoyable program. After that dark beginning, the “Don Giovanni” Overture becomes a mischievous dance, full of fun in the SPCO’s interpretation.
And, after the Bacewicz, joy and frivolity became the order of the evening, starting with Sergei Prokofiev’s First Symphony, nicknamed the “Classical” for its allegiance to the often lighthearted approach of Joseph Haydn. Leading from the principal violist’s chair, Zimmermann looked to be having a blast, tick-tocking her head side to side during the first movement’s clocklike sections and helping shape the jolliest Gavotte I’ve ever experienced.

But, if your joie de vivre needs a jump start, check out what they do with Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. I’ve heard this work for violin, viola and orchestra several times, but never like this. Zimmermann and violinist Steven Copes so completely captured the spirit of the work as to bring fresh insights at every turn.
I’d never before considered what a celebration of friendship Mozart may have intended the piece to be. Copes and Zimmermann made it an animated conversation throughout, she bringing joyful abandon to her lines in the opening movement and he matching her in evoking delight. But the depth of the connection was cemented in a slow movement that sounded like the two reflecting together upon some sad news, sharing a cadenza of commiseration.

The air of grief was swept away by a carpe diem of a finale that underlined what a fine Mozart orchestra this is. The crowd clearly agreed, judging from the lengthy standing ovation that eventually inspired an encore from Copes and Zimmermann, a pizzicato slice of Béla Bartók’s 44 Duets for Two Violins.Rob HubbardStar Tribune
read more

11/1/24

If asked to name my three favorite sounds, I’d choose waves crashing against the rocky shoreline of Lake Superior, wind blowing through a boreal forest, and the section of the finale of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony where the violins gradually ascend upward in a striving spirit, one of music’s consummate expressions of triumph over adversity.

If you’ve never heard a live performance of Beethoven’s Fifth by a great orchestra, I’d suggest you seize the opportunity. The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is playing it in both St. Paul and Minneapolis this weekend, and Friday’s midday performance at the Ordway Concert Hall was as exhilarating as one could wish, a mix of musical adrenaline rushes and compelling conversations between sections and soloists within the orchestra that both thrilled and fascinated.

It was the climax of a program that showed off the SPCO as a marvelous sum of some very talented parts. Its winds offered music for meditation in Arvo Part’s “Fratres” before the strings exquisitely executed Igor Stravinsky’s music for the ballet, “Apollon musagete.” But that all seemed prelude once the famous four notes that launch the Fifth sent pulses racing throughout the hall.

But let us give the concert’s first half its due. Eight wind players from the orchestra (and percussionist Steve Kimball) captured the solemnity that Part brought to his “Fratres,” a piece inspired by Gregorian chant and chiming bells.

And the Stravinsky was full of exceptional interplay among the musicians. His 1947 version of “Apollon musagete” sounds something like a colloquy among various musicians in the orchestra, and it provided a showcase for not only the splendid chemistry within the SPCO’s strings, but also for the soloing skills of violinist Steven Copes and cellist Julie Albers.

The orchestra’s ranks swelled to 42 for Beethoven’s Fifth, and all the musicians rose to the challenge of performing this symphony without the aid of a conductor. While this gave the performance a more collaborative feel than you’ll customarily get from watching an impassioned maestro enhance the visuals, there was never any question that concertmaster Copes was providing the cues at every key transition.
So it was likely his idea to take the symphony’s first movement at such a brisk clip that there was no time for that initial “fate knocking at the door” theme to take on even a hint of bombast or ponderousness. That four-note motif proved exciting as it cascaded downward through the orchestra. Audible exhaling could be heard around the hall at the movement’s conclusion, the SPCO then bringing tenderness to the symphony’s slow movement.

A wildfire of energy ignited when the cellos and basses burst into the third movement’s furious fugue. And there are few classical concert experiences as cathartic as the supernova of the finale’s opening strains: The bright explosion of sound might be Beethoven’s ultimate expression of emerging from darkness into joyous light.

That mood reached its apotheosis on that sound I spoke of loving so much. And no recording does justice to what it’s like to experience that in concert. Rob HubbardStar Tribune
read more

SPCO breathes life into Beethoven, debuts 'Records from a Vanishing City'
JANUARY 13, 2018

The performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto had similar qualities of joy and elation. The soloist was Steven Copes, who this year celebrates his 20th anniversary as the SPCO’s concertmaster.

Thirty-three musicians accompanied Copes, about half the number typically used in Beethoven’s concerto by a full-sized symphony orchestra. The differences in outcome were stark, and positive.

Rhythms were springier, and a sense of fresh air breathed throughout the orchestra.

In this congenial environment, Copes emerged organically as a soloist of refined sensibility and emotional intelligence. Light of touch and chirruping, his solo lines frequently floated birdlike over the orchestral textures, liberated from the cut and thrust of terrestrial activity.

The Larghetto middle movement was particularly affecting. Phrased with disarming simplicity, it had an ethereality more sensual than philosophical, both in the delicate orchestral accompaniment and in Copes’ gossamer-light, pellucid playing.

The Rondo finale was breezy and full of positivity. This was Beethoven recalibrated — not the glowering Titan that we see in paintings, but a composer capable of fun and frolic, even frivolity. These qualities, along with a life-affirming vitality, brimmed through Copes’ interpretation.

All three pieces in the concert were performed without a conductor. You never for a moment missed one. The SPCO players revel in the individual responsibility they get to make their own expressive decisions.

The results at Friday evening’s concert were collegial and deeply satisfying.Terry BlainStar Tribune
read more

Review: The Joys of a Conductorless Chamber Performance
October 16, 2016

Election season is an odd time — or is it an oddly appropriate one? — to flood the concert scene with conductorless ensembles. On Saturday the 92nd Street Y opened its season with an inspired performance by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, which offered thrilling renditions of music by Mozart, Schubert and George Tsontakis. On Tuesday, a concert by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will include a Haydn symphony. And next week Carnegie Hall hosts the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble that perhaps more than any other has shown how much a player-run group can achieve without the interference of someone gesticulating at them from a podium.

The beauty, joy and freshness of the Saint Paul players’ music-making on Saturday didn’t just breathe life into well-worn standards of the repertory. To me, it was also a reassurance that, in certain quarters, participatory democracy is alive and well.

The concert opened with the New York premiere of “O Mikros, O Megas (‘This Tiny World, This Enormous World’)” by Mr. Tsontakis, who has a fruitful history of collaborating with the orchestra. A retrospective wistfulness clings to its four movements, whether in the Old World elegance of the opening, “Footprints,” which seemed to invite dancing in swooshing skirts, or the Coplandian fiddle strains of “Orbiting (Heart and Soul).”

Scored for strings only, “O Mikros, O Megas” provided an introduction to the refined sound of the musicians. In the subtle gradations from robust dense tone to smoky layers, their playing often resembled that of a first-rate string quartet.

That quality was magnified in the performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A (K. 488), for which the irrepressibly charismatic pianist Jeremy Denk joined the orchestra. The airy, upbeat first movement was followed by an Andante of exquisite velvety inwardness, with moments of swelling tone and yearning expressivity that were all the more poignant for being reined in so quickly. Mr. Denk’s interplay with the orchestra’s individual soloists, like the fine clarinets, appeared easy and equal — a joy to watch.

A fiery rendition of Schubert’s Symphony No. 2 capped the evening. I’d always dismissed this work as an appealing but predictable exercise in the genre, but the Saint Paul players brought out its storm and stress jitters with stark color contrasts, breathless tempos and a delightfully uncouth, thick-soled Menuetto movement.

But perhaps my favorite moment came in the Andante, with its variations on a humble, placid tune. When it was time for the wind players to take the spotlight, the strings accompanied them with gentle undulating figures rendered with tangible care and attention to the expressive fluctuations of their colleagues’ playing. It became a touching example of how much the absence of a conductor encourages orchestral musicians to be supportive — and even protective — of one another.Corinna da Fonseca-WollheimNew York Times
read more

Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Antonio Pappano
May 24, 2018, Cite de la Musique, Paris

It’s always a little strange to hear pieces of composers who have not yet found themselves as artists. The Românesc Concert of Ligeti sounds as much as Bartók that it is sometimes difficult to find its signature, and even when you get there, the orchestra lingers little on the elements of writing that could have made it recognize. It is a choice, but the whole nostalgic and painful element of the work - which Ligeti had to leave behind while fleeing from his native country - is not made obvious. We note, however, the brilliance of the solo violin Steven Copes, whose solos were very well executed and capture the attention with a beautiful sound.

Julius LayBachtrack.com

Pro Arte Displays Jewels and Gems in Newton

For its first appearance in its 41st season, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, a unique cooperative chamber group of professional freelance musicians, offered three 19th-century works in the aptly titled “Jewels and Gems.” With Paul Polivnick conducting Saturday night in the highly-decorated sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Newton Centre, there was much to appreciate.

In the crown jewel of the concert, which dazzled after the intermission, the Pro Arte and soloist Steven Copes delivered a lyrical, coherent and exciting rendition of the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major (opus 61, 1806). The concertmaster of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Copes has performed Beethoven’s only violin concerto with them and others, and his sweet sound mesmerized the audience. This concerto, innovative as it is, from the first 5 Ds sounded by the tympani, is perhaps too often played and can seem hackneyed, even boring. Not so with this performance, which felt intimate yet declarative, revealing the revolutionary aspects that it contains—the very long introduction and the sense that the soloist is, in some sense, a commentator on the orchestral score and its many melodies. Copes, given his extensive chamber orchestra experience, interacted conversationally with the strings, sometimes playing along in the tutti, but contributing all the fire and verve required of the soloist. By the time he enters as soloist (at measure 89), four sonorous themes have already developed. The softly resonant second movement, did much with the innovative silences within the subtle variations. The striking and bejeweled architecture of the sanctuary allowed the sound to reverberate warmly, which worked very well in slow movements. Beethoven’s rollicking Rondo-Allegro, both conventional and exploratory, allowed both soloist and orchestra simultaneous playfulness and profundity. The cadenzas by violinist Robert Mann made a graceful addition to a delightful performance.

The other works served us well, starting with Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s sole orchestral piece, her Overture in C Major from 1831 (heard also in last week’s BSO concert, reviewed by Vance Koven HERE). Fanny, who, as most of us now know, was Felix’s older sister, collaborated closely with him. This concise overture offers a slow initial theme and then several enthusiastic bouts of melody, with Mendelssohnian orchestrations that lead me to wonder how much of Felix’s oeuvre might have been more than inspired by Fanny. But never mind. Polivnick inspired verve and mastery from the ensemble, though the echoic chancel created some blurring. The articulation and lines of the piece nevertheless came through with polish through Polivnick’s careful, charismatic technique.

The delightful performance was followed by a friendly repast in the adjoining church reception area, in which, many decades past, I was a Brownie. The audience drifted out into the freezing night filled with melodic memories and friendly post-concert greetings.

Julie Ingelfinger, is a classically-trained recreational pianist and music lover. She enjoys day jobs as professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, pediatric nephrologist at MassGeneral Hospital for Children at MGH and deputy editor at the New England Journal of Medicine.
Julie IngelfingerBoston Musical Intelligencer

6/22/19

Steven Copes teamed up with Susan Grace for Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, music more suited for the main course. The duo captured every nuance of the French Basque master’s quirky, cartoonish score. Throughout
the three-movement work, Grace produced a sparkling, effervescent sound while Copes used his instrument to produce a parade of characterizations, each possessing a distinct color.David SckolnikPeakradar.con

Conductorless SPCO makes the most of its freedom and talent

September 14, 2019

There is little in classical music more bracing than a crisply played Rossini overture, and the magic worked again on Friday evening at the opening concert of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s 2019-20 season.

“La Scala di Seta” may have a silly plot — a man climbs a ladder made of silk to visit his beloved every evening — but its overture is brilliantly entertaining, and showed the SPCO’s chattering violins to be in sparkling fettle after the summer recess.

It also gave an early opportunity for the orchestra’s new principal oboist, Cassie Pilgrim, to show her paces. Pilgrim spun an appealing line in her first lyrical solo, and nailed the dizzy-making string of faster notes Rossini gave her later.

Rossini’s influence also fizzled in the outer movements of Schubert’s Second Symphony. Again the string writing bubbled hyperactively, but a conductorless SPCO cannily stopped short of pushing the music into overdrive.

Judicious balancing of the different instrumental parts characterized the performance, especially in a nigh-perfect realization of the second movement Andante.

Its sunny variations smiled and lilted at a carefree pace, with elegant Mozartian stylings in the upper strings and a satisfying scrunch from the double basses in the minor-key variation.

Not for the first time since the SPCO moved to working mainly without a conductor, the freedom that the players enjoy to make their own decisions on interpreting the music was strikingly apparent.

The freshness and sensitivity of the performance were palpable, the symphony so organically integrated that the presence of a conductor on the podium would have seemed an intrusion.

Between the Schubert and Rossini pieces, SPCO artistic partner Jeremy Denk played the solo part and led the orchestra in Schumann’s Piano Concerto.

Denk is a thinking man’s pianist who writes for the New Yorker and has an acclaimed blog on his website titled “Think Denk.”

He talks a good game, too, and prefaced his performance of Schumann’s concerto with a witty disquisition on the role the dominant seventh chord plays in it.

Denk’s approach to the opening movement was notably flexible, at times feeling almost like improvisation. In Schumann that works well — moods flicker and flare unpredictably, and the orchestra adroitly shadowed Denk’s embrace of the mercurial.

The concerto’s middle movement can seem trite and inconsequential, but Denk found touching vulnerability in it, and the SPCO cellos contributed a poetic commentary.

Advertisement
Denk reveled in the ebullience of the finale, although the lurking notion that its manic energies lack firm emotional underpinning is difficult to banish.

A more deep-rooted type of emotion came in Denk’s encore, a piece from Clara Schumann’s Op. 21 Romances. Written in 1853 when her husband, Robert, was suffering from mental illness, it has a doleful, haunting quality that Denk distilled powerfully.

The 200th anniversary of Clara’s birth fell on Friday, and Denk’s encore marked it movingly. Her music is slim in quantity, but of tantalizingly fine quality. We still don’t hear enough of it.

Terry BlainStar Tribune

4/2/22

Friday’s performance at the Ordway Concert Hall marked a new chapter in the ongoing shifting landscape of the pandemic: masks were no longer required, and the venue no longer checks vaccine cards. With capacity capped at 50 percent, around a third of the audience seemed to not be wearing masks. The SPCO still requires masks at venues that are not the Ordway, which happens on Sunday when the performance takes place at Ted Mann Concert Hall.

Stephen Prutsman, an artistic partner with the orchestra from 2004-2007, was commissioned to arrange Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata #1, originally composed for violin and piano, as Sonata for Violin and Orchestra, No. 1, with the orchestra taking on the piano part. Speaking before the world premiere Friday evening, Prutsman said it took over a year to make the arrangement, but that work in no way compared to the genius of Prokofiev himself. He urged audience members to search up the original. “It’s really a glorious work,” he said.

Glorious indeed, and moody. Prokofiev began writing the piece two years after he returned to the Soviet Union after living abroad, in 1938. That was at the time Stalin embarked on his “great purge” where he killed hundreds of thousands of his enemies and sent millions more to forced labor camps. Prokofiev didn’t complete the sonata until after the end of World War II, in 1946. The work holds the weight of those events within it, and ghosts speak through it. Two of the movements were played at Prokofiev’s funeral, after the composer died the same day as Stalin.

Copes, wearing a ribbon with Ukraine’s colors, soars in his playing, and seems almost buoyed by the new arrangement played by his fellow musicians.

The piece begins with the bass players taking on the creeping low notes, which the violin responds to with ominous trills. It continues as a rich tapestry of sounds, with overlapping phrases. The music makes your breath stop with its lilting scales that sound like waves.

The second movement is harsher, as Copes strikes the strings in fury. Then in the third movement the xylophone creates a dreamlike sound. The fourth movement is a fierce dance that surprises in its haunting ending. The scales that were heard in the first movement come back, now sounding as if they are very far away. Prokofiev once called those scales “wind passing through a graveyard.” Indeed they sound like a spirit released from the earthly world.

The second piece on the program is Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante. It’s a chamber piece within a chamber piece, as four soloists perform in contrast with the rest of the orchestra. The work is light, airy, and satisfying. There are lovely moments of harmony amongst the soloists, with oboist Cassie Pilgrim and bassoon player Fei Xie sounding particularly beautiful together. There are also moments of synchronicity, such as a section where Julie Albers on the cello and Copes share the melody.

The concert was a testament to the talent held at the SPCO. Yes, it’s wonderful when audience are treated to guest players from elsewhere, but the SPCO musicians themselves have the capacity to deliver a resounding concert from its core group.
Sheila ReganPioneer Press

March 9, 2015- The night before, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra played next door in the brand-new Ordway Concert Hall, a handsome, 1,100-seat facility that opened this month.

The concert hall, designed for the chamber orchestra by architect Tim Carl and acoustician Paul Scarbrough, has a tall, narrow shoebox design and an undulating ceiling composed of wooden dowels that is transparent to sound. From a seat at the rear of the orchestra level, the excellent 34-musician SPCO, led from the first chair by concertmaster Steven Copes, sounded bright and present, with chamber-music clarity. Woodwind solos leapt to the fore in Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1, and Charles Ives’s “The Unanswered Question” showed off the space’s resonance—the pianissimo strings were fully audible and the questioning trumpet, played from the second balcony, rang out clearly. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, energetically performed, got big and beefy without losing clarity.Heidi WalesonWall Street Journal
read more

Jonathan Cohen is on a Haydn kick. As one of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s artistic partners, the English conductor, harpsichordist and cellist has been using recent visits to conduct some of Joseph Haydn’s 104 symphonies and man the cello for a string quartet version of his “Seven Last Words of Christ.” This weekend, Cohen’s at the harpsichord, leading the SPCO in a program of three early Haydn symphonies, the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth, which bear the nicknames, “Morning,” “Noon” and “Evening.”

On Friday night at the Ordway Concert Hall, Cohen and the orchestra delivered an exquisitely played snapshot of where Haydn was in his musical development at the age of 29. It started with a bold assertion of the young composer’s groundbreaking vision, went a bit more retro with a nod to his baroque predecessors, then finished with a symphony that reused a lot of elements from the two played before it.

My reaction to the performance (again, all played wonderfully) was thus: “Morning” was adventurous and exciting; “Noon” was enlightening; and “Evening” gave me déjà vu. Was this a little too much Haydn? Perhaps. Or at least a little too narrow a slice of the composer’s creative output. Yet it’s a fine forum for the gifts of musicians throughout the SPCO, with Haydn generously spreading around the solos.

Is it worth braving below-zero temperatures to experience? If you were to ask me after the Sixth Symphony (“Morning”), I’d say, “By all means.” Beginning with a splendidly evocative gradual crescendo from virtual silence (a sunrise?), the opening movement was bursting with vigor, violinist Steven Copes and each of the principal wind players trading phrases like bantering songbirds. The slow movement bore a gentle sadness, Copes and principal cellist Julie Albers exchanging wistful lines. Flutist Julia Bogorad-Kogan pulled the mood back toward joyous dancing on the minuet and finale.

That performance left me marveling at how innovative the symphony was for being written in 1761, only two years after the death of baroque-era titan George Frideric Handel. This was such a stylistic departure from the norm.

But soon the Seventh Symphony (“Noon”) had me thinking, “Oh, here’s Handel now.” The sonorous horn duos sang out boisterously – something Handel loved to do in his Concerti Grosso and “Water Music” – and the opening of the slow movement is even marked “Recitativo,” echoing in structure the narrative recitatives from such oratorios as “Messiah.” It featured more fine work by Copes, Albers and Bogorad-Kogan, with bassist Nathan Farrington joining the colloquy with a lithe yet muscular solo on the minuet.

“Evening” (No. 8) introduced a few new ideas, including the sense of humor that came to be a Haydn trademark. It emerged with a smile-inducing piece of musical misdirection in the first movement. But too much of the Eighth felt like variations on what was already offered on the Sixth and Seventh (reflecting back on the day, perhaps?), right down to a bass solo on the minuet.

Again borrowing from a popular baroque trend, Haydn evoked a storm on the finale (“La tempesta”), with plenty of thunder and lightning and Cohen’s harpsichord tinkling like raindrops. For those about to head out into the arctic air, it perhaps sparked anticipation of spring.

Rob HubbardSt. Paul Pioneer Press
read more

They brought a similar sharpness and artistry to a new Violin Concerto by American composer Pierre Jalbert, which had its world premiere at Friday morning's concert at the Ordway in St. Paul.

SPCO concertmaster Steven Copes played the jagged, hyperactive solo part with biting attack and a superfine sense of tuning.

The concerto's most arresting music came in the outer sections of the opening movement, where slithering piano glissandos and twinkling percussion meshed with wispy violins to conjure a magically airborne texture.

In between, and for much of the second movement, Jalbert's music was dominated by edgy, yakking rhythms that seemed to value a raw sense of propulsive dynamism over more expansive, lyrical material.

Copes' account of the truculent cadenza was masterly.Terry BlainStar Tribune
read more

After the bubbling, swirling underwater fantasia that is Mendelssohn’s “Fair Melusina” Overture, SPCO concertmaster Steven Copes took the stage as soloist for Jalbert’s Violin Concerto. By turns haunting and menacing in the early going, the two-movement concerto became an absorbing meditation on which Copes’ lines grew more agitated, the orchestra summoning up dark drama. Often taking on an antiphonal structure — Copes and the other violins engaging in a kind of call-and-response exchange — the first movement exploded into a climactic cadenza before Copes articulated a compelling longing atop vaporous, whispering strings.

The concerto’s second movement had a more fragmented feel, themes often introduced and abandoned, but Copes wove a transfixing spell atop Jalbert’s evocative orchestration, be the ensemble chiming like funeral bells or providing a glassy, glimmering foundation for the soloist’s aggressive final cadenza.Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

Orlando Phil Adds Twist Of Berg To Its Season Opener
October, 11, 2016

ORLANDO – Music from the Second Viennese School is something of a rare bird on classical concert programs in Central Florida, which has traditionally favored standard repertoire. But the Orlando Philharmonic has more recently welcomed 20th century and contemporary pieces, thanks not least to Eric Jacobsen, the progressive New York-bred conductor and cellist currently serving his second season as music director of Orlando’s foremost classical music organization.

A founding member of the genre-bending string quartet Brooklyn Rider, Jacobsen stepped away from his cellist seat in early 2016 to focus on his blossoming conducting career. Selected for the Philharmonic’s top artistic position after an intensive two-year international search, Jacobsen, 34, is also a co-founder and artistic director of the chamber orchestra The Knights and is serving his third season as music director of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony in Connecticut.

With a superlative grip on orchestral forces and his distinctive youthful flair, Jacobsen remarkably lifted the ensemble to higher artistic ground on the Philharmonic’s season opener Oct. 1, at downtown Orlando’s Bob Carr Theater. Adding spice to a program weighted with Russian masterworks was Berg’s Violin Concerto of 1935.
Steven Copes, concertmaster of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and avid performer of contemporary music, was the soloist. But before launching into the piece, Copes and Jacobsen – with accompaniment from the orchestra – previewed several sections. The demonstration covered no fewer than five sections (including two waltzes, one folk song, and a timpani-led passage with Jacobsen clapping along to the irregular beat), as well as the mournful Bach chorale that caps the concerto. There was no mention, however, of the most alluring aspect of the piece: Berg’s lyrical 12-tone theme that forms the thematic basis for most of it.

At the request of violinist Louis Krasner, who commissioned the piece in the last year of the composer’s life, Berg accomplished a fusion of the lyrical qualities of the Romantic tradition and the mathematical method of 12-tone composition. The chamber orchestra reduction by Faradsch Karaew, used for this performance, brings the string section down to a compact two violins, and one each of viola, cello, and bass, which sounded especially clear and attuned to each other.

Playing from a score, Copes shaped his phrases with elan, managing subtle crescendos as he climbed up the fret board in swirly patterns. In quieter phrases during the first movement, though, he tended to get buried under the busy texture in the ensemble. But then again he was vehement and acrid in the second half of the concerto, matching the prevalent unsettling mood.
In the allegro section of the second movement the ensemble captured the anxious dissonance of the opening chord, even with reduced instrumentation. With riveting work from horn and trombone, adjacent tones piled up into a jarring expressionistic cluster in one of the concerto’s harshest moments.

And finally the consonance of the Bach chorale “Es ist genug” (“It is enough”), from his cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (BWV 60), arrived as a semblance of hope – a fitting end to a concerto inspired by the death of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, Alma Mahler’s daughter. Soulfully intoned by the woodwinds and then taken by the soloist, the chorale sounded blissful in its tonal stability, coming after a tortuous journey that Jacobsen described as “incredibly painful.” Featuring well-balanced ensemble interplay, the first-time Philharmonic performance of the concerto captured the full semi-expressionistic flavor of Berg’s most widely performed instrumental work.Esteban MenesesClassical Voice America
read more

The Amadeus you don’t know steals the show at SPCO
More

February 18, 2016

Chances are that you’ve never heard of Karl Amadeus Hartmann. That’s understandable when you consider that he was a German composer who chose to stay in Germany and openly resist the regime as Nazism took hold, World War II grew and most European composers became exiles. Hartmann’s music was banned in his native land, but, amazingly, he survived and went on to spearhead a revival of Munich’s musical culture after the war.

If you have any question as to how Hartmann felt about the Nazis and what they unleashed upon Europe, you’ll find his answer in his “Concerto Funebre,” a dark and powerful violin concerto that he wrote in 1939 after the invasion of Czechoslovakia. It’s being given a gripping interpretation at this weekend’s St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concerts with the orchestra’s concertmaster, Steven Copes, as soloist. On Thursday evening at Minneapolis’ Plymouth Congregational Church, Copes and the SPCO strings skillfully articulated the paradoxical combination of hope and despair in this fascinating work, producing something haunting and hypnotic, then aggressive and explosive, and finally resilient and life-affirming.
It was the exciting, absorbing centerpiece of a concert of music from Germany and Austria. Knowing of the darkness that lay ahead, it was perhaps wise to start the evening with lighter fare from Hartmann’s German contemporary, Paul Hindemith, his “Kleine Kammermusik” for woodwind quintet. It was given a bright and ethereal reading interrupted by the troubled tones of a mournful march.

Then Copes countered with a deep and powerful Hartmann concerto, bringing grace and fluidity to its first two movements before becoming the voice of individuality and resistance amid the explosions around him. The third movement sounded something like a musical anxiety attack, full of fury and fear, but calm and strength returned in a noble, resilient finale. It was a triumph for Copes and a marvelous showcase for his gifts.Ron HubbardPioneer Press
read more

Jan. 15, 2016

Call it musical diplomacy. On Friday morning, conductor Scott Yoo tried to negotiate a peace treaty between an audience at St. Paul's Ordway Concert Hall and the "Second Viennese School" style of the early 20th century, which can prove difficult listening for ears accustomed to Bach and Mozart. This "Notable Encounter" was something like a music history lecture with onstage musicians demonstrating the key points, followed by a complete performance of the work. One can assume it's something the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra will do with other works if this weekend's offering is well received.

This may sound like an East Metro take on the Minnesota Orchestra's "Inside the Classics" concerts, but I don't recall the Minnesota Orchestra ever taking on something as complex and potentially confounding as Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin and 13 Wind Instruments. Yoo did an admirable job of making the music as accessible as possible and explaining forbidding concepts like the 12-tone system and Berg's over-under-sideways-down way of creating variations.

And, after intermission, Yoo and the 15 musicians gave as strong an interpretation of the Berg work as you're ever likely to experience, especially violinist Steven Copes and pianist Anna Polonsky. Friday morning's performance proved impeccable, pianist Polonsky drawing out the hidden hypnotic lyricism in the first movement and violinist Copes bringing passion, physicality and tremendous technical versatility to a demanding work that could be described as a violin sonata with wind ensemble. And each member of that ensemble impressed.Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

August 09, 2015

If the Curtis Institute of Music isn't careful, it may disturb Philadelphia's self-satisfied parochialism even more than it has. Summerfest, Curtis' summer camp, has proved how powerfully the city benefits from importing talent beyond the usual sources while folding it into the school's own.

Of course, Curtis can have it both ways. Though some of the faculty performing Thursday night at the last in a new series of three Summerfest recitals were from orchestras elsewhere, most were, in a sense, of here - Curtis graduates.

You may not have caught Steven Copes as a student in the 1990s. Now, he is concertmaster of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and, returning to Curtis, he was a knockout.

This summer series - which, by the way, roundly killed the myth that there was no summer audience for classical in the city - has also been a crash course in the music of Curtis dean David Ludwig. Here, his work deepened the impression that stylistically he is hard to pin down. You might have put him in the melancholy-meditative-minimalist camp after hearing his score to Michael Almereyda's urban-decay-chic-film take on Cymbeline. Last week at Curtis, Pale Blue Dot was a journey through cold space (dissonance) and humanity (traditional harmony). On Thursday, Swan Song evoked Ravel in the opening, explicitly quoted Schubert near the end, and raised the spirit of a particularly memorable heaving-sigh gesture in the Berg Violin Concerto (itself a swan song that quotes another composer). More than clever, Ludwig's work raises its own tender message of spirituality. Copes was its ardent advocate, with pianist Amy J. Yang expert in its manifold demands.Peter DobrinPhiladelphia Inquirer
read more

May 31, 2015

Given what we now know about Robert Schumann’s bipolar personality, it almost seems like a cheap shot to call his beloved Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44, manic. According to his biographers, however, he did sketch the entire work in a few days and produced the finished score in a mere two weeks’ time.
With the exception of the strange, marchlike second movement, the rest of this Piano Quintet blisters relentlessly across the stage at dangerous and unforgivingly daunting tempos, a challenge that Mainly Mozart’s performers undertook Saturday (May 30) at the Auditorium at TSRI without the slightest indication of strain or undue exertion.

Pianist Jon Kimura Parker set the pace, his bright, keen-edged figurations vigorously cutting through the string quartet without overpowering his colleagues. I thought violinist Steven Copes mirrored more closely Parker’s stylish, acute phrasing and articulations, although his colleagues—violinist Alexander Kerr, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, and cellist Efe Baltacigil—brought equal virtuosity to the table.

Shrouding the slow second movement in hazy, spectral colors gave an otherworldly aura to the march’s curious hesitations, as did Huang’s throaty, macabre viola solos.

Parker’s technical brilliance in the Scherzo, which Schumann snarkily marked molto vivace, fooled some of the audience into thinking it was the Quintet’s concluding movement. Although Schumann’s final movement lacks the dazzle of his Scherzo, the ensemble projected an unexpected jocular interpretation of the its fugal sections that provided some of the program’s most rewarding moments.

The string quartet worked up to the Schumann with Mozart’s bagatelle, the Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546, and Beethoven’s early String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4. From their program bios, it does not appear that these four string players regularly work together, and their opening Mozart displayed more individual muscle and assertion than fluid teamwork, and the ensemble’s dynamic contrasts were few.

Their account of Beethoven C Minor String Quartet, however, displayed more focus and balance among the players. They provided ample aristocratic elegance in Beethoven’s Scherzo, a more polite movement that, unlike Schumann’s Scherzo, looked back to Mozartean models. I was charmed by Copes’ warm, effusive themes in the Menuetto and stirred by the group’s unalloyed verve in the finale.Ken HermanSan Diego Story
read more

ST. PAUL, March 8, 2015 — While the world has many splendid opera houses and orchestra halls, performance spaces ideally suited to chamber orchestras of, say, 30 to 35 players, are rarer. These ensembles are like hybrids between chamber groups and full orchestras. What’s needed is a hall that allows clarity and detail in the playing to come through while providing orchestral resonance and bloom.

The impressive St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, currently in its 56th season, probably the leading ensemble of its kind in America, has never had such a home. Now it does. On Thursday the orchestra presented a gala program here to celebrate its new Concert Hall, an inviting, acoustically ideal, 1,100-seat auditorium here at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.

Before a sold-out audience on Friday night (the second performance of the program), the orchestra gave inspired accounts of Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony, Ives’s “The Unanswered Question,” the premiere of George Tsontakis’s “Coraggio” for String Orchestra, and Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony, all without a conductor. You could sense the excitement of the musicians over their new home, especially during the Beethoven, as the players leaned forward in their seats, listening to one another intently. Inner voices and solo lines came through beautifully. Yet the overall sound had symphonic depth and, during big climaxes, plenty of heft.

After the Ordway Center opened in 1985, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra played most of its concerts in the complex’s Ordway Music Theater, a 1,900-seat proscenium auditorium that is home to the Minnesota Opera but was problematic for a chamber orchestra.

Discussions about creating a designated hall for the orchestra began some 10 years ago. The first idea was to renovate the Ordway Music Theater. Instead, the center turned to an underused component of the complex, the McKnight Theater, a 315-seat black-box space. The architect Tim Carl, of Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, and the acoustician Paul Scarbrough devised a plan to turn the theater into a fitting chamber orchestra hall. The existing footprint of the space was nearly doubled. To prevent sound from being sucked up into the high ceiling, it is covered with wavy panels of warm wood dowels. There are rows of seats behind the stage, for a chorus or for concertgoers, which fosters intimacy between the audience and the musicians.

This $42 million project comes at a crucial time and should help the orchestra and its supporters move past the troubles of recent years.

The classical music scene in the Twin Cities was rocked by bitter labor negotiations at the Minnesota Orchestra, which resulted in a long, debilitating lockout of the players by the administration that ended in early 2014. That story overshadowed similar strife at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which had a lockout lasting six months, ending in the spring of 2013. There was turnover among the musicians during the lockout and the roster now includes some younger, eager new players.

From the sound of the orchestra during Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony, it seemed that the musicians have already adjusted to the new hall and its acoustics. During the sprightly, slyly decorous Allegro movement, they were able to nudge offbeat accents and sudden fortissimo chords without any sense of pushing. In the bustling finale, there was striking clarity to crisscrossing lines and spiky harmonies. I have seldom heard this familiar Neo-Classical score sound so multilayered and contemporary.

The Ives was added to the program, as Kyu-Young Kim, the orchestra’s principal second violin, explained to the audience, because the piece can demonstrate a hall’s acoustics. The strings, placed onstage, played the subdued diatonic chords and scale patterns that provide the aural foundation of the music. From high in the second balcony a solo trumpet posed the cosmic question, while from behind the porous backstage wall woodwinds intruded with jarring Ivesian outbursts. In his remarks, Mr. Kim also paid tribute to the construction workers who were, he said, true partners in this endeavor. In the lobby it was moving to see photos of some of these workers, holding hammers and drills, their instruments, interspersed with photos of musicians.

The Tsontakis, though a premiere, was not completely new. “Coraggio” is a fresh arrangement of a movement from that composer’s 30-year-old String Quartet No. 3. The music shifts between passages of slippery, out-of-focus tonal harmonies and episodes of rustic dance, like tart, fractured fiddle-faddle. It’s an appealing piece and was vibrantly played. But in this context it seemed more conventional than the Ives.

The concertmaster Steven Copes was the de-facto leader of the “Eroica” Symphony performance. For a decade now the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has done without a music director and instead collaborates with shifting artistic partners. The musicians give many performances without a conductor, depending on the program.

If there was occasionally a passage in the Beethoven where coordination among the players was a little imprecise, the trade-off was music-making of in-the-moment brio. Details that seldom stand out were vividly audible here, especially in the orchestra’s somber, organic account of the great slow movement, the funeral march.

The final ovation was enormous. In a way, the audience may have been applauding itself as well for supporting this orchestra through some bad times and making this new home possible.Anthony TommasiniNew York Times
read more

2/27/15

The main attraction was pianist Jeremy Denk, the recently christened SPCO artistic partner who bookended the program with two J.S. Bach Keyboard Concertos, culminating in an exciting take on the First Concerto's finale. But this was a concert at which one of the world's most famous composers shared equal billing with -- and may have been upstaged by -- one considerably less lauded.

That would be Leos Janacek, a Czech composer of the early 20th century, who was represented by two 1920s works of radically different tenors. One was his haunting Violin Sonata, given a gripping reading by SPCO concertmaster Steven Copes and pianist Denk. The other was a lilting, lyrical, folk-flavored work for wind sextet called "Mladi" or "Youth," the only major-key piece on a program full of darker-hued music, and one that the wind players filled with joy and exuberant solos.

Five string players performed a transcription of a sad madrigal of lost love by Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo that fit with the evening's somewhat troubled tone, a mood at its most compelling during the Janacek Violin Sonata, when Copes' violin violently exploded into lovely, languid phrases from Denk's piano. Written as World War I was exploding across Europe, the sonata summoned up an aura of trepidation.

If that work sounded like Janacek the modernist, the ensuing "Mladi" tapped into his primitive side, drawing upon the folk forms of his native land to enwrap the audience in a warmth suitable for a circle dance around a forest bonfire.Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

Review: Let the SPCO send you into summer with memorable Mozart

Hello again, Rice Park, you’re looking good. Goodbye, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra: See you in the fall.

After a 2018-19 concert season during which SPCO audience members gazed out the towering windows of St. Paul’s Ordway Center upon a fenced-in park undergoing renovation, the year-long project is at last complete. And there are few better reasons to go downtown and stroll on the park’s expanded plaza and new circular cobblestone sidewalks than on your way into one of the SPCO’s final concerts of the season.

Just as New York has long hosted a summer festival called Mostly Mozart, so could recent SPCO concert programming share that description. In fact, the final concerts are entirely Mozart, but there’s little danger of the orchestra taking a perfunctory approach to familiar fare, if Friday evening’s concert is any indication. It was a performance full of energy and conviction, a seemingly concerted effort to transform a potential “out with a whimper” scenario into a decided bang.

The whimpers might come from those disappointed that the always-impressive Swedish clarinetist Martin Frost has withdrawn from these concerts due to injury (and, hence, has ended his term as an SPCO artistic partner). He was slated to not only perform his acclaimed musical collage, “Genesis,” but to conduct Mozart’s Overture to “Don Giovanni” and “Prague” Symphony as well. However, the orchestra seemed intent upon demonstrating that it doesn’t need conductors.

That came through in the “Don Giovanni” Overture, which established an ominous mood, and kept its gravitas even when the music shifted in a lighter direction. It was a spirited interpretation full of delicious dynamic contrast.

The orchestra took a similarly self-directed route on Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. This was the addition to the program drafted into duty upon Frost’s cancellation, and the soloists from the SPCO handled the new task sublimely. The orchestra’s concertmaster, violinist Steven Copes — in addition to providing direction to the ensemble on every piece — was one of the two soloists on the concert’s centerpiece, proving an ebullient, bouncy counterpoint to the more firm and straightforward violist, Hyobi Sim, he ethereal, she earthy.

The high point of the Sinfonia Concertante was its slow center. Making an argument for his skills as an opera composer, the 23-year-old Mozart created something that sounds like a soprano and tenor exchanging lyrical lines of love and longing. Sim established her independence from the work’s pattern of asking her to be the “response” in a call-and-response structure, and she also matched Copes’ showy lines, complemented on the finale by the dancing tones of the French horns and oboes (including new principal oboist Cassie Pilgrim making her debut).

Originally, Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony (No. 38) was slated to be the middle piece on the program, but the SPCO musicians seemed determined to assert that it could provide a grand finale to the season. They demonstrated that you don’t need a conductor to make lithe leaps from soft sweetness to thunderous explosions and back again. It was the most exciting “Prague” Symphony I’ve heard in several years, the woodwinds swirling in exquisite balance, the delicate tiptoeing of the slow movement wonderfully shaped, and the finale full of dramatic abandon. Many a patron was sent off into Rice Park humming or whistling one of the concert’s multiple earworms.

Rob HubbardPioneer Press

1/16/15

So the crowd at Minneapolis' Temple Israel was smiling at intermission, buoyed by a very involving interpretation of the Mendelssohn concerto by the orchestra's concertmaster, Steven Copes. If some of the sprightly spirit in its finale was reprised on the concert-closing performance of Beethoven's Second Symphony, this might have been one of this winter's most ebullient concerts. But the SPCO chose to paint the Beethoven in darker shades, forsaking pep in favor of gravitas. Yet plenty of afterglow remained from the Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn's E-minor Concerto is always part of the conversation when discussing history's greatest violin concertos, but it's not as much a flashy showpiece as an extended lyrical aria, a passionate conversation between soloist and orchestra.

Copes showed off his ample digital dexterity on a fiery first-movement cadenza and brought out all of the Andante's soulful balladry. And the finale was suitably raucous, the choir of woodwinds matching Copes for puckish charm.Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

7/18/2014; Chamber Music Northwest, Portland, OR

After intermission, violinists Bella Hristova and Steven Copes delivered a mind-boggling performance of Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins. Together they danced through a score that was laced with, double stops, fast pizzicatos, high-wire passages, and fast, tricky phrases. They seamlessly passed lines back and forth, and their dynamics were mostly in agreement. The head pair made a headlong rush into the finale that brought the piece to a thrilling conclusion.James BashNorthwest Reverb
read more

'SPCO is back doing what it does best'
9/6/2013

After a summer of silence and a year-long lockout of the equally esteemed ensemble to its west, the Minnesota Orchestra, Friday night presented a powerful reminder of what first-rate performances of masterful music can do to stir your soul.

It was there in the exuberant yet meaty interpretation of the Bach suite and in the thrilling showmanship of concertmaster Steven Copes on the pseudo-violin concerto housed within Mozart's "Haffner" Serenade.

The half a "Haffner" the SPCO offered was a terrific showcase for not only Copes' musicianship, but for his playfulness, inserting snippets of other Mozart works into his cadenzas and employing the rough-edged abandon of a rural folk fiddler on the digitally demanding Rondo. It felt like Copes was asserting that orchestra concerts aren't just inspiring, but can be a lot of fun, too.Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

The opening subject of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 can sound Rococo, almost fey, in some hands, but even before it grew to its full strength here there was a muscularity to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra’s delivery (directed by Andsnes from the keyboard) that spoke of the strength to come, and threw down the gauntlet in the battle the concerto enacts between soloist and tutti. The woody mesh of tone created by the orchestra is perhaps their greatest strength – a carefully balanced texture through which a whole palette of colours can be refracted, as they later demonstrated so comprehensively in Stravinsky’s Apollo musagète.

Stravinsky’s ballet Apollo musagète offered a mid-concert showcase for the strings of Europe’s greatest overgrown youth orchestra, directed by Concertmaster Steven Copes. While outwardly much more conservative than the composer’s more familiar works for the Ballets Russes The Rite of Spring or The Firebird, Apollo merely pays lip-service to conformity, treating conventions of musical form and dance with a playful subversion.

Performed by the MCO the work’s bluesy, neoclassical textures emerged both charming and witty, alive from the block chords that herald the Prologue, through Copes’s characterful solo variation as Apollo himself, and on through Terpsichore’s deliciously drunken, wayward Viennese dance to the ecstatic close of the Apotheose.Alexandra CoghlanNew Statesman
read more

Performing as both conductor and soloist, Andsnes led his regular collaborators in Beethoven’s First and Third Piano Concertos, leaving them under the direction of Concertmaster Steven Copes for Stravinsky’s Apollo musagète. The recording sessions Andsnes and the orchestra have just completed have created a gelled, natural partnership that needs little from Andsnes apart from the occasional turn as traffic cop. The ensemble’s vivid energy is balanced by their control, and although characterful the opposition between soloist and tutti in the First Piano Concerto was never less than poised.

There was nothing polite about the Stravinsky however. Languorous and unashamedly ribald by turns, Stravinsky’s ballet score leapt into far-from-classical life in the strings of the MCO. While the variations found them witty and Copes’s own solo brought new gravitas to the deity, it was the ecstatic Apothéose that saw the orchestra at their finest. Bows dug deep into strings, reaching for for block chords that physically forced their way into the hall, knocking air out of you before suddenly releasing the bloom of their tone.

Alexandra CoghlanThe Arts Desk
read more

Nov. 20, 2012

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1997, has established a reputation as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. Their relatively small size was obvious here in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, more often a host of much larger ensembles. The musicians were also clustered tightly around the piano, which was placed in the centre of the group and positioned so that the pianist’s back would be to the audience.

As we waited for the overture to begin, there was a sense of expectation that Andsnes might come on stage to conduct it. However, the orchestra suddenly began playing under the subtle yet authoritative direction of concertmaster Steven Copes. Clearly used to performing without a conductor, the ensemble was absolutely secure throughout the evening. The orchestra sported a lean yet cultured sound. Throughout, vibrato in the strings was used sparingly with woodwind lines lovingly played. In the dramatic overture, inspired by Heinrich von Collin’s tragedy Coriolan, punctuating chords were played with gunshot accents and precision. The scene was set for the Third Piano Concerto, composed in the same key of C minor, which featured at the end of this programme.Peter MarksBachtrack.com
read more

The Overture to Richard Strauss' final opera, "Capriccio," is a string sextet being performed for the opera's characters in the setting of an elegant salon. The chamber ensemble Accordo opened their third season with it on Monday evening, in their new home at Christ Church Lutheran in south Minneapolis. The setting might not be as plush as a salon, but it was certainly acoustically resplendent.

The clean, mid-century modernist architecture, by esteemed Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, is on the National Historic Registry. The striking blending of light brick and blonde wood projects a bright sound of ringing clarity, but with enough reverberation to perfectly complement Strauss' grand Romantic score.

The quintet is made up of St. Paul Chamber Orchestra violinists Steven Copes and Ruggero Allifranchini, violist Maiya Papach and cellist Ronald Thomas, along with Minnesota Orchestra cellist Anthony Ross and guest artist Minnesota Orchestra violist Rebecca Albers. The six instrumentalists produced a rich, resonant sound, but were also capable of moments of refined delicacy.

The centerpiece of the program was Arnold Schoenberg's tone poem "Verklärte Nacht" ("Transfigured Night"). This late Romantic composition came before his conversion to 12-tone music.

Written in 1899, this is Schoenberg's Opus 4, a work of his youth. The poem on which it's based, by Richard Dahmer, is also a work of youthful sentimentality. In the first part, a woman confesses that the child she's carrying is not her lover's. In the second, he forgives her, and the night is transfigured. Though Schoenberg later disparaged the work's programmatic associations, the tone poem is very clear in its drama. Albers' viola gave plaintive voice to the woman's grief. And Copes effectively conveyed the transformative power of the lover's absolution. The intense melodies and complex chromatic harmonies created a passionate piece of musical storytelling.

The concert concluded with a rousing rendition of Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence." The title comes from the fact that he wrote one of the principal themes while visiting Italy, but the work is distinctly Russian-sounding in its use of folk melodies. Allifranchini took full advantage of the lead violin part.

Accordo's third season is off to a great start. With luck, Christ Church Lutheran will be it's home for many seasons to come.

William Randall BeardStar Tribune
read more

Korngold's Violin Concerto refracted the brightness into the Ordway interior with a warm and stirring performance that featured the orchestra's

concertmaster, Steven Copes, as soloist. Copes is a Los Angeles native, and he proved quite skilled at Hollywood heartstring tugging. Copes coaxed swooning reveries in the Romance before unleashing his inner folk fiddler on the fanciful Finale. He threw himself into the interpretation with theatricality worthy of an Oscar.

Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

After a financial crisis at its home hall, the Southern Theater, left it homeless, this talented quintet of string players from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra likely saw dark days ahead. But then offers of help started pouring in: The Schubert Club wanted to present their concerts. And Northrop Auditorium's concerts and lectures department. And the Southern's onetime music maven, Kate Nordstrum, now with the SPCO.

And maybe most important of all: Minneapolis' Christ Church Lutheran, which asked if the group wanted to perform its concerts there. All of this good fortune came together Monday night for the opening of the group's three-concert spring season.

And a wonderful one it was, a performance bursting with electricity and urgency. Performing three works for string sextet, Accordo produced something far more intense and exciting than most would imagine chamber music could be.

Opening with the overture from Richard Strauss' last opera, "Capriccio," the sextet established a tone of romance and passion that held throughout the evening. Paradoxical tones of sadness and transcendence emerged on the

Strauss, and violinist Steven Copes and cellist Anthony Ross let the passion pour forth.

But the performance by which this concert will be remembered was an intense and emotionally evocative interpretation of Arnold Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night," in its original six-musician incarnation. In Accordo's hands, it became an inspiring journey from dark despair to shimmering triumph, full of drama and musicianship both precise and powerful. No operatic aria could convey such a sense of desperate longing.

And the concluding performance of Peter Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence" also reached a fever pitch of swoon-ready romanticism, the six musicians pouring their hearts into the interpretation.

Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

Ubiquitous in jazz and hip-hop, borrowing is scarcely less common in the music known as classical. For evidence, look no farther than this week's concerts by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, led by Rossen Milanov and featuring violinist Steven Copes, the orchestra's formidable concertmaster, as soloist.

The concerto, as the composer put it, was written "more for a Caruso than a Paganini" -- despite its fearsome technical demands, its essence is lyrical, not virtuosic. Copes, his tone gorgeous, his zest palpable, did full justice to both dimensions. He executed Korngold's bewitching "Romance," the piece's heart, with marvelous poignancy; its dissolving close was a full-body goose-bump moment. And by the end he'd found the sense of ease and spaciousness I'd missed at first.

Larry FuchsbergStar Tribune
read more

I stood in my stall in rapture last night, listening to the most amazing interpretation I’ve ever heard of Brahms’ Op. 8, B Major Piano Trio at the closing concert of the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia.

I’m not sure I will ever hear it played in such a sensitive, viscerally connected, narratively taut, yet masterfully paced way again — by an ad hoc trio that fitted in scant rehearsal time between other concerts and giving masterclasses to young musicians.

The experience encapsulated the full, true, fragile, ephemeral attraction of the live concert. A live recording, as good as most are, can’t reproduce that special spark of the moment.

To paraphrase Lady Bracknell, live music is like a delicate, exotic fruit; record it, and the bloom is gone.

After the concert, all sorts of other paradoxes came floating up into consciousness.

I had travelled to the Southern Hemisphere to drool over a piece played by three people from the Northern Hemisphere (violinist Steven Copes, cellist Alicia Weilerstein and pianist Brian Ganz). I was in the New World listening to the quintessence of the Old World.

John TeraudsMusical Toronto
read more

May 2, 2011: Leila Josefowicz & the SPCO at Mandel Hall

Schnittke’s Moz-Art à la Haydn for two violins and strings is a performance piece that needs to be seen to be fully experienced. But since the afternoon light was pouring in from the arched windows of the hall, the opening and closing sequences, intended to be played in complete darkness, didn’t quite come off. The musicians by default were forced to concentrate on the incongruous and witty music rather than the staging, which was just fine.

The piece, written in 1977, is a postmodern pastiche of styles and attitudes, with ample opportunity for the two soloists to glitter. Josefowicz and the equally virtuosic Steven Copes, the group’s concertmaster, played their parts admirably and the Alice-in-Wonderland sonic pile-up was brought off with great humor.Gerald FisherChicago Classical Review
read more

There is a part of the classical-music world that has for so long made a desperate attempt to cast off the art's perceived starchiness that the desperation has become as traditional as the starch. And then there is the Boston Chamber Music Society, which, like an enduring fine-dining monument, maintains old-fashioned ways at such a high level that one is reacquainted with their virtues.

Saturday's concert, the last of BCMS's summer series at Longy's Pickman Hall, followed a predictable programming pattern: a contemporary hors d'oeurve followed by entrees of 19th-century standards. The tuxedos were pressed, the applause was ritually withheld between movements. But formality doesn't always create distance, sometimes it collapses it; the thoughtfulness and accomplishment of the playing was consistently stimulating, even when a garnish or ingredient wasnԴ exactly to one's liking. It was enough to draw a healthy crowd, even in the face of an approaching hurricane.

Violinist Steven Copes and violist Maiya Papach presented the first course, selections from George Tsontakis's Knickknacks, a polystylistic anthology of short duos. The music tries out various roles - minimalist cheer in Shuffling, Latin drama in Fandango Facade - but most of the pieces revealed a core of sinuous, austere counterpoint. (Only Bumpkinesque, a fiddle-powered engine revving hard in second gear, defied the pattern.) Copes and Papach, fellow principals in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (where Copes premiered Tsontakis's Second Violin Concerto a few years ago), had ample flair to set off the more sober passages.

Ronald Thomas, BCMS's emeritus director, was joined by pianist Benjamin Hochman for the Opus 38 Cello Sonata of Johannes Brahms. It is a youthful piece, at least by the self-critical Brahms's standards. Thomas and Hochman seemed eager to connect the music to even earlier influences: Schumannesque lieder, Haydnesque lissomeness. Brahms was flexing his mastery of forms bequeathed by history - sonata, minuet, fugue - but the unhurried, slow-burn performance downplayed structural mass in favor of pointing out graceful outlines and details. Their sound contributed: Thomas's fine-drawn tone, gauzy and deep in the bass, wiry and buzzy up high; Hochman's classical lightness, gliding over the top of the keys rather than digging in. One might have wished for more gravity in the fugal Allegro finale, which instead came out preciously crisp.

But Hochman's persistent polish was perfect for Gabriel Fauré's Opus 15 Piano Quartet, another statement of grandly emotive youth, in which the piano's role is essentially iridescent; Copes, Papach, and Thomas spread rich, heavy cloth, which Hochman embroidered with silvery crewel. The Quartet's expansiveness demands architectural intelligence and heady perfume, and this reading delivered on both counts: high-powered conversation, intricately indulgent. To spend time in such old-school, refined company is a fleeting pleasure, but, then again, arenԴ they all? BCMS makes a welcome habit of maintaining timeless oases.Matthew GuarrieriBoston Globe

BOSTON CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY: Tsontakis, Brahms, Fauré

Steven Copes, violin, Maiya Papach, viola, Benjamin Hochman, piano, Ronald Thomas, cello

August 27, 2011

This concert took place the night before Hurricane Irene was scheduled to come through. Nevertheless, the auditorium was quite full. They crowd came out to hear three works performed by the Boston Chamber Music Society: Knickknacks for Violin and Piano by George Tsontakis, Cello Sonata in E minor by Johannes Brahms, and Piano Quartet in C minor by Gabriel Fauré.

I wasn’t familiar with Tsontakis, just a little nervous about the piece from the title he’d chosen. I was prepared to hear an eclectic work, invoking a variety of styles from a wide variety of musical genres. And so it was. From the start of first movement, “Shufflling,” his arpeggios suggested minimalism; there were echoes of the late Beethoven string quartets; there was a cakewalk-like section; there were harmonies that reminded me of Philip Glass’s 5th string quartet. (You should listen to that quartet even if you are certain you dislike Glass.) I heard echoes of Bartok and Prokofiev. But altogether, the movement stood well by itself.

The other movements offered contrasts. “Goodnight Lullaby” gave us a short ostinato figure from the violin in its high register. There were more late Beethoven harmonies. “Fandango Facade” seemed to emanate from a late romantic spirit. Energetic performances of Steven Copes, violin, and Maiya Papach, Viola carried Tsontakis’ intentions with assurance. They seemed very collaborative and in sync with each other. At times, they had an almost uncanny ability to sound like an entire quartet, perhaps enhanced by the general liveliness of Pickman Hall. The following movement, “With Hushed Tenderness,” started with a wonderful conversation between violin and viola, a leading melody, followed by and answer, then sections where they doubled each other. The movement sometimes felt directionless as it moved along. For the final movement, “Bumpkinesque,” he returned to the Philip Glass-like harmonies in a highly rhythmic, dance-like, crisp performance. Ultimately, the piece was interesting, thought-provoking, accessible, certainly worthy of attention. I’d like to hear it again.Matt TempleFine Arts Reviews
read more

The rest of the program was sheer delight. Violinist Steven Copes and pianist Shai Wosner gave an electric, sometimes impish performance of Igor Stravinsky's Divertimento from 'The Fairy's Kiss,'a stripped-down version of ballet music drawn from Tchaikovsky. In the violin and piano arrangement, Stravinsky's own orchestration of Tchaikovsky's material is reduced to its essentials, lean textures skipping on lively rhythms, and Copes and Wosner made a fun, vividly colored story of it.

James McQuillenThe Oregonian

'A young artist whose playing was outstanding, technically, tonally, and stylistically.'

The Strad

Steven Copes interpreted Bach's a minor Sonata with an extraordinarily noble tone. He played seriously- in the best sense. With him, one feels that the music is simply in good hands.

Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung

The Bartok Second Concerto was delivered by the American, Steven Copes, with flashing, often exhilarating vigour and a real sense of how the whole piece works and unfolds, not just its dazzling effects and grateful passages.

Financial Times, London

They probably didn't expect to be wowed by the other piece on the program, Argentine tango master Astor Piazzolla's "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires," given an adrenalin rush of a performance by violinist Steven Copes and the SPCO strings. But wowed they were, judging from the first 11 a.m. standing ovation in this regular concertgoer's memory. While the Vivaldi was also well played, the main event was upstaged by a work that drew upon it for inspiration. Actually, that wasn't what Piazzolla had in mind when he wrote "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires." They were composed as separate pieces, each capturing the bustle, hum and dance rhythms of that Argentine port city. But Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov arranged them into little violin concertos that drop in some of Vivaldi's themes as musical signposts. On Friday morning, the SPCO's concertmaster, Steven Copes, proved an electrifying soloist, unleashing breathtaking fire upon "Summer," becoming a bow-wielding percussionist on "Autumn" and "Spring" and making "Winter" a sweet, sad torch song with a singing melody. Throw in the fact that the whole SPCO string section was exceptional on the piece, and it set the Vivaldi up to be anticlimactic. And that's too bad, because violinist Ruggero Allifranchini played it quite well. It made for an enjoyable performance, but it didn't raise goose bumps like the Piazzolla.

Rob HubbardPioneer Press

Clearly unwilling to squander a visit to New York by performing as a backing band, the orchestra also played a short preconcert program devoted to Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony in F (Op. 73a, actually Rudolf Barshai's 1990 orchestration of the Third String Quartet). The arrangement works brilliantly. The passion of Shostakovich's 1946 meditation on World War II is magnified not only by the heftiness of the string textures but also by the broadened palette afforded by the winds and harp. The orchestra, led by its concertmaster, Steven Copes, produced a wonderfully focused, opulent sound.

Allan KozinnNew York Times

In one sense, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is venturing into uncharted territory this weekend with a program of works that have never been performed by this band.

But from an audience perspective, it's far from an uncharted voyage. Most of the program is very well-known: Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" and Schumann's Symphony No. 4. The centerpiece, Kurt Weill's Concerto for Violin and Winds, is less familiar, though it was presented just last spring by the Minnesota Orchestra with concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis as the soloist.

The concerto has an utterly different impact in this outing, which features concertmaster Steven Copes. Whereas the Minnesota Orchestra's presentation had a frenzied, explosive quality, the SPCO's performance is more refined and shaped — though it is still an exciting piece that involves wind instruments carrying knotty thematic passages while the soloist turns in a frequently dazzling display of spiky runs and double-stop figurations.

Weill wrote the concerto when he was just 24 and heavily under the influence of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. It displays a brilliant use of wind instruments and, especially in the SPCO's reading, a melding between soloist and ensemble that is muscular, vivid and complex. Weill might have considered "elegant" as a pejorative word, but that is the soaring quality of Copes' playing, along with the compelling sense that he's taking the listener somewhere.

David HawleyPioneer Press

The highlight of the concert was concertmaster Steven Copes' performance of the Violin Concerto by Kurt Weill. The work demanded the full range of violin technique, from heartfelt emotion to extreme technical proficiency. Copes performed it all like the virtuoso that he is.
Under Boyd's leadership, the SPCO played the acerbic score with gusto, not softening any of the harsh edges and more importantly, providing an aural framework to showcase Copes' stunning performance.William Randall BeardStar Tribune

The centerpiece of the program was Arnold Schoenberg's tone poem "Verklärte Nacht" ("Transfigured Night"). This late Romantic composition came before his conversion to 12-tone music.

William Randall BeardStar Tribune
read more

Conductor Boyd, who has made a splash heading the Manchester Camerata, projected the sublime beauty of Mozart's slow movements and, with excellent contributions from Pedja Muzijevic (piano) and Steven Copes (violin), led an arresting account of the Berg (Chamber Concerto), although the first movement, with its Viennese waltz, might have had more playfulness.

George LoomisFinancial Times

A Partita by Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski was commissioned by the SPCO for the Ordway's opening in January of 1985. Music director Pinchas Zukerman was the soloist then, a role assumed this weekend by the orchestra's concertmaster, Steven Copes. His deeply involving performance Friday morning reached its peak in the emotional middle movement, when his increasingly urgent high notes sounded like a cry above the martial fray of the orchestra.

Rob HubbardPioneer Press

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the baton of Thomas Ades created a magnificent performance on the fourth night of the Edinburgh International Festival.

In contrast to Ades' meticulous interpretation of Beethoven's Namensfeier overture, his baton wavered in the second piece of the program. Guiding the orchestra through the contrasting changes of character in Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite, Ades' overall control and interpretation of tempi was not as strong as one would expect. Faltering slightly in the last Allegro entry before the Gavotta con due variazioni, the orchestra recovered quickly in response to Ades' assertive baton with a dazzling solo from leader Steven Copes.

Mary RobbMusicalCriticism.com

.. the musicians sank their teeth into this program as if voraciously hungry for the kind of emotional release afforded by Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schumann. None more so than concertmaster Steven Copes, the soloist for the Brahms Violin Concerto. He attacked the work with a passion and intensity rarely seen from a musician who more often comes off as a humble team player.

Whether shredding his bow hairs on the cadenza of the opening movement or tugging heartstrings on the slow Adagio, Copes was electrifying yet technically impeccable. Chalk it up to the fact that the SPCO had never performed this Romantic masterwork in the orchestra's 50-year history, but there was an atmosphere of seizing the opportunity that seemed to fuel this interpretation.

Rob HubbardPioneer Press

In a fully Romantic program of Brahms, Schumann and Mendelssohn, SPCO's own players show their virtuosity. Copes proved his mettle in the Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 by Johannes Brahms. He conducted economically, with minimal hand gestures and often no more than a tilt of the head or a raised eyebrow, but he had a clear sense of the shape and structure of this monumental Romantic work. He was able to maintain his split focus without sacrificing any measure of his solo virtuosity and while maintaining a sure hand with the ensemble. As soloist, Copes demonstrated himself the master of the grand gesture, from the bravura cadenza in the opening Allegro to the lyrical meditation in the Andante. He clearly felt the music very deeply, and the solo performance was deeply affecting.

The concert opened with Robert Schumann's Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52. This brief three-movement work built from the sprightly, lyrical Overture to a lively and dramatic Finale. Copes clearly had a good time with the piece, leading an energetic, fast-paced performance that sacrificed nothing in terms of orchestral cohesion and balance.

William Randall BeardStar Tribune

The program ended with a dashing performance of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2. The music's mix of tart lyricism and incendiary bravura took splendidly to the suave brilliance and brawny attack of Steven Copes, the orchestra's proficient concertmaster.

John von RheinChicago Tribune

...the star of the show may have been the orchestra's concertmaster, Steven Copes, who delivered several thrilling violin solos on the concert's five other works. It was a briskly paced and utterly enjoyable program, full of reminders that the SPCO is a first-rate baroque band.

Or, in this case, a top-notch string section. For most of the concert, harpsichordist Layton James was the only one without a bow in his hand, and he and the cellists were alone in employing chairs. That increased the physicality factor, as the standing, conductor-less musicians cued one another with twists, dipped shoulders, nods and glances.

Allifranchini set an energetic tone on the Torelli concerto, stomping and swaying like a folk fiddler, and Copes soon followed suit on a Charles Avison Concerto Grosso. But Copes' strongest solos came on a set of 23 variations by Francesco Geminiani. All of the composers

represented were also violinists, and it's clear that they felt it in their best interests to write showpieces for that instrument.

Rob HubbardPioneer Press

The rapid about-face in the fortunes of chamber group Accordo reminds me of the final scene in the film "It's a Wonderful Life." Just as Jimmy Stewart's character, George Bailey, was in a dark and desperate place, only to be overwhelmed by the affection and generosity of the people of Bedford Falls, so has Accordo found its basket overflowing.

After a financial crisis at its home hall, the Southern Theater, left it homeless, this talented quintet of string players from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra likely saw dark days ahead. But then offers of help started pouring in: The Schubert Club wanted to present their concerts. And Northrop Auditorium's concerts and lectures department. And the Southern's onetime music maven, Kate Nordstrum, now with the SPCO.

And maybe most important of all: Minneapolis' Christ Church Lutheran, which asked if the group wanted to perform its concerts there. All of this good fortune came together Monday night for the opening of the group's three-concert spring season.

And a wonderful one it was, a performance bursting with electricity and urgency. Performing three works for string sextet, Accordo produced something far more intense and exciting than most would imagine chamber music could be.

Opening with the overture from Richard Strauss' last opera, "Capriccio," the sextet established a tone of romance and passion that held throughout the evening. Paradoxical tones of sadness and transcendence emerged on the

Strauss, and violinist Steven Copes and cellist Anthony Ross let the passion pour forth.
But the performance by which this concert will be remembered was an intense and emotionally evocative interpretation of Arnold Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night," in its original six-musician incarnation. In Accordo's hands, it became an inspiring journey from dark despair to shimmering triumph, full of drama and musicianship both precise and powerful. No operatic aria could convey such a sense of desperate longing.

And the concluding performance of Peter Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence" also reached a fever pitch of swoon-ready romanticism, the six musicians pouring their hearts into the interpretation.

And the 300-plus-seat Christ Church Lutheran proved acoustically impressive, with nary a trace of echo from the 35-foot-tall brick walls that surrounded the musicians. It seems a fine home for chamber music.Rob HubbardPioneer Press
read more

Past Events

Friday, August 28, 2026Chestnut Hill ConcertsKatherine Hepburn Cultural Arts CenterOld Saybrook, CTMihae Lee, piano & Artistic Director/Stephanie Zyzak, violin/Cong Wu, viola/Peter Wiley, cello
Prokofiev: Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56/
Schumann: Piano Quintet in Eb Major

Monday, August 17-23, 2026Olympic Music FestivalPort Townsend, WAJulio Elizalde, piano & Music Director Schumann: Piano Trio #3 in g minor, Op. 110/
Beethoven: Quartet in e minor, Op. 59, #2/
Coleridge-Taylor: Claribet Quintet

more info...

Wednesday, July 22-August 2, 2026Festival MozaicSan Luis Obispo, CA Scott Yoo, Artistic DirectorNovacek: Music for 8/ Reich: Double Sextet/ Prokofiev: Quintet in g minor

Tuesday, June 30-July 22, 2026Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival & SchoolBlue Hill, MELaurie Smukler, Artistic DirectorBrahms: Piano Quarttet in A, Op. 26/ Shostakovich: Preludes for Violin & Piano/ Enescu: Piano Quartet #1 in D/ Grieg arr. Wosner: Movement for Piano Quintet/ Augusta Read Thomas: Upon Wings of Wordsmore info...

Sunday, June 21-29, 2026Cleveland Chamber FestCleveland, OHDiana Cohen/Franklin Cohen/Roman Rabinovich, Artistic Directors

Reynaldo Hahn: Piano Quintet in F# minor/
Fauré: Piano Trio (Mvt. 1)/
Michelle Ross: String Quartet/
Olli Mustonen: Nonet II/
Kareem Roustom: 4 Syrian Folk Songs
more info...

April 22-30, 2026Sir Simon Rattle & The Chamber Orchestra of EuropeTour of Berlin, Essen, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt, BolognaGuest LeaderBartok: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celeste/ Busoni: Sarabande from Dr. Faust, Op. 51/ Brahms: Symphony # 4 in e minor/more info...

Wednesday, April 22, 2026Accordo with Roderick Williams, bartitoneICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Roderick Williams, baritone /Susie Park & Robin Scott, violins/Maiya Papach, viola/ Julie Albers, celloHaydn: String Quartet in G, Op. 76, #1/ Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin, arranged for baritone & string quartet by Roderick Williams

Monday, April 20, 2026Accordo with Roderick Williams, bartitoneWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Roderick Williams, baritone/Susie Park & Robin Scott, violins/Maiya Papach, viola/ Julie Albers, celloHaydn: String Quartet in G, Op. 76, #1/ Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin, arranged for baritone & string quartet by Roderick Williams

Sunday, February 01, 2026Shostakovich with the Baltimore SymphonyJoseph Meyerhoff Symphony HallBaltimore, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/

Guest Concertmaster

Shostakovich: Symphony #4

Saturday, January 31, 2026Shostakovich with the Baltimore SymphonyMusic Center at StrathmoreNorth Bethesda, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/

Guest Concertmaster

Shostakovich: Symphony #4

Thursday, January 29, 2026Shostakovich with the Baltimore SymphonyJoseph Meyerhoff Symphony HallBaltimore, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/

Guest Concertmaster

Shostakovich: Symphony #4

Sunday, January 25, 2026Brahms & Haydn with the Baltimore SymphonyMusic Center at StrathmoreNorth Bethesda, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/ Simone Lamsma, violin/

Guest ConcertmasterMartines: Sinfonia in C/ Haydn: Symphony #100 (Military)/ Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77

Saturday, January 24, 2026Casual Conversations: Brahms & Haydn with the Baltimore SymphonyJoseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Baltimore, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/ Simone Lamsma, violin/

Guest ConcertmasterMartines: Sinfonia in C/ Haydn: Symphony #100 (Military)/ Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77

Friday, January 23, 2026Brahms & Haydn with the Baltimore SymphonyJoseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Baltimore, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/ Simone Lamsma, violin/

Guest ConcertmasterMartines: Sinfonia in C/ Haydn: Symphony #100 (Military)/ Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77

Tuesday, January 13, 2026Accordo: Dvorak with McDermott ICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Anne-Marie McDermott/ Susie Park, violin/ Maiya Papach, viola/ Tony Ross, cello
Clara Schumann: Romances for Violin & Piano/ Ravel: String Quartet/ Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A Major

Monday, January 12, 2026Accordo: Dvorak with McDermott Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Anne-Marie McDermott/ Susie Park, violin/ Maiya Papach, viola/ Tony Ross, cello
Clara Schumann: Romances for Violin & Piano/ Ravel: String Quartet/Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A Major

Tuesday, October 14, 2025Accordo: Season Opener!ICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Susie Park, violin; Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, viole; Tony Ross, celloStrauss: Sextet from Capriccio/ Zemlinsky: Quartet #3/ Mozart: Viola Quintet in g minor, K. 516

Monday, October 13, 2025Accordo: Opening Night!Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Susie Park, violin; Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, viole; Tony Ross, celloStrauss: Sextet from Capriccio/ Zemlinsky: Quartet #3/ Mozart: Viola Quintet in g minor, K. 516

Sunday, September 28, 2025Beethoven with the Baltimore SymphonyJoseph Meyerhoff Symphony HallBaltimore, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/ Inon Barnatan, piano/ Stefan Jackiw, violin/ Hayoung Choi, cello/

Guest ConcertmasterIman Habibi: Jeder Baum spricht - Every Tree Speaks/ Beethoven: Triple Concerto/ Beethoven: Symphony #7

Saturday, September 27, 2025Beethoven with the Baltimore SymphonyMusic Center at StrathmoreNorth Bethesda, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/ Inon Barnatan, piano/ Stefan Jackiw, violin/ Hayoung Choi, cello/

Guest ConcertmasterIman Habibi: Jeder Baum spricht - Every Tree Speaks/ Beethoven: Triple Concerto/ Beethoven: Symphony #7

Friday, September 26, 2025Beethoven with the Baltimore SymphonyJoseph Meyerhoff Symphony HallBaltimore, MDJonathon Heyward, Music Director & Conductor/ Inon Barnatan, piano/ Stefan Jackiw, violin/ Hayoung Choi, cello/

Guest ConcertmasterIman Habibi: Jeder Baum spricht - Every Tree Speaks/ Beethoven: Triple Concerto/ Beethoven: Symphony #7

Sunday, September 14, 2025Brahms Double for SPCO Opening WeekendOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNThomas Zehetmair, conductor/ Steven Copes, violin & Julie Albers, celloZehetmair: Passacaglia, Burlesque & Chorale for Strings/ Brahms: Double Concerto for Violin & Cello/ Mozart: Jupiter Symphonymore info...

Saturday, September 13, 2025Brahms Double for SPCO Opening WeekendOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNThomas Zehetmair, conductor/ Steven Copes, violin & Julie Albers, celloZehetmair: Passacaglia, Burlesque & Chorale for Strings/ Brahms: Double Concerto for Violin & Cello/ Mozart: Jupiter Symphonymore info...

Friday, September 12, 2025Brahms Double for SPCO Opening WeekendOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNThomas Zehetmair, conductor/ Steven Copes, violin & Julie Albers, celloZehetmair: Passacaglia, Burlesque & Chorale for Strings/ Brahms: Double Concerto for Violin & Cello/ Mozart: Jupiter Symphonymore info...

Tuesday, August 26-31, 2025Olympic Music FestivalPort Townsend, WAJulio Elizalde, piano and Artistic Director/ Sandy Yamamoto, violin/ Bob McDonald, piano/ Jonathan Vinocour, viola/ Efe Baltacigil, celloFranck: Piano Quintet/ Dvorak: Piano Quintet

Friday, August 22, 2025Chestnut Hill ConcertsKatherine Hepburn Cultural Arts CenterOld Saybrook, CTwith Mihae Lee, piano & Artistic Director - Stephanie Zyzak, violin - Peter Wiley, celloGeminiani: Sonata in c minor for Violin & Piano - Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A Majormore info...

Saturday, July 26, 2025Festival Orchestra Concert Performing Arts Center SLOSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music Director & Conductor/ Alice Dade, flute soloist

Beethoven: Leonore Overture #3/ Nielsen: Flute Concerto/ Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet Suite
more info...

Friday, July 25, 2025Chamber Concert 3 at Festival Mozaic Harold J. Miossi Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music DirectorDorothy Rudd Moore: 3 Pieces for Violin & Piano

With Susan Grace, pianomore info...

Wednesday, July 23, 2025Festival Mozaic at the MissionMission San Luis Obispo de TolosaSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music Director & ConductorJohn Adams: Chamber Symphonymore info...

Monday, July 21, 2025Chamber Concert 2 at Festival Mozaic Templeton Performing Arts CenterTempleton, CA Scott Yoo, Music DirectorGliere: String Octet in D Major, Op. 5

with Ranny Sarc, Jason Uyeyama, Sophia Molina, violins/ Caitlyn Lynch & Daniel Simmons, viole/ Ani Aznavoorian & Ethan Blake, cellimore info...

Monday, July 18, 2025Opening Night at Festival Mozaic Harold J. Miossi Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music DirectorSchulhoff: 5 Pieces for String Quartet

With Ranny Sarc, violin/ Maurycy Banaszek, viola/ Ani Aznavoorian, cellomore info...

Monday, June 23, 2025Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallAmy Beach: Quartet in one movement, Op. 89 (with Andrew Wan, violin; Toby Appel, viola & Mark Kosower, cello)

Sunday, June 22, 2025Colorado College Summer Music FestivalCeleste TheatreDirected by Tom LindbladeStravinsky: Soldierâ€™s Tale (with Sergei Vassilev, clarinet; Michael Kroth, bassoon; Jean Laurenz, trumpet; John Rojak, trombone; Sue Cahill, bass; Aaron Turner, percussion; Scott Yoo, conductor

Thursday, June 19, 2025Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, Artistic DirectorNovacek: Music for 8 (with Stephen Rose, Andrew Wan & Stefan Hersh, violins; Toby Appel & Phillip Ying, violas; Bion Tsang & David Ying, celli)

Tuesday, June 03, 2025Accordo Season 16: Octet Madness!ICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNSteven Copes, Erin Keefe, Natsuki Kumagai, Susie Park, violins - Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, viole - Julie Albers & Tony Ross, celliBruce Adolphe: Thakla, Vilomah, Shakil (Bereavement) for String Octet -John Novacek: Three New Pieces for String Octet - Mendelssohn: String Octet in Eb Major, Op. 20

Monday, June 02, 2025Accordo Season 16: Octet Madness!Westminster HallMinneapolis, MNSteven Copes, Erin Keefe, Natsuki Kumagai, Susie Park, violins -Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, viole -Julie Albers & Tony Ross, celliBruce Adolphe: Thakla, Vilomah, Shakil (Bereavement) for String Octet -John Novacek: Three New Pieces for String Octet - Mendelssohn: String Octet in Eb Major, Op. 20

Tuesday, May 13, 2025Accordo Season 16: Silent Movie NightOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNStephen Prutsman, pianist, composer & MC - Steven Copes & Erin Keefe, violins -Maiya Papach, viola -Tony Ross, cello -Susan Billmeyer, piano

Saturday, May 03, 2025Prokofiev with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNProkofiev (arr. S. Prutsman) Sonata for Violin and Chamber Orchestra #1 in f minor

Friday, May 02, 2025Prokofiev with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNProkofiev (arr. S. Prutsman) Sonata for Violin and Chamber Orchestra #1 in f minor

Monday, March 17-30, 2025Chamber Orchestra of Europe TourAnna Clyne: Stride for String Orchestra -

Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos -

Sunwook Kim, pianoGuest Leader for concerts in Kronberg, Liege, Berlin, Toulouse, Eisenstadt

Tuesday, January 14, 2025Accordo Season 16: Quartet Night!ICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNOwen Dalby & Steven Copes, violins -Maiya Papach, viola -Tony Ross, celloBeach: Quartet in One Movement - Mendelssohn: Quartet in e minor, Op. 44, #2 -DvoÅ™Ã¡k: Quartet in Ab Major, Op. 105

Monday, January 13, 2025Accordo Season 16: Quartet Night!Westminster HallMinneapolis, MNOwen Dalby & Steven Copes, violins -Maiya Papach, viola -Tony Ross, celloBeach: Quartet in One Movement - Mendelssohn: Quartet in e minor, Op. 44, #2 - DvoÅ™Ã¡k: Quartet in Ab Major, Op. 105

Wednesday, December 04, 2024Guest Leading North Carolina SymphonyChapel Hill and RaleighCarlos Prieto, Music Director Selections from Bach: Christmas Oratorio & Handel: Messiah

Tuesday, November 19, 2024Accordo Season 16 Season Opener!ICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNWith Rieko Aizawa, piano - Susie Park, violin -Becca Albers, viola & Tony Ross, celloDebussy: Sonata for Cello & Piano -Mahler: Piano Quartet in a minor -Lili Boulanger: Dâ€™un Matin du Printemps for Piano Trio -Brahms: Piano Quartet in A Major

Monday, November 18, 2024Accordo Season 16 Season Opener!Westminster HallMinneapolis, MNWith Rieko Aizawa, piano - Susie Park, violin - Becca Albers, viola & Tony Ross, celloDebussy: Sonata for Cello & Piano -Mahler: Piano Quartet in a minor -Lili Boulanger: Dâ€™un Matin du Printemps for Piano Trio -
Brahms: Piano Quartet in A Major

Wednesday, November 06-18, 2024Chamber Orchestra of Europe Tour of Italy, France and GermanyGuest Leader/
with Sir Antonio Pappano, conductor
& Bertrand Chamayou, piano soloist

Milhaud: Creation du Monde
Ravel: Piano Concerto
Gershwin: I Got Rhythm Variations
Bernstein: Fancy Free (complete ballet)

Friday, September 13-15, 2024Mozartâ€™s Sinfonia Concertante with Tabea ZimmermannOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNmore info...

Friday, August 23, 2024Chestnut Hill ConcertsKatherine Hepburn Cultural Arts CenterOld Saybrook, CTwith:
Stephanie Zyzak, violin
Cong Wu, viola
Peter Wiley, cello
Mihae Lee, piano & Artistic Director SCHUMANN: MÃ¤rchenbilder for Viola and Piano, Op. 113

LECLAIR: Sonata for Two Violins in E Minor, Op. 3, No. 5

BRAHMS: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34

Friday, July 26, 2024Festival Mozaic & Earl KimHarold J. Miossi Cultural Arts Center San Luis Obispo, CALucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano
Steven Copes, Brynn Albanese, Jason Uyeyama, Anthony Wong, violins
Jessica Oudin, Jessica Chang, violas
Sophie Shao, Dariusz Skoraczewski, cellos
Annabelle Taubl, harpEarl Kim: Where Grief Slumbers

Wednesday, July 24, 2024Festival Mozaic at the MissionMission San Luis Obispo de TolosaSan Luis ObispoMarcia McHugh, flute
Ralph Skiano, clarinet
Steven Copes, Jason Uyeyama, violins
Jessica Oudin, viola
Sophie Shao, celloRavel: Introduction & Allegro

Tuesday, July 23, 2024Festival Mozaic & Crawford SeegerTempleton Performing Arts CenterTempleton, CAwith Susan Grace, piano Ruth Crawford Seeger: Sonata for Violin & Piano (1924)more info...

Friday, July 19, 2024Festival Mozaic & HaydnHarold J. Miossi Cultural CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAwith Steven Copes, Rannveig Marta Sarc, violins
Caitlin Lynch, viola; Dariusz Skoraczewski, celloHaydn: Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 64 #6more info...

Thursday, June 20, 2024Colorado College Summer Music Festival Packard HallColorado Springs, COKenji Bunch: Commission

(With Kenji Bunch, viola; John Novacek, piano Stephen Rose, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Mark Kosower, cello)

Arensky: Quartet, Op. 35

(with Toby Appel, viola; Mark Kosower and Bion Tsang, celli)

Thursday, June 20, 2024Colorado College Summer Music Festival Packard HallColorado Springs, COWith John Novacek, piano; Mark Kosower, cello and Sue Cahill, bassLibby Larsen: Four on the Floor

Monday, June 17, 2024Colorado College Summer Music Festival Packard HallColorado Springs, COWith Stephen Rose, Toby Appel & Bion TsangMontgomery: Strum for String Quartet

Sunday, June 09, 2024Berg Violin Concerto with Takacs-Nagy & SPCOTed Mann Conceet HallMinneapolis, MNwith the SPCO and Gabor Takacs-Nagy, conductorBerg (arr. Ferree): Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony # 3, â€˜Eroicaâ€™more info...

Saturday, June 08, 2024Berg Violin Concerto with Takacs-Nagy & SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith the SPCO and Gabor Takacs-Nagy, conductorBerg (arr. Ferree): Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony # 3, â€˜Eroicaâ€™more info...

Friday, June 07, 2024Berg Violin Concerto with Takacs-Nagy & SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith the SPCO and Gabor Takacs-Nagy, conductorBerg (arr. Ferree): Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony # 3, â€˜Eroicaâ€™more info...

Tuesday, May 14, 2024Accordoâ€™s Annual Silent Film Show!Ordway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith Susie Park, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, cello & Stephen Prutsman, pianofeaturing Stephen Prutsmanâ€™s new score to Buster Keatonâ€™s classic movie, â€˜The Generalâ€™

Sunday, May 05, 2024NDR Elbphilharmonie OrchestraElbphilharmonieHamburg, GermanyGuest Leader

Alan Gilbert, conductor and Music DirectorSchoenberg: A Survivor in Warsaw
Beethoven: Symphony #9
more info...

Friday, May 03, 2024NDR Elbphilharmonie OrchestraElbphilharmonieHamburg, Germany
Guest Leader

Alan Gilbert, conductor and Music DirectorSchoenberg: A Survivor in Warsaw
Beethoven: Symphony #9
more info...

Friday, April 26, 2024COE & Joshua Bell on tourForum am SchlossparkLudwigsburg, GermanyGuest LeaderBeethoven: Egmont Overture
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony #4 in Bbmore info...

Wednesday, April 24, 2024COE & Joshua Bell on tourPalacio de Congresos de Zaragosa Zaragoza, SpainGuest LeaderBeethoven: Egmont Overture
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony #4 in Bbmore info...

Tuesday, April 23, 2024COE & Joshua Bell on tourAuditorio Victor VillegasMurcia, SpainGuest LeaderBeethoven: Egmont Overture
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony #4 in Bbmore info...

Saturday, April 20, 2024Chamber Orchestra of Europe in AthensChristos Lambrakis HallAthens , Greece
Jan Lisiecki, piano
Constantinos Carydis, conductor (Athens only)
Alfred Schnittke: Prelude in memory of Dmitri Shostakovich for two violins
Pericles Koukos: Adagio for string orchestra from the cantata The Persians
Dmitri Shostakovich: Two pieces for string octet, op. 11
L. van Beethoven: Piano and Orchestra Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Dmitri Shostakovich: Prelude No. 3 in G major from the 24 Piano Preludes, Op. 34
Ives: Largo for Strings
L. van Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60more info...

Saturday, March 30, 2024Beethoven Violin Concerto with Vicente Chamber OrchestraZipper HallLos Angeles, CAwith Zain Khan, Music Director and Conductormore info...

Tuesday, March 05, 2024Accordo plays Montgomery, Mendelssohn & BrahmsICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Susie Park, violin; Becca Albers & Papach, viole & Tony Ross, celloJessie Montgomery: Strum for String Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in D, Op. 76 #5
Brahms: Viola Quintet in G Major, Op. 111

Monday, March 04, 2024Accordo plays Montgomery, Mendelssohn & BrahmsWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Susie Park, violin; Becca Albers & Papach, viole & Tony Ross, celloJessie Montgomery: Strum for String Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in D, Op. 76 #5
Brahms: Viola Quintet in G Major, Op. 111

Thursday, February 22-25, 2024Festival Mozaic Winter Music FestivalSan Luis Obispo, CAWith Scott Yoo, violin & Artistic Director; Anna Polonsky, piano; Caitlin Lynch, viola & Bion Tsang, cello Mozart: Piano Trio in G, K. 564
Shostakovich: Quartet in A-Flat Major, Op. 118
Dohnanyi: Piano Quintet #2 in e-flat minor, Op. 26more info...

Tuesday, February 06, 2024Accordo plays Death & the MaidenICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Stephen Prutsman, piano; Erin Keefe, violin; Becca Albers, viola & Tony Ross, celloMozart: Piano Trio in G Major, K. 564
Schnittke: Piano Quintet
Schubert: Quartet in d minor â€˜Death & the Maidenâ€™

Monday, February 05, 2024Accordo plays Death & the MaidenWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Stephen Prutsman, piano; Erin Keefe, violin; Becca Albers, viola & Tony Ross, celloMozart: Piano Trio in G Major, K. 564
Schnittke: Piano Quintet
Schubert: Quartet in d minor â€˜Death & the Maidenâ€™

Tuesday, November 21-24, 2023Melbourne Symphony OrchestraMelbourne, AustraliaJaime Martin, Music Director & Conductor

Guest LeaderMozart: Symphonies #39-41
more info...

Wednesday, November 15, 2023Buster Keatonâ€™s Sherlock JrGuarneri HallChicago, ILwith Alex Hersh, cello; Stephen Prutsman, pianoStephen Prutsmanâ€™s piano quintet score to the classic silent film!more info...

Monday, October 23, 2023Accordo Season OpenerWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano; Susie Park, violin; Maiya Papach, viola & Julie Albers, celloBach: Sonata for Keyboard & Violin #4 in c minor, BWV 2017
Shostakovich: Quartet #10 in Ab Major, Op. 118
Dvorak: Piano Quartet in Eb, Op. 87more info...

Sunday, September 24, 2023Arizona Friends of Chamber Music presents AccordoTucson, AZwith Becca Albers, viola; Tony Ross, cello; Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet; Randy Hodgkinson, pianoDebussy: Premiere Rhapsody
Tsontakis: Portraits of El Greco, Book II
Mozart: Piano Quartet in Eb, K. 493more info...

Sunday, September 03, 2023Olympic Music FestivalWheeler Theatre at Fort WordenPort Townsend, WAJulio Elizalde, piano and Artistic Director
David Bowlin, violin; Robert McDonald, piano; Dmitri Murrath, viola; Efe Baltacigil, cello
Dvorak: Terzetto in C for Two Violins & Viola
Faure: Piano Quintet #2 in c minor
Schumann: Piano Trio #1 in d minormore info...

Friday, August 25, 2023Chestnut Hill ConcertsDeep River, CT
with Mihae Lee, piano; Cindy Wu, violin; Melissa Reardon, viola & Raman Ramakrishnan, celloDvorak: Terzetto in C for 2 Violins & Viola
Schumann: Piano Quintet in Eb

Tuesday, July 25-July 30, 2023La Jolla SummerfestLa Jolla, CAInon Barnatan, piano & Artistic Director
Alan Gilbert, conductor
with Erin Keefe, violin; Becca Albers and Maiya Papach, viole; Oliver Herbert, celloSchreker: Chamber Symphony
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto #1
Mozart: Viola Quintet in c minor, K. 406

Thursday, June 22, 2023Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, Music Director
Schubert: Octet

with Stephen Rose, violin 1; Toby Appel, viola; Bion Tsang, cello; Susan Cahill, bass; Laura Ardan, clarinet; Mike Kroth, bassoon; Mike Thornton, horn

Monday, June 19, 2023Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, Music Director
Vaughn Williams: Piano Quintet in c minor

with John Novacek, piano; Toby Appel, viola; Bion Tsang, cello; Susan Cahill, bass

Tuesday, June 06, 2023Accordo plays World Premiere ICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNKatherine Needleman, oboe & composer
Steven Copes & Erin Keefe, violins
Maiya Papach & Hyobi Sim, violas
Tony Ross & Wilhelmina Smith, celli
Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F Major
Needleman: Land Where my Fathers Died for Oboe & String Trio (World Premiere, Schubert Club Commission)
Brahms: Sextet #2 in G Majormore info...

Monday, June 05, 2023Accordo plays World Premiere Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNKatherine Needleman, oboe & composer
Steven Copes & Erin Keefe, violins
Maiya Papach & Hyobi Sim, violas
Tony Ross & Wilhelmina Smith, celli
Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F Major
Needleman: Land Where my Fathers Died for Oboe & String Trio (World Premiere, Schubert Club Commission)
Brahms: Sextet #2 in G Major

Monday, May 01, 2023Accordo plays SaariahoWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNDavid Bowlin, violin
Maiya Papach, viola
Tony Ross, cello
Tim Lovelace, pianoSaariaho: Tocar for Violin & Piano
Beethoven: String Trio in Eb Major, Op. 9 #1
Faure: Piano Quartet #1 in c minormore info...

Sunday, April 30, 2023Brahmsâ€™ Violin Concerto with the SPCOBenson Great HallArden Hills, MNProgram also includes works by Strauss and Perkinsonmore info...

Saturday, April 29, 2023Brahms Violin Concerto with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNProgram also includes works by Strauss and Perkinsonmore info...

Friday, April 28, 2023Brahms Violin Concerto with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNProgram also includes works by Strauss and Perkinsonmore info...

Sunday, March 26, 2023Brahms Violin Concerto with Pro Arte Chamber OrchestraBoston, MAmore info...

Tuesday, February 14, 2023Accordo Silent Movie Show!Ordway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNStephen Prutsman, composer & pianistTBD

Monday, December 05, 2022Accordo goes BritishWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNSteven Copes & Susie Park, violins
Maiya Papach & Hyobi Siim, violas
Julie Albers & Tony Ross, celliBritten: Divertimento #1 (March) for String Quartet
Purcell: Selected Fantasias for String Quartet
Britten: Suite #1 for Solo Cello
Bridge: String Sextet in Eb Major

Monday, October 24, 2022Accordo plays BacewiczWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNSteven Copes & Erin Keefe, violins
Hyobi Sim, viola
Bion Tsang, celloHaydn: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, #2
Ligeti: Ballad & Dance for Two Violins
Lutoslawski: Bucolics for Violin & Viola
Bacewicz: String Quartet #4more info...

Saturday, September 17, 2022New World Symphony ResidencyMIchael Tilson Thomas Performance HallMiami, FLOrtiz: Calaca for String Orchestra
Hartmann: Concerto Funebre for Solo Violin & Strings
Dvorak: Serenade for Strings

Soloist & Leadermore info...

Monday, August 29-September 5, 2022Mimir Festival MelbourneMelbourne, AustraliaWith Curt Thompson & Gabriela Diaz, violins; Joan Derhovsepian, viola, Brant Taylor, cello; John Novacek, piano Shostakovich: String Quartet #3, Op. 73
Franck: Piano Quintet
Schnittke: Piano Quintet
Jessie Montgomery: Strum for String Quartet
Mendelssohn: Octet for Strings in Ebmore info...

Friday, August 19, 2022Chestnut Hill ConcertsThe KateOld Saybrook, CTWith Mihae Lee & Randy Hodgkinson, pianosClara Schumann: Three Romances

Beethoven: â€˜Kreutzerâ€™ Sonata in A Major, Op. 47

more info...

Sunday, August 07-13, 2022Orford Music FestivalOrford, QuebecTeaching & master classes

Saturday, July 30, 2022HallÃ© Orchestra at the PromsLondon, EnglandGuest Leader, with Sir Mark Elder, conductor Dukas: The Sorcererâ€™s Apprentice
Respighi: Fountains of Rome
Puccini: Il Tabarro (The Cloak)

Sunday, June 26, 2022Bravo! Vail Festival with the SPCOFord AmphitheaterVail, COEunice Kim, violin & Xavier Foley, double bassBottesini: Grand Duo Concertante

Britten: Variation on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 for String Orchestra

Xavier Foley: For Justice & Peace

Copland: Suite from Appalachian Springmore info...

Saturday, June 25, 2022Bravo! Vail Festival with the SPCOFord AmphitheaterVail, CO
Anne- Marie McDermott, pianist and Artistic Director Bach: Keyboard Concerto #5 in f minor

Chris Rogerson: Piano Concerto (World Premiere)

Bach: Goldberg Variations for Chamber Orchestra (arr. Jay Ferree)more info...

Thursday, June 23, 2022Bravo! Vail Festival with the SPCOFord AmphitheaterVail, COStefan Jackiw, violinBeethoven: Violin Sonata #9, â€˜Kreutzerâ€™ (arr. R. Tognetti) for Violin & Strings

Beethoven: Symphony #4 in Bb Major, Op. 60more info...

Monday, June 13-19, 2022Colorado College Summer Music FestivalColorado Springs, COwith Susan Grace, piano and music director; Phillip Ying, viola; Burt Hara, clarinet & Bion Tsang, celloTsontakis: Portraits of El Greco, Book II

Monday, May 16, 2022Accordo plays Beethovenâ€™s Kreutzer SonataWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Julie Albers & Tony Ross, celli: Susie Park, violin & Maiya Papach, violaSchubert: String Trio in Bb, D. 581

Hans Eisler: Duo for Violin & Cello, Op. 7

Beethoven: â€˜Kreutzerâ€™ Sonata in A Major for String Quintet

Tuesday, May 10, 2022Accordo Silent Movie NightOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith Alicia McQuerrey, flute & piccolo; Kate Nettleman, bass; Tony Ross, cello; Maiya Papach, viola & Stephen Prutsman, piano/composer/emceeBuster Keatonâ€™s Seven Chances to original music by Stephen Prutsman and a new work by Michi Wiancko

Saturday, April 02, 2022Prokofiev & Haydn with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNProkofiev (arr. S. Prutsman): Sonata #1in f minor, Op. 80 for Solo Violin & Orchestra

Haydn: Sinfonia Concertante
with Cassie Pilgrim, oboe; Fei Xie, bassoon; Julie Albers, cellomore info...

Friday, April 01, 2022Prokofiev & Haydn with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNProkofiev (arr. S. Prutsman): Sonata #1in f minor, Op. 80 for Solo Violin & Orchestra

Haydn: Sinfonia Concertante
with Cassie Pilgrim, oboe; Fei Xie, bassoon; Julie Albers, cellomore info...

Friday, March 25-27, 2022For the End of TimeWith Jonathan Biss, piano; Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet & Julie Albers, celloMessiaen: Quartet for the End of Timemore info...

Tuesday, March 15, 2022Accordo plays Brahms Clarinet QuintetICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Erin Keefe, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Tony Ross, cello; Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet ZoltÃ¡n KodÃ¡ly : Serenade for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 12

Kinan Azmeh: The Fence, The Rooftop and the Distant Sea for Clarinet and Cello

Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115

Monday, March 14, 2022Accordo plays Brahms Clarinet QuintetWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Erin Keefe, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Tony Ross, cello; Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet ZoltÃ¡n KodÃ¡ly : Serenade for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 12

Kinan Azmeh: The Fence, The Rooftop and the Distant Sea for Clarinet and Cello

Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115

Tuesday, February 15, 2022Accordo at IcehouseWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Julio Elizalde, piano; Susie Park, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, celloAntonin DvoÅ™Ã¡k: 4 Romantic Pieces for Two Violins & Viola (Miniatures, Op. 75a)

Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet in F Major, Op. 50 No.5

William Grant Still: Two Pieces for Violin & Piano
1. Pastorela
2. Quit Dat Foolâ€™nish

Maurice Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor

Monday, February 14, 2022Accordo Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Julio Elizalde, piano; Susie Park, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, celloAntonin DvoÅ™Ã¡k: 4 Romantic Pieces for Two Violins & Viola (Miniatures, Op. 75a)

Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet in F Major, Op. 50 No.5

William Grant Still: Two Pieces for Violin & Piano
1. Pastorela
2. Quit Dat Foolâ€™nish

Maurice Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor

Sunday, January 23, 2022CANCELLED: Mozart with Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston Cary HallLexington, MAKevin Rhodes, conductor Mozart: Concerto #1 in Bb, K. 207
Rondo in Bb, K. 269

works by Wallen & Haydn complete the program

Tuesday, October 19, 2021Accordo at IcehouseICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Susie Park, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Ron Thomas, cello; Anna Polonsky, pianoClara Schumann: Three Romances for Viola & Piano

Coleridge-Taylor: Fantasy Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 57

Monday, October 18, 2021Accordo Opening Night, 13th seasonUnited Church of ChristSaint Paul, MNwith Susie Park, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Ron Thomas, cello; Anna Polonsky, pianoClara Schumann: Three Romances for Viola & Piano

Coleridge-Taylor: Fantasy Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 57

Saturday, September 25, 2021SPCO Chamber MusicOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith Eunice Kim, violin; Maiya Papach & Dana Kelly, viole; Richard Belcher & Josh Koestenbaum, celliBrahms: Sextet in B-flat, Op. 18more info...

Friday, September 24, 2021SPCO Chamber MusicOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith Eunice Kim, violin; Maiya Papach & Dana Kelly, viole; Richard Belcher & Josh Koestenbaum, celliBrahms: Sextet in B-flat, Op. 18more info...

Sunday, August 08-15, 2021Orford Music FestivalOrford, QC

Saturday, July 31, 2021Festival Mozaic Chamber SeriesMiossi Hall, Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music DirectorBridge: String Sextet in Eb Major
with Abi Kralik, violin; Jessica Oudin & Maurycy Banaszek, violas; Dariusz Skoraczewski & Jonah Kim, cellimore info...

Friday, July 30, 2021Festival Mozaic Chamber SeriesSLO Brew RockSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music DirectorSchubert: String Trio in Bb Major, D. 581
with Jessica Oudin, viola & Dariusz Skoraczewski, cellomore info...

Tuesday, July 27, 2021Festival Mozaic Chamber SeriesSLO Brew RockSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music DirectorRavel: Sonata for Violin & Cello
with Sophie Shao, cello
more info...

Saturday, July 24, 2021Festival Mozaic: Baroque in the VinesSerra Chapel, ShandonShandon, CAScott Yoo, Music DirectorHandel: Trio Sonata in g, HWV 391more info...

Thursday, June 24, 2021Colorado College Summer Music Festival Faculty ConcertPackard HallColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, Music DirectorHaydn: Piano Trio in G, Hob. 25, â€˜Gypsyâ€™
with John Novacek, piano & Bion Tsang, cello

Francaix: Dixtuor
with Alice Dade, flute; Liz Koch, oboe; Anton Rist, clarinet; Mike Kroth, bassoon; Mike Thornton, horn; Stefan Hersh, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Bion Tsang, cello; Sue Cahill, bass

Copland: Vitebsk
with Susan Grace, piano & Mark Kosower, cello

Monday, June 21, 2021Colorado College Summer Music Festival Faculty ConcertPackard HallColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, Music DirectorStevens: Autumn
with Kevin Cobb, flugelhorn; Stefan Hersh, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Mark Kosower, cello

Milhaud: La creation du monde
with John Novacek, piano; Stephen Rose, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Bion Tsang, cello

Thursday, June 17, 2021Colorado College Summer Music Festival Faculty ConcertPackard HallColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, Music DirectorCopland: Quiet City (Robert Walters, English Horn)

Vivaldi: Flute Concerto #2 in g (Elizabeth Mann, Flute)

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in g, Op. 57
with Susan Grace, piano; Stefan Hersh, violin; Phillip Ying, viola; David Ying, cello

Saturday, June 12, 2021Mendelssohn Quintet on SPCO Live StreamOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNMendelssohn: String Quintet in Bb

Steven Copes & Nina Fan, violins
Maiya Papach & Hyobi Sim, violas
Sarah Lewis, cellomore info...

Tuesday, May 25-July 4, 2021Curtis Institute of Music Summerfest Virtual teaching and coaching (6 week session)

Saturday, May 22, 2021Virtual Concert: Accordo plays Tsontakis World PremiereSt. Anthony United Church of ChristSaint Paul, MNwith:

Randy Hodgkinson, piano
Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet
Becca Albers, viola
Tony Ross, cello
George Tsontakis: Portraits of El Greco, Book II

Brahms: Piano Quartet in c minor, Op. 60

Saturday, May 08, 2021Bach & Mozart on SPCO Live StreamOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNBach: Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G

Mozart: Divertimento in Bb, K. 287 for String Quintet & 2 Horns

Steven Copes & Kyu-Young Kim, violins
Hyobi Sim, viola
Josh Koestenbaum, cello
Zachary Cohen, bass
Matt Wilson & Jay Ferree, horns
more info...

Saturday, April 10, 2021Dvorak â€˜Americanâ€™ Quartet on SPCO Live StreamOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNSteven Copes & Nina Fan, violins
Maiya Papach, viola
Julie Albers, cellomore info...

Monday, March 22, 2021Virtual Concert: Accordo with pianist Pedja Muzijevic
with:
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
Maiya Papach, viola
Tony Ross, cello
C.P.E. Bach: Sonata in C Minor Wq. 65/31

Beethoven: Piano Trio Opus 1, No. 3

Kurtag: Tre Pezzi for Violin and Piano Opus 14e

Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat, K 493

Thursday, March 11Virtual Concert: Accordo plays Haydn & Mozart
with:
Erin Keefe, violin
Becca Albers & Hyobi Sim, viole
Tony Ross, celloBerio & Bartok: Selected Violin Duos

1. Bartok: New Yearâ€™s Greeting
2. Bartok: Teasing Song
3. Berio: BÃ©la
4. Berio: Bruno
5. Bartok: Arabian Song
7. Berio: Marcello
8. Berio: Lele
9: Bartok: Ruthenian Kolomejka

Haydn: Quartet Op. 74 #3 â€˜The Riderâ€™

Intermission

Paul Wiancko: â€˜American Haikuâ€™ for Viola and Cello

Mozart: Viola Quintet in D Major, K. 593

Saturday, October 31, 2020Walton String Quartet on SPCO Live StreamOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MN

Walton: String Quartet in a minor

with:
Kyu Young Kim, violin
Maiya Papach, viola
Julie Albers, cello

October 18-24, 2020Mainly Mozart Festival OrchestraDel Mar FairgroundsSan Diego, CAmore info...

Saturday, October 17, 2020Billy Childs on SPCO Live StreamOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MN
with:
Eunae Kim, violin
Maiya Papach, viola
Josh Koestenbaum, cello
Tim Lovelace, piano
Clara Schumann: Three Romances for Violin & Piano, Op. 22

Billy Childs: String Quartet #3, â€˜Unrequitedâ€™

Monday, October 12, 2020Accordo Season 12 Opening ConcertWestminster Hall at Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MN
with:
Erin Keefe, violin
Maiya Papach, viola
Julie Albers, cello
Kristen Bruya, double bass

Beethoven: String Trio in c minor, Op. 9, #3

Lourie: Sonata for Violin & Double Bass

Ravel: Sonata for Violin & Cello

Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
more info...

Sunday, July 12-18, 2020Orford Music AcademyOrford, QuebecTeaching and master classesmore info...

Friday, June 26, 2020Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallColorado Springs, COwith John Novacek, pianoBrahms: Sonata for Violin & Piano in A, Op. 100

Friday, March 06-16 2020Beethovenâ€™s 7th SymphonyLeader & Director, SPCO

Rob Kapilow, lecturermore info...

Saturday, February 22, 2020Beethovenâ€™s 5th SymphonyOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNLeader & Director, SPCO

also on the program:
Bach: Concerto for Violin & Oboe with Cassie Pilgrim; Brahms: String Quintet in G Majormore info...

Tuesday, February 04, 2020Accordo with Silent FilmOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith

Susie Park, violin
Hyobi Sim, viola
Anthony Ross, cello
Kevin Watkins, percussion
Patrick Pegg, electronics
deVon Gray, electronics
Stephen Prutsman, piano
John Novacek, piano
Renee Copeland, movementdeVon Gray: Make the revolution irresistible. for string quartet & electronics; set to the film So fragile so wild (Rini Yun Keagy)

Stephen Prutsman: Phantasmagoria Cosmica for string quartet; video editing by Naomi Onaga

John Novacek: Daisy Doodadâ€™s Dial (1914) for Piano, Violin & Cello

Stephen Prutsman: Leave â€˜em Laughing (1928) for Piano, Violin & Percussion

more info...

Sunday, February 02, 2020Vivaldiâ€™s The Four Seasons with Richard EgarrSt. Andrewâ€™s Lutheran ChurchMahtomedi, MNKyu-Young Kim, violin: Spring/Summer
Steven Copes, violin: Fall/Winter

program also includes:
Castello: Sonata XV from Sonatas in a Modern Style
Muffat: Sonata #5 from Armonico tributo
Vivaldi: Concerto for the Orchestra of Dresdenmore info...

Saturday, February 01, 2020Vivaldiâ€™s The Four Seasons with Richard EgarrUnited Church of ChristSt. Paul, MNKyu-Young Kim, violin: Spring/Summer
Steven Copes, violin: Fall/Winter

program also includes:
Castello: Sonata XV from Sonatas in a Modern Style
Muffat: Sonata #5 from Armonico tributo
Vivaldi: Concerto for the Orchestra of Dresdenmore info...

Friday, January 31, 2020Vivaldiâ€™s The Four Seasons with Richard EgarrWooddale ChurchEden Prairie, MNKyu-Young Kim, violin: Spring/Summer
Steven Copes, violin: Fall/Winter

program also includes:
Castello: Sonata XV from Sonatas in a Modern Style
Muffat: Sonata #5 from Armonico tributo
Vivaldi: Concerto for the Orchestra of Dresdenmore info...

Sunday, January 26, 2020Master Classes at University of TX, AustinAustin, TXmore info...

Tuesday, November 05, 2019Accordo plays Debussy QuartetICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNHaydn: Op. 20, No. 3 in G minor
Prokofiev: Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56
Ruth Crawford Seeger: Andante for String Quartet
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor

With Ruggero Allifranchini, Violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, cello

Monday, November 04, 2019Accordo plays Debussy QuartetWestminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNHaydn: Op. 20, No. 3 in G minor
Prokofiev: Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56
Ruth Crawford Seeger: Andante for String Quartet
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor

With Ruggero Allifranchini, Violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, cello

Sunday, October 20, 2019Shostakovich Concerto #1 with Mexico City PhilharmonicSilvestre Revueltas HallMexico City, MexicoWith Scott Yoo, Music Director and ConductorPre concert at 11:30am includes performance of Shostakovich Quartet #8

Saturday, October 19, 2019Shostakovich Concerto #1 with Mexico City PhilharmonicSilvestre Revueltas HallMexico City, MexicoWith Scott Yoo, Music Director and ConductorPre concert at 5pm includes performance of Shostakovich Quartet #8

Tuesday, October 15, 2019Accordo Season OpenerICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNErin Keefe & Eunice Kim, violins; Becca Albers & Hyobi Sim, violas; Ron Thomas, celloBach: Art of the Fugue Contrapunctus No. 18
Gubaidulina: Reflections on the theme BACH for Quartet
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 1
Mendelssohn: Viola Quintet in A majormore info...

Monday, October 14, 2019Accordo Season OpenerWestminster Hall at Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNErin Keefe & Eunice Kim, violins; Becca Albers & Hyobi Sim, violas; Ron Thomas, celloBach: Art of the Fugue Contrapunctus No. 18
Gubaidulina: Reflections on the theme BACH for Quartet
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 1
Mendelssohn: Viola Quintet in A majormore info...

Saturday, October 05, 2019Berlioz Romeo & Juliet with The HalleThe Bridgewater HallManchester, UKGuest Leader

Ludovic Morlot, Conductormore info...

Friday, September 13-15, 2019Schubertâ€™s 2nd Symphony in B flatOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNLeader & Director, SPCO

Rossini: La Scala di Seta Overture
Schumann: Piano Concerto with Jeremy Denk
Schubert: Symphony #2 in Bb Majormore info...

Sunday, August 11, 2019Olympic Music FestivalPort Townsend, WABach: Keyboard Concerto in D
Mozart: String Quintet in C Major, K. 515
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio In c minor, Op. 66

Julio Elizalde, piano and Artistic Director

Saturday, August 10, 2019Olympic Music Festival Port Townsend, WASchubert: Cello Quintet in C Major
with Adelya Nartadjieva, violin; SoHui Yun, viola; Sein Lee & Jennifer Culp,

Julio Elizalde, piano and Artistic Director

Sunday, August 04, 2019Festival MozaicHarold J. Miossi CPAC Cuesta CollegeSan Luis Obispo, CAwith Elly Suh, Violin; Jessica Chang, viola; Sophie Shao, cello; Noam Elkies, piano; Michael Fine, clarinet

Scott Yoo, Music DirectorProkofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34

Saturday, August 03, 2019Festival MozaicHarold J. Miossi CPAC Cuesta CollegeSan Luis Obispo, CA

Scott Yoo, Conductor and Music DirectorBrahms: Serenade In D Major, Op. 11
Rodrigo: Fantasia para un gentilhomme
De Falla: The Three Cornered Hat, Suite 1

Guest Concertmaster

Friday, August 02, 2019Festival MozaicHarold J. Miossi CPAC Cuesta CollegeSan Luis Obispo, CAwith Jason Uyeyama, Violin; Caitlin Lynch, viola; Sophie Shao, cello; John Novacek, piano

Scott Yoo, Music Director
Turina: Piano Quintet in g minor

Friday, July 19, 2019Curtis Institute Young Artists ProgramCurtis HallPhiladelphia, PADiBerardino: Jasper Beach
With Sonora Slocum, flute; Patrick Kreeger, piano; Priscilla Lee, cello

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio In c minor, Op. 66
with Natalie Zhu, piano & Priscilla Lee, cello

Amy Yang & David Serkin Ludwig, Artistic Directorsmore info...

Friday, June 14-22, 2019Colorado College Music FestivalColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, Artistic Director

Teaching, coaching, and performances TBD

Sunday, June 09, 2019All Mozart with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNOverture to Don Giovanni
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin & Viola,
(With Hyobi Sim, Viola)
Symphony #38, â€˜Pragueâ€™more info...

Saturday, June 08, 2019All Mozart with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNOverture to Don Giovanni
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin & Viola,
(With Hyobi Sim, Viola)
Symphony #38, â€˜Pragueâ€™more info...

Friday, June 07, 2019All Mozart with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNOverture to Don Giovanni
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin & Viola,
(With Hyobi Sim, Viola)
Symphony #38, â€˜Pragueâ€™more info...

Sunday, June 02, 2019Mozart Clarinet QuintetTed Mann Concert HallMinneapolis, MNwith Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet; Eunice Kim, Violin; Maiya Papach, Viola; Sarah Lewis, Cello

Also on the program:
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florencemore info...

Saturday, June 01, 2019Mozart Clarinet QuintetSt. Paul United Church of ChristSt. Paul, MNwith Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet; Eunice Kim, Violin; Maiya Papach, Viola; Sarah Lewis, Cello

Also on the program:
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florencemore info...

Friday, May 31, 2019Mozart Clarinet QuintetWooddale ChurchEden Prairie, MNwith Sang-Yoon Kim, clarinet; Eunice Kim, Violin; Maiya Papach, Viola; Sarah Lewis, Cello

Also on the program:
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence

Friday, May 24 & 25, 2019Martin Polyptyque with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNJoshua Weilerstein, conductorBach: Canon & Fugue (arr. George Benjamin)
Martin: Polyptyque for Solo Violin & 2 Small String Orchestras
Silvestrov: The Messenger
Mozart: Symphony #41, 'Jupiter'more info...

Thursday, May 23, 2019Happy Hour Concert with the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNJoshua Weilerstein, conductorMartin: Polyptyque for Solo Violin & 2 Small String Orchestras
Mozart: Symphony #41, 'Jupiter'more info...

Saturday, April 06, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokCarnegie Hall - Stern AuditoriumNew York, NYGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductorRumanian Folk Dances (with orig. dance melodies)
Hungarian Folk Songs
Hungarian Peasant Songs
Bluebeardâ€™s Castle

Friday, April 05, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokCarnegie Hall - Stern AuditoriumNew York, NYGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductor Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Childrenâ€™s Choirs-selection
7 Female Choruses with Orchestral Accompaniment
Concerto for Orchestra

Monday, April 01, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokMupa Budapest, Bartok National Concert HallBudapest, HungaryGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductorRumanian Folk Dances (with orig. dance melodies)
Hungarian Folk Songs
Hungarian Peasant Songs
Bluebeardâ€™s Castle

Sunday, March 31, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokPhilharmonieParis, FranceGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductorRumanian Folk Dances (with orig. dance melodies)
Hungarian Folk Songs
Hungarian Peasant Songs
Bluebeardâ€™s Castle

Saturday, March 30, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokPhilharmonie Paris, FranceGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductor Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Childrenâ€™s Choirs-selection
7 Female Choruses with Orchestral Accompaniment
Concerto for Orchestra

Thursday, March 28, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokPhilharmonieLuxembourgGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductorRumanian Folk Dances (with orig. dance melodies)
Hungarian Folk Songs
Hungarian Peasant Songs
Bluebeardâ€™s Castle

Tuesday, March 26, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokElbphilharmonieHamburg, GermanyGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductorRumanian Folk Dances (with orig. dance melodies)
Hungarian Folk Songs
Hungarian Peasant Songs
Bluebeardâ€™s Castle

Monday, March 25, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokElbphilharmonieHamburg, GermanyGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductor Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Childrenâ€™s Choirs-selection
7 Female Choruses with Orchestral Accompaniment
Concerto for Orchestra

Saturday, March 23, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokMupa Budapest, Bartok National Concert HallBudapest, HungaryGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductorRumanian Folk Dances (with orig. dance melodies)
Hungarian Folk Songs
Hungarian Peasant Songs
Bluebeardâ€™s Castle

Thursday, March 21, 2019Budapest Festival Orchestra plays BartokMupa Budapest, Bartok National Concert HallBudapest, HungaryGuest Concertmaster

Ivan Fischer, conductorRumanian Folk Dances (with orig. dance melodies)
Hungarian Folk Songs
Hungarian Peasant Songs
Bluebeardâ€™s Castle

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Tuesday, March 12, 2019Accordo plays Schubert's Rosamunde QuartetICEHOUSEMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, violas; Ron Thomas, celloDavid Ludwig: Rule of Three for 2 Violins & Viola
Mozart: String Quintet in Bb Major, K. 174
George Benjamin: Viola, Viola
Schubert: String Quartet in a minormore info...

Monday, March 11, 2019Accordo plays Schubert's Rosamunde QuartetWestminster Hall at Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, violas; Ron Thomas, celloDavid Ludwig: Rule of Three for 2 Violins & Viola
Mozart: String Quintet in Bb Major, K. 174
George Benjamin: Viola, Viola
Schubert: String Quartet in a minormore info...

Sunday, March 10, 2019St. Cloud Chamber Music Society presents AccordoChurch of the Holy SpiritSt. Cloud, MNDavid Ludwig: Rule of Three for 2 Violins & Viola
Mozart: String Quintet in Bb Major, K. 174
George Benjamin: Viola, Viola
Schubert: String Quartet in a minormore info...

Saturday, March 02, 2019Orchestral Fireworks with the Cincinnati SymphonyMusic HallCincinnati, OHGuest Concertmaster

Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Peter Serkin, pianoDvorak: The Midday Witch
Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Winds
Suk: Scherzo fantastique
Janacek: Sinfonietta

Friday, March 01, 2019Orchestral Fireworks with the Cincinnati SymphonyMusic HallCincinnati, OHGuest Concertmaster

Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Peter Serkin, pianoDvorak: The Midday Witch
Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Winds
Suk: Scherzo fantastique
Janacek: Sinfonietta

Saturday, January 12, 2019Beethoven Concerto with Pro Arte Chamber OrchestraFirst Baptist Church, Newton CenterBoston, MAPaul Polivnick, conductor
Also on the program:
Fanny Mendelssohn: Overture in C
Schubert: Symphony #5 in B flatmore info...

Thursday, October 18, 20 & 21, 2018Itzhak Perlman with Houston SymphonyJones HallHouston, TXguest ConcertmasterBach: a minor Violin Concerto
Mozart: Symphony #40 in g minor
Schumann: Symphony #4 in d minor

Tuesday, October 9, 2018Accordo plays Cello QuintetsICEHOUSEMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Ron Thomas & Peter Wiley, celliselections from Cherubini: Quintet in e minor & Schubert: Quintet in C Majormore info...

Monday, October 8, 2018Accordo plays Cello QuintetsWestminster Hall at Westminster Presbyterian ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Ron Thomas & Peter Wiley, celliCherubini: Quintet in e minor & Schubert: Quintet in C Majormore info...

Friday, August 18-24, 2017Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festivalwith Lucy Shelton, sprechstimme; David Shifrin, clarinet; Fred Sherry, cello; Joshua Smith, flute; Jeewon Park, piano + Marc-Andre Hamelin, piano/
Soovin Kim & Gloria Chien, artistic directorsSchoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
Haydn: Piano Trio in F# minor
Joan Tower: Petroushkatesmore info...

Friday, August 3, 2018Chestnut Hill Chamber ConcertsKatherine Hepburn Cultural Arts CenterOld Saybrook, CTRandall Hodgkinson, piano; Matthew Sinno, viola; Ronald Thomas, cello and artistic directorJohn Novacek: Four Rags for Violin & Piano
Brahms: Piano Quartet in g minormore info...

July 14 & 15, 2018Olympic Music FestivalPort Townsend, WAwith Dmitri Murrath, viola & Jennifer Culp, cello/ Julio Elizalde, artistic directorHandel/Halverson: Passacaglia for Violin & Viola
Beethoven: String Trio in c minor, Op. 9 #3
Bach/Sitkovetsky: Goldberg Variationsmore info...

Thursday, June 14-23, 2018Colorado College Summer Music FestivalColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, music directorMoskowski: Suite for Two Violins & Piano
Schubert: Trout Quintet
Novacek: Four Rags for Violin & Piano
Prutsman: Three Silent Filmsmore info...

Sunday, May 13-24, 2018Chamber Orchestra of Europe tour with Antonio PappanoTreviso, Ferrara, Turin, Pavia, Bordeux, Paris, ZurichGuest LeaderLigeti: Concerto Romanesc
Brahms: Violin Concerto (Lisa Batiashvili, soloist)
Brahms: Serenade #1more info...

Monday, May 7, 2018Accordo plays Dvorak, Schulhoff & MozartPlymouth Congregational ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach & Hyobi Sim, violas; Ronald Thomas & Tony Ross, celliDvoÅ™Ã¡k: Cypresses for String Quartet (selections)
Schulhoff: String Sextet
Mozart: Viola Quintet in C minor, K. 406more info...

Friday, April 27-29, 2018Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesSan Diego, CAwith Anton Nel, piano; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Ronald Thomas, celloBeethoven: String Trio in c minor, Op. 9 #3 / Brahms: Piano Quartet in c minor / Mozart: Piano Quartet in Eb Major / Dvorak: Piano Quartet in D Majormore info...

Tuesday, March 13, 2018Accordo presents an evening of silent film with Stephen PrutsmanOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNwith Stephen Prutsman, piano & composer; Kyu-Young Kim & Ruggero Allifranchini, violins; Becca Albers, viola, Tony Ross, celloTBDmore info...

Tuesday, February 27, 2018Accordo plays Dvorak, Prokofiev & SchumannICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Gilles Vonsattel, piano/harmonium; Steven Copes & Kyu-Young Kim, violins; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, celloDvoÅ™Ã¡k: Bagatelles, Opus. 47 for Harmonium, 2 Violins, & Cello
Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Opus 50
Schumann: Piano Quartet in Eb, Opus 47more info...

Monday, February 26, 2018Accordo plays Dvorak, Prokofiev, SchumannPlaymouth Congregational ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Gilles Vonsattel, piano & harmonium; Kyu-Young Kim & Steven Copes, violins; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, celloDvoÅ™Ã¡k: Bagatelles, Opus. 47 for Harmonium, 2 Violins, & Cello
Prokofiev: String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Opus 50
Schumann: Piano Quartet in Eb, Opus 47more info...

Sunday, January 14, 2018Beethoven Violin Concerto with SPCOBenson Concert HallArden Hills, MNprogram also includes:
Beethoven: Grosse Fuga for String Quartet, Op. 133/Jessie Montgomery: Records from a Vanishing Citymore info...

Saturday, January 13, 2018Beethoven Violin Concerto with SPCOOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNprogram also includes:
Beethoven: Grosse Fuga for String Quartet, Op. 133/Jessie Montgomery: Records from a Vanishing Citymore info...

Friday, January 12, 2018Beethoven Violin Concerto with SPCOOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNprogram also includes:
Beethoven: Grosse Fuga for String Quartet, Op. 133/Jessie Montgomery: Records from a Vanishing Citymore info...

Monday, November 27, 2017Accordo plays Martinu, Kirchner, Novacek, DvorakPlymouth Congregational ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith John Novacek, piano; Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Ronald Thomas, celloMartinÅ¯: Three Madrigals for Violin & Viola
Kirchner: Piano Trio (1954)
Novacek: Rags for Violin and Piano
DvoÅ™Ã¡k: American Quartet in F major, Opus 96more info...

Tuesday, November 21, 2017Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Bernard HaitinkPhilharmonieLuxembourgGuest LeaderMozart: Symphony #35, 'Haffner'
Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder
Mozart: Symphony #38, 'Prague'

Eva-Maria Westbroek, soprano

Sunday, November 19, 2017Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Bernard HaitinkPhilharmonieLuxembourgGuest LeaderMozart: Symphony #36, 'Linz'
Mahler: Das Knaben Wunderhorn

Baritone: Hanno Muller-Brachmannn
Soprano: Anna-Lucia Richter

Friday, November 17, 2017Chamber Orchestra of Europe w/ Bernard HaitinkConcertgebuowAmsterdam, NetherlandsGuest LeaderMozart: Symphony #35, 'Haffner'
Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder
Mozart: Symphony #38, 'Prague'

Eva-Maria Westbroek, soprano

Wednesday, November 15, 2017Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Bernard HaitinkConcertgebuowAmsterdam, NetherlandsGuest LeaderMozart: Symphony #36, 'Linz'
Mahler: Das Knaben Wunderhorn

Baritone: Hanno Muller-Brachmannn
Soprano: Anna-Lucia Richter

Thursday, November 2-5, 2017Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence at SPCOwith Eunice Kim, violin; Maiya Papach & Hyobi Sim, violas; Peter Wiley & Sarah Lewis, cellimore info...

Thursday, October 26-29, 2017Houston Symphony with Ludovic Morlot, conductorHouston, TXGuest ConcertmasterMessiaen: The Forgotten Offerings/ Beethoven: Piano Concerto #4/ Prokofiev: Symphony #5

Sunday, October 8, 2017Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Mankato SymphonyVerizon HallMankato, MNwith Kenneth Freed, Music Director and Conductormore info...

Thursday, August 3, 2017Curtis Young Artists Program Faculty RecitalPhiladelphia, PABrahms: Horn Trio
with Heather Conner, piano & Adam Unsworth, horn

Sunday, July 30, 2017Festival MozaicCuesta College Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CADvorak: Viola Quintet in Eb Major, Op. 97more info...

Friday, July 28, 2017Festival Mozaic: Silent Movies with Stephen PrutsmanFremont TheatreSan Luis Obispo, CARobert Russell Bennett: Hexapoda for Violin & Piano

3 silent movies with music by S. Prutsman for Piano Quintet:
The Camerman's Revenge (1910); Suspense (1913); Mighty Like a Moose (1926)more info...

Saturday, June 24, 2017Bartok Violin Concerto #2 in ColoradoColorado College Summer Music Festival OrchestraColorado Springs, COScott Yoo, conductor

Friday, June 23, 2017CCMF Artists ConcertPackard HallBeach: Theme & Variations for Flute & String Quartet

Tuesday, June 20, 2017Colorado College Music Festival Artists ConcertPackard HallColorado Springs, COBen-Amots: Elegy from the Odessa Trio for Piano Trio (Susan Grace, piano & Bion Tsang, cello)
Tsontakis: Portraits of El Greco for String Trio, Clarinet & Piano (Toby Appel, viola, Bion Tsang, cello, Bil Jackson, clarinet, John Novacek, piano)more info...

Thursday, June 15, 2017Colorado College Music Festival Artists ConcertPackard HallColorado Springs, COBliss: Oboe Quintet (Liz Koch, oboe; Stefan Hersh, violin; Phillip Ying, viola; Bion Tsang. cello)
Brahms: Sextet #1 in Bb, Op. 18 (Mark Fewer, violin; Toby Appel & Phillip Ying, violas; David Ying & Bion Tsang, celli)more info...

Friday, June 9-11, 2017Pierre Jalbert Violin Concerto World Premiere with SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNprogram also includes:
Mendelssohn: Fair Melusina Overture & Beethoven: Symphony #7

Thomas Zehetmair, conductormore info...

Monday, May 15, 2017Accordo: Brahms Piano Quartet in APlymouth Congregational ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet; Anna Polonsky, piano; Maiya Papach, viola; Ron Thomas, celloSchumann: MÃ¤rchenerzÃ¤hlungen (Fairy Tales), Op. 132
Hindemith: Clarinet Quartet
Brahms: Piano Quartet in A Major, Op. 26more info...

Saturday, April 15, 2017Without Words: Emerald City Music FestivalMinnaert CenterOlympia, WA(with Kristin Lee, artistic director & violin; Ben Ullery, viola; Mihai Marica, cello)Verdi: String Quartet in e minormore info...

Friday, April 14 , 2017Without Words: Emerald City Music FestivalKakao CoffeeSeattle, WA(with Kristin Lee, artistic director & violin; Ben Ullery, viola; Mihai Marica, cello)Verdi: String Quartet in e minormore info...

Friday, March 31-April 2, 2017Brahms: Horn TrioSaint Paul, MNwith Jeremy Denk, piano & Rene Pagen, hornBrahms: Horn Trio

program also includes: Beethoven: Piano & Wind Quintet in Eb & Bartok: Divertimento for Stringsmore info...

Sunday, March 19, 2017Across the Channel: SPCO Chamber Music SeriesCenter for the Performing Arts at St. Paul AcademySaint Paul, MNwith Francisco Fullana, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Julie Albers, cello; Kathy Kienzle, harpCaplet: Conte Fantastique for Harp & String Quartet
Walton: String Quartet in a minormore info...

Friday, March 17, 2017Across the Channel: SPCO Chamber Music SeriesCenter for the Performing Arts at St. Paul AcademySaint Paul, MNwith Francisco Fullana, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Julie Albers, cello; Kathy Kienzle, harpCaplet: Conte Fantastique for Harp & String Quartet
Walton: String Quartet in a minormore info...

Monday, March 13, 2017Accordo: Schumann's Piano QuintetPlymouth Congregational ChurchMinneapolis, MNwith Anna Polonsky, piano; Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Rebecca Albers, viola; Tony Ross, celloBeethoven: Piano Trio in G Major, Op. 1 #2
Shostakovich: String Quartet #4 in D Major, Op. 83
Schumann: Piano Quintet in Eb Major, Op. 44more info...

Thursday, March 9, 2017Accordo plays Barber, Respighi & DvorakICEHOUSE MPLSMinneapolis, MNwith Adriana Zabala, mezzo-soprano; Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Maiya Papach, viola; Ronald Thomas, celloBarber: Dover Beach, Op. 3 for Voice & Quartet; Respighi: Il Tramonto for Voice & Quartet; Dvorak: Viola Quintet in Eb, Op. 97more info...

Tuesday, January 24, 2017Accordo: An evening of silent film with live musicOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith Stephen Prutsman, piano; Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, cello, Alex Fiterstein, clarinetTender Hearts (1909) starring Mary Pickford, for Violin, Viola & Piano by Maria Newman
One AM (1916) starring Charlie Chaplin, for piano & clarinet by Stephen Prutsman
What the Daisy Said (1910) starring Mary Pickford, for string quartet by Maria Newman

The Cameraman's Revenge (1910); Suspense (1915); Mighty Like a Moose (1926): World premieres for piano quintet by Stephen Prutsmanmore info...

Saturday, October 15, 2016SPCO & pianist Jeremy Denk in NYC92nd Street YNew York City, NYGeorge Tsontakis: O Mikros, O Megas ('The Small World, The Huge World) for Strings
Mozart: Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488
Schubert: Symphony #2 in Bb Majormore info...

Friday, October 14, 2016SPCO & pianist Jeremy DenkHopkins Center for the ArtsHanover, NHGeorge Tsontakis: O Mikros, O Megas ('The Small World, The Huge World) for Strings
Mozart: Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488
Schubert: Symphony #2 in Bb Majormore info...

Saturday, October 1, 2016Opening Night: Berg Violin Concerto with Orlando Philharmonic OrBob Carr TheatreOrlando, FL(Eric Jacobsen, music director & conductor)more info...

Friday, August 19, 2016Chestnut Hill ConcertsKatherine Hepburn Cultural Arts CenterOld Saybrook, CT(with Ronald Thomas, artistic director and cello; Mihae Lee, piano; Cindy Wu, violin; Matthew Sinno, viola; Bill Purvis, horn)Brahms: Horn Trio
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 57more info...

Sunday, July 24, 2016Festival MozaicCuesta College Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAShostakovich: String Quartet #7 in F# minor, Op. 108more info...

Thursday, July 21Festival Mozaic: Berg Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano & 13 WiCuesta College Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CA(Scott Yoo, conductor and music director; John Novacek, piano)more info...

June 24, 2016Colorado College Summer Music FestivalColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, music directorDoppler: Nocturne (Liz Mann, flute & Mike Thornton, horn)
Klein: String Trio (Toby Appel, viola & Bion Tsang, cello)more info...

Tuesday, June 21, 2016Colorado College Summer Music FestivalColorado Springs, COSusan Grace, music directorGolijov: Tenebrae for String Quartet (David Kim, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Bion Tsang, cello)more info...

Friday, June 3-5, 2016Wynton Marsalis' 'A Fiddler's Tale'(with Danyon Davis, narrator)more info...

Thursday, May 19-22, 2016Hindemith Quartet # 4 with Thomas ZehetmairHindemith: Quartet #4 with Thomas Zehetmair, violin; Maiya Papach, viola & Julie Albers, cello
Mozart: Violin Concerto #3 with Thomas Zehetmair
Mendelssohn:: Symphony # 3, 'Scottish'more info...

Sunday, May 1, 2016Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesSt. Elizabeth Seton Catholic ChurchCarlsbad, CA(with Anne-Marie McDermott, piano; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Peter Wiley, cello; David Shifrin, clarinet; David Jolley, horn)Dohnanyi: Sextet in C Major, Op. 37

program also includes: Beethoven: Clarinet Trio in Bb Major, Op. 11more info...

Sunday, May 1, 2016Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesRancho Santa Fe Garden ClubRancho Santa Fe, CA(with Anne-Marie McDermott, piano; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Peter Wiley, cello; David Shifrin, clarinet; David Jolley, horn)Dohnanyi: Sextet in C Major, Op. 37

program also includes: Beethoven: Clarinet Trio in Bb Major, Op. 11more info...

Saturday, April 30, 2016Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesAuditorium at TSRISan Diego, CA(with Anne-Marie McDermott, piano; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Peter Wiley, cello; David Shifrin, clarinet; David Jolley, horn)Dohnanyi: Sextet in C Major, Op. 37

program also includes: Beethoven: Clarinet Trio in Bb Major, Op. 11more info...

Sunday, April 10, 2016La Sierra University Chamber Music Series(with Jason Uyeyama, violin; Ben Ullery, viola; Lynn Kabat, cello; Burt Hara, clarinet)Wolf: Italian Serenade
Shostakovich: String Quartet #4 in D, Op. 83
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115more info...

Saturday, April 9, 2016Mainly Mozart Spotlight Chamber Music SeriesRancho Santa Fe Garden ClubRancho Santa Fe, CAwith Anne-Marie McDermott, piano and Artistic Director & Peter Wiley, celloMozart: Piano Trio TBD
Brahms: Piano Trio in C Majormore info...

Saturday, March 19-23, 2016Chamber Orchestra of Europe tour with Antonio PappanoPavia/Ferrara/Paris/AntwerpGuest LeaderMozart: Symphony #25 in g minor
Strauss: Oboe Concerto (with Francois Leleux)
Faure: Pavane
Bizet: Symphony in Cmore info...

Saturday, February 20, 2016Hartmann: Concerto Funebre with SPCOOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNalso with Hindemith: Kleine Kammermusik & Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Stringsmore info...

Friday, February 19, 2016Hartmann: Concerto Funebre with SPCOOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNalso with Hindemith: Kleine Kammermusik & Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Stringsmore info...

Thursday, February 18, 2016Hartmann: Concerto Funebre with SPCOPlymouth Congregational ChurchMinneapolis, MNalso with Hindemith: Kleine Kammermusik & Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Stringsmore info...

Tuesday, February 2, 2016Music for a Masterpiece: a benefit concertChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Osmo Vanska, clarinet; Erin Keefe, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, celloProkofiev: Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56
Crusell: Clarinet Quartet #1
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115more info...

Tuesday, January 19, 2016Accordo: An evening of music for silent filmOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNMusic for silent film by pianist/composer Stephen Prutsman
'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920) & 'Sherlock, Jr.' (1924), starring Buster Keatonmore info...

Friday, January 15, 2016SPCO Notable Encounter with Scott YooOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNwith Anna Polonsky, piano; Scott Yoo, conductor and moderatorBerg: Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano & 13 Windsmore info...

Monday, November 16-19, 2015Asian Tour with Martin Frost, clarinetTaipei, Singapore, JakartaBartok: Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra
Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A, KV 622
Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C for Strings , Op. 48

Monday, October 26, 2015Accordo: Season 7Christ Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Maiya Papach, viola; Ronald Thomas, cello; Rieko Aizawa, pianoMilhaud: Sonatina for Violin & Viola
Beethoven: String Quartet in F, Op. 59, #1
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in c, Op. 66more info...

Sunday, September 13, 2015Opening Night at the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith Jeremy Denk, piano & Richie Hawley, clarinetBartok: Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin & Pianomore info...

Saturday, September 12 , 2015Opening Night at the SPCOOrdway Concert HallSaint Paul, MNwith Jeremy Denk, piano & Richie Hawley, clarinetBartok: Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin & Pianomore info...

Friday, August 28, 2015Key of C: Chestnut Hill ConcertsKatherine Hepburn Cultural Arts CenterOld Saybrook, CTwith Ronald Thomas, cello; Mark Holloway, viola; Mihae Lee, pianoBach: Cello Suite #5 in c minor
Brahms: Piano Trio in C Major, Op. 87
Faure: Piano Quartet in c minor, Op. 15more info...

August 6,, 2015Curtis Institute of Music Summerfest Faculty RecitalCurtis Institute of MusicPhiladelphia, PAwith Amy Yang, piano; Katherine Needleman, oboe; Toby Appel, viola; Soo Bae Suh, celloMozart: Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370
David Ludwig: Swan Song (2013) for Violin & Pianomore info...

Sunday, July 26, 2015Festival MozaicCuesta College Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAwith Jason Uyeyama, violin; Ben Ullery, viola; Michelle Djokic, cello
Scott Yoo, Music DirectorBeethoven: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 #1

Saturday, July 22, 2015Festival MozaicCuesta College Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAwith Aurica Duca, violin; Matthew Young, viola; Lynn Kabat, cello
Scott Yoo, Music DirectorHaydn: String Quartet in f minor, Op. 20 #5

Friday, June 26, 2015Colorado College Festival Artist ConcertPackard HallColorado Springs, COwith Stefan Hersh, violin; Toby Appel & Virginia Barron, violas; Bion Tsang & Michelle Djokic, celliRimsky-Korsakov: String Sextet in A Majormore info...

June 23, 2015Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallColorado Springs, COwith Susan Grace, piano; Scott Yoo, conductorBerg: Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano & 13 Windsmore info...

May 31, 2015Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesFairbanks Ranch Country ClubLa Jolla, CAwith Jon-Kimura Parker, piano; Alexander Kerr, violin; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Efe Baltacigil, celloMozart: Adagio & Fugue in c minor for String Quartet, K. 546/
Beethoven: Quartet #4 in c minor, Op. 18/
Schumann: Piano Quintet in Eb, Op. 44more info...

May 30, 2015Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesAuditorium at TSRILa Jolla, CAwith Jon-Kimura Parker, piano; Alexander Kerr, violin; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Efe Baltacigil, celloMozart: Adagio & Fugue in c minor for String Quartet, K. 546/
Beethoven: Quartet #4 in c minor, Op. 18/
Schumann: Piano Quintet in Eb, Op. 44more info...

Sunday, March 22, 2015SPCO at Cal PerformancesHertz HallBerkeley, CAAdams: Chamber Symphony
Mahler: Symphony #4 (arr. Simon)

Benjamin Shwartz, conductor
Ying Fang, sopranomore info...

Saturday, March 21, 2015SPCO at Cal PerformancesHertz HallBerkeley, CAAdams: Son of Chamber Symphony*
Hillborg: Clarinet Concerto, 'Peacock Tales'*
Beethoven: Symphony #3 in Eb Major, 'Eroica'

Benjamin Shwartz, conductor*
Martin Frost, clarinetmore info...

Friday, March 20, 2015SPCO at Cal PerformancesHertz HallBerkeley, CAMartin Frost, clarinetStravinsky: Danses Concertantes
Adams: Shaker Loops
Mozart: Clarinet Concertomore info...

Friday, February 27, 2015Janacek Violin Sonata with pianist Jeremy DenkWooddale ChurchEden Prairie, MNmore info...

Thursday, February 26, 2015Janacek Violin Sonata with pianist Jeremy DenkTrinity Lutheran ChurchStillwater, MNmore info...

February 9-16, 2015Performance Today: Winter Teaching ResidencyBanff Arts CentreBanff, CAProgram Director, Pedja Muzijevicmore info...

Thursday, January 15, 2015SPCO Notable Encounter with Scott YooOrdway Concert HallSt. Paul, MNwith Anna Polonsky, piano; Scott Yoo, conductor and moderatorBerg: Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano & 13 Windsmore info...

January 15-18, 2015Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the SPCOTwin Citiesprogram also includes Prokofiev: Classical Symphony & Beethoven: Symphony #2more info...

December 9, 2014Accordo at AmsterdamAmsterdam Bar & HallSaint Paul, MNwith Kyu-Young Kim, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Ron Thomas & Tony Ross, celli

with Chuck Ullery, hostselections from:

Beethoven: String Trio in G Major, Op. 9 #3/
Schulhoff: Duo for Violin & Cello/
Glazunov: String Quintet, Op. 39more info...

December 8, 2014AccordoChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Kyu-Young Kim, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Ron Thomas & Tony Ross, celliBeethoven: String Trio in G Major, Op. 9 #3/
Schulhoff: Duo for Violin & Cello/
Glazunov: String Quintet, Op. 39more info...

October 14, 2014Accordo at AmsterdamAmsterdam Bar & HallSaint Paul, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach, viola, Tony Ross, cello & Zach Cohen, double bass

Sam Bergman, hostselections from:

Haydn: Quartet in g minor, Op. 20 # 3/
Fred Lerdahl: Waltzes for Violin, Viola, Cello, & Bass (1981)/
Dvorak: Bass Quintet in G, Op. 77more info...

October 13, 2014Accordo plays Dvorak's Bass QuintetChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis , MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach, viola, Tony Ross, cello & Zach Cohen, double bassHaydn: Quartet in g minor, Op. 20 # 3/
Fred Lerdahl: Waltzes for Violin, Viola, Cello, & Bass (1981)/
Dvorak: Bass Quintet in G, Op. 77more info...

August 15, 2014Salt Bay ChamberfestDarrows BarnDamariscotta, Mainewith Jennifer Frautschi, Serena Canin & Erin Keefe, violins; Dov Scheindlin & Beth Guterman, violas; Edward Arron and Wilhemina Smith, celli; Tim Cobb, bass

Eric Ruske, horn & John Bellemer, tenorBritten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings
Mendelssohn: Octet for Strings in Ebmore info...

July 27, 2014Festival Mozaic/ Chamber Music SeriesCuesta College Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAwith John Novacek, piano & Michelle Djokic, celloShostakovich: Piano Trio #2 in e minor, Op. 67more info...

July 25, 2014Festival Mozaic/ Notable EncounterLa Perla del Mar ChapelShell Beach, CAwith John Novacek, piano & Michelle Djokic. celloShostakovich: Piano Trio #2 in e minor, Op. 67more info...

July 24, 2014Festival Mozaic/ Chamber Music SeriesCuesta College Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo,. CAwith Aurica Duca, violin; Ben Ullery, viola; Lynn Kabat, celloBrahms: String Quartet #2 in a minor, Op. 51more info...

July 15, 2014Chamber Music Northwest/ Heroic Chamber SymphoniesLincoln Performance HallPortland, ORwith Bella Hristova, violin; Fred Sherry, cello; David Shifrin, clarinet; Tara Helen O' Connor, flute, and many more!Wagner: Siegfried Idyll for 13 players
Hindemith: Kammermusik #1, Op. 24
Prokofiev: Sonata for 2 Violins, Op. 56
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony #1more info...

July 14, 2014Chamber Music Northwest/ Heroic Chamber SymphoniesKaul Auditorium, Reed CollegePortland, ORwith Bella Hristova, violin; Fred Sherry, cello; David Shifrin, clarinet; Tara Helen O' Connor, flute, and many more!Wagner: Siegfried Idyll for 13 players
Hindemith: Kammermusik #1, Op. 24
Prokofiev: Sonata for 2 Violins, Op. 56
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony #1more info...

July 10Chamber Music NorthwestKaul Auditorium, Reed CollegePortland, ORwith Sasha Cooke, mezzo soprano; Bella Hristova, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Anna Polonsky, piano; Dan Schlosberg, harpsichord; Samuel Suggs, double bass; Peter Wiley, celloBach: Cantata # 170, "Delightful rest, beloved pleasure of the soul"
Harbison: 'Crossroads' for Mezzo-Soprano, Oboe & String Quintet
Schubert: 'Trout' Quintet in A Majormore info...

June 28, 2014Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallColorado Springs, COKorngold: Suite for left hand piano and strings

with Toby Appel, violin; Bion Tsang, cello; John Novacek, pianomore info...

June 24, 2014Colorado College Summer Music FestivalPackard HallColorado Springs, COwith Robert Walters, oboe; Scott Yoo, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Bion Tsang, cello; Susan Cahill, bass; Bil Jackson, clarinet; Susan Grace, piano, Mike thornton, hornHarbison: Snow Country for Solo Oboe and String Quintet
Penderecki: Sextet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Horn & Clarinetmore info...

June 9-11National Orchestral Institute (NOI)Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, U. of MarylandCollege Park, MDcoaching & teachingmore info...

April 28, 2014Accordo: Dvorak 'Dumky' TrioChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNMihae Lee, piano; , Ruggero Allifranchini & Kyu-Young Kim, violins; Rebecca Albers, viola; Tony Ross, celloSchumann: Marchenbilder for Viola & Piano, Op. 113
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 57
Dvorak: Piano Trio in e minor, Op. 90, 'Dumky'more info...

March 29 & 30, 2014Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesLa Jolla/Carlsbad/Rancho Santa Fe, CAwith Yura Lee, viola; Ronald Thomas, cello; Jeremy Kurtz, double bass; Anna Polonsky, pianoSchubert: Trout Quintet in A Major

program also includes:

Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in a minor for Cello & Piano
Mozart: Adagio in b minor, K. 540 for solo pianomore info...

February 21-23, 2014Mozart with Christian Zacharias at the SPÃ‡OOrdway Center for Perfoming Arts & Ted Mann Concert HallTwin Cities, MNalso on the program:

Hindemith: Herodiade
Ives: The Unanswered Question
Haydn: Symphony #93Mozart: Piano Quartet in Eb, K. 493

with Christian Zacharias, piano; Maiya Papach, viola; Bion Tsang, cellomore info...

February 18, 2014Accordo: Beethoven's 'Archduke' TrioChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Alessio Bax, piano; Erin Keefe, violin; Becca Albers, viola; Ron Thomas, celloHandel/Halvorsen: Passacaglia for Violin & Viola
Taneyev: Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 30
Beethoven: Piano Trio in Bb Major, Op. 97, 'Archduke'more info...

December 9, 2013Accordo: Mozart & MendelssohnChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Julia Bogorad-Kogan, flute; Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach & Rebecca Albers, violas; Anthony Ross, celloMozart: Flute Quartet in D Major
Debussy: Syrinx for Solo Flute
Francaix: String Trio
Mendelssohn: String Quintet in Bb Major, Op. 87more info...

December 5, 6 & 7, 2013Bach: Concerto in E Major with the SPCONeighborhood Seriesprogram also includes:
Brandenburg Concerti #2 & 3
Orchestral Suite #1 in Cmore info...

October 8, 2013Accordo at AmsterdamAmsterdam Bar & HallSaint Paul, MNdrinks, music, context & conversation, hosted by Classical MPR

with Erin Keefe, violin; Maiya Papach & Hsin-Yun Huang, violas; Ron Thomas, celloselections from:

Mozart: String Quintet in g minor, K. 516
Brahms: String Quintet in G Major, Op. 111more info...

October 7, 2013Accordo: Viola QuintetsChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Erin Keefe, violin; Maiya Papach & Hsin-Yun Huang, violas; Ron Thomas, celloMozart: String Quintet in g minor, K. 516
Brahms: String Quintet in G Major, Op. 111more info...

September 6, 7 & 8, 2013Mozart 'Haffner' Serenade with SPCOOrdway Center for Performing ArtsSaint Paul, MNEdo de Waart, conductorprogram also includes:
Bach: Orchestral Suite #4 in D
Beethoven: Symphony #5 in cmore info...

August 24, 2013Boston Chamber Music SocietyArsenal Center for the ArtsWatertown, MAwith Mihae Lee, piano & Ronald Thomas, celloSchubert: Piano Trio in Bb Major, D. 898
program also includes other works of Schubert, Vorisek & Lachnermore info...

August 4-11, 2013Moritzburg FestivalDresden, Germanymore info...

July 15-23, 2013Festival MozaicSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music DirectorBartok: String Quartet #6; Chausson: Concerto for Violin, Piano & String Quartet, solo violin

June 18 & 19, 2013Reid Anderson's 'The Rough Mixes'SPCO CenterSt. Paul, MNThe Bad Plus' Reid Anderson's new composition on the new Liquid Music Series

with Jeff Ballard, drums; Sunmi Chang, violin; Tony Ross, cellomore info...

May 14-25, 2013Tour with Mahler Chamber Orchestra & pianist Leif Ove AndsnesPavia, Lugano, Torino, Prague, Bergenguest ConcertmasterBeethoven: Piano Concertos #2 & 4; Stravinsky: Concerto in Re & Octetmore info...

May 6, 2013Accordo: Intimate VoicesChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Erin Keefe, violin; Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, violas; Ron Thomas, celloSibelius: String Quartet in d, Op. 56, 'Voces Intimae,' Kodaly: Duo for Violin & Cello, Op. 7, Dvorak: Viola Quintet in Eb, Op. 97more info...

April 7, 2013Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesThe Crosby EstatesRancho Santa Fe, CAwith Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Richard O'Neill, viola; Efe Batacigil, cello; Alessio Bax, pianoMozart: Violin Sonata in e minor, K. 304; Brahms: Piano Quintet in f minor, Op. 34more info...

April 5, 2013Mainly Mozart Spotlight SeriesAuditorium at TSRILa Jolla, CAwith Arnaud Sussmann, violin; Richard O'Neill, viola; Efe Batacigil, cello; Alessio Bax, pianoMendelssohn: Piano Trio in c minor, Op. 66; Taneyev: Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 30more info...

March 24-April 1, 2013Medillin Festicamera 2013; Scott Yoo, artistic directorMedillin, Colombiawith Mihae Lee, piano; Ronald Thomas & Michelle Djokic, celli; Ruggero Allifranchini & Jason Uyeyama, violins, Toby Appel & Juan Miguel Hernandez, violas; teaching and playing with talented kids from Youth Orchestra of Medillin's network of music schoolsFranck: Piano Quintet & Dvorak: Viola Quintetmore info...

March 12-19, 2013Mahler Chamber Orchestra tour with Mitsuko UchidaAlicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Lisbon, Madridguest LeaderMozart: Piano Concertos #17 & 25; Bartok: Divertimento for Stringsmore info...

February 25-March 1, 2013New World SymphonyMiami, FLteaching/coaching residency

February 4, 2013Accordo: In the footsteps of BachChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNKyu-Young Kim & Ruggero Allifranchini, violins; Maiya Papach & Becca Albers, violas; Pitnarry Shin & Tony Ross, celliBach/Mozart: Prelude & Fugue in d minor for String Trio, K. 404a, Hindemith: String Quartet #4, Op. 22, Brahms: Sextet in Bb, Op. 18more info...

February 3, 2013Accordo in StillwaterTrinity Lutheran ChurchStillwater, MNKyu-Young Kim & Ruggero Allifranchini, violins; Maiya Papach & Becca Albers, violas; Pitnarry Shin & Tony Ross, celliBach/Mozart: Prelude & Fugue in d minor for String Trio, K. 404a, Hindemith: String Quartet #4, Op. 22, Brahms: Sextet in Bb, Op. 18more info...

February 1-9, 2013Curtis on TourLake Wales, Sarasota and Ft. Myers, Floridawith Roberto Diaz, viola & Tessa Seymour, celloSchubert: Trio in Bb Major, D. 581; Dohnanyi: Serenade in C Major, Op. 10; Beethoven: Trio in Eb Major, Op. 3more info...

January 27, 2013Curtis Alumni Concert in the Twin CitiesColonial ChurchEdina, MNwith Erin Keefe, violin; Tom Turner, viola; Eugena Chang,cello; Burt Hara, clarinet & Lydia Artymiw, pianoMozart: Clarinet Quintet; Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81more info...

December 9, 2012Mahler Symphony #7 with Royal Flemish Philharmonic/ Edo de WaartdeSingelAntwerp, BelgiumGuest Concertmastermore info...

December 8, 2012Mahler Symphony #7 with Royal Flemish Philharmonic/ Edo de WaartPalais des Beaux-ArtsBrussels, BelgiumGuest Concertmastermore info...

December 3, 2012Accordo: A tribute to Debussy on his 150thChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach, viola, Ron Thomas, cello, and Benjamin Hochman, pianoJanacek: Sonata for Violin & Piano, Ravel: String Quartet in F, Debussy: Selected Preludes for Solo Piano, Faure: Piano Quartet in c minor, Op. 15more info...

November 14-21, 2012Mahler Chamber Orchestra CD release tour with pianist Leif Ove AReggio Emilia, Perugia, Italy; Cologne, Germany; St. Polton, Ausguest LeaderBeethoven: Piano Concertos #1 & 3 & Stravinsky: Concerto in Re for Stringsmore info...

November 4, 2012UCSB Festival Chamber Music SeriesUCSB Center for the ArtsBeaufort, SCwith Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano & Tara Helen O'Connor, fluteBach: Trio Sonata in c minor from Musical Offering; Martinu: Trio for Violin, Flute & Piano; Ravel: Piano Trio in a minormore info...

November 1, 2012Faculty, Family & Friends Concert SeriesSottile-Thompson Recital Hall, Ashley HallCharleston, SCwith Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano & Tara Helen O'Connor, fluteBach: Trio Sonata in c minor from Musical Offering; Martinu: Trio for Violin, Flute & Piano; Ravel: Piano Trio in a minormore info...

October 30, 2012Chamber Music on Main SeriesColumbia Museum of ArtColumbia, SCwith Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano & Tara Helen O'Connor, fluteBach: Trio Sonata in c minor from Musical Offering; Martinu: Trio for Violin, Flute & Piano; Ravel: Piano Trio in a minormore info...

October 27, 2012 & October 28th, 2012Musical Masterworks Series1st Congregational Church of Old LymeOld Lyme, CTwith Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano & Tara Helen O'Connor, fluteBach: Trio Sonata in c minor from Musical Offering; Martinu: Trio for Violin, Flute & Piano; Ravel: Piano Trio in a minormore info...

October 17-21, 2012Mahler Chamber Orchestra tour/ Dvorak with Daniel Harding & StevFerrara, Naples, and Turin, Italyguest LeaderDvorak: Cello Concertos #1 & 2, Symphony #9, 'New World'more info...

October 15, 2012Accordo: An evening in Austria-HungaryChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNKyu-Young Kim & Ruggero Allifranchini, violins; Becca Albers & Maiya Papach, violas; Tony Ross, celloHaydn: String Quartet in G, Op. 77 #1, Bartok: Duos for Two Violins, Dohnanyi: Serenade in C for String Trio, Mozart: Viola Quintet in C Major, K. 515more info...

October 2, 2012FREE CONCERT by The Musicians of the SPCO and Garrison Keillor, Leonard Center Gymnasium, Macalester CollegeSaint Paul, MNwith Maiya Papach, solo violaRossini: Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers, Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in Eb, K. 364 for Violin & Viola, Beethoven: Symphony #1 in C Majormore info...

September 29, 2012American Romantics with the SPCOUnited Church of Christ (UCC)St. Paul, MNWalter Piston: Divertimento for 9 Instruments; John Harbison: Piano Quintetmore info...

September 28, 2012American Romantics with the SPCOWayzata Community ChurchWayzata, MNWalter Piston: Divertimento for 9 Instruments; John Harbison: Piano Quintetmore info...

August 24, 2012Salt Bay ChamberfestDarrows Barn, Round Top FarmDamariscotta, MEwith Nokuthula Ngwenyama,viola; Edward Arron, cello; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Conor Nelson, flute; Pedja Muzijevic, pianoChausson: Piano Quartet, Op. 30; Sebastian Currier: Static; Roger Zare: World Premieremore info...

August 11, 2012Boston Chamber Music Society/ Debussy's 150thArsenal Center for the ArtsWatertown, MAwith Marcus Thompson, viola, Ronald Thomas, cello & Randall Hodgkinson, pianoSatie: Choses vues a droite et a gauche for Violin & Piano; Faure: Piano Quartet in g minor, Op. 45more info...

August 10, 2012Chestnut Hill Concerts/ Debussy's 150thKatherine Hepburn Cultural Arts CenterOld Saybrook, CTwith Marcus Thompson, viola, Ronald Thomas, cello & Randall Hodgkinson, pianoSatie: Choses vues a droite et a gauche for Violin & Piano; Faure: Piano Quartet in g minor, Op. 45more info...

July 30, 2012Santa Fe Chamber Music FestivalSt. Francis AuditoriumSanta Fe, NMwith Kirill Gerstein, piano & Oliver Knussen, conductorBerg: Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano & 13 Windsmore info...

July 29, 2012Santa Fe Chamber Music FestivalSt. Francis AuditoriumSanta Fe, NMwith Kirill Gerstein, piano & Oliver Knussen, conductorBerg: Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano & 13 Windsmore info...

July 22, 2012Festival MozaicCuesta College Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAScott Yoo, Music Director and conductor of the Festival OrchestraKorngold: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35more info...

July 21, 2012Festival MozaicCuesta College Cultural & Performing Arts CenterSan Luis Obispo, CAwith Serena McKinney, violin; Miguel Hernandez, viola; Lynn Kabat, celloRavel: String Quartet in F Majormore info...

July 10, 2012Chamber Music NorthwestCatlin Gabel SchoolPortland, ORwith Gil Kalish, piano; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Ronald Thomas, celloSchumann: Piano Quintet in Eb, Op. 44more info...

July 9, 2012Chamber Music NorthwestKaul Auditorium, Reed CollegePortland, ORwith Gil Kalish, piano; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Ronald Thomas, celloSchumann: Piano Quintet in Eb, Op. 44more info...

July 8, 2012Chamber Music Northwest/Homage to MozartLincoln Performance HallPortland, ORwith Ronald Thomas, cello; Gil Kalish, piano; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Curtis Daily, bass, John Cox & Eric Ruske, hornsMozart: Piano Trio in E Major, K.542; Divertimento in D Major for Horns & Strings, K. 334more info...

July 7, 2012Chamber Music Northwest/Homage to MozartKaul Auditorium, Reed CollegePortland, ORwith Ronald Thomas, cello; Gil Kalish, piano; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Curtis Daily, bass, John Cox & Eric Ruske, hornsMozart: Piano Trio in E Major, K.542; Divertimento in D Major for Horns & Strings, K. 334more info...

July 3, 2012Chamber Music NorthwestCaitlin Gabel SchoolPortland, ORwith Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Ronald Thomas & Mihai Marica, celliSchubert: Quintet in C Major, Op. 163more info...

July 2, 2012Chamber Music NorthwestKaul Auditorium, Reed CollegePortland, ORwith Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Ronald Thomas & Mihai Marica, celliSchubert: Quintet in C Major, Op. 163more info...

May 12-26, 2012Mahler Chamber Orchestra tour with pianist Leif Ove AndsnesBrescia-Lugano-Turin-Bergamo-Prague-Dresden-Bergenguest LeaderBeethoven: Piano Concertos #1 & 3; Stravinsky: Apollon Musagetemore info...

May 14, 2012Accordo: Brahms/Haydn VariationsChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNRuggero Allifranchini & Erin Keefe, violins; Maiya Papach, viola; Tony Ross, cello; Burt Hara, clarinetHaydn: String Quartet in f minor, Op. 20 #5; Dahl: Concerto a Tre; Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115more info...

March 12, 2012Accordo: Bacchanalia!Christ Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Edward Arron, cello; Ian Ding, percussionBeethoven: G Major String Trio; Jeffery Cotton: Meditation, Rhapsody & Bacchanal for Violin & Percussion; Dvorak: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 61more info...

March 10, 2012Accordo at the Phipps CenterPhipps Center for the ArtsHudson, WIwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach, viola; Edward Arron, cello; Ian Ding, percussionBeethoven: G Major String Trio; Jeffery Cotton: Meditation, Rhapsody & Bacchanal for Violin & Percussion; Dvorak: String Quartet in C, Major Op. 61more info...

February 24-25, 2012Korngold: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35/ SPCOOrdway CenterSt. Paul, MNRossen Milanov, conductorprogram also includes music by Prokofiev, Scarlatti & Shostakovichmore info...

February 6, 2012Accordo: Romantic String SextetsChrist Church LutheranMinneapolis, MNwith Ruggero Allifranchini, violin; Maiya Papach & Becca Albers, violas; Ron Thomas & Tony Ross, celliStrauss: Capriccio; Schoenberg: Transfigured Night; Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florencemore info...

January 3-14, 2012Cartagena Music FestivalCartagena, ColombiaStephen Prutsman, piano & artistic director; with Alisa Weilerstein, cello, Anne-Marie McDermott, piano, Brian Ganz, piano, Hsin-Yun Huang, viola, the St. Lawrence String Quartet and many more...Bach a minor Violin Concerto, Mozart g minor and Mahler Piano Quartets, Brahms B Major Trio, Dvorak Viola Quintet in Eb and more!more info...

Accordoa new chamber music group in the Twin Citieshttp://www.schubert.org/accordo/

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestrahttp://www.thespco.org/

The Schubert Clubhttp://www.schubert.org

Diane Asseo Grilichesphotographerhttp://www.griliches.com/publications.html

Aestheticize MediaWebsite/Graphic Design Solutionshttp://www.aestheticize.com/

Steven Copes

kopadakis@gmail.com

Coming soon...

PUBLICITY/Matt Dine Photography 2023

SPCO

ODDS & ENDS

Pierre Jalbert Violin Concerto / Copes (excerpts)

Pierre Jalbert Excerpt from Violin Concerto (World Premiere) Recorded June 9-10, 2017 at the Ordway Concert Hall The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Steven Cope...

VIEW VIDEO

Beethoven: Violin Concerto / Copes (excerpt)

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Steven Copes, violin Recorded January 12-14, 2018 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

VIEW VIDEO

Richard Strauss: Le bourgeois gentilhomme Suite, Op. 60 - Entran

Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Cité de la Musique, Paris
January 2009

VIEW VIDEO

MN Originals from TPT: the SPCO

VIEW VIDEO

Cartagena Music Festival: Brahms Piano Trio in B Major, Mvts. 3

Brian Ganz, Steven Copes, Alisa Weilerstein

VIEW VIDEO

Teaching is as much about learning from your students as it is helping them. I love to figure out what’s working and what’s not, be it with interpretation, practice habits, preparation, mental mindset, etc. I was fortunate to have great teachers like Robert Lipsett, Aaron Rosand, and Robert Mann, each with a very different style and philosophy, and it’s important to me to continue these traditions, as well as to learn from inspiring students.

If you don’t happen to live in the Twin Cities and want to work via Zoom or virtually, I have been teaching this way regularly during the pandemic, so please reach out!

These are some of the institutions where I’ve taught in the past, many of which I continue to teach at in the summer months.

Banff Centre, Canada

Curtis Institute of Music Summerfest, Philadelphia, PA

New World Symphony, Miami, FL

Colorado College Summer Festival, Colorado Springs

East Carolina University, Greenville

University of South Carolina, (Columbia)

National Orchestral Institute, Maryland

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo

Indiana University, Bloomington

University of Minnesota (Adjunct Professor)

University of Texas (Austin)

Roosevelt University, Chicago

Orford Music Academy, Quebec

I can be reached at kopadakis@gmail.com