“Spark of Genius”
Hyeyeon Park, piano
Stella Chen, violin
Sean Lee, violin
Matthew Lipman, viola
Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, viola
Dmitri Atapine, cello
STUDENT ($10) and EDUCATOR ($15) RUSH available 48 hours prior to performance.
6:45PM — Pre-Concert Talk with Artists
Franz SCHUBERT: String Trio in B-flat Major, D 581 (1817)
Josef SUK: Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 1 (1891)
Felix MENDELSSOHN: String Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 87 (1845)
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The recipient of a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, American violinist Stella Chen is the winner of the International Queen Elisabeth Grand Prize - Queen Mathilde Prize in the 2019 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition. Stella has been lauded for her “phenomenal maturity” and “fresh and spontaneous, yet emotionally profound and intellectually well-structured performance” (The Jerusalem Post).
In the past season alone, Stella made her debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Chicago Symphony. Upcoming projects include the U.S. premiere of Jorg Widmann's Concerto No. 2, conducted by the composer. Other recent engagements include appearances with the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonia, and Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.
Stella is also the first recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, the top prize winner of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition and youngest ever prize winner of the Menuhin Competition. She has given solo performances at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. Other noteworthy ventures include performances in Bhutan, Jordan, Israel, Cuba, and Colombia. Festival appearances include Ravinia, Kronberg Academy, Salzburg Mozarteum, Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, the Sarasota Music Festival, and YellowBarn. Stella has collaborated with such notable artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Levin, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Matthew Lipman, and the Silk Road Ensemble.
A graduate of the Harvard/New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program, Stella received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with honors from Harvard University and an MM from NEC. Stella then went on to receive her doctorate at the Juilliard School and was concurrently a professional studies candidate at the Kronberg Academy. Teachers and mentors include Li Lin, Mihaela Martin, Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Miriam Fried. Stella makes her home in New York City , where she is a member of the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and serves as a teaching assistant to her longtime mentor, Li Lin, at Juilliard.
She plays the 'Huggins' 1708 Stradivarius violin on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, and the 1700 ex-Petri Stradivarius, on generous loan from Dr. Ryuji Ueno and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.
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American violinist Sean Lee is one of few violinists who dare to perform the complete 24 Caprices of Niccolò Paganini in concert. A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee has captured the attention of audiences worldwide, with performances described by the New York Times as “breathtakingly beautiful”.
Lee’s ongoing educational YouTube series, “Paganini POV”, utilizes modern technology to share a unique perspective on violin playing. In January 2022, Lee and pianist Peter Dugan released selections from Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices as arranged by Robert Schumann, as an EP and video series titled “Paganini X Schumann: 9 Caprices”, after giving the first performance of the complete 24 Caprices in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 52-year history.
Lee’s debut album was released by EMI Classics, and reached the iTunes top 20 classical bestsellers list. In 2018, Lee collaborated with pianist Peter Dugan to release a second album, SONGBOOK, featuring songs from all over the world from classical to jazz. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Utah Symphony, and recital appearances have taken him to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Festival di Carro Paganiniano of Italy, and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. A top prizewinner at the “Premio Paganini” International Violin Competition, Lee embraces the legacy of his late mentor, violinist Ruggiero Ricci, who made the first solo recording of the 24 Caprices in 1947.
Lee has collaborated in performances with Itzhak Perlman, Sir James Galway, Deborah Voigt, and members of the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets. With the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee has performed numerous times at Lincoln Center, as well as on tour internationally at venues including the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, Czech Republic; LG Arts Center in Seoul, Korea; National Theater in Taipei, Taiwan; and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Lee also performed for PBS’s first international production of Live from Lincoln Center, “Odyssey: The Chamber Music Society in Greece”.
Lee currently resides in the Capital Region of New York State. Born in Los Angeles, Lee studied in Southern California with Robert Lipsett of the Colburn Conservatory, and with violin legend Ruggiero Ricci. Moving to New York City at age 17, Lee studied at the Juilliard School with the internationally acclaimed Itzhak Perlman. At the Juilliard School, Lee earned both Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees, and received the William Schuman Prize upon graduation.
Lee performs on a violin made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 1995, and a bow made circa 1890 by Joseph Arthur Vigneron.
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American violist Matthew Lipman has been praised by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing,” and by the Chicago Tribune for a “splendid technique and musical sensitivity.” Lipman has come to be relied on as one of the leading players of his generation, frequently appearing as both a soloist and chamber music performer.
Lipman will debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival and with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at the Rheingau Music Festival in the summer of 2021. Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and the Juilliard Orchestra. Lipman has worked with conductors including Edward Gardner, the late Sir Neville Marriner, Osmo Vänskä, and Nicholas McGegan. Lipman was a featured performer with fellow violist Tabea Zimmermann at Michael Tilson Thomas’s 2019 Viola Visions Festival of the New World Symphony in Miami. His recent debuts include at the Aspen Music Festival, Seoul’s Kumho Art Hall, Wigmore Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and in recital at Carnegie Hall.
Ascent, his 2019 release by Cedille Records, was celebrated by The Strad as a “most impressive” debut album while Lipman is praised for his “authoritative phrasing and attractive sound.” The album marks the first ever recording of the recently discovered work by Shostakovich, Impromptu for viola and piano and of Clarice Assad’s Metamorfose for viola and piano, which Lipman commissioned for the recording. He has also been featured on the recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by the late Sir Neville Marriner. The album topped Billboard’s Classical Chart and has received praise by both the press and public.
Named the 2019 Artist-in-Residence for the American Viola Society, Lipman has additionally been featured on WFMT Chicago’s list “30 Under 30” of the world’s top classical musicians, and is a published contributor to The Strad, Strings and BBC Music magazines. He was featured on the second season of PBS’s ‘Now Hear This’ performing Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata with pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen. He performs regularly on tour and at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at music festivals including the Morizburg Festival, St. Petersburg’s White Nights, Music@Menlo, Marlboro, Ravinia, Bridgehampton, Seattle, Saratoga, and Kissinger Sommer festivals. His regular chamber music partners include Tabea Zimmermann, Mitsuko Uchida, Itzhak Perlman, Sir András Schiff, Jeremy Denk, Stella Chen, and Pinchas Zukerman. Dedicated to expanding the repertoire for the viola, Lipman has also performed the premieres of works for viola by composers Helen Grime, Clarice Assad, David Ludwig and the American premiere of Monochromer GartenVI by Malika Kishino.
Lipman is the recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Kovner Fellowship, and the Jack Kent Cooke Award, and is also a major prize winner in the Primrose, Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Stulberg International Viola Competitions. He studied at The Juilliard School with Heidi Castleman, and was further mentored by Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. As an alum of the Bowers Program, Lipman occupies the Wallach Chair at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He performs on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola loaned through the generous efforts of the Pine Foundation.
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Praised by Strad magazine as having "lyricism that stood out...a silky tone and beautiful, supple lines," violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt has established herself as one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. In addition to appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, she has performed in recitals and chamber-music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, which was described in Strad as being "fleet and energetic...powerful and focused."
Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt was the founding violist of the Dover Quartet, and played in the group from 2008-2022. During her time in the group, the Dover Quartet was the First Prize-winner and recipient of every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition 2013, and winner of the Gold Medal and Grand Prize in the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Her numerous awards also include First Prize of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and top prizes at the the Sphinx Competition and the Tokyo International Viola Competition. While in the Dover Quartet, Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt was on the faculty at The Curtis Institute of Music and Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, and a part of the Quartet in Residence of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
A violin student of Sergiu Schwartz and Melissa Pierson-Barrett for several years, she began studying viola with Michael Klotz at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2005. Ms. Pajaro-van de Stadt graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Roberto Diaz, Michael Tree, Misha Amory, and Joseph de Pasquale. She then received her Master's Degree in String Quartet with the Dover Quartet at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, as a student of James Dunham.
Supporting Underwriters: Alietia Caughron, and Dr. Norman and Charito Pay.