(David Brickman and Patricia Sunwoo, violins; Melissa Matson, viola; Mimi Hwang, cello) Violinist Patricia Sunwoo had long entertained the notion of performing a "Beethoven cycle" - that is, performing all 16 of Beethoven's string quartets in a series of concerts. The Beethoven quartets are revered by musicians and loved by audiences. Spanning the master's creative life, within them one finds expressed the spectrum of human experience - joy and anger, jocularity and gravity, despair and exaltation. It was with little difficulty that Patricia enlisted three colleagues to undertake the project which might be considered the "Mount Everest" of the chamber music repertoire. (The Amenda musicians plan to achieve this without the use of supplemental oxygen.) Formed in January, 2010, the AQ has already been engaged to perform in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, on the RIT Performing Artist series, and in the Performance Hall of the Hochstein School of Music. The AQ brings its music to a diverse audience in all manner of venues. (www.AmendaQuartet.org)
![]() Cellist John Haines-Eitzen (May 6, 2012) has performed in most of the world's major concert halls. He was a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1995 until 2005 and has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, and the Columbus Symphony, of which he became the youngest member after winning an audition while still an undergraduate at Indiana University. His solo and chamber music appearances have taken him to such diverse locations as Sapporo, Japan, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and to the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida, and numerous concert series throughout the United States and abroad. He has performed in the Philadelphia Orchestra's Chamber Music Series with pianists Wolfgang Sawallisch and Yefim Bronfman and at the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival in New York with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Mr. Haines-Eitzen is the founder and artistic director of the Vandermark Ensemble, a nonprofit chamber music consortium, and has appeared on National Public Radio. He holds a Bachelor of Music and Performer's Certificate from Indiana University where he was a student of Janos Starker. Mr. Haines-Eitzen's recent CD release of the Bach Cello Suites for Aramus Records is now available at Amazon, iTunes, and www.haines-eitzen.com.
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American pianist Jon Nakamatsu (May 6, 2012) continues to draw unanimous praise as a true aristocrat of the keyboard, whose playing combines elegance, clarity, and electrifying power. A native of California, Mr. Nakamatsu came to international attention in 1997 when he was named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the only American to have achieved this distinction since 1981. Nakamatsu, who at the time was a high school German language teacher without formal conservatory training, seized the Van Cliburn jurors and audiences with the polish, musicality, and technical brilliance of his playing.
Since his dramatic Van Cliburn triumph Mr. Nakamatsu’s brilliant but unassuming musicianship and eclectic repertoire has made him a clear favorite on the concert circuit throughout the world as well as in the recording studio. Mr. Nakamatsu has performed widely in North America, Europe and the Far East, collaborating with such conductors as James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Jahja Ling, Keith Lockhart, David Lockington, Carl St. Clair, and Hans Vonk. He also performed at a White House concert hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton.
Jon Nakamatsu’s extensive recital tours through the United States and Europe have featured debuts in New York City (Carnegie Hall), Washington, DC (Kennedy Center), Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, London, and Milan. He has also worked with various chamber ensembles – among them the Brentano, Tokyo, and Ying String Quartets. An active recording artist, Jon Nakamatsu records exclusively for Harmonia Mundi USA. His recent all-Gershwin recording with the Rochester Philharmonic featuring “Rhapsody in Blue” and the Concerto in F rose to number three on Billboard’s classical music charts and received extraordinary critical praise. Other acclaimed releases include an all-Liszt disc featuring the “Dante Sonata”; a recording of Brahms’ Piano Sonata in F minor and other solo works by the composer; and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Jon Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry and has worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, son of the great pianist Artur Schnabel. Mr. Nakamatsu is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in German Studies and a master’s degree in Education.
As a founding member (1993), hornist, pianist and composer of Rhythm & Brass, he has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Japan and the Middle East. The group’s seven CD’s include: Inside the Blue Suitcase (2005), featuring original compositions by R&B members; Sitting In An English Garden—Music of the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin (2000); More Money Jungle—Ellington Explorations (1997); Christmas Time Is Here (1995); Time In September (1994); Song and Dance (1994); and a play-along CD for Jazz Player Magazine in September 1995. He was a member of Dallas Brass from 1985–1993. As a member of Rhythm & Brass and Dallas Brass, he has appeared as soloist with numerous U.S. symphony orchestras, including those in Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, Rochester, Syracuse, Tucson, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Oregon, Denver and Grand Rapids. Mr. Shuhan performs frequently with the Rochester Philharmonic and Syracuse Symphony Orchestras and appears regularly at the Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival. He has studied at Southern Methodist University with Greg Hustis, the Eastman School of Music with Verne Reynolds, and the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School with Harry Berv. Other teachers include Marvin Howe, Nancy Cochran, John Jacobsen and Henry Babcock. ![]() |
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