Boston Conservatory Chamber Series celebrates its return to the concert stage and 2021-2022 season launch with a spectacular opening performance that features guest artists Omar Chen Guey (violin) and David Russell (cello) and faculty members Lila Brown (viola), Michael Lewin (piano), and Randall Zigler (double bass) performing works by W.A. Mozart, Franz Schubert, and Caroline Shaw.
Markus Placci, artistic director
Chamber Series is a celebration of chamber music, performed by acclaimed Boston Conservatory at Berklee faculty members and renowned guest artists from all over the world.
Program Information
Repertoire
CAROLINE SHAW: Limestone and Felt for Viola and Cello
Lila Brown, viola
David Russell, cello
W.A. MOZART: Duo for Violin and Viola in B-flat KV424
Adagio – Allegro
Andante Cantabile
Andante Grazioso
Omar Chen Guey, violin
Lila Brown, viola
—INTERMISSION—
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Trout Quintet (Forellenquintett) D.667
Allegro Vivace
Andante
Scherzo: Presto
Andantino – Allegretto
Allegro Giusto
Michael Lewin, piano
Omar Chen Guey, violin
Lila Brown, viola
David Russell, cello
Randall Zigler, double bass
A Note from the Artistic Director
Welcome
On behalf of Boston Conservatory at Berklee and our Chamber Series performers, I would like to welcome you to the opening concert of the 2021–2022 Chamber Series season. Chamber Series is a cycle of concerts celebrating great chamber music repertoire and promoting lesser known chamber works, presented through moving performances by faculty members and renowned guest artists.
Our opening concert program marks a new season, which sees audience members and performers together once again, in the same space, at the same time, sharing the full experience and the power of live music, with its mysterious force that can only be fully experienced in this way. We were perhaps always aware of this truth, but it is only after this past tragic year that we are now somehow fully conscious of what this shared experience really means, and what privilege it is to share music and art with one another.
Welcoming esteemed guest artists Omar Chen Guey (violin) and David Russell (cello), along with faculty favorites Michael Lewin (piano), Lila Brown (viola), and Randall Zigler (double bass), Chamber Series presents an evening of uplifting works that celebrate music in its most positive form. The first half of the concert includes duos, one by contemporary artist Caroline Shaw and the other by W.A. Mozart, and the second half of the concert features the renowned Trout Quintet by Schubert, which will be performed by the entire ensemble.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all my colleagues and Chamber Series guests for their everlasting dedication and enthusiasm towards this project, and to Executive Director Cathy Young, Dean of Music Michael Shinn, Chair of Instrumental Studies Matthew Marsit, and to the memory of former President Richard Ortner for their continued support of this special series throughout the years.
Finally, I extend a very big thank you to all audience members and Chamber Series supporters for sharing with us this incredible artistic adventure.
The following was the dedication of our 2020–2021 season:
This concert is dedicated to the souls lost and affected by the pandemic, and to those courageous ones who stepped up in whichever way they could to help their fellow human beings.
Today, we honor those same souls with a hymn to life, to art, and to rebirth.
—Markus Placci, Artistic Director
About the Artists
Guest Performers
- Omar Chen Guey, violin, is a prize-winning artist from Brazil who has performed internationally as a both a soloist and ensemble member in recitals and chamber music concerts. He has been a featured soloist with the Brazilian, Campinas, Goiania, Minas Gerais, Claudio Santoro National Theater, Sao Paulo University, Sao Paulo Municipal, and the State of Sao Paulo symphony orchestras, as well as the Amazonas Philharmonic, Petrobras Pro-Musica, Experimental Repertoire, Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University Symphony, Maidstone Symphony, and Seychelles International Music Festival Orchestras. Read more about Guey here.
- David Russell, cello, has served as principal cello of the Odyssey Opera and Opera Boston orchestras since 2010 and performs regularly with many ensembles based in New England, such as Cantata Singers and Ensemble, the Worcester Chamber Music Society and Emmanuel Music. A strong advocate of new music, he has also performed and recorded with several contemporary ensembles, including Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Firebird Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Music on the Edge, entelechron, and more. Read more about Russell here.
Boston Conservatory Faculty Performers
Learn more about each of our acclaimed faculty performers by clicking on their names below (their biography will open in a new window):
Special thanks to all audience members for viewing this program information online. Viewing this information digitally has saved 130 sheets of paper—that's 14 gallons of water preserved and 12 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions eliminated.
