AEOLUS QUARTET
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 | 7:30 PM
Trinity Episcopal Church
1501 N. Glass St.
JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1809)
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 54 No. 2
- Vivace
- Adagio
- Menuetto. Allegretto – Trio
- Finale. Adagio – Presto – Adagio
REENA ESMAIL (b. 1983)
Zeher for String Quartet
INTERMISSION
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841 – 1904)
String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106
- Allegro moderato
- Adagio ma non troppo
- Molto vivace
- Finale. Andante sostenuto – Allegro con fuoco
AEOLUS QUARTET
Nicholas Tavani, violin
Rachel Shapiro, violin
Caitlin Lynch, viola
Jia Kim, cello
Sponsors
This concert is generously supported by our concert sponsors and by donors to the Victoria Bach Festival’s Annual Fund. Many thanks to our generous supporters!
About the Artists
Nicholas TAVANI, violin
Violinist Nicholas Tavani was born in Arlington, VA, and debuted in Washington, D.C.’s Gaston Hall at the age of eight. The Cleveland Plain Dealer praised him as “ an alert and sensitive artist, with beautiful tone and exquisite phrasing,” and the Washington Post has hailed his “brilliant musicianship.” As a chamber musician, recitalist, and concerto soloist, Mr. Tavani has performed extensively to critical acclaim in the United States and around the world. As first violinist of the Aeolus Quartet, he was a winner of the 2011 Plowman International Chamber Music Competition, the 2011 Yellow Springs Chamber Music competition, and the 2009 Coleman International Chamber Music Competition. He is also a laureate of the Postacchini and Kingsville International Violin Competitions.
Mr. Tavani serves as first violinist in the Aeolus Quartet, who are currently Artists in Residence at Musica Viva New York. In addition, he serves as concertmaster of the New Orchestra of Washington and is a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble and the Smithsonian Chamber Players.
A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Tavani has premiered and recorded several works by living composers, including Samuel Adler, Alexandra Bryant, Christopher Theofanidis, Missy Mazzoli, and Dan Visconti. His discography includes four albums with the Aeolus Quartet in wide release on the Azica, Naxos, and Innova labels. Solo performances with orchestra include the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Arlington Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Prince William Symphony, New Orchestra of Washington, and many others. Collaborations include Renee Fleming, Peter Salaff, Jon Kimura Parker, Daxun Zhang, and Michael Tree.
Mr. Tavani’s current season includes chamber, recital and concerto performances across the US and extensive touring across the US with the Aeolus Quartet.
As a committed educator, Mr. Tavani has served on the faculties of the George Washington University School of Music, Point CounterPoint Music Festival, the MasterWorks Festival, and the University of Maryland High School Music Academy. He served as teaching assistant to the Juilliard Quartet at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes, and the Aeolus Quartet was 2013-2015 Graduate Quartet in Residence. Mr. Tavani completed a doctorate under the mentorship of David Salness at the University of Maryland. His thesis was titled Quantifying Dynamic Pitch Adjustment Decision Structures in String Quartet Performance. An alumnus of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Nicholas studied violin with William Preucil and chamber music with Peter Salaff and the Cavani Quartet. In addition to a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from CIM, Nicholas also studied mathematical physics at Case Western Reserve University.
Rachel SHAPIRO, violin
Brooklyn-based violinist Rachel Kitagawa Shapiro began playing violin at age four in her hometown of Reading, PA. She has since performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and across the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, India, China, South Korea, and Japan.
Founding member and second violinist of the critically acclaimed Aeolus Quartet, her playing has been praised by Mark Satola of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “in a beautifully balanced interlude wherein the second violin dances attendant to a heartfelt melody… Rachel Shapiro [was] outstanding here.” Collaborations include a performance on the Metropolitan Opera stage alongside Renée Fleming, as well as appearances with Michael Tree, Jon Kimura Parker, the Juilliard Quartet, and the Miró Quartet. She has performed as a guest with the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble, A Far Cry, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.
Ms. Shapiro is an adjunct Professor of Violin at Montclair State University and has previously served as Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington University, guest Teaching Artist at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts, and on violin and chamber music faculties at summer programs such as the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, Texas Christian University College of Fine Arts Intensive Quartet Workshop, and Kinhaven Music School. She has recorded for Naxos and Azica record labels and on a recent album by The National.
Ms. Shapiro holds an Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School, a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Maryland, a Master of Music from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. With a minor in English Literature, Ms. Shapiro is an avid writer and has been published in Strings magazine.
Ms. Shapiro performs on a 1991 Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin graciously on loan to her through the Five Partners Foundation.
Caitlin LYNCH, viola
Violist and Grammy Award recipient Caitlin Lynch has performed across the globe in collaboration with artists from Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. She is violist of the Aeolus String Quartet, and a member and co-Artistic Director of the conductorless chamber orchestra A Far Cry. Ms. Lynch’s performances as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist with orchestra, and recitalist have spanned fourteen countries across five continents – from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House to the United Nations – and include appearances with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, and Guarneri String Quartets. Passionate about collaborations with other art forms, she enjoys performing with dancers (Mark Morris Dance Group, Wendy Whelan), artists from other musical genres (Bjork, The National), and on film (Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!). Ms. Lynch is the founder and Artistic Director of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley, a nonprofit organization that supports public school music programs and provides funds for private instrumental lessons for students for whom the cost would be otherwise prohibitive. She was an Artist in Residence at Cleveland’s Judson Manor senior living community, an intergenerational relationship that continues today and has been celebrated by CBS and NBC News, The Plain Dealer, and the New York Times. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances at the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series with the Aeolus Quartet, the Kennedy Center with A Far Cry, and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Ms. Lynch performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster, and thanks to the generosity of the Five Partners Foundation, a viola by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.
Jia KIM, cello
Korean-American cellist Jia Kim, recipient of the prestigious 2017 career award from the Leonore Annenberg Foundation for Performing and Visual Arts, leads a dynamic musical life as a performer, educator, and a passionate advocate for the Arts. She has appeared on stages across the United States, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East with performances broadcasted on WQXR, PBS, KMZT Classical, and acclaimed by the New York Times. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Kim has performed at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the 92Y, and joined Itzhak Perlman on a tour across Toronto, Mexico City, Virginia Beach, Miami and New York City.
Ms. Kim has been invited as Visiting Artist at the University of Hawaii, American Academy of Jordan, College of William and Mary, Grand Valley State University, and served as a Tone Judge for the Violin Society of America’s 2016 International Competition.
Currently she is on Faculty at The Juilliard School Precollege Division, The Perlman Music Program, and New York Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music Program. As Artistic Director of Central Chamber Series in NYC and Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society in Stowe, VT, she is committed to connecting with a wider audience through the powerful language of Chamber Music, both through education and performance.
Ms. Kim is evermore grateful to her mentors and teachers Ronald Leonard, Itzhak & Toby Perlman, and to Joel Krosnick, with whom she studied at the Juilliard School for a Bachelor and Master Degree in Music. Ms. Kim performs on a Testore cello made in 1748.
