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Press Releases
Oct 22 & 23: Emerald City Music presents the Seattle Premiere of Patrick Castillo's Winter Light plus music by Korngold and Martinu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Maggie Stapleton
646.536.7864 x2, maggie@jensenartists.com
Emerald City Music Presents
What You Are To Me – October Mainstage Concerts in Seattle and Olympia
First Live, In-Person Performances in Twenty Months
Featuring the Seattle Premiere of Patrick Castillo’s Winter Light
Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director
Friday, October 22, 2021 at 8pm & 10pm
415 Westlake | Seattle
Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 5:30pm & 7:30pm
Kenneth J Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College
2011 Mottman Road SW | Olympia
Tickets and Information: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
Note: Due to current government mandates, each Mainstage performance will be held twice at each venue for reduced-capacity audiences. ECM is requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of all events and performances. Full COVID-19 policy: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
“Emerald City Music is the place where art and audience collide…” – The Seattle Times
Seattle & Olympia, WA – After twenty months sharing chamber music on digital platforms, Emerald City Music (ECM) returns home to its stages in Seattle and Olympia. On Friday, October 22 in Seattle and Saturday, October 23 in Olympia, ECM presents What You Are To Me, the first Mainstage performances in its sixth season. The program includes Martinu’s Variations on a Theme of Rossini, H. 290 for Cello and Piano (1942) and Korngold’s Suite for Two Violins, Cello, and Left Hand Piano (1930) that was written for Paul Wittgenstein—a virtuoso pianist who lost his right arm during World War I. This work embodies the perseverance of the arts, similar to what the world has dealt with this past year, and coming back with live concerts.
Dedicated to its innovative programming that both honors the tradition of chamber music while expanding the genre’s boundary past common limits, ECM is proud to present the Seattle premiere of Patrick Castillo’s Winter Light (2020) for two violins, cello, and piano, co-commissioned by ECM.
Of his piece, Castillo writes, “Winter Light takes its title from Ingmar Bergman’s 1963 film (in Swedish, Nattvardsgästerna: literally, ‘The Communicants’). While not a work of program music, my quartet does share certain elements with Bergman’s Winter Light: a hymn at its beginning (here, a nod to Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet); an imploring parlando section, analogous to Bergman’s remarkable letter scene; and, most significantly, a prevailing existential dread over an inevitable crisis. A preoccupation with our changing climate hovered over the conception of my Winter Light; the work was completed under quarantine, as the world weathered the COVID-19 pandemic. The cello’s concluding elegy, surrounded by a halo of bowed piano, refracts the opening hymn into an expression of cautious hope and anxious despair. Winter Light is dedicated with great affection to my co-communicants: Kristin Lee, Sean Lee, Dmitri Atapine, Hyeyeon Park, and Gloria Chien, for whom my admiration lies deeper than ten thousand bassi profundi trapped at the bottom of the ocean.”
What You Are To Me on October 22 and 23 features a slate of internationally acclaimed performers:
Kristin Lee, violin (New York, NY): Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Artistic Director of Emerald City Music
Sean Lee, violin (Albany, NY): Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a winner of Paganini International Violin Competition
Dmitri Atapine, cello (Reno, Nevada): member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Gloria Chien, piano (Boston, MA): co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest; founder of String Theory
Hyeyeon Park, piano (Seoul, Korea): prizewinner of international competitions: Oberlin, Ettlingen, Prix Amadèo
Patrick Castillo, composer (New York, NY): Vice President of Artistic Planning of the New York Philharmonic
Full artist biographies and high-resolution images are available at www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
This performance, and all of ECM’s Mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s newly launched subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content. A one-month trial subscription is available until October 15 at www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
Emerald City Music’s Fall 2021 Mainstage Performances
Mainstage #1: What You Are To Me
Friday, October 22, 2021 at 8pm & 10pm at 415 Westlake in Seattle
Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 5:30pm & 7:30pm at Kenneth J Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia (2011 Mottman Road SW)
Tickets and Information: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
Martinu: Variations on a Theme of Rossini, H. 290 for Cello and Piano (1942)
Patrick Castillo: Winter Light (2020) Seattle Premiere
Korngold: Suite for Two Violins, Cello, and Left Hand Piano, Op. 23 (1930)
Mainstage #2: Quartet in Spotlight: Castalian Quartet
Friday, November 12, 2021 at 8pm & 10pm at 415 Westlake in Seattle
Saturday, November 13, 2021 at 5:30pm & 7:30pm at The Lutheran Church of The Good Shepherd in Olympia (1601 North Street SE)
Tickets and Information: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
Mozart: String Quartet No. 23 in F Major, K. 590 “Prussian”
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in f minor, Op. 80
The Castalian Quartet
Sini Simonen, violin; Daniel Roberts, violin; Ruth Gibson, viola; Christopher Graves, cello
Mainstage #3: Seven Pillars
Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8pm & 10:30pm at 415 Westlake in Seattle
Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 5pm & 7:30pm at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia (512 Washington Street SE)
Tickets and Information: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/
Andy Akiho: Seven Pillars (2020) World Premiere
Sandbox Percussion
Jonathan Allen; Victor Caccese; Ian Rosenbaum; Terry Sweeney
Michael Joseph McQuilken, stage and lighting designer
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director
A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.
In addition to her dynamic performing career, Lee was recently appointed to the faculty of University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Violin. She is the artistic director of Emerald City Music in Seattle, a chamber music series she co-founded in 2015. Also an accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at Lincoln Center in New York and on tour with CMS throughout each season, as well as a member of Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, sitting as The Bernard Gondos Chair.
Kristin Lee has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, and many others. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery.
Born in Seoul, Lee began studying violin at age five and within one year won First Prize at the Korea Times Violin Competition. In 1995, she moved to the US to continue her studies under Sonja Foster and in 1997 entered The Juilliard School’s Pre-College. In 2000, Lee was chosen to study with Itzhak Perlman after he heard her perform with the Pre-College Symphony. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School.
For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
About Andrew Jones, ECM Managing Director
Originally from Washington D.C., Andrew Jones has been involved in the classical music scene for most of his life. He began his career as a violist, but quickly realized that his real passion lies in creating opportunities for the community to experience the multifaceted genre that is classical music.
Since 2018, Jones has been involved in multiple roles, both nationally and internationally, managing concert series and festivals in Perugia, Italy, Naples, FL, and Wilmington, NC. He has specialized in operational duties managing a chamber music series, orchestral and broadway productions, and a wide range of special events. Highlights of these endeavors include managing two international orchestras performing concerti with dozens of students across the world and managing the Sypert Salon Chamber Music at Artis—Naples, which features classical chamber masterworks.
Jones has prided himself on providing outstanding music education opportunities to students. A highlight was at the Vivace International Music Festival in Wilmington, NC, a summer music festival that allows students to experience the highest level of music regardless of their financial status. These students are able to learn from leading conservatory and university professors, perform for the community, and immerse themselves in music with their peers. Watching students learn and grow from these events has shown Jones the power that music can shape lives and create opportunities they may not have been able to otherwise experience.
At Emerald City Music, Jones has made it his personal mission to demonstrate the power of music and the effect it can have on individuals and the community. His excitement, dedication, and tirelessness for this work is what drives him and pushes him to be better every day.
In his spare time, Jones can be found watching Liverpool Football Club games, trying new breweries, being on the water, and practicing his new-found love of fly fishing.
About ECM
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences in its South Lake Union home venue, 415 Westlake. Catch them on tour also in residence in Olympia, Bellingham, and New York City.
Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.
ECM gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Artistic Director Kristin Lee –– a touring violinist awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and who is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center –– is regarded for her innovative programming that both honors the tradition of chamber music while expanding the genre’s boundary past common limits. Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.
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