Leila Josefowicz • David Chan, violin
Paul Neubauer • Yura Lee, viola
Fred Sherry • Michael Nicolas, cello
One of the most sought after violinists of her generation and an outstanding champion of contemporary music, Leila Josefowicz is the chosen interpreter of several of today’s leading composers including John Adams, Oliver Knussen, Thomas Adès and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In recognition of her passionate advocacy and genuine commitment to the music of today, she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Leila Josefowicz came to national attention in 1994 when she made her Carnegie Hall début with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and has since appeared with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and eminent conductors. She gave the premières of concertos written for her by Esa-Pekka Salonen (Los Angeles Philharmonic), Steve Mackey (St Louis Symphony) and Colin Matthews (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), and played first performances of Thomas Adès’s violin concerto Concentric Paths with the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, the San Francisco, Toronto and Seattle symphonies and at the Aspen Music Festival. John Adams and Luca Francesconi have been commissioned to write new concertos for her.
A native of San Diego, David Chan is the concertmaster of the Met Orchestra and an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. A top prizewinner at the Tchaikovsky and Indianapolis international violin competitions, he made his Carnegie Hall début during the 2002-2003 season, and his Lincoln Center début at Avery Fisher Hall in 1995. As a soloist he has collaborated with conductors such as James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Hans Graf, and Raymond Leppard, while as a chamber musician he is the founder and artistic director of Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot in the Burgundy region of France, and a frequent guest at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and La Jolla’s SummerFest. His recordings include a recital programme, a disc of two Paganini concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, and an album of violin/cello duos with Rafael Figueroa. David Chan’s principal teachers were Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, and Michael Tseitlin. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and lives in the New York City area with his wife, violinist Catherine Ro, and their three children.
Paul Neubauer was principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at the age of 21. He gave the world première of the revised Bartók Viola Concerto as well as concertos by Tower, Penderecki, Picker, Jacob, Lazarof, Suter, Müller-Siemens, Ott, and Friedman. A two-time GRAMMY® nominee, he has recorded works by Schumann with Anne-Marie McDermott as well as numerous pieces that were composed for him: Joan Tower’s Purple Rhapsody for viola and orchestra and Wild Purple for solo viola; Viola Rhapsody, a concerto by Henri Lazarof; and Soul Garden for viola and chamber ensemble by Derek Bermel. He has appeared with over a hundred orchestras, including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki Philharmonics, the National, St Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth Symphonies, and the Santa Cecilia, English Chamber and Beethovenhalle Orchestras. Paul Neubauer is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College and is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Violinist/violist Yura Lee, recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, enjoys a career that spans almost two decades, and takes her all over the world. As a soloist, she has performed with numerous major orchestras, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Francisco and St Louis Symphonies, among many others. She has performed with conductors including Lorin Maazel, Christophe Eschenbach, Leonard Slatkin, and Myung-Whun Chung. At the age of twelve she became the youngest artist ever to receive the Début Artist of the Year prize at the Performance Today awards given by NPR. Yura Lee has received numerous international prizes, including first prize at the Leopold Mozart Competition (Germany), first prize at the UNISA International Competition (South Africa), and first prize at the Yuri Bashmet International Competition (Russia). Her CD with Reinhard Goebel and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Mozart in Paris (Oehms Classics), received the prestigious Diapason d’Or Award in France. She is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, and divides her time between the United States (Boston/New York City) and Germany (Berlin).
Pioneer and a visionary in the music world, cellist Fred Sherry has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time through his close association with today’s composers. Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steven Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry, and he has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson and Toru Takemitsu, among others. Fred Sherry was a founding member of Tashi and Speculum Musicae; a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble and the Galimir String Quartet, and a close collaborator with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. He has been an active performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since the 1970s and was the Artistic Director from 1988 to 1992. Fred Sherry created the series Bach Cantata Sundays at St Ann’s Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of A Great Day in New York, the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall. In the vast scope of his recording career, Fred Sherry has been a soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings. The Fred Sherry String Quartet recordings of the Schoenberg String Quartet Concerto and the String Quartets Nos 3 and 4 for Naxos (8.557533) were both nominated for a GRAMMY®. Sherry’s book 25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas was released by Boosey & Hawkes in October 2011, to be followed by a long-awaited treatise on contemporary string techniques.
The cellist Michael Nicolas is one of the rising stars of his generation and a dynamic performer on the classical and contemporary music scene, in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. He captivates audiences across North America, Europe, and Asia with his ravishing tone, refined musicality, and probing interpretations of a wide variety of repertoire. He is a frequent guest at music festivals such as Bridgehampton, Marlboro, Ravinia, and Chamber Music Northwest, and is currently a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). He has worked with many distinguished composers, including Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Charles Wuorinen, and John Zorn, as well as countless others of his own generation. He is also a member of the South Korea-based Ensemble Ditto, and is on the teaching faculty at the University of Connecticut. Of mixed French-Canadian and Taiwanese heritage, Michael Nicolas currently resides in New York City. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Clockwise Top-left:
Leila Josefowicz / © Henry Fair
David Chan / © Karen Hill
Paul Neubauer / © Richard Termine
Michael Nicolas / © Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Fred Sherry / © Ben Esner
Yura Lee / © Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
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