2009-10 Concert Series

Monday, October 26, 2009—7:30 pm

Ysaÿe: Sonata in E minor, Op. 27, No. 4 for solo violin

Brett Dean: Intimate Decisions for solo viola (1996)

Augusta Read Thomas: Silent Moon, for viola and cello (2006)

Beethoven: String Quartet in F major, Op. 135

Guest: Arturo Ziraldo, viola

Monday, December 7, 2009—7:30 pm

Brett Dean: Poems and Prayers for mezzo-soprano and piano (2006)

Respighi: Il Tramonto (The Sunset) for voice and string quartet

Alessandro Rolla: Duo Concertant in C major for violin and viola

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 11, Op. 122

Guests: Julia Bentley, voice and Kuang-Hao Huang, piano

Monday, January 25, 2010—7:30 pm

Mozart: Adagio in b minor for solo piano K. 540

Brett Dean: Eclipse for string quartet (2003)

Crumb: Sonata for Solo Cello (1955)

Bax: Trio in One Movement for Piano, Violin, and Viola (1906)

Guest: Paul Hersh, piano

Monday, April 5, 2010—7:30 pm

Bright Sheng: Stream Flows for Solo Violin (1990)

Brett Dean: some birthday... for two violas and cello (1992)

Dvořák: String Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97

Guest: Yukiko Ogura, viola

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Notes for the April 4 Concert

Callisto Ensemble will close its four-concert 2009-10 concert season with Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng's Stream Flows for Solo Violin (1990) performed by Robert Waters; the Chicago premiere of some birthday... for two violas and cello (1992) by prizewinning Australian composer Brett Dean, and the String Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97 (1893) by Antonín Dvořák. Guest violist Yukiko Ogura will join Callisto Ensemble for the Dean and the Dvořák. The April 5 concert will conclude the Ensemble's season-long focus on the music of the internationally renowned, prize-winning Australian composer Brett Dean.

Guest Artist: Yukiko Ogura, viola

Yukiko Ogura joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2001. Born in Nara, Japan, Ogura began violin studies at the age of three. After earning a bachelor's degree in music at Kyoto City University of the Arts in 1995, she performed chamber concerts throughout Japan, winning a position with the Kobe City Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Gerhard Bosse. In 1998, on the recommendation of Mazumi Tanamura, Ogura turned her attention to playing viola, leading to worldwide chamber and solo engagements, including an appearance with the Saito Kinen Orchestra under director Seiji Ozawa. In 2000 she left Japan to pursue viola studies in the United States with Li-Kuo Chang, assistant principal viola of the CSO. The following year, she auditioned for the CSO and was appointed to the viola section.

Ogura is a much-sought-after performer and recording artist who has recorded with the Nagaokakyo Chamber Ensemble directed by Yuko Mori and released a CD in 2001. She is a founding member of the Eusia String Quartet, first-prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2001, which also performed and recorded a CD at the Round Top Music Festival in 2005 and released a CD in Japan on the N&F label in 2006. She appeared on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts series in 2006,and also performed with the Vermeer Quartet as a special guest in Mozart's Viola Quintet in C major that same year. In addition, Yukiko Ogura regularly appears at the Winter Chamber Music Festival at Northwestern University.

Composer Bright Sheng

Bright Sheng is respected as one of the foremost composers of our time, whose stage, orchestral, chamber and vocal works are performed regularly throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Many of Sheng’s works have strong Chinese and Asian influences, a result of his diligent study of Asian musical cultures for over three decades.

Born in 1955 in Shanghai, Sheng began studying the piano with his mother at age four. During China's infamous Cultural Revolution, at fifteen he was sent to Qinghai—a Chinese province bordering Tibet—where for seven years he performed as a pianist and percussionist in the provincial music and dance theater, and studied folk music of the region. When China's universities reopened in 1978, he was among the first students admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition from 1978 to 1982. He moved to New York City in 1982, earned his MA at Queens College CUNY in 1984, and his DMA in 1993 from Columbia University, where he studied composition with Chou Wen-Chung, Jack Beeson and Mario Davidovsky.

Composer Brett Dean

Born in 1961, Dean is the winner of the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, whose past recipients have included Witold Lutoslawski, Toru Takemitsu, Gyorgy Ligeti, John Adams, and Peter Lieberson. Dean studied in Brisbane until 1984, when he moved to Germany to join the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's viola section, a position he held for 15 years. He left the orchestra to devote himself to composition full-time, and returned to Australia in 2000. He continues to perform as a violist. He has performed his Viola Concerto (2004) 17 times on four continents since its premiere and the work was recently released on an all-Dean disc on the BIS label; and he is conductor and artistic director of the Australian National Academy of Music. Two recent works related to his first opera, Bliss, are Moments of Bliss, selected as Best Composition Award at the 2005 Australian Classical Music Awards, and Songs of Joy, premiered by Sir Simon Rattle in Liverpool in 2008. Return to top...

Venue Information

Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins is located at in the Stradivari Music & Arts Center, 30 East Adams Street (at Wabash), Suite 1200 (12th floor), Chicago, IL 60603. map

Limited street parking may be found on adjacent streets. Convenient garage parking is located at Adams and Wabash.

The venue is easily reached by public transportation. CTA Red and Blue Lines stop at Jackson; Purple, Brown, Green, Orange, and Pink lines stop at Adams/Wabash.

Ticket Information

Four-concert subscription just $72!
Single tickets: $20

Student four-concert subscription just $24 (like buying three tickets and getting the fourth one FREE)!
Student single tickets: $8 (with photo ID)

Both season and individual ticket quantities are limited due to the intimate size of the venue. Tickets may be purchased by calling 312.566.0429.