Fortepianist David Hyun-Su Kim presents a program that celebrates the artistry of Clara Schumann, including two of her finest pieces: the three violin Romances, played by David Kim and violinist Lauren Basney, and the g minor Piano Trio, where they will be joined by cellist John Moran. Clara was perhaps the most important pianist of the 19th century; presenting her as a performer, as she likely viewed herself, brings a unique turn to our program. In particular, Clara’s improvisations were greatly admired in her day. David’s research and practice makes it possible to reproduce improvisations that mimic her style, and our program will include some of these as well. The program will be rounded out with Franz Schubert’s piano sonata no 21 in Bb Major, a piece Clara performed, by a composer whose legacy was a constant in her long professional life.
Clara’s commitment to family is near legendary: she raised eight children and several grandchildren, cared for a mentally-ill husband, and famously braved a warzone to rescue her children. The uncompromising value she placed on support, stability, and community has inspired us to partner with Doorways. Serving the Arlington, Virginia community since 1978, Doorways creates pathways out of homelessness, domestic violence, and sexual assault leading to safe, stable, and empowered lives. Doorways’ trauma-informed response to intimate partner violence includes a spectrum of fully state-accredited programs and services, from prevention and outreach, to community-based services, to shelter and housing. Doorways meets the needs of each adult, teen, and child they serve with individually tailored support, ranging from one-time crisis interventions to healing journeys which span across the organization's continuum of care.
Received traditions are shaped by their modern narration: by performing not on familiar modern instruments, but on their historical counterparts, this event also seeks to present well-known music in a new (and old) light. These historical instruments, presented in a historical space in Falls Church, bring into question many long held assumptions about seemingly-familiar repertoire.
Artist Biographies:
Regarded “as among the finest pianists of his generation” (WholeNote), David Hyu-Su Kim has been acclaimed as a musician who “rivals Golden Age pianists. [His playing is] brilliant artistry indeed, … nuanced and naturally phrased, clear and poetic… A performer of artistry, integrity, and interest” (Early Music America). Born in upstate New York to Korean immigrants, David’s early interests were in math, philosophy, and chemistry, and he matriculated at Cornell University as a Presidential Research and National Merit Scholar in chemistry. He never seriously considered music until a life-changing encounter with Beethoven’s piano sonatas convinced him to trade the lab stool for the piano bench. He launched himself into music, working at Cornell with Malcolm Bilson and James Webster, before heading to Europe where he made his orchestral debut in Vienna and continued his musical studies in Germany as a Fulbright scholar.
He returned to the United States, earning degrees in music from Harvard, Yale, and the New England Conservatory. These studies overlapped with an increase in his performance activity, and he is now primarily a concert artist. He has performed as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in South Korea, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as completing multiple east and west coast tours in North America. A frequent guest artist, he has conducted residencies at Stanford, Bucknell, Indiana-Bloomington, Duke, and Pennsylvania State Universities, the Universities of Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and Colby and Bowdoin Colleges, as well as serving as guest speaker and performer at the University of Michigan Piano Festival and the University of California-Berkeley’s Piano Institute, and appearances at the Banff, Orvieto, and Norfolk Music festivals.
David is also active as a recording artist. His debut solo CD of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas was recorded on a historically-appropriate Viennese 5-octave piano, and was acclaimed for its “great sensitivity to the music’s rhetoric, [yielding] movements that come across as journeys of discovery” (Fanfare). His follow-up project, a much-anticipated all-Schumann album on a Viennese 6 1/2-octave piano closely modeled on Robert Schumann’s personal instrument, was heralded as "poetry of the highest order... Schumann for the ages!" (Skagit Early Keyboard Museum) and praised as “endlessly fascinating… thanks to Kim’s thoughtful phrasing and 19th-century disregard for strict observance of time… [T]his familiar music yields unexpected depth and a sheer beauty that is unrivaled by performances on modern instruments. Kim’s interpretation is an essential part of our understanding of this composer, the musical world in which he lived, and the joy of experiencing compositions and playing of the highest order” (ConcertoNet).
In addition to his performance activities, David is active as a musical thinker and scholar. He has won two international IES research grants, and written articles and chapters on early recordings, musical notation, piano organology, and improvisation. One of his earliest projects argued for a new understanding of hairpin notation, and points to the radically different interpretive practice suggested by the performances of Brahms’ closest students and colleagues. His current musical research centers on interdisciplinary approaches to interpretive process. A sought-after pedagogue and adjudicator, David has taught at Yale and Harvard Universities. His students have gone on to win prizes in international competitions and been accepted for graduate study at Eastman, Oberlin, the University of Michigan, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, and similar institutions.
Since her Carnegie Hall debut in 2001, violinist Lauren Basney has performed throughout the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, Israel, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Australia, returning to Carnegie Hall six times. She holds degrees from Juilliard (Oundjian Scholarship), Yale (Henry & Lucy Moses Scholarship), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (University Fellowship). She has appeared at Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, and Merkin Halls, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, and has performed at the Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence, Pacific, Norfolk, ClassiCameri, Orvieto Musica, Walla Walla Chamber Music, and Juilliard FOCUS music festivals, the French Academy in Rome, and the Institute for the International Education of Students in Vienna.
A Yamaha Young Performing Artist and twice winner of Artist International’s Special Presentation Award, she performed with the Alianza Quartet between 2004-2012, with whom she won the Plowman Competition grand-prize and Chamber Music Foundation of New England Competition first-prize. The New York Times praised a Carnegie Hall performance by the Alianza as “musical, well-trained and [with] an unusually elegant sound,” as well as “boiling over with an edge-of-the-seat eagerness.” A sought-after chamber musician, Lauren has performed as a member of the Latett Duo, the Orvieto Piano Trio, the New York Piano Trio, the Aristos Quartet, the Shuffle Ensemble, the North Corner Chamber Orchestra, and the Live Music Project, and currently serves as violinist of the California-based Redwood Trio. Equally comfortable as a concerto performer, she most recently soloed in Germany on the Beethoven Triple, and in Italy on the Brahms Double. Lauren’s recordings have been released on the Albany and Navona labels.
Cellist John Moran, a native of the Washington, D.C. area, appears regularly as soloist and chamber musician on baroque and classical cello and viola da gamba on both sides of the Atlantic. He received his professional training at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Schola Cantorum (Basel, Switzerland).
After a decade in Europe where he appeared regularly with groups such as The Consort of Musicke, English Baroque Soloists, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and Ex Cathedra, he returned to America where he has played with Folger Consort, Opera Lafayette, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the New York Collegium, and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, among others. He is principal cellist of the Washington Bach Consort for whom he also co-directs their Wunderkind Projekt, an outreach program that introduces public school students to Bach cantatas. He is artistic director of the period instrument group Modern Musick, in residence at Georgetown University. He teaches baroque cello and gamba at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore where he co-directs the Baltimore Baroque Band, the school’s baroque orchestra, with violinist Risa Browder. Recording credits include Dorian Recordings, Bridge Records, Virgin Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, ERATO, ATMA Classique, Hänssler Classic, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, and Musica Oscura.
Also a musicologist, Dr. Moran is a contributor to Grove Music
Online and reviews books on musical topics for various journals. He is writing a historical monograph on the cello for Yale University Press. He is currently vice president of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and president of the Kindler Cello Society of Washington. Other interests include bicycling, linguistics and architecture. He and his wife, Risa Browder, have two sons who pursue musical and artistic interests
Admission: $20
Advance tickets available here
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All concerts at:
166 E Broad St
Falls Church, VA 22046
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