MENU: PROGRAM • ABOUT THE ARTISTS

PROGRAM

Sonata.....................................................................................................................Maurice Ravel
(1920)                                                                                                                         (1875–1937)

I. Allegro

II. Très vif

III. Lent

IV. Vif, avec entrain

Solus.......................................................................................................................Maria Newman
(1993)                                                                                                                                (b. 1962)

I. Maestoso

II. Andante moderato

III. Allegro molto

INTERMISSION

Duo Op. 7..................................................................................................................Zoltán Kodály
(1914)                                                                                                                          (1882–1967)

I. Allegro serioso, non troppo

II. Adagio

III. Maestoso e largamente, ma non troppo lento. Presto

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

JAMES STERN

Stern is a multi-faceted musician whose violin playing has been heard worldwide and cited by the Washington Post for “virtuosity and penetrating intelligence.” He has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Banff and Bowdoin festivals as well as at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. He did all of his formal training at the Juilliard School where his teachers were Louise Behrend, Joseph Fuchs and Lewis Kaplan.

Stern is a member of two critically acclaimed ensembles, the Stern/Andrist Duo with his wife, pianist Audrey Andrist, and Strata, a trio in which they are joined by clarinetist Nathan Williams. The duo has performed throughout the United States, Canada and China, with additional recitals in Munich and Paris. The trio has received enthusiastic repeat engagements at San Francisco Composers Inc (for which they were listed as one of San Francisco Classical Voice’s “highlights of 2005”), the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and New York’s historic Maverick Concerts. Strata has recently commissioned new works from Kenneth Frazelle and the late Stephen Paulus, giving the world premieres at, respectively, the Secrest Artist Series in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and New York’s Merkin Concert Hall.

Well-known to Washington, D.C., audiences, Stern has performed as a member of VERGE ensemble, the 21st Century Consort, the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Axelrod Quartet, at such venues as the Corcoran Gallery, the German and French Embassies, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery, the Phillips Collection, Strathmore Mansion and the White House. In frequent appearances at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, he has brought innovative programming that includes performing in multiple capacities (as violist, pianist, conductor, reciter and arranger), and providing program annotations that are integral to the performance. His numerous chamber music and new music recordings can be heard on Albany, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Dorian/Sono Luminus, Enharmonic, New Focus and New World. His recording of the Sonatas and Partitas by Bach was released on Albany Records.

A passionately devoted teacher, Stern has served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music. He is currently professor and coordinator of the String Division at the University of Maryland School of Music. In summers he has performed and taught at the National Orchestral Institute + Festival, the Orfeo International Festival, the Schlern International Festival, ASTA International Workshops, California Summer Music, the Brian Lewis Young Artists Program, the Master Players Festival and the Starling/Delay Violin Symposium at the Juilliard School.

Stern performs on a violin by Vincenzo Panormo built in 1781.

ERIC KUTZ
Cellist Kutz has captivated audiences across North America, Asia and Europe. His diverse collaborations cut across musical styles, and have ranged from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to jazz great Ornette Coleman. He is active as a teacher, a chamber musician, an orchestral musician and a concerto soloist. 

Kutz came to the University of Maryland School of Music in 2015, where he is associate professor and holds the Barbara K. Steppel Memorial Faculty Fellowship in cello. Previously he was a professor at Luther College, where he served on the faculty from 2002–15, and prior to that, Kutz was the cellist of the Chester String Quartet for four years. The Quartet, called “one of the best and brightest of the country’s young string quartets” by the Boston Globe, was in residence at Indiana University South Bend. The Quartet gave two tours of Europe during Kutz’s tenure, and performed from coast to coast.

Kutz is a founding member of the Murasaki Duo, a cello and piano ensemble that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016. The following year it gave its second European tour. Advocates for new music, the Duo actively commissions new works in addition to performing the classics. Hailed by New York Concert Review as having “an easy virtuosity, and an unusually high level of ensemble playing,” after its Carnegie Hall debut, the Duo regularly performs on chamber music series throughout the nation. 

The Duo’s second CD, “Duo Virtuoso,” was released on the Delos label in 2015, and was lauded by American Record Guide as “an interesting program, played to the hilt by both parties. These are two outstanding musicians.” The disc won the Violoncello Foundation’s 2016 Listeners’ Choice Award, chosen from among all cello CD’s released the previous year. The Duo’s debut compact disc appeared on the Centaur Records label; this disc was hailed by the Journal of the Atlanta Audio Society as “ebullient” and “brilliant throughout.” The Murasaki Duo’s most recent recording, released in 2017, features the complete cello/piano music of American composer Maria Newman. 

As an orchestral musician, Kutz summers in Chicago as a member of the Grant Park Orchestra’s cello section. He has also appeared in the section of the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has been principal cellist of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and the Juilliard Orchestra, and he has performed under the batons of Sir Georg Solti, Kurt Masur and Seiji Ozawa, among many others.

In 1997, Kutz traveled to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow as a visiting artist, performing new chamber works by American composers. Other performance highlights include a tour of Germany and a concert in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall as part of Lincoln Center’s Mozart Bicentennial celebration. Kutz has premiered over two-dozen works, and has been broadcast live on WQXR and WNYC, both of New York City, WFMT Chicago, as well as nationally on PBS television’s "Live from Lincoln Center."

Kutz holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Rice University. He performs on a cello by Raffaele Fiorini (Bologna, 1877), and a bow by François Voirin (Paris, 1880).