2020-2021 Season

Michael Brown, Piano; Arnaud Sussmann, Violin; Nick Canellakis, Cello

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PROGRAM

• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Sonata for cello and piano in G minor, Op. 19

• Felix Mendelssohn – Piano Trio No. 2 in c minor, Op. 66

Program Notes

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ARTIST BIOS

• Michael Brown

  Michael Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current
  renaissance of performer-composers.” His artistry is shaped by his creative voice as a pianist
  and composer, praised for his “fearless performances” (The New York Times) and “exceptionally
  beautiful” compositions (The Washington Post).

  Winner of the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career
  Grant, Brown has recently performed as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the National Philharmonic,
  and the Grand Rapids, North Carolina, New Haven, and Albany Symphonies; and
  recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Caramoor. Brown is an artist of the
  Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing frequently at Alice Tully Hall and on
  tour. He was selected by András Schiff to perform on an international tour making solo debuts in
  Berlin, Milan, Florence, Zurich’s Tonhalle and New York’s 92nd Street Y. He regularly performs
  recitals with his longtime duo partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and has appeared at numerous
  festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Gilmore, Ravinia, Saratoga, Bridgehampton,
  Bard, Sedona, Moab, and Tippet Rise.

  As a composer, Brown’s Concerto for Piano and Strings will be premiered in 2020 at the
  Gilmore Festival and by the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra in Poland. Brown was the Composer
  and Artist-in-Residence at the New Haven Symphony for the 2017-19 seasons and a 2018 Copland
  House Residency Award recipient. He has received commissions from the Gilmore Keyboard
  Festival, Concert Artists Guild, Shriver Hall; the New Haven and Maryland Symphony
  Orchestras; Osmo Vänskä; pianists Adam Golka, Roman Rabinovich, Orion Weiss, and David
  Kaplan; and a consortium of gardens.

  He is a prolific recording artist whose upcoming releases in 2020 include Ravel’s Miroirs and
  Medtner’s Second Improvisation with newly discovered movements by Brown. His discography
  with orchestra features Brown as soloist with the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot, and
  with the Brandenburg State Symphony in Samuel Adler’s First Piano Concerto. Other albums
  include Mendelssohn and Beethoven on First Hand Records; an all-George Perle CD; and collaborative
  albums with pianist Jerome Lowenthal, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and violinist Elena
  Urioste. He has plans to embark on a multi-year project to record the complete piano music by
  Felix Mendelssohn.

  Brown was First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, a winner of the Bowers
  Residency from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (formerly CMS Two), a recipient
  of the Juilliard Petschek Award, and is a Steinway Artist. He earned dual bachelor’s and master’s
  degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists
  Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. Additional
  mentors have included András Schiff and Richard Goode as well as his early teachers,
  Herbert Rothgarber and Adam Kent.

  A native New Yorker, he lives there with his two 19th century Steinway D’s, Octavia and Daria.

• Arnaud Sussmann

  Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura and profound musicianship. Minnesota’s Pioneer Press writes, “Sussmann has an old-school sound reminiscent of what you’ll hear on vintage recordings by Jascha Heifetz or Fritz Kreisler, a rare combination of sweet and smooth that can hypnotize a listener. His clear tone [is] a thing of awe-inspiring beauty, his phrasing spellbinding.”

  A thrilling young musician capturing the attention of classical critics and audiences around the world, Arnaud Sussmann has appeared with the American Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Paris Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Further solo appearances have included a tour of Israel and concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Dresden Music Festival in Germany and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Mr. Sussmann has been presented in recital in Omaha on the Tuesday Musical Club series, New Orleans by the Friends of Music, Tel Aviv at the Museum of Art and at the Louvre Museum in Paris. He has also given concerts at the OK Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest and Moritzburg festivals and appears regularly at the Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Seattle Chamber Music, Moab Music and Saratoga Springs Chamber Music festivals.

  Recent concerto appearances include performances with Maestro Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra at the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Albany Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony. This past season, chamber music performances included tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to Korea’s LG Arts Center, Shanghai’s Oriental Center and Hong Kong’s Music Academy.

  Arnaud Sussmann has performed with many of today’s leading artists including Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Gary Hoffman, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Wu Han, David Finckel, Jan Vogler and members of the Emerson String Quartet. He has worked with conductors such as Cristian Macelaru, Marcelo Lehninger, Rune Bergmann and Leon Botstein. A dedicated chamber musician, he has been a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2006 and has regularly appeared with them i New York and on tour, including a recent concert at London’s Wigmore Hall.

  A frequent recording artist, Arnaud Sussmann has released albums on Deutsche Grammophon’s DG Concert Series, Naxos, Albany Records and CMS Studio Recordings labels. His solo debut disc, featuring three Brahms Violin Sonatas with pianist Orion Weiss, was released in December 2014 on the Telos Music Label. He has been featured on multiple PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts alongside Itzhak Perlman and the Perlman Music Program and with musicians of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

  Born in Strasbourg, France and based now in New York City, Arnaud Sussmann trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and the Juilliard School with Boris Garlitsky and Itzhak Perlman. Winner of several international competitions, including the Andrea Postacchini of Italy and Vatelot/Rampal of France, he was named a Starling Fellow in 2006, an honor which allowed him to be Mr. Perlman’s teaching assistant for two years. Mr. Sussmann now teaches at Stony Brook University on Long Island and was recently named Co-Artistic Director of Music@Menlo’s International Chamber Music Program. He is also the new Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach in Florida.

• Nick Canellakis

  Hailed by The New Yorker as a “superb young soloist,”
  Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most soughtafter and innovative cellists of his generation, captivating
  audiences throughout the United States and abroad. In The
  New York Times his playing was praised as “impassioned …
  the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis’s rich, alluring tone.”

  Canellakis’s recent highlights include concerto appearances
  with the Albany, Delaware, Lansing, and Bangor Symphonies,
  the Erie Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, and the New
  Haven Symphony as Artist-in-Residence; Europe and Asia
  tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,
  including appearances in London’s Wigmore Hall, the Louvre
  in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center, and the Shanghai and Taipei
  National Concert Halls; and recitals throughout the United
  States with his long-time duo collaborator, pianist-composer
  Michael Brown. He made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut
  with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2015.

  Canellakis is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of
  Lincoln Center, in which he performs regularly in Alice Tully
  Hall and on tour. He is also a regular guest artist at many of
  the world’s leading music festivals, including Santa Fe,
  Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Bard, Bridgehampton, La Jolla, Hong
  Kong, Moab, Music in the Vineyards, and Saratoga Springs.
  In addition, he was recently named Artistic Director of
  Chamber Music Sedona, in Arizona.

  A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and New England
  Conservatory, his teachers have included Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, Paul Katz, and Madeleine Golz at Manhattan School of
  Music Precollege. He was a member of the Bowers Program
  (formerly CMS Two), and has also been in residence at
  Carnegie Hall as a member of Ensemble Connect.

  Filmmaking and acting are special interests of Mr. Canellakis.
  He has produced, directed, and starred in several short films
  and music videos, including his popular comedy web series
  “Conversations with Nick Canellakis.” His latest film, “Thin
  Walls,” has been nominated for awards at many prominent
  film festivals. His films and videos can be found on his
  website at nicholascanellakis.com.