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MICHAEL BROWN, ELENA URIOSTE & NICHOLAS CANELLAKIS

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PROGRAM

• Haydn: Trio in E flat, H. XV No. 29

• Suk:Elegie, Op. 23

• Brown: Reflections (2016)

• Chausson: Trio in g minor, Op. 3

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ARTIST BIOS

• MICHAEL BROWN, ELENA URIOSTE & NICHOLAS CANELLAKIS

  Pianist Michael Brown, violinist Elena Urioste, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis have established themselves as three of the most sought-after young virtuosos on the classical music scene today. Winners, individually, of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, Sphinx and Concert Artists Guild competitions, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center auditions, they have performed in prestigious venues across the United States and Europe, including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, and London’s Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls.

  Engagements for the Brown-Urioste-Canellakis (BUC) Trio last season included a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and recitals at Lincoln Center’s Merkin Hall in New York City; ArtPower! in San Diego; the Norton Building Concert Series in Chicago; Corning Civic Music, NY; Danbury Concerts, CT; and Los Alamos Concerts, NM. Michael Brown, also a noted composer, has been commissioned by the Norton Building Concert Series to write a new work for the trio, which premiered on the same series in November 2016.

  Recent season highlights have included a Vancouver Recital Society debut, as well as a Midwestern tour with performances at the Ravinia Festival, Illinois State University, Eureka College, and Chicago’s classical music radio station WFMT, in addition to a solo appearance with the Heartland Festival Orchestra.

  In addition to being extremely like-minded about their approaches to music, repertoire preferences, and rehearsal dynamics, the three friends also enjoy cooking together, eliciting guttural laughs from each other, and going in search for the perfect pour-over cup of coffee during their travels.

• JONATHAN VINOCOUR, VIOLA

  Jonathan Vinocour joined the SFS as Principal Viola in 2009, having previously served as principal viola of the Saint Louis Symphony and guest principal viola of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has appeared frequently as soloist with the San Francisco and Saint Louis symphonies and recently collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma in a performance of R. Strauss’s Don Quixote with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. A sought-after chamber musician, he is a regular guest of such as festivals the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Marlboro, Bridgehampton, Salt Bay, and Cleveland Chamberfest. Mr. Vinocour graduated from Princeton University with a degree in chemistry and from the New England Conservatory where he studied with Kim Kashkashian. A dedicated teacher, he serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as the Aspen Music Festival and School. He plays on a 1784 Lorenzo Storioni viola on loan from the San Francisco Symphony.

• WILHELMINA SMITH, CELLO

  Cellist Wilhelmina Smith made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra while a student at the Curtis Institute of Music. She has since forged a versatile musical career based on the strength of her beautiful sound, commitment to a vast repertoire and impassioned performances. This past fall, she was soloist in Esa-Pekka Salonen’s cello concerto “Mania” with the SinfoniettaNYC, with the composer present. She has been soloist with numerous orchestras including the Millenium Orchestra of Guatemala and the Ural Philharmonic in Russia and has performed recitals across the US and Japan. As a chamber musician she has performed with musicians such as Paul Tortelier, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Dawn Upshaw, Benita Valente, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Miami, Borromeo and Galimir String Quartets in major venues across the US and Europe. In 1997 she was a prizewinner in the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition. She has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and is currently cellist with the Mannes Trio, Music from Copland House, and Artistic Director of Salt Bay Chamberfest, on the coast of Maine, and Pensacola, Florida’s Classicfest. In 2005 she formed the Variation String Trio with violinist Jennifer Koh and violist Hsin-Yun Huang. Her cd of sonatas by Britten and Schnittke with pianist Thomas Sauer was released on the Arabesque label in December of 2006. She currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with husband Mark Mandarano and her children, August and Giovanna. www.wilhelminasmith.com

• ORION WEISS, PIANO

  One of the most sought-after soloists in his generation of young American musicians, the pianist Orion Weiss has performed with the major American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic. His deeply felt and exceptionally crafted performances go far beyond his technical mastery and have won him worldwide acclaim.

  2017-18 sees him opening the season for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and ending his season with the Colorado Symphony and Mozart’s majestic Concerto in C major, K. 467; in between Orion will play with eleven orchestras, go on a recital tour with James Ehnes, and perform recitals around the country. In 2016-17 Orion performed with the Knoxville, Wichita, and Santa Rosa Symphonies and the Symphony Silicon Valley, among others, and in collaborative projects with Alessio Bax, the Pacifica Quartet, and with Cho-Liang Lin and the New Orford String Quartet in a performance of the Chausson Concerto for piano, violin, and string quartet. In 2015 Naxos released his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing – a major commission Orion debuted with the Albany Symphony – and in 2012 he released a recital album of Dvorak, Prokofiev, and Bartok. That same year he also spearheaded a recording project of the complete Gershwin works for piano and orchestra with his longtime collaborators the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta.

  Named the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year in September 2010, in the summer of 2011 Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.

  Also known for his affinity and enthusiasm for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with his wife, the pianist Anna Polonsky, the violinists James Ehnes and Arnaud Sussman, and cellist Julie Albers. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the U.S. at venues and festivals including Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival, Sheldon Concert Hall, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Chamber Music Northwest, the Bard Music Festival, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, and Spivey Hall.  He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard, and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005 he made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. He was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2002-2004, which included his appearance in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-2003 season at Alice Tully Hall performing Ravel’s La Valse with pianist Shai Wosner.

  Weiss’s impressive list of awards includes the Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at the Juilliard School and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Lyndhurst, OH, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Sergei Babayan, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February of 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In March 1999, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was immediately invited to return to the Orchestra for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in October 1999. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.