Carolin Widmann and Gloria Chien
Violin and Piano
Violinist Carolin Widmann and pianist Gloria Chien make their DC Debut with works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Jörg Widmann.
Program
Carolin Widmann was born in Munich, and her teachers included Igor Ozim and Michèle Auclair. Winner of several international prizes, Widmann has appeared as a soloist with many of the world’s great orchestras in a versatile repertoire ranging from the classics to challenging contemporary works such as Morton Feldman’s Violin and Orchestra. Her recording of the Feldman was hailed in The Guardian as “perfectly judged—Carolin Widmann is a fabulously assured and poetic soloist.” This concert includes two major 20th-century works (Stravinsky’s Divertimento (1934) and Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 1), alongside Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 6, Op. 30, No. 1 and the virtuoso Paraphrase on Mendelssohn’s Wedding March by Jörg Widmann (Carolin’s brother). Gloria Chien made her concerto debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 16. She is particularly noted for her chamber music collaborations and appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as with many eminent soloists.
Program:
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Violin Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 30 No. 1
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
Divertimento for Violin and Piano from Le baiser de la fée
INTERMISSION
JÖRG WIDMANN (b. 1973)
Paraphrase über Mendelssohns Hochzeitsmarsch for Violin
SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80
About the Artists
A wonderfully versatile musician, Carolin Widmann’s activities span the great classical concerti, new commissions specially written for her, solo recitals, a wide variety of chamber music and, increasingly, period instrument performances, including play/direction from the violin.
Following the release of Widmann’s critically acclaimed Mendelssohn/Schumann Concerto’s album, the 2016/2017 season saw her give debuts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Irish Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonia do Estado de São Paulo, Hallé Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, as well as Nuremberg Philharmonic. Widmann also premiered Michael Zev Gordon’s new violin concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.
Highlights for Widmann’s 2017/2018 season included performances with the BBC Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Bayerische Rundfunk, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Residentie Orkest, and RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. A prolific chamber musician, she will give recitals at the Ultraschall Berlin, Bozar Brussels, in Salzburg and Fribourg. She will also perform chamber music projects in Vienna, Schweinfurt and Neumarkt as well as return to the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.
Named Musician of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards 2013, Widmann has played with Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle Zurich, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk, with distinguished conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Roger Norrington, Vladimir Jurowski, Marek Janowski, and Pablo Heras-Casado. She also appears at such widely known festivals as Berliner Festspiele, Salzburg, Lucerne, Festival d’ Automne, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Since 2006, she has been professor of violin at Leipzig’s University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.”
Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She was selected by the Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “… who appears to excel in everything.” She made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard, and performed again with the BSO under Keith Lockhart.
In recent seasons she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, The Phillips Collection, the Kissingen Sommer festival, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. A former member of CMS Two, she performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
In 2009 she launched String Theory, a chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga that has become one of Tennessee’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at the Music@Menlo festival by Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as Co-Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont.
Chien received her B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music as a student of Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. She holds the position of Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. She is a Steinway Artist.