Helmut Lachenmann @ 90

The Callithumpian Consort, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston, celebrates the 90th birthday of Helmut Lachenmann, one of the most influential and deeply visionary composers of the last 100 years. Lachenmann's "musique concrète instrumentale" created a new and unique sound world using extended instrumental techniques, re-creating the sonic landscape of electronic music with the vividness and intimacy of live performance. This portrait concert will include music that span's Lachenmann's creative life, including Pression for solo cello and temA (an anagram of Atem [breath] and a play on Theme) for trio, as well as two works for solo piano: Ein Kinderspiele ("Child's Play") which uses simple gestures to expressively explore the overlooked resonances of the piano, and Serynade (Serenade, with the Y dedicating the piece to Lachenmann's wife, pianist Yukiko Sugawara), a 30-minute ecstatic vision of devotion and faith.
Stephen Drury, piano, has given performances throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America, soloing with orchestras from San Diego to Bucharest. Stephen's repertoire stretches from Bach, Mozart, and Liszt to the music of today. The U.S. State Department sponsored two concert tours that enabled him to take the sounds of dissonance to Paris, Hong Kong, Greenland, Pakistan, Prague, and Japan. He has appeared as conductor and pianist at the Angelica Festival in Italy, the MusikTriennale Köln in Germany, the Spoleto Festival USA, the Britten Sinfonia in England, as well as at Tonic, Roulette, and the Knitting Factory in New York. Drury has also performed with Merce Cunningham and Mikhail Barishnikov in the Lincoln Center Festival, at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Great Day in New York Festival, with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and with the Seattle Chamber Players in Seattle and Moscow.
A champion of 20th-century music, Drury’s critically acclaimed performances range from the piano sonatas of Charles Ives to works by John Cage and György Ligeti. He premiered the solo part of John Cage’s 101 with the BSO and gave the first performance of John Zorn’s concerto for piano and orchestra Aporias with Dennis Russell Davies and the Cologne Radio Symphony. He has commissioned new works from Cage, Zorn, Terry Riley, Lee Hyla, and Chinary Ung.
His recordings include music by Beethoven, Liszt, Stockhausen, Ravel, Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Elliott Carter, Frederic Rzewski, John Cage, Colin McPhee, and John Zorn. Drury created and directs NEC’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance, and assumed directorship of NEC’s Enchanted Circle concert series in 1997.
Praised by OperaWire for her “star energy” and “lethal coloratura,” mezzo-soprano Chihiro Asano is emerging as a dynamic new voice on today’s operatic stage. Her breakout as Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina (MassOpera) earned the evening’s loudest ovation, with The Boston Musical Intelligencer praising her portrayal as spanning “a gamut of emotions.”
A Boston-based artist originally from Japan, Asano holds a Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy (2022) and a Graduate Diploma in Vocal Performance (2023) from the New England Conservatory. She is a two-time Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition District Winner (Puerto Rico 2023, Iowa 2025) and the 2025 Midwest Region Second Prize laureate, quickly establishing herself as a compelling interpreter across opera and art song.
Recent highlights include Shizue in Shizue (Portland Opera), Naomi in the living room (Boston Opera Collaborative), and Hansel and Cinderella with Boston Lyric Opera’s Opera101 series. She has also appeared with White Snake Opera, NEMPAC, Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, Cambridge Chamber Ensemble, Cappella Clausura, and as a Marlboro Music Festival fellow.
Japanese flutist Shion Suzuki is based in Boston and known for her expressive artistry and diverse international experience. A graduate of Tokyo College of Music, she began her musical journey at the age of three, studying piano with her mother, and took up the flute at the age of ten. She later joined the Chiba Prefecture Youth Orchestra, marking the start of her orchestral experience.
She has participated in esteemed music festivals, including the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy, the Texas Music Festival, and Flauti al Castello in Italy. Her musical development has been shaped through masterclasses with flutists including Vincent Lucas, Paul Edmund-Davies, Dieter Flury, Hansgeorg Schmeiser, Lorna McGhee, Aralee Dorough, and Sergio Pallottelli. She has also had the opportunity to perform alongside Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway.
Shion has received recognition in competitions including the All Japan Student Music Competition and the Kanagawa Music Competition. In 2024, she was a semifinalist in the Padova International Music Competition (Soloist and Orchestra Division) and received first prize in the New York Classical Music Competition (Master-B Flute Category).
Currently, Shion is active both in Japan and internationally. She leads the Flute Quartet SORA and continues to expand her artistic reach through solo and chamber performances. She holds a Graduate Performance Diploma from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she studied with Professor Ann Bobo, and a Professional Studies Certificate in the Contemporary Classical Music Program under Professor Sarah Brady.
Hailed as “superb”, “incisive” and “sonorous and panoramic” in The Boston Globe, cellist David Russell maintains a vigorous schedule both as soloist and as collaborator in the U.S. and Europe. He was appointed to the teaching faculty of Wellesley College in 2005 and currently serves as Senior Lecturer and Director of Chamber Music. A strong advocate of new music, Russell has performed with such ensembles as Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Firebird Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Ludovico Ensemble, Music on the Edge, Dinosaur Annex, Collage, the Fromm Players at Harvard and entelechron. Recent projects include recordings of works by Eric Moe, Lee Hyla, Tamar Diesendruck, Donald Crockett, Chen Yi and Roger Zahab, premieres of chamber works by Barbara White, Daron Hagen, José-Luis Hurtado, Robert Carl and Gilda Lyons, premieres of works for cello and orchestra by Sam Nichols and Laurie San Martin, recordings of cello concertos by Chen Yi and Lukas Foss, and new works for solo cello by Andrew Rindfleisch, Nicholas Vines, Martha Horst and John Mallia. He is a busy performer in the Boston area, making regular appearances with such ensembles as Cantata Singers and Ensemble, the Worcester Chamber Music Society and Emmanuel Music. He serves as Principal cello of Odyssey Opera and has served as cello faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Russell has recorded for the Tzaddik, Albany, BMOPSound, New Focus, CRI, Centaur and New World Records labels.

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