INTERWOVEN Ensemble: Ami Concert Series Vol. 3

CRS presents Vol. 3 of AMI, a new series of chamber concerts by the international ensemble INTERWOVEN in the award-winning White Room at CRS. The concert will take place on Saturday, October 29 at 7:30 pm and will feature Andy Weiyan Lin (erhu/viola) with Emilie-Anne Gendron (violin), Keiko Tokunaga (violin), Matthew Cohen (viola), and Nan-Cheng Chen (cello), performing Chen Yi's Fiddle Suite for String Quartet as well as shorter selections by Dvorak, Mozart, and others.

Tickets are $30 and are available online through eventbrite.com and at the door for cash only, if not sold out.

Seating is limited and includes floor seating on blankets. All patrons must show proof of vaccination at the door in order to be admitted, no exceptions. In addition, masks must be worn throughout.

Founded by Grammy-winner Keiko Tokunaga, INTERWOVEN is a chamber ensemble whose mission is to bring together the sounds from different places and time. The ensemble name derives from the idea that music making is like creating a tapestry, woven together with threads that represent and celebrate diverse origins, traditions and materials.

Ami means "to knit" in Japanese and "friend" in many Romance languages. By bringing together musicians from different cultural backgrounds to play western and non-western music, traditional and contemporary, side by side, INTERWOVEN likewise hopes to introduce patrons of different backgrounds to the wonders and commonalities to be found in unfamiliar traditions, to inspire new friendships, and to strengthen our cross-cultural connections.

Deep listening forms the foundation of the practice and programming of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing). Free from distractions such as food and drink service, we share these opportunities to listen deeply with you, that we may let go of what we know or think, and simply experience.

The first concert in the series will take place on September 24 and will feature Yoko Reikano Kimura (koto) performing works by Grammy and Oscar winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and others. The second concert in the series will take place on October 8 and will feature the Korean wind player gamin with two violins and viola performing the music of Ki Young Kim, Theodore Wiprud, William Cooper, and gamin. 

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

Taiwanese born violist and erhuist (Chinese violin) ANDY WEIYAN LIN is recognized as one of the most promising and the only active performers who specialized in both western and eastern instruments.

“The great Molto adagio.....elicited some of the night’s most sensitive work, especially from Wei-Yang Andy Lin on viola.” — Strad Magazine

“Taiwanese-born violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin.....is also a virtuoso on the erhu, and he gave a brilliant performance.” — New York Times

Andy is the artistic director and co-founder of the New Asia Chamber Music Society. He holds his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and received his Doctor’s degree in Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. He has won numerous competitions including Taiwan National Viola Competition and First Prize in the 2008 Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition. He has also appeared as a viola and/or erhu soloist with orchestras such as the Busan Metropolitan Traditional Music Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Children’s Orchestra Society, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic, the Juilliard Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, New York Classical Players, Orford Academy Orchestra, Solisti Ensemble and Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra. Andy is also a founding member of the award winning string quartet, the Amphion String Quartet, and a member of the Musicians of Lenox Hill and serves as principal violist of the New York Classical Players and the Solisti Ensemble. He has been invited to perform chamber music with Itzhak Perlman where The New York Times described “Mr. Perlman, playing first violin... answered in kind by the violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin.” He has also been invited by the Metropolitan Museum to give recitals at their Gallery Concert Series and Patrons Lounge Concert, as well as a recital at the Caramoor Center for the Music and the Arts. Andy plays on a viola made by one of his best friends Jacob Ho.

Violinist EMILIE-ANNE GENDRON, lauded by the New York Times as a “brilliant soloist" and by Strad Magazine for her “marvellous and lyrical playing,” enjoys a dynamic career based in New York City. Ms. Gendron is on the roster of the Marlboro Music Festival and the touring Musicians From Marlboro, as well as acclaimed groups such as A Far Cry, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Iris Orchestra (as one of its concertmasters), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, and Sejong Soloists. She is a founding member of Ensemble Échappé, a new-music sinfonietta, and of Gamut Bach Ensemble, in residence with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. A deeply committed chamber musician, Ms. Gendron is a longtime member of the Momenta Quartet, whose vision encompasses contemporary music of all backgrounds alongside great music from the past—currently quartet-in-residence at Binghamton University and most recently serving as Bates College’s 2019-20 Artists-in-Residence in Music. Other regular collaborations include the Melody and Company chamber series with pianist Melody Fader and the longstanding G-Sharp Duo, founded with pianist Yelena Grinberg in 2003.

Ms. Gendron is also a sought-after educator and clinician. She has been a member of the Toomai String Quintet, specializing in innovative educational outreach and community engagement, since 2009. Toomai, one of the original pilot ensembles in Carnegie Hall’s “Musical Connections” program, helped design composition and performance workshops with incarcerated men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility; has worked with student composers in the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program and with NYC public school students through the “Midori and Friends” educational initiative; and presents at institutions across the U.S., ranging from grade school to university level. As a member of the Momenta Quartet, Ms. Gendron gives guest masterclass and coaching appearances on their educational-performing circuit of nearly 40 institutions ranging from public and arts schools, universities, and conservatories in the U.S. and as far afield as Bolivia, Indonesia, and Mexico. Ms. Gendron has served as guest chamber music coach for the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and at the Longy School of Music; as violin specialist for student composers at Juilliard’s Evening Division, NYU, and Fordham University; and as a chamber music and contemporary music coach and performer at the annual Brandeis Composers Conference.

Ms. Gendron's extensively varied international appearances have included recitals in Sweden and at the Louvre in Paris; festivals in Russia, Finland, Indonesia, South Korea, and Jordan; and major venues across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, in collaboration with such artists as Teddy Abrams, Rachel Barton Pine, Bruno Canino, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Anthony McGill, Edgar Meyer, Shlomo Mintz, Anthony Newman, Samuel Rhodes, Marcy Rosen, Gil Shaham, and Jörg Widmann, among many others. Her performances have been broadcast over radio and television in the U.S., U.K., Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Japan, and South Korea. She is a past winner of the Stulberg String Competition and took 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Sion-Valais (formerly Tibor Varga) International Violin Competition.

Born in the U.S. to Japanese and French-Canadian parents, and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, Ms. Gendron began her violin studies at age 4 with Carl Shugart and Carol Sykes. Her subsequent training at the Juilliard School was overseen by teachers Dorothy DeLay, Won-Bin Yim, Hyo Kang, David Chan, and Axel Strauss. Ms. Gendron holds the distinction of being the first person in Juilliard’s history to be accepted simultaneously to its two most selective courses of study, both the Doctor of Musical Arts and the Artist Diploma. She holds a B.A. in Classics (magna cum laude and with Phi Beta Kappa honors) from Columbia University, and a Master of Music degree and the coveted Artist Diploma from Juilliard.

Winner of the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance, violinist KEIKO TOKUNAGA spends most of her days touring and performing globally as a soloist and chamber musician. Keiko has performed, toured and recorded extensively with the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet from 2005 to 2019, and has been praised by the Strings Magazine for possessing a sound “with probing quality that is supple and airborne” and for her “pure, pellucid bow strokes”. She has soloed with various orchestras including the Spanish National Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra.

In 2021, Keiko founded an online concert series, Jukebox Concerts, in order to provide artistic outlets for musicians who lost their engagements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The performances were made available not only to the subscribers, but also to residents of nursing homes, hospitals and assisted living facilities across the country. Later in the year, she created INTERWOVEN, a multi-cultural ensemble whose mission is to eliminate discrimination against the AAAPI (Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community by integrating the musical traditions of the East and West.

While Keiko played the Attacca Quartet, the ensemble won numerous prestigious awards including the GRAMMY Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance, First Prize of the 7th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2011; the Third Prize and the Australian Broadcast Corporation Classic FM Listener’s Choice Award of the 6th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2011. The Attacca Quartet served as the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at The Juilliard School from 2011 till 2013, and as artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the 2014-15 season.

When she is not on the road, Keiko enjoys her career as an educator. She is currently on faculty at Fordham University. In the past, she taught at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division; the Hunter College of New York; New York University; the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival; and Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute.

Ukrainian-American violist MATTHEW COHEN is a dynamic and versatile artist whose captivating performances have made him one of the most sought-after violists of his generation. A prize winner at the prestigious Primrose International Viola Competition, he was also awarded top prizes at the Citta di Cremona International Viola Competition in Italy, Vivo International Music Competition and the Art of Duo International Competition. Particularly interested in advocating viola having a solo and unique voice, he is challenging the misperception that viola has a limited repertoire by bringing attention to the lesser-played works as well as arrangements of other masterworks.

Since his first performance in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium was at the age of 15 as a soloist in the New York premiere of Tomas Svoboda’s Sonata No. 2 for orchestra and solo string quartet, he has concertized as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America and Europe in venues such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Ford Amphitheater and Broad Stage in California, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Oregon, Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland and the Casa della Musica in Cosenza, Italy. Recent solo engagements include his European debut performing Hummel’s Potpourri with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra and Bartok’s Viola Concerto with the I Virtuosi Italiani orchestra in Cremona, and presenting the world premiere of internationally recognized video game score composer Garry Schyman’s viola concerto “Zingaro” with the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony conducted by Dr. Noreen Green. Past appearances include concerti with ensembles such as the North Shore Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Summer Chamber Music, Symphony in C, Ensemble Baroquelyn, Juilliard Orchestra, Colburn Orchestra, Oregon Sinfonietta, and Oregon Symphony/Oregon Ballet Theater.

A passionate chamber musician, he has performed alongside many distinguished artists including members of the Borromeo, Guarneri, Orion, Parker, Tokyo, and Vermeer string quartets and the Beaux Arts and Tempest piano trios, and has been featured by numerous concert series and chamber music societies including Bargemusic, Camerata Pacifica, the Colburn Chamber Music Society, Heifetz Celebrity Series, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Ringwood Friends of Chamber Music, Olmos Ensemble, Red Barn Chamber Music, and the Wolfeboro Friends of Chamber Music. Summer festival engagements include appearances at ChamberFest Cleveland, Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Academy, Heifetz International Music Institute, the Meadowmount School for Strings, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, the Perlman Music Program, Philadelphia Young Pianist’s Academy, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and the Sarasota Music Festival.

As a recent graduate of the Juilliard School's Master of Music program, he was the proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship; he earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Cleveland Institute of Music and received an Artist Diploma from Colburn Conservatory where he studied with Misha Amory, Heidi Castleman, Paul Coletti, Jeffrey Irvine, and Cynthia Phelps. He has served as a member of the chamber music faculty at the HeifetzPEG Institute and is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Fishin’ in C Chamber Music Series, a concert series based in Fishtown, Philadelphia that launched in Fall 2018. In addition to his musical activities, he enjoys public speaking and has acted in a number of plays including various works of Shakespeare, Peter Pan, Auntie Mame, and the musical Bugsy Malone. His recording of York Bowen’s Phantasy for viola and piano with acclaimed pianist Vivian Fan is available on the Soundset label.

Cellist NAN-CHENG CHEN’s performance was described as “personable and smile-inducing” and “fine playing” by the Washington Post and “Beautiful Tone” by New York Concert Reviews. A chamber music enthusiast, Nan-Cheng is the executive director and co-founder of the New Asia Chamber Music Society and was a member of Sonic Escape trio. As a soloist, Nan-Cheng has collaborated with Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Queens Symphony Orchestra, Metro-West Symphony, Quincy Symphony and Symphony Pro Musica, and has toured North American, South America, Europe and Asia. His recent highlight include debuts with National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Nan-Cheng’s festival participations includes Banff Centre Residency, Sarasota Music Festival, Heifetz Institute, Encore School for Strings, and Kneisel Hall. He was a guest-performing artist at Chautauqua Summer Music Festival, a Kaplan Fellow at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and served as a teaching artist at the Annual Music Festival of Walnut Hill. As a music educator, Nan-Cheng has given cello masterclasses at Penn State University, University of Wisconsin, University of Calgary as well as universities in Panama, Colombia and Taiwan. Nan-Cheng holds a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School, and is enrolled as a doctoral candidate at CUNY Graduate Center. He taught at CUNY Queens College and now serves as a full-time college music faculty in New York.

newasiacms.org/nancheng-chen

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

CRS (CENTER FOR REMEMBERING & SHARING) is a spiritual healing and art center founded in 2004 by the writer/lecturer/spiritual counselor Yasuko Kasaki and artist Christopher Pelham. Our mission is guided by A Course in Miracles (ACIM). ACIM says that recognizing that you and your brother are actually one is the only way to experience peace. The mission of CRS is to promote the awareness that limitless creativity lives within each of us. We train minds to recognize the light in themselves and others and provide them opportunities to share their inner vision through the healing and creative arts. Since its founding CRS has provided numerous residencies and performance and exhibition opportunities to artists from all over the world. Currently, CRS is a multi-year sponsor of M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians), a platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to women, non-binary musicians and those of other historically underrepresented gender identities in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.

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