Borromeo String Quartet violinist Nicholas Kitchen leads a musical exploration through the violin and cello music of Bach, Bartok, and Ravel as finale in the Firehouse Center 2009-10 Home Concert Series.
Violinist Nicholas Kitchen, hailed by the New York Times as “thrilling, vibrant and captivating,” is considered by both his musical peers and audiences around the world to be one of the most gifted musicians of our time. And indeed, with a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, teacher, arts administrator, author, and media innovator, Mr. Kitchen is also one of our country’s most active personalities. He is a founding member of the famed Borromeo String Quartet, who are avidly sought after internationally for their heart-stopping and visionary performances as well as their uncanny ability to make even the most challenging contemporary music mesmerizing to audiences.
The exuberant Mr. Kitchen will be joined by his wife, and fellow founding member of the Borromeo, cellist Yeesun Kim, to present an exploratory concert of masterworks by J. S. Bach, Bela Bartok, and Maurice Ravel. The concert, part of the Newburyport’s Firehouse Center for the Arts Home Concert Series, will be held Saturday, April 10 at 7:30pm in a private home thanks to the generosity of Julia Farwell-Clay and Walter Clay, who are opening their carriage house at 203 High St. in Newburyport for the occasion. Such intimacy is the perfect salon setting for chamber music. Before each piece they will review several aspects of the music, highlighting these points through examples and manuscripts projected on a screen. For tickets and more information, please contact the Firehouse Center Box Office at 978/462-7336 or go online atwww.firehouse.org.
Kitchen, a recipient of both the Albert Schweitzer Medallion for Artistry and the Presidential Scholar in the Arts award, completed a six-year tenure as Artistic Director of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival in 2006, where he hosted their popular “Adventures in Chamber Music” audience discussion series, and for almost twenty years he has hosted New England Conservatory’s “Early Evenings with the Borromeo,” a musical exploration series which attracts standing-room only crowds. In 2009 he presented several such programs also for the Library of Congress and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where the Borromeo are the official quartet-in-residence.
Hailed by the New York Times for her “focused intensity” and “remarkable” performances, Ms. Kim enjoys worldwide acclaim as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Ms. Kim has performed in over 20 countries at many of the world’s most illustrious concert halls and festivals. Her frequent collaborations with other artists have included appearances with Joshua Bell, Christoph Eschenbach, Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Menahem Pressler, Rudolph Serkin, Russell Sherman, and Richard Stoltzman.
The April 10th concert will include J. S. Bach’s Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012, and Chaconne for solo violin, BWV 1004, Bela Bartok’s Sonata for Violin Solo, Sz.117, and Maurice Ravel’s sonata for violin and cello, which the composer dedicated in memory of his friend, Claude Debussy.
Of special interest at a concert this intimate are the actual instruments that Kitchen and Kim will be playing. On April 24, 2006, the famous Guarneri Del Gesu violin known as the “Baron Vitta” was entrusted into the care of Mr. Kitchen after being given to the Library of Congress by Miyoko Yamane Goldberg – the wife of legendary violinist Szymon Goldberg – so that it could ultimately be reunited with its original twin, the violin Fritz Kreisler played. Ms. Kim plays a breathtaking cello carved by Peregrino Zanetto in 1576, one of the very oldest cellos in the world, adorned with evocative painted griffins.
Both Ms. Kim and Mr. Kitchen are faculty members of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where they works with the institutions Learning through Music program. They are joined by their colleagues Mai Motobuchi, violist, and Kristopher Tong, second violin, when the Borromeo String Quartet performs.
For more information visit http://www.borromeoquartet.com
