The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to perform at Quick Center | Press Releases

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the nation's premier repertory chamber ensemble, will offer the first of three concerts this season at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. Violinist Cho-Liang Lin, cellist Gary Hoffman and pianist André-Michel Schub will perform the complete piano trios of Johannes Brahms. A pre-concert "Art to Heart" discussion with New York Times music writer Robert Sherman will take place from 7 to 7:40 p.m.

The evening's program will include Brahms' Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in C minor, Op. 101, Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in C major, Op. 87, and Trio No. 1 in B major for Violin, Cello and Piano, Op. 8.

The resident company at Lincoln Center, the Chamber Music Society is devoted to the outstanding performance and creation of chamber music. Its pioneering structure of 18 artist members augmented by invited guest artists allows Artistic Director David Shifrin to present concerts of every instrumentation, style and historic period. In addition, the CMS is committed to new works, having commissioned more than 110 pieces in its 32-year history.

The CMS calls Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall home, but it has performed in national and international venues and on Public Radio International's "Chamber Music New York." The CMS has been included in nationally televised broadcasts of "Live from Lincoln Center" and makes regular appearances on National Public Radio's "Performance Today."

In 2001, the CMS won a Grammy nomination for "The Complete Works of Claude Debussy," a highly-acclaimed triple disc. Recorded live between 1995 and 1999 in various venues around the world, the album features more than 15 artists, including pianist André Watts and harpist Nancy Allen.

Among those artists was Mr. Shifrin, who does double duty for the CMS, serving as artistic director and clarinetist. A native of Kew Gardens, Queens, N.Y., Mr. Shifrin has been a member of the CMS since 1989. He became artistic director in 1992 and he is also the artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest, a summer festival in Oregon.

As a soloist, Mr. Shifrin is in demand with orchestras all over the world. He appears frequently with such ensembles as the Emerson, Guarneri and Tokyo quartets. Mr. Shifrin, a Yale University faculty member, is a past recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and he received a 1989 Grammy nomination for his Mozart clarinet solo with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra.

Born in Taiwan in 1960, Cho-Liang Lin began violin lessons when he was just five years old. At the age of 12, he went to Sydney, Australia, to continue his musical studies. Three years later, inspired by Itzhak Perlman, he arrived in New York and auditioned for Mr. Perlman's teacher, Dorothy DeLay, at the Juilliard School. Within two years of his enrollment Mr. Lin won the first Queen Sofia Violin Competition in Madrid and his concert career was launched. He is now a member of the Juilliard faculty.

Mr. Lin is the founder of the Taipei International Music Festival, the first large-scale international music festival in the history of his native country. An advocate for contemporary composers, Mr. Lin has premiered concertos by Tan Dun, Joel Hoffman, Bright Sheng, Elie Siegmeister and others. He has also released several recordings on the Sony Classical label, including two that earned Grammy nominations and one named Record of the Year by Gramophone.

Gary Hoffman is a Canadian-born, Chicago-raised, Indiana-educated cellist now living in Paris. The son, nephew and brother of professional musicians, he made his debut in London at the age of 15. In 1986, he became the first American to win the Rostropovich International Competition.

In addition to engagements with major orchestras and festivals around the world, Mr. Hoffman has made guest appearances with the Emerson and Tokyo quartets and he has toured extensively with David Golub and André Watts. His most recent recordings include works by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Arensky and Tchaikovsky. A 1995 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has been an artist with the CMS since 1993.

Born in France, pianist André-Michel Schub came to the United States with his family when he was only eight months old and he's been a New York City resident ever since. Mr. Schub started piano lessons when he was four and made his recital debut at his current musical home, Alice Tully Hall, in 1974. He attended Princeton University and transferred to the Curtis Institute, where he studied with Rudolph Serkin from 1970 to 1973.

Mr. Schub is a frequent guest with some of the world's finest orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. His recordings for Vox Cumlaude and CBS Masterworks include works by Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt, as well as an all-Stravinsky album with Mr. Lin.

Since 1997, Mr. Schub has been artistic director of the Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival.

Tickets to the CMS performance are $30. For tickets, call the Quick Center box office at (203) 254-4010 or toll free at 1-877-ARTS-396 or visit the website, www.quickcenter.com.