Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival
March 13–20, 2022

Only once a year do you have the opportunity to experience a dynamic array of chamber music’s best artists performing in various ways across the span of a week. Anchored by the Dover Quartet, the Festival features a fresh lineup of musicians and includes the premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s String Quartet. Proof of vaccination and masks required for all Festival concerts.

FESTIVAL ARTISTS
Peter Rejto, Artistic Director
Dover Quartet
Edward Arron, cello
David Fung, piano
Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet
Tessa Lark, violin
Lowell Liebermann, Composer
Dimitri Murrath, viola
Jeewon Park, piano
Axel Strauss, violin

View Artists >

THEN THE SKY WAS FULL OF FACES WITH GOLD GLORIES BEHIND THEM.

EXCERPT FROM “THE SEA OF GLASS”
EZRA POUND

Festival Concerts


Other Festival Events


Dress Rehearsals

9:00 am – 12 noon
Leo Rich Theater 

Tuesday, March 15
Wednesday, March 16
Friday, March 18
Sunday, March 20

Dress rehearsals are free for ticket holders.
For non ticket holders, a donation is requested.

Pre-concert Conversations

These conversations take place a half hour before each concert
Leo Rich Theater 

Sunday, March 13, at 2:30 pm
Tuesday, March 15, at 7:00 pm
Wednesday, March 16, at 7:00 pm
Friday, March 18, at 7:00 pm
Sunday, March 20, at 2:30 pm

Master Class for Cello

Saturday, March 19, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Leo Rich Theater 

Edward Arron

Attendance at the master classes is free and open to the public.

Master Class for Piano

Saturday, March 19, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Leo Rich Theater 

Jeewon Park
Featuring students from the University of Arizona, Fred Fox School of Music.

Attendance at the master classes is free and open to the public.

Recorded Broadcast

If you miss a Festival concert or simply want to hear one again, please note that Classical KUAT-FM will broadcast recorded performances on 90.5/89.7 FM. Festival performances are often featured in the station’s Musical Calendar.

See radio.azpm.org/classical

COVID Policy

Proof of vaccination is required for entrance to the Leo Rich Theater.

Masks are required at all times within the theater lobby and concert hall.

Festival Performers

Peter Rejto

Artistic director Peter Rejto is committed to presenting the finest chamber music, both well-loved works and new, unfamiliar ones, performed by some of the world’s finest musicians. Highlights of his international career as a cellist include the world premiere of Gerard Schurmann’s Gardens of Exile with the Bournemouth Symphony broadcast live over the BBC, and the recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Cello Concerto in Hungary. Mr. Rejto is a founding member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet and a former professor of the University of Arizona School of Music as well as professor emeritus at the Oberlin College Music Conservatory. He has directed the programming and selected the musicians for every Festival, beginning with the first in 1994.

Dover Quartet

Named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, the GRAMMY® nominated Dover Quartet has followed a “practically meteoric” (Strings) trajectory to become one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world. In addition to its faculty role as the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Dover Quartet holds residencies with the Kennedy Center, Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Artosphere, and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. The group’s awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. Its prestigious honors include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, and Lincoln Center’s Hunt Family Award.

Edward Aaron

Cellist Edward Arron has garnered recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He began playing the cello at age seven and continued his studies in New York with Peter Wiley. A graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro, Mr. Arron is currently on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is married to pianist Jeewon Park, also at this year’s Festival. We last heard Mr. Arron in our 2019 Festival.

David Fung

Praised for his “ravishing and simply gorgeous” performances in The Washington Post, pianist David Fung is widely recognized for interpretations that are elegant and refined, yet intensely poetic and uncommonly expressive. He garnered international attention as laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels and the Arthur Rubinstein Piano International Masters Competition in Tel Aviv, where he was further distinguished by the Chamber Music and Mozart Prizes. Mr. Fung is the first piano graduate of the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, where he studied with John Perry, and later worked with Claude Frank and Peter Frankl at Yale University, and Arie Vardi at the Hannover Hochschüle für Musik. He is also a Steinway Artist.

Romie de Guise-Langlois

Clarinettist Romie de Guise-Langlois has appeared on major concert stages throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. An avid chamber musician, Ms. de Guise- Langlois received prizes at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association. She is an alumnus of The Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro. A native of Montreal, she earned degrees from McGill University and the Yale School of Music, where she studied under David Shifrin, Michael Dumouchel, and André Moisan. Also a Yamaha Artist, she is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. We last heard her at our 2022 Festival.

Tessa Lark

Tessa Lark has been a featured violin soloist at numerous U.S. orchestras, recital venues, and festivals since making her concerto debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age sixteen. Highlights of her 2021–22 season include debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, and the world premiere of Michael Schachter’s violin concerto, Cycles of Life, with the Knoxville Symphony in April 2022. Ms. Lark is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and completed her Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg, Ida Kavafian, and Daniel Phillips. She plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago. We welcome her to her first Festival.

Lowell Liebermann

Lowell Liebermann is one of America’s most frequently performed and recorded living composers. He has written nearly 140 works in all genres, several of which have gone on to become standard repertoire for their instruments, and has been commissioned by a wide array of ensembles and instrumentalists, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Emerson Quartet, and flutist Sir James Galway. A member of the composition faculty of Mannes School of Music of the New School since 2012, he is also the founding conductor and Artistic Director of MACE—the Mannes American Composers Ensemble—a large ensemble devoted to the works of living American composers. His Piano Trio No. 3 had its world premiere in Tucson as part of an Evening Series concert in 2013.

Dimitri Murrath

Born in Brussels, Belgian- American violist Dimitri Murrath regularly performs in venues throughout the world. He began his musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he studied with Natalia Boyarsky. From there he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, working with David Takeno, and he graduated with an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian. Currently Mr. Murrath is on the viola faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Bowdoin International Music Festival. An avid chamber musician, he is a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and of Mistral Music. We last heard him at our 2020 Festival.

Jeewon Park

Korean-born pianist Jeewon Park made her debut at the age of twelve performing Chopin’s First Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra and came to the U.S. in 2002 after having won all the major competitions in Korea. Since that time, she has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Seoul Arts Center in Korea. Ms. Park is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale University, and she holds the DMA degree from SUNY Stony Brook. Her teachers include Young-Ho Kim, Herbert Stessin, Claude Frank, and Gilbert Kalish. She currently teaches piano at the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Married to cellist Edward Arron, this year marks her second Festival appearance.

Axel Strauss

At the age of seventeen, Axel Strauss won the silver medal at the Enescu Competition in Romania and has been recognized with many other awards, including top prizes in the Bach, Wieniawski, and Kocian competitions, and in 1998 he won the international Naumburg Violin Award in New York. Later that same year he made his American debut at the Library of Congress and his New York debut at Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Strauss studied with Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School, and since 2012 he has been Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal. He previously took part in our twenty-sixth Festival in 2019, and this year marks his eighth Festival appearance.

Welcome back!

Whether you are sitting in a seat inside Leo Rich or watching the Livestream from your sofa at home, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to share with you the excitement of the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival after last year’s hiatus.

Featuring the stalwarts of chamber music’s Western canon, the 28th Festival brings you eminent musicians performing legendary compositions across five concerts,
a special celebration concert on Saturday, and a world premiere on Sunday. We thank our Festival Artistic Director Peter Rejto for all his hard work and planning and for bringing this year’s event to life. We thank Randy Spalding for leading the Festival on our behalf and all the volunteers without whom the Festival would
not succeed.

The Festival artists have travelled from around the globe to be here and we are grateful for their presence and dedication. From the outset 74 years ago, AFCM consistently has brought to the Tucson stage world-class chamber music concerts that feature beloved works from the classical era as well as those that introduce us to the composers of today.

We are confident you will feel buoyed by the power and beauty of the concerts this week, performed live on stage for a small audience. If you are a loyal patron, we thank you deeply for your steadfastness and for being with us this week. If you are discovering chamber music for the first time—welcome. We hope you find the music and the experience to be a beacon of joy in your life.

Relax. Think. Find Joy.

With appreciation,
THE AFCM
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Subscribe

Get updates on concerts by email and our award-winning printed materials by mail.