Week of March 2, 2020
Dear Friend,
My humble apologies again for getting this out late. No excuses this week (but still working on fixing that date for Emanuel Ax).
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Of all the great music schools in the world, there is one that stands out above all the rest. No, it’s not Juilliard.
Founded in 1924 and tuition-free since 1928, Curtis counts among its alumni composers Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Ned Rorem, Lukas Foss, George Walker and Jennifer Higdon; pianists Gary Graffman, Ruth Laredo, Peter Serkin, Yuja Wang, Lang Lang and Yefim Bronfman (appearing at the CMSD on April 18); violinists Hillary Hahn, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo; clarinetist Anthony McGill; conductor George Szell; the list goes on and on and on. (The Detroit Symphony's violist Caroline Coade is on the list!)
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With a student body barely over 150 and an acceptance rate of 3.3% (2017-18), the Curtis Institute is harder to get into than Juilliard (5.9%), Harvard (5.2%), Stanford (4.7%) or Yale (6.9%). Needless to say, Curtis students are a pretty elite bunch! So when the Curtis Institute of Music mounts one of it’s joint faculty-student “Curtis on Tour” programs, it’s worth paying attention...
...especially
this
time!
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I first met the Vera Quartet at the 2016 National Conference of Chamber Music America in New York, where I was conference chair and they were one of the showcasing artists. Their fine performance immediately put them on my short list of promising young string quartets to introduce to the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. Our interest increased when we learned that at that time they were the graduate quartet-in-residence at Indiana University, working with the Pacifica Quartet, a longtime CMSD favorite.
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But it wasn’t until a conversation with a representative of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2018 that the stars aligned and the Vera Quartet – now the Curtis Institute's quartet-in-residence – showed up on the roster for “Curtis on Tour” in the 2019-2020 season. Engaging them was a no-brainer!
As the Curtis Quartet-in-Residence, the Vera Quartet performs two recitals there annually and has coachings at least twice per week with a rotating group drawn from Curtis’s renowned faculty. The ensemble also performs in master classes for leading quartets and other artists who may visit Curtis. The quartet also participates in Curtis’s Community Artists Program, designing and implementing a unique performance project that combines artistry with invention, leadership with advocacy, and citizenship with community.
It's a marvelous context in which to welcome the Vera Quartet to Metro Detroit for their first ever CMSD concerts, in Grosse Pointe, Canton and Rochester Hills.
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But wait, there’s more!
One of the hallmarks of "Curtis on Tour" is the collaboration in the concerts with members of the institution’s stellar artist faculty. So it is a special treat that the Vera Quartet will be joined in these concerts by the renowned Taiwanese-born pianist and Curtis faculty member, Meng-Chieh Liu, in the fiendishly difficult Franck Piano Quintet on the second half of the program.
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Meng-Chieh Liu first made headlines in 1993 as a 21-year-old Curtis student, when he substituted for André Watts at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia with three hours’ notice. His acclaimed performance was followed by a recital at the Kennedy Center, among other highly praised appearances.
Nine years later, in 2002, this marvelous artist was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. But that
almost
didn't happen!
At 23, Liu’s promising career was interrupted by a rare vascular disease that left him frail and paralyzed, and unable to play the piano. After a year in the hospital, and many more years of difficult physical therapy, he battled back to his feet and onto the piano bench, and has since settled into what is surely one of the most distinguished concert and teaching careers in the world. His recovery was miraculous; the wisdom and maturity he now brings to him music making is nothing short of inspiring.
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I will have more to say next week about the music on the concerts by the Vera Quartet and Meng-Chieh Liu, but for now here are links with information about how to get tickets, if you don’t already have them:
Thanks for staying tuned, and we’ll see you at the concerts!
Best,
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Steve Wogaman, President
Chamber Music Society of Detroit
Tickets: 313-335-3300 or
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