The 2018-2019 Music in the Park Series will open with the return of Miró Quartet. Hailed by The New York Times as possessing “explosive vigor and technical finesse”, the dynamic Miró Quartet, one of America’s highest-profile chamber groups, enjoys its place at the top of the international chamber music scene. Founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory, the quartet met with immediate success winning first prize at the 50th annual Coleman Chamber Music Competition in April 1996, and taking both the first and grand prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition two months later. In 2005, the Quartet received the Cleveland Quartet Award and was the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. The quartet’s program comprises quartets by Schumann and Mendelssohn and, honoring their fierce devotion to contemporary music, Kevin Puts’ third string quartet entitled “Credo”. The Miró Quartet is named for the surrealist Spanish artist Joan Miró.

Making a welcome return to Music in the Park Series is the piano trio, Trio con Brio Copenhagen, hailed for their “unique sound and unity of interpretation” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Founded in Vienna in 1999 with the concept of pairs coming together, the two Korean Hong sisters and Jens Elvekjaer (who is married to Soo-Kyung Hong) have been exploring the piano trio repertoire with freshness and curiosity as well as with respect and reflection. Their Mendelssohn CD was chosen by Britain’s Classic FM as its Chamber Disc of 2011. Their program features piano trios by Beethoven, Brahms and the Piano Trio in G minor by Czech composer Bedrich Smetana written in response to the death of his daughter. Soo-Jin plays a violin built by Andrea Guarneri from the 17th century and Soo-Kyung plays a Grancino cello. Jens is Denmark’s first Steinway artist.

Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
Elena Urioste, violin
Nicholas Canellakis, cello
Michael Brown, piano

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, Twin Cities-based until recently, is considered one of today’s most exceptional performers of the instrument. He won first prize at the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. As a Juilliard graduate, he won first prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and received awards from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Alex has invited his friends Elena Urioste (violin), Nicholas Canellakis (cello) and Michael Brown (piano) to join him for this program of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Clarinet Sonata and Olivier Messiaen’s much loved Quartet for the End of Time. Urioste, Canellakis and Brown have established themselves as three of the most sought-after young virtuosos on the classical music scene today. Each are winners, like Fiterstein, of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Among the various other prizes and recognition they have individually won are inclusion in the BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, Sphinx and Concert Artists Guild competitions, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center auditions. They have performed in many of the most prestigious venues across the United States and Europe.

Highly regarded in early music circles, Ensemble Caprice is renowned for its innovative and expertly informed interpretations of baroque music. The Montreal-based ensemble has received national and international acclaim for its performances under the artistic direction of recorder and baroque flute virtuoso Matthias Maute (who recently added the role of Artistic Director for the Bach Society of Minnesota to his musical activities). Ensemble Caprice, whose members play recorder, cello, guitar and percussion returns to the Music in the Park Series with a program titled ‘iLove baroque”. Their program weaves together eight short stories featuring music of two centuries from five countries. Music by Bach, Falconiero, Schmelzer, Purcell and Vivaldi (among others) highlights the drama, tenderness, joy, humor and melancholy of being in love. A perfect way to celebrate St Valentine’s Day.

Music in the Park Series is proud to debut the Horszowski Trio, joined for part of the program by Masumi Per Rostad, violist of the renowned Pacifica Quartet. Hailed by The New Yorker as “destined for great things,” the members of the Horszowski Trio, who are also long-time friends, are Jesse Mills (violin), Raman Ramakrishnan (cello), and Rieko Aizawa (piano). Two-time Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills first performed with Raman Ramakrishnan, founding cellist of the prize-winning Daedalus Quartet, at the Kinhaven Music School when they were children. In New York City, they met pianist Rieko Aizawa, who, upon being discovered by the late violinist and conductor Alexander Schneider, had made her U.S. debuts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Their musical bonds were strengthened at various schools and festivals around the world, including the Juilliard School and the Marlboro Festival. Ms. Aizawa was the last pupil of the legendary pianist, Mieczysław Horszowski (1892-1993), at the Curtis Institute. The Trio takes inspiration from Horszowski’s musicianship, integrity, and humanity. Like Horszowski, the Trio presents repertoire spanning the traditional and the contemporary. Their program features Schumann’s Piano Trio No.1 in D minor, a Brahms Piano Quartet and Piano Trio by Charles Wuorinen.

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times extols its “luxuriously warm sound yearning lyricism.”  Within a few years of its formation, the Quartet garnered the first Cleveland Quartet Award and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award.  The Quartet had its first European tour in 1997, and was honored in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Award for Most Outstanding Debut. That debut recital was at London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Quartet has continued its warm relationship with Wigmore, appearing there regularly and serving as the hall’s Quartet-in-residence in the 2000-01 season. As of July 2014, the Brentano Quartet succeeded the Tokyo Quartet as Artists in Residence at Yale University, departing from their 14-year residency at Princeton University.  The Brentano Quartet’s program is titled “Lamentations” and features music by Purcell, Haydn, Shostakovich, d”India, Carter, Lekeu and Bartok.  The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”, the intended recipient of his famous love confession.