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The 2024/2025 Chamber Music series is sponsored by the Diefenbach and Gray families  in loving memory of Rob and Ruth Diefenbach.

Chamber Music Series Presents:

VIOLIN LEGENDS:

YSAŸE’S LEGACY

Benjamin Beilman, violin
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Arnaud Sussmann, violin
Beth Guterman, viola
Nick Canellakis, cello
Michael Stephen Brown, piano

BIO’S

Benjamin Beilman, violin

Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which the Washington Post called “mightily impressive,” and The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence.” The Times has also praised his “handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence,” and the Strad described his playing as “pure poetry.”

Beilman’s 2023-24 season includes his debut with the St. Louis Symphony under Cristian Macelaru, and returns to the Minnesota Orchestra with Elim Chan, the Oregon Symphony with David Danzmayr, and the Pacific Symphony, whom he will play-direct in a program of Vivaldi. The same season will also see six weeks of performances in Europe, including concerts with the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart alongside Elim Chan, a return to the Kölner Philharmonie with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, and appearances at the Grafenegg Festival, Festpielhaus St. Pölten, and the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchester and Tabita Berglund. Beilman will also return to play-direct the London Chamber Orchestra, and will reunite with Ryan Bancroft in making his debut with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and with Roderick Cox in returning to Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie. He will also continue his performances of the Britten Concerto with the Estonian National Symphony.

In April 2022, Beilman became one of the youngest artists to be appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, and in March 2024 will lead a Curtis string ensemble in a national tour.

Jennifer Frautschi, violin

Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi has garnered worldwide acclaim as a deeply expressive, musically adventurous violinist with impeccable technique and a wide-ranging repertoire.  Equally at home in the classic and contemporary repertoire, her recent seasons have featured performances and recordings of works ranging from Robert Schumann and Lili Boulanger to Barbara White and Arnold Schoenberg.  She has also had the privilege of premiering several new works composed for her by prominent living composers.  Critics have described her performances as ‘electrifying,’ ‘riveting’ and ‘mesmerizing’, lauding her ‘staggering energy and finesse’ and ‘fierce expression.’  After a recent performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto, Cleveland Classical wrote:  ‘We witnessed the most magnificent performance by a guest soloist in recent memory.  From the outset of the Brahms Concerto, she was a stunning presence, her playing a breathtaking conflation of grace and grit, and at times downright ferocious.’

 Ms. Frautschi’s concerto appearances have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä, Boston Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo Opera House. Her 2022-23 season features engagements with the Indianapolis Symphony and New World Symphony, re-engagements with the New Mexico Philharmonic and the Santa Rosa Symphony, and a residency at the North Carolina School of the Arts.  During the 2022 summer season, she has been invited to perform with Chamber Music Northwest, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe Music Festival, Salt Bay Chamberfest, Sarasota Music Festival, Tippet Rise, and Vivace Festival. 

Arnaud Sussmann, violin

Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura and profound musicianship. Minnesota’s Pioneer Press writes, “Sussmann has an old-school sound reminiscent of what you’ll hear on vintage recordings by Jascha Heifetz or Fritz Kreisler, a rare combination of sweet and smooth that can hypnotize a listener. His clear tone [is] a thing of awe-inspiring beauty, his phrasing spellbinding.” 

A thrilling young musician capturing the attention of classical critics and audiences around the world, Arnaud Sussmann has appeared with the American Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Paris Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Further solo appearances have included a tour of Israel and concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Dresden Music Festival in Germany and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Mr. Sussmann has been presented in recital in Omaha on the Tuesday Musical Club series, New Orleans by the Friends of Music, Tel Aviv at the Museum of Art and at the Louvre Museum in Paris. He has also given concerts at the OK Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest and Moritzburg festivals and appears regularly at the Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Seattle Chamber Music, Moab Music and Saratoga Springs Chamber Music festivals.

Recent concerto appearances include performances with Maestro Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra at the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Albany Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony. This past season, chamber music performances included tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to Korea’s LG Arts Center, Shanghai’s Oriental Center and Hong Kong’s Music Academy.

Beth Guterman, viola

Beth Guterman Chu is one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. Before joining the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2013 as Principal Viola, she was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and enjoyed a varied career as a chamber musician and recitalist. Chu is still an avid chamber musician, and collaborates with many artists including Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, Menahem Pressler, Jaime Laredo, James Ehnes, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, and Orion quartets. As a recording artist, she has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Tzadik, Naxos, and the CMS Studio Recordings.

During the summer Chu performs and works with young musicians at the Aspen Music Festival and School, National Youth Orchestra-USA, and at the Marlboro Music Festival. In recent years, she has also performed at festivals in Seattle; Lake Champlain, Vermont; Portland, Maine; as well as Luzerne, Bridgehampton, and Skaneateles, New York. Chu has also performed as soloist with many distinguished conductors including Hannu Lintu, Bramwell Tovey, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, and James DePreist.

Chu received her Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory studying with Kim Kashkashian, and her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Masao Kawasaki and Misha Amory. She lives in St. Louis with her husband Jonathan, another violist, and their three children.

Nick Canellakis, cello

Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, praised as a “superb young soloist” (The New Yorker) and for being “impassioned … the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis’s rich, alluring tone” (The New York Times).  A multifaceted artist, Canellakis has forged a unique voice combining his talents as soloist, chamber musician, curator, filmmaker, and composer/arranger.

Recent concert highlights include concerto appearances with the Virginia, Albany, Delaware, Stamford, Richardson, Lansing, and Bangor Symphonies, the Erie Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, the New Haven Symphony as Artist-in-Residence, and the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. He performs recitals throughout the U.S. with his longtime duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown, and recent appearances have included Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Four Arts in Palm Beach, New Orleans Friends of Chamber Music, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and Wolf Trap near Washington D.C.

Canellakis is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with which he performs regularly in Alice Tully Hall and on tour internationally, including London’s Wigmore Hall, The Louvre in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and the Shanghai and Taipei National Concert Halls. He is also a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals, including Santa Fe, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Bard, Bridgehampton, La Jolla, Hong Kong, Moab, Chamberfest Cleveland, and Music in the Vineyards. He was recently renewed as the artistic director of Chamber Music Sedona, in Arizona, where he has made a major impact through his dynamic programming and educational and community outreach.

Michael Stephen Brown, piano

Michael Stephen Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.”

Winner of the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Brown has recently performed as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, NFM Leopoldinum, and the National, Phoenix, Grand Rapids, North Carolina, Wichita, and Albany Symphonies; and recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn. He recently toured his own Piano Concerto around the US and Poland with several orchestras. A frequent artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brown is featured on the Society’s 2023-24 season with a solo recital at Alice Tully Hall, tours the US and Scotland with his longtime duo partner cellist Nicholas Canellakis, performs with violinist Pinchas Zukerman at Wolf Trap and the Green Music Center, and embarks on a composing residency at the Yaddo artist colony.

Brown was the Composer and Artist-in-Residence at the New Haven Symphony for the 2017-19 seasons and a 2018 Copland House Residency Award recipient. His recently premiered symphonic work American Diaries draws inspiration from words by Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, his own grandfather’s World War II diary. He has received commissions from many organizations and some of today’s leading artists, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Bridgehampton and Gilmore festivals; the Maryland Symphony; Osmo Vänskä and Erin Keefe; and pianists Jerome Lowenthal, Ursula Oppens, Orion Weiss, Adam Golka, and Roman Rabinovich, soprano Susanna Phillips, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis.