Lily Arbisser performs in Chamber Music Quad Cities' “Violin & Voice" at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities -- May 18.
Saturday, May 18, 7:30 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities, 3707 Eastern Avenue, Davenport IA
Performing in a special Chamber Music Quad Cities concert at Davenport's Unitarian Universalist Church on May 18, gifted soprano and Davenport native Lily Arbisser and Grammy Award-winning violinist Kyu-Young Kim will join CMQC Artistic Co-director and pianist Thomas Sauer for Violin & Voice, the organization's season-ending repertoire of compositions by Beethoven, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Kurt Weill, and Reena Esmail.
Lily Arbisser is an “individual-timbred soprano” (Opera News) whose voice “floats effortlessly” (Feast of Music) over the orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons include joining Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute in Chicago as a vocal fellow; winning first prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs’ Biennial Young Artist Competition; and a debut recital with Chamber Music Quad Cities in which she and pianist Thomas Sauer shared 10 newly commissioned art songs setting poems by Iowan poets. Th soprano frequents oratorio and operatic stages, and she is also dedicated to art song performance in both salon-style house concerts and traditional recitals. A snapshot of Arbisser's broad repertoire includes Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew songs, music of contemporary American composers, and 12-tone compositions.
She is enjoying a busy performance schedule this year, which began with a self-curated recital titled Of Dreams in Lenox, Massachusetts given alongside conductor/pianist Noah Palmer, featuring music of Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Wieck-Schumann, Weill, Debussy, Fauré, and contemporary American composers Nathan Shields, Emily Cooley and Sally Wyche-Coenen. Arbisser is also pleased to present multiple recitals with pianist Dimitri Malignan and his “Missing Voices” project, dedicated to introducing audiences to the music of Jewish composers who were persecuted in the Holocaust and reclaiming space for these important works on the concert stage. Arbisser graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a Bachelor of the Arts in Art and Archaeology and a Certificate in Vocal Performance, and she also holds a Master of Music degree from Mannes College.
Kyu-Young Kim, Artistic Director and Principal Violin of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, is widely recognized for his dynamic performances as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. His appointment as the SPCO’s Artistic Director in January of 2016 marks the first time a playing member has been tapped to take the artistic helm of a major American orchestra. Under his artistic leadership, the SPCO won a Grammy for its recording of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet in a new arrangement by violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja in 2018, and has toured to great critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Previously, Kim has toured throughout the world as a founding member of the Daedalus Quartet with whom he won the Grand Prize at the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition and was a member of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two Program. As a former member of the Pacifica String Quartet, Mr. Kim won the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award. He has appeared as soloist with the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Poland, and the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and is an Emeritus Member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Pianist Thomas Sauer is highly sought after as a soloist and chamber musician in a wide range of repertoire. Recent appearances include Carnegie Hall, St. John’s College, Oxford, and the Chamber Music Societies of Lincoln Center, Boston, and Philadelphia, and with his longtime duo partner Colin Carr, Sauer has appeared at the Wigmore Hall (London), the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), and Da Camera (Houston). Additionally, he has performed with members of the Juilliard String Quartet at the Library of Congress and given numerous concerts with the Brentano String Quartet. Sauer’s varied discography includes recordings of Beethoven and Haydn piano sonatas; with Colin Carr, the complete cello and piano works of Mendelssohn and Beethoven; music of Hindemith with violist Misha Amory; music of Britten and Schnittke with cellist Wilhelmina Smith; and music of James Matheson.
Sauer has performed at many of the leading festivals in the United States and abroad, including Marlboro, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, and Taos, as well as Lake District Summer Music (England), Agassiz (Canada), Festival des Consonances (France), and Esbjerg International Chamber Music Festival (Denmark). A faculty member of Mannes and Vassar Colleges Sauer was the founder and director of the Mannes Beethoven Institute, a highly regarded summer program that ran for 15 seasons.
Chamber Music Quad Cities' Violin & Voice will take place at Davenport's Unitarian Universalist Church on May 18., admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert is $20 for adults and $5 for students, and more information and tickets are available by visiting ChamberMusicQC.org.
