Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: “Masters of the Piano Quartet”

The Cleveland Museum of Art has partnered with the Cleveland Chamber Music Society to present the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) and its program for this evening, “Masters of the Piano Quartet.” Tickets must be purchased on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society’s website (opens in a new tab). CMA members can receive a 15% discount at checkout by entering the code ARTMEMBER15 for any single ticket or subscription ticket. This discount does not apply to student tickets. Musart Society member discounts do not apply to this coproduction.

CMS is one of 11 constituents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. The Chamber Music Society has its home in Alice Tully Hall—the finest hall in the world for chamber music. Through its performance, education, and recording/broadcast activities, it draws more people to chamber music than any other organization of its kind.

Performers
Wu Han, piano
Arnaud Sussmann, violin
Matthew Lipman, viola
David Finckel, cello

Co-artistic director of CMS since 2004, cellist David Finckel has performed on the world’s stages in the roles of recitalist, chamber artist, and orchestral soloist. The first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich, he joined the Emerson String Quartet in 1979 and, during 34 seasons, garnered nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize. In 1997, he and pianist Wu Han founded ArtistLed, the first internet-based, artist-controlled classical recording label. In 2022, Music@Menlo, a summer chamber music festival in Silicon Valley founded and directed by Finckel and Wu Han, celebrated its 20th season. He is a professor at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University and oversees both CMS’s Bowers Program and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. Along with Wu Han, he received Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year Award.

Pianist Wu Han, recipient of Musical America’s Musicians of the Year Award, enjoys a multifaceted musical life that encompasses artistic direction, performing, and recording. Co-artistic director of CMS since 2004 as well as founder and co-artistic director of Silicon Valley’s Music@Menlo since 2002, she also serves as artistic advisor for both Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts and as artistic director for La Musica in Sarasota, Florida. She is the founder and artistic director of ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, internet-based recording label. A recipient of the Andrew Wolf Award, she was mentored by some of the greatest pianists of our time, including Lilian Kallir, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. Married to cellist David Finckel since 1985, Wu Han divides her time between concert touring and residences in New York City and Westchester County.

American violist Matthew Lipman has made recent appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra. He has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Tonhalle in Zurich and has recorded on the Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Cedille, and Avie labels. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with CMS. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and major prize winner at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University. He performs on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola.

Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has recently appeared as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the New World Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. He has also given concerts at the Moritzburg, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla Music Society, Mainly Mozart, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Moab Music festivals. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Sussmann is artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach and codirector of Music@Menlo’s International Program and teaches at Stony Brook University. In September 2022, he was named founding artistic director of the Boscobel Chamber Music Festival. Sussmann plays a 1731 Stradivarius violin on loan from a private owner.

Program
Mahler: Quartet in A Minor for Piano and Strings 
Brahms: Quartet in C Minor for Piano and Strings, op. 60
Schumann: Quartet in E-flat Major for Piano and Strings, op. 47

The views expressed by performers during this event are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Museum of Art.