Brevard Music Center offers free Community Concerts in April

Press release from Brevard Music Center:

Brevard Music Center (BMC), in association with Brevard College in Brevard and Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra in Hendersonville, is pleased to announce its April program of chamber concert as part of BMC’s FREE Community Concerts Series.

“We always look forward to bringing excellent chamber music to our surrounding communities,” said BMC President & CEO Mark Weinstein. “As we are known for our strong musical offerings in the summer, our free Community Concert Series is a very special way to keep music playing all year long for music-lovers in western North Carolina. Please join us in welcoming the Giannini Quartet to our side of the state for two exceptional matinee performances.”

FIRST MONDAYS in Brevard: April 2

On Monday, April 2 at 12:30 PM, the Giannini Quartet—the scholarship string quartet of the Chrysalis Chamber Music Institute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts—will perform in Scott Concert Hall at the Porter Center on the Brevard College campus. The afternoon’s concert will feature a delightful and varied program of works including Ernö Dohnányi’s String Quartet No. 1 and William Bolcom’s “Three Rags for String Quartet.”

April’s local charity partner is Friends for Life. (www.friendsforlifeforeverfarm.org)

CHAMBER MUSIC TUESDAYS in Hendersonville: April 3

On Tuesday, April 3 at 12:30 PM, the Giannini Quartet will travel to the First United Methodist Church in Hendersonville for Chamber Music Tuesdays.

Chamber Music Tuesdays in Hendersonville is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Perry N. Rudnick Endowment Fund of the Community Foundation of Henderson County.

ABOUT THE GIANNINI QUARTET

The Giannini Quartet is the scholarship string quartet of the Chrysalis Chamber Music Institute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Student ensembles within the Chrysalis Chamber Music Institute embody the goals of the Institute for the development of its students as musicians, professionals, and active performing artists.

Benjamin Kugler
Born in Munich, Germany, Benjamin Kugler started his musical career on the violin at the age of five. Due to his interest in a national youth orchestra, he switched to the viola thirteen years later. He then studied with Ludwig Schmalhofer at the Leopold-Mozart-Zentrum der Universität Augsburg and successfully graduated in July 2016. Mr. Kugler attended various Masterclasses, for example with Gérard Caussé (France) or with Robert Mealy with the Juilliard Historical Performance (USA). He also played in notable German orchestras like the “Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie,” the “Augsburger Philharmoniker,” the “Landestheater Niederbayern,” and the “Kammeroper München.” In addition to concert tours in almost every state of Germany, Benjamin has performed in Norway, France, China, and Malaysia. He is currently studying with Ulrich Eichenauer in the graduate program at UNCSA and is also part of the Chrysalis Chamber Music Institute and graduating in May.

Joohyun Lee
Violinist Joohyun Lee is recognized as an emerging artist of “fine collaborative intuition” and “a deep passion and curiosity for music.” Lee made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2013, after winning prizes in the American Fine Arts and American Protégé concerto competitions. She was also the second prize winner of the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra competition in 2010. Lee has been playing in string quartets for 10 years. In 2015, she began the WAM10 Project with the Rumi String Quartet, performing the ten celebrated string quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for patients at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami, Florida. Equally at home in the standard violin literature and modern and contemporary repertoire, Lee has won praise for her performances of Harrison Birtwistle’s “Tree of Strings” (2008), Martin Bresnick’s solo violin piece “Josephine the Singer” (2013), and Dana Kaufman’s solo violin piece “Scratch the Surface” (2015). Lee holds degrees from Ithaca College and the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where she studied with Susan Waterbury and Charles Castleman, respectively. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts under the tutelage of Ida Bieler and Janet Orenstein.

Wei Lin
Wei Lin is a violin major from China, who began his violin studies when he was 8 years old. In 2013, Wei Lin began his undergraduate studies with Professor Hui Jin at the China Conservatory of Music. During his undergraduate, he was a member of the China Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, which performed at the China Conservatory National Music Hall, the National Centre, and Zhongshan Concert Hall. He toured Italy with the group in 2015. In 2015, he won second prize of the China Conservatory Scholarship Award, the National Endeavor Fellowship, and the Excellent Student Award of Beijing. In August of 2015, he attended the third Hong Kong International String Competition and won the Silver Prize. In 2016, he was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Asian Youth Orchestra, with whom he toured Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In August of 2017, he continued his musical studies with Kevin Lawrence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Ben Therrell
Ben Therrell is a cellist and Suzuki-certified teacher based out of Winston-Salem, NC. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Cello Performance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) under the guidance of Brooks Whitehouse. Ben currently is a member of the Giannini Quartet, part of the Chrysalis Chamber Music Institute directed by Ida Bieler and coached by Kevin Lawrence. He is also a member of the Fayetteville Symphony and has performed with many groups in North Carolina, New Mexico, and Colorado including the Winston-Salem Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, Boulder Symphony, and others. He has studied closely with David Schepps and Lisa Collins of the University of New Mexico (UNM), along with Tanya Carey and Susan Kempter, major Suzuki teacher trainers. At UNM, Ben received a dual emphasis Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and String Pedagogy. He has taught with the UNM String Pedagogy Lab School, the New Mexico School of Music, and as a freelance private instructor.