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November 11, 2023

Manhattan Chamber Players

7:30 PM at the Sunset Center | Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA

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Program

Pre-concert talk at 6:30 PM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478

Andrea Casarrubios Piano Quintet CMMB commission and world premiere

Dmitri Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G Minor, op. 57


"An intensely wrought and burnished performance...Overall, I wished I could put them on repeat." – Strings Magazine.

Members

Grace Park, violin

Brendan Speltz, violin

Luke Fleming, viola

Andrea Casarrubios, cello

Adam Golka, piano

About The Ensemble

Manhattan Chamber Players was formed by Artistic Director and violist, Luke Fleming. This collective of players came together to share their love of chamber music. All the members have their own impressive careers - as soloists, members of professional string quartets, piano trios, or other chamber groups, and even two world-renowned composers. This group brings the flexibility to perform practically anything in the rich string/wind/piano chamber repertoire.

 

 As a guest soloist at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Ms. Casarrubios performed her own Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, MIRAGE (2019).  SEVEN (2020) for solo cello, “a searching, intense, and elegiac tribute to the essential workers during the pandemic” (The New York Times), was commissioned by cellist Thomas Mesa and has been performed worldwide.  Ms. Casarrubios’ compositions have been presented by organizations such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Washington Performing Arts, World Heritage Festival, Sphinx Organization, Trio Appassionata, the Manhattan Chamber Players, Decoda, Ensemble Connect, Astral Artists, NPR, Canada’s CKIA, and the Spanish National Radio RNE.

 

In 2015, Mr. Fleming became the Founding Artistic Director of both the Manhattan Chamber Players, a New York-based chamber music collective, and the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Viola at the University of New Orleans School of the Arts. He is also a founding member of the Delaware-based Serafin Ensemble. He has performed as a guest artist with the Escher, Pacifica, Serafin, and Solera String Quartets, the Eroica, Lysander, and Gryphon Piano Trios, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Decoda, Ensemble Connect, Sejong Soloists, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the New York Classical Players, and has given masterclasses at UCLA, Louisiana State University, Ithaca College, Columbus State University, Syracuse University, Melbourne University, and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, among others.  Mr. Fleming has served on the faculties of the Innsbrook Institute, Renova Music Festival, Festival del Lago, and Houston ChamberFest, and Fei Tian College and is Lecturer-in-Residence for the concert series Project: Music Heals Us.

 

Chamber music is an integral part of Mr. Golka’s life, and he has performed repeatedly at the Krzyżowa-Music “Music for Europe” festival, which has included tour performances at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Beethoven Bonn festivals, as well as Konzerthaus Berlin. He also performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Caramoor chamber music festivals in the U.S. Adam collaborates regularly with the Manhattan Chamber Players and in recitals with baritone John Moore, pianist Yannick Rafalimanana, cellist Jonathan Swensen, and violinist Itamar Zorman, with whom he recently debuted at The Wigmore Hall in London. As a pedagogue, Mr. Golka acted as Artist-in-Residence for six school years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr. Golka has recorded works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms for London-based First Hand Records, and he has premiered works composed for him by Richard Danielpour, Michael Brown, and Jarosław Gołębiowski.


Grace Park’s most recent season included her Carnegie Hall debut recital with a world premiere performan ce of Mason Bates’ violin sonata, and also her debut with the Mexico City Philharmonic. Ms. Park made debut recital appearances at the Schubert Club, Krannert Center, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series, and Merkin Concert Hall.

Ms. Park has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada at venues such as Walt Disney Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jordan Hall and Tri-Noon at Rockefeller University. She has toured with the North Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, and Russian Chamber Orchestra.  Ms. Park has performed and participated in festivals such as Music @ Menlo, IMS Prussia Cove, Festival Mozaic, Yellowbarn, and Perlman Music Program, where she has performed with many of today’s celebrated artists.


NYC-based violinist Brendan Speltz, second violinist of the world renowned Escher String Quartet, has toured the globe with groundbreaking ensembles such as Shuffle Concert, the Manhattan Chamber Players, A Far Cry, and the Harlem Quartet. As founder of FeltInFour Productions, Mr. Speltz has produced innovative concert events across the New York City area that have been described by The New Yorker as “Thrilling, poignant, unexpected, and utterly DIY.” Most recently, Mr. Speltz co-created a cross-disciplinary presentation of Steve Reich’s Different Trains with aerial dance troupe ABCirque which was sponsored by Meyer Sound Labs.

In NYC he has performed as guest with the New York New Music Ensemble, Mark Morris Dance Group, American Ballet Theatre, the American Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and as a founding member of the conductorless string orchestra Shattered Glass. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Speltz plays a 1925 Carl Becker violin.

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