~ Program ~

From 1999 until its final season in 2013, Clive Greensmith was a member of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet, giving over one hundred performances each year in the most prestigious international venues, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, London’s South Bank, Paris Chatelet, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has collaborated with international artists such as Andras Schiff, Pinchas Zukerman, Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alicia de Larrocha, and Emanuel Ax.

Mr. Greensmith has given guest performances at prominent festivals worldwide. In North America, he has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Cleveland Chamber Fest, and the Ravinia Festival. He is a regular guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and will undertake a national tour with Paul Huang, Wu Han, and Matthew Lipman in 2020. Internationally he has appeared at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Pacific Music Festival in Japan and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. As a soloist, Clive Greensmith has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI Orchestra of Rome among others.

During a career spanning over twenty-five years, Mr. Greensmith has built up a catalog of landmark recordings, most notably The Complete Beethoven String Quartets for Harmonia Mundi with the Tokyo String Quartet, Mozart’s ‘Prussian’ Quartets with the Tokyo String Quartet, Brahms Cello Sonatas with Boris Berman for Biddulph Recordings, and Clarinet Trios of Beethoven and Brahms with Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse for Harmonia Mundi. In June 2018 he performed the newly reconstructed Pál Hermann cello concerto (1925) with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor, Theodor Kuchar. Toccata Classics released a live recording of his world premiere performance of the Concerto with Theodore Kuchar and the Lviv International Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2019.

Deeply committed to the mentoring and development of young musicians, Clive has enjoyed a long and distinguished teaching career. In addition to his fifteen-year residency with the Tokyo String Quartet at Yale University, Mr. Greensmith has served as a faculty member at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Royal Northern College of Music in England, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. In 2013, following the final concerts of the Tokyo String Quartet, Mr. Greensmith joined the faculty at the Colburn School where he is currently a professor of cello and coaches chamber music for the Conservatory of Music and the Music Academy. Students of Mr. Greensmith have gone on to secure major positions in orchestras throughout the world and have won a number of prestigious awards.

In July 2019, he succeeded Günther Pichler as director of string chamber music at the Accademia Chigiana International Festival and Summer Academy in Siena, Italy. Also in 2019, Greensmith became the Artistic Director of the Nevada Chamber Music Festival.

Mr. Greensmith is a founding member of the Montrose Trio with pianist Jon Kimura Parker, and violinist Martin Beaver.

Juho Pohjonen is regarded as one of today’s most exciting and unique instrumentalists. The Finnish pianist performs widely in Europe, Asia, and North America, collaborating with symphony orchestras and playing in recital and chamber settings. An ardent exponent of Scandinavian music, Pohjonen’s growing discography offers a showcase of music by Finnish compatriots such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kaija Saariaho and Jean Sibelius.

In 2021-2022 Pohjonen performs Daniel Bjarnason’s concerto for piano Processions with the Helsinki Philharmonic with the composer at the podium. Additional orchestral highlights include performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Rune Bergmann and the Colorado Symphony as well as performances of Mendelssohn’s concerto for violin, piano and strings, beside Erin Keefe, Maestro Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra. Continuing his long-standing relationship with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Pohjonen performs at Alice Tully Hall on two separate occasions this season in programs featuring works by Stravinksy, Debussy, Shostokovich and Mendelssohn. Additional chamber projects include a performance at Parlance Chamber Concerts with Danbi Um and Paul Huang and Cliburn Concerts with Danbi and Karim Sulayman. Juho will perform recitals in Helsinki and at Vancouver Recital Society.

Last season, Juho performed with the Tampere Philharmonic following his debut with the orchestra in 2017-2018 and also performed Daniel Bjarnason’s Processions with Finland’s Tapiola Sinfonietta.

Following the September 2019 performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota, Pohjonen returned to the orchestra in January 2020 to repeat the program at Indiana University in Bloomington. Additional highlights included two orchestra debuts: with the New Jersey Symphony performing Grieg, conducted by Markus Stenz; and with the Rochester Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Fabien Gabel. Pohjonen made his Philadelphia recital debut at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and returned to Howland Chamber Music Circle in Beacon, NY with a recital. An alumnus of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two), Pohjonen enjoys an ongoing association with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with whom he played two performances in New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Chicago’s Harris Theater.

Pohjonen launched MyPianist in 2019, an AI-based iOS app that provides interactive piano accompaniment to musicians everywhere. Designed and programmed by Mr. Pohjonen himself and infused with his keen musical sensibility, MyPianist acts as a “virtual pianist” for musicians looking to hone their skills or learn new material. MyPianist carefully "listens" to the musician’s playing and recreates the piano part in real time, matching the timing and nuances of the live performance. More information at https://mypianist.app.

Pohjonen’s illustrious resume of concerto performances reveals a musician in demand internationally. He has appeared as a soloist with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony & Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, with the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, and a large number of additional North American orchestras. This includes the Atlanta Symphony where Pohjonen has performed three times. Pohjonen has collaborated with today’s foremost conductors, including Marin Alsop, Lionel Bringuier, Marek Janowski, Fabien Gabel, Kirill Karabits, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Markus Stenz, and Pinchas Zukerman.

The pianist has previously appeared in recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and in San Francisco, La Jolla, Detroit, Savannah, and Vancouver. He made his London debut at Wigmore Hall, and has performed recitals throughout Europe including in Antwerp, Hamburg, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw. Festival appearances include Lucerne; Savonlinna Finland; Bergen, Norway; and Mecklenberg-Vorpommern in Germany, as well as the Gilmore Keyboard Festival. With CMS he has performed significant chamber music repertoire with Escher and Calidore String Quartets in New York, Chicago, and at Wolf Trap, among many other programs. Other highlights of recent seasons include a recital debut at the 92nd Street Y in New York, in which Pohjonen performed a program that featured Scriabin’s Sonata No. 8 and Dichotomie by Salonen. In a review comparing Pohjonen’s performance of the same piece in 2019 to his 2009 performance, the New York Times commented that the Salonen “no longer seemed nearly impossible. You might say he played it like a master.”

Pohjonen’s most recent recording with cellist Inbal Segev features cello sonatas by Chopin and Grieg, and Schumann’s ’Fantasiestücke, hallmarks of the Romantic repertoire. Plateaux, his debut recording on Dacapo Records, featured works by late Scandinavian composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, including the solo piano suite For Piano, and piano concerto Plateaux pour Piano et Orchestre, with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ed Spanjaard. His recital at the Music@Menlo 2010 festival was recorded as part of the Music@Menlo Live series. Entitled Maps and Legends, the disc includes Mozart’s Sonata in A major, K. 331, Grieg’s Ballade (Op. 24), and Handel’s Suite in B-flat Major. Pohjonen joins violinist Petteri Iivonen and cellist Samuli Peltonen to form the Sibelius Trio, who released a recording on Yarlung Records in honor of Finland’s 1917 centennial of independence. The album, described by Stereophile as “a gorgeous debut,” included works by Sibelius and Kaija Saariaho.

Pohjonen began his piano studies in 1989 at the Junior Academy of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and subsequently earned a Master’s Degree from Meri Louhos and Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna at the Sibelius Academy in 2008. Pohjonen was selected by Sir Andras Schiff as the winner of the 2009 Klavier Festival Ruhr Scholarship, and has won prizes at international and Finnish competitions.

***

“Pearly touch, singing tone and sensitivity.... [Pohjonen] demonstrated his elegant musicianship throughout the program.”
– The New York Times

“The programme included Grieg’s Piano Concerto, with a fast-rising Finnish star, Juho Pohjonen, as the delightfully unassuming but bewitching soloist.”
– The Guardian

“Pohjonen's account of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 was positively electrifying, the ideal blend of poise and passion...the pianist brought virtuosity in spades, flitting through the music with a touch that was steely and bright.”
– The Plain Dealer

享譽國際樂壇多年的三位大師：小提琴家林昭亮、大提琴家Clive Greensmith、鋼琴家Juho Pohjonen，應中華表演藝術基金會的邀請，將在5月7日星期六晚間8時，在紐英崙音樂學院喬頓廳(Jordan Hall)同台演出巴赫、舒曼、拉威爾，以及勃拉姆斯的作品。90分鐘演出沒有中場休息。雖然不強制觀眾要戴口罩，但為慎重安心起見，還是建議戴上口罩。需出示打過疫苗，或測試陰性證明才可入場。票價為$15 (7至13歲)、$30、及$50三種。提供學生免費票(14歲以上)及非學生贈送券。需事前預訂。臨時到場者需付10元現款，沒有免費優待。6歲以下兒童請勿入場。詳情請查官網。

多年來小提琴家林昭亮和大提琴家馬友友及指揮小澤征爾(Seiji Ozawa)被並列稱為國際樂壇上之最活躍最有名望的三位亞裔音樂家。林昭亮是第一位華人演奏家獲得英國「留聲機年度唱片獎」(Gramophone’s Record of the year)。他的錄音曾獲二次葛萊美(Grammy)獎的提名。「音樂美國」Musical America雜誌曾將林昭亮選為2000年年度器樂演奏家(Instrumentalist of the year)，並被列入"企鵝指南得獎名人錄 Penguin Guide Rosettes"。

林昭亮在台灣出生，12歲時遠赴澳洲雪梨，後至美國追隨大師Dorothy Delay學習。19歲時在林肯中心「莫札特主題音樂節」(Mostly Mozart Festival)首演，20歲時與紐約愛樂(New York Philharmonic Orchestra)及指揮Zubin Mehta演出後備受樂壇重視並肯定。他已與全球最主要的樂團及名指揮合作演出過無數次，享譽全球。

1991年起任教母校茱莉亞Juilliard音樂學院，2006年受聘加盟德州萊斯(Rice)大學。他在加州La Jolla、香港、及台灣都成功舉辦國際大師音樂節，提供青年音樂家與大師們上課及同台演出的珍貴機會。

大提琴家Clive Greensmith是著名的東京四重奏(Tokyo String Quartet) (1999-2013)由最開始到最後一季14年來的成員。每年演出百餘場，足跡遍布全球各地，在最著名的音樂廳演出，獲得全世界的尊敬及讚賞。除了和東京四重奏巡迴之外，他每年都在各地的音樂節演出及教學。也與倫敦交響樂團等大樂團合作擔任獨奏。也與林肯中心室內樂團(Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center)一齊在各地演出。在他輝煌燦爛的簡歷上，與他合作演出及錄音的，都是當今樂壇上最頂尖大師級的人物。他現任加州Colburn音樂學院的大提琴及室內樂教授。他的學生中已有多人考上著名樂團，並在國際大賽中獲獎。

芬蘭鋼琴家Juho Pohjonen曾獲無數芬蘭及國際鋼琴大賽大獎。被公認是當今樂壇中最傑出的鋼琴家之一。紐約時報 (The New York Times) 稱讚他「珍珠般的觸感，如詩歌般的聲音和敏感度，Pohjonen在整個節目中展示了他的音樂才華。」除了他個人的獨奏會及與著名樂團合作，還有製作錄音專輯外，他也與林肯中心室內樂團經常合作，在全球各地巡迴演出，佳評如潮湧。

當晚的曲目如下：
巴赫：G大調第六小提琴與鋼琴奏鳴曲 BWV 1019
舒曼：《F-A-E》奏鳴曲中的間奏曲
勃拉姆斯：《F-A-E》奏鳴曲中的諧謔曲
拉威爾：小提琴與大提琴奏鳴曲
勃拉姆斯：C大調鋼琴三重奏 Op. 87
 

5月7日音樂會後新聞稿

中華表演藝術基金會上週六5月7日邀請三位享譽國際樂壇多年的大師聯合在紐英崙音樂學院喬頓廳 (Jordan Hall) 演出。音樂會盛大成功，佳評如潮。小提琴家林昭亮曾被「音樂美國」Musical America雜誌選為2000年年度器樂演奏家(Instrumentalist of the year)。大提琴家Clive Greensmith是著名的東京四重奏Tokyo String Quartet的成員，現任教於加州Colburn音樂學院。芬蘭鋼琴家Juho Pohjonen曾獲多項國際大賽首獎，被紐約時報 (The New York Times) 稱為「珍珠般的觸感，詩歌般的聲音。」三位用二重奏和三重奏的格式演出巴赫、舒曼，及布拉姆斯的小提琴與鋼琴奏鳴曲、間奏曲，及詼諧曲; 拉威爾的小提琴與大提琴奏鳴曲; 及布拉姆斯著名的C大調第87號鋼琴三重奏。三位大師彼此有多年雙重奏的合作，但三人一齊的三重奏，當晚還是首次嘗試。大師間的默契和諧，心靈的交流，用音樂的對話真誠地表達出來，不但呈現出他們彼此間的深厚友情，也感動了在場的每一個人。300多位觀眾在最後一個音符結束後全場歡呼雷動。全體起立報以熱烈的掌聲，歷久不斷。

當晚到場的音樂界重量級人物眾多。他們是三位演奏家的老友、師長、同事、學生、朋友，再加上很多仰慕者, 都由不同的地方，百忙中趕來聆聽祝賀。聚集在表演者休息室 (Green Room) 外的音樂界的 弦樂演奏家、鋼琴家、指揮家等, 老、中、青三代樂壇精英，聚集在一起, 盛況空前。 他們每位都帶有自己的光環，都值得個別專文介紹。

波士頓音樂情報 (The Boston Musical Intelligencer) 發行人資深樂評Lee Eiseman親自出席並撰文。他特別稱讚演出頻繁的小提琴家林昭亮及富有室內樂經驗的大提琴家Clive Greensmith。他們選的這首拉威爾二重奏，技巧極其困難，學術性極高。樂評稱讚他們應對這個挑戰：「個人的琴藝超出水平，重奏也合協無間，到達很高的境界。」樂評對小提琴及鋼琴的二重奏，則覺得鋼琴過於亮麗，掩蓋了小提琴的聲音。樂評認為三位頂尖的演奏家，雖然有二人分別地合奏的經驗，但三人一齊的三重奏，的確有感人之處，但仍有提升的空間。

當晚音樂會的錄音將會放在YouTube上，免費供大家欣賞。

接下來的節目是:

傅聰國際協奏曲比賽 (本比賽未來可能包括其他樂器，但名稱保持不變), 限年35歲以下，不分國籍。2022年協奏曲指定曲目為貝多芬第五號皇帝鋼琴協奏曲。6月10日報名截止。

免費夏日系列音樂會(Summer FREE Concerts @ NEC)，8月10日至27日在紐英崙音樂學院舉行。三週15場音樂會演出者都已排定，詳情已經在官網公佈。