Chamber Music Festival 2025

Details:

Public Programming Schedule – Tickets available to the public starting Saturday, May 17th. 

• Beautiful music and iconic views intertwine at the Festival’s first-ever matinee with a special appearance from CMSPB’s Rising Artists in a repertoire that includes Felix Mendelssohn, John Corigliano, and Robert Schumann. Hosted in Boscobel’s West Meadow Pavilion, bring a picnic before or after the performance and enjoy a late summer afternoon overlooking the Hudson River. 

• Director and Head of Sales for the world’s foremost fine violin dealer, Tarisio Fine Instruments and Bows, shares a presentation, “Bows, Borders, and Power: The Global Forces Behind Fine Instruments.”

• An electrifying evening spotlighting Beethoven and Dvořák, performed by an all-star ensemble led by Artistic Director Arnaud Sussmann alongside Karen Gomyo, Teng Li, Beth Guterman Chu, and Nicholas Canellakis.

• Designed for children and families, this engaging, globe-trotting concert introduces music from France, Argentina, Russia, Spain, Austria, and more, with room to move and flexible seating for all ages.

Participating Artists

Arnaud Sussmann, Artistic Director & Violin

Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura, and profound musicianship. Minnesota’s Pioneer Press writes, “Sussmann has an old-school sound reminiscent of vintage recordings by Jascha Heifetz or Fritz Kreisler, a rare combination of sweet and smooth that can hypnotize a listener.” 

Mr. Sussmann has recently appeared as a soloist with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, and the Vancouver, and New World Symphonies. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Tel Aviv Museum, London’s Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, and the White Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg. He has also given concerts at the Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, and Seattle Chamber Music festivals, collaborating with many of today’s leading artists including Itzhak Perlman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Wu Han, David Finckel, and Jan Vogler. 

Sussmann is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Co-Director of Music@Menlo’s International Program, and teaches at Stony Brook University. Mr. Sussmann plays the 1731 ‘Schneeberger’ Stradivari violin on loan from a private donor.

Michael Stephen Brown, Piano

Michael Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” His artistry is shaped by his creative voice as a pianist and composer, praised for his “fearless performances” (The New York Times) and “exceptionally beautiful” compositions (The Washington Post).

Winner of the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Brown has recently performed as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the National Philharmonic, the Grand Rapids symphony, and many others. He has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Caramoor. Brown is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing frequently at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. He regularly performs recitals with his longtime duo partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and has appeared at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, and Music@Menlo.

Brown was First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, a winner of the Bowers Residency from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (formerly CMS Two), a recipient of the Juilliard Petschek Award, and is a Steinway Artist. He earned dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. 

A native New Yorker, he lives there with his two 19th century Steinway D’s, Octavia and Daria.

Nicholas Canellakis, Cello

Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation. The New York Times praises his playing as “impassioned … the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis’s rich, alluring tone.” 

Canellakis’s recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Albany, Delaware, and Lansing Symphonies, and the New Haven Symphony as Artist-in-Residence; international tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with appearances in London’s Wigmore Hall, the Louvre in Paris, and Shanghai’s National Concert Hall; and recitals throughout the United States. 

Canellakis is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals, including Santa Fe, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Bard, and Bridgehampton. He was recently named Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona, in Arizona.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory, his teachers have included Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, Paul Katz, and Madeleine Golz. 

Jose Franch-Ballester, Clarinet

Clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester is a captivating performer of “poetic eloquence” (The New York Sun) and “technical wizardry” (The New York Times). He plays regularly at the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, the Skaneateles Festival, Camerata Pacifica, and Music from Angel Fire. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Orchestra, and numerous Spanish orchestras. 

Winner of the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he was presented in debut recitals in New York and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center. In 2008, he won a coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. He was awarded the Cannes’ Midem Prize, which aims to introduce artists to the classical recording industry. With the Chamber Music Society, he has recorded Bartók’s Contrasts on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Born in Moncofa, Spain into a family of clarinetists and Zarzuela singers, Mr. Franch-Ballester graduated from the Joaquin Rodrigo Music Conservatory. He earned a bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Donald Montanaro and Pamela Frank.

Amy Schwartz-Moretti, Violin

With a distinguished career of broad versatility, violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti is equally accomplished as chamber musician, concertmaster, soloist, and educator. Recognized as a deeply expressive artist, she appears as soloist and chamber music artist at music festivals and concert series internationally. She is a member of the Ehnes Quartet, touring and recording with violinist James Ehnes, violist Che-Yen Chen, and cellist Edward Arron. In 2007, she became the inaugural Director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Georgia, leading their new string program for gifted young artists within the School of Music supported by full-tuition scholarships.  Since then, together with founder Robert McDuffie, she has developed and guided this unique program.  She has established and expanded the Fabian Concert Series bringing esteemed artists to campus for performances and classes.

As professor and Director of the McDuffie Center at Mercer University, she is honored to hold the Caroline Paul King Chair in Strings and teach the violinists of the Center. Before joining Mercer University, Amy was concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony in Portland. Her professional career began as concertmaster of The Florida Orchestra in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. She has served as guest concertmaster for the Atlanta, Houston, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, The New York Pops and Hawaii Pops, and the festival orchestras of Brevard, Colorado, Grant Park and Grand Teton.

She has received multiple Juno awards for her recordings with James Ehnes and has also recorded for Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Onyx Classics, CBC Records, BCMF/Naxos and Sono Luminus. Recent projects include the 2024 recording of a concerto written for her by composer Christopher Schmitz, and the filming of the documentary, “Chaos Becomes Order,” illuminating the process of the concerto’s collaboration with the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Stefan Sanderling.

The Cleveland Institute of Music has recognized her with an Alumni Achievement Award and she is the 2014 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Fanfare Honoree. In 2018, Moretti was selected as one of Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals of the Year, and in 2022, she received the Macon Arts Alliance Cultural Award, given to individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the cultural life of Central Georgia. Amy lives in Georgia with her husband and two sons. She performs on her treasured Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin made in Paris in 1874.

Benjamin Beilman, Violin

Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which the Washington Post called “mightily impressive,” and The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence.” The Times has also praised his “handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence,” and the Strad described his playing as “pure poetry.”

Beilman’s 2023-24 season includes his debut with the St. Louis Symphony under Cristian Macelaru, and returns to the Minnesota Orchestra with Elim Chan, the Oregon Symphony with David Danzmayr, and the Pacific Symphony, whom he will play-direct in a program of Vivaldi. The same season will also see six weeks of performances in Europe, including concerts with the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart alongside Elim Chan, a return to the Kölner Philharmonie with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, and appearances at the Grafenegg Festival, Festpielhaus St. Pölten, and the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchester and Tabita Berglund. Beilman will also return to play-direct the London Chamber Orchestra, and will reunite with Ryan Bancroft in making his debut with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and with Roderick Cox in returning to Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie. He will also continue his performances of the Britten Concerto with the Estonian National Symphony.

In recent seasons Beilman’s commitment to and passion for contemporary music, has led to new works written for him by Frederic Rzewski (commissioned by Music Accord), and Gabriella Smith (commissioned by the Schubert Club in St. Paul, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music). He has also given multiple performances of Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with Hannu Lintu and the Tonkünstler Orchester, as well as premiered Chris Rogerson’s Violin Concerto (“The Little Prince”) with the Kansas City Symphony and Gemma New.

In past seasons, Beilman has performed with many major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Sydney Symphony, and Houston Symphony. He has also toured Australia in recital under Musica Aviva, including stops in in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, and Sydney.

Conductors with whom he works include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Cristian Măcelaru, Lahav Shani, Krzysztof Urbański, Ryan Bancroft, Matthias Pintscher, Gemma New, Karina Canellakis, Jonathon Heyward, Juraj Valčuha, Han-Na Chang, Elim Chan, Roderick Cox, Rafael Payare, Osmo Vänskä, and Giancarlo Guerrero.

In recital and chamber music, Beilman performs regularly at the major halls across the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Kölner Philharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Louvre (Paris), Bunka Kaikan (Tokyo) and at festivals he has performed at Verbier, Aix-en-Provence Easter, Prague Dvorak, Robeco Summer Concerts (Amsterdam), Music@Menlo, Marlboro and Seattle Chamber Music, amongst others. He also continues to perform with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Beilman studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank, and with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy, and has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a London Music Masters Award. He has also recorded works by Stravinsky, Janáček and Schubert for Warner Classics. He perfoms with the ex-Balaković F. X. Tourte bow (c. 1820), and plays the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù from 1740, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

Karen Gomyo, Violin

Karen Gomyo possesses a rare ability to captivate and connect intimately with audiences through her deeply emotional and heartfelt performances. With a flawless command of the instrument and an elegance of expression, she is one of today’s leading violinists.

Highlights of recent seasons have included Karen’s subscription debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Orquesta Nacional de España,  the Czech Philharmonic and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.  Karen also returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris under Mikko Franck and the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln with Cristian Macelaru.

Karen’s 23/24 season engagements include her debuts with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Semyon Bychkov, the Chicago Symphony with John Storgårds, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland with Lio Kuokman, and KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul with Pietari Inkinen. She also appears with Mozarteumorchester Salzburg with Constantinos Carydis, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with John Storgårds, Gulbenkian Orchestra with Giancarlo Guerrero, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao with composer-and-conductor Samy Moussa, and the Vancouver Symphony with Gerard Schwarz. In February 2024 Karen will return to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of Year 2020, a Concerto for Trumpet, Violin and Orchestra by Xi Wang, with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and conductor Fabio Luisi.  Together with conductor Jakub Hrůša, with whom she collaborates regularly, Karen will return to Japan to perform with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. Further afield, Karen continues to be sought after in Australasia and will be touring the region in August and September 2024, returning to the Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmanian and West Australian symphony orchestras.

As a passionate chamber musician, Karen has had the pleasure of performing with artists such as Olli Mustonen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Enrico Pace, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Julian Steckel, the late Heinrich Schiff, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and guitarist Ismo Eskelinen with whom she has recorded the duo album “Carnival” on Bis Records.

Renowned for her commitment to commissioning new repertoire, Karen has given the US premieres of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto ‘Adrano’ with the Pittsburgh Symphony – and Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No. 2 ‘Mar’eh’ with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington under the baton of the composer. In May 2018 she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ new Chamber Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, a work written specifically for Karen and commissioned by the CSO’s ‘Music Now’ series for their 20th anniversary.

Born in Tokyo, Karen began her musical career in Montréal and New York, She studied under the legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School before continuing her studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and New England Conservatory. Karen also participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius called The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD.

Estelle Choi, Cello

Beth Guterman, Viola

Beth Guterman Chu is one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. Before joining the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2013 as Principal Viola, she was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and enjoyed a varied career as a chamber musician and recitalist. Chu is still an avid chamber musician, and collaborates with many artists including Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, Menahem Pressler, Jaime Laredo, James Ehnes, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, and Orion quartets. As a recording artist, she has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Tzadik, Naxos, and the CMS Studio Recordings.

During the summer Chu performs and works with young musicians at the Aspen Music Festival and School, National Youth Orchestra-USA, and at the Marlboro Music Festival. In recent years, she has also performed at festivals in Seattle; Lake Champlain, Vermont; Portland, Maine; as well as Luzerne, Bridgehampton, and Skaneateles, New York. Chu has also performed as soloist with many distinguished conductors including Hannu Lintu, Bramwell Tovey, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, and James DePreist.

Chu received her Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory studying with Kim Kashkashian, and her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Masao Kawasaki and Misha Amory. She lives in St. Louis with her husband Jonathan, another violist, and their three children.

Teng Li, Viola

Violist Teng Li is an internationally celebrated soloist, chamber musician and recording artist, hailed for her “burnished sound and elegant command of phrasing” (New York Times) and “a musical personality that mesmerizes the ear” (BBC Music). In September 2023, Li was appointed to the Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti, a post she assumes at the beginning of the 2024/25 season. Previously, she was principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2018 to 2024 and served for 14 seasons as principal viola of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Recognized as a “dazzlingly virtuosic” soloist (Los Angeles Times), she has appeared with premier ensembles throughout the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra and Esprit Orchestra. Most recently, she was featured in acclaimed performances of Paganini’s Sonata per la Grand Viola with Lina González-Granados and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as in Kancheli’s Styx with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic led by Alexander Mickelthwate.

Li is an ardent chamber musician with notable past engagements at the Marlboro, Santa Fe Chamber, Rome Chamber and Moritzburg music festivals; Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, ChamberFest Cleveland and the prestigious Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two program. She has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the 92nd Street “Y” Chamber Music Society in New York, and collaborated closely with the Guarneri Quartet, joining the ensemble in concerts during the quartet’s final season in 2008/09. She is a founding member of the Rosamunde Quartet, together with violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley and Shanshan Yao and cellist Nathan Vickery, with whom she has given performances and masterclasses throughout the United States and Canada.

Li’s probing interpretations of chamber works can be heard on several critically acclaimed recordings, among them 1939, her solo album for Azica Records with violinist Benjamin Bowman and pianist Meng-Chieh Liu. Her discography also includes recording credits with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony, most notably on the latter’s Juno Award-winning Vaughan Williams album for Chandos, which features Li in a “ravishing” (CBC Music) performance of Flos Campi.

Li has won top prizes at the Johansen International Competition, the Holland-America Music Society Competition, the Primrose International Viola Competition, the Klein International String Competition, and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany. She was also a winner of the Astral Artistic Services’ 2003 National Auditions.

A committed educator, Li has taught at the Colburn School, University of Toronto, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Montreal’s Conservatoire de Musique, and joins the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performance Arts in the 2024/25 academic year. In addition, she teaches at the Sarasota Music Festival and Morningside Music Bridge. Li is a graduate of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Michael Tree, Joseph de Pasquale, and Karen Tuttle.

 Orion Weiss, Piano

One of the most sought-afters oloists and chamber music collaborators today,Orion Weiss is a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight”(The Washington Post). He has dazzled audiences worldwide with his “head-spinning range of colors”(Chicago Tribune)and has performed with all of the major orchestras of North America, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic.In February of 2025, Weiss released Arc III, the final album in his recital trilogy, on First Hand Records.Weiss’s 24-25 performance schedule includes engagements with violinist James Ehnes, who joins Weiss for his return to London’s Wigmore Hall as well as for performances in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong,Seattle,Bloomington, Indiana, and Bergen, Norway. Among numerous engagements with U.S. orchestras, Weiss makes his David Geffen Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra. He is featured in recitals at theSanta Fe Chamber Music Festival, Italy’s Teatro Marrucino Biglietteria, and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as on a tour with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and an appearance at LaMusica ChamberMusic Festival in Sarasota, Florida. Over the last year, he made his return to theChicago SymphonyOrchestra, led by Michael Tilson Thomas, debuted with the National Symphony; gave multiple performances in the United States, Canada and Asia with violinist Augustin Hadelich; and appeared at the Kennedy Center,Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs at venues and festivals around the United States with such artists as violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen, and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets.A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1999. That same year, with less than 24 hours notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with theBaltimore Symphony Orchestra. Weiss’s awards include the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist ofthe Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and more. His teachers include Paul Schenly, Jerome Lowenthal, and Sergei Babayan. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax. Learn morewww.orionweiss.com.

Tickets & Festival Support

• $45 – $85 for adults
• $25 – $45 for musicians and children (<18)
• Patrons + VIP Sponsorship packages start at $2,500; contact Boscobel’s development team at development@boscobel.org

Getting to the Boscobel Chamber Music Festival.
Tickets are non-refundable. Please see our ticketing policy for more info.
Performers and repertoire subject to change.