2023 Ascent Summer Concert Series
Tickets on sale now, visit Event Brite to secure your Festival Pass or tickets for any individual concert.
Tickets on sale now, visit Event Brite to secure your Festival Pass or tickets for any individual concert.
Tuesday June 20th, 7:30pm
Cleveland Orchestra cellist Brian Thornton presents two new works from his album Sirventes, an album featuring works by Iranian female composers. Works by Nina Barzegar and Mina Arissian will receive their Cincinnati premieres to open the concert. Chopin wrote his epic cello sonata for his friend Auguste Franchomme, the virtuosic cellist. Mr. Thornton is joined by Dr. Frank Huang for this performance at Ascent. The program closes with a work by Mr. Thornton’s teacher, Lev Aronson, a Holocaust survivor who was a renowned pedagogue and former principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony.
Friday June 23rd, 7:30pm
The Galvin Cello Quartet explores the limitless range of a cello ensemble by bringing together new works from diverse cultural backgrounds while seeking to establish the cello quartet as a core part of the classical music world.
The prize winning Galvin Cello Quartet make their Cincinnati debut at the Ascent Summer Concert Series. This dynamic quartet made up of virtuoso cellists from China, Brazil, South Korea, and the United States will surely thrill Cincinnati audiences. Prepare to be amazed!
Sunday June 25th, 7:30pm
The eminent violinist Cho-Liang Lin returns to Cincinnati for this performance with faculty of the Ascent International Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Lin’s concert career was launched in 1980 with Lin’s debut playing the Mendelssohn Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta . He has since performed as soloist with virtually every major orchestra in the world.
Friday June 30th, 7:30pm
Germaine Tailleferre was a French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six. Fellow Les Six member Darius Milhaud remarked with affectionate awe, the constantly energetic Tailleferre “was always 20 years old.” This is epitomized in her piano trio which was originally written in 1916/17 when she was only 24 and revised 60 years later! The program opens with a duo by the Czech composer Martinu, written while he was living in Paris. Franck’s sonata for violin and piano is a staple of the violin repertoire. The evening in Paris rounds out with a composer who was first presented to the Court of Versailles at age 7, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in a performance of his G Minor Piano Quartet.
Sunday July 2nd, 7:30pm
Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel return to Ascent to open this program with the Viola AND Violin Sonatas of Rebecca Clarke. Judith Ingolfsson has been working for over a decade to bring the little known Violin Sonata of Rebecca Clarke to the concert stage and Cincinnati will be among the first places the duo performs it before making a recording later this year! The second half features Brahms epic and soulful Sextet No. 2 to round out this not to be missed concert.
Thursday July 6th, 7:30pm
After the premiere of one of his works in Paris, the Spanish composer Joaquin Turina went to a cafe with fellow composers de Falla and Albeniz. “We were three Spaniards,” Turina subsequently recalled, “gathered together in that corner of Paris, and it was our duty to fight for the national music of our country.” Turina’s piano quartet epitomizes Spanish music of this time. The audience will also be treated to Spanish influenced virtuosity in Boccherini’s Fandango Quintet for Guitar and Strings and Sarasate’s Navarra. The Navarra will feature Ascent faculty, Ilya Kaler, the only violinist to win Gold Medal in Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1986), the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki (1985), and the Paganini Competition in Genoa (1981) and Catalyst Quartet’s own Karla Donohew Perez.
Friday July 7th, 7:30pm
“WE BELIEVE IN THE UNITY THAT CAN BE ACHIEVED THROUGH MUSIC AND IMAGINE OUR PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS WITH THIS IN MIND, REDEFINING AND REIMAGINING THE CLASSICAL MUSIC EXPERIENCE.”
-WE ARE THE CATALYST-
The Grammy winning Catalyst Quartet make their Ascent debut with a unique program featuring a quartet by William Grant Still, a quintet but Samuel Coleridge-Taylor featuring Masumi Per Rostad and the Ohio premiere of CQ Minute, a unique project featuring 11 new works, 1-2 minutes in length. This is an event not to be missed!
Wednesday July 12th, 7:30pm
The Ascent Summer Concert Series comes to a close with an evening of rollicking Gypsy music. The program opens with the virtuosic Concert Piece by George Enescu for viola and piano and closes with Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor with it’s thrilling Rondo alla Zingarese finale. Also on the program are the Two Pieces by Lili Boulanger, a piano trio that will surprise and delight.
Special thanks to our sponsors for these concerts:
Board of Ascent Music
John & Jennie Kim
Medtronic
Attend all 8 concerts of the 2023 Ascent Concert Series AND receive admission to public Master Classes and Rising Artists Performances!
Master Classes and Rising Artists Performance dates to be announced soon!
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