Musicians

American Century Music works with a wide range of musicians and ensembles. During the 2011/12 season, ACM’s collaborations include the following:

Lydian String Quartet

Since its formation, in 1980, the Lydian String Quartet’s exquisite artistry has inspired critical acclaim worldwide. Their interpretive mastery of traditional works and special flair for contemporary repertoire has also won prizes at international festivals and earned the prestigious Naumburg Award for Chamber Music.

The LSQ’s compelling performances of the quartet literature — performances that are superbly integrated, marvelously assured, and unfailingly elegant — are the result of the ensemble’s thorough exploration and deep understanding of each composer’s expressive language and craft.

Through concerts, recordings, workshops, lectures, and master classes, the Lydians bring to life music which spans two-and-a-half centuries. Their programming of old and new, formal and informal, helps to build new audiences for the spiritually refreshing world of chamber music.

The members of the Lydian String Quartet (Daniel Stepner, violin; Judy Eissenberg, violin’ Mary Ruth Ray, viola; Joshua Gordon, cello) are on the faculty of Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts.

The LSQ’s website is lydianquartet.com.

Claremont Trio

Widely regarded as the premier piano trio of its generation, the Claremont Trio is sought after for its thrillingly virtuosic and richly communicative performances. First winners of the Kalichstein- Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award and the only piano trio ever to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Claremonts are consistently lauded for their “aesthetic maturity, interpretive depth, and exuberance” (Palm Beach Daily News).

During the 2011-12 season the Claremont Trio opens the brand new hall at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with a series of three concerts. Equally passionate about the standard repertoire and the music of our time, the Claremonts pair three world premiere commissions by Sean Shepherd, Helen Grime and Gabriela Lena Frank with a survey of trios by Mozart and Mendelssohn to celebrate this exciting new venue. Their busy touring schedule also includes concerts for Friends of Chamber Music-Denver, the Sanibel Music Festival, New York’s Rubin Museum, Harvard Musical Association, Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, Boise Chamber Music Series, American Century Music in Boston, Concerts at the Point, and the Brooklyn Public Library. As Central Virginia Ensemble in Residence, the Claremonts also begin a visiting residency at Longwood University, Randolph College, Sweet Briar College and Hampden Sydney College.

For more information about the Claremont Trio and to read their blog, please visit www.claremonttrio.com.

Gabriela Diaz, Violin

Georgia native Gabriela Diaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father. Shortly before her sixteenth birthday, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a type of lymphatic cancer. She was treated with chemotherapy and radiation at Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta and the Medical Center in Columbus.

As a cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to cancer research and treatment. She has lent her talents to a wide range of related programs and organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, The Race for the Cure, OnCare, Inc., the Columbus Medical Center, and the Egleston Children’s Hospital at Emory University in Atlanta. In 2004 Gabriela was a recipient of a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation. This grant enabled Gabriela to begin organizing a series of chamber music concerts in cancer units at various hospitals in Boston called the Boston Hope Ensemble.

Gabriela holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from New England Conservatory, where she was a student of James Buswell. Gabriela has attended the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and has performed at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Newport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, North Country Chamber Players, Monadnock Music, Apple Hill, Vail Valley Bravo Music Festival, and Cactus Pear Festival, among others. Devoted to contemporary music, Gabriela has been fortunate to work closely with many significant living composers on their own compositions, namely Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Lucier, Steve Reich, Brian Ferneyhough, John Zorn, Osvaldo Golijov, Lee Hyla, and Helmut Lachenmann.

She is actively involved in contemporary music in Boston, and is a member of the Callithumpian Consort, Firebird, Ludovico, and Dinosaur Annex, and Sound Icon Ensembles.

Rafael Popper-Keizer, Cello

Hailed by The New York Times as “imaginative and eloquent” and dubbed “a local hero” by The Boston Globe, cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer maintains a vibrant and diverse career as one of Boston’s most sought-after artists. He is principal cellist of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a member artist of Emmanuel Music, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Winsor Music, the Ibis Camerata, and Monadnock Music. Praised by The Boston Globe for his “melodic phrasing of melting tenderness” and “dazzling dispatch of every bravura challenge,” Mr. Popper-Keizer has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States, including recitals in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. In recent seasons he has performed the Saint-Saëns Concerto in A minor, with the Boston Philharmonic; the Beethoven Triple Concerto, with the Indian Hill Symphony; and the Dvorak Concerto, with the University of Santa Cruz Orchestra.

In April of 2009, Mr. Popper-Keizer was the subject of an in-depth profile in The Boston Globe in which he was recognized as one of the area’s busiest and most versatile musicians, his career routinely encompassing everything from continuo in 17th-century motets to solo recitals to avant-garde improvisation to indie rock. Mr. Popper-Keizer has made guest appearances with innumerable ensembles throughout New England, including the Fromm Chamber Players, Boston Musica Viva, the Boston Trio, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Walden Chamber Players, Firebird Ensemble, and John Harbison’s Token Creek Festival, among others.

Rafael Popper-Keizer is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory, where he studied intensively with master pedagogue and Piatigorsky protégé Laurence Lesser, and of the Tanglewood Music Center, where he served as Yo-Yo Ma’s understudy for Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. He also studied with Stephen Harrison, at Stanford University, and Karen Andrie, at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Yoko Hagino, Piano

Yoko Hagino was born and raised in Japan, where she began her piano studies at the age of four. As a child she performed her own compositions, which took her to Europe and the United States, including performances as a concert soloist with the Czech

Symphony, University of Southern California Symphony, Kyoto City Symphony, and Ensemble Orchestra Kanazawa. Ms. Hagino has appeared as soloist with Osaka Century Orchestra, U-Mass Boston Chamber Orchestra, Key West Symphony Orchestra, White Rabbit Symphonietta.

Ms. Hagino won the second prize in the Steinway Society Piano Competition, the First International Chamber Music Competition, and the All-Japan Selective Competition of the International Mozart Competition. She also won a prize in the Ninth Chamber Music Competition of Japan in 1999.

Ms. Hagino received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with honors from Tokyo National University, where she won its concerto competition. She earned an Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music, where she studied with Victor Rosenbaum and also won the school’s concerto competition. Ms. Hagino completed a Performance Diploma at Boston Conservatory, where she was a student of Michael Lewin and also received the Churchill Scholarship. Her performances include the Royal Academy Recital Series at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Bösendorfer Piano Recital Series in Tokyo, Japan, Webster Concerto Series in Hanover, NH, Harvard Musical Association, and Boston Steiner Hall, among many others. She also appeared live on Suisse Romande Radio in Switzerland.

As a devoted chamber musician, she is the Co–Director of “Die Musiker Witz” and has given many concerts in Japan. She has performed with contemporary ensembles, such as White Rabbit, Area III, Ludovico Ensemble, and Sound Icon. She has been a staff pianist at the Boston Conservatory, and faculty at The Key West Young Artist Program, Morgan State University Summer Opera and Workshop in Baltimore.

Florestan Recital Project

Founded in 2001, Florestan Recital Project promotes song repertoire in concerts, innovative collaborations, and educational residencies. Florestan has delighted audiences with a wide range of both established and unfamiliar repertoire, including yearly world premieres and new approaches to song masterworks. In 2011, Florestan partnered with Maine State Ballet in an original presentation of Schumann’s Dichterliebe, and gave the European premiere of Libby Larsen’s The Strange Case of Dr. H. H. Holmes (a 2010 Florestan commission). Now in its tenth season, Florestan Recital Project has emerged as a premier presenter of song collaborations in North America.

Artem Belogurov, Piano

Known equally for his “verve, wit, and delicatesse” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and his “infinite tenderness” (Evening Odessa), Artem Belogurov has an extensive repertoire, ranging through three centuries of solo and chamber works. He has a particular affinity for the Viennese classical style, in which he is distinguished by his use of improvisatory ornamentation. His interest in period pianos of all kinds extends through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is also a discerning advocate of contemporary music, and collaborates (both as a performer and as an editor) with a number of composers. In 2009 he had the honor of performing the Boston premiere of Elliott Carter’s Caténaires for solo piano.

Artem received his early training at the Stolyarsky School of Music in Odessa, Ukraine, majoring in music theory, piano performance, and composition. In 2009, he received his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where his primary teachers were Gabriel Chodos, Patricia Zander, and Victor Rosenbaum. He has also studied with Peter Serkin.

Virginia Eskin, Piano

Virginia Eskin, a California native and long-time Boston resident, is an extremely versatile solo pianist, chamber player and lecturer, known for both standard classical repertoire and ragtime, and a long-time champion of the works of American and European women composers. Ms. Eskin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Annapolis, Buffalo, Louisville, New Hampshire, Rochester, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Utah Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Classical, the Israel Sinfonietta, and the Boston Pops. She has also performed as a soloist with the New York City and Boston Ballet Companies, at Morgan Library in New York and Jordan Hall in Boston, and in concert halls and museums throughout the United States and Europe.

Ms. Eskin created and hosted “First Ladies of Music,” a 13-program radio series sponsored by Northeastern University and produced by WFMT, Chicago, carried by over 100 radio stations in the United States and abroad. She holds the appointment of Visiting Artist, Northeastern University Department of Music, and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Keene State College (NH) to recognize her contributions to women’s music.

Thomas J. Wible, Flute

Thomas J. Wible has been recognized for his accomplishments across the world.  As a soloist he has performed throughout the United States and Eastern Europe, including appearancesat the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany; Dvorak Hall in Prague, Czech Republic; Franz Liszt Hall in Budapest, Hungary; and Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, PA.  As a First Prize Winner of the 2011 Alexander & Buono International Flute competition, Thomas gave his Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall debut in October of 2011.  Other recent awards and honors include Grand Prize Pittsburgh Concert Society Artist Competition, 2nd Prize National Flute Association Piccolo Artist Competition, 3rd Prize New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition, and Semi-Finalist Concert Artist Guild International Competition.  In the summer of 2011 he was a guest artist at the International Festival of Music in Santa Fiora, Italy.  Mr. Wible is currently a fellow in the Artist Diploma Program at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts where he is a pupil of Ms. Geralyn Coticone.

Ayako Yoda, Piano

Ayako Yoda began playing the piano at the age of nine in her native Japan. She has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician not only in the United States, but also Japan, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany. She has collaborated on various recitals with Kenneth Olsen, assistant principal cello of the Chicago Symphony, John Ferrillo, principal oboist of Boston Symphony, and principal players from the Montreal, Toronto, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras in the New England area. As a composer, Ms. Yoda was the grand prize winner of the PTNA Composition Competition in Tokyo, Japan. She holds awards from the New England Conservatory Honors Piano Competition and numerous awards from the YAMAHA Keyboard Competition allowing her to perform respectively at Jordan Hall and Tokyo’s most prestigious Suntory Hall.

Ms. Yoda received a Bachelors of Music in Composition from the Kunitachi College of Music in Japan, a Masters of Music in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory, studying with Jacob Maxin and an Artist Diploma from the Boston University College for the Arts where she studied with Anthony di Bonaventura and Shiela Kibbe.