Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award Concert

Amy Beach | Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, op. 80

Theme: Lento di molto, sempre espressione
Variation I: L’istesso tempo
Variation II: Allegro giusto
Variation III: Andantino con morbidezza
Variation IV: Presto leggiero
Variation V: Largo di molto, con grand espressione
Variation VI: Allegro giocoso

Antonín Dvořák | Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, op. 87

Allegro con fuoco
Lento
Allegro moderato, grazioso – Un pochettino più mosso
Finale: Allegro ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

Johanne Brahms | Sextet in G Major, op. 36

Allegro non troppo
Scherzo: Allegro non troppo – Presto giocoso
Poco adagio
Poco allegro

Biographies

The Borromeo String Quartet, formed in 1989, has had a rich and multi-faceted career performing all around the world.  They have performed in many of the world's great concerts halls: the Berlin Philharmonie, the Zurich Tonhalle, Dvorak Hall in Prague, Wigmore Hall in London, the Opera Bastille in Paris, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai and the Seoul Arts Center in Korea.  They have worked extensively with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress, and have over many years presented quartet cycles such as the complete quartets of Beethoven and Shostakovich at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  They studied for their Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music and upon graduation in 1992 they were asked to become the faculty String-Quartet-in-Residence at the Conservatory.  They have fulfilled this role with great enthusiasm for nearly 30 years now.  The Borromeo Quartet has also had a long-term involvement with the Taos School of Music and they now serve as faculty String-Quartet-in-Residence at the Heifetz International Music Institute where first violinist Nicholas Kitchen is the Artistic Director.  For many years the Borromeo Quartet performed at the Spoleto Festivals in both Charleston and Italy and they have also performed at Tanglewood and Ravinia and at each of these places they also gave special presentations about their unique research into the manuscripts of Beethoven.
        The Borromeo Quartet has received numerous awards.  They won top prizes in the Evian International String Quartet Competition, won the Young Concert Artists Auditions, and received the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Avery Fischer Career Grant and Lincoln Center's Martin E. Siegel Award.  They were Ensemble in Residence for NPR's Performance Today and have worked extensively with WGBH in Boston.
        The Borromeo Quartet is known as the first professional ensemble to use computers to read music in concerts, and they started doing this in 2007 in order to always work from the full score.  This use of computers also made it natural for them to bring sources such as composer's manuscripts into their rehearsal process, and this has proved very inspiring to the group in their work with many great composers - Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schoenberg and Bartók, to mention just a few.
        The Borromeo Quartet invented and offered for many years a program called Living Archive where audience members could order CDs and DVDs of the live concert they just heard.  Recently this initiative has transformed into CD offerings as well as Web presentations some of which delve into some of the more fascinating aspects of their work with the manuscripts of Beethoven. 
        Through the transcriptions of first violinist Nicholas Kitchen, the Borromeo Quartet has brought a great deal of the music of J.S. Bach into the repertoire of their quartet.  They have performed and recorded both books of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1 as a CD, Book 2 as a web presentation) and they perform the Goldberg Variations and numerous organ works.  They have also worked with a great array of contemporary composers, including Gunther Schuller, John Cage, György Ligeti and Steve Reich.

Yechan Min was born in Seoul, Republic of Korea. He spent his childhood learning to play the flute in his school and youth orchestra. When he was twelve years old, music claimed his heart and he knew he wanted to be a flutist.
        At the age of seventeen, he played for Paula Robison who insisted that he move to Boston, Massachusetts to study with her at the New England Conservatory of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from NEC as a student of “American Treasure” Paula Robison, and he has received New England Conservatory’s Donna Heiken Presidential Flute Scholarship during his studies for his Master of Music degree. These years of life in Boston made huge changes in both his playing and personality.
        He began to win competitions in 2015, including Rochester Flute Association Flute Competition (2020), Singapore Flute Competition (2018). Hong Kong International Music Competition (2018), Sungjung Music Competition (2016), Seoul National University Wind Competition (2016), and Korea Flute Association Competition (2015-6), which were followed by winners’ concerts. In addition, he was selected to perform a Kumho Prodigy Concert Solo Recital at Kumho Art Hall in 2017, and he was invited back to present a Kumho Young Artist Concert Solo Recital on July 25, 2020. Most recently, he performed in Jordan Hall as a member of the Zephyr Woodwind Quintet, a 2022-23 New England Conservatory Honors Ensemble.

Equally at home as a solo pianist, collaborator, and composer, Charles Berofsky seeks to engage audiences through a myriad of styles and genres of music. Born in South Bend, Indiana, Charles grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and began piano lessons when he was six years old. He also developed an interest in composition from a young age and started organ lessons at age 14.
        Charles was awarded Third Prize at the 10th New York International Piano Competition, which took place at the Manhattan School of Music in June 2022. In addition, he was a co-recipient of the Stecher & Horowitz First Prize for the one piano, four-hands ensemble round. Last year Charles performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, K. 449 with the conductorless NEC Chamber Orchestra in Jordan Hall as the winner of the 2022 Piano Chamber Orchestra Competition. Other recent awards include First Prize, along with an audience favorite prize, at the 2021 Thousand Islands International Piano Competition (senior division) in Cape Vincent, New York, and Second Prize at the 2021 Chautauqua piano competition. In January 2020 Charles became one of the youngest students to win a concerto competition at the Eastman School of Music, performing Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra in February during his sophomore year. For his compositions, he has received a commission from the American Guild of Organists and four prizes from the Eastman composition department. He also won first prize at the 2018 Chicago College of Performing Arts Young Composer Competition and first prizes at the Dearborn and Dexter Youth Artist Concerto Competitions in southeastern Michigan (2018 and 2016 respectively).
        He is an avid chamber musician, having made recent appearances with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City and the Pressenda Chamber Players in the Washington, D.C. area. He has been a member of two trios to have been selected for NEC’s Honors Ensemble program in successive years: Trio Sponte (2023-present) and the Newbury Trio (2022-2023). He also enjoys playing with members of his family as the pianist of the Berofsky Piano Quartet.
        Charles is a currently a second-year master's student at NEC, studying piano with HaeSun Paik. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music with a double major in composition and piano performance. He has studied piano with Alan Chow, Logan Skelton, and John Ellis.

Hannah Goldstick is an enthusiastic chamber, orchestral, and solo violinist committed to exploring and sharing a diverse array of music. A native of Phoenix, Arizona, she has performed in venues such as the Musical Instrument Museum, the Mesa Arts Center, and the Phoenix Art Museum as a soloist and as a part of a string quartet. In years past, Hannah has participated in music festivals across the country, including the Heifetz Institute, Bowdoin Festival, Red Rocks Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, Hannah attended the Taos School of Music. At NEC, she has performed in Jordan Hall as a part of the Borromeo String Quartet’s Beethoven Seminar and participated in NEC’s nec[shivaree], Connections, and First Monday concerts.
        Hannah has shared the stage with musicians such as Gilles Vonsattel, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Max Levinson, and others. She recently completed her bachelor’s degree with a minor in Poetry at New England Conservatory with Miriam Fried and is currently continuing at NEC in the master’s program.

John Harry Clark is a Boston based violist who currently plays on a 2009 Moes & Moes Viola. He obtained his Bachelor of Music Degree in 2023 from New England Conservatory studying under Professor Mai Motobuchi. He is currently continuing at NEC with Motobuchi in the first year of his Master of Music Degree. He has also studied with Andrew Kohji Taylor and Daniel Getz.

Canadian cellist Andrew Byun has appeared in venues including Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall and has been invited to perform at Music@Menlo, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Music Mountain, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts.  His performances have also been featured on the WFMT, WQXR, and NPR radio stations and he has appeared in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Ida Kavafian, and Frans Helmerson among others.  
        In 2015, Byun won the Gershwin International Music Competition and was named a Jack Kent Cooke Artist on NPR’s program, “From The Top.”  He has been a laureate at other competitions including the Sejong Philharmonic Competition, American Protégé International Competition and was a semi-finalist at the 2021 Windsor Festival International Competition and 2022 Isang Yun International Competition.
        A passionate chamber musician, Byun has shared the stage with artists such as Paul Huang, Erin Keefe, Hagai Shaham, Paul Neubauer, and members of the Hagen Quartet and has appeared at festivals worldwide including Verbier Festival Academy, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Taos School of Music, and I-M-S Prussia Cove.  He was also a part of The Juilliard School’s Honors Chamber Music Program as the cellist of Quatuor Caél.  
        A native of South Korea, Byun graduated from Milton Academy, Northwestern University (BM/BA)–studying Philosophy/Cello Performance–and The Juilliard School (MM).  He is currently studying at the New England Conservatory (GD) with Laurence Lesser and has studied with Natasha Brofsky, Hans Jorgen Jensen, and Myung-wha Chung.