Featuring violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Michael Nicolas alongside pianist Jonathan Yates performing:
Adagio in B Minor, K. 540 (1788) (W.A. Mozart)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80 (1938-1946) (Sergei Prokofiev)
Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, D. 898 (1828) (Franz Schubert)
23Arts Windham Tickets:
Regular Tickets: $25
Senior: $22
Under 18: FREE
7 Concert Series Pass: $150
(Premium Reserved Seating available at additional cost)
About Jonathan Yates: Jonathan Yates is the Artistic Director of 23Arts Windham’s 2017 season. He has collaborated as a pianist and conductor with many of the country’s most respected musicians, including Midori, Kim Kashkashian, David Finckel, Charles Neidich, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, Gilbert Kalish, Paul Neubauer, Joseph Lin, and William Purvis; and the Avalon, Daedalus, Pacifica and Shanghai Quartets. He also serves as Music Director of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra and Norwalk Youth Orchestra. He descends from a family that has been on the forefront of the battles for the cultural and humanistic life of our country. His grandfather, U. S. Representative Sidney R. Yates, was the principal defender of the National Endowment for the Arts in his 48 years in Congress, and his father, the Honorable Stephen R. Yates, was the first judge in Illinois to approve same-sex adoption.
About Colin Jacobsen: Violinist and composer Colin Jacobsen is “one of the most interesting figures on the classical music scene” (Washington Post). An eclectic composer who draws on a range of influences, he was named one of the top 100 composers under 40 by NPR listeners. He is also active as an Avery Fisher Career Grant-winning soloist and a touring member of Yo-Yo Ma’s famed Silk Road Ensemble. For his work as a founding member of two game-changing, audience-expanding ensembles – the string quartet Brooklyn Rider and orchestra The Knights – Jacobsen was recently selected from among the nation’s top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious and substantial United States Artists Fellowship.
In 2005, the violinist founded Brooklyn Rider with violinist Johnny Gandelsman, violist Nicholas Cords, and his brother, cellist Eric Jacobsen. Hailed as “one of the wonders of contemporary music” (Los Angeles Times), the quartet combines true new-music chops and genre-bending innovation with an equal mastery of the classics. Together its members have presented a wealth of world premieres and toured extensively across North America, Asia and Europe, in venues ranging from clubs and rock festivals to Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. The group’s artistic partnerships span the musical spectrum from Philip Glass and Osvaldo Golijov to John Zorn, and from singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega to banjo legend Béla Fleck and Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Brooklyn Rider’s recordings Passport, Dominant Curve and Seven Steps all made NPR’s best-of-the-year lists; the group’s Silent City, its collaboration with Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor, was named one of Rhapsody’s Best World Music Albums of the Decade; and with Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass, the four musicians proved themselves “stunning interpreters” (Time Out Chicago) of the composer’s music. In 2006, they founded Minnesota’s Stillwater Music Festival as a place to unveil new repertoire and collaborations, and the quartet enjoys educational residencies at Dartmouth College, UNC Chapel Hill, and the University of Texas-Austin.
About Michael Nicolas: A long-admired figure on the New York scene, cellist Michael Nicolas enjoys a diverse career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and improvisor. His eclectic tastes and willingness to try just about anything have led him to forge a musical path of uncommon breadth, from performing masterpieces of the past in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, to free-form improvisation in a downtown New York experimental venue with giants of the genre, to working with contemporary composers of all styles, pushing the boundaries of musical expression and meaning.
The ensembles Michael plays in illustrate his commitment to diversity. He is the cellist of the intrepid and genre-defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider, which has drawn praise from classical, world music, and rock critics alike. He is also a member of Ensemble Ditto, a chamber group based in South Korea that has garnered extraordinary success in reaching young and new classical music audiences, selling out concert halls all over Korea, Japan, and China. As a member of the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), he has worked with countless composers from around the world, premiering and recording dozens of new works. Another group, Third Sound, which Michael helped found, made its debut with an historic residency at the 2015 Havana Contemporary Music Festival, in Cuba.
Highlights of the upcoming season include the release of Michael’s debut solo album Transitions on the Sono Luminus label, performances across South Korea with Ensemble Ditto and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, U.S. and European tours with Brooklyn Rider, and a 6-night residency at New York’s experimental music venue The Stone in December 2016.
Of mixed French-Canadian and Taiwanese heritage, Michael was born in Canada, and currently resides in New York City. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School.