Alexi Kenney, violin Amy Yang, fortepiano

About This Performance Named “a talent to watch” by the New York Times, Alexi Kenney possesses an “architect’s eye for structure and space and a tone that ranges from the achingly fragile to full-bodied robustness.” In his PCMS return, this extraordinary violinist teams up with Merz Trio pianist and 2018 Musical Fund Society Award winner Amy Yang for a period-style approach to a program of late works by Robert and Clara Schumann. “Robert Schumann is one of my favorite composers, and I feel that the emotional urgency of his music makes so much sense on period instruments” (Alexi Kenney). R. Schumann: Violin Sonata in A Minor, WoO 27 R. Schumann: Violin Sonata in A Minor, Op. 105 C. Schumann: Three Romances, Op. 22 R. Schumann: Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op. 121 The Artist(s) Alexi Kenney, violin Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras in the USA and abroad, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. Alexi is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.… Read More × Artist’s website Alexi Kenney, violin Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras in the USA and abroad, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. Alexi is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Following the 2021/22 season, which included solo appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Alexi devoted the first part of 2023 to the debut of his new project Shifting Ground, bringing it to the Celebrity Series of Boston, Cal Performances, Princeton University Concerts, and the Phillips Collection. Shifting Ground intersperses seminal works for solo violin by J.S. Bach with pieces of our time by Samuel Adams, Matthew Burtner, Steve Reich, Paul Wiancko, and Du Yun, as well as commissions by composers Salina Fisher and Angélica Negrón. In recent years, Alexi has performed as soloist with the Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, California Symphony, and Sarasota Orchestra, as well as in a play-conduct role as guest leader of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has played recitals at Wigmore Hall, on Carnegie Hall’s ‘Distinctive Debuts’ series, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, 92nd Street Y, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Winner of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Competition and laureate of the 2012 Menuhin Competition, Alexi has been profiled by Musical America, Strings Magazine, and The New York Times, and has written for The Strad. Chamber music continues to be a major part of Alexi’s life, regularly performing at festivals including Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Chamber Music Northwest, Kronberg, La Jolla, Ojai, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Seattle, and Spoleto, as well as on tour with Musicians from Marlboro and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is a founding member of Owls, a new quartet collective with violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist Gabe Cabezas, and cellist-composer Paul Wiancko. Born in Palo Alto, California in 1994, Alexi is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he received an Artist Diploma as a student of Miriam Fried and Donald Weilerstein. Previous teachers in the Bay Area include Wei He, Jenny Rudin, and Natasha Fong. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009 and a bow by François-Nicolas Voirin. Outside of music, Alexi enjoys hojicha, modernist design and architecture, baking for friends, and walking for miles on end in whichever city he finds himself, listening to podcasts and Bach on repeat. Amy Yang, piano A “jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show…with effortless finesse” (Washington Post), pianist Amy Yang aspires to affirm connections between the arts and our inner humanity through her committed expressions of music and leadership on and off stage. In Spring of 2023, she joined forces with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä playing Schumann’s Piano Concerto at Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center.… Read More × Artist’s website Amy Yang, piano A “jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show…with effortless finesse” (Washington Post), pianist Amy Yang aspires to affirm connections between the arts and our inner humanity through her committed expressions of music and leadership on and off stage. In Spring of 2023, she joined forces with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä playing Schumann’s Piano Concerto at Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center. Additionally, she gave the world premiere of Richard Danielpour’s “Four Portraits” for solo piano at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she is the Associate Dean of Piano Studies and Artistic Initiatives. 2023 summer brings her to Chamberfest Cleveland, Texas Music Festival, Curtis on Tour, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Kingston Chamber Music Festival, and Perelman Music Festival. Her recent appearances include solo and chamber recitals for Hawaii Concert Society, Coastal Concerts (DE), Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Santa Fe Music Festival, Wigmore Hall, Gardner Museum, Cal Performances, Rockport Music Festival, and to the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis Series. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, she was invited by Anne-Marie McDermott to share a unique summer of 41 concerts with Yefim Bronfman, Paul Neubauer, and the Dover Quartet in a myriad of performances at Bravo! Vail. Additionally, she gave her debut solo recital as well as joined forces with the Jasper String Quartet in piano quintets by Tania Léon and Joan Tower for Philadelphia Chamber Music Society’s 35th season. She was also featured in a full episode with Emmy® Award-winning producer Jim Cotter of Articulate, aired on PBS in 2021. Collaborating with trailblazing musicians, Ms. Yang toured with Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Tito Muñoz and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and premiered a large chamber work by Michael Hersch at Cal Performances, Ojai Music Festival and Aldeburgh Festival. Further exhilarating collaborations include those with Richard Goode, Anne-Marie McDermott, Ida and Ani Kavafian, Miriam Fried, Paul Huang, Alexi Kenney, Bomsori Kim, Tessa Lark, Roberto Díaz, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Neubauer, Tara Helen O’Conor, David Shifrin, Joseph Silverstein, Philippe Tondre, Danbi Um, members of Guarneri String Quartet, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Dover Quartet, Aizuri String Quartet, Jasper String Quartet and A Far Cry. In addition to working with Dame Mitsuko Uchida at Marlboro School of Music, she was chosen to participate in her Carnegie Hall Workshop on Mozart’s Piano Concerti. Ms. Yang’s energetic exploration of contemporary voices has brought forth giving world premieres of music by Caroline Shaw, Richard Danielpour, Avner Dorman, Michael Hersch, Ezra Laderman, Paul Wianko, and commissions from Edward Babcock, Alistair Coleman and Hua Yang. Festival experiences include Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Prussia Cove, Verbier Academy, Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, Chelsea Music Festival, Caramoor, Olympic Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, Twickenham Fest, and Saltbay Chamberfest. She has loved soloing alongside the collective voices of Houston Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Mansfield Symphony and Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata at UNAM. Her discography includes her solo album Resonance (MSR Classics), a world premiere recording of