String Theory At The Hunter To Present Weekend Of Events

String Theory, in partnership with Lee University and the Hunter Museum of American Art, will welcome guest artists Tara O’Connor, flutist, Peter Kolkay, bassoonist, and James Austin Smith, oboist, to the Chattanooga area for a weekend of events beginning with a concert at the Hunter on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 6:30 p.m.

String Theory was founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Gloria Chien and brings acclaimed chamber musicians from around the world to perform in the intimate setting of the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga. 

Thursday night’s performance will feature works by Haydn, Beethoven, Villa-Lobos, Jolivet, Ginestera, Poulenc, and Britten. This concert is the Chattanooga debut for Ms. O’Connor, Mr. Kolkay, and Mr. Smith, who will be accompanied by pianist Gloria Chien. 

Prior to the evening’s performance, Art Connections will take place at 5:30 p.m. Art Connections gives String Theory attendees the opportunity to visit the Hunter galleries and hear former Hunter Chief Curator Ellen Simak and Maestro Robert Bernhardt discuss works from the Hunter collection that relate to the music featured in the concert. 

On Friday, Jan. 23, String Theory will come to the Lee University Chapel in Cleveland with Ms. O’Connor, Mr. Smith, and Dr. Chien performing at 7:30 p.m. The group will return to the Hunter on Saturday, Jan. 24, to present a String Theory Family Concert, hosted by Rami Vamos, at 2 p.m. Entertainment will include an “instrument petting zoo” for children. 

Review for the performers:

Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, Tara O’Connor was the first wind player to participate in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Two program and is now an Artist of the CMS. She is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble and a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape. O’Connor currently teaches at the Bard College Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, is professor of flute and head of the wind department at Purchase College Conservatory of Music, and holds a summer flute master class at the Banff Centre in Canada. 

Called “stunningly virtuosic” by The New York Times and “superb” by the The Washington Post, Peter Kolkay claimed First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He is an Artist of the CMS and a member of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee, and currently serves as associate professor of bassoon at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. Current season highlights include the world premiere of Joan Tower’s bassoon concerto, Red Maple, with the South Carolina Philharmonic, a West Coast recital debut at St. Martin’s Abbey in Lacey, Washington, and a chamber music appearance on the Argenta Concert Series in Reno. 

Praised for his “virtuosic” and “brilliant” performances by The New York Times, James Austin Smith performs new and old music across the United States and around the world.  He is an artist of CMS Two, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Talea Ensemble and Decoda, as well as a regular guest of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Cygnus. He spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Leipzig, Germany, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.” He is also an alumnus of Ensemble ACJW, a collaboration of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute and the New York City Department of Education. 

Vamos is a New York based musician, composer, educator and performer that uses his creative output to share an appreciation of classical music with people of all ages and backgrounds. He currently teaches kindergarten and first grade music classes at Siwanoy and Colonial Schools in Pelham, New York, and has been on the guitar faculty of the Concordia Conservatory in Bronxville for 10 years. As a classical guitarist, Vamos also performs extensively throughout the United States. 

Dr. Chien, who began playing piano at the age of five in her native Taiwan, has been called “a coat-of-many-colors pianist.” She holds a doctor of musical arts, and a master’s and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She is a Steinway Artist. She has been a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2012, and now frequently plays at Alice Tully Hall in New York as well as other venues around the country with CMS on Tour.  

For the Thursday evening performance, individual concert tickets are $25 for Hunter members, $35 for non-members, $10 for students with a valid student ID and $25 for groups of 20 or more people. Tickets for Friday’s performance are $15 for adults and $5 for seniors and children and are available by contacting the Lee University Box Office at 614-8343. 

Regular museum admission applies for admission to the family concert on Saturday and is available on day of admission only. Tickets are $9.95 for adults, $4.95 for children 3-17, and free to Hunter members and string theory season ticket holders and patrons. 

For more information on String Theory at the Hunter, call 267-0968 or visit www.stringtheorymusic.org.