String Theory At The Hunter Season Finale Is May 7

String Theory at the Hunter will present the final installment of its sixth season on Thursday, May 7, at 6:30 p.m. at the Hunter Museum of American Art. Featured performers include Soovin Kim, violin; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola; Paul Watkins, cello; and Gloria Chien, piano. This will be the Chattanooga debut for Ms. Huang and Mr. Watkins. 

String Theory, founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Chien, is a partnership of Lee University and the Hunter Museum bringing acclaimed chamber musicians to Chattanooga from around the world. 

The evening’s program will include Mendelssohn Variations Concertantes for Cello and Piano and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A major. 

Prior to the concert, Art Connection will take place at 5:30 p.m., which 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 evening's concert. 

Review for the performers: 

Mr. Kim, Ms. Huang, and Mr. Watkins are the artistic directors of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, the Sejong International Music Festival and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. 

Mr. Kim performs as both a concert soloist and chamber musician and as first violinist with the Johannes String Quartet. In 2009 he founded the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vt., which has quickly gained national attention for its innovative programming, educational outreach, and work with young composers.  Mr. Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Competition when he was only 20, launching an international concert career. He later was a recipient of such distinguished prizes as the Henryk Szeryng Career Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He joins the faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music this fall. 

Mr. Kim has released nine commercial CD recordings in recent years including Niccolò Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a French album of Fauré and Chausson with pianist Jeremy Denk and the Jupiter Quartet. Soovin grew up in Plattsburgh, New York, and joined the Vermont Youth Orchestra as its then-youngest member at age 10. He is often heard in Vermont through his performances with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, on the Lane Series at the University of Vermont, on the Rochester Chamber Music Society series, at Middlebury College, with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and on Vermont Public Radio. 

Ms. Huang was the gold medalist at the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the top prize winner at the 1993 ARD Competition in Munich, winning at the same time Japan’s prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award. She has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony, the City of London Sinfonia, the Russian State Symphony, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Zagreb Soloists, the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony of Taiwan, among others. 

Recent highlights for Ms. Huang include concerto appearances in Central Park and Alice Tully Hall; collaborations with the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Orion, and St. Lawrence string quartets; the premiere of a new chamber concerto by Steven Mackey for viola with chamber ensemble at the Aspen Festival; and a solo album, “ViolaViola,” that was released in fall 2012 by Bridge Records. Ms. Huang has participated in the Marlboro Festival, the Stavanger Festival in Norway, the Rome Chamber Music Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, and the Cartagena Festival in Colombia. An artist of the Chamber Music Society, Ms. Huang is currently a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Julliard School. 

Mr. Watkins, succeeding David Finckel as the newest member of the Emerson String Quartet, enjoys a distinguished career both as concerto soloist and chamber musician. He studied with William Pleeth, Melissa Phelps and Johannes Goritzki, and by the age of 20 was appointed Principal Cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He performs regularly with all the major British orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia and City of Birmingham Symphony. 

Mr. Watkins has made six concerto appearances at the BBC Proms, most recently in a televised performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto at the First Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He made his concerto debut at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of chief conductor Yakov Kreizberg. He has toured in Italy and Prague with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and to China and the Far East with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons have included his debut at Carnegie Hall performing Brahms’ Double Concerto with Daniel Hope, as well as concerto appearances with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. 

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, a master’s, and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She is a Steinway Artist and currently serves as an associate professor of music at Lee. 

A prize winner of the World Piano Competition, Harvard Musical Association Award, and the San Antonio International Piano Competition, Dr. Chien has presented solo recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard Musical Association, Sanibel Musical Festival, Caramoor Musical Festival, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. 

Dr. Chien was appointed the director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has participated there for six years. 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.  

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. 

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