The Athenaeum is pleased to announce a livestreamed chamber concert featuring violist Che-Yen Chen and harpsichordist Takae Ohnishi celebrating Bach. The concert will be livestreamed to YouTube Live from the Athenaeum’s Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Room, Monday, March 15, at 7 PM. Ticketholders will have 48 hours access to a recording.
PROGRAM:
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in A Major, BWV 1015
Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in G Major, BWV 1027
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in B Minor, BWV 1014
Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068
II. Air
Artists’ bios
CHE-YEN CHEN
Newly appointed Professor of Viola at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, award-winning violist Che-Yen Chen is a founding member of the Formosa Quartet and First-Prize winner of the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. He was awarded First Prize in the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition and has been described by the San Diego Union-Tribune as an artist whose “most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music.” Having served as Principal Violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Chen has appeared as a guest principal with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Performing in chamber music festivals across North America and Asia, Chen is a founding member of Camera Lucida and the Myriad Trio. As a former member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and a participant in the Marlboro Festival, Chen’s combined passion in chamber music and education led him to embark on co-founding the Formosa Chamber Music Festival, the first intensive chamber music training program of its kind in Taiwan. Before joining UCLA, Chen had been on the faculty of USC, UCSD, SDSU, CSU Fullerton, and he has given master classes across North America and Asia.
TAKAE OHNISHI
Harpsichordist Takae Ohnishi has performed extensively as a soloist, chamber musician, and continuo player. Gramophone remarked that “Ohnishi's brilliant artistry immerses the listener in the creative and emotional narratives Bach unfolds with incomparable mastery.” Classics Today described her “masterful technique,” and praised her playing’s “vitality and impressively differentiated articulation.”
Ohnishi has been Principal Harpsichordist at Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Scharoun Ensemble and the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, and a continuo player with Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and Bach Collegium San Diego. She is a prizewinner at the International Early Music Harpsichord Competition in Japan. Her debut album, A Harpsichord Recital, was selected as an International Special Prized CD by the leading Japanese music magazine Record Gei-jyu-tsu. Her latest solo disc, Goldberg Variations, was released on Bridge Records to critical acclaim.
Ohnishi graduated from Toho Gakuen School of Music and holds a MM from the New England Conservatory of Music and a DMA from Stony Brook University. Since 2007, she has been a lecturer of harpsichord and baroque chamber music at UCSD. As Music Director of the Music at Green concert series, she brings live performance to patients at Scripps Hospital.
The concert will be livestreamed via Youtube Live. Ticket holders will receive a link before the concert. The concert will be available for 48 hours to ticket holders.