On Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 5:00 at the Chester Meeting House, Robbie Collomore Concerts presents the Manhattan Chamber Players in a performance of two gems of the French chamber music repertoire.
The Manhattan Chamber Players is a chamber music collective of New York-based musicians who share the common aim of performing the greatest works in the chamber repertoire at the highest level. We welcome four of their members who will perform two wondrous piano quartets for us: Gabriel Fauré's Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor and Ernest Chausson's Piano Quartet in A Major. The performers are Francesca dePasquale, violin; Luke Fleming, viola; Michael Katz, cello; and Mika Sasaki, piano.
Francesca dePasquale is a member of the violin faculty at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School Pre-College Program. Additionally, she is a member of the violin faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute, where she also serves as Director of their Program for the Exceptionally Gifted. As soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, she appears for numerous prestigious festivals and series internationally. Ms. dePasquale is the violinist of the Aletheia Piano Trio, a member of the artist roster for Manhattan Chamber Players and Noree Chamber Soloists, and performs with Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Marinus Ensemble, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Violist Luke Fleming holds the degrees of Doctor of Musical Arts, Artist Diploma, and Master of Music from the Juilliard School. In 2015, Mr. Fleming became the Founding Artistic Director of both the Manhattan Chamber Players and the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival, and in 2024 he was named Artistic Program Director of Chamber Music Monterey Bay. He currently serves on the Viola and Chamber Music faculties of the University of New Orleans, Atlantic Music Festival, Festival del Lago, and The Woodlands Chamberfest. Formerly the violist of the GRAMMY-winning Attacca Quartet, he has served as Artist-in-Residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and received the National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award. He was awarded First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
Born in Tel-Aviv, cellist Michael Katz began his studies at age seven, and received his Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory and his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. He has completed a Doctor of Music degree at SUNY Stony. As the cellist of the Lysander Piano Trio, Mr. Katz was a winner of the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and was awarded first prize in the 2011 Coleman Competition and 2011 J.C. Arriaga Competition. His musicianship has been recognized with many awards, among them all three prizes at the 2011 Aviv Competition, and First Prizes at the Juilliard School’s 2010 Concerto Competition and the 2005 Turjeman Competition. Deeply committed to audience engagement and community outreach, Mr. Katz was a Fellow in Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect from 2014 – 2016.
Pianist Mika Sasaki is an imaginative and versatile soloist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances and teaching have taken her perform internationally. Ms. Sasaki is the pianist of Ensemble Mélange and frequently concertizes with the Manhattan Chamber Players, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble in Boston, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and with her duo partners. She is an alumna of the Peabody Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Ensemble Connect—a two-year fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, and the Weill Institute. Upon completing her doctorate at Juilliard, Ms. Sasaki won the Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship as a graduate who demonstrated outstanding artistry and achievement in leadership, entrepreneurship, and breadth of engagement. Based in New York City, Ms. Sasaki is a faculty member at the Juilliard School.
Robbie Collomore Concerts, founded in 1974, is a standing committee of the Chester Historical Society, under whose auspices we present these concerts. Details about our concerts and our history are available on our website: www.collomoreconcerts.org.
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