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Balge – Park – Ross Trio
November 19, 2023 @ 4:00 pm
Sunday, November 19, 2023 – 4:00 pm
SCSU Ruth Gant Recital Hall
620 3rd Avenue South, St. Cloud (scroll down for map)
Enjoy another beautiful program this season by pianist and ProMusica Minnesota Artistic Director Bethel Balge with Minnesota Orchestra members first associate concertmaster Susie Park and principal cellist Anthony Ross. Their program begins with Antonin Dvořák’s gorgeous Piano Trio No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 26 and continues with Theme and Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” for cello and piano by Beethoven. The tune from Mozart’s opera praises the universal joys of love. Their romantic program closes with Johannes Brahms’ powerful Piano Trio No 3 in C Minor, Op. 101. The program, titled Heart Throbs, allows all instruments to explore their emotional range and reach for the heart.
Concert Co-sponsors: Mary Lou & Jerry Lenz | Molly & Keith Ewing
Tickets online or at the door. Adults $25|Seniors (65+) $20|Students $5 Seating opens at 3:30 p.m.
About the artists:
Winner of the Louis B. Sudler Award in the Arts, pianist Bethel Balge has performed in Germany, including at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, in Russia as soloist with the Voronezh Philharmonic, as well as in various American venues. Balge’s “highly concentrated, technically secure and captivating interpretation” of Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit attracted notice from a reviewer at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung after a performance at the Alte Oper. As a doctoral student of Lydia Artymiw, Balge performed in a Minnesota Public Radio live broadcast in the Bach Birthday concert organized by MPR host Michael Barone. She is founding Artistic Director of the Summit Avenue Music Series (SAMS) and Co-Artistic Director of the ProMusica Minnesota Chamber Music Festival. In May 2020, Balge became Executive Director of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.
After living for six years in Germany, Balge received a Diplom degree from the University of Frankfurt’s Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik und darstellende Kunst. Previously she received her Master of Music M.M. from the University of Wisconsin under Howard Karp. She is a cum laude graduate (Bachelor of Music) of Michigan State University, where she studied under Van Cliburn gold prize winner Ralph Votapek. In 2014, she received a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota under Lydia Artymiw. As a student, Balge received numerous awards: Louis B. Sudler Award in the Arts, Grand Rapids Concerto Competition (1st Prize), Michigan State University Concerto Competition (1st prize), UW Madison Beethoven Competition (1st prize) Milwaukee’s Ida Schroeder Foundation Scholarship Competition (1st prize), Chicago Civic Orchestra Concerto Competition (finalist), Georgia’s Esther Wilburne Barnes National Competition (3rd prize). She also participated in the Concurso Internacional de Musica Da Cidade do Porto (International Piano Competition, Porto. Portugal). She continues to perform frequently, particularly with friends in chamber music concerts.
Australian-born Susie Park, the Minnesota Orchestra’s first associate concertmaster, had already toured with the Orchestra before beginning her appointment in September 2015, performing concerts and participating in educational programs when the ensemble traveled to Cuba the previous May.
Park has concertized around the world, performing solos with such European orchestras as the Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille and the London-based Royal Philharmonic; American orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Memphis Symphony and Orchestra of St. Luke’s; the major Australian symphony orchestras including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania, Canberra and Perth; Korea’s KBS Orchestra; and Orchestra Wellington in New Zealand. She has collaborated with conductors including Simon Rattle, Hans Vonk, Alan Gilbert, Fabio Luisi and Yehudi Menuhin, performing in venues ranging from New York’s Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Symphony Hall in Boston, the Ravinia Festival and Millenium Park in Chicago, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Smithsonian Institute, Vienna Musikverein Cologne Philharmonie, Düsseldorf Tonhalle and Danish Radio Concert Hall.
Park has received numerous awards. She won top honors at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the Wieniawski Competition in Poland and the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in France, which led to many performances and reengagements throughout the U.S. and Europe. She also won the Richard Goldner Concerto Competition, Ernest Llewellyn String Award and various additional awards.
Park is passionate about chamber music. She is a founding member of ECCO, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless ensemble comprising a diverse selection of talented chamber musicians, soloists and principal string players from American orchestras; their self-titled debut album of 2012, released on the eOne label, includes works from three centuries, by Geminiani, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.
In addition, Park was the violinist of the Eroica Trio from 2006 to 2012, with which she recorded the ensemble’s eighth CD, an all-American disc nominated for a Grammy, and toured internationally. She was also a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two, collaborating with Wu Han, Gary Hoffman and Ida Kavafian. For three consecutive summers she was in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival, and she has participated in numerous tours with Musicians from Marlboro. Additional musicians with whom she has performed chamber music include members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Emerson and Cleveland Quartets, and Kim Kashkashian, Pamela Frank, Jason Vieaux, Cho-Liang Lin and Jaime Laredo. Among her festival engagements have been performances at Music from Angel Fire, Music in the Vineyards in Napa, the Seattle, Caramoor, Skaneateles, Aspen, Ravinia, Portland and Bowdoin festivals in the U.S.; Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove in England; Bermuda Festival; the Mozarteum Sommerakademie in Austria; and Keshet Eilon in Israel.
Park’s interest in music of all genres has also led to collaborations with artists such as jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, with whom she performed 41 consecutive shows at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York.
A native of Sydney, Park picked up a violin at the age of three, made her solo debut at five and completed preparatory studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She went on to earn a bachelor of music degree at the Curtis Institute and an artist diploma at the New England Conservatory; her teachers have included Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Shi-Xiang (Peter) Zhang and Christopher Kimber. In her spare time she enjoys a variety of creative arts, including knitting and clothing design.
Dynamic leader of the Minnesota Orchestra’s cello section since 1991, prize-winning cellist Anthony Ross has appeared as soloist many times with the Orchestra, performing all the standard cello concertos under Osmo Vänskä, Edo de Waart and Eiji Oue. Equally passionate about new music, he has given powerful performances of Michael Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway, James MacMillan’s Cello Concerto, Paul Moravec’s Montserrat, and he and his wife, Beth Rapier, have championed David Ott’s Concerto for Two Cellos since 1993. Prior to assuming the principal role in Minnesota, Ross performed for four years as principal cello of the Rochester Philharmonic under David Zinman.
Ross’ compelling interpretations have won wide acclaim from Moscow to Kalamazoo, and Dallas to Duluth. As concerto soloist, he has played with the Moscow State Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the South Dakota Symphony and many other Midwest regional orchestras.
A cellist of many facets and talents, Ross engages with equal passion as he plays tennis, teaches young cellists and shares the festival stage as a chamber musician or while recording sonatas. Ross has taught at the Eastman School of Music, on the faculties of the Aspen and Grand Tetons Music Festivals and at the Interlochen and Madeline Island Music Camps. His many festival appearances include performances at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Music in the Vineyards, the Colorado Music Festival, the Rhodes Music Festival in Greece, the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio, Orcas Island Music Festival and the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society in Madison. In the Twin Cities, he is a member of Accordo and the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota.
Winner of the prestigious bronze medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Ross went on to gain the Stulberg Award, the G.B. Dealy Award and a prize in the Parisot International Cello Competition. He was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship, once as soloist and again in 2005 as part of the Ross Rapier Cello Duo. A graduate of Indiana University where he studied with Fritz Magg, Ross earned another degree at the State University of New York, studying with Bernard Greenhouse and Timothy Eddy.
Ross’ recordings include Leonard Bernstein’s Three Meditations from the Mass with the Minnesota Orchestra under Eiji Oue on Reference Recordings, the George Lloyd Cello Concerto with the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller on Albany Records and the Sonatas of Rachmaninoff and Elliott Carter for Boston Records.
Tony likes to tell a joke or a story to the cello section right before going onstage for a concert. His favorite activities are tennis, sailing, hiking and cooking.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Central Minnesota Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
During this event, free parking is permitted in the L Lot and in the O Lane adjacent to the Performing Arts Center, and may also be available on the streets (check the signs). See map below.
Click here for an SCSU campus map.
Detail of campus map for O Lane parking:
