SCMS Summer Festival: Mozart, Bartók, Mendelssohn

• Noah Geller, violin
• Andrew Armstrong, piano
• James Ehnes, violin
• Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
• Che-Yen Chen, viola
• Edward Arron, cello
• Alessio Bax, piano
• Benjamin Beilman, violin
• Sterling Elliott, cello

This in-person performance will also be presented online via livestream, and available to view on-demand starting July 21.

The in-person concert will be preceded by a free 30-minute Pre-Concert Recital at 1pm in the Nordstrom Recital Hall.

About Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS)

http://www.seattlechambermusic.org/

About Noah Geller, violin

Noah Geller is the David and Amy Fulton Concertmaster of the Grammy- and Gramophone-winning Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Named to that post at the conclusion of a multi-year search, Mr. Geller is among a small cadre of elite violinists who serve as both leaders and featured performers for the nation’s acclaimed orchestras. He will perform the Saint-Saëns la muse et le poète double concerto with Principal Cello Efe Baltacigil for the symphony’s 2022-23 opening night concert in September and the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Seattle Symphony in March 2023. He has previously brought to life the Glazunov and Mendelssohn concerti, Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending, Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade, and Mozart Requiem in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.

In addition to serving as SSO concertmaster, Mr. Geller has performed as guest concertmaster with the Symphony Orchestras of Pittsburgh, Houston, and Beijing (China National Symphony) and as acting assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. An in-demand chamber musician, he has performed in the Marlboro, Kingston, Saratoga, Seattle, and Taos festivals and has appeared in numerous concert series including those of Lyon & Healy Hall, Dolce Suono Ensemble, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Lyric Chamber Music Society. A student of Jennifer Cappelli, Geller received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with Hyo Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, and Donald Weilerstein. He now resides in Seattle with his wife, percussionist Mari Yoshinaga, and their canine companion, Monkey.

An enthusiastic supporter of contemporary makers, Mr. Geller performs on a c. 2020 violin by Philadelphia luthier Justin Hess, from whom he has commissioned a second instrument, using a c. 1830 bow by Claude Joseph Fonclause for Etienne Pajeot.

About Andrew Armstrong, piano

Pianist Andrew Armstrong has performed across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw's National Philharmonic. Armstrong's orchestral engagements have seen him perform more than 50 concertos with orchestra. He has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with the Elias, Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, and also as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. He has released several award-winning recordings with his longtime recital partner, James Ehnes. He is devoted to outreach programs and playing for children. Armstrong was recently appointed Artistic Director of Chamber Music on Main at the Columbia Museum in Columbia, SC.

About James Ehnes, violin

James Ehnes is recognized as one of the world's foremost violinists and is a favorite guest of many of the world's most celebrated orchestras and concert halls. Recent orchestral highlights include the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, London Symphony, Gedwandhausorchester Leipzig, New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

About Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin

Amy Schwartz Moretti has a distinguished musical career of broad versatility. Since 2007, she has been Director of the McDuffie Center for Strings and has developed the Fabian Concert Series; she also holds the Caroline Paul King Chair, teaching in the Mercer University Townsend School of Music. A performing artist with an affinity for chamber music, she enjoys touring with the Ehnes Quartet and maintains an active schedule of solo, chamber and concertmaster appearances. Recent performances include the 2019 premiere of Schmitz's Violin Concerto written for her. Her other festival appearances this summer include Bridgehampton, ChamberFest Cleveland, La Jolla, Meadowmount, and Manchester Music Festival. Moretti is former concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony and Florida Orchestra. She has served as guest concertmaster for the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Houston, Pittsburgh; the New York Pops and Hawaii Pops; and the festival orchestras of Brevard, Colorado and Grand Teton. The Cleveland Institute of Music has recognized her with an Alumni Achievement Award and she is the 2014 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Fanfare Honoree. In December 2018, Moretti was selected as one of Musical America's "Top 30 Professionals of the Year."

About Che-Yen Chen, viola

Taiwanese-American violist Che-Yen Chen has established himself as an active performer and educator. Since winning First Prize in the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition and the "President Prize" of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, he was described as a musician whose "most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music." As the founding and former member of the Formosa Quartet, he won the first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition, founded the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan, and has released recordings on EMI, Delos, New World, and Bridge Records. Chen was the principal violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra for eight years and has appeared as guest principal viola with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony. A former Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two member, Chen frequently performs and teaches at music festivals across North America and Asia. Professor of Viola Performance and Chamber Music at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Chen has previously served on the faculty of USC Thornton School of Music, UC San Diego, San Diego State University, California State University Fullerton, and McGill University. A native of Taipei, Chen began his viola study with Ben Lin and became a four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan. As a fourteen- year-old, he came to the U.S.A. to matriculate at The Curtis Institute of Music under the mentorship of Michael Tree and Joseph de Pasquale and later at The Juilliard School studying viola performance and string quartet with Paul Neubauer and The Juilliard Quartet. Chen joined the renowned Ehnes Quartet in 2023.

About Edward Arron, cello

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, cellist Edward Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has since appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician, throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes String Quartet and he is a regular performer at the Boston and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Society, Bargemusic, and Caramoor, and his performances are frequently broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today. In 2021, Mr. Arron's recording of Beethoven's Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics record label. The recording received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Arron has served on the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst since 2016.

About Alessio Bax, piano

https://www.alessiobax.com/

About Benjamin Beilman, violin

https://benjaminbeilman.com

About Sterling Elliott, cello

Cellist Sterling Elliott​ is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition.

Sterling has enjoyed a simple and humble musical journey. As the youngest of 3 siblings, he did not want to play the cello but the violin like his older brother and sister. After a bit of encouragement, he completed The Elliott Family String Quartet by learning to play the cello at the age of three under the direction of Suzuki Cello teacher Susan Hines. He went on to make his concerto debut at the age of 7 by winning the Junior Division of the PYO Concerto Competition, and later the 2014 Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition, the Bay Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Sterling has a long history with the Sphinx Organization, where he first received 2nd place in the 2013 National Sphinx Competition Junior Division, then won the 2014 Junior Division. In 2016 he received the Isaac Stern Award by the Sphinx Organization and toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi in 2018 before winning in 2019.

He is a two-time alum of NPR's From the Top where he was a recipient of a scholarship from The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and performed several concerts in Switzerland at the 2019 World Economic Forum. He is a Young Strings of America ambassador for SHAR Strings. In 2019, he was the first recipient of The National Arts Club's Herman and Mary Neuman Music Scholarship Award.

Sterling Elliott is currently a Kovner Fellow at The Juilliard School where he is pursuing his Masters of Music degree studying with Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim. He completed his undergraduate degree in cello performance at Juilliard in May 2021. He currently performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.