CRF Awards Ceremony

Lara Downes’ whole life has been a blending of traditions, styles, cultures, and genres. Not satisfied with being one of the preeminent pianists of her generation, Lara courageously dons and then sheds labels like “classical” or “eclectic” as freely as she engages audiences of all ages with her charismatic presence, intellectual curiosity, and masterful command of her artistic voice. She wants to create experiences that bring 19th and 20th century traditions firmly into the present for 21st century audiences. She is a trailblazer onstage and off. She is also a writer, a broadcaster, a mentor and a role model who understands that music is a dialogue between artist and audience, as everyday life is a balance between speaking and listening, giving and receiving.

Born in San Francisco and raised in Europe, Lara’s interest in connecting music to a wide and inclusive breadth of human experience mines her own mixed African American and Eastern European background and her peripatetic upbringing.  Her newest release, America Again (Sono Luminus, 2016) is in many ways the coming-of-age memoir of an artist who has found her own way and carved her own path through American music. Lara takes inspiration from the musicians that inspire her – from Leonard Bernstein to Nina Simone – to express the diversity of American history and American dreams. In her own words: “ I’ve traveled all around this country and played for audiences in small towns and big cities. I’ve learned that my music is a bridge to unexpected friendships with people who come from very different versions of America than my own. There is no such thing as a typical American life, and there are millions of American stories. American music has a complicated history, full of contrasts and contradictions, just like my own, and I’ve learned that what is most beautiful about me comes down to my contradictions and contrasts.”

She enjoys creative collaborations with a range of artists, from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, and her partnerships with prominent composers span genres and generations to bringsignificant new contributions to the piano repertoire. When not on the road recording or performing, Lara serves as Artist in Residence at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis where she mentors the next generation of young musicians as Director of the Mondavi Center National Young Artists Program. She is a Steinway Artist.

Emily Levin is the Principal Harpist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Bronze Medal Winner of the 9th USA International Harp Competition. Her playing has been praised for its “communicative, emotionally intense expression” (Jerusalem Post) and the Herald Times commended her “technical wizardry and artistic intuition.” As a soloist, orchestral musician and chamber collaborator, Levin brings the harp to the forefront of a diverse musical spectrum, using her instrument to connect with diverse audiences.

Have harp will travel. The youngest principal harpist of a major American orchestra, Levin has performed at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the World Harp Congress, and with the Dallas, Jerusalem and Colorado Symphony Orchestras, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Colorado Chamber Players, and the Indiana University Festival Orchestra, among others. She was a featured Guest Artist at the 2017 Lakes Area Music Festival, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall and at the BRAVO! Vail Music Festival. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including at the Kimmel Center, Alice Tully Hall, and the Meyerson Symphony Center. She is a 2016 Winner of the Astral Artists national auditions, and a top prizewinner at the International Harp Contest in Israel. Levin is on Faculty at the Young Artist’s Harp Seminar.

In the works. The 2017-2018 season brings Levin’s second season as Principal Harpist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, as well as over 30 solo and chamber performances throughout North America. With the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Levin performs Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto under Jaap van Zweden, her second solo appearance with the orchestra in as many years. Other musical highlights include performances at National Sawdust, (Le) Poisson Rouge, the Lyric Chamber Society, Englewood Fine Arts, the University of Ottawa, and the Fine Arts Chamber Players. She is the Featured Artist for the 2018 Southwestern Music Festival, performing both a concerto and a chamber recital, and will be a Guest Artist at the 2018 Suzuki Association of the Americas Conference. In September 2017, Levin released her debut album, Something Borrowed, which explores the connection between music, literature, and culture. For the recording, the Classical Recording Foundation awarded her the 2017 Young Artist of the Year.

Pianist Thomas Sauer is highly sought after as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Some of Mr. Sauer’s recent appearances include concerto performances with the Quad-City and Tallahassee Symphonies and the Greenwich Village Orchestra; solo performances at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), Merkin Concert Hall, Rockefeller University, and St. John’s College, Oxford; appearances on Broadway as the pianist in 33 Variations, a play about the composition of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations; and performances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. With his long-time duo partner Colin Carr, Mr. Sauer has appeared at the Wigmore Hall (London), Holywell Music Room (Oxford), the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Musikgebouw, Bargemusic (New York City), the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), and Princeton University, among many other venues. Other appearances include recitals with Midori at the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels; performances with members of the Juilliard String Quartet at the Library of Congress; and numerous concerts with the Brentano String Quartet.

Mr. Sauer has performed at many of the leading festivals in the United States and abroad, including Marlboro, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, El Paso Pro Musica, and the Chamber Music Festivals of Seattle, Taos, Four Seasons (North Carolina), Portland and Salt Bay (Maine); as well as Lake District Summer Music (England) and Festival des Consonances (France).

Mr. Sauer’s varied discography includes recordings of Beethoven and Haydn piano sonatas for MSR Classics; the complete cello and piano works of Mendelssohn with Colin Carr on Cello Classics; a disc of Hindemith sonatas with violist Misha Amory (Musical Heritage Society); music of Britten and Schnittke with cellist Wilhelmina Smith on Arabesque; music of Ross Lee Finney with violinist Miranda Cuckson on Centaur Records; and violin sonatas of Mozart with Aaron Berofsky on Blue Griffin Recordings. In recent seasons, Mr. Sauer has premiered works by Philippe Bodin, Robert Cuckson, Sebastian Currier, Keith Fitch, David Loeb, Donald Martino, David Tcimpidis, and Richard Wilson.

A member of the music faculty of Vassar College and the piano faculty of the Mannes College, Mr. Sauer is the founder and director of the Mannes Beethoven Institute. A graduate of the Curtis Institute, Mannes College of Music and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, his major teachers included Jorge Bolet, Edward Aldwell, and Carl Schachter.

Founding ICE violinist David Bowlin has won recognition as an passionate and accomplished interpreter of a wide-ranging repertoire. Among his performances are dozens of premieres, including the 2007 Weill Hall world premiere of Mahagoni, a violin concerto written for him by Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin, and the 2016 Lincoln Center world premiere of Marcos Balter’s Violin Concerto.

In addition to his work with ICE, Bowlin is a member of the Oberlin Trio and a former member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, whose CD of music by Chinary Ung won a 2010 NPR Top 5 American Classical Albums award. In recent seasons Bowlin’s varied activities have included tours with Musicians from Marlboro, performing as guest concertmaster with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Iris Orchestra, and performing with members of the Juilliard and Emerson string quartets. Accolades include first prize in violin at the Washington International Competition and the 2007 Samuel Baron Prize from Stony Brook University.

Bowlin’s performances have been frequently heard on air, including broadcasts on NPR’s Performance Today with pianist Richard Goode, and live broadcasts on New York’s WQXR, WFMT Chicago, Vermont Public Radio, and WCLV Cleveland. Recent recordings include a CD of solo works and concerti by Huang Ruo and Luciano Berio for Oberlin Music, a solo and duo CD of music by Roger Sessions on the Bridge label, and piano trios by Dvorak, Shostakovich, and Joan Tower with the Oberlin Trio.

Bowlin currently serves on the violin faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and in the summers teaches at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. He also serves as Artistic Director of Chamber Music Quad Cities. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, where his principal teachers were Roland and Almita Vamos, Ronald Copes, Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, Philip Setzer, and Stephen and Kimberly Sims.

Gregg Kallor is a composer and pianist whose music fuses the classical and jazz traditions he loves into a new, deeply personal language. The New York Times writes: “At home in both jazz and classical forms, [Kallor] writes music of unaffected emotional directness. Leavened with flashes of oddball humor, his works succeed in drawing in the listener – not as consumer or worshipful celebrant, but in a spirit of easygoing camaraderie.”

During the 2016-2017 season, Kallor unveiled his setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, with mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Pojanowski and cellist Joshua Roman, featuring a semi-staging by Sarah Meyers (Metropolitan Opera) and lighting design by Shawn Kaufman. The two sold-out performances were presented by The Crypt Sessions in collaboration with On Site Opera in a 100-year old vaulted crypt beneath the Church of the Intercession in New York City in October 2016 – just before Halloween. Following on the heels of the acclaimed premiere, Kallor reprised the piece with soprano Melody Moore and Joshua Roman at SubCulture NY. The New York Observer wrote: “I can’t think of a better opera to become a new Halloween tradition.”

Also in the 2016-2017 season season, Kallor collaborated with the Attacca Quartet for the premiere of his new work for piano quintet, Some Not Too Distant Tomorrow. The piece is a tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., commissioned by the Classical Recording Foundation and funded by a generous gift from Linda and Stuart Nelson. The performance was presented at the Sheen Center in New York City on June 5, 2017. And on June 21, 2017, Joshua Roman conducted the Seattle Youth Orchestra in the premiere of Kallor’s new work for string orchestra, Mouthful of Forevers, commissioned by Town Hall Seattle.

Kallor is the Composer-In-Residence at SubCulture in New York City, named one of Time Out New York‘s best new music venues. The first season of his residency featured world premieres of a solo piano suite; new songs with soprano Melody Moore, mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala and baritone Matthew Worth; and a piano trio with violinist Miranda Cuckson and cellist Joshua Roman.

Kallor joined an all-star roster of musicians, including Joyce DiDonato, Yo-Yo Ma, Jamie Barton, Isabel Leonard, Susanna Phillips, Anthony McGill, actors Sharon Stone and Ansel Elgort, and many more, for An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope. Kallor recorded two songs for the album, with Melody Moore – “One Child,” which Kallor composed for this project – and Matthew Polezani. All profits from the sale of this album will go to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

Kallor’s music videos are “a visual feast for the eyes,” writes Feast of Music: “Espresso Nirvana” (think caffeinated hijinks) and “Broken Sentences,” which features the 88 artist-designed pianos that Sing For Hope placed in parks and public spaces all around NYC from June 1-15, 2013, where anyone could play them. Gregg did. A lot.

Kallor’s solo recording, A Single Noon, is a musical tableau of life in New York City that evokes moments of caffeinated bliss, embarrassing subway mishaps, and the buzzing energy of a city driven by dynamic, thoughtful, talented, and slightly crazy people. Fred Hersch calls A Single Noon “the work of an extraordinary pianist, a composer of great distinction and a true conceptualist… This ambitious and unique suite takes us somewhere that is very deeply heartfelt and dazzlingly executed. This is 21st-century music that has clearly absorbed the past and looks to a bright and borderless musical future.” Kallor premiered A Single Noon at Carnegie Hall in 2011.

Kallor’s previous album, Exhilaration – Dickinson and Yeats Songs, features his song-settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, William Butler Yeats, and Christina Rossetti sung by mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala. Opera News wrote: “Kallor knows how to make these words sing, and Zabala gives perfect flight to them.”

The Abby Whiteside Foundation presented Kallor’s Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall in 2007. Harris Goldsmith wrote: “It took but a few impeccably shaped phrases to make it plain that Kallor is a formidably well-trained technician and a master of stylish proportion as well… This superb recital debut truly established a new, important voice in our musical annals.”

Kallor (pronounced “KAY-ler”) was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in West Hartford, Connecticut. He began improvising on the piano in his home as soon as he could walk over to it, began taking classical piano lessons when he was six, and added jazz lessons a few years later. He graduated from Tufts University with a degree in American Studies. Kallor lives in New York City, where he makes excellent use of his MetroCard.

Peter Lieberson came to prominence in the mid-1980s with the Piano Concerto and Drala, two major commissions from the Boston Symphony, with whom he enjoyed a fruitful collaboration. Of profound influence on his music was his practice of Tibetan Buddhism. Many of his works were inspired by Buddhist themes such as King Gesar (1991) and the opera Ashoka’s Dream (1997), both from a series of works based on the lives of enlightened rulers. Lyricism and vocal writing dominated his works of the last decade, reflecting the rich collaborations with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, for whom he composed Neruda Songs (winner of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition). In addition to his associations with major orchestras such as Boston, New York, Cleveland, Chicago and Los Angeles, Lieberson enjoyed long-standing artistic collaborations with Peter Serkin, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Oliver Knussen. Recent commissions included Remembering JFK: An American Elegy for the National Symphony Orchestra, The World in Flower for the New York Philharmonic; Remembering Schumann for Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, The Coming of Light; a song cycle for baritone, oboe, and string quartet; the orchestral Suite from Ashoka’s Dream; and Songs of Love and Sorrow for Gerald Finley and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.