Access to Art Presents the Mondrian Ensemble Sept. 11

AVALON — Access to Art, Inc. will present the Mondrian Ensemble, at 7 p.m., Sept. 11, at Maris Stella R.C. Church (St. Brendan the Navigator,) 5012 Dune Dr., Avalon. The Ensemble will perform Beethoven’s Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. l6, and Schumann Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47. The Ensemble, the last concert of the Sam Maitin Summer Chamber Music Series, features the first group of performers assembled in 1998 to be the core group of the festival. They were, at that time, Philadelphia Orchestra Strings, and Aurelia Mika Chang, MM, Juilliard, on piano. Since then, Michael Ludwig, has joined the Buffalo Philharmonic and he is soloing across the world, this week in Kiev. He has soloed and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Lithuanian Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Virginia Symphony, and has appeared on four continents.
Composer Daron Hagen has written a new violin concerto, American Songbook, for Michael Ludwig, which Ludwig premiered with the Buffalo Philharmonic in May 2011.
“Michael is a superb, world-class musician and the perfect person to premiere this concert,” according to Hagan.
This season marks the release of Ludwig’s live recording of Beethoven Violin Concerto and Dv orak Romance with the Virginia Symphony, as well as a NAXOS RECORDING OF THE Josef Suk Fantasy with the Buffalo Philharmonic. In Aug. of 2011, Ludwig recorded Kenneth Fuchs’ American Rhapsody with the London Symphony Orchestra in the famed Abbey Road Studios.
John Koen, cello, joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1990, and in 2011 was made Acting Assistant Principal Cello. He graduated from the Curtis Institute where he studied with David Soyer and Peter Wiley of the Guarneri Quartet. He collaborates in chamber music with artists Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Christoph Eschenbach, Stephen Hous, Lang Lang, Wolfgang Sawallisch and many others. He has performed both as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras across America as well as in Bulgaria, where he has a special mentoring relationship with the New Symphony Orchestra. He has given master classes for Universities in Seoul and Sofia, and this year in China, and teaches locally at Temple and Swarthmore.
Violist Anna Marie Ahn Petersen joined the Philadelphia Orchestra immediately upon graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music. She has collaborated in chamber music with such luminaries as Christopher Eschenbach, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yefim Bronfman and Christopher Parkening. Ms. Petersen is a frequent guest at chamber music festivals including the Ravinia Festival, Casals Festival, Seoul Art Festival, Kingston and Saratoga Chamber Music Festivals. She has performed as soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic and the Orquesta Philarmonica de Bogota. Her solo debut recital in Seloul, Korea was splonsored by Jeunesse Musicales. Hailed by The Washington Post, Ms Petersen “…played with a grace, fluency of phrasing, richness of tone and expressive power…that marks her a major artist.” Her father, Yung Ku Ahn, taught at Peabody, and was a concertmaster in Korea.
Mika Chang, a Steinway pianist, has made solo, orchestra and chamber appearances in numerous concert halls, broadcasts and other venues throughout the U.S. and in China, Poland, Japan, UK, Austria and Germany. Newark Star Ledger said she “ played just exquisitely…with particular praise due to her pearly tone, sensitive phrasing and poised demeanor.” She is artistic director of the Sam Maitin Summer Chamber Music Festival.
Tickets are $20. Adults, $l5. Seniors and students and are available at the door the evening of the performance. Reservations may be made by calling Access to Art at (609) 465-3963. Send checks to Access to Art, Inc., 417 E. Pacific Ave., Cape May Court House, N.J. 08210. The concert series is being assisted, in part, by the Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, the Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Fund and the Charlotte Bennett Schoen Foundation. The Herald Newspapers, the Cape May Star & Wave and Sentinel Ledger and Paramount Air have also provided media support.