Why Do Architects Produce Musicians?

COURT HOUSE – Put July 10 and July 13 on your musical calendar for the second and third concerts of the Sam Maitin Summer Chamber Music Series celebrating its 15 year of bringing world class music to the area. The concerts will be held at Our Lady of the Angel’s R.C. Church, Garden State Parkway and Mechanic Sts., below exit 10 on the Garden State Parkway at 8 p.m. Tickets will be sold for an hour prior at the church. As part of the Mondrian Ensemble series, Aurelia Mika Chang will perform on July 10 with her son, Ari Boutris, a 12 year old violin prodigy winning competitions and scholarships to college in NYC. Chang has an MM from Juilliard and performs on three continents. They will play works by Beethoven, Wienawski and Massenet. The second concert, on the l3th of July, will feature a duet with Aurelia Mika Chang, piano, and Sue Ann Kahn, flute. Sue Ann Kahn was a Naumberg winner, a winner of the NEA awards, and records with CRI, Musical Heritage, MMG, Vox-Candide, New World, and most recently The Mozart & Flute Quartets for Albany Records to critical acclaim. She was past President of the American Flute Society. She teaches at Columbia University and Mannes College. They will perform works by W.A. Mozart, and J.S. Bach.
Ching Yu Chang, Mika’s father, is an architect, who worked for Louis I. Kahn, and wrote the first book about him, and Louis I. Kahn, now renowned U.S. architect, both had daughters who were classical musicians, one a pianist, one a flutist. Maitin, Kahn, and Chang lived in the same neighborhood in South Philadelphia. Maitin and Kahn taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Sam Maitin who began our summer chamber music concerts with Barbara Beitel in 1996, had an architect brother who sat on the Settlement Music School Board of Directors. Louis I. Kahn, famed American architect, played the piano, loved improv, performed Beethoven’s 9th by ear, after returning from an evening at the Philadelphia Orchestra. They told him at Fleisher Art Memorial, a music and art school, that gave lessons to talented children of the area schools for free, which both Maitin and Kahn attended, told him that he would be a genius in music, art, or architecture, but not all three. He had to choose. He chose architecture. But he could play a mean piano, create compositions on the spur of the moment, and performed his way through college in silent movie theatres. Sue Ann Kahn’s two aunts taught at Settlement Music School. Her mother, Esther, ran the Fairmount Park music series. Mika’s son, Ari, just 12 years old, is winning competitions in NYC and a scholarship to study violin at Manhattan School of Music.
“Ari Boutris has attended about three music camps this summer, including one with the son of the director of the NY Philharmonic. He is 12. He has been to Ottawa to study with Pinckus Zuckerman, and he was the student of Bela Horvath, also a student of Zuckerman. Bela told me that Ari, now 12, plays like a man.” Barbara Beitel, Access to Art, Inc. Director said. Bela Horvath, violinist, and Mika Chang performed in a Valentine’s Day concert here. “ Ari is equally involved with baseball and with music, according to his mother.” she said.
“Ari was here at a concert his mother was in with the Mondrian Ensemble when he was only three. He wanted to know why he was not up there performing. Currently, he has been winning competitions in NYC, has studied at the JCC School in Englewood since he was three, and is going to Manhattan School of Music on weekends to pursue violin instruction on scholarship. I thought we would have him down here to show his stuff,” said Barbara Beitel, Access to Art, Inc. Director. “ It might be an inspiration for young, aspiring musicians.” she said. His mother began her piano studies at 6, and won the NJ Symphony Award for young chamber musicians at 16. She has an MM in music from Juilliard.
Aurelia Mika Chang, pianist, will play with both Ari on the l0th of July, 8 p.m., at Our Lady of the Angel’s RC Church, and then with Sue Ann Kahn, flute on the 13th of July at 8 p.m. “ Sue Ann has been here twice before, appearing in the series, but she has not played with Mika. She is the daughter of the famous architect, Louis I. Kahn, and Mika is the daughter of Ching Yu Chang, also an architect in China, who worked for Kahn in his Philadelphia office. Louis Kahn also played the piano, given to him by the Fleisher Art Memorial when he was about 11. He could do wonderful improv, and he worked his way through college playing the piano in silent movies. He could go to the Philadelphia Orchestra, and come home and play Beethoven’s 9th by ear. Both Sue Ann and her parents attended University of Pennsylvania where she was summa cum laude. Sam Maitin’s older brother was also an architect, and he worked for Louis I. Kahn as well. His brother also served on the Settlement Music School board of directors. Sam, who began our festival, showed with Louis I. Kahn in Harrisburg, Pa. Maitin saved his works when he died penniless, and he got the Pennsylvania Legislature to buy his works for $500,000. which now reside in the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture where they are worth millions today. Louis I. Kahn, and Sam Maitin attended the University of Pennsylvania, and both taught there, so Kahn’s works are preserved close to home. “ Beitel said.
The flute and piano concert will feature works of Bach, Poulenc, Ibert and others.
Sue Ann Kahn was honored with one of the first Solo Recitalist Fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts in recognition of her outstanding gifts as a flutist and received the American New Music Consortium award for distinguished performances of contemporary music. She won the coveted Walter W. Naumberg Chamber Music Award as a founding member of the renowned Jubal Trio and she performs with the ISCM Chamber Players and other ensembles in major concert halls throughout the U.S.
She has received consistent critical acclaim for her recordings for CRI, Musical Heritage, MMG, Vox-Candide, New world and most recently the Mozart Flute Quartets for Albany Records. She teaches at
Columbia University and the Mannes School of Music in NYC.
Mika Chang, director of Access to Art’s Sam Maitin Chamber Music Festival, performs on three continents.
Tickets are $20. Adults, $15. Seniors, and $10. Students. Tickets are available at the door an hour preceding the 8 p.m. performances. Our Lady of the Angel’s RC Church is located at 33 Mechanic St., off the Garden State Parkway, below exit 10 in Cape May Court House. Call (609) 465-3963 to reserve. Check www.accesstoart.org for upcoming concerts. The final concert of the summer series will feature the full Mondrian Ensemble on Sept. 11 including Michael Ludwig, violin, Aurelia Mika Chang, piano, Anna Marie Ahn Petersen, viola, and John Koen, cello. They will perform something memorializing 9/11.