September Prelude Chamber Music Festival of the Triangle

DATE: Sunday, September 12 2004 3 PM

SITE: Long View Center, Raleigh   Map 

TICKETS: Combination package - Sept. 10 & Sept. 12 concerts -$30; Students, $15. Single tickets -$20, $10

(919) 821 2030 or (919) 684-4444.
Tickets for the Sept. 12 concert are also available via TicketWeb.

PROGRAM

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The Miró Quartet is increasingly recognized as one of America’s brightest and most exciting young chamber groups. Since winning First Prize at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 2000, the Miró Quartet has captivated audiences around the world, dazzling listeners with its youthful intensity and mature interpretations. Formed in the fall of 1995, the Quartet met with immediate success, winning the First Prize at the 50th annual Coleman Chamber Music Competition in April 1996, and the following month taking both the First and Grand prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

This year the quartet was appointed Faculty String Quartet at The University of Texas at Austin. Starting in September 2003, the members of the Miró Quartet –violinists Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele – will teach and coach chamber music there, while continuing their active international touring schedule. With this appointment, The University of Texas at Austin joins an elite group of institutions whose faculties include a world-class string quartet.

Amadi Hummings, violist, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., including an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court. In recent seasons, Mr. Hummings has been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has also appeared in recital at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, on the "Discovery" recital series in La Jolla, as a guest artist at the 1993 International Viola Congress, and at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since then, he has performed in Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan, and throughout the Caribbean. He has also collaborated with such artists as Awadagin Pratt, Mitsuko Uchida, Andras Schiff, Nobuko Imai, David Soyer, and Felix Galimir.

As a concerto soloist, Mr. Hummings has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Salisbury Symphony, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, the City Island Baroque Ensemble of New York, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and at the Costa Rica International Music Festival. He has also performed at the Marlboro, Sarasota, Tanglewood, Aspen, Norfolk, and San Juan Festivals, the El Paso International Chamber Music Festival, the Salt Bay Chamber Festival in Maine, as well as the Prussia Cove festival in England. Mr. Hummings' performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio's "Performance Today", "St. Paul Sunday", on WNYC in New York, WGBH in Boston, and WFMT in Chicago, along with television appearances in Israel and South America. Among Mr. Hummings' prizes awards are those from the New York Philharmonic, Concert Artists Guild, the North Carolina Symphony, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Epstein Young Artists Award from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, with whom he still maintains a strong artistic and mentoring association.

In recent seasons, Mr. Hummings has appeared as guest artist with the Chester String Quartet, and as soloist in Penderecki’s Viola Concerto with the North Carolina Symphony. He also continued his activities as a member of the Concertante Chamber Players and as a member of Innuendo, a group comprised of members of the Boston and Pittsburgh symphonies, and conductor/pianist Keith Lockhart. He also served as principal violist of the Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra for the 2000 Winter Festival, on the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Session, the Brevard Music Center, the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, the Sierra Music Festival, and the Aria International Summer Academy in London, Ontario. He also made appearances as soloist with the Virginia Symphony, in recital for the Hong Kong Chamber Music Society, Hong Kong University, and gave a master class at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. He also appeared with the Harrington, Corigliano, and St. Lawrence Quartets. Upcoming performances in 2003-2004 include the Walton Concerto with the Roanoke Symphony, recitals in Pittsburgh and New York, and appearances at the Brevard Music Center and the Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival. He will also continue to perform school residencies throughout Virginia under the auspices of Young Audiences of Virginia. In addition to an active performing schedule, Mr. Hummings is the Director of Program Development for the Gateways Music Festival. From 1994-2000, Mr. Hummings was on the faculty of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he taught violin and viola, and conducted the Old Dominion University Chamber Orchestra.

A native of New York City, Amadi Hummings was born in 1969. After early studies with his mother, he began his formal training at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Sally Peck. He continued his studies at the New England Conservatory with Marcus Thompson. Mr. Hummings was also awarded the Performer's Certificate from Indiana University, where he served as an Associate Instructor, and received his Master's degree in 1994 as a student of Atar Arad.

Artist Website: Miró Quartet   Artist Website: Amadi Hummings