NY Philharmonic Musicians To Perform at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joined by Guest Pianist Yefim Bronfman, 1/17

Musicians from the New York Philharmonic will perform chamber works by Mozart, Ravel, and Brahms at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sunday, January 17, 2010, at 2:30 p.m. They will be joined by guest pianist Yefim Bronfman. 
 
The program will comprise Mozart’s Duo for Violin and Viola in G major, featuring Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples and PrincipAl Viola Cynthia Phelps; Ravel’s String Quartet, performed by Ms. Staples, Assistant Concertmaster Michelle Kim, Ms. Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey; and Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, with Ms. Staples and Ms. Kim, violin; Ms. Phelps, viola; Mr. Brey, cello; and Yefim Bronfman, piano.   
 
These collaborations with The Metropolitan Museum of Art feature Philharmonic musicians alongside guest artists who are appearing with the Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. Bronfman is performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonic on January 7–8 and 12, and again in January–February on the Orchestra’s Europe/Winter 2010 tour. The next New York Philharmonic chamber concert at The Metropolitan Museum will take place on Sunday, May 9, 2010, at 2:30 p.m., and will feature Philharmonic musicians joined by guest pianist Alexei Volodin.
 
Carter Brey was appointed Principal Cello (The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair) of the New York Philharmonic in 1996 and has since performed as soloist with the Orchestra each season. His honors include the Rostropovich International Cello Competition, Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize, Avery Fisher Career Grant, and Young Concert Artists’ Michaels Award; he was the first musician to win the Arts Council of America’s Performing Arts Prize. Mr. Brey has appeared as soloist with virtually all of the major American orchestras, performing under the batons of conductors Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, and Christoph von Dohnányi. He has collaborated regularly with the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets, in the Spoleto Festivals in the United States and in Italy, and in the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music Festivals. His most recent recording is of Chopin’s complete cello-and-piano works with Garrick Ohlsson. Mr. Brey was educated at the Peabody Institute and at Yale University, where he was a Wardwell Fellow and a Houpt Scholar. His cello is a rare J.B. Guadagnini made in Milan in 1754.
 
Pianist Yefim Bronfman appears regularly with major ensembles throughout the world and all the leading conductors. Summers have regularly taken him to festivals from Aspen and Tanglewood to Bad Kissingen and Verbier. He has also given numerous solo recitals in the leading halls of North America, Europe, and the Far East. Highlights of Mr. Bronfman’s 2009–10 season include performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Cleveland orchestras; London Philharmonia; and a recital tour in Japan, Rome, Vienna, Warsaw, and North America, culminating at Carnegie Hall, where he will appear with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. Mr. Bronfman received a Grammy Award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók piano concertos. His most recent releases include Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; a recital disc, Perspectives; recordings of the Beethoven piano concertos with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, led by David Zinman; Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor, with violinist Gil Shaham and cellist Truls Mørk; and a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players. Mr. Bronfman last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in September 2008, performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, conducted by Lorin Maazel. He will perform the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic, led by Alan Gilbert, on January 7–8 and 12, 2010, on the Europe/Winter 2010 tour to Europe in January–February 2010.
 
Violinist Michelle Kim has been Assistant Concertmaster (The William Petschek Family Chair) of the New York Philharmonic since 2001. She has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony. An active chamber musician, Ms. Kim has collaborated with violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Christian Tetzlaff, and Pinchas Zukerman; cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Lynn Harrell, and Gary Hoffman; and pianists Lang Lang and Yefim Bronfman. She has performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music, La Jolla Chamber Music, Strings in the Mountain, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music festivals. She has also served as the first violinist of the Rossetti String Quartet, and was a Sterne Virtuoso Artist at Skidmore College in 2007–08. A former Presidential Scholar, Ms. Kim attended the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music as a Starling Foundation scholarship recipient. She has been a member of the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music; Colburn School of Performing Arts; and University of California–Santa Barbara. Michelle Kim currently teaches at Mannes College of Music.
 
Cynthia Phelps is the New York Philharmonic’s PrincipAl Viola (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair). Highlights of her solo appearances with the Orchestra have included performances on the 2006 Tour of Italy, sponsored by Generali, and the 1999 premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Two Paths, which the Orchestra commissioned for her and Philharmonic Associate PrincipAl Viola Rebecca Young. Other solo engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. Ms. Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, and Boston Chamber Music Society. She has toured internationally with the Zukerman and Friends Ensemble; has appeared with the Guarneri, American, Brentano, and Prague string quartets, and The Kalichstein-Laredo- Robinson Trio; and has given recitals in the music capitals of Europe and the U.S. Ms. Phelps’s honors include the Pro Musicis International Award and first prize in the Lionel Tertis InternationAl Viola and the Washington International String competitions. Her most recent recording, Air, for flute, viola, and harp on Arabesque, was nominated for a Grammy Award. She has performed on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, NPR, Radio France, and RAI in Italy.
 
Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster (The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair) in 1998, and made her solo debut with the Orchestra in 1999. Previously she was the associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra and concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony and Santa Barbara Chamber orchestras. She has appeared as soloist with more than 40 orchestras, including The Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ms. Staples has participated in the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Brightstar, Martha’s Vineyard, and Seattle chamber music festivals, and has been a faculty artist at the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Sarasota music festivals. She was a member of The Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio, and now performs with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles and the Lyric Chamber Music Society. She was a scholarship student at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Young Musicians Foundation Scholar, and W.M. Keck Scholar at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, spending summers at the Encore School for Strings. She earned an artist diploma from the University of Southern California. Ms. Staples is on the faculty of The Juilliard School, where she teaches orchestral excerpts. She performs on the “Kartman” Guarnerius del Gesù, ca. 1728.