About The Chamber Music Festival
A Brief Chat with Catherine Cho, New CCMF Artistic Co-Director
By Susan Clifford
“When we drive down from New York City,” Catherine Cho muses, “one of my favorite moments is crossing into Maryland, rolling down my windows, and anticipating my warm reception from friends I have developed over 21 seasons with the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival.” She continues, “I am honored to be chosen new Artistic Co-Director and look forward to working with Marcy Rosen, protecting the essence of the Festival and support its continual growth and the development of its reach via energized programming and connections with the community.”
One of her thoughts is to create a Young People’s Concert, where young artists from some of the top conservatories in the world come to the Eastern Shore to play for students and young musicians in a free concert. “These fine young artists with international careers can share their artistry and experiences with local students and budding musicians to ignite their passion for music and sharing, and lend support for their dreams.”
She remarks that she is very interested in the fact that, next season, we are celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday, thus “you may hear some of his masterpieces at the Festival!”
Catherine replaces the outgoing Lawrie Bloom and lives in Brooklyn, NY with her devoted husband, Todd Phillips, and son Brandon. She is the stepmom of three, Lia, Eliza, and Jason. When she is away from her teaching and performances, you may find Catherine making soup in her crock pot, baking, practicing yoga, catching up with the New York Times, or creating crafts with her family.
Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival Wraps Up 2019 Season with Announcement of New Artistic Co-Director
Chesapeake Music has announced that violinist Catherine Cho has been named to replace clarinetist J. Lawrie Bloom as Artistic Co-Director of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival. Bloom retired from the position this year after collaborating with Marcy Rosen for 34 years directing the music for one of the nation’s most prestigious chamber music festivals, held in June each year on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Cho has been playing with the Festival for 19 years.
Catherine Cho is recognized for her remarkable virtuosity, combining technical mastery of her instrument with an extraordinary and distinctive musicality. Praised by “The New York Times” for her “sublime tone,” she has appeared worldwide as soloist with many orchestras and chamber ensembles as well as in recital at the Kennedy Center, Ravinia, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, 92nd St. Y, and Salzburg Mozarteum, among others. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degree from Juilliard where she studied with Dorothy DeLay, Felix Galimir, Franco Gulli, Ruggiero Ricci, and Michael Avsharian Jr. She has been a member of the school’s College faculty since 1999 and of the Pre-College faculty since 1996.
Cho is a member of the Johannes String Quartet and La Fenice and was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as top prizes in the Hanover Competition, Queen Elizabeth Competition, and Montreal International Competition. Her repertoire ranges from the traditional works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms to those of Bartók, Korngold, and Berg, in addition to music of our time.
She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Todd Phillips, and their son, Brandon.
Marcy Rosen states, “Cathy will bring new ideas, new visions and an infusion of excitement to our programming and approach. I am so happy to have the opportunity to work together in this way!”
This year’s Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival had great success in reaching even larger audiences at its venues in Easton, Oxford, and Cambridge. At the Festival’s Gala, held at the new Temple B’nai Israel in Easton, Bloom was honored for his years of service with a number of proclamations from Maryland local and state government bodies.
Artistic Directors for the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival
Marcy Rosen
Marcy Rosen has established herself as one of the more important and respected artists of our day. Los Angeles Times music critic Herbert Glass has called her “one of the intimate art’s abiding treasures” and The New Yorker Magazine calls her “a New York legend of the cello.” She has performed in recital and with orchestra throughout Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South America, Switzerland, and all fifty of the United States. Sought after for her riveting and informative Master Classes, she has been a guest of the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea and the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia.
2018 saw the release of two new recordings from Bridge Records: The Complete Works for Cello and Piano by Felix Mendelssohn with the pianist Lydia Artymiw, and the Sonatas of Richard Strauss and Edvard Grieg with pianist Susan Walters.
Ms. Rosen has collaborated with the world’s finest musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, Peter Serkin, Marc-Andre Hamelin and Isaac Stern, among others, and with the Juilliard, Johannes, Emerson, Daedelus and Orion Quartets. She is a founding member of La Fenice as well as the Mendelssohn String Quartet. With the Mendelssohn she was Artist-in-Residence at the North Carolina School of the Arts and for nine years served as Blodgett-Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University. Since first attending the Marlboro Festival in 1975, she has taken part in 25 “Musicians from Marlboro” tours and has performed in concerts celebrating the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the festival.
Since 1986, Ms. Rosen has been Artistic Director of Chesapeake Chamber Music in Maryland and she is an artist member of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Ms. Rosen is currently professor of cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, also serving as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Live concert series. She also serves on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City.
Marcy Rosen, Festival Artistic Director
Michael and Ella Bracy Cello Chair
Catherine Cho
Praised by the New York Times for her “sublime tone,” Catherine Cho has appeared worldwide as a soloist with many orchestras, including the National, Detroit, Buffalo, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, and Aspen Chamber Orchestras.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, she has performed at New York’s Lincoln Center, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Casals Hall in Tokyo, the Seoul Arts Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York 92nd Street Y, the Gardner Museum in Boston and at Ravinia in Chicago. With pianist Mia Chung, she has performed the complete cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas in the United States and Asia.
Ms. Cho has appeared at the Aspen, Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, and Santa Fe festivals, among others. She has also appeared regularly at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival since 1998. She is a founding member of the ensemble La Fenice and a former member of the Johannes String Quartet.
A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ms. Cho won top prizes at the Montreal, Hannover, and Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competitions. She has judged international competitions and taught master classes worldwide. She holds a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School, and she is a member of their violin and chamber music faculty as well as their Community Engagement Seminar. She has taught at numerous Workshops and symposia, and she is also on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program. Devoted to the cause of promoting peace through music, Ms. Cho was V.P. of the Board of Musicians for Harmony for several years.
She is an artist member of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities. Ms. Cho resides in Brooklyn with her husband, Todd Phillips, their son, Brandon, and their three cats, Orso, Livie, and Ella. She is the stepmom of Lia, Eliza, and Jason, and “Halmoni” (Korean grandma) to Baby Theo.
When she is not performing or teaching, she enjoys baking, practicing yoga, catching up with her booklist, gardening, and knitting!
Friday, June 4, 2021
the Mozart Piano Trio in G Major, K496
Thursday, June 10, 2021
the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Opus 115
The Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival completed its 34th year in 2019. Spy Newspapers of Maryland interviewed Don Buxton, Executive Director in 2017 to learn more about the founding of the Festival. See the complete article in The Spy.
In 2019, the Spy Newspapers of Maryland interviewed J. Lawrie Bloom. The topic: “Looking Back: Lawrie Bloom and 34 Years of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival.” See the complete article in The Spy.
Beethoven Sonata featuring Catherine Cho and Robert McDonald. June 4, 2019
