Chesapeake Music brings renowned musicians to delight, engage, and surprise today's audiences and educate, inspire, and develop tomorrow's.

Catherine Cho & Friends: Residency III

Saturday, April 17, 2027
7:30 p.m.

The Ebenezer Theater at Prager Family Center for the Arts
17 S Washington St, Easton, MD 21601

Catherine Cho & Friends is a trio of unique chamber residencies curated and led by Chesapeake Music Artistic Director Catherine Cho. Each residency features Catherine working and performing with different groups of outstanding young musicians, exploring and presenting programs that celebrate the richness and versatility of the chamber music repertoire. During each visit, these artists will deliver two days of community outreach & education events, followed by a culminating Saturday evening Interlude Series performance. These residencies offer audiences intimate and extraordinary musical experiences that showcase the artistry and versatility of a new generation of performers.

For Residency III, Catherine Cho (on viola) is joined by violinist Lun Li, cellist Sterling Elliott and pianist Albert Cano Smit.

Additional residency and concluding performance details will be announced soon.

PROMOTIONS

  • Season Subscription || All 5 Interlude performances, save 20% off ticket price
  • “Residency Series” Package || Feb, Mar, and Apr Interlude performances, save 15% off ticket price
  • Free tickets || Students (+1 accompanying adult), Teachers, Talbot County First Responders
  • 2-for-1/BOGO || First-time Chesapeake Music ticket buyers (must use promo code new2for1)
 
General Admission: $50 (+$5 ticket fee)

Violinist Lun Li is committed to creating thought-provoking, boundary-pushing concert experiences for contemporary audiences around the world. A native of Shanghai, China, he won the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, along with The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, and was named John French Violin Chair at YCA.

He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Bangor Symphony, Kennett Square Symphony, Colgate University Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, Meridian Symphony, the Salina Symphony, and the McCall Summer Festival Orchestra, as well as with the Brevard Philharmonic, Aiken Symphony, University of South Carolina Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, and the Riverside Symphony at Alice Tully Hall. Upcoming concerto appearances include the Kyoto Symphony and Osaka Symphony.

He made his New York recital debut at Merkin Concert Hall and his Washington, D.C. recital debut at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, both presented by Young Concert Artists. Recent recital and chamber music highlights include The Morgan Library & Museum, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Brookings Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Port Washington Library, Bay Chamber Concerts, Tippet Rise Art Center, as well as appearances with the Jupiter Chamber Players. He also collaborated with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Du Yun at the Asia Society in New York City.

In the upcoming season, Lun will be a featured artist on the opening night of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall. He is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Bowers Program and has toured extensively with the Society, including a recent tour in China.

Internationally, Lun has performed at Konzerthaus Berlin, Kulturpalast Dresden, and Wiener Konzerthaus. He has also toured with the Curtis Institute of Music and Musicians from Marlboro, appearing at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and the 92nd Street Y. 

A passionate chamber musician, Lun has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival Academy, Music@Menlo’s International Program, and Music from Angelfire. He has collaborated with artists including Kim Kashkashian, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Marcy Rosen, Steven Tenenbom, Peter Wiley, and members of the Calidore, Doric, and Miro Quartets.

Lun holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, a Master of Music degree and an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he served as teaching assistant to Catherine Cho. His principal mentors include Ida Kavafian, Catherine Cho, and Joseph Lin.

He performs on the Stradivarius “Samazeuilh” 1735 violin, on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

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. 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.

Catherine Cho’s orchestral engagements have included performances with the
Detroit and National Symphony orchestras, the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony, the Montreal, Edmonton, and National Arts Centre Orchestras in Canada, the Korean Broadcasting Symphony, the Barcelona Symphony, the Het Gelders Orkest in Holland, the Orchestra of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the Aspen Chamber Symphony. She has performed with the symphony orchestras of La Coruna and Mallorca in Spain; Caracas, Venezuela; and Daejon, Korea. Ms. Cho has toured Israel with the Haifa Symphony, and was the soloist on a concert tour in Japan and Korea with the Juilliard Orchestra and Hugh Wolff conducting. In 2002, she appeared as a special guest soloist with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center for two ballets by renowned choreographer Peter Martins
including the New York premiere of his ballet Viva Verdi. A regular guest
on tour with “Musicians from Marlboro”, Ms. Cho has also been a participant
in their summer Music Festival in Vermont since 1993. In January 1999 she
appeared as soloist with the Jeunesse Musicale World Orchestra including a
concert at the Berlin Philharmonie Hall, and was immediately re-invited to
be the soloist for a special New York concert at Riverside Church during the
orchestra’s North American concert tour in August 1999. Her collaborations with distinguished conductors include Mstislav Rostropovich, Robert Spano, Sixten Ehrling, Franz-Paul Decker, and Hugh Wolff.

In broadcasts heard around the world, Catherine Cho has appeared on such stations as Radio Frankfurt (Germany), CBC (Canada), WQXR (New York City), and National Public Radio. Ms. Cho’s concert performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in December 2000, with the Buffalo Philharmonic under the baton of Jo-Ann Falletta, was taped live and broadcast nationwide on PBS in January 2002. Her live recording of the Vivaldi Four Seasons with the Korean Chamber Ensemble was released in June 2003. She has also recorded works by Harbison, Lerdahl, and Moravec for Bridge Records.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Catherine Cho has performed on the
prestigious stages of Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society at New
York’s Lincoln Center, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Casals Hall in Tokyo,
the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the 92nd St. “Y”, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, and on Ravinia’s “Rising Stars” series in Chicago. In 2003, Ms. Cho opened the season in Seoul, Korea with performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas. She has appeared at the Aspen and Marlboro music festivals, as well as Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton, Eastern Shore, Rockport, Skaneateles, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals. She has participated in eleven Music from Marlboro tours, and is a founding member of the chamber ensemble, La Fenice. She was a member of the Johannes String Quartet from 2003-6.

Among her various awards, scholarships, and achievements, Ms. Cho was a
recipient of both the 1995 Avery Fisher Career Grant designed to recognize
outstanding American instrumentalists who exhibit strong potential for solo
careers, and Korea’s 1995 World Leaders of Tomorrow Award as presented by
the Korea Central Daily News in recognition of outstanding achievement and
commendable leadership in the Arts. She was the recipient of the 1994 Sony
ES Award for Musical Excellence; a top prize winner at the 1991 Hannover
International Violin Competition, the 1989 Queen Elizabeth Music Competition
of Belgium, the 1987 Montreal International Music Competition; and a 1988
Presidential Scholar in the Arts. In 1995, Catherine Cho served on the jury
of the Montreal International Violin Competition. In 1996, she was selected
for the Janet and Avery Fisher Music Residency Program at Goucher College.
Ms. Cho holds a Masters Degree from the Juilliard School where she studied
with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang, and coached chamber music with Felix
Galimir. Her former teachers include Ruggiero Ricci, Franco Gulli, and
Michael Avsharian. Now a member of the violin and chamber music faculty at the Juilliard School, Ms. Cho has also taught at the Starling-DeLay Symposium, Heifetz Institute, New York String Seminar, Seoul Music Festival and Academy, and the Perlman Music Program. Devoted to the cause of promoting peace through music, Catherine Cho is VP of the Board of Musicians For Harmony.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Catherine Cho gave her first public performance
at the age of four, and made her official concert debut at age eleven with
the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen, Denmark. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Todd Phillips, and their son, Brandon.

Acclaimed for his stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship, cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021
Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National
Sphinx Competition. Already in his young career, he has appeared with major orchestras such
as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland
Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony and the Dallas Symphony, with
noted conductors Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Thomas Wilkins, Jeffrey Kahane, Mei Ann Chen and
others.

In the 2024/2025 season Sterling Elliott debuts with the Atlanta Symphony, Reno Philharmonic,
Columbus Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony
and returns to the Wilmington Symphony. He joins the Madison Symphony for the Beethoven
Triple Concerto with Gil and Orli Shaham and returns to Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St.
Luke’s led by Louis Langree.

As the YCAT–Music Masters Robey Artist with the London-based Young Classical Artists Trust he
will Tour New Zealand in addition to appearances at Wigmore Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie,
Konzerthaus Berlin, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and others. This season he also begins
his tenure as a BBC New Generation Artist with radio appearances and more.
This season Mr. Elliott begins his three-year residency in the Bowers Program of the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center appearing with CMLSC at Alice Tully Hall and on tour
throughout the U.S.

During the 2023/2024 season Elliott debuted with the Minnesota Orchestra, Grand Rapids
Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Pacific Symphony, San Antonio Symphony and New Jersey
Symphony. He performed the world premiere of a new orchestral version of John Corigliano’s
Phantasmagoria, commissioned for him by a consortium of orchestras including the Orlando
Philharmonic and music director Eric Jacobsen. In Europe his appearances through the Young
Classical Artist Trust included his Wigmore Hall debut.

In Summer 2023, he made his orchestral debut with the San Francisco Symphony; performed
chamber music with Nicola Benedetti, Stefan Jackiw and others at the Edinburgh Festival; and
made a return appearance at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Sterling has a long history with the Sphinx Organization where he won the 2014 Junior Division
Competition, becoming the first alumnus from the Sphinx Performance Academy to win the
Sphinx Competition. The following year he went on to tour with the Sphinx Virtuosi before
being awarded the Organization’s Isaac Stern Award in 2016. Last season, Sterling received the
Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, awarded
to artists who, early in their career, demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a
spirit of determination, and an ongoing commitment to leadership and their communities.
Born into a musical household, Sterling initially wanted to play the violin like his older brother
and sister. After a bit of encouragement, he completed The Elliott Family String Quartet, an
ensemble that enjoyed personalized arrangements of genres such as bluegrass, gospel, and
funk music.

Sterling is pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick
and Clara Kim, following completion of his Master of Music and undergraduate degrees at
Juilliard. He is an ambassador of the Young Strings of America, a string sponsorship operated by
Shar Music. He performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith
Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.

Praised as “a moving young poet” (Le Devoir), Spanish-Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit is building a rapidly growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Winner of the 2019 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, Cano Smit is renowned for his captivating performances, storytelling artistry, and nuanced musicality.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Montréal Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Elgin Symphony, Aiken Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Barcelona Symphony, Catalonia National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Nottingham Youth Orchestra, and the American Youth Symphony, with upcoming performances with the Colorado Symphony and Virginia Symphony. His collaborations have included work with
conductors such as Andrew Grams, Katharina Wincor, Pablo Rus Broseta, Ryan Bancroft, and Stephanie Childress.

Recital highlights include his Carnegie Hall debut presented by The Naumburg Foundation, his Merkin Hall debut presented by Young Concert Artists, and appearances at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton (streamed live globally), the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C., Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana Auditorium, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música (Sala de Cámara), and return engagements with the Steinway Society in San Jose and the Miami International Piano Festival. He has also been presented by Festival Bach Montréal, the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., University of Florida Performing Arts, the Krannert Center in Urbana, and Matinée Musicale in Cincinnati. In addition, he has held a seven-year residency at France’s Festival de Musique de Wissembourg, served as a piano fellow at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Tippet Rise Art Center, and made his recital debut in Asia at Xiamen’s Banlam Grand Theater.

A devoted chamber musician, Cano Smit performs regularly with flutist Anthony Trionfo and has partnered with violinists Paul Huang and William Hagen, with whom he recorded the album Danse Russe. His recordings also include an album of Austrian viola music with Emma Wernig for Champs Hill Records. He has performed four-hand repertoire with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Wallis Annenberg Center and Zipper Hall, appeared with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and collaborated with distinguished artists including Gary Hoffman, Andrej Bielow, Thomas Mesa, and Lev Sivkov. His ensemble work includes performances with leading string quartets such as the Ebene, Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, Gerhard, Verona, and Viano Quartets. Upcoming chamber engagements include a performance for Manchester Friends of Music.

Cano Smit made his debut solo recording of J.S. Bach’s Art of the Fugue on the French label Aparté. Released in March 2025, the album received critical acclaim, earning the top rating of five Diapasons from Diapason magazine.

An advocate for new music, he has premiered numerous solo works written for him by Stephen Hough, Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. In addition to his YCA triumph, he won First Prize at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition and received several special prizes at the 2019 YCA Auditions, including the Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize supporting his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ).

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Cano Smit began his musical training at Montserrat mountain’s Escolanía de Montserrat choir, where he sang as an alto, before pursuing piano studies with Graham Caskie, Marta Karbownicka, and Ory Shihor. He is an alum of the Verbier Festival Academy and holds a BA in Piano Performance from the Colburn School and an MM from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Robert McDonald. At Juilliard, he received the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano and recently completed an Artist Diploma. He currently resides in New York City.

Please make note of the following additional information:

  • All programs, artists, and events may be subject to change.
  • Cell phones and other electronic devices should be switched off prior to (and for the duration of) the performance.
  • Photography and/or recording during the performance is strictly prohibited.
  • Performances may be recorded and/or photographed by Chesapeake Music, and your attendance is considered consent to be photographed/recorded.
  • Patrons who arrive after the start of the concert will be seated between movements or pieces at the discretion of the ushers.
  • Outside food and drink is not permitted in the hall.
  • Chesapeake Music will endeavor to make ice cold water available to all patrons prior to the concert and at intermission.
  • Contact information for any questions and concerns: info@chesapeakemusic.org

Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and the concert is expected to last between 1.5–2 hours, inclusive of a short intermission.

Yes! There are several discount/promotion offers:

  • Students are eligible for Free/Pay-what-you-can tickets. An accompanying parent can join a student for just $10 by using promo code parent10 during the checkout process.
  • Educators and Talbot County First Responders are also eligible for Free/Pay-what-you-can tickets.
  • New patrons to Chesapeake Music (those who have never attended a Chesapeake Music event) can receive a 2-for-1 offer with promo code new2for1 during the checkout process. This offer is limited — one-time only.

All purchases are completed digitally, with tickets also being sent digitally to your email. Please double-check your spam/junk folder for your tickets. We do not mail physical tickets. If you misplace your digital tickets by email, please contact info@chesapeakemusic.org and we can resend them to you. If you are unable to present a copy of your digital ticket when arriving at the venue, our ushers will have a full ticket purchase list and can manually admit you.

Chesapeake Music is typically unable to offer refunds or cancellations, but we invite you to get in touch with us at info@chesapeakemusic.com if an emergency arises and you can no longer use your ticket(s).

The Ebenezer Theater at Prager Family Center for the Arts seats approximately 160 visitors — 115 on the main floor level and 45 in the balcony. All seats have unobstructed views. General admission is unreserved, though you may find a small handful of seats reserved for concerts sponsors and musicians’ hosts when visiting the theater.

There is elevator access from the street-level lobby up to the main seating area. The balcony is accessible by stairs only. The lobby does not have seating, so guests are encouraged to not arrive prior to the “doors open” time noted on their tickets.

If there are further questions or concerns regarding mobility and accessibility at the venue, please do not hesitate to reach out to info@chesapeakemusic.org.