UPCOMING INTERLUDE CONCERT
Hesper Quartet with Ying Li (piano)
Sunday, April 27, 2025, 2:00 PM
The Hesper Quartet will be making their return to the Ebenezer Theater after winning a Silver Prize in the 11th Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition in 2024. The quartet formed in 2022 at the Emerson String Quartet Institute at Stony Brook University. The ensemble takes its name from Hesperus — the “evening star” and Greek mythological personification of Venus in the early night sky — embracing their roles as leaders and storytellers. The quartet will be joined by pianist Ying Li, First Prize winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as recipient of The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize.
FULL ARTIST BIOS & SAMPLE PERFORMANCES
Hesper Quartet
The Hesper Quartet, a Korean-American string quartet based in New York City, takes its name from Hesperus, the “evening star” and Greek mythological personification of Venus in the early night sky, capturing our roles as leaders and storytellers.
In 2024, the Hesper Quartet swept silver medals at the Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition, Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Lyon International String Quartet Competition, and the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. They were also awarded the “Special Prize of Encouragement” by the Artsylvia Foundation in South Korea. In 2023, the Hespers were awarded first prize at the Fanny Mendelssohn International Competition, the Servaas International Music Competition, and were selected for the Lauren V. Ackerman Prize at Stony Brook University.
Summer festival appearances include the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in both 2023 and 2024, the McGill International String Quartet Academy, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar. They have performed at a variety of venues including Stanford University’s Bing Concert Hall, Capitol Theatre Windsor, Staller Center for the Arts, Temple Beth El, and the JeJu Cultural Arts Center in South Korea and have have had the pleasure of collaborating with renowned artists such as Chiho Han, Lawrence Dutton, Hsin–Yun Huang, Peter Wiley, and Shai Wosner.
The Hesper Quartet was formed in 2022 at Stony Brook University’s Emerson String Quartet Institute. Its current members, violinists Valerie Kim and Yejin Yoon, violist Sohui Yun, and cellist Connor Kim, hold degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and Yale University.
Ying Li, piano
Chinese pianist Ying Li is the First Prize Winner of the 2021 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as recipient of The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize. She has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions including the inaugural Antonio Mormone International Prize, Sarasota Artist Series Piano Competition, Brevard Music Festival, International Liszt Piano Competition for Young Pianists, and was a finalist at Concours musical international de Montréal.
Ying has performed with many leading orchestras such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Brevard Music Festival Orchestra, L’Accademia Orchestra del La Scala, NWD-Philharmoniker, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic with conductors such as Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Xian Zhang, Dan Ettinger, Eric Jacobsen, and Jonathon Heyward. During the 24-25 season, Ying will make appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Aiken Symphony, and the Salisbury Symphony, among others.
Ying made her New York City recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in the Peter Marino Concert and her Washington, D.C. debut at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, with additional US recitals at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore, Sunday Musicale in New Jersey, Southeastern Piano Festival, and the Honest Brook Music Festival.
Recent recitals engagements include Sala Verdi in Milan, Hammerklavier International Piano Festival in Barcelona, Musica Insieme Bologna, Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Fazioli Pianoforti in Sacile, and the C. Bechstein Series at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. Ying was also featured on WQXR’s “Eine-kleine Birthday-musik,” a free, all-Mozart live streamed concert from The Greene Space in New York City, to celebrate Mozart’s 266th birthday.
As an avid chamber musician, Ying has appeared at prestigious festivals around the world including the Verbier Festival Academy, ClassicheFORME International Chamber Music festival in Lecce, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, La Jolla Music Society, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Artists Series Concerts in Sarasota, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.
Ying began piano lessons at age five in China, and was a student at the Elementary School division of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, then she moved to Philadelphia in 2012, at age fourteen, to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jonathan Biss and Seymour Lipkin. After receiving the Bachelor of Music at Curtis Institute in 2019, she received her Master of Music at The Juilliard School in New York with Robert McDonald, and continues her studies with McDonald at The Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma Program.
CONCERT PROGRAM
subject to change
1913–1976
Three Divertimenti for String Quartet
I. March (Allergo maestoso)
II. Waltz (Allegretto)
III. Burlesque (Presto)
1824–1884
String Quartet No. 1 (“From My Life”)
I. Allegro vivo appassionato
II. Allegro moderato à la Polka
III. Largo sostenuto
IV. Vivace
Intermission
Dmitri Shostakovich
1906-1975
Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57
I. Prelude (Lento — Poco più mosso — Lento)
II. Fugue (Adagio)
III. Scherzo (Allegretto)
IV. Intermezzo (Lento)
V. Finale (Allergretto)
