Edward Arron & Friends to open 2016-17 Chamber Music Series at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County

The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County (FAC) brings Edward Arron & Friends to Camden as the opening concert for its 2016-17 Chamber Music Series. The first of a three-part Chamber Music Series, Edward Arron & Friends will be held on Friday, October 28 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wood Auditorium. A cocktail reception will be held from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in the Bassett Gallery just prior to the concert. The concert will feature selections by Johan Halvorsen, Leoš Janá?ek, Frédéric Chopin, and Felix Mendelssohn. Concert-goers have the option of purchasing a Chamber Music Series Package for $75 which includes all three Chamber Music concerts. The other Chamber Music concerts include Decoda Cello Quartet with Hamilton Berry, Claire Bryant, Yves Dharamraj, and Caitlin Sullivan scheduled for Wednesday, January 25, 2017; and Chamber Music Southeast with Phillip Bush (piano), Claire Bryant (cello), Ari Streisfield (violin), and Rachel Calloway (vocals), set for Thursday, April 2, 2017. Individual concert tickets are $30 adult advance, $35 adult day of, and $15 for students. The 2016-17 Chamber Music Series is sponsored by The Frederick S. Upton Foundation, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Tom & Virginia Ann Mullikin, and Van Horn Insurance.

• About Edward Arron & Friends
Cellist Edward Arron has garnered recognition worldwide for his musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, OH, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

In 2013, Mr. Arron completed a 10-year residency as the artistic director of the critically acclaimed Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Currently, he is the artistic director, host, and resident performer of the Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, CT, as well as the Festival Series in Beaufort, SC and Chamber Music on Main at the Columbia Museum in Columbia, SC. Additionally, Mr. Arron curates a series, Edward Arron and Friends, at the Caramoor International Music Festival, and is the co-artistic director along with his wife, pianist Jeewon Park, of the new Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.

Mr. Arron has performed numerous times at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls, New York’s Town Hall, and the 92nd Street Y, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic. Festival appearances include Ravinia, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Bravo! Vail, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, Seattle Chamber Music, Kuhmo (Finland), PyeongChang, Charlottesville, Telluride Musicfest, Seoul Spring, Lake Champlain Chamber Music, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and Bard Music Festival. He has participated in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project as well as Isaac Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters.

Edward Arron is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro. Mr. Arron joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2016, and has served on the faculty of New York University since 2009.

Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura and profound musicianship.

Born in Strasbourg, France and based now in New York City, Arnaud Sussmann trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and the Juilliard School with Boris Garlitsky and Itzhak Perlman. He is a thrilling young musician attracting attention for his unmatched sound, and makes debuts this season with the Vancouver Symphony on Brahms Concerto with Cristian Macelaru, Pacific Symphony on Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 with Carl St. Clair, and Alabama Symphony on Brahms Concerto with Carlos Izcaray, amongst other orchestras. He performs Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a Czech-themed recital program with pianist Michael Brown at Columbia University’s Italian Academy Teatro in New York.

Highlights of Sussman’s 2015-16 season included debuts with New World Symphony under Cristian Macelaru, Jacksonville Symphony under Courtney Lewis and Grand Rapids Symphony under Marcelo Lehninger. Abroad, Sussmann played Brahms Double Concerto with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem in Tel Aviv with cellist Gary Hoffman, and played in and directed the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris at the Philharmonie de Paris and at the Besançon International Music Festival in France. He has appeared previously with the American Symphony Orchestra, Stamford Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Minnesota Sinfonia, Jerusalem Symphony and the Nice Orchestra in France.

Sussmann has performed with many of today’s leading artists including Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Gary Hoffman, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Wu Han, David Finckel, Jan Vogler, and members of the Emerson String Quartet. A dedicated chamber musician, he has been a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2006 and regularly appears with them in New York and on tour.

American pianist Adam Neiman is hailed as one of the premiere pianists of his generation, praised for possessing a truly rare blend of power, bravura, imagination, sensitivity, and technical precision. With an established international career and an encyclopedic repertoire that spans more than sixty concerti, Neiman has performed as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Belgrade, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Slovenia, Umbria, and Utah, as well as with the New York Chamber Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C. He has collaborated with many of the world’s celebrated conductors, including Jiri Belohlavek, Giancarlo Guerrero, Theodor Gushlbauer, Carlos Kalmer, Uros Lajovic, Yoël Levi, Andrew Litton, Rossen Milanov, Heichiro Ohyama, Peter Oundjian, Leonard Slatkin, and Emmanuel Villaume.

An acclaimed recitalist, Neiman has performed in most of the major cities and concert halls throughout the United States and Canada. His European solo engagements have brought him to Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan, where he made an eight-city tour culminating in his debut at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

Neiman’s recent activities include a monumental solo recital tour of North America pairing Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, and Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106, and he subsequently recorded those works for release on Sono Luminus in 2017. Neiman will release a triple-disc set consisting of the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes and Études-Tableaux, due for release on Aeolian Classics in 2017. Additionally, audiences may stay tuned for a 2017 DVD release of the complete Liszt Transcendental Études, live in Los Angeles, for Aeolian Classics.

Neiman joined the full time piano faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, earning the position of Assistant Professor of Piano in 2015. He is also the founder and CEO of Aeolian Classics, LLC, a new record label and music publishing company.

• About the Series
The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County’s Chamber Music Series consists of three performances in the FAC’s Wood Auditorium. An annual staple of FAC programming, the series continues to draw attention for its world-class performances. Edward Arron and Friends will perform for students from Kershaw County in the Wood Auditorium the morning of the evening’s performance. The musicians will engage the young audience members throughout the concert, encouraging them to listen, to think, and to provide feedback for a truly interactive concert experience. This performance is made possible through a partnership with the Kershaw County School District.

For more information or tickets call 803-425-7676 extension 300 or visit the FAC website at www.fineartscenter.org. The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County is located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden. Box office hours are Monday through Wednesday and Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and Thursday 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

The Fine Arts Center is funded in part by the Frederick S. Upton Foundation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the City of Camden, Kershaw County, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina along with donations from businesses and individuals.