Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County to Present Chamber Music Concert

Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County presents final concert of the 2014-15 Chamber Music Series featuring Decoda with Clair Bryant

CAMDEN, SC – The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County (FAC) will end its 2014-15 Chamber Music Series on Friday, April 9 when the luscious sounds of strings combine with the deep sounds of the bassoon as Decoda with Claire Bryant take the stage at 7:00 p.m. in the Wood Auditorium. Enjoy works for solo bassoon and strings by Decoda’s own Brad Balliett; Brahms’ string sextet in G major; as well as Strauss’ Metamorphosen for string septet. The concert will be preceded by a cocktail reception with light hors d’oeuvres provided by Carolina Café at 6:00 p.m. The 2014-15 Chamber Music Series is sponsored by The Frederick S. Upton Foundation, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch-Kohn Spring Group, Tom & Virginia Ann Mullikin and Kennedy Insurance Agency. Tickets are $30 Adult Advance, $35 Adult Day Of, and $15 for students.

• About Decoda
Decoda’s engagements have included performances at the Mainly Mozart Festival (San Diego), Bay Chamber Concerts (Maine), in the UK at the Southbank Centre and the Barbican (London), Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), Chelsea Music Festival (NYC), Carnegie Kids @ Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Festival (UAE), Við Djúpið Festival (Iceland), Programa de Educación Musical Fomento Cultural Banamex & Carnegie Hall (Mexico), and the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase. Since 2011, Decoda has participated in Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections Program, undertaking creative projects at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Beth Abraham Hospital, Clinton High School in Bronx, NY and Valley Lodge Shelter. Their NYC offerings this season included performances at Kosciuszko Foundation, the Tertulia Chamber Music Series, and an interactive family concert at 92nd Street Y. In addition to concerts, Decoda returned this season to create projects with partners in Abu Dhabi, Mexico, South Carolina, Purchase College (NY,) Lawrence University (WI,) and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. New partnerships this season will take Decoda to Vassar College (NY,) Bowling Green State University (OH,) Impromptu Classical Concerts in Key West, and Curiosity Concerts in Greenwich (CT.)

• The Artists
Owen Dalby (viola) — Praised as “dazzling” (The New York Times,) “expert and versatile” (The New Yorker,) and “a fearless and inquisitive violinist” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Owen Dalby leads a rich musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, new and early music expert, orchestral concertmaster, and educator. As the newest member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Owen will live and work starting in 2015 in the San Francisco bay area as Senior Lecturer and artist-in-residence at Stanford University. Upcoming projects include a tour of Europe in John Adams’s Absolute Jest with MTT and the San Francisco Symphony and recitals on the major series from the USA and Canada.

Owen is a co-founder of Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and also the concertmaster of Novus NY, the contemporary music orchestra of Trinity Wall Street. He made his Lincoln Center debut in 2010 with Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and that same year gave the world premiere of Look Around You, a one-man double concerto by Timo Andres for solo violin and viola, with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. For the past decade Owen has appeared frequently with leading groups in and around New York City such as Ensemble ACJW, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, the Locrian Chamber Players, and the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble. He can also be heard as soloist and leader on baroque violin with New York Baroque Inc., Clarion Music Society, and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Choir.

Anna Elashvili (violin) — Anna Elashvili, hailed as “riveting” by The New York Times, and “maintaining ferocious accuracy” by Alex Ross in The New Yorker, has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster in major halls around the world. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Lynn Harrell, Dawn Upshaw, Daniel Hope and Maxim Vengerov.

In 2006, Ms. Elashvili was nominated for the prestigious program, Ensemble ACJW– a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute. As a fellow and an alumna, she concertized and coached in Mexico, Germany, and the USA. Anna is the first violinist of the Bryant Park Quartet and a member of Decoda. As a member of BPQ and Decoda, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, for the World Food Prize Laureate Ceremony as well as in England and Iceland. Anna also enjoys her ongoing collaborations with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and the Mark Morris Dance Group. She has served for 12 years on the violin faculty at the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC.

Nathan Schram (viola) — Hailed by The New York Times as an “elegant soloist” with a sound “devotional with its liquid intensity,” Nathan Schram is a violist in the cutting-edge chamber collective, Decoda as well as the violist of the Bryant Park Quartet. Schram performs with an array of adventurous ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, ACME, New York Baroque Incorporated, Le Train Bleu, and the Wordless Orchestra. He is also a founding member of the string trio Speed Bump, an ensemble devoted to improvising within the jazz medium and performing their own compositions. Nathan’s musical arrangements for various ensembles have been heard in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Schram won first prize in the 2008 ASTA National Solo Competition and was a prizewinner in the 2007 Primrose International Viola competition. He studied at Indiana University and at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia.

Meena Bhasin (viola) — Bhasin is a captivating violist who is forging a new role for the classical musician. She is passionate about using music to spark cultural dialog. In recent seasons, Ms. Bhasin has designed Carnegie Hall residencies in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi collaborating with musicians and students from both cities. In r home town of New York City, Ms. Bhasin is a member of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, principal violist for Trinity Wall Street’s NOVUS NY, a frequent performer with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic. She also relishes collaborations across genres and has toured the US as a soloist with legendary rock band Jethro Tull and performed Persian music as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Bhasin graduated as a Presser scholar from New England Conservatory and also holds a BA in international relations from Tufts University.

Caitlin Sullivan (cello) — Caitlin Sullivan is a chamber, orchestral, and contemporary music performer based in New York City. Recognized as having “the understanding and emotional projection of a true artist” by the New York Concert Review, Ms. Sullivan is a member of The Knights as well as Decoda, a chamber music collective recently named the first-ever affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall. As a member of Decoda, Ms. Sullivan has helped to lead educational outreach projects in South Africa and Japan, as well as curate a chamber music performance, “Line and Expression,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a member of the Knights, Ms. Sullivan has traveled extensively in the US and abroad, performing with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Bela Fleck, the Joshua Redman Quartet, and many others. She is also a member of the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis, TN, and made her debut as a soloist with that orchestra in the 2013-14 season. Ms. Sullivan has performed with other acclaimed ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Ensemble Signal, Argento Chamber Ensemble, and the Wordless Music Orchestra, which she recently traveled with to Australia to perform the music of Max Richter.

Claire Bryant (cello) — New York City-based cellist Claire Bryant enjoys an active and diverse career as a leading performer of chamber music, contemporary music, and the solo cello repertoire in premiere venues such as Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Suntory Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Barbican Centre. Ms. Bryant is a founding member of the acclaimed chamber music collective, Decoda, an Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and is the Principal Cellist of Trinity Wall Street’s chamber orchestra, Novus NY. Ms. Bryant has collaborated closely with artists such as Daniel Hope, Anthony Marwood, Emanuel Ax, Sir Simon Rattle, Dawn Upshaw, and the Weilerstein Trio, Saint Lawrence String Quartet, and the Danish String Quartet. Ms. Bryant is a frequent guest artist with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band and Ensemble ACJW, of which she is an alumna.

Ms. Bryant has appeared as a soloist with orchestras from South Carolina to California, and Honduras to Finland performing concertos of Haydn, Elgar, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens and Vivaldi, among others. Recent festival appearances include the Barbican Weekender Festival (UK), Festspiele Mecklenburg – Vorpommern (DE), Danish String Quartet Musikfest (DK), Carnegie Kids at Suntory Hall (JA), Mainly Mozart Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, Bennington Chamber Music Conference, Lincoln Center Festival, and Carnegie Hall’s Making Music Series (USA).

Ms. Bryant is equally engaged as an educator and advocate for inclusive arts in our society. Her international body of work in these areas was recognized in 2010 with The Robert Sherman Award for outstanding innovation in community outreach and music education by the McGraw Hill Companies. In 2009, Ms. Bryant founded a community residency project through chamber music in her native South Carolina called “Claire Bryant and Friends.” This endeavor brings world-class artists to communities for weeklong residencies which go beyond the concert hall – bringing engaging pedagogy and performances into the public schools, advocacy forums supporting arts education, and community concerts and creative projects in diverse and innovative venues including hospitals, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities.

She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where her primary teachers were Bonnie Hampton and Joel Krosnick. She was in the pilot class of The Academy — A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and Weill Music Institute and served as an Assistant Faculty for Professor Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School from 2007-2012.

Kristoffer Saebo (bass) — Saebo leads a versatile musical life in New York City. His roles regularly include: recording artist, soloist, bass guitarist, chamber musician, orchestral bassist , composer/arranger, and teaching artist. He is an active member of Decoda, New York Classical Players, Solisti Ensemble, The Chris Norman Ensemble and performs regularly with A Far Cry, Ensemble ACJW, Wordless Music Orchestra, Cygnus Ensemble, and subs on the broadway show Matilda. Kris has worked with artists such as Sir Simon Rattle, Dawn Upshaw, Jamey Haddad, and Nas. Mr. Saebo He received his bachelor and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where his teachers were Orin O’Brien and Homer Mensch. Mr. Saebo is also an alum of Ensemble ACJW, The Academy, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute.

Brad Balliett (bassoon) — New York City-based bassoonist and composer Brad Balliett is gaining a reputation for unusual and thought-provoking programming, performance and composition. In addition to performing with Decoda, Brad is principal bassoon of the Princeton Symphony, and performs regularly with Metropolis Ensemble, Ensemble Signal, and Ensemble ACJW. Festival performances include Marlboro, Tanglewood, June in Buffalo, Newport Jazz Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommen, and the Lucerne Festival, where he was an Academy Spotlight Artist in composition. Formerly acting principal of the Hartford Symphony, Brad has also appeared as principal bassoon with the Houston Symphony and American Ballet Theater, and has performed with the New York City Ballet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Anthony Braxton, Zakir Hussain, and Miguel Zenon. Brad is an alumni of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW, and is a founding member of Decoda, the Deviant Septet, and DZ4. Brad graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 2005, and holds an MM from Rice University. Brad is also active as a composer, with regularly occurring performances of his chamber, orchestral, and choral music, and makes hip-hop albums with his band The Oracle Hysterical. Brad also hosts a weekly radio show with his twin brother, Doug, on WQXR’s Q2 Music called The Brothers Balliett.

Tickets are available for purchase both online at www.fineartscenter.org or by phone through the FAC office at 803-425-7676. The FAC Campus is located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden, with office hours 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 of Kershaw County is a 501c3 non-profit organization which serves as a county-wide center for the arts. It 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 provided by the City of Camden, Kershaw County, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina along with donations from businesses and individuals.