Martin Chalifour, Violinist |
Hui Wu, Pianist |
To Be Announced
This performance is underwritten, in part, by the Monimos Foundation. |
Martin Chalifour recently retired as Principal Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Chalifour served in the position for 30 years, since 1995 and was the longest-serving Principal Concertmaster in the LA Phil’s history.
Chalifour graduated with honors from the Montreal Conservatory at the age of 18 and then moved to the United States to continue studies at the famed Curtis Institute of Music.
Chalifour received a Certificate of Honor at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and is also a laureate of the prestigious Montreal International Competition. Apart from his LA Phil duties, he maintains an active solo career, playing a diverse repertoire of more than 60 concertos. Chalifour has appeared as soloist with conductors Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Neville Marriner, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Outside the U.S., he has played solos with the Auckland Philharmonia, the Montreal Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Taiwan, and the Malaysian Philharmonic, among others.
Chalifour began his orchestral career with the late Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony, playing as Associate Concertmaster for six years. Subsequently, for five years he occupied the same position in the Cleveland Orchestra, where he also served as Acting Concertmaster under Christoph von Dohnányi. While in Cleveland, Chalifour taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was a founding member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio.
Chalifour is a frequent guest at summer music festivals, including the Mainly Mozart Festival and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival.
Maintaining close ties with his native country, he has returned there often to teach and perform as soloist with various Canadian orchestras, most recently in Vancouver and in Hamilton.
Chalifour has recorded solo and chamber music for the Telarc, Northstar, and Yarlung labels. He teaches at Caltech and at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.
Praised as “sparkling” by The New York Times and “a rising star” by China Musical Weekly, pianist Hui Wu displays her versatility through a creative approach to programming, stemming from a contemporary/classical music duality. Her recent performance highlights include World Premiere of Etudes with Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet in addition to chamber music engagements with Martin Chalifour, Rainer Honeck, Stefan Dohr and Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson.
As an avid chamber musician, Hui has been invited to festivals such as Taos School of Music, Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, International Summer Music Festival in Goslar, Germany, PianoTexas Festival, and Beijing International Music Festival and Academy. She is the founder of ensemble demitasse and trio E’Toile. Her mentors and collaborators include Michel Beroff, Malcolm Bilson, Peter Donohoe, Peter Frankl, Margo Garrett, Joseph Kalichstein, Seymour Lipkin, Susan Narucki, Charles Neidich, Menahem Pressler, Gary Wedow, GuangRen Zhou, Robert McDonald, Michael Tree, as well as the Brentano, Borromeo, and the ShangHai Quartets among others.
A composer and advocate of new music, Hui has performed and premiered numerous contemporary works by composers such as Matthew Aucoin, Du Yun, Huang Ruo, Chen Yi, Jeffrey Parola, Eric Nathan, Paul Chihara, and Elliott Schwartz. Ms. Wu has collaborated with Juilliard’s Dance Division on her composition Simogatas for soprano and piano four hands. In addition, Wu’s Three Little Pieces for Orchestra (2011) was premiered by conductor Euntaek Kim and the Double Visions Orchestra. Her other compositions have also been premiered and performed in New York, Los Angeles, and in China. Recently, she premiered her Aprés Notations to pay tribute to Pierre Boulez and That Light In My Dream at the unSUNg project with soprano Kyra Folk-Farber.
In the past seasons, she has appeared as soloist with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Philharmonics, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, New Juilliard Ensemble, Moorpark Symphony, and the Xiamen Symphony Orchestra.her performances have included solo recital tours and master classes in China and Germany. Other highlights included premieres in Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Concert at Disney Concert Hall; “Art as Activism” concert with Christopher Rountree and contemporary ensemble wild Up; debut of her “Lone Journey” multimedia project in collaboration with the USC Thornton Arts Leadership Program, in addition to chamber music appearances with Martin Chalifour, Rainer Honeck, Stefan Dohr, and Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson. She has also been invited to perform at the opening night concert in the Tully Scope Festival in Lincoln Center and chamber music appearances with choreographer Zach Winokur and the Juilliard Dance Division. She has also performed Nick Didkovsky’s Zero Waste for pianist and computer on Beyond the Machine 12.1 series at the Music Technology Center in Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater.
Hui served as the Southern Festival Chair in California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT). She is also a frequent adjudicator in music competitions in the US.
Currently, she teaches at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, Moorpark College, Cal Lutheran University, and Junior Chamber Music. Hui studied at The Juilliard School for her Bachelor and Master’s degrees with full scholarship. She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Her teachers include Jing Song Xian, Matti Raekallio, Jerome Lowenthal, Stewart Gordon, Philip Lasser, and Donald Crockett.
Born in China, Hui started her musical training at the age of four. At the age of thirteen, she made her debut recital in GuangDong Concert Hall with 12 Chopin Etudes and Liszt Rhapsodies. She has won numerous competitions including first prizes in the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition in New York, the Murray Dranoff International Artists Competition in Miami, the Beverly Hills National Auditions, and the 65th Steinway International Piano Competition. Hui has also won top prizes in the Ettlingen International Competition in Germany, the Corpus Christi International Competition, Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund Award, Young Artists Concerto Competition in Texas, the National Youth Piano Competition of GulangYu International Piano Art Festival and the Golden Clock Piano Competition in China.
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