Get ready for our 23rd season!

It will be filled with the World’s Greatest Music, Internationally known musicians, and more fun than ever!

Schedule of Events:

November 5, 2023:

5:00 PM: Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Concert - Amelia Plantation Chapel

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s career and performances span the globe. Whether performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club or in the world’s leading concert venues, Sheku’s mission is to make music accessible to all. After winning the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016, Sheku’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was watched by two billion people worldwide.

Highlights of the 23/24 season include the Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony and Marin Alsop, performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orquesta Nacional de España, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Oslo Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Gävle Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic on tour in Germany, Cincinnati Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony. With his sister, Isata, he appears in recital in Japan, Singapore, and South Korea in addition to an extensive European recital tour. Sheku will also perform a series of duo recitals with guitarist Plínio Fernandes as well as continuing his solo cello recital tour in the USA and Canada. He returns to Antigua, where he has family connections, as an ambassador for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra. Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including in 2020 when he gave a breath-taking recital performance with his sister Isata, to an empty auditorium due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Decca Classics recording artist, his 2022 album, Song, showcases his innately lyrical playing in a wide and varied range of arrangements and collaborations. Sheku’s 2020 album Elgar reached No. 8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his own arrangements and compositions are published by Faber.

Sheku is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May 2022 was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. He is an ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Future Talent, and Music Masters. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him.

November 30, 2023:

7:00 PM: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - First Baptist Church
with Wynton Marsalis and Ashley Pezzotti
Big Band Holidays!

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S. and around the globe; in concert halls; dance venues; jazz clubs; public parks; and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and many others.Education is a major part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s mission; its educational activities are coordinated with concert and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra tour programming. These programs, many of which feature Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members, include the celebrated Jazz for Young People™ family concert series; the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival; the Jazz for Young People™ Curriculum; educational residencies; workshops; and concerts for students and adults worldwide. Jazz at Lincoln Center educational programs reach over 110,000 students, teachers and general audience members.

Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. He is the world’s first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum, from its New Orleans roots to bebop to modern jazz. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to ballet, Wynton has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers.

Born in New Orleans, he performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band at age eight, and at 14 he played with the New Orleans Philharmonic, New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony and various jazz bands. At 17, Wynton became the youngest musician ever to be admitted to Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center, where he was awarded the school’s prestigious Harvey Shapiro Award for outstanding brass student. Wynton moved to New York City to attend Juilliard in 1979.

In 1980 Wynton joined the Jazz Messengers to study under master drummer and bandleader Art Blakey. In the years to follow, he performed with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sweets Edison, Clark Terry, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock and countless other jazz legends.

Ashley Pezzotti:

This year the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is joined by Ashley Pezzotti who developed her love of music as a child when her Dominican father would sing her classic Spanish songs. In addition to performing with Wynton Marsalis and The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, she has performed with Arturo Sandoval, Joey Alexander, Dave Holland, Jon Secada, and country star Keith Urban. In the spring of 2019, Ashley participated in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program where she was mentored by Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jason Moran, Casey Benjamin, Marcus Printup, and Peter Martin and performed her original compositions at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.

January 14, 2024:

5:00 PM: Meet the Artistic Director: William Ransom - Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

William Ransom:

Pianist, Artistic Director, master teacher, editor, and judge for international competitions, William Ransom appears around the world as soloist with orchestras, recitalist, and chamber musician. He regularly collaborates with musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Stoltzman, William Preucil, Stephen Isserlis, Robert McDuffie, and members of the Emerson, Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, American, St. Petersburg, Borromeo, Parker, Ariel and Lark String Quartets; the Empire Brass Quintet, Eroica Trio, and the percussion group Nexus among others. He has recorded for ACA Digital and Rising Star Records. Mr. Ransom is the Mary Emerson Professor of Piano at Emory University in Atlanta where he is founder and Artistic Director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. Mr. Ransom is Artistic Director of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina and for a decade was an artist faculty member at the Kamisaibara Pianists Camp in Japan. Recently, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.

Yinzi Kong:

Violist Yinzi Kong, born and raised in Shanghai, China, was a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Vega String Quartet.

Ms. Kong started her musical training at age five and gave her first public performances at seven. After moving to the United States in 1995, Ms. Kong received a bachelor’s degree from the Harid Conservatory in Florida and a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

Since winning several top prizes at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France, the Carmel String Quartet Competition and the Coleman Competition in the US with the Vega, Ms. Kong has enjoyed a versatile career in both solo and chamber music performance and teaching. She has performed in major concert halls all over the world including the stages of Carnegie Hall, and her live performances have been heard on NPR’s Performance Today (USA), the National Radio of China, Shanghai TV, Radio France, France Musiques, and the National Radio of the Czech Republic. Ms. Kong has also collaborated with some finest musicians of our time including Elliot Fisk, William Preucil, David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman, Charles Wadsworth, and Sarah Chang among others.

January 19, 2024:

7:00 PM: The Magic of Mozart: Dover, Shifrin and Ransom - Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island

Dover Quartet

Joel Link, violin - Bryan Lee, violin - Julianne Lee, viola - Camden Shaw, cello

Named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, the two-time GRAMMY-nominated Dover Quartet is one of the world’s most in-demand chamber ensembles. The Dover Quartet is the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music and holds additional residencies at Northwestern University and the Artosphere festival. The group’s awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. Its honors include the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, and Lincoln Center’s Hunt Family Award.

The Dover Quartet’s 2023-24 season includes a North American tour with Leif Ove Andsnes, performances with Haochen Zhang and David Shifrin, and a tour to Europe and Israel. Recent collaborators include Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnaton, Ray Chen, the Escher String Quartet, Bridget Kibbey, Anthony McGill, Edgar Meyer, the Pavel Haas Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, and Davóne Tines. The quartet recently premiered Steven Mackey’s theatrical-musical work Memoir, and works by Mason Bates, Marc Neikrug, and Chris Rogerson.

The Dover Quartet’s GRAMMY-nominated recordings include its highly acclaimed three-volume recording, Beethoven Complete String Quartets (Cedille Records), which was hailed as “meticulously balanced, technically clean-as-a-whistle and intonationally immaculate” (The Strad), and The Schumann Quartets (Azica Records).

The Dover Quartet was formed at Curtis in 2008; its name pays tribute to?Dover Beach?by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber. The Dover Quartet proudly endorses Thomastik-Infeld strings.

David Shifrin:

Winner of both the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000), David Shifrin is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator.

Mr. Shifrin has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras and the Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, Detroit, Fort Worth, Hawaii and Phoenix Symphonies, among many others in the United States, as well as with orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. He has also received critical acclaim as a recitalist, appearing at such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie’s Hall’s Zankel Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, as well as the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. A much sought after chamber musician, he has collaborated frequently with such distinguished ensembles and artists as the Guarneri, Tokyo, Emerson, Orion, Dover and Miró String Quartets, as well as Wynton Marsalis, André Watts, Emanuel Ax and André Previn.

William Ransom:

Pianist, Artistic Director, master teacher, editor, and judge for international competitions, William Ransom appears around the world as soloist with orchestras, recitalist, and chamber musician. He regularly collaborates with musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Stoltzman, William Preucil, Stephen Isserlis, Robert McDuffie, and members of the Emerson, Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, American, St. Petersburg, Borromeo, Parker, Ariel and Lark String Quartets; the Empire Brass Quintet, Eroica Trio, and the percussion group Nexus among others. He has recorded for ACA Digital and Rising Star Records. Mr. Ransom is the Mary Emerson Professor of Piano at Emory University in Atlanta where he is founder and Artistic Director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. Mr. Ransom is Artistic Director of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina and for a decade was an artist faculty member at the Kamisaibara Pianists Camp in Japan. Recently, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.

February 3, 2024:

3:00 PM: Family Concert: Two Musical Stories - Fernandina Beach Middle School Auditorium

The Young Patrons of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival present this concert for all ages: The Family Concert, in Music and Dance, features the enchanting musical tales Paddington Bear’s First Concert and The Emperor’s New Clothes.

This delightful afternoon is narrated by Kevin Fitzgerald and features pianist Julie Coucheron, cellist Charae Krueger, oboist Sasha Shatalova, violinist Chris Chappell and Yinzi Kong on viola.

Dancers are choregraphed by Amelia Island’s Susan Dodge , Director of the Amelia Island Dance Festival.

February 25, 2024:

5:00 PM: Jerry Douglas Band in Concert - Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island

Dobro master and 15-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas is a bandleader, producer, session musician, instructor, and a very funny guy! He’s produced over a hundred albums and he’s featured on over 1,600 studio albums. He’s a member of Alison Kraus & Union Station, co-bandleader for Transatlantic Sessions in the United Kingdom, founder for the Grammy winner bluegrass super-group The Earls of Leicester, and he leads The Jerry Douglas Band.

Since 2017, The Jerry Douglas Band has been forging new paths into the musical horizon with deep roots in bluegrass and folk that spreads out into the Americana and jazz landscapes. In 2021, The Jerry Douglas Band released an album, Leftover Feelings, with legendary singer songwriter John Hiatt. The album was nominated for a 2022 Grammy for “Best Americana Album,” and their previous record What If also received a Grammy nomination for “Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.” They perform at some of the top US festivals such as Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Pilgrimage Music Festival, Big Ears Festival, DelFest, FreshGrass, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Merlefest, and many others. In addition to Douglas, The Jerry Douglas Band includes Daniel Kimbro on bass, Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle, and Mike Seal on guitar.

Daniel Kimbro:

Raised on American Roots music in and around Appalachia, Daniel Kimbro is a multi Grammy-nominated bassist with numerous stage and studio appearances to his credit. Currently touring and recording with The Jerry Douglas Band, The Earls of Leicester, the Transatlantic Sessions and many others, Daniel utilizes his extensive experience within Jazz, Folk and Bluegrass genres to maintain a busy freelance career from his twin homes of Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Christian Sedelmyer:

Christian Sedelmyer is a daring and diversified musician who brings a 21st-century vision to the five-string violin. Raised in Erie, PA and based in Nashville since 2008, he’s been a member of the Jerry Douglas Band since Summer of 2014. In addition, he’s forged two successful bands (The Farewell Drifters and 10 String Symphony) and become a valued side musician and collaborator in contemporary string band music. Sedelmyer contributed to the IBMA Award winning 2018 Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. He regularly collaborates and records with Andrew Marlin (Watchhouse), and his debut solo instrumental album, Ravine Palace, featuring Douglas, Marlin, Eli West (guitar) and Clint Mullican (bass) was released in 2020.
 
Mike Seal:

Mike Seal is a twice grammy-nominated guitarist and composer based in Nashville, TN. Originally from Bridgewater, Virginia, Mike has been touring and recording with a wide variety of bands including: The Jerry Douglas Band, Sierra Hull, Bob Lanzetti, Viktor Kraus Band Jeff Sipe Trio, Sarah Siskind, Danny Barnes, The Jeff Coffin Mu-tet, Ike Stubblefield, Yonrico Scott, Keith L. Brown, The Black Lillies, and many others. Mike’s first solo EP, Dogwoods, released in 2018 and is available on Spotify and other streaming services.

March 9, 2024:

5:00 PM: Sibling Rivalry: Diaz, Kim and Ransom - Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

Roberto Díaz:

From 1996 to 2006, violist Roberto Díaz held the position of principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and has been principal viola of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, a member of the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a member of the Minnesota Orchestra under Neville Marriner. He is the violist in the Díaz Trio, which includes cellist Andrés Díaz (his brother) and violinist Andrés Cárdenes, former concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Andrés Díaz:

Andrés Díaz was born in Santiago, Chile in 1964, and began studying the cello at the age of five. Three years later he moved to Atlanta, Georgia and studied at the Georgia Academy of Music with Martha Gerchefski. Mr. Diaz graduated from the New England Conservatory where he worked with Laurence Lesser and Colin Carr, and currently plays an active role in chamber music performances with the Conservatory’s faculty. He served for five years as Associate Professor of Cello at the Boston University and Co-Director of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Quartet Program, resigning in September 2001.

Helen Hwaya Kim:

Helen Hwaya Kimmade her orchestral debut with the Calgary Philharmonic at the age of six, and has gone on to become a respected and sought-after artist. She has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops at Boston’s Symphony Hall, as well as with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Ms. Kim earned her Bachelor and Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Cho-Liang Lin and Dorothy DeLay. While attending Juilliard, she was a winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition and served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra.

Michael Kim:

Michael Kim, Dean of the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, has toured extensively as solo recitalist throughout Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and South Korea, and with the Music as Theatre productions The Schumann Letters and Nadia. As a chamber musician and collaborative artist, he performs frequently with his wife pianist Dr. Kyung Kim and sister violinist Helen Kim, also collaborating with the Bakken Trio, James Ehnes, Edgar Meyer, James Campbell, members of the Canadian Brass, and the Ceclia, New Orford, Fine Arts, New Zealand String Quartets.

Kate Ransom:

Hailed in the New York Times for “impassioned” playing and “clear articulation and unity of purpose,” violinist Kate Ransom is a distinguished chamber musician, recitalist and teacher who has presented hundreds of concerts in major chamber music concert halls in North America and Europe. Ms. Ransom is artistic director of Serafin Ensemble, and founding violinist of Serafin String Quartet – lauded by Gramophone and Fanfare Magazine for the Naxos release of early works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon and by The Strad Magazine and American Record Guide for their debut Centaur release. She also directs Serafin Summer Music, a chamber music festival in Delaware.

William Ransom:

Born in Boston, Ransom began his musical studies at an early age. He was a scholarship student of William Masselos at The Juilliard School in New York (BM and MM), and he also worked with Theodore Lettvin at the University of Michigan (DMA) and Madame Gaby Casadesus at the Ravel Academy in France.

April 5, 2024:

5:00 PM: Meet the Author: Rita Dove - Peck Center Auditorium

Rita Dove:

Rita Dove, former US Poet Laureate (1993–1995), won the Pulitzer Prize for her third book of poetry, Thomas and Beulah, in 1987; her latest poetry collection, Playlist for the Apocalypse, was published in 2021. She received the 1996 National Humanities Medal from President Clinton and the 2011 National Medal of Arts from President Obama. Recent honors include the 2019 Wallace Stevens Award, the American Academy of Arts & Letters’ 2021 Gold Medal in poetry, a 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a 2022 Bobbitt Prize from the Library of Congress and the 2023 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. Her song cycle Seven for Luck, with composer John Williams, premiered at Tanglewood in 1998, and her 2021 song cycle A Standing Witness, with music by Richard Danielpour, has been performed at the Kennedy Center and other venues. She also collaborated repeatedly with Cuban-American composer Tania Leon. A 2023 recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, Rita Dove teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.

April 6, 2024:

5:00 PM: "Sonata Mulattica" - Kreutzer Sonata - Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

Rita Dove:

Rita Dove, former US Poet Laureate (1993–1995), won the Pulitzer Prize for her third book of poetry, Thomas and Beulah, in 1987; her latest poetry collection, Playlist for the Apocalypse, was published in 2021. She received the 1996 National Humanities Medal from President Clinton and the 2011 National Medal of Arts from President Obama. Recent honors include the 2019 Wallace Stevens Award, the American Academy of Arts & Letters’ 2021 Gold Medal in poetry, a 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a 2022 Bobbitt Prize from the Library of Congress and the 2023 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. Her song cycle Seven for Luck, with composer John Williams, premiered at Tanglewood in 1998, and her 2021 song cycle A Standing Witness, with music by Richard Danielpour, has been performed at the Kennedy Center and other venues. She also collaborated repeatedly with Cuban-American composer Tania Leon. A 2023 recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, Rita Dove teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.

Njioma Chinyere Grevious:

Described as “superb” by the Chicago Classical Review, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious is an emerging, passionate and versatile solo, chamber and orchestral musician and performer. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a winner of its John Erskine Prize for scholastic and artistic achievement. In 2023, Njioma won both the Robert F. Smith First Prize and the Audience Choice awards in the Senior Division of the Sphinx Competition and joint prizes in the CAG/YCAT auditions.  In 2022, she was the winner of concerto competitions at the University of Delaware and the Newark Symphony Orchestra. Njioma was also a winner of the Music Academy of the West Keston-Max Fellowship to study and perform in the London Symphony Orchestra in November 2022. She won First Prizes for Performance and Interpretation in the 2018 Prix Ravel in Fontainebleau, France.

William Ransom:

Born in Boston, Ransom began his musical studies at an early age. He was a scholarship student of William Masselos at The Juilliard School in New York (BM and MM), and he also worked with Theodore Lettvin at the University of Michigan (DMA) and Madame Gaby Casadesus at the Ravel Academy in France.

April 14, 2024:

5:00 PM: The Juilliard String Quartet - Amelia Plantation Chapel

The Juilliard String Quartet:

With unparalleled artistry and enduring vigor, the Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ) continues to inspire audiences around the world. Founded in 1946 and hailed by The Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” the ensemble draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics, while embracing the mission of championing new works, a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. Each performance of the Juilliard String Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment, and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature.

In the 2023/2024 season the quartet returns to Japan with concerts in Tokyo, Niigata, Mishima, Hyogo, and Nagano.  In Europe appearances include the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Schumann Saal in Dusseldorf and the Wimbledon Festival.  In North America appearances include Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, South Mountain Concerts, SOKA Arts, Hartt School of Music, Lied Center of Kansas, Chamber Music Society of Louisville, Emory Chamber Music Society and the Amelia Islands Chamber Music Festival in addition to concerts at Alice Tully Hall and People’s Symphony Concerts.  Their programs will feature new works by Jörg Widmann (String Quartets Nos. 8 & 10) and Tyson Davis (String Quartet No. 2) commissioned by the quartet and premiered last season, in addition to works by Janacek, Beethoven and Schubert.

Adding to its celebrated discography, an album of works by Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvo?ák was released by Sony Classical in April 2021 to critical acclaim. Additionally, Sony Masterworks released a JSQ catalog release (The Early Juilliard Recordings) in June 2021. In the fall of 2018, the JSQ released an album on Sony featuring the world premiere recording of Mario Davidovsky’s Fragments (2016), together with Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 95 and Bartók’s Quartet No. 1. Additionally, Sony Classical’s 2014 reissue of the Quartet’s landmark recordings of the first four Elliott Carter String Quartets along with the 2013 recording of Carter’s fifth quartet traces a remarkable period in the evolution of both the composer and the ensemble. The Quartet’s recordings of the Bartók and Schoenberg Quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven, have won Grammy Awards, and in 2011 the JSQ became the first classical music ensemble to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Devoted master teachers, the members of the Juilliard String Quartet offer classes and open rehearsals when on tour. The JSQ is String Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School and its members – Areta Zhulla, Ronald Copes, Molly Carr, and Astrid Schween – are all sought-after teachers on the string and chamber music faculties. Each May, they host the five-day internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. During the summer, the JSQ works closely on string quartet repertoire with students at the Tanglewood Music Center.

April 28, 2024:

5:00 PM: CelloBration! with Zuill Bailey - Amelia Plantation Chapel

Zuill Bailey:

Zuill Bailey, widely considered one of the premiere cellists in the world, is a Grammy Award winning, internationally renowned soloist, recitalist, Artistic Director and teacher.  His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry and engaging personality has made him one of the most sought after and active cellists today.

Mr. Bailey has been featured with symphony orchestras and music festivals worldwide.  He won the Best Solo Performance Grammy Award in 2017, for his recording of  Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway,” with the Nashville Symphony led by Giancarlo Guerrero.  His extensive discography includes his newest release – the world premier recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. In 2021 he released his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites for PS Audio’s Octave Records label, recorded and mixed in stereo and multichannel sound.

He appeared in a recurring role on the HBO series “Oz,” and has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “Tiny Desk Concert,” “Performance Today,” “Saint Paul Sunday,” BBC’s  “In Tune,” XM Radio’s “Live from Studio II,” Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Virtuoso Voices,” and his latest disc of Bach Suites was the disc of the week on Sirius’ Symphony Hall.

Mr. Bailey received his Bachelor’s Degree from the Peabody Conservatory where he was named the 2014 Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni, and received a Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School.  He performs on the “rosette” 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet.

He is the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro-Musica (Texas), the Sitka Summer Music Festival/Series and Cello Seminar, (Alaska), Juneau Jazz and Classics, (Alaska), the Northwest Bach Festival (Washington),  Classical Inside Out Series- Mesa Arts Center (Arizona) and is Director of the Center for Arts Entrepreneurship and Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Khari Joyner:

Described by the New York Classical Review as “one of the most exciting young musicians on the classical scene”, Khari Joyner has a following both nationally and abroad as a versatile soloist, chamber musician, and ambassador for the arts. He has made numerous guest appearances with orchestras and ensembles across the world, including two recent performances of both Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in A Minor and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which received rave reviews. In addition, he has given many cello masterclasses and lectures at notable institutions, most recently at Stetson University and Oberlin Conservatory. Joyner also received the 2017-2018 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund, which nominates and endows a select number of gifted artists with generous funding to further their careers. Joyner has also performed for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the latter for which he gave a private performance in the Oval Office. A passionate advocate for the music of the 21st century, Joyner has collaborated and given performances of works by major composers such as Tyshawn Sorey, Carman Moore, Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, among many others. An active chamber musician and one of the founding members of the Altezza Piano Trio, Joyner also has given performances as a guest at the Ritz Chamber Players, Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, Fontainbleau Music Festival, and on WQXR as a part of the Midday Masterpieces series. A graduate of Juilliard’s prestigious Doctor of Musical Arts program, he continues to serve as Teaching Assistant to his former teacher Joel Krosnick, and also pursued a mathematics concentration in an exchange program with Columbia University, while studying in Juilliard’s Accelerated BM/MM program. Joyner has also collaborated with choreographers and actors, and was even considered for the role of the young Nathaniel Ayers as part of the Hollywood film The Soloist.

Guang Wang:

Chinese-born cellist Guang Wang began his cello studies at the age of eight. In 1994 he became one of the youngest titled players in the history of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, serving as Assistant Principal Cellist under world-renowned conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas and Christoph Eschenbach, and performing over 200 concerts throughout Asia before moving to the United States to continue his studies. Mr. Wang holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, an Artist Diploma from the Harid Conservatory, and a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Wang is a founding member of the Vega String Quartet, which has been Emory University’s Quartet-in-Residence since 2006. He routinely gives both chamber music and cello masterclasses across the U.S, most recently at Kennesaw State University, the University of Alabama, the University of Alaska Southeast, and the University of Texas at El Paso.

Mr. Wang strongly believes in music education at all levels and regularly performs outreach at area schools as well as provides in-depth teaching to passionate adult amateurs. His students have won awards at several iterations of the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition, as a result performing in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, as well as at various young artist competitions in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area.

Grace Bahng Gavin:

Grace Bahng Gavin was a scholarship student of Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins at the Juilliard School where she received her B.M. and M.M. degrees. She was a member of the Blair String Quartet and Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University from 1984-1999. Widely acclaimed in concert performances across the country, she has appeared in recital at the Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, 92nd St. Y in New York, Alice Tully Hall and on National Public Radio and Television. She has been in residence at the Aspen, Marlboro, Sunflower, Sewanee, Buzzard’s Bay and the Crested Butte Chamber Music Festivals, the El Paso Pro Musica International Chamber Music Festival, the Sedona Chamber Music Festival, the Highlands/Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the St. Barths Music Festival.

Ms. Bahng has performed with a wide array of musicians, including: Edgar Meyer, Robert McDuffie, Donald McInnes, Joseph Silverstein, Bela Fleck, Nigel Kennedy, Mark O’Connor, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride and has played on numerous movie soundtracks. Grace lives in Orlando, Florida, where she lives with her husband, Kip, and enjoys competitive tennis and cooking.

Nick Curry:

Dr. Nick Curry is the Associate Professor of Cello and the Assistant Director of the School of Music at the University of North Florida where he also serves as the Director of Music Scholarships. In early 2015, he joined fellow Jacksonville musicians Aurica Duca and Clinton Dewing as founders of the Lawson Ensemble. The Lawson Ensemble collaborated with the San Marco Chamber Music Society and recorded works of Amy Beach and Bill Douglas for Albany Records in 2018, and went on concert tours of England and Germany. Nick received his BM, *** laude, from Vanderbilt and then served as Hans Jørgen Jensen’s teaching assistant for five years at Northwestern University, earning both his Master and Doctor of Music degrees. He also was the teaching assistant to Professor Jensen at the Meadowmount School of Music for four summers. Nick has performed in Austria, England, France, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, Germany and Turkey, and throughout the United States. In April of 2006, he was a soloist on National Public Radio (USA) Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion on the King Amati (ca. 1538) cello. Dr. Curry is on the faculty at the Aria International Summer Music Academy and was previously visiting faculty at the Meadowmount School of Music for two summers. He is a sought after clinician and adjudicator and has presented at national, regional and state conferences. His research has been published in the ASTA journal many times. At UNF, he was named the Gerson Yessin professor and was awarded an Eisen Experiential Grant. In 2016, he founded the annual Jacksonville Cello Workshop, an educational workshop for cellists of all ages and levels. In 2018, the UNF President honored him with a Presidential Faculty Leader Award.

Philip Jeong:

Cellist Philip Jeong, 14, first picked up the cello at the age of nine and made his first solo appearance at the age of 12 at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall. Philip has soloed with the Alpharetta Symphony Orchestra and the Gwinnett County Youth Symphony Orchestra as a winner of their respective Concerto Competitions. In addition, he performed in Morgan Concert Hall at Kennesaw State University as a winner of MTNA Junior String Competition as well as in Carlos Museum Ackerman Hall at Emory as an invited Atlanta’s Young Artist in the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta Family Concert. Philip won numerous concerto competitions and international music competitions in the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. As a competition winner, he was selected to perform at the Beethoven House in Bonn (Germany), at the Carnegie Hall in New York (USA), and at Teatro Studio, Parco Della Musica in Rome (Italy).

May 29, 2024:

5:00 PM: Beethoven and Beer: Ariel Quartet - Mocama Beer Company

Ariel Quartet:

Distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned, fiery performances, the Ariel Quartet has garnered critical praise worldwide for more than twenty years. Formed when the members were just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel was named a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, granted by Chamber Music America in recognition of artistic achievement and career support. Celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2023, the Quartet serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where they direct the chamber music program and present a concert series in addition to maintaining a busy touring schedule in the United States and abroad.

Recent highlights include the Ariel Quartet’s sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, a series of performances at Lincoln Center together with pianist Inon Barnatan and the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as the release of a Brahms and Bartók album for Avie Records. In 2020, the Ariel gave the U.S. premiere of the Quintet for Piano and Strings by Daniil Trifonov, with the composer as pianist for the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati.

The Quartet has dedicated much of its artistic energy and musical prowess to the groundbreaking Beethoven quartets and has performed the complete Beethoven cycle on six occasions throughout the United States and Europe. The Ariel Quartet regularly collaborates with today’s eminent and rising young musicians and ensembles, including pianist Orion Weiss, cellist Paul Katz, and the American, Pacifica, and Jerusalem String Quartets. The Quartet has toured with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and performed frequently with pianists Jeremy Denk and Menahem Pressler. In addition, the Ariel served as Quartet-in-Residence for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program, as well as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Festival.

June 1, 2024:

3:00 PM: Christopher Rex String Seminar - Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

The Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival is pleased to present for its final concert of it’s 23rd season, the Christopher Rex String Seminar Concert featuring the Rasa Quartet and one additional young artist quartet. This concert also showcases our faculty quartet: the Ariel Quartet.

Rasa Quartet:

Rasa String Quartet finds their niche exploring the musical space where classical and folk traditions intersect and influence one another. Formed in 2019, the Boston-based ensemble consists of violinists Maura Shawn Scanlin and Kiyoshi Hayashi, violist Emma Powell, and cellist Mina Kim, who are graduates of the New England Conservatory, the Shepherd School of Music, and Yale University.Rasa String Quartet are winners of the 2022 Associazione Europea Di Musica E Comunicazione International Chamber Music Competition (Italy,) the 2021 Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Competition (ATL,) the 2020 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition (OH,) and were the 2022-23 ensemble in residence at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Dates: November 5, 2023 - June 1, 2024

Locations:

Amelia Plantation Chapel, 36 Bowman Road, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
First Baptist Church, 1600 S. 8th St., Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Peck Center, 516 S. 10th St., Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Story & Song Bookstore Bistro, 1430 Park Ave., Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Courtyard Amelia Island, 2700-1 Atlantic Ave, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Historic Nassau County Courthouse, 416 Centre St., Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 2600 Atlantic Ave, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
St Peter’s Episcopal Church, 801 Atlantic Ave, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport, 700 Airport Road, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Memorial United Methodist Church, 601 Centre St., Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, 4750 Amelia Isld. Pkwy, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.
Sadler Ranch, 869 Sadler Rd #2, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034.

Buy Tickets

Click here for more information.