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DANBI UM, VIOLIN – JUHO POHJONEN, PIANO – KARIM SULAYMAN, VOICE

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ARTIST BIOS

• DANBI UM

  The Strad says violinist Danbi Um is “utterly dazzling,” with “a marvelous show of superb technique,” and Oberon’s Grove says she “graced the music at every moment, [delivering] page after page of radiant, colorful playing.” Ms. Um has appeared as soloist with the Israel Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic, Herzliya Chamber Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and Dartmouth Symphony, among others, and in such venues as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Kumho Arts Hall in Seoul, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and in Bennett-Gordon Hall at the Ravinia Festival. She is a winner of Astral Artists’ 2015 National Auditions, and a current member of Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center. With CMS, she has performed in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Chicago’s Harris Theatre, the St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids, the Vancouver Playhouse, and in Saratoga Springs. Festival appearances include Marlboro, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, Moab, Caramoor, and North Shore chamber music festivals. She tours frequently with “Musicians from Marlboro,” including a national tour of the U.S. She has played for the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and with the Jupiter Chamber Players. In April 2018, she gives her CMS recital debut in Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, with Orion Weiss, as part of its “The Art of the Recital” series, and also appears with Weiss in Philadelphia in recital for “Morning Musicales.” Also upcoming are recitals at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. and with the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach. She also appears at the Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, Germany, and makes a return appearance at Music@Menlo, where she appears on its “Carte Blanche Concerts,” a series of artist-curated recitals.

  Danbi Um was the Second Prize winner of the Young Artists Division of the Menuhin International Violin Competition and the Third Prize winner of New Zealand’s Michael Hill International Violin Competition. At the age of ten, she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree. She also holds an Artist Diploma from Indiana University, and her teachers have included Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, and Hagai Shaham. Danbi Um plays a 1683 “ex-Petschek” Nicolo Amati violin, on loan from a private collection.

• JUHO POHJONEN

  Celebrated as one of Finland’s most outstanding pianists, Juho Pohjonen is widely praised for his stellar musicianship and distinctive interpretations of a broad range of repertoire from Bach to Salonen. His interpretations are known for their intensity, thoughtfulness and fearless musical conviction.  Juho Pohjonen began the summer of 2016 with his Grant Park Festival debut, performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with conductor Carlos Kalmar. Other highlights of the summer include performances at the Santa Fe and La Jolla Music Festivals as well as the Moritzburg Festival in Germany. His 2016-2017 season includes his third invitation to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as well as his debut with the Vancouver Symphony.  He continues his close association with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  European highlights include performances with the Szczecin Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Orchestra, as well as a debut with the Antalya State Symphony.

  Recent highlights include highly praised performances with the Buffalo Philharmonic and with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.  Mr. Pohjonen opened last season with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and made his debut with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. In addition, he gave a stunning recital debut at the Ravinia Festival, performed in Seoul with the KBS Symphony Orchestra, as well as in Mexico’s Palacio De Bellas Artes with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional and a U.S. tour with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Pohjonen has given recitals in New York (Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center), Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center), San Francisco, Vancouver, Detroit, La Jolla and in London (Wigmore Hall), Hamburg, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Antwerp, and at the Lucerne Piano, Gilmore, Savonlinna, Bergen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Danish National, Malmö, Finnish Radio Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Scottish Chamber and Philharmonia Orchestras, Bournemouth Symphony, Zagrebacka Filharmonija and Lahti Symphony, with which he toured Japan.

  Mr. Pohjonen’s studies began in 1989 when he entered the Junior Academy of the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. He studied with Meri Louhos and Hui-Ying Liu at the Sibelius Academy where he completed his Master’s Degree in 2008. Mr. Pohjonen has also participated in several master classes of world-class pianists such as Sir András Schiff, Leon Fleisher, Jacob Lateiner and Barry Douglas. In 2009, Juho Pohjonen was selected by Sir András Schiff as winner of the Klavier Festival Ruhr Scholarship. In addition, he has won numerous prizes in both Finnish and international competitions, including First Prize at the 2004 Nordic Piano Competition in Nyborg, Denmark, First Prize at the 2000 International Young Artists Concerto Competition in Stockholm, the Prokofiev Prize at the 2003 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition and a prize at the 2002 Helsinki International Maj Lind Piano Competition.

• KARIM SULAYMAN

  Karim Sulayman, tenor, is consistently praised for his sensitive musicianship, vivid portrayals, and beautiful voice. With a vast repertoire that spans from the Renaissance to Contemporary music, he has firmly established himself as a sophisticated and versatile artist of his generation. Recent highlights include engagements at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Aldeburgh Festival and Snape Proms, the Casals Festival, Aspen Music Festival and the International Bach Festival. Mr. Sulayman recently completed three seasons at the Marlboro Music Festival, and continues to champion vocal chamber music under the auspices of Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and Cleveland ChamberFest among others. His discography includes the title role in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and two releases for NAXOS in works of Philidor and Grétry, as well as the release of Sephardic Journey with Apollo’s Fire on the AVIE label which debuted at the Number 2 slot on the Billboard World Music Chart and Number 7 on the Classical Chart. Mr. Sulayman’s musical education began with violin studies at age three, and years as a boy alto soloist, which included performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti and the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Rice University and also studied improvisation at the Second City Training Center in Chicago.

• ORION WEISS, PIANO

  One of the most sought-after soloists in his generation of young American musicians, the pianist Orion Weiss has performed with the major American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic. His deeply felt and exceptionally crafted performances go far beyond his technical mastery and have won him worldwide acclaim.

  2017-18 sees him opening the season for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and ending his season with the Colorado Symphony and Mozart’s majestic Concerto in C major, K. 467; in between Orion will play with eleven orchestras, go on a recital tour with James Ehnes, and perform recitals around the country. In 2016-17 Orion performed with the Knoxville, Wichita, and Santa Rosa Symphonies and the Symphony Silicon Valley, among others, and in collaborative projects with Alessio Bax, the Pacifica Quartet, and with Cho-Liang Lin and the New Orford String Quartet in a performance of the Chausson Concerto for piano, violin, and string quartet. In 2015 Naxos released his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing – a major commission Orion debuted with the Albany Symphony – and in 2012 he released a recital album of Dvorak, Prokofiev, and Bartok. That same year he also spearheaded a recording project of the complete Gershwin works for piano and orchestra with his longtime collaborators the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta.

  Named the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year in September 2010, in the summer of 2011 Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.

  Also known for his affinity and enthusiasm for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with his wife, the pianist Anna Polonsky, the violinists James Ehnes and Arnaud Sussman, and cellist Julie Albers. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the U.S. at venues and festivals including Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival, Sheldon Concert Hall, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Chamber Music Northwest, the Bard Music Festival, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, and Spivey Hall.  He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard, and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005 he made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. He was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2002-2004, which included his appearance in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-2003 season at Alice Tully Hall performing Ravel’s La Valse with pianist Shai Wosner.

  Weiss’s impressive list of awards includes the Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at the Juilliard School and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Lyndhurst, OH, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Sergei Babayan, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February of 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In March 1999, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was immediately invited to return to the Orchestra for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in October 1999. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.