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Chamber Recital

Intimate Letters & Love Songs

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Intimate Letters & Love Songs

Wednesday, March 29, 2023—7:00pm

Wednesday, March 29, 2023—7:00pm
In Your Community
1 hour and 30 minutes

At Southfield Parks & Recreation

Janáček named his second string quartet "Intimate Letters," as it was inspired by his passionate obsession with a woman to whom he wrote over 700 letters; the work contains some of the composer's most ardent music. Paired with this piece are select movements from Dvořák’s quartet version of Cypresses, a collection of love songs that Dvořák composed at age 24, which were inspired by his unrequited love for his student Josefina Cermakova who later became his sister-in-law.

Program

LEOŠ JANÁČEK
String Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters" 
Antonín Dvořák
Movements from Cypresses, B.11

Artists

Alexandros Sakarellos

Violinist Alexandros Sakarellos has performed as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician across five continents and in 25 countries.

A native of Greece, Sakarellos received his early musical training at the Athens Conservatory—Greece's leading musical institution. While in Greece he enjoyed a very satisfying performing career from a very early age. By the age of 20 he was already appearing frequently as a soloist and recitalist; serving as Concertmaster of the City of Athens Symphony Orchestra; and as a first violinist with the Athens State Orchestra.

In 2005 Sakarellos moved to New York. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music with New York Philarmonic's Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, Assistant Principal Lisa Kim, and Professor Isaac Malkin.

During his years in New York, his activities included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Concertmaster appearances under renowned artists such as Kurt Masur and Pinchas Zuckerman; performances in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Museum Of Modern Arts, the Onassis Foundation, and other such venues.

Sakarellos has also appeared at the Festivals of Ravello in Italy, Miyazaki in Japan, Bellerive in Switzerland, and Santo Domingo. In 2009 he was privileged to be invited by the prestigious Athens-Epidaurus Festival to give the Greek premiere of several works by the awarded American-Greek composer George Tsontakis.

Prior to joining the DSO, Sakarellos played for two years in the First Violin section of the San Francisco Opera.

He is currently playing on a very fine J.B. Vuillaume made in 1856.

Sujin Lim

Violinist Sujin Lim was born in Seoul, South Korea where she began her musical studies at age 5. She joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as section violinist in 2017.

Lim is a prizewinner in numerous national and international violin competitions, including the Lodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition (Italy), Torun International Violin Competition (Poland), Indianapolis Matinee Musical Scholarship Competition, Indiana University Sibelius Concerto Competition (United States), Joongang Music Competition, and Ewha Kyunghyang Competition (Korea).

Lim has appeared in recital and as a soloist throughout Korea, Europe, and the United States with the Romania Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bacau, the Torun Symphony Orchestra, the Yeonsae University, and the Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, she is member of the EM trio in Korea and performed in such chamber recitals as Yagi studion, Jungdong Hall, KNUA hall, and Kumho Art Hall. Lim has also served as Principal Concertmaster in the Evansville philharmonic, the Indiana University Symphony, the KNUA Symphony, and the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra.

Mike Chen

Mike Chen received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University, studying violin with Blair Milton. In 1999 he began playing the viola and studied with Li-Kuo Chang. His other teachers included Michael Strauss, Peter Slowik, Keith Conant, and Baird Dodge.

Chen was a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 2012 to 2018, a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2012, and prior to that, a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 1992 to 1995. He has performed with the Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony. In 2017, Chen joined the Cincinnati Symphony on its European Festivals Tour.

He received a master’s degree in conducting at Northwestern University in 1999, studying with Victor Yampolsky and Mariusz Smolij. His other conducting teachers include Gilbert Varga, David Zinman, and Murry Sidlin.

Chen was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen, Colorado in 2008. He has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Guest Conductor of the Webster University Community Music School’s Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, and Guest Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Side-by-Side Orchestra.

David LeDoux

David LeDoux comes to the orchestra from the Syracuse Symphony, where he served as Principal Cellist from 20062012.

LeDoux has appeared as a soloist with the Syracuse Symphony, the Skaneatelas Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Oklahoma State University Symphony, the Louisiana Sinfonietta and the Mid-Texas Symphony.

LeDoux is an active and avid chamber musician, performing for many years with the Syracuse Society for New Music. As a committed private teacher, he spent last year as a cello instructor for Imagine Syracuse—a music program in an inner-city school that was modeled after the El Sistema program in Venezuela.

Previous professional engagements for LeDoux included serving as Principal Cellist with the Baton Rouge (LA) Symphony, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Symphony, and the Louisiana Sinfonietta.

LeDoux has studied with Ronald Leonard, Dennis Parker, and Kari Padgett Caldwell. Currently a resident of Madison Heights, LeDoux’s hobbies include reading, running, and movies.

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