Two former Chiara Quartet members return to Lincoln to perform music by White
calendar icon14 Apr 2022
Lincoln, Neb.—Two former members of the Chiara String Quartet—Hyeyung Sol Yoon, violin, and Gregory Beaver, cello—are returning to Lincoln to perform in a recital of music by Glenn Korff School of Music Professor Tyler Goodrich White on Sunday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall.
Joining Yoon and Beaver is Karen Hsiao Savage, associate professor of collaborative piano and chamber music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) Conservatory.
Admission to the recital is free and open to the public.
The recital features the premieres of three new works by White: the piano trio “Three Views from the Mountain”(Second Prize winner, The American Prize Competition for Instrumental Chamber Composition, 2020), the Sonata for Violin and Piano “Revelationes Iuventutis” and “A Summer Sonata,” for cello and piano, dedicated to the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In residence in the Glenn Korff School of Music from 2004 to 2018, the Chiara String Quartet for 18 years performed over 500 concerts in concert halls on three continents, garnered a Grammy nomination, premiered 40 works and recorded 7 major albums.
Beyond traditional concertizing, the Chiaras launched“Chamber Music in Any Chamber,” a project that brought the ensemble to over 50 clubs and bars across the U.S., reaching younger audiences. Removing the barrier of music stands and connecting with audiences more directly, the quartet offered all programs memorized, including the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Brahms and Bartók. Their final performance in May of 2018 featured the New York premiere of Philip Glass’s piano quintet, composed for the Chiaras and Marguerite Scribante Professor of Piano Paul Barnes.
Currently, Yoon and Beaver are co-founders of Open Space Music, a music event series whose mission is to create a multicultural space and fading away boundaries between artists and participants.
Savage holds a doctoral degree and two master’s degrees in both solo and collaborative piano from Juilliard, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria (Canada). Active as a collaborative pianist, she has performed internationally in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre and the Perlman Music Program in New York and Shanghai.
Her performances have been broadcast on internationally syndicated NPR programs, and Vietnamese and Chinese national television. Her diverse collaborations include recent performances with the Spokane String Quartet, violist Masumi Rostad, oboist Keri McCarthy, clarinetist Shannon Scott and euphonium player Chris Dickey.
Committed to working with living composers, Savage has given international and recording premieres of works by Daniel Ott on Navona/PARMA Records (2019). Her piano duo “88SQUARED” with husband Jeffrey Savage received critical praise for international premieres of Lowell Liebermann’s Sonata for Two Pianos and was invited by the composer to record his complete music for two pianos on Albany Records. The duo won the Ellis Duo Piano Competition, the Abild Prize in American Music, and second prize and a special mention award at Concours Grieg International Competition (Norway).
Kimball Recital Hall is located at 1113 R St. on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln city campus. Currently, UNL no longer requires face masks inside our campus buildings. Details, exclusions and updates can be found on the UNL website at https://covid19.unl.edu.