39900 S. Clubhouse Drive, SaddleBrooke
For ticket information: (520) 825-2818
ITALY AND GERMANY
Guest conductor: Maestro Josef Suilen
Featured soloist: Janet Sung, violin
Gioachino Rossini: William Tell Overture
Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Janet Sung, violin
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4, Op. 90 Italian
About the Artists
Janet Sung, Violin
Hailed by The Strad for her “ravishing tone” and “compelling” performances, violinist Janet Sung enjoys an acclaimed international career, recognized for her exhilarating performances and signature lustrous, burnished tone. Since her orchestral debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at age 9, she has performed with leading orchestras worldwide including the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester (Germany), Pusan Philharmonic (South Korea), Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia), Britten Sinfonia (England), Cairo Symphony Orchestra (Egypt), Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Aspen Festival Chamber Symphony and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, as well as orchestras of Delaware, Boise, Dubuque, Hartford, Las Cruces, Tacoma, Wyoming, and many others across the U.S.
Ms. Sung has been heard as concerto and recital soloist at distinguished festivals, including Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Bellingham Festival, Peninsula Music Festival, Britt Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and the Conciertos de La Villa Festival de Santo Domingo. A prolific chamber artist, Ms. Sung has performed at the Villa Musica at Schloss Engers in Germany, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Kreeger Chamber Music Festival in Washington, D.C., the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Newport Music Festival, and has been a regular artist with the Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble and the American Chamber Players. She is also Founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music Chicago.
Her solo performances have frequently been aired on radio and television, nationally and internationally, including multiple broadcasts of her performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto on NPR’s “Performance Today,” and regular performances on Chicago’s Classical WFMT. She has recorded Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.1, the latter with members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as music by Britten, Enescu, Ravel, and living composers Augusta Read Thomas, Kenneth Hesketh, Missy Mazzoli, Dan Visconti, and Gabriel Prokofiev. Her most recent recordings, Edge of Youth, released on Sono Luminus, and The deeper the blue…, released on SOMM Recordings (UK) and recorded with the Britten Sinfonia and conductor Jac van Steen, were both critically acclaimed in major publications such as The Strad, Strings Magazine, and BBC Music Magazine.
An artist of remarkable versatility, Ms. Sung is celebrated for her compelling performances of traditional works from Bach to Berg, and is passionate about promoting works of the 20th and 21st centuries. In recent years, she has performed repertoire as diverse as Henri Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto, L’Arbes des Songes, Jennifer Higdon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto (2008), and Astor Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas. Ms. Sung has also presented the world premieres of Kenneth Fuchs’ American Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra, Augusta Read Thomas’ Double Helix, which was recently released on Nimbus Records, and Kenneth Hesketh’s Inscription/Transformation for Violin and Orchestra in Germany. A new Violin Concerto No. 4 by Augusta Read Thomas has been commissioned for her.
Janet Sung was chosen by Leonard Slatkin as the recipient of the prestigious Passamaneck Award. She has also toured throughout the United States with fiddler Mark O’Connor’s American String Celebration.
Ms. Sung studied with legendary pedagogues Josef Gingold, Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, Eugene Phillips, and the Juilliard Quartet. She graduated from Harvard University with degrees in anthropology and music, and The Juilliard School. She was a Clifton Visiting Artist at Harvard and is currently Professor of Violin and Strings Chair at the DePaul University School of Music in Chicago. In 2022, she was appointed the Artistic Director of the renowned Meadowmount School of Music in New York. Ms. Sung plays a c.1600 Maggini violin crafted in Brescia, Italy.
Maestro Josef Suilen
Josef Suilen studied at the Music Conservatory of Amsterdam: Clarinet and Orchestral Conducting. Graduated with the highest distinction, Cum Laude.
Further studies: Bernard Haitink, London, Carlos Kleiber, Frans Brüggen, Mozarteum, Salzburg, Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena.
Josef is living in the Netherlands and over the years gained a great deal of knowledge and experience with major symphony orchestras and renowned soloists in various European countries, Istanbul and China.
Recently Josef was decorated with the Plaquette of Honour of the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra for his work with the orchestra.
In 2023 Josef has established a new chamber orchestra in the Netherlands with top musicians from orchestras from all over Europe, called COoL, Chamber Orchestra of Limburg. Its launch has caused huge enthusiasm among the press and audiences.