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Sunday, September 13 2026, 7:30 PM

Music for Two and Three

Atticus Mellor-Goldman, cello
Minji Nam, piano
Karen Johnson, violin

Here’s what ChatGPT has to say about this program:

Amy Beach’s Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23 and Three Compositions for Violin and Piano, Op. 40 can be viewed alongside Reinhold Glière’s 8 Pieces for Violin and Cello, Op. 39 and Anton Arensky’s Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 32 as examples of late-Romantic chamber music that places expressive melody and instrumental interaction at the center of the musical experience. Beach’s writing is particularly notable for its long, vocal-like melodic phrases, chromatic harmonic language, and sensitive balance between the violin and piano. In the Romance, the violin often assumes a lyrical, singing role, while the piano contributes more than simple accompaniment, reinforcing and elaborating the harmonic and expressive direction of the music. Her Three Compositions expands this approach through contrasting character pieces, using changes in rhythm, articulation, texture, and harmonic color to create distinct musical personalities. This emphasis on characterization connects Beach’s music to Glière’s 8 Pieces, in which each miniature explores a particular expressive or stylistic idea while maintaining a strong melodic identity.

Glière and Arensky extend these same Romantic principles through different instrumental combinations. In Glière’s 8 Pieces, the violin and cello engage in an unusually intimate dialogue, frequently exchanging melodic material and shifting between foreground and accompanying roles. The contrast between the violin’s upper register and the cello’s darker sonority allows Glière to create timbral variety without relying on a large ensemble. Arensky’s Piano Trio, by contrast, broadens this chamber-music dialogue to three instruments. The violin, cello, and piano frequently function as independent voices rather than as a melody-and-accompaniment hierarchy, producing dense contrapuntal textures and rich harmonic sonorities. Across all four works, the composers use recurring melodic gestures, harmonic color, dynamic contrast, and changes in texture to shape musical narratives. Their approaches demonstrate a distinctly Romantic conception of chamber music in which technical writing serves expressive purposes and each instrument contributes to the emotional and structural development of the work.

Taken together, these compositions reveal a shared interest in lyricism, motivic development, and conversational texture, while also showing the individual characteristics of each composer. Beach’s music emphasizes the expressive possibilities of the violin-and-piano partnership; Glière explores the warmth and intimacy of two string voices; and Arensky creates a more complex musical conversation among three equal instrumental forces. The works therefore provide an interesting progression in chamber-music texture, from two instruments interacting closely to three instruments participating in an increasingly intricate network of melodic and harmonic relationships. Despite their different combinations and individual styles, Beach, Glière, and Arensky demonstrate how late-Romantic chamber music could transform relatively intimate ensembles into highly expressive musical worlds.

Program

Romance for violin and piano Op. 23
Amy Beach (1867-1944)

3 pieces for violin and piano Op. 40 (arr. cello)
Amy Beach 

8 pieces for Violin and Cello Op. 39
Reinhold Glière (1874-1956)

Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 32
Anton Arensky (1861-1906)

About the Artists

Originally from Los Angeles, California, Atticus Mellor-Goldman first moved to Washington D.C. in 2021 after joining the Air Force Strings, and subsequently won a position in “The President’s Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra in 2024.

Mellor-Goldman received his Bachelor’s degree in 2019 from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music, where he was the recipient of a full-tuition, Presidential Scholarship and studied with Julie Albers, Hans Jensen, and Richard Aaron. He went on to earn his Masters degree from Yale University,  where he studied with Paul Watkins and Ole Akahoshi. 

He has performed at concert venues around the world and has been featured on NPR’s “From the Top” and American Public Media’s “Performance Today,”. In 2015, his string quartet from Los Angeles was awarded the Gold Medal Prize in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition’s Junior division. In 2014, he was selected as one of two musicians to act as a “cultural ambassador” for New York University Abu Dhabi. Additionally, he is a past winner of the Townsend School of Music’s concerto competition. 

Mellor-Goldman has also been privileged to perform chamber music alongside distinguished artists Osmo Vänskä, Erin Keefe, Edgar Meyer, Ivano Zaneghi, Amy Moretti, Rebecca Albers, the Cavani String Quartet, and Robert McDuffie. His chamber music and orchestral experience includes the prominent summer festivals of Kneisel Hall, Rome Chamber Music Festival, Moritzburg Festival Academy, Sarasota Music Festival, Festival Schiermonnikoog, and the Bowdoin Music Festival Fellowship Program.

Recent highlights include performing the east coast premiere of Indian American composer Reena Esmail’s work “When the Violin” for solo cello and choir, as well as the world premiere of Grammy award-winning composer Christopher Theofanidis’ Quintet for clarinet and string quartet. Mellor-Goldman also performs many house concerts around the DMV area; in particular, with his wife Minji, as a part of Duo BUBU.

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Minji Nam is an energetic pianist, chamber musician, and educator. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Minji has worked as a collaborative pianist for Yale University, the Washington International Competition, the Washington National Opera, the McDuffie Center for Strings, Florida State University, Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and the MTNA competition. Additionally, she has performed as a Guest Artist for the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Atlanta Chamber Players, and the Hawaii Chamber Music Festival. As the head Collaborative Pianist and Coordinator at the Yale School of Music, Ms. Nam worked with students and renowned faculty, performing for recitals, masterclasses, and coordinated the collaborative piano program. At Florida State University, she worked as a vocal coach and music director for their opera outreach program, where she helped to coach vocalists in many different productions. At the Aspen Music Festival, in addition to her duties as a collaborative pianist, she performed as a keyboardist in the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and with all the festival orchestras, and was also selected to perform in recital as a concerto competition winner at Harris Concert Hall.

Ms. Nam has been privileged to perform in recitals with some of the world’s most sought-after artists, including Augustin Hadelich, Hsin-Yun Huang, Isabel Bayrakdarian, and Amy Schwartz-Morretti, and has played in Masterclasses for Emmanuel Pahud, Hilary Hahn, Anne Sophie-Mutter, Kyung-Sun Lee, Midori, Lambert Orkis, Renée Fleming, and Jessye Norman. Recent highlights include recording an album with her good friend and longtime duo partner Jacquelin Cordova-Arrington, in addition to a showcase concert in Carnegie Hall. Ms. Nam maintains an active private studio where she teaches piano, violin, and music theory, in addition to coaching chamber music, and hosting chamber music residencies. Ms. Nam recently performed multiple concerts around the east coast as part of a deeply personal musical program entitled “Note for Purpose,” with aspirations to provide residencies at hospitals, connect directly with cancer patients and survivors through personalized concerts and interviews, and establish an artist fund to support this cause further.

In her free time, Ms. Nam enjoys painting, playing pickleball, and cooking with her husband at their home in Virginia.

As a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician Karen Johnson‘s playing has been applauded for its “balance and precision”, as well as her “enthusiastic showmanship of impressive energy and accuracy” (Washington Post) and her performances hailed as “virtuosically energized and broadly lyrical” (Richmond Times-Dispatch). In a review of her debut album (Brioso Records) with pianist Joanne Kong, the American Record Guide stated, “It is a real pleasure to discover a violinist of the caliber of Karen Johnson… Her tone is broad and pure, her attacks are flawlessly incisive, her vibrato nicely modulated, and her intonation infallible…”

Ms. Johnson has performed in concerts throughout the United States and Europe and has worked with a variety of renowned conductors and musicians, such as James DePriest, Sergiu Commissiona, Yuri Temirkanov, Victor Yampolsky, Gerard Schwarz, and Joseph Silverstein. From 2002-2011, Karen was
Concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was invited as a guest concertmaster with orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and the Oregon Symphony. Ms. Johnson was recently featured as soloist at WCVE’s celebration of Robert Schumann’s
bicentennial.

Ms. Johnson began her musical studies in her hometown of Gilbert, AZ, at the age of 4. At age 10, she became the pupil of Dr. William Magers at Arizona State University and under his tutelage won such competitions as the Corpus Christi International Young Artist Competition, the Midland-Odessa National Young Artist Competition, and the National MTNA Yamaha String Competition. Ms. Johnson earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the Juilliard School as the pupil of Joel Smirnoff and was the first prize winner of several local and national competitions, including the Juilliard Sibelius Violin Concerto
Competition. She completed her Master’s degree at the University of Maryland – College Park studying with William Preucil, Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and former first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet.

Currently, Ms. Johnson is a regular performer in the Washington DC area, currently as Concertmaster of the US Marine Chamber Orchestra and also as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She is a founding member of the Phillips Camerata, presenting chamber music concerts both at the Phillips Collection as
well as the National Gallery of Art. Karen resides in Stafford, VA, with husband Karl Johnson and their five children.

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