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Sunday, March 30, 2025
— a “hybrid” event —
Chestertown Piano Quartet
Elizabeth Adams, violin
Renate Falkner, viola
Joseph Gotoff, cello
Minji Nam, piano
PROGRAM
Gustav Mahler’s rarely performed and early “Piano Quartet in A minor” offers a fascinating glimpse into the composer’s early development, filled with dramatic intensity and haunting beauty.
Frank Bridge’s “Phantasy” Piano Quartet in f-sharp minor demonstrates the English composer’s exquisite craftsmanship, balancing lush romanticism with forward-looking harmonic innovations.
The main work on the program, Ernest Chausson’s “Piano Quartet in A Major”, captivates with its rich harmonies and emotional depth, blending a French sensibility and sound world with Wagnerian influence.
Experience these masterpieces performed by the Chestertown Piano Quartet in an intimate setting that perfectly complements the expressive nature of these remarkable works.
BIOGRAPHY
Chestertown Piano Quartet
Formed in 2024 at the National Music Festival, the Chestertown Piano Quartet is composed of faculty affiliated with some of the most prominent music schools in the United States, including Peabody, Yale, and Towson University. The members — Elizabeth Adams, violin, Renate Falkner, viola, Joseph Gotoff, cello, and Minji Nam, piano — are highly sought-after chamber musicians, having appeared in prestigious music festivals throughout the United States and internationally.
The Quartet has been named Ensemble-in-Residence at the Kent Cultural Alliance in Chestertown, MD for the 2025-26 season, and will be presenting works by underrepresented female composers of the 19th and 20th centuries alongside newly commissioned contemporary compositions and classic favorites. The quartet is committed to local education and to promoting interdisciplinary collaboration between the many diverse artists in residence at the KCA and throughout the greater context of Maryland and Washington D.C.’s vibrant cultural community.
Elizabeth Adams, violin, has performed throughout Europe and North America as violinist, violist, and pianist, from solo to chamber music to orchestra. She is in demand as a versatile performer, teacher, adjudicator, and clinician. She is a member of the Washington Concert Opera orchestra and plays in symphony orchestras and in period and modern chamber ensembles from Richmond to Baltimore. Elizabeth has appeared at the Smithsonian Institution, the embassies of Russia, Austria, and Italy, and the American Consulate in St Petersburg, as well as with orchestras at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, het Concertgebouw, Place des Arts, Palais Montcalm, and Jordan Hall, among others.
Recent performances include Ravel’s Tzigane and Stravinsky’s l’Histoire du soldat at National Music Festival; Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at Catholic University’s International Piano Series; and chamber concerts at Redpath Hall at McGill, University of Maryland, and the Kreeger Museum.
Elizabeth holds an MM in violin and a BA in Russian studies from Yale. She has studied violin and pedagogy extensively in both Russia and North America and holds a doctorate in violin from l’Université de Montréal. She has studied chamber music with the Borodin, Tokyo, and Colorado String Quartets. Primary teachers include Ani Kavafian, Ricardo Cyncynates, Mikhail Gantvarg and Vladimir Landsman, and Baroque violin with Robert Mealy.
Formerly head of strings at George Mason University, Elizabeth currently teaches at Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore. In the summers she performs as a faculty artist at the National Music Festival in Chestertown, Maryland.
Praised for her versatility and creativity, American violist Renate Falkner leads an active career as an educator, recitalist, and orchestral and chamber musician, performing across the U.S. and abroad. She is a frequent guest with groups such as the Baltimore, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh Symphonies. As a baroque violist, she has performed with Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, the Yale Collegium Players, Baltimore’s Pro Musica Rara and her own Quartetto Antico. A frequent chamber music collaborator, Renate is Artistic Director of the Charm City Chamber Players and collaborates regularly with colleagues from the Peabody Institute and the BSO. Summer appearances have included the Verbier Festival, Switzerland, the Spoleto Festival, Italy, the Bellingham Festival of Music, WA, Carvalho Festival of Music in Fortaleza, Brazil, and the National Music Festival in Maryland. She has been heard in venues as diverse as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book Library, and in orchestras at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and London’s Royal Albert Hall for the Proms. She has recorded for the Chandos, Nimbus, and Rezound music labels.
Renate earned degrees in both viola and Ancient Greek at the Oberlin College and Conservatory and also holds an MM from the Yale School of Music, and a doctorate from the Florida State University, where she explored the viola music of English composer York Bowen. After more than a decade on faculty at the University of North Florida and George Mason University, Renate joined the faculty of the prestigious Peabody Institute of Music, where she teaches viola and violin and coaches chamber music. She also serves as an Artist Affiliate at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and is an active board member of the American Viola Society.
Praised for his “clarity and an approachable sensitivity” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer, 2019), cellist Joseph Gotoff is recognized as a thoughtful and passionate performer, scholar, and teacher. With a repertoire spanning the Baroque to the modern era, Joseph works closely with a number of composers working today, with premieres by composers including Lowell Liebermann, Cody Forrest and Binna Kim. In 2020, his debut album “The Voice of the Cello” was released to critical acclaim on the Spice Classics label.
Joseph has appeared as a recitalist in concert halls across Europe, Asia and the Americas, with a particular emphasis on repertoire by 19th- and 20th-century female composers. As a chamber musician, he performs regularly throughout the Washington and Baltimore region with such diverse ensembles as Counterpoint Concerts, Washington Classical Arts, the New Orchestra of Washington, and the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra in Massachusetts. Joseph is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Outer Cape Chamber Music Festival, which will hold its inaugural season in Provincetown, MA in June of 2025.
In 2021, Joseph joined the faculty of Towson University as Assistant Professor of Cello, where he also conducts the symphony orchestra. He also teaches cello and ensembles at the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C. In the summers he performs as faculty artist at the National Music Festival.
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, pianist Minji Nam is an energetic chamber musician and educator. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she has worked as a collaborative pianist at Yale, the Washington International Competition, Washington National Opera, the McDuffie Center for Strings, Florida State University, Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras. 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 at Yale School of Music, Minji performed for recitals with students and faculty, 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.
Minji has performed in recitals with artists including Augustin Hadelich, Hsin-Yun Huang, Demarre McGill, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Eric Silberger, Ignace Jang, Annie Fullard, Amy Schwartz-Morretti, Evan Jones, Robert McDuffie, and Walfrid Kujala. She has played in masterclasses for renowned musicians Emmanuel Pahud, Hilary Hahn, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Kyung-Sun Lee, Midori, Robert Lipsett, Lambert Orkis, Renée Fleming, and Jessye Norman. Recent highlights include recording an album and performing a showcase concert at Carnegie Hall with friend and longtime duo partner Jacquelin Cordova-Arrington.
Minji is dedicated to organizing benefit concerts for cancer patients, recently performing concerts in a deeply personal musical program entitled “Note for Purpose,” and plans to establish an artist fund to further this cause. In the summer she is a faculty artist at the National Music Festival and Orfeo Music Festival.
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