Calix Quartet Concert

Program

Charlton Singleton (b. 1971)
Testimony

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 95 “Serioso”
     I. Allegro con brio
     II. Allegretto ma non troppo
     III. Allegro assai vivace ma serioso
     IV. Larghetto espressivo; Allegretto agitato; Allegro

-Intermission-

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110
     I. Largo
     II. Allegro molto
     III. Allegretto
     IV. Largo
     V. Largo

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
String Quartet in G Minor
     III. Andantino, doucement expressif

Artist Profiles

Dominique Bégin, violin

Originally from Quebec City, Canada, the young violinist Dominique Bégin, 24 years old, is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Simon James. Born in a musical family, he started playing the violin at 4 years old with his parents, both violinists in the Orchestre symphonique de Québec. At 12 years old, he entered the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, where he studied with Jean Angers, Catherine Dallaire, Pascale Giguère, concertmaster of the Violons du Roy, and Darren Lowe, concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec. Over the years, he had the opportunity to hone his skills with great pedagogues such as Mauricio Fuks, Yair Kless, Vadim Gluzman, Michael Frischenschlager, Axel Strauss, Lucie Robert, and the Emerson String Quartet in summer festivals in Canada and Europe such as the Kronberg Academy, the Mozarteum Summer Academy, Orford Musique and Domaine Forget. Dominique is also very passionate about Computer Science. Indeed, he obtained after 3 years of study a Diploma of College Studies in Computer Science while still pursuing his full-time musical studies. Following his dream, he decided to dedicate himself full-time to his musical career and is working very hard to share his music with the world.

Kexin Ye, violin

Kexin Ye, born in Nanjing, China in 1997, started her violin studies when she was five years old. She entered the Music Middle School affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory in 2009 and studied with Professor Zhinuo Ding. During her six years of study in the Middle School, she focused on both solo violin and chamber music studies and received a school scholarship every semester. In 2013, she was offered a full scholarship to attend Hotchkiss Summer Portal, in which she studied and performed with the Miro Quartet, the Brentano Quartet and the Shanghai Quartet. She also studied with Professor Ida Kavafian during that event. In August 2013, her string quartet ‘Energico Quartet’ won the First Prize in the chamber music department of the Alice & Eleonore Schoenfield International String Competition. In 2014, the Energico Quartet won the Second Prize of the string quartet competition of the 3 rd International Chamber Music Festival of Shanghai Conservatory. Kexin Ye and Energico Quartet have performed in Helvting Hall, Shanghai Orchestra Symphony Hall and the Oriental Art Center. She and her colleagues were also guests of the Shanghai Spring Music Festival. In 2015, Kexin Ye was admitted to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and started her Bachelor of Music degree, studying with Professor Wei He, as well as Professor Ian Swensen. She kept her passion in chamber music and played in various piano and string chamber music groups. She studied with Profs. Yoshikatsu Nagai, Jennifer Culp, Dimitri Murrath, and Bonnie Hampton. From 2016 to 2018, she joined the piano trio “Oak Trio”, and performed charity concerts in the Bay Area, as well as in the Qufu University in Shangdong, China. The trio also attended masterclasses in SFCM taught by Edward Dusinberre from the Takács Quartet, Prof. Geoff Nuttall, Prof. Vivian Weilerstein and Prof. Weigang Li. In Summer 2017, Kexin Ye joined NYO-China and performed in Carnegie Hall. Continuously active as a chamber musician, Kexin Ye is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Chamber Music at SFCM, where she is studying with Professor Cordula Merks and has performed with Tessa Lark, Dimitri Murrath and Jennifer Culp.

Chuxuejie Zhang, viola

Chuxuejie Zhang is a young, passionate musician with great ambition. She began her violin studies at age 4, studied with Professor Xu Lv at the affiliated school of the Central Conservatory of Music in China since she was 9. During her education at the Central Conservatory, she participated in the China Youth Chamber Music Group and the China Youth Symphony Orchestra. She graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in 2015 and entered the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was a former student of Professor Ian Swensen, Wei He (Artistic Director and Dean of The Tianjin Juilliard School) and Cordula Merks (Former Concertmaster of Seattle Symphony, current Concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet). Ms. Zhang has participated in various masterclasses with the concertmaster of Zürich Opera House Xiaoming Wang (from the Stradivari String Quartet), Geoff Nuttall from the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Sunny Yang from the Kronos Quartet, the Telegraph Quartet, and the Danish Quartet. Chuxuejie Zhang switched to viola when she was in her senior year and currently studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she got her Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance and is pursuing her Master of Music Degree in Viola Performance with Professor Jay Liu. She is also the winner of the 2019 SFCM Low Strings Concerto Competition and the winner of Yen Liang Young Artist Competition in 2020.

Matthew Park, cello

Matthew Park, a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, studied under the tutelage of Alan Stepansky, former Associate Principal of the New York Philharmonic. During his time in New York he completed chamber music studies with Clive Greensmith, the American String Quartet, Nicholas Mann, and Sylvia Rosenberg and was invited to be a part of the Orpheus Institute at the Manhattan School of Music where he received coachings with members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has had masterclasses with the Takacs and Aizuri String Quartets, Ida Kavafian, Peter Salaff, Peter Wiley, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Nathaniel Rosen and has collaborated with the Kronos String Quartet, American String Quartet, and members of the Los Angeles Chamber and Philharmonic Orchestras. Matthew is a cofounder and cellist of Splntrd Wood, a cello ensemble that performs daring original arrangements that bridges the gap between all genres of music. Recent repertoire included Stravinsky Rite of Spring, Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and Brazillian folk tunes. Splntrd Wood were featured in a performance at Sundays Live at LACMA and have released an album De lá pra cá, which explores original arrangements of Brazillian and Latin American music. Matthew is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma in Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under Jennifer Culp, formerly of the Kronos Quartet, and has had chamber coachings with the Telegraph Quartet, Jean-Michel Fonteneau (formerly of the Ravel Quartet), among others. Matthew has had a tenured section cello position at the New West Symphony and was a member of Shattered Glass, a conductorless string ensemble. He has been a fellow at the Music Academy of the West, the ENCORE school for strings, the Marrowstone Music Festival, and the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival where he was named an Emerging Artist and subsequently served as faculty.

About SFCM’s String and Piano Chamber Music Department

SFCM’s chamber music ensemble experience strongly emphasizes studying, hearing, and performing the wide variety of works in chamber music literature. Performances are given in both informal and formal workshops, and in numerous public concerts at the Conservatory each semester.
Faculty chamber music concerts held throughout the year include advanced students in mixed ensembles. Guest artists are often invited to rehearse and perform with chamber music students and faculty, and to conduct chamber music master classes. Recent visitors have included violinist Robert Mann and cellist Joel Krosnick of the Juilliard String Quartet, Leon Fleisher, Garrick Ohlsson, Menahem Pressler, Sharon Robinson, Timothy Eddy, Jeffrey Kahane, Peter Oundjian, Kim Kashkashian, and Donald and Vivian Weilerstein.
Also a dedicated track of study, our degree programs in chamber music are two of the most elite majors we offer. With a department size never exceeding 10 (one quartet and up to six individuals), students get unrivaled access to faculty and visiting artists. As a student within the chamber music department, you’ll be connected with performance opportunities throughout the Bay Area—and with the networking opportunities that come with them.