MUSIC
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Audience Information
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Cover Design: Lisa Baron | Cover Photo: Mark Teague | Photos Courtesy of the Artists
ECMSA
EMERSON SERIES
Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta
William Ransom, artistic director
William Ransom
40th Anniversary Celebration
William Ransom, piano | David Coucheron, violin
The Vega Quartet
Saturday, September 14, 2024, 8:00 p.m.
Emerson Concert Hall
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Program
Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, op. 23 Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
L’isle joyeuse Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin (1898-1937)
William Ransom, piano
Intermission
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, op. 81
Antonín Dvořák
Allegro, ma non tanto (1841-1904)
Dumka: Andante con moto
Scherzo (Furiant): Molto vivace
Finale: Allegro
The Vega Quartet; David Coucheron, guest first violin; William Ransom, piano
The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta is supported by the Cherry L. Emerson Endowment, the Rebecca Katz-Doft Chamber Music Endowment, the Crescendo Fund, the Ethel Orentlicher Gershon Fund, the Yinzi Kong Viola Chair Fund, an anonymous gift for the John Lawless Family Series, a generous gift from Dr. John and Linda Cooke, and by music lovers like you!
Visit ECMSA online at chambermusicsociety.emory.edu
Performer Biographies
The Vega Quartet
Emily Daggett Smith and Jessica Shuang Wu, violins; Joseph Skerik, viola; Guang Wang, cello
Quartet-in-Residence at Emory University, the Vega Quartet is cultivating a new generation of chamber music lovers through dynamic perf0rmances and innovative community engagement. The New York Times raved that “[the Quartet’s] playing had a kind of clean intoxication to it, pulling the listener along . . . the musicians took real risks in their music making” and the Los Angeles Times praised their “triumphant L.A. debut.” The Quartet concertizes both nationally and internationally, most recently at the National Gallery in Washington, in Baltimore, Chicago, Berlin, San Miguel Mexico, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Brahmssaal in Vienna’s Musikverein. The Quartet’s major performing projects at Emory have included performing the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets, as well as pairing Bach’s complete works for solo violin, viola and cello with the six Bartók quartets. Recent highlights include debuting at the 2023 Kneisel Hall Chamber Festival and opening the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta’s 2023–2024 season alongside Mark and Maggie O’Connor. The Quartet’s 2023–2024 season featured collaborations with flutist Ransom Wilson, cellist Zuill Bailey, and the Juilliard Quartet. Regular commissioners of new music, the quartet will be premiering Joel Thompson’s newest string quartet written for it.
A unique aspect of the Quartet’s residency at Emory is bringing performance into the classroom—collaborating with academic professors to create interdisciplinary parallels and conversations. Quartet members also enrich the cultural life of their community, having founded the Emory Youth Chamber Music Program, which gives intensive training in small ensemble playing to advanced pre-college students. The Quartet was also appointed to the roster of the Woodruff Arts Center’s Young
Audiences program, engaging thousands of students throughout the greater Atlanta school system. It has held residencies in Augusta, Jacksonville, and Juneau that combined traditional concerts with educational outreach, performances in non-traditional venues, and master classes for area students.
The Vega Quartet has won numerous international awards, including at the Bordeaux String Quartet Competition, as well as top prizes from the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, the Carmel Chamber Music Competition, and the National Society of Arts and Letters String Quartet Competition. The Quartet has toured throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, and has appeared at Weill Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic, and Duke Hall at the Royal Academy of Music, London. The members of the Vega Quartet collaborate with some of the world’s finest musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, David Shifrin, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, Andres Cardenes, Eliot Fisk, William Preucil, Richard Stoltzman, Robert Spano, Charles Wadsworth, Soovin Kim, and the Eroica Trio. They also commission, premier, and record works by leading composers. The Quartet is a frequent guest at numerous music festivals including Amelia Island, Aspen, Brevard, Highlands-Cashiers, Juneau Jazz & Classics, Kingston, Kneisel Hall, Mostly Mozart, Rockport, San Miguel de Allende, and SummerFest La Jolla.
David Coucheron
David Coucheron joined the Atlanta Symphony as Concertmaster in September 2010. At the time, he was the youngest concertmaster among any major U.S. orchestra. Throughout his career, Coucheron has worked with conductors Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Charles Dutoit, among others. He has performed as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sendai Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. Coucheron has given solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Olympic Winter Games (Salt Lake City), as well as in Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Serbia, Singapore, and Shanghai. His chamber music performances have included appearances at Suntory Hall, as well as Wigmore Hall and Alice Tully Hall. Coucheron serves as the artistic director for the Kon Tiki Chamber Music Festival in his hometown
of Oslo, Norway. He is also on the artist-faculty for the Aspen Music Festival and Brevard Music Festival.
An active recording artist, recordings with sister and pianist Julie Coucheron include “David and Julie” (Naxos/Mudi) and “Debut” (Naxos). He is also the featured soloist on the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
Coucheron began playing the violin at age three. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute, his Master of Music from the Juilliard School, and his Master of Music Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with teachers including Igor Ozim, Aaron Rosand, Lewis Kaplan, and David Takeno. Coucheron plays a 1725 Stradivarius, on kind loan from Anders Sveaas Charitable Trust.
Pianist, artistic director, master teacher, editor, and judge for international competitions, William Ransom appears around the world as soloist with orchestras, recitalist, and chamber musician. His performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and Television in the US, Argentina, Poland, and Japan. He regularly collaborates with musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Stoltzman, William Preucil, Stephen Isserlis, Robert McDuffie, and members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, American, St. Petersburg, Borromeo, Dover, Parker, Ariel, Viano, and Lark string quartets, the Empire Brass Quintet, Eroica Trio, and the percussion group Nexus, among others. As a master teacher, he also performs and gives master classes at numerous schools of music and universities around the world. He has recorded for ACA Digital and Rising Star Records.
Ransom is the Mary Emerson Professor of Music at Emory University and founder and artistic director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the University of Michigan, in the summers, Ransom is artistic director of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina and for a decade was an artistfaculty member at the Kamisaibara Pianists Camp in Japan. In 2016 he was named artistic director of the Juneau Jazz & Classics Festival and also one of Musical America Worldwide’s “30 Musical Innovators.” Recently, he was named artistic director of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.
William Ransom
Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings.
We hope you enjoy sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world.
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