GUEST ARTISTS

James Dick, Pianist

Recognized as one of the truly important pianists of his generation, internationally renowned concert pianist and Steinway artist James Dick brings keyboard sonorities of captivation, opulence and brilliance to performances that radiate intellectual insight and emotional authenticity.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Dick studied with Sir Clifford Curzon in England. Dick's early triumphs as a major prizewinner in the Tchaikovsky, Busoni and Leventritt International Competitions were a mere prelude to an eminent career highlighted by acclaimed recitals and concerto performances in the world's premier concert halls, including New York's Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall and 92nd Street "Y"; London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room; Le Theatre du Chatelet and Salle Gaveau in Paris; the Academy of Music in Philadelphia; the Kennedy Center and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; and Orchestra Hall in Chicago.

Dick has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony and many major orchestras, with such conductors as Ormandy, Barbirolli, Levin, Maazel, Kondrashin, Spano, Oue, Sanderling, Hogwood, de Preist and Verrot. In chamber music, he has been guest soloist with the Cleveland, Tokyo, Parisii, Ravel, Debussy and Cassatt quartets and the Dorian and Moragues wind quintets, concertizing as well with Yo-Yo Ma, Regis Pasquier, Young Uck Kim, Raphael Hillyer, Rostislav Dubinsky, Martin Lovett, Andrew Marriner, Guy Deplus and Carol Wincenc.

James Dick has received numerous honors and commendations, including the Texas Medal of Arts, the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture, and Honorary Associate of London's Royal Academy of Music.

He is a fervent supporter of new music, having commissioned Benjamin Lees, Dan Welcher, Malcolm Hawkins and Chinary Ung to write, respectively, "Etudes", "Shiva's Drum", "Rasmandala" and "Rising Light" for piano and orchestra. On February 1998, James Dick premiered "Flight of Passage: From Silent Sun to Starry Night" by Claude Baker. This piece is inspired by poems by Walt Whitman. It was performed in New York (Alice Tully Hall), Paris (Salle Gaveau) and London (Purcell Room).

In addition to his schedule as a world-renowned guest artist, James Dick in 1971 established the Round Top Festival Institute in Round Top, Texas to nurture and incubate aspiring young musicians. The institute (today operated under The James Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts) has grown from a handful of gifted young pianists in rented space on the town square of Round Top to a 210-acre European-styled campus where distinguished faculty each year teach nearly 100 young artists and the Festival Institute provides year-round education and performance programs for audiences.

Today James Dick is well-known to music lovers as a man of great talent, vision and class.

Kevin Chen, Violin

Kevin Chen began his violin studies at the age of five; at age 11 he entered the Juilliard School pre-college and has since studied with violinist Naoko Tanaka. Kevin has had master classes with violinists Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, and Eric Wyrick. In September 2011, Kevin became a freshman at Columbia University as well as the Juilliard School under the Columbia-Juilliard-Exchange Program.

As soloist and chamber musician, Kevin has performed in the United States, Austria, and Croatia, including solo performances with Thurnauer Chamber Orchestra, International Youth Chamber Orchestra, Livingston Symphony Orchestra, the World Youth Alliance Chamber Orchestra, and Juilliard Pre-college Chamber Orchestra, among others.

Kevin has won several competitions, including the Westminster Scholarship Concerto Competition, the Chinese American Young People’s Music Program, and the Juilliard pre-college violin concerto competition. In 2010, Kevin was the winner of Princeton Festival Bach-class violin competition and the Riverside Symphonia Caprio II Young Artist competition.

Kevin was the concert master/principal of the Juilliard Pre-college Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Pre-college Orchestra, and the World Youth Alliance Chamber Orchestra. Since 2006, Kevin has actively participated in the Aspen Music Festival and School and performed in the Aspen Academy of Conducting Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, and Aspen Concert Orchestra.

Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Harp

Marie-Pierre Langlamet has been principal harpist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 1993, when she was appointed under Claudio Abbado.

Ms. Langlamet was born in Grenoble, France. She received her first harp instruction at the Nice Conservatory at the age of 8, from Elisabeth Fontan Binoche and has been winning international acclaim since she was 15, when she won the highest prize at the Maria Korchinska competition in the United Kingdom. One year later, she won first prize at the Cité des Arts Competition in Paris, and was only 17 years old when she was appointed principal harpist of the Nice Opera Orchestra, a position she held until she left to continue her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The following year she was a prize-winner at the Concours International d'Exécution Musicale in Geneva.

At 20, she was appointed assistant principal harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra working under James Levine. During her five years there, she continued to win major awards. She was a first prize winner in New York’s Concert Artists Guild Competition, and in 1992 won first prize at the International Harp competition in Israel, which was widely regarded as the most important for the instrument.

She has received numerous awards including the prestigious Cino del Duca prize from l’Academie des Beaux Arts in 2003. In 2009, she was decorated Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and was awarded Le grand Prix de la ville de Nice in 2011.

Marie-Pierre has performed as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande among many others, and with some of the world’s leading conductors including Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Trevor Pinnock and Marek Janowski.

She teaches at the Karajan Academy and Universität der Künste Berlin and lives in Berlin with her family.

Lara St. John, Violin

Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John has been described as "something of a phenomenon" by The Strad and a “high-powered soloist” by the New York Times.

She has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras including Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Royal Philharmonic, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the NDR, and the Bournemouth Symphony, among many others. In Asia, solo appearances have included the Hong Kong Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, China Phil, and in Oceania the Queensland Orchestra and the ACO2, as well as the orchestras of Adelaide and Auckland.

The Los Angeles Times has written, “St. John brings to the stage personal charisma, an unflagging musical imagination and genuine passion.” Recitals in major concert halls have included New York, Boston, San Francisco, Ravinia, Washington DC, Prague, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, and in the Forbidden City.

Lara owns and runs her own record label, Ancalagon. Her Bach Sonatas and Partitas was the best-selling double album on iTunes in 2007. In 2008 her world premiere recording of the Hindson violin concerto had Gramophone saying: “It’s the sort of work that should get audiences running, not walking, back to concert halls on new-music nights”. In 2009, American Record Guide said of her Vivaldi/Piazzolla disc with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela: “I can imagine no suaver, more atmospheric performance”, and her Mozart Sinfonia Concertante album with her brother, Scott, won the Juno award in 2011 for Best Classical Album (Soloist with Large Ensemble).

Lara began playing the violin when she was two years old. She made her first appearance as soloist with orchestra at age four, and her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra when she was 10. She toured Spain, France, Portugal and Hungary at ages 12 and 13 and entered the Curtis Institute at 13. Her teachers have included Felix Galimir and Joey Corpus.

She performs on the 1779 “Salabue” Guadagnini thanks to an anonymous donor and Heinl & Co. of Toronto