LEONARD BERNSTEIN Piano Trio
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio in E minor
FELIX MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No. 2
The Horszowski Piano Trio presents a program of dramatic and expressive chamber music.
Bernstein’s early Piano Trio and Shostakovich’s deeply moving Piano Trio in E minor lead to Mendelssohn’s sweeping Piano Trio No. 2, a Romantic masterpiece filled with lyrical beauty and dazzling momentum.
Jesse Mills
Violin
Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention.
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Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention.
Since his concerto debut at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Mr. Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has been a soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, the Denver Philharmonic, the Teatro Argentino Orchestra (in Buenos Aires, Argentina), and the Aspen Music Festival’s Sinfonia Orchestra.
As a chamber musician Jesse Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Boston’s Gardener Museum, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. He has also appeared at prestigious venues in Europe, such as the Barbican Centre of London, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, Amsterdam’s Royal Carré Theatre, Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Mills is co-founder of Horszowski Trio and Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa, which earned 1st Prize at the Salieri Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006. With Ms. Aizawa, Mills became co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010.
Mills is also known as a pioneer of contemporary works, a renowned improvisational artist, as well as a composer. He earned Grammy nominations for his performances of Arnold Schoenberg’s music, released by NAXOS in 2005 and 2010. He can also be heard on the Koch, Centaur, Tzadik, Max Jazz and Verve labels for various compositions of Webern, Schoenberg, Zorn, Wuorinen, and others. As a member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001-2003, Mills performed music composed during the last 50 years, in addition to frequent world premieres. As a composer and arranger, Mills has been commissioned by venues including Columbia University’s Miller Theater, the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland, OR and the Bargemusic in NYC.
Jesse Mills began violin studies at the age of three. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School in 2001. He studied with Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann and Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Mills lives in New York City, and he is on the faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College and at Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College. In 2010 the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC honored him with the ‘Rising Star Award’ for musical achievement. He also received the “Achievement Award” from the Chamber Music Center of New York in 2023.
Ole Akahoshi
Cello
Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, Ole Akahoshi is known for the rare combination of musical sensitivity and technical mastery, which has earned the admiration of musicians and critics across the globe.
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Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, Ole Akahoshi is known for the rare combination of musical sensitivity and technical mastery, which has earned the admiration of musicians and critics across the globe.
As a soloist he has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin, Symphonisches Orchester Berlin, and the Czechoslovakian Radio Orchestra, among others. The Los Angeles Times praised his performance of the Haydn Concerto for its “technical solidity, fluent passage work and perfect intonation,” continuing, “Akahoshi made a large and edgeless tone of a buttered-rum quality, and conquered all the many hurdles of his assignment with panache.”
Akahoshi has collaborated with such esteemed musicians as Sarah Chang, Leon Fleisher, Ani Kavafian, Karl Leister, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Garrick Ohlsson, Gil Shaham, David Shifrin, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Michelangelo Quartet, and the Keller Quartet. He has also performed and served on the faculties at numerous festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
He was the youngest cellist to be accepted as a student of the legendary Pierre Fournier at the age of eleven. Later, he continued his studies with Aldo Parisot at the Juilliard School and at the Yale School of Music, and with Janos Starker at Indiana University. He is now the director of the Yale Cellos, a Grammy-nominated ensemble, and is Assistant Professor of Cello at the Yale School of Music. He is also on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music and at Longy School of Music of Bard College. He joined the Horszowski Trio in 2020.
Rieko Aizawa
Piano
Praised by the NY Times for an “impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing”, Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa has performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including New York City’s Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Wigmore Hall in London.
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Praised by the NY Times for an “impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing”, Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa has performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including New York City’s Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Wigmore Hall in London.
At the age of thirteen, Ms. Aizawa was brought to the attention of conductor Alexander Schneider on the recommendation of the pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Schneider engaged Ms. Aizawa as soloist with his Brandenburg Ensemble at the opening concerts of Tokyo’s Casals Hall. Later that year, Schneider presented her in her United States début concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with his New York String Orchestra. She has since established her own unique musical voice.
Ms. Aizawa is also an active chamber musician. The youngest-ever participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has performed as a guest with string quartets such as the Guarneri Quartet and the Orion Quartet. She is a founding member of the Horszowski Trio and of the prize-winning Duo Prism. Ms. Aizawa became artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010.
Recently, Ms. Aizawa’s solo debut recording of Scriabin’s and Shostakovich’s “24 Preludes” was released by Altus in Japan, and her second album of Messiaen’s and Faure’s preludes is coming out in the upcoming season. Ms. Aizawa also has a great interest in exploring unusual repertoire. – the St. Paul Pioneer Press said of her performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf: “the Salieri Piano Concerto in C was played so splendidly by Rieko Aizawa. Hers was a graceful reading. …. Aizawa’s performance lent the work a respect it rarely receives.” In the same year, she received the Washington Award.
Ms. Aizawa was the last pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute and she also studied with Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin at the Juilliard School. Ms. Aizawa lives in New York City, and she is on the faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music, Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College and the Juilliard School. Ms. Aizawa is a Steinway Artist.
