Chamber Music / Recitals Music RoomRosen House Concert SeriesConcerts
Overview
Young artists from Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars mentoring program perform in a pair of afternoon concerts for which the program’s Artistic Director, cellist Marcy Rosen, is joined by distinguished artists Soovin Kim, violin, and Dimitri Murrath, viola. These concerts are the capstone of a weeklong residency at Caramoor in which these young musicians participate in workshops, reading sessions, and ensemble rehearsals, culminating in live performances with their mentors. Since 1992, this program has identified some of the finest musicians of the next generation and helped them cross the threshold from their student years into the early stages of a professional career.
Tickets are free for Ages 18 and Under.
Distinguished Artists
Marcy Rosen, Artistic Director and Cello Soovin Kim, violin Dimitri Murrath, viola
Rising Stars
Isabelle Ai Durrenberger, violin Stephen Kim, violin Julian Rhee, violin Laura Liu, viola Emad Zolfaghari, viola Andrew Byun, cello Annie Jacobs-Perkins, cello Albert Cano Smit, piano
Program
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: String Quintet in C Major, K. 515 LEOŠ JANÁČEK: String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters”
Intermission
CÉSAR FRANCK: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 14
Know Before You Go
Music Room
At the heart of the historic Rosen House, the Music Room is a soaring yet intimate space used for chamber music, recitals, American roots music and jazz performances, as well as lectures and Caramoor's popular Afternoon Teas. You’ll find yourself surrounded with Renaissance furniture, stained glass windows and architectural elements the Rosens collected and installed in this unique space. Only covered beverages are permitted inside during performances.
Evnin Rising StarsSat, Oct 31, 2026, 3:00PMGet Tickets
Marcy Rosen (Artistic Director & Mentor)
Marcy Rosen, cellist, has established herself as one of the most important and respected artists of our day. Los Angeles Times music critic Herbert Glass has called her “one of the intimate art’s abiding treasures” and The New Yorker Magazine deemed her “a New York legend of the cello.”
She made her concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of eighteen and has appeared in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South America, Switzerland and all fifty of the United States.
Sought after for her riveting and informative Master Classes, she has been a guest of the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea and the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia.
She was a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet which toured worldwide for 31 years. Since first attending the Marlboro Festival in 1975, she has taken part in 26 “Musicians from Marlboro” tours and has performed in concerts celebrating the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the festival.
Since 1986 Ms. Rosen has been Artistic Director of Chesapeake Chamber Music in Maryland and she is an artist member of Music for Food, a musician led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Ms. Rosen is currently Professor of Cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center also serving as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Live concert series.
Soovin Kim (Mentor)
Violinist Soovin Kim has performed with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad, presented recitals on the world’s most celebrated stages, and released recordings on the Koch Discover International, Delos, Azica Records, and Stomp/EMI (Korea) labels. He has worked and collaborated with such revered chamber musicians as Jeremy Denk and Mitsuko Uchida and for two decades was the first violinist in the Johannes String Quartet. Today, Kim is a member of the Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio with his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, and YSM faculty cellist Paul Watkins.
Kim won first prize at the 1996 Paganini International Violin Competition and has received the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. He received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music.
Kim serves as Visiting Professor in the Practice of Violin at the Yale School of Music, where he teaches individual students, coaches chamber music ensembles, and presents a master class each semester. Kim previously served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He has also served as Lecturer/Artist-in-Residence and Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University and as an international scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. He is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, which he founded, and maintains a relationship with the Marlboro Music Festival, with which he has performed on a dozen national tours over the course of nearly 15 years.
Kim earned his bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and studied before that at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Dimitri Murrath (Mentor)
Born in Brussels, Belgian-American viola player Dimitri Murrath made his mark on the international scene, performing as a recitalist and soloist at venues including Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall (London), Kioi Hall (Tokyo), and Théâtre de la Ville (Paris).
A first-prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition, Dimitri Murrath has won numerous awards, including top prizes at the Tokyo International Viola Competition and the ARD Munich Competition. In 2012, he was named laureate of the Juventus Festival, an award recognizing young European soloists. He received a 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, through which he recorded and released his first solo album, featuring music by Vieuxtemps, Clarke, and Hindemith, in 2017.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Murrath has been the violist of the Esmé Quartet since 2023. Prior to that, he was a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society from 2013 to 2023. He has collaborated with Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Menahem Pressler, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Cleveland, Mendelssohn, and Guarneri Quartets. He has performed at festivals including Verbier, Caramoor, Juventus, and Marlboro.
Dimitri Murrath began his musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School, studying with Natalia Boyarsky, and completed his Bachelor of Music in London with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and graduated with an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian.
After 9 years teaching viola at New England Conservatory, he joined the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as professor of viola and chair of chamber music. During this time, he founded the concert series Chamber Music Tuesdays, showcasing SFCM students playing alongside internationally recognized chamber musicians. Since fall 2026, Dimitri Murrath has served as Associate Dean of Artistic Administration at NEC.
Dimitri Murrath participates in the Music for Food project, which raises awareness of the hunger problem faced by a large percentage of the population and gives the opportunity to experience the powerful role music can play as a catalyst for change.
“The warm and noble tone of Mr. Murrath's viola glowed fiercely.” -- New York Times
Isabelle Ai Durrenberger
American violinist Isabelle Ai Durrenberger is praised for her imaginative, striking performances and her ability to communicate with sincere artistry. Currently based in New York City, Isabelle was recently appointed first violinist of the renowned Aeolus Quartet and was a 2023-25 fellow of Carnegie Hall's renowned Ensemble Connect program. Isabelle also enjoys exploring music through teaching: she has a private violin studio in New York City and serves on the violin faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston where she teaches violin and coaches chamber music.
An avid chamber musician, Isabelle is recognized nationally for her unique collaborative instincts. Her 2025-26 season features solo and collaborative invitations including performances with the Boston Chamber Music Society, tours with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall (NYC), collaboration with NYC dance company Dual Rivet at Art Bath, and appearances with Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, The Knights, the Grammy-nominated conductorless chamber orchestra, A Far Cry (Boston), and Agarita in San Antonio.
In 2022, she completed her graduate studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Soovin Kim and Don Weilerstein. Isabelle spent this summer performing at Chamber Music Northwest, with ECCO, at Tippet Rise, Lake Champlain Chamber Music, VIVO Festival in Columbus, OH, and in San Antonio with Agarita.
Isabelle's musical life began at birth; both of her parents are pianists and music educators. She began playing piano at age 4, but her parents noticed that she loved singing and thought she might enjoy "singing" on the violin - she began lessons at age 7. Isabelle grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and was extremely lucky to be introduced to Jaime Laredo at age 13. She attended Meadowmount School of Music for four years, graduated high school a year early, and began her undergraduate program in Cleveland at age 16.
She completed her B.M. at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she was mentored by Jaime Laredo for seven years. Her other mentors and influences include Jennifer Koh, Sharon Robinson, Joan Kwuon, Jinjoo Cho, Jan Mark Sloman, and Jun Kim.
Born in Taipei in 1998, Isabelle is of Japanese, Taiwanese, and American descent. She performs on a 2020 Zygmuntowicz violin generously loaned to her by a private patron in New York City.
Isabelle was the Artist Fellow of the 2021 Alone Together educational project led by Jennifer Koh and ARCO Collaborative. This unique introduction to composers such as Tania Leon, Du Yun, and Missy Mazzoli has inspired her to prioritize programming living composers, especially highlighting female and multicultural composers.
Isabelle has received many recognitions and awards for her musicianship. Isabelle was the top prize winner of the 2024 Bach Barabsh Competition, and winner of the 2021-22 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Award and performed alongside the quartet in Jordan Hall. In 2020, she was highlighted as the Featured Young Artist of the Music from the Western Reserve concert series. In 2019, Isabelle won the First Prize and Performance Prize from the Tuesday Musical Competition. She was awarded the Milton Preves Memorial 3rd Prize at the 2018 Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco, as well as the first prize in the 2017 Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition. Isabelle has collaborated with the Columbus Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, and Lakeside Symphony Orchestra amongst many others.
Stephen Kim
Winner of top prizes at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth (Third Prize), 2018 Premio Paganini (Third Prize), and 2016 Sendai (Second Prize) international violin competitions, violinist Stephen Kim is internationally recognized as a leading artist of the younger generation, praised for his musical authenticity and sensitivity.
He has appeared as a soloist with the Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Carmel Symphony Orchestra, Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, the Aspen Music Festival orchestras, and the Curtis and Juilliard orchestras, among many others.
A passionate chamber musician, Stephen has performed and collaborated with Isabelle Faust, Christian Tetzlaff, Nobuko Imai, Tabea Zimmermann, Antoine Tamestit, Gary Hoffmann, Jörg Widmann, and musicians from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Along with recent recitals and chamber music performances at Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus Berlin, Carnegie Hall in New York, and Seoul Arts Center, Stephen has also performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Kronberg Festival, Seoul International Music Festival, Krzyżowa-Music Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Evnin Rising Stars at Caramoor, and Verbier Festival.
Stephen is also an avid performer of contemporary music and has given numerous premieres of works by living composers. He stunned the Belgian audience and listeners worldwide at the Queen Elisabeth Competition with his performance from memory of the final-round commissioned work, Kimmo Hakola’s “Fidl”, a 20-minute violin concerto given to the finalists seven days before the performance. Stephen also performed Steven Mackey’s “Beautiful Passing” violin concerto from memory in its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall. In collaboration with Korean composer Shinuh Lee, Stephen recorded an album, Till Dawn (Sony Classical, 2021), featuring Lee’s works for violin and including two new pieces, the Violin Sonata No. 2 “Till Dawn” and Caprice No. 1 for Solo Violin “Kkot”, both written for and dedicated to Stephen.
Stephen’s passion for the violin began with rubber bands wrapped around a tissue box before starting to play the instrument at the age of 3. He studied with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, and Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he received his Bachelor’s degree; with Hyo Kang at the Juilliard School, where he received his Master’s degree and Artist Diploma; and with Antje Weithaas at the Kronberg Academy in Germany, where he completed the Professional Studies program.
Julian Rhee
Winner of the coveted 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Korean-American violinist Julian Rhee has been recognized for his refinement, beauty of sound, and "the kind of poise and showmanship that thrills audiences" (The Strad). Lauded for his soulful lyricism, magnetic charisma, and passion for collaboration, Rhee brings expressive depth, technical mastery, and interpretive insight to both familiar and contemporary works, establishing himself as one of today's most captivating young artists.
Rhee has appeared with leading orchestras across North America, Europe, and Asia, including the Calgary Philharmonic, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Oregon Symphony, Belgian National Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn, and San Diego Symphony, among others. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Alexander Shelley, Francesco Lecce-Chong, Nicolas McGegan, David Danzmayr, Rune Bergmann, Valentina Peleggi, Antony Hermus, and Leonard Slatkin. Highlights of the 2026-2027 season include debuts with the Gurzenich-Orchester and Andres Orozco-Estrada, La Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia and Daniel Raiskin, and returns to the Richmond Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and Brevard Symphony Orchestras.
Following his prize-winning performances at the 2024 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition and his Silver Medal at the 11th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Rhee rose to international prominence as a soloist of remarkable artistry and maturity. He is also First Prize Winner of the Elmar Oliveira International Competition and Astral Artists' National Auditions, and the recipient of numerous honors including the Aspen Festival's Dorothy DeLay Fellowship, Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund, and Manfred Grommek Prize from the Kronberg Academy. A U.S. Presidential Scholar, he received his medal at the White House and serves as a Young Strings of America Ambassador sponsored by SHAR Music.
Rhee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Bowers Program, appearing regularly at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. He has performed at leading festivals including Marlboro, Bridgehampton, Music@Menlo, Rockport Music, and North Shore Chamber Music Festivals, and this season makes debuts at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival and as Artist in Residence at the Durango Music Festival.
Rhee received his bachelor's and master's degrees at the New England Conservatory, where he was teaching assistant to Miriam Fried, and currently studies with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy. He performs on the extraordinary 1699 "Lady Tennant" Antonio Stradivari violin and a Jean Pierre Marie Persoit bow, on extended loan through the generosity of the Mary B. Galvin Foundation and the Stradivari Society, a division of Bein & Fushi, Inc.
Laura Liu
Laura Liu, a native of Miami, Florida and known for “sound deep, warm, and consistently musical” currently lives in New York City and studies with Cynthia Phelps and Misha Amory at The Juilliard School (Classical Voice America). Liu’s ardent love of musical collaboration and conversation has led her to pursue a rich life in chamber music. In the summer of 2026, Liu appeared as a Junior Artist at Marlboro Music Festival, as well as an artist at Moritzburg Festival, Tippet Rise Art Center, Sunkiss’d Mozart Summerfest, Cultural Caravan’s June Festival, and Rome Chamber Music Festival. Her summer performance of Mozart’s G-minor Piano Quartet alongside Mitsuko Uchida, Stephanie Zyzak, and Elena Ariza was described by the New York Times as “unerringly natural.”
In previous years she collaborated with musicians Gidon Kremer, Antje Weithaas, and Gary Hoffman as a Junior Artist at Kronberg Academy’s “Chamber Music Connects the World” and participated in the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach’s “Rising Artist” Program, the Olympic Music Festival Fellowship, Music@Menlo’s International Performer Program, the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, the Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, and the Heifetz International Music Institute. Highlights from past seasons include performing with her quartet, Quatuor Cael, in Alice Tully Hall and Peter Jay Sharp as a member of The Juilliard Honors Chamber Music program, collaborating alongside the Frisson Ensemble, appearing at Santa Fe ProMusica, and making her Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center debut in both their “Meet the Music!” and “Inside Chamber Music” series. This coming season she will reappear at the Chamber Music Socierty of Lincoln Center for their Sonic Spectrum series, appear at Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Program, and return to IMS Prussia Cove to participate in their Open Chamber Music.
Emad Zolfaghari
Canadian violist Emad Zolfaghari came to international attention after winning the first prize and audience prize at the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition. Emad was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at age 16, where he earned his bachelor’s degree studying with Hsin-Yun Huang, Misha Amory and Roberto Diaz. Emad is currently studying at the Juilliard School with Cynthia Phelps and Hsin-Yun Huang and is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. Other major competition prizes include winning the Klein, ArsClassica, Morningside Music Bridge, Johansen, Tokyo and the OSM international competitions. He also was awarded Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Career grant in 2024, won the Nobuko Imai Förderpreis at the Kronberg Academy and was listed as one of CBC Music’s 30 under 30 Hot Classical Musicians.
Solo appearances include the Tokyo Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nezet-Seguin, National Philharmonic, Oakville Chamber Orchestra, Peninsula Symphony and more.
Emad continues to perform at renowned music festivals, such as Marlboro, ChamberFest Cleveland, ChamberFest West, Four Seasons and Music in the Vineyards, among others.
Emad currently plays on a fine 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola on generous loan from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation, and a Eugène Sartory bow from CANIMEX, inc. His studies are generously supported by a Sylva Gelber Foundation award.
Andrew Byun
Laureate of the 2026 Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition, Canadian cellist Andrew Byun has been praised for his “electrifyingly energetic, room-commanding combination of musicality, theater, technique, tone,” and “a world of thought and sound.” (The Strad) Byun has appeared in many venues including Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Jordan Hall, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center. He has collaborated with conductors as Antony Hermus, Jac van Steen, Leos Svarovsky, and Nil Venditti and his performances have been featured on the RTBF, WFMT, WQXR, and NPR radio stations. This season featured his UK tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and recitals across the UK/Italy and next season will feature his debut album released with Champs Hill Records.
A recipient of major awards, Byun was awarded the Third Prize and Isang Yun Special prize for best performance of works by the composer at the 2025 Isang Yun Cello Competition and in 2024, Byun was awarded 1st Prize of the Windsor International String Competition. Also a passionate chamber musician, Byun has shared the stage with artists such as Augustin Dumay, Hagai Shaham, Paul Neubauer, Paul Huang, Borromeo Quartet, and members of the Hagen Quartet and has been invited to festivals worldwide including Caramoor, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Ravinia, Verbier Festival Academy, Music@Menlo, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, I-M-S Prussia Cove, L’Académie Musicale de Villecroze. From 2024 to 2025, he was invited to be an artist-in-residence at Music@Menlo’s Winter Residency.
A native of South Korea, Byun graduated from Northwestern University (BA/BM) studying Philosophy/Legal Studies/Cello Performance, The Juilliard School (MM), and the New England Conservatory (GD) and has studied with Laurence Lesser, Natasha Brofsky, and Hans Jorgen Jensen. Today, he is an artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel under the mentorship of Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling.
Annie Jacobs-Perkins
Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins wants to do more than make art; she wants to turn her life into a piece of art. Annie's love of interdisciplinary work has led her to collaborate with painters, dancers, potters, cheesemongers, fashion designers, boxers, composers, poets, woodworkers, essayists, knitters, and farmers. She believes that it is the duty of an artist to protect beauty that already exists in the world, and as such, is a passionate participant in local, sustainable agriculture and a boycotter of fast fashion. Music is one of the ways she digs her toes into the earth around her.
Praised for anything from "hypnotic lyricism, causing listeners to forget where they were for a moment" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) to "delightfully pluck[ing] and slapp[ing] her cello like a rockabilly upright bassist" (The Democrat and Chronicle), Annie is known for "eras[ing] all kinds of boundaries" (USC Thornton School of Music) with her music. She is 1st prize winner of the 2023 Pierre Fournier Award and 2024 Buchet International Cello Competition ("Prix Buchet"). Highlights of her 2025-26 season include a recital debut at the Sydney Opera House, the release of her solo album on the Champs Hill label, the release of a piano trio album with Trio Bronte on the Solo Musica label, and her first season as a member of Ensemble Modern. Recent and upcoming concerto engagements include those with the London Philharmonia, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Binghamton Philharmonic, Jyvaskyla Sinfonia (Finland), and Post-Classical Ensemble.
After winning the 2022 Father Merlet Award from the Pro Musicis Foundation, Annie commissioned composers Stratis Minakakis and Daniel Temkin to write two works for cello and piano responding to the climate crisis. Working with living composers such as Timo Andres, Brett Dean, Konstantia Gourzi, Jessie Montgomery, Jeffrey Mumford, Paul Wiancko, Octavio Vazquez, and Jorg Widmann has been some of the most rewarding work of her career. In the 2023-24 season, Annie was Artist-in-Residence at the EstOvest Festival Contemporary Cello Week in Turin, Italy and gave the Washington DC premiere of Jeffrey Mumford's concerto of radiances blossoming in expanding air with the Post-Classical Ensemble at the Kennedy Center.
With a deep commitment to chamber music, Annie is the cellist of the Berlin-based piano trio, Trio Bronte. Trio Bronte is the 1st prize winner and winner of the special CD-production prize at the 2025 Franz Schubert und die Musik der Moderne Competition, as well as 1st prize winner of the 2023 Ilmari Hannikainen International Piano Chamber Music Competition and 2nd prize winner of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition. From 2023-25, Annie was the Artist-in-Residence of the Austin Chamber Music Center. She regularly participates in festivals such as Krzyzowa Music, Marlboro Music, the Perlman Music Program, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and Yellow Barn, where she has collaborated with artists such as Jonathan Biss, Miriam Fried, Viviane Hagner, Nobuko Imai, Anthony Marwood, Donald Weilerstein, and members of the Brentano, Doric, Juilliard, Kuss, and Verona Quartets. Her performances have brought her to venues such as Carnegie Hall, Flagey Studios, the Kennedy Center, het Konzertgebouw, and Wigmore Hall.
Annie holds an Artist Diploma from the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin and masters degrees from the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler and New England Conservatory, where she was the recipient of the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship. In addition to a bachelor of music, Annie holds minors in English and German Studies from the University of Southern California, where she was a Trustee Scholar and a recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Graduate Award. Her primary teachers are Frans Helmerson, Troels Svane, Laurence Lesser, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Kathleen Murphy Kemp. Other important influences include Guy Fishman, David Geringas, Geoff Dyer, and Thomas Gustafson.
Albert Cano Smit
A musician who has been praised as "a moving young poet" (Le Devoir of Montreal), Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality, the First Prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, Montreal Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Orchestra of St Luke's, Barcelona Symphony, Catalonia National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata.
Recital highlights have included his Carnegie Hall debut presented by The Naumburg Foundation, his Merkin Concert hall debut presented by Young Concert Artists, recitals at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, Paris' Fondation Louis Vuitton (the performance was streamed live globally), the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater in Washington, DC, Germany's Rheingau Music Festival, and return performances at the Steinway Society in San Jose and Auditori de Barcelona. He has been in residence at France's Festival de Musique de Wissembourg for seven years, a piano fellow at Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Tippet Rise Art Center, and has had his recital debut in Asia at Xiamen's Banlam Grand Theater.
Albert has been presented in recital by Festival Bach Montreal, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Krannert Center (Urbana, IL), and Matinee Musicale (Cincinnati, OH). He recently premiered Katherine Balch's "Spolia" with flutist Anthony Trionfo taking them to the Morgan Library and Carnegie Hall. Recent recitals with Trionfo have included the Alys Stephens Center, Kravis Center, Evergreen Museum & Library, and others. Cano Smit is set to continue touring with violinist William Hagen, with whom he has recorded the CD "Danse Russe".
An advocate for new music, Albert has premiered numerous solo works on his recital programs, commissioned for him by Stephen Hough, Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. He has given four hand performances with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Wallis Annenberg Center Hall and Zipper Hall, taken part in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and performed with such artists as Gary Hoffman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lun Li, Zlatomir Fung, Kevin Zhu, Leonard Fu and Lev Sivkov. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such ensembles as the Ebene, Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, Gerhard, and Verona Quartets, and has released an album of Austrian viola music for Champs Hills with Emma Wernig.
In 2017, Albert was First Prize winner at the Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, and a Finalist and CMIM Grant winner at the Concours Musical International de Montreal. Additional special prizes at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions include The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ).
A polyglot who speaks five languages, Albert was born in Geneva, the son of a Dutch mother and Spanish father. He left home at 9 to join the Escolania de Montserrat choir school, where hours of rehearsal every day strongly affected his musical development. Albert recently completed an Artist Diploma and Masters Degree with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano. He also holds a BA in Piano Performance from the Colburn School with Ory Shihor, and studied at Chetham's School of Music with Marta Karbownicka and Graham Caskie. He is an alum of the Verbier Festival Academy and Ravinia Steans Institute. He currently resides in New York City.
About the Artists
Visit Us
Craft your experience to make the most of your visit.
Make a Gift
Your support brings performances to life, preserves Caramoor’s historic legacy, and nurtures the artists of tomorrow. Every gift matters—and makes you part of the Caramoor family.
