Time’s Echo Live: An Exploration of Music, War, and Memory

A Festival of Words and Music

Saturday, October 28, 4:00 PM
AIR OF ANOTHER PLANET: ARNOLD SCHOENBERG AND THE INVENTION OF DISSONANCE

Saturday, October 28, 6:00 PM
IN MEMORIAM: RICHARD STRAUSS AT THE END OF GERMAN MUSIC

Sunday, October 29, 4:00 PM
PACIFIST AMIDST THE RUINS: BENJAMIN BRITTEN AND THE ANGELS OF HISTORY

Sunday, October 29, 6:00 PM
HEART, MOUTH AND WOUND: DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH AND THE MEMORY OF FORGETTING

Tickets can be purchased here.

Time’s Echo Live is a festival of words and music exploring music’s power and promise as a bridge to eras past. Led by author and critic Jeremy Eichler, it consists of four programs, each of which spotlight a single composer, opening up their life and art across the years of the Second World War and probing their unique approach to musical memory. Each program will also introduce new perspectives on the art of listening, and will feature a live performance by members of the Borromeo String Quartet and friends. Please join us for any combination of individual programs, or for an expansive journey across all four events. 

An award-winning critic and cultural historian, Jeremy Eichler is the author of Time’s Echo, a new book on music, war and cultural memory published by Alfred A. Knopf in North America and Faber in the UK, and currently being translated into five languages. Since 2006, he has served as chief classical music critic of The Boston Globe. 

Previously, Eichler worked as a music critic for the New York Times (2003-2006) and his writing has appeared in many other national publications including The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation and The Washington Post. His criticism has been recognized with an ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor Award, and his research has been supported by a Public Scholar award from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and the MacDowell Colony.

Eichler earned his BA at Brown University and his PhD in European history at Columbia University. A local affiliate of Harvard’s Center for European Studies, he has taught at Brandeis and appears frequently as a guest speaker. He lives with his family in Boston.

Violinist Nicholas Kitchen has performed throughout the world both as soloist and chamber musician, most significantly as founding member and first violinist of the Borromeo String Quartet.  He has done extensive projects with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, Performance Today and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  He has performed in some of the world's great concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Zurich Tonhalle, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Seoul Arts Center in Korea.  He is the Artistic Director of the Heifetz International Music Institute and has been teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music since 1992.  At both of these institutions the Borromeo Quartet is Faculty Quartet-in-Residence.
 
Nicholas was a pioneer in the use of computers and page-turning pedals to make it possible to always work and perform from complete scores.  Use of the computer for music reading has resulted in his becoming involved in the intensive study of composer's manuscripts, especially the autograph scores of Beethoven.  His surprising discoveries in Beethoven manuscripts have led to his giving papers at the Center for Beethoven Research at Boston University as well as at conservatories in Hong Kong and in Basel, Switzerland; the festivals Tanglewood and Ravinia, and the Library of Congress.
 
Nicholas is winner of the Arion Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music in connection with his work on the music of Bach, and the Borromeo Quartet are winners of the Evian International Quartet Competition, the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Martin E. Segal Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant.
 
An important part of the Borromeo Quartet's performing history has been presenting the complete Beethoven cycle, as well as presenting concerts of all six Bartók Quartets.  Nicholas has had the privilege of working closely with many remarkable composers such as John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti, Gunther Schuller and Steve Reich, to name just a few.

Hailed by the New York Times for her "focused intensity" and "remarkable" performances, cellist Yeesun Kim enjoys worldwide acclaim as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A founding member of the Borromeo String Quartet, Ms. Kim has performed in over 20 countries, and in many of the world's most illustrious concert halls and Festivals.

Ms. Kim has performed throughout Europe and Asia with the Borromeo, in duo with violinist Nicholas Kitchen, and as a soloist, including engagements at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Suntory Hall and Casals Hall in Tokyo, and Carnegie Hall in New York.  A much sought after chamber musician, she has been invited to perform at many festivals.  As a member of the Borromeo Quartet since its inception in 1989, Ms. Kim has had extensive involvement with NPR's "Performance Today," the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Ms. Kim currently serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, in the cello and chamber music departments, and teaches each summer at the Taos School of Music and at the Heifetz Institute.  A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America's Cleveland Quartet Award, Lincoln Center's Martin Segal Award, and the Evian International String Quartet Competition as a member of the Borromeo Quartet, Ms. Kim has garnered numerous awards individually as well, including winner of the Ewha and Jungagng National Competitions in Korea, and the Seoul Young Artists Award for achievement in music and academics.

Kim is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, with advanced degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her mentors include Lawrence Lesser, David Soyer, Peter Wiley, Hyungwon Chang, and Minja Hyun.  She plays a Peregrino Zanetto cello, circa 1576, one of the oldest in the world.

Violist Nicholas Cords has long been on the front line of a broad constellation of projects as a performer, educator, and cultural advocate. As founding violist of the Grammy-nominated string quartet Brooklyn Rider, viola and chamber music faculty member at New England Conservatory, and former violist and Co-Artistic director of Silkroad, he is deeply committed to music from a broad variety of traditions and epochs, with a particular passion for the cross-section between the long tradition of classical music and the wide range of music of today.

Hailed as a "highly skilled improviser" by the New York Times and "prickly and explosive" by the Montreal Gazette, pianist Tae Kim's rare blend of rigorous execution and whimsical styling creates an interpretation of the classical repertoire all his own. Inspired by his niece and nephew, Tae's recent work “I’M A UNICORN” by Helen Yoon is his second of the series of classical improvisation on children’s novels that also includes “Llama Llama Red Pajama” by Anna Dewdney. His unique talent for classical improvisation earned him "Prix d'interprétation André Chevillion–Yvonne Bonnaud" for the premiere of his work, "Translate (2016)" as well as "Prix–Mention Spéciale Edison Denisov" at the 12e Concours international de piano d'Orléans. Part of the Piano at South Station, Tae regularly played on Thursdays in the middle of a train station amidst the confused if not pleased onlookers and travelers. He has studied with Jonathan Bass, Bruce Brubaker, Janice Webber, and Patricia Zander.  (Performing Sunday, October 29 at 6:00p)

Violinist ​​Kristopher Tong has enjoyed an extensive career as a performer and teacher, playing hundreds of concerts around the world as a member of the Borromeo String Quartet since joining in 2006, and serving on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he also serves as co-Chair of Strings. He has taught and performed at numerous festivals, including the Taos School of Music, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, NOI+F, and at the Heifetz Institute, and has taught chamber music at Harvard University, where he received a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.  Tong pursued his musical studies at Indiana University in Bloomington (B.M. ’02), where he studied with Franco Gulli, Yuval Yaron, and Miriam Fried, and at the New England Conservatory (M.M. ’05), under Fried. He currently resides in Brighton, MA with his wife Miki Sawada, a pianist, and their dog Shakira. He is a 2:51 marathoner.  (Performing both programs Saturday, first program Sunday)

Violinist and violist Luther Warren has appeared at such festivals as Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Four Seasons, the Perlman Music Program, IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy, Norfolk, and Taos. He has collaborated with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Kim Kashkashian, Miriam Fried, Donald Weilerstein, David Shifrin, Colin Carr, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Daniel Phillips, Steven Tenenbom, Hsin-Yun Huang, Delirium Musicum, and the Borromeo String Quartet. He is a founding member of ensemble132, and has also worked with living composers Joan Tower, Aaron Jay Kernis, James MacMillan, Lior Navok, and Kati Agocs. Luther has presented masterclasses for East Carolina University, maintains a private studio, and has served as violin and viola instructor for Merrimack College. Luther is a doctoral student at the New England Conservatory where he has studied with Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried. Additional mentors have included Erin Keefe and Mimi Zweig.  Violist Nicholas Cords has long been on the front line of a broad constellation of projects as a performer, educator, and cultural advocate. As founding violist of the Grammy-nominated string quartet Brooklyn Rider, viola and chamber music faculty member at New England Conservatory, and former violist and Co-Artistic director of Silkroad, he is deeply committed to music from a broad variety of traditions and epochs, with a particular passion for the cross-section between the long tradition of classical music and the wide range of music of today.  (Performing both programs Saturday)

Leland Ko (bio coming soon)