Two Fantasies

Composer and pianist Michael Djupstrom’s works have been presented and broadcast in 18 countries and on every continent except Antarctica. His music explores intuitive, organically evolving forms and seeks to connect with audiences by bridging traditional and contemporary styles of musical expression. His special interest in Romanian music has led to performances in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, and Montreal, and to the creation of a chamber music series focusing on this rarely performed repertoire.

Born in Russia, violinist Maria Ioudenitch immigrated with her musical family to the U.S. at the age of two and grew up in Kansas City. In 2021, she received first prizes in the Ysaÿe International Music Competition, the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, and the Joseph Joachim International Competition. She also received numerous special prizes at these competitions, including Joachim’s Chamber Music Award, the prize for Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work, the Henle Urtext Prize, and a recording deal with Warner Classics.

Recognized for her innovative programs, her first album on Warner – Songbird with pianist Kenny Broberg, released on 24 March 2023 – spans from Franz Schubert, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Clara Schumann to Nikolai Medtner, Richard Strauss, and Nadia Boulanger. In upcoming concerts, she performs the Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, and Barber concertos as well as Haydn’s G-Major and Mozart’s D Major concertos, while this season’s recital programs include works by George Gershwin, William Grant Still, Dolores White and Fazil Say, alongside standard violin repertoire.

In recent months, Maria Ioudenitch has made her debuts with Deutsches Symphonie-OrchesterBerlin (at Berlin’s Philharmonie), MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Münchner Symphoniker and returned to her home-town Kansas City Symphony. Other recent engagements have taken her to the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Lithuania Chamber Orchestra, and Utah Symphony, while her growing list of conductors includes names like Andrey Boreyko, Alpesh Chauhan, Kevin John Edusei, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Andrew Manze, Ruth Reinhardt and Hugh Wolff. She is also an active chamber musician and has taken part in multiple chamber music tours with Ravinia Steans Music Institute and Marlboro Music Festival. An upcoming Marlboro tour will take place in November 2023.

Maria began playing violin with Gregory Sandomirsky at age three and continued her studies with Ben Sayevich at the International Center for Music in Kansas City and Pamela Frank and Shmuel Ashkenasi at the Curtis Institute of Music. She completed her master’s degree and Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Miriam Fried. This past year, Maria has been mentored by Sonia Simmenauer as part of Simmenauer’s new initiative, Zukunft.music. She is currently in the Professional Studies program at the Kronberg Academy, working with Christian Tetzlaff.

Violist Haesue Lee is the first prize and audience prize winner of the 2018 Primrose International Viola Competition. Haesue’s accomplishments as a solo violist include the 2015 Johansen International Competition, the 2014 Albert M. Greenfield Competition, 2013 Great Mountains Music Festival Concerto Competition, the New York International Music Competition, and the 2010 Alex & Buono International String Competition.

Following her Carnegie Hall debut at age twelve, she has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Prince George’s Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Ensemble 212. Haesue has also given solo recitals at the Brigham Young University, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, Kumho Prodigy Solo Concert, and the Korean Culture Center in Paris, France. Haesue’s greatest inspiration comes from music-making with other musicians. As a passionate chamber musician, Haesue was invited to the Korean Presidential “BlueHouse,” Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, and the Bridgehampton Music Festival. During the 22/23 season, Haesue was on tour in prestigious venues in Europe, representing the Curtis Institute of Music. She has shared the stage with many distinguished artists such as Tabea Zimmermann, Nobuko Imai, Peter Wiley, Gary Hoffman, Lynn Harrell, Marcy Rosen, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, and Marina Piccinini.

Haesue graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Hsin-Yun Huang and Roberto Díaz. Today, she is pursuing her master’s degree at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik with Tabea Zimmermann.

Jean Kim has performed extensively throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, chamber musician, and principal orchestral cellist. She has been invited to perform in prestigious venues such as Berliner Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Royal Festival Hall. She has won prizes at the 2013 Johansen International Competition and the 2018 Irving M. Klein International Competition and was named a 2013 YoungArts Finalist.

As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with renowned artists, including Pamela Frank, Jason Vieaux, Michael Rusinek, Leon McCawley, and Roberto Dìaz, among others. As a part of the Curtis on Tour initiative, Jean performed throughout Athens, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Shanghai in 2016. She has participated in festivals such as Banff Centre, MusicAlp, Centre d’Arts Orford, Great Mountains Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Fondazione Accademia Chigiana, and Weimar Meisturkurse, where she performed in masterclasses with Lawrence Lesser, Gary Hoffman, David Geringas, Jens Peter Maintz, Jian Wang, David Finckel, Philippe Muller, Sung-Won Yang, Antonio Meneses, and Aldo Parisot

As an orchestral player, she has served as guest principal cellist for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and went on tour with them throughout Germany and Spain during the 2019/20 season. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and served as principal cellist of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra during the 2017/18 season.

A native of Sleepy Hollow, NY, she began playing the cello at age 5 with Vladimir Morgovsky. She entered the Juilliard Pre-College Division three years later to study with Minhye Clara Kim. As the Mark E. Rubenstein Annual Fellow, she graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with a bachelor’s degree, where she studied with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley.