Horszowski Trio, with guest violist Masumi Rostad

About this event

“The most compelling American group to come on the scene." - The New Yorker

The first half of the season concludes with the electric Horszowski Trio , featuring special guest violist Masumi Rostad.

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HORSZOWSKI TRIO

Jesse Mills, violin

Ole Akahoshi, cello

Rieko Aizawa, piano

- with guest artist Masumi Rostad, viola

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PROGRAM

Bedřich Smetana: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 15

Arnold Schoenberg: Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 (arranged for piano trio by R. Aizawa)

Robert Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47

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Giving performances that are “lithe, persuasive” (The New York Times), “eloquent and enthralling” (The Boston Globe), and described as “the most compelling American group to come on the scene” (The New Yorker), the Horszowski Trio has quickly become a vital force in the international chamber music world. Since their debut performance in New York City in 2011, they have toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, the Far East, and India, traversing the extensive oeuvre of traditional piano trio repertoire and introducing audiences to new music that they have commissioned and premiered.

They have performed at the 92nd Street Y in New York City; the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia; Schubert Club in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Spivey Hall in Atlanta; Bowdoin Music Festival in Maine; UCLA in Los Angeles; venues in Boston, San Francisco, and Canada; London’s Wigmore Hall; at Dresden’s Moritzburg Festival and throughout Germany; and on several tours in Japan. Their recording of the complete piano trios by Robert Schumann on AVIE Records has received tremendous acclaim: “great care and affection” (BBC Radio); “intoxicating” (Gramophone); “exciting and deeply felt” (Strings); “fresh, supple and fantastic” (The Strad).

The Trio takes its inspiration from the musicianship, integrity, and humanity of the pre-eminent pianist Mieczysław Horszowski (1892–1993); the ensemble’s pianist, Rieko Aizawa, was Horszowski’s last pupil at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Described as “power players” by the Los Angeles Times, the Horszowski Trio’s repertoire includes works by many of the composers with whom Maestro Horszowski had personal interaction, including Gabriel Fauré, Enrique Granados, Bohuslav Martinů, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saëns and Heitor Villa-Lobos. The Horszowski Trio’s debut recording – an album of works by Gabriel Fauré, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Vincent d’Indy on the Bridge label – was released in 2014 and dedicated to the memory of Mieczysław Horszowski. Gramophone praised the “exemplary performance” of the “highly accomplished group,” concluding, “I long to hear more of the Horszowski Trio.”

The ensemble has performed the complete cycles of piano trios by Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. They also actively cultivate hidden treasures from the repertoire, works by Arno Babajanyan, Leonard Bernstein, Vincent d’Indy, Arthur Foote, Germaine Tailleferre, and Morton Feldman. The Horszowski Trio is a passionate advocate for the music of our time. The Trio has premiered, commissioned, championed, and recording works of a wide range of composers including Derek Bermel, Kenji Bunch, Paul Chihara, Morton Feldman, David Fulmer, Daron Hagen, John Harbison, Louis Karchin, Eric Moe, Andreia Pinto-Correia, Joan Tower, Charles Wuorinen. They will premiere Wuorinen’s Piano Trio No. 2, written for them, at the Library of Congress in April 2025. The Trio’s violinist Jesse Mills, a two-time Grammy nominee who is also a composer and arranger, wrote Painted Shadow for the ensemble; the work was commissioned by and premiered at Bargemusic in Brooklyn, New York in January 2015.

The Horszowski Trio enjoys opportunities to expand its chamber music horizons through collaborations, having worked with such musicians as Aaron Boyd (from the Escher Quartet), Kikuei Ikeda (Tokyo Quartet), Masumi Per Rostad (Pacifica Quartet), Phillip Ying (Ying Quartet), and Roberto Diaz.

The Horszowski Trio is based in New York City. It is the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and of the Leschetizky Association in New York City.

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MASUMI ROSTAD, viola

Praised for his “burnished sound” (The New York Times) and described as an “electrifying, poetic, and sensitive musician,” the Grammy Award-winning, Japanese-Norwegian violist Masumi Rostad hails from the gritty East Village of New York City. He was raised in an artist loft converted from a garage with a 1957 Chevy Belair as the remnant centerpiece in his family’s living room. Masumi began his studies at the nearby Third Street Music School Settlement at age three and has gone on to become one of the most in demand soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers. In addition to maintaining an active performance schedule, he serves on the faculty of the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

Recent performance highlights include concerto performances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, and The Knights. Festival appearances include La Jolla SummerFest, Marlboro, Caramoor, Bowdoin, Aspen Music Festival, Beare’s Premiere Performances in Hong Kong, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto USA, Music@Menlo, and Music In the Vineyards. In 2025, he performed an all-Shostakovich program with pianist Evgeny Kissin and the Kopelman Quartet at Carnegie Hall and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra Piano Festival. His guest violist collaborations include programs with the Miró, Ying, Pavel Haas, Verona, St. Lawrence, and Emerson String Quartets, as well as with the Horszowski Trio. He toured and recorded extensively as a former member of the International Sejong Soloists. Masumi can be heard on the Cedille, Naxos, Hyperion, Musical Observations, Bridge, and Tzadik record labels.

Masumi recently commissioned his childhood friend Jessie Montgomery to compose a Viola Concerto based on the experience they shared of growing up in NYC. The world premiere of L.E.S. Characters took place in October 2021 with Masumi as soloist with the Orlando Philharmonic. He has previously appeared as soloist with the Virginia Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and Sinfonia da Camera among others.

As a member of the Pacifica Quartet for almost two decades (2001-2017), Masumi regularly performed in the world’s greatest halls including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Sydney’s City Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Munich’s Herkuleshaal, Paris’ Louvre and Cité de la Musique, and Berlin’s Konzerthaus among many others. During Masumi’s tenure with the Quartet, the ensemble was awarded the coveted Cleveland Quartet Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and it was named Musical America’s 2009 Ensemble of the Year.

Masumi is an ardent advocate for the arts, and often sought after as a contributing writer to such publications as the Huffington Post, Strings and Gramophone magazines as well as The Guardian. He also actively maintains a YouTube channel where he regularly publishes videos covering a variety of musical topics. He produces a video series called Sound Post, released in conjunction with The Violin Channel, which are interviews with his friends and colleagues about their instruments.

Passionate about breaking down barriers that prevent people from enjoying Classical music, Masumi was the founder of DoCha, a chamber music festival in Champaign, Illinois that produced innovative events with a focus on engaging new audiences through fun and inventive programming. DoCha-hosted events featured unique collaborations between members of the University and multi-genre presentations from Classical chamber music to contemporary dance, the spoken word, and much more. All programs were free of charge and took place at a beautiful former community Opera House. Other activities of DoCha included performances for elementary school students as well as master classes, competitions and performance opportunities for local music students.

Masumi has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the University of Chicago, Longy School of Music, University of Toronto, and Northwestern University. Appointed to the Viola Faculty of Eastman School of Music in 2017, he was elected and served two terms as the first, and only, chair of the University of Rochester Faculty Senate to come from Eastman. He has given master classes at the Colburn School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Music@Menlo, the Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Interlochen and San Francisco Conservatory among many others

He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with legendary violist and pedagogue Karen Tuttle from the age of 17 and became her teaching assistant just three years later at the age of 20. At Juilliard, he was awarded the Lillian Fuchs Award for the most outstanding graduating violist. He also won the Juilliard School Concerto Competition and performed the world premiere of Michael White’s Viola Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, with conductor James DePreist. That same year, he gave the New York premiere of Paul Schoenfield’s Viola Concerto with the Juilliard Symphony to critical acclaim. In 2008 he was awarded the Rising Star Award by the Third Street Music School Settlement for his musical achievements.

Masumi is a D’Addario Artist and has used their strings since 1999. His Brothers Amati viola was crafted in Cremona, Italy in 1619.

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From Dallas Chamber Music Society