Frisson Ensemble

We invite you to attend the second concert of the 2021-2022 Concert Season for The Artist Series of Tallahassee, featuring Frisson Ensemble LIVE at Opperman Hall. Also available as livestream and video on our website, www.theartistseries.org!

Avi Nagin, violin; Suliman Tekalli, violin; Colin Brookes, viola; Julian Schwarz, cello; Sam Suggs, bass; Tom Gallant, oboe & Artistic Director

ABOUT FRISSON ENSEMBLE… From New York City, Frisson Ensemble features the best and brightest of classical music’s rising stars. Frisson showcases a myriad of rarely-performed masterworks, and the group expands and contracts into a variety of ensembles, including quintets, sextets, nonets, and a small chamber orchestra. The group’s name is taken from the French word “frisson“ which means “a sudden burst of excitement” or “a shiver and a thrill.” The ensemble performs in over 25 cities annually including appearances in such diverse venues as the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, for the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles and at the Bermuda Festival.

Thomas Gallant, oboe and Artistic Director, is a First Prize Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition and one of very few musicians ever to win this competition as an oboe soloist. He is dedicated to performing neglected and contemporary works for the oboe and has given the New York premieres of works for oboe and strings by Berio, Penderecki and Holst as well as the Washington, D.C. premiere of Elliot Carter’s Quartet for oboe and strings.

A native New Yorker, Avi Nagin’s performances have brought him to halls across the country including Carnegie Hall and Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.  Violinist Avi Nagin is a member of the critically acclaimed Amernet String Quartet, as well as Assistant Teaching Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Florida International University where the quartet serves as Artist-In-Residence Ensemble.  Avi served as Associate Concertmaster of the Sarasota Opera, Principal 2nd Violin of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.  During the summer Nagin serves as 2nd Assistant Concertmaster and violin faculty at the Eastern Music Festival (NC), and while living in NY he was faculty assistant to Dr. Ann Setzer at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division.  Nagin has appeared in masterclasses around the world, working with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Pamela Frank, Leon Fleisher, and Ivry Gitlis.  Nagin holds degrees from Yale University and The Colburn School, and his principal teachers include Ani Kavafian, Robert Lispett, Ann Setzer, and Daniel Phillips, as well as violin and chamber music studies with Arnold Steinhardt of the Guarneri Quartet.

Violinist Suliman Tekalli has established himself as an exciting and versatile soloist and chamber musician, lauded for his visceral yet elegant and intelligent style of performance. He is a top prize-winner of the 2015 Seoul International Music Competition, and a prize winner at the Sendai International Music Competition, Lipizer and Szeryng International Violin Competitions. Mr. Tekalli performed for President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye in June of 2015 at a gala performance in Washington, D.C.

Praised as “master of the strong lines,” concert violist Colin Brookes is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he made his solo debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at the age of 17. Colin has taught in the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School and the undergraduate programs of Yale University and SUNY Stony Brook. Colin holds a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School and a Master of Music and Artist Diploma from Yale University. He currently plays a 19th-century Italian viola and a modern bow generously on loan from the Maestro Foundation, and a 1799 Grancino viola along with an Ouchard bow from The Juilliard School.

Cellist Julian Schwarz was born to a multigenerational musical family in 1991. After making his concerto debut at the age of 11 with the Seattle Symphony and his father Gerard Schwarz on the podium, he made his US touring debut with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2010. At the Colburn School in Los Angeles he studied under Ronald Leonard and then moved to New York City to study with mentor Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School for his undergrad and master’s degrees. Mr. Schwarz serves as Assistant Professor of Cello at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University in Virginia and is on the artist faculty of New York University. Julian plays a Neapolitan cello made by Gennaro Gagliano in 1743 and an American bow made by Paul Martin Siefried.

Sam Suggs is the first solo bassist in 36 years to join the Concert Artists Guild roster. A native of Buffalo, NY and doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Music, Sam spends his time between the Northeast and the Shenandoah Valley, performing with various chamber, crossover, and contemporary groups, giving recitals and master classes. He teaches full-time as Assistant Professor of Bass at James Madison University, as well as at the Heifetz Institute, Peabody Bass Works, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and the Juilliard Summer Strings Program in Shanghai.

PROGRAM
Quartet for oboe and strings in B-flat Major, Op. 8, No. 6,  Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)
Allegro 
Rondo

Quartet in F Major for oboe and strings, K. 370,  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Allegro 
Adagio Rondeau: Allegro

Duo for cello and double bass, Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Allegro
Andante molto
Allegro

INTERMISSION

String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 77, Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Allegro con fuoco 
Scherzo. Allegro vivace
Poco andante
Finale. Allegro assai

Frisson Ensemble appears by arrangement with General Touring Arts, Inc.