Jan Lisiecki & Jonathan Crow: Beethoven's Spring Sonata

Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki looks back on a career spanning a decade and a half on the world’s greatest stages. He works closely with the foremost conductors and orchestras of our time, performing over a hundred concerts a year.

The 25-26 season sees him returning to Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Berlin as well as San Francisco Symphony and Houston Symphony.

In August 2025, he will conclude the renowned Seoul International Music Festival at the Seoul Arts Center in South Korea with a Beethoven concert and a solo recital with his highly acclaimed Preludes program, which was recently released by Deutsche Grammophon. A further 30 piano recitals take him across Europe and North America, including the Philharmonie Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, Palau Barcelona, Koerner Hall Toronto and the National Arts Centre Ottawa. Continuing his collaboration with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which he led from the piano in a tour of several Beethoven cycles in the previous season, he will perform another Beethoven cycle at the Enescu and Merano Festivals.

Recent return invitations include the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Staatskapelle Dresden. He made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in spring 2024. Lisiecki is a fixture at major summer festivals across Europe and North America, has performed at the Salzburg Festival and recently made his third appearance at the BBC Proms. His previous recital programme was celebrated in over 50 cities around the globe.

Jan Lisiecki was offered an exclusive recording contract by Deutsche Grammophon at the age of 15. Since then, he has recorded nine albums which have been awarded with the JUNO Award, ECHO Klassik, Gramophone Critics' Choice, Diapason d'Or and Edison Klassiek.

At 18, he received both the Leonard Bernstein Award and Gramophone’s Young Artist Award, becoming the youngest ever recipient of the latter. He, was named UNICEF Ambassador to Canada in 2012.

One of Canada’s brightest talents, violinist Jonathan Crow exudes “masterful coolness” (The Montreal Gazette) as concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Jonathan earned his Bachelor of Music in Honours Performance from McGill University, at which time he joined the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal as Associate Principal Second Violin. Between 2002 and 2006, Jonathan was engaged as Concertmaster of that symphony, and notably during his tenure, was the youngest concertmaster of a major North American orchestra. In 2011 he was appointed Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Or-chestra. Jonathan continues to perform as guest concertmaster with orchestras around the world, includ-ing the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Filarmonia de Lanaudiere and Pernambuco Festival Orchestra (Brazil). Jonathan has also performed as a soloist with most major Canadian orchestras including the Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, the National Arts Centre and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras, the Victoria, Nova Scotia and Kingston Symphonies, and Orchestra London, under the baton of such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Gustavo Gimeno, Sir Andrew Davis, Peter Oundjian, Kent Nagano, Mario Bernardi and João Carlos Martins.

Jonathan joined the Schulich School of Music at McGill University as an Assistant Professor of Violin and was appointed Associate Professor of Violin in 2010. Current and former students of Mr. Crow have received prizes at competitions around the world, including the Menuhin International Violin Competition, Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, Shean Competition, CBC Radio's NEXT competition, Eckhardt-Grammatte Competition, Canadian Music Competition, and Stulberg International String Competition, and work regularly with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Camerata Salzburg, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Verbier Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Kammerphilharmonie and Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Jonathan is currently Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Toronto and in Fall 2026 will join the Royal Conservatory of Music as Director of the Temerty Orchestra Program and Violin Faculty.

In 2016 Jonathan was named Artistic Director of Toronto Summer Music, which has enjoyed record attendance and rave reviews in all of his nine seasons. An avid chamber musician, he has performed at chamber music festivals throughout North America, South America and Europe including the Banff, Ravinia, Orford, Domaine Forget, Seattle, Montreal, Ottawa, Incontri in Terra di Sienna, Alpenglow, Festival Vancouver, Pernambuco (Brazil), Giverny (France) and Strings in the Mountains festivals. He is a founding member of the Juno Award-winning New Orford String Quartet, a project-based new ensemble dedicated to the promotion of standard and Canadian string quartet repertoire throughout North America. As an advocate of contemporary music he has premiered works by Canadian composers Michael Conway Baker, Eldon Rathburn, Barrie Cabena, Gary Kulesha, Tim Brady, Francois Dompierre, Vivian Fung, Ana Sokolovic, Marjan Mozetich, Christos Hatzis, Ernest MacMillan and Healey Willan. He also includes in his repertoire major concerti by such modern composers as Ligeti, Schnittke, Bernstein, Brian Cherney, Rodney Sharman, Vivian Fung and Cameron Wilson.

Jonathan has recorded for ATMA, Bridge, CBC, Oxingale, Skylark, and XXI-21 labels and is heard frequently on Chaîne Culturelle of Radio-Canada, CBC Radio Two, and National Public Radio, along with Radio France, Deutsche Welle, Hessischer Rundfunk and the RAI in Europe. 
 

Hailed by Opus Magazine as "a stunning musician," violinist Livia Sohn has performed on the international stage as concerto soloist, recitalist, and festival artist across five continents. The Strad Magazine writes that she "possesses a remarkably lithe and transparent tone of exceptional purity — virtually blemishless accounts are nothing short of remarkable. Even when under the most fearsome technical pressure at high velocity, every note rings true with pinpoint accuracy."

Sohn has appeared as guest soloist with major orchestras across North America, including the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Seattle, Milwaukee, Austin, Phoenix, and Boston Pops, and internationally with the Budapest Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Cologne Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, Czech National Symphony, City of London Sinfonia, and orchestras throughout China, Mexico, South Africa, and New Zealand. A devoted chamber musician and longtime favorite at Spoleto Festival USA, she has also appeared at the Newport Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts, Caramoor, Maverick Concerts, and the Cartagena International Music Festival. Recent highlights include the world premiere of a new violin and piano work by composer Jonathan Berger, performed at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., as well as appearances in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas. This summer, she returns to Spoleto for one of her most significant engagements to date: the world premiere of a new violin concerto written expressly for her by cellist-composer Paul Wiancko, co-commissioned by Spoleto Festival USA and performed with the Festival Orchestra. Other commissioners for this concerto are the Rogue Valley Symphony, Palaver Strings, and Orchestra Wellington.

Sohn is a founding member of MoVE (Modern Violin Ensemble), an innovative quartet of four violinists dedicated to expanding the repertoire for violin quartet through new commissions and multidisciplinary collaborations that address social issues and reach audiences in both traditional and alternative venues. This June sees the release of their monumental debut album, featuring thirteen world premieres of newly commissioned works.

She is currently on the violin and chamber music faculty at Stanford University. Sohn gave her first public performance at age eight and won First Prize — and the Audience Prize — at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition at age thirteen. She trained at the Juilliard Pre-College Division from age eight under Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang, continuing under their guidance at The Juilliard School, where she also studied chamber music with the legendary Felix Galamir. She plays on a J.B. Guadagnini violin crafted in 1770 and a Samuel Zygmuntowicz made in 2006.

Sohn is the founder and artistic director of Coast Live Music, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating community through exceptional live chamber music.

"...this was a performance of a profundity and kaleidoscopic colour that would have been astounding from any ensemble, let alone a young one still making itself known."
— Charlotte Gardner, Gramophone
 

First Prize winners at both the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in the spring of 2025, Opus13 is rapidly building a reputation on the international chamber music scene. Named after Mendelssohn’s youthful and passionate A Minor Quartet, Op. 13 — the first piece they ever played together — the quartet was formed in Oslo in 2014 by four teenagers eager to dive into the world of string quartets. Now based in both Oslo and Stockholm, Opus13 comprises Norwegian violinists Sonoko Miriam Welde and Edvard Erdal, violist Albin Uusijärvi, and cellist Daniel Thorell, both from Sweden.

In addition to performing standard string quartet repertoire by composers such as Mozart, Bartók, and Schubert, Opus13 are passionate ambassadors of Nordic classical and contemporary music, frequently programming works by Grieg, Stenhammar, Tarrodi, Byström, and Fagerlund. They also enjoy genre-crossing collaborations, having performed with Norwegian folk and popular music artists including Gjermund Larsen Trio, Sissel Kyrkjebø, and Sver.

The quartet has appeared at renowned festivals and series including Chamber Music Northwest (Oregon), East Neuk Festival (Scotland), International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht (Netherlands), Yeulmaru and Yonsei Chamber Music Festivals (South Korea), and Rusk Festival (Finland), as well as most of the major chamber festivals in Norway — from Bergen to Stavanger, Rosendal, Trondheim, and Risør.

Opus13 has collaborated with leading musicians such as Janine Jansen, Alisa Weilerstein, Tabea Zimmermann, Olli Mustonen, Julian Bliss, Jonathan Biss, and Anne Sofie von Otter. Their musical development has been shaped by ongoing mentorships with Bjørg Lewis and Berit Cardas of the Vertavo Quartet, and with Tim Frederiksen in Copenhagen. Beginning in 2025, the quartet studies with Prof. Oliver Wille of the Kuss Quartett in Hannover. In 2023, Opus13 received Norway’s prestigious Equinor Classical Music Award, joining a distinguished line of previous recipients including Leif Ove Andsnes, Lise Davidsen, and Vilde Frang.

Opus13 are the founders and artistic directors of Vinterspill på Lillehammer, an annual chamber music festival in Lillehammer, Norway.

The quartet performs on an exceptional set of instruments:

Sonoko Miriam Welde, violin — Antonio Stradivari (1736), on loan from Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Fund
Edvard Erdal, violin — Lorenzo Storioni (1790), on loan from Snefonn AS
Albin Uusijärvi, viola — Christophe Landon (2008)
Daniel Thorell, cello — Giuseppe & Antonio Gagliano (1772), on loan from the Järnåker Foundation

Mark Applebaum, Ph.D. is the Edith & Leland Smith Professor of Composition at Stanford University. His solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electroacoustic work has been performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia, including notable commissions from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Fromm Foundation, the Spoleto Festival, the Kronos Quartet, Chamber Music America, and the Vienna Modern Festival. Many of his pieces are characterized by challenges to the conventional boundaries of musical ontology: works for three conductors and no players, a concerto for florist and orchestra, pieces for instruments made of junk, notational specifications that appear on the faces of custom wristwatches, works for an invented sign language choreographed to sound, amplified Dadaist rituals, a chamber work comprised of obsessive page turns, and a 72-foot long graphic score displayed in a museum and accompanied by no instructions for its interpretation. His TED talk has been seen by more than three million viewers. Applebaum is also an accomplished jazz pianist and builds electroacoustic sound-sculptures out of junk, hardware, and found objects. At Stanford Applebaum is the founding director of [sic]—the Stanford Improvisation Collective. He serves on the board of Other Minds and as a trustee of Carleton College.
 

Composer-in-residence generously supported by Ernie and Sandra Green