Messaien's Quartet for the End of Time

Friday, January 24 at 7pm: Piano on Park, New York City

Saturday, January 25 at 7:30pm: St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Morristown, NJ

Sunday, January 26 at 3pm: Watchung Arts Center, Watchung, NJ. 

Celebrated chamber musicians Min Kwon, Siwoo Kim, Ari Evan and Graeme Steele Johnson present a rare all-Messiaen program, chronicling the amazing story of the Quartet and its construction through performance and discussion, and also featuring a re-imagined version of his Vocalise-Étude for clarinet and piano. Olivier Messiaen was the sum of so many powerful influences: he was synesthetic, and saw colors when he heard chords; he was obsessed with birds, had them stuffed all over his apartment walls and spent hours at a time studying their songs; he was pioneering and meticulously mathematical in his approach to rhythm; and he was a devout Catholic, and played organ in a Paris church for over 60 years, right up until his death. Written inside the walls of a German prisoner of war camp in the throes of World War II, Messiaen’s transcendent Quartet for the End of Time represents a miraculous collision of diverse political ideologies, religious beliefs and the composer’s personal influences under the most unlikely circumstances. Min Kwon, piano Hailed by New York Concert Review as “ravishing,” Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in an unusually versatile career that encompasses concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music appearances, while in high demand around the world as pedagogue, arts advocate, and administrator.  She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries and all 50 U.S. states.   Siwoo Kim, violin Siwoo Kim is an “incisive” and “compelling” (The New York Times) violinist who plays with “stylistic sensitivity and generous tonal nuance” (Chicago Tribune). Siwoo performs as soloist and chamber musician, and he is the founding co-artistic director of VIVO Music Festival in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Ari Evan, cello A native New Yorker, cellist Ari Evan is a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect fellowship—a two-year performance and teaching residency at Carnegie Hall that combines first-class performance opportunities with outreach and entrepreneurship projects. Prior to Ensemble Connect, Ari completed his Masters degree at The Juilliard School, studying with Timothy Eddy.  Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet Winner of the Hellam Young Artists’ Competition and the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition, Graeme Steele Johnson has established a multifaceted career as a clarinetist, writer and performance designer. He has appeared recently as a TEDx speaker, as a soloist and chamber musician at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Chicago’s Symphony Center and the Phoenix Chamber Music Society, and as a concerto soloist with the Vienna International Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra and the Caroga Lake and Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestras.