BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Music Center opens its 2015-16 Chamber Series with Sophie Shao and Friends on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church on Main Street.
Carmit Zori, violin; Jeff Neubauer, viola; Sophie Shao, cello; and Gilles Vonsattel, piano will perform Beethoven Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 16, Beethoven String Trio in G Major, op. 9 no. 1 and Dvorak Piano Trio in F Minor, op. 65 (for violin, cello, and piano).
Shao has created a particular chamber niche in that she constructs concert programs with collections of different friends each year and then tours them to stages throughout the Northeast.
She has presented friends and concerts in Brattleboro in four previous seasons, including last year. Most recently, Shao has been invited to join the cello section of the National Symphony for one year.
Winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, Shao has given recitals in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Middlebury and Union colleges, and the Walter Reade Theater and Rose Studio in Lincoln Center. Her “Sophie Shao and Friends” concerts have toured from Middlebury to Sedona.
Zori has been a regular participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and has been featured on many “Musicians from Marlboro” tours. Her numerous honors include the Leventritt Foundation award, top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International violin competition, and the Pro Musicus Foundation Award.
Neubauer was appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21. He has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras.
Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel received an Avery Fisher Career Grant and was winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions as well as a Honens laureate. In recent years, he has made his Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, and San Francisco Symphony debuts.
Re-engaged by the San Francisco Symphony, he has also appeared with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, l'Orchestre Symphonique du Québec, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony, Staatskapelle Halle, and L'orchestre de chambre de Genève.