Guest violinist, conductor to join ESO concerts Jan. 7-8
Acclaimed American violinist Stella Chen will be joining the Elgin Symphony Orchestra for two concerts Jan. 7-8.
The concert will feature works from Beethoven, Brahms, and Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way in Elgin.
Chen, who received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center Emerging Artists Award in 2020, will perform Brahms' Violin Concerto. The program also includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 and Morlock's "Oiseaux bleus et sauvages."
Chen is the winner of the International Queen Elisabeth Grand Prize-Queen Mathilde Prize in the 2019 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition. She is also the first recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, the top prize winner of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, and youngest ever prize winner of the Menuhin Competition.
Holding a doctoral degree from the Julliard School, Chen has performed around the world and has collaborated with such notable artists as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Levin, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Matthew Lipman, and the Silk Road Ensemble.
The program will be conducted by Andrew Crust, an American/Canadian conductor and a finalist in the ESO's music director search. Crust is currently in his third season as music director of the Lima Symphony and served as associate conductor for the Vancouver Symphony from 2019-22.
Abroad, he has led concerts with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, Hamburger Symphoniker at the Mendelssohn Festival in Germany, the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago.
Crust is a versatile conductor. His experience includes working with orchestras, youth orchestras, and ballets. As a Pops conductor, he has collaborated with artists including Rufus Wainwright, Steven Page, Tony DeSare, Michael Bolton, Dee Daniels, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the United States Jazz Ambassadors.
Tickets start at $20. Student tickets are $10, and youth 17 and younger are free with an accompanying adult.
Tickets are available on the ESO's website, www.ElginSymphony.org, or call the box office at (847) 888-4000 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra has a long history of highlighting the works of world-renowned conductors, composers, and musicians, and of promoting the advancement of women in the arts.
Founded in 1950 as a community orchestra, the ESO became a professional ensemble in 1985, in good part due to the leadership of the late Margaret Hillis, who was music director at the ESO from 1971-1985.
Hillis was one of the first females to break through the male-dominated world of conducting and is credited with being the impetus behind the creation of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra Association, the formation of the ESO League, and the start of the ESO's outreach to youth through concerts for school students.
Today, the ESO continues to draw its creativity and artistry from the Elgin area and gives back to the community through its Adopt-a-School Program, performances at local hospitals, hospices and retirement homes, Listeners Clubs, and other free programs at public libraries, the In Harmony Program in places of worship, Ainsworth Concerts for Youth, free tickets for youth under 18, open rehearsals, and free community concerts throughout the region.
The ESO has been named Orchestra of the Year four times by the Illinois Council of Orchestras (1988, 1999, 2005 and 2016).
The ESO is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. To learn more or to support the ESO, visit www.elginsymphony.org.