Recorded on August 3, 2021
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord No. 2 in D Major, BWV 1028
Claude Debussy: Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor
Francis Poulenc: Sonata for Cello and Piano
Native to Los Angeles, cellist Evan Kahn has been praised as “a cellist deserved of serious listening” for bringing his “electrifying … nuanced, and colorful” style to all of his collaborations, from concerti to chamber music to contemporary performances. Intensely passionate about new music and music of non-Western cultures, he has commissioned and premiered over 50 works by composers from around the world, including his father’s Cello Concerto.
Evan holds principal positions in four orchestras — principal cello in Symphony Silicon Valley, principal cello in Opera San Jose, and assistant principal cello in San Jose Chamber Orchestra and West Bay Opera. As the cellist in the Lazuli String Quartet/Sutro Strings, Evan plays in many local chamber music concert series and is a sought-after quartet and piano trio cellist in the San Francisco Bay Area. His Pittsburgh-based piano trio, Trio Rizi, won the top awards in the Silberman Chamber Music Competition and the Pittsburgh Concert Society Competition. Evan is also a resident cellist for several Bay Area music collectives and ensembles, such as After Everything, Mythica Foundation, and hip-hop band Ensemble Mik Nawooj.
As a soloist, he has performed with North State Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, the Veridian Symphony Orchestra, Segah Festival Orchestra, Diablo Symphony Orchestra, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, Palo Alto Philharmonic, and Livermore-Amador Symphony, as well as the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, after winning both institutions’ concerto competitions. In April/May 2018, he served as Artist-in-Residence with Performance Today at NPR, sharing some of his favorite works for cello and his philosophies on music and life. In February 2019, he was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month.
Evan attended the Aspen Music Festival on a fellowship, where he studied with Juilliard professor Darrett Adkins and played co-principal in the Aspen Academy of Conducting Orchestra, the Aspen Sinfonia Concertante, and the Aspen Philharmonic as an Orchestral Leadership Fellow. In summer 2016, he served as one of 40 student fellows in the Piatigorsky Cello Festival — fellows hand-picked from conservatories around the world — and in summer 2017, Evan attended the Taos School of Music to work with the Brentano, Borromeo, and Shanghai Quartets.
Evan received a Master’s in Chamber Music at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying with Jennifer Culp. He graduated with college and university honors from Carnegie Mellon University, studying with David Premo. Before college, he took lessons with LA Opera principal cellist John Walz and Lyris Quartet cellist Timothy Loo. Other important mentors include Paul Hersh, Thomas Loewenheim, Amos Yang, Ian Swensen, and Bonnie Hampton.
In addition to performing and teaching, Evan enjoys playing board games and watching British television. He plays on a cello by Italian luthier Carlo Carletti, c. 1900, and a bow made for cellist Lynn Harrell by archetier Paul Martin Siefried.
Amy Zanrosso, a powerful and dynamic musician, has worked within a wide range of musical genres – classical, contemporary, musical theatre, German cabaret, and tango. Much in demand as a collaborator, and a chamber musician at heart, Amy has shared the stage with acclaimed soloists and principal members of numerous symphony orchestras. She has appeared as a soloist with the Symphony of the Kootenays and the Russian Chamber Orchestra and has worked with Gustavo Dudamel for chorus rehearsals of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. In 2016 Amy went on tour to China with the GRAMMY award-winning Pacific Boychoir and was also the pianist for Chorissima – the five-time GRAMMY award-winning San Francisco Girl’s Chorus Premier Ensemble throughout the 2017-18 season.
Amy is currently based in Oakland, California, and is a faculty member at the Pre-College of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As well as freelancing in the Bay Area, she is part of a number of local ensembles, most notably The RossoRose Duo, with violinist Alisa Rose, and The iO Piano Quartet whose focus is fundraising for the San Francisco Musical Fund Society with all proceeds going towards music scholarships for young Bay Area students.
Originally from British Columbia, Canada, Amy completed her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Victoria with her unparalleled mentor, Bruce Vogt. She furthered her studies in Italy, working with Maria Tipo and Michele Campanella, and then returned to Canada to complete a Master’s Degree at McGill University in Montréal during which she studied with Dorothy Morton and Louis-Phillipe Pelletier.
Amy is steadily realizing her master plan of learning and performing all existing piano chamber music and when not practicing Beethoven or Brahms, she can be found hanging out with her husband and dog or riding her bike to rehearsals.
