Frescobaldi-Cassadó: Toccata
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Sonata in G minor, Op.19
A graduate of The Juilliard School and a Fulbright Scholar, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel has concertized throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. A founding member of the Cypress String Quartet, Ms. Kloetzel has toured the world and performed at outstanding venues such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, the Chautauqua Institute and the Ravinia Festival, the Lobkowicz Palaces in both Vienna and Prague, as well as prominent colleges and conservatories nationwide.
Ms. Kloetzel is noted for her elegant playing and her vibrant tone. She has given numerous recitals, including concerts for San Francisco Performances and on WQXR in New York. Strad Magazine hailed, “Cellist Jennifer Kloetzel is impressively passionate…” In the past few seasons, she performed the world premiere of a Cello Suite by Daniel Asia and a Cello Concerto, “Cloud Atlas” and unaccompanied cello work “Lift”, that were both written for her by MIT composer Elena Ruehr. The San Jose Mercury News proclaimed, “Cellist Jennifer Kloetzel shines in premiere” and called her a “terrific soloist…with a robust and earthy sound.” Ms. Kloetzel has recorded the Ruehr Cello Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, which was released to critical acclaim in October 2014. “Lift” is the title track of an all-Ruehr disc, released in January 2015 on the Avie label. Ms. Kloetzel is winner of The Juilliard School’s top award, the “Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Leadership and Achievement in Music”, and a Presser Music Award, as well as a Fulbright Grant to England. In 2004 she was honored with the McGraw-Hill Companies’ “Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach” in recognition of her years of outreach work in schools and community centers. She has appeared at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Sarasota and Aspen Music Festivals, the Britten-Pears School, the Prague Mozart Academy, and performed as cellist of the Cassatt Quartet during the 1995-96 season.
Growing up near Baltimore, Ms. Kloetzel began her cello studies at age six. Her teachers included Aldo Parisot, William Pleeth, Harvey Shapiro, Stephen Kates and Paula (Virizlay) Skolnick, as well as members of the Juilliard String Quartet, the Amadeus Quartet and the Cleveland Quartet. After performing with pianist Andre Previn at the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival in 1992, Ms. Kloetzel was invited to appear as one of his select “Rising Stars” at the 1993 and 1994 Caramoor Festivals in New York.
From 2003-2009, Ms. Kloetzel taught cello and chamber music at San José State University, where the Cypress String Quartet was Ensemble-in-Residence. She has given master classes at The Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory and at universities throughout the U.S. In September 2016 Ms. Kloetzel was named adjunct professor of cello and chamber music at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ms. Kloetzel has been featured numerous times on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and her performances have been broadcast on radio stations from coast to coast. As a member of the Cypress String Quartet, she has received the Copland Award for championing living American Composers and has also commissioned and premiered more than thirty works. Ms. Kloetzel has recorded 16 CDs with the CSQ, most recently the entire cycle of Beethoven Quartets on the Avie label. She has performed as principal cellist of the Concert Artists of Baltimore, the Baltimore Opera and the Juilliard Orchestra. In addition, she is a frequent guest soloist with orchestras, performing concertos by Brahms, Dvorak, Elgar, Lalo, Shostakovich, Beethoven and Haydn.
Tamami Honma became established in the great romantic tradition as one the few pianists ever mentored by Byron Janis (student of V. Horowitz). She has given solo concerts in the Bolshoi Hall with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (‘An eloquent, powerful performance’ New York Times) and the Wigmore Hall in London (’an interpretation of the Goldberg Variations that was probably as transparent and faithful to Bach as it’s possible to be’ Music & Vision). She has broadcast worldwide, and has participated in major festivals such as the Aldeburgh Festival and the Warsaw Autumn. She is experienced in teaching, coaching ensembles, lecturing, presenting masterclasses, appearing on international jury panels, and conducted piano literature courses at the Royal Academy of Music for several years. Her commercial recordings have won accolades in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine (Editor’s Choice, consistent five-star ratings), and her Chopin concerto disk was hailed as ‘a complete delight’ and ‘CD of the Week’ in The Guardian. She records for Somm, Metier, Dutton, Oxford Classics and Divine Arts/NAXOS labels. Many compositions were written for her by composers such as Anatolijus Senderovas, Osvaldas Balakauskas and the late John McCabe. Tamami is a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, director/coach for the Bay Shore Lyric Opera Company and rehearsalist for the San Jose Symphonic Choir. She is currently recording the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas for Divine Arts/Naxos. She received her MMus, LRAM and honorary ARAM degrees from the Royal Academy of Music/University of London and BM from the Manhattan School of Music.
