UNCSA presents spring edition of its Chamber Music Festival celebrating the 20th anniversary of Watson Hall – UNCSA – UNCSA

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The School of Music at UNCSA presents the spring edition of its Chamber Music Festival with two concerts featuring distinguished guest artists Pavel Nersessian, world-renowned pianist; Robert deMaine, principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and alumna and violinist Delphine Skene, playing alongside faculty and students. The concerts will feature beloved chamber works by Brahms, Elgar, Haydn and Mozart. This year’s Chamber Music Festival, with both fall and spring performances, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Watson Hall, UNCSA’s premier music performance venue on campus.
The performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, and Saturday, March 23, at Watson Hall on the UNCSA campus. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for non-UNCSA students with I.D. and can be purchased online or by calling the box office at 336-721-1945. The concerts will also be available for free via livestream online.
Chamber Music Festival Spring 2023 / Photo: Wayne Reich
Now in its fourth year, the UNCSA Chamber Music Festival was founded in fall 2021 by faculty members and artistic directors Ida Bieler and Dmitri Vorobiev, who continue to lead the programming.
“The Chamber Music Festival at UNCSA has highlighted a variety of chamber repertoire over its four years – from new and contemporary works to those well-loved works that have stood the test of time,” Vorobiev said. “The spring programs highlights some of the latter; these are works that are full of drama and will keep audiences on the edge of their seat. In my opinion, it is impossible to get tired of this music.”
The March 19 program will feature the Brahms Clarinet Quintet featuring Skene and faculty members Ida Bieler (violin) and Jordan Bak (viola) alongside clarinet student Ruslan Usaev and cello student Gustavo Antoniacomi. It will also include the Elgar Piano Quintet featuring viola students Gabriel Mendoza and Arina Komarova playing with faculty members Kevin Lawrence (violin), Brooks Whitehouse (cello) and Dmitri Shteinberg (piano).
The March 23 performance, featuring guest artists Nersessian and deMaine, will include three pieces, all in the key of G: the Haydn Trio in G Major, the Mozart Piano Quartet in G Minor, and the Brahms Piano Quartet in G Minor.
Nersessian will perform on the Haydn piano trio, alongside students Ellie Dixon (violin) and Donovan Vega (cello); deMaine will perform on the Mozart quartet with Bak and students Eric Hoang (piano) and Sophie Anderson (violin). Both Nersessian and deMaine will join for the Brahms quartet alongside Bieler and student Joshua Forbes (viola).
In addition to rehearsing and performing, Nersessian and deMaine will spend the week teaching master classes. 
Chamber Music Festival Spring 2023 / Photo: Wayne Reich
Praised by The New York Times as “an artist who makes one hang on every note,” Robert deMaine is the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A highly sought-after solo artist and chamber musician, he is a frequent guest artist at many of the world’s premier chamber music festivals, including those of Marlboro, Seattle, Great Lakes, Limoges, Heidelberg Schlossfest, Chamberfest Cleveland, Montréal, and Seoul’s Ditto Festival, and he was featured as a soloist at the 2016 Piatigorsky Cello Festival.
DeMaine’s playing is noted for its “beautiful singing tone, lapidary technical precision and a persuasive identification with the idiom of the music at hand.” As one critic noted, his playing was “magnificent” and that his “technical brilliance is surpassed only by the beauty of tones he produces.”
Pianist Pavel Nersessian is known for his collaboration with chamber-music groups and other musicians. After graduating with maximum marks — a rare distinction — from the Moscow Conservatory, Nersessian taught there for more than two decades before joining the faculty of Boston University. One of the most remarkable pianists of his generation, Nersessian is renowned for his ability to play equally convincingly in the whole palette of the piano repertoire. He has won prizes in the Beethoven Competition in Vienna, the Paloma O’Shea Competition in Spain and the Tokyo Competition and now serves on the juries of major piano competitions around the world.
After Nersessian took first prize in the Dublin International Piano Competition in 1991, the Irish Times wrote, “His performance brought a veritable roar of approval from the audience.”
UNCSA School of Music alumna and Community Music School faculty member Delphine Skene is a French-Canadian violinist based in New York City. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Skene has collaborated with artists Ida Bieler, Colin Carr, David Shifrin and Peter Wiley, among others. She won a bronze medal at the 2022 Fischoff Chamber Music competition, a special prize at the 2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition and first prize of the Ackerman Competition with the Pelia Quartet.
She has recently performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Education. As a soloist, Skene has won top prizes at the Rosen-Schaffel, MANC and MTNA competitions. She has appeared in recital at the Place-des-Arts in Montreal and has performed in festivals across North America and Europe. She is currently completing her D.M.A. under the tutelage of Philip Setzer and the members of the Emerson String Quartet at Stony Brook University.
Described by Fanfare Magazine as “a specialist in everything, from Bach to new-music premieres,” violinist Ida Bieler is renowned as a musician of extraordinary scope. A winner of prestigious competitions on three continents, she has enjoyed an exceptional solo, collaborative and recording career worldwide and is one of the most sought-after teachers of her generation. She has been a regular performer in major music capitals throughout the world, recording for radio and television on five continents and appearing with leading international orchestras.
A native of Moscow, Russia, Vorobiev is an associate professor of piano in the UNCSA School of Music. He first came to international attention after winning the Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy in 1994, followed by performances at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto and numerous recitals throughout Italy. Previously, he was on the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa; Vivace International Music Festival; International Music Academy in Pilsen, Czech Republic; and the Cambridge International String Academy in Cambridge, England.
The Bill and Judy Watson Chamber Music Hall seats 300 and houses two Hamburg Steinway grand pianos; a D. Jacques Way French double manual harpsichord; and state-of-the-art lighting, electronic and sound equipment. Designed by Calloway Johnson Moore & West, acoustical engineering firm Acentech and consultant Rein Pirn, the hall serves as the principle performance venue for the School of Music faculty and guest artist concert series, as well as a venue for several student chamber ensembles, graduating college senior recitals and second-year graduate recitals. The shape of the hall echoes the curves of a violin, as well as its wood (a warm, rich color). Black pilasters and sloping wood columns evoke the neck, strings and bridge of the instrument. A special “high volume, low velocity” HVAC system was designed to minimize ambient noise. The hall is also equipped with a recording studio. Since its opening, Watson Hall has been the site of hundreds of performances by faculty, students and guest artists. In 2018 the hall was outfitted with new state-of-the-art cameras and streaming system that allow for livestreaming capability of any concert taking place in the hall. In honor of the 15th anniversary season, new wood furniture/sculptures by local artist Robert Kopf and a large wood relief sculpture by Atlanta artist Tony DiLeo were added. Judy and Bill Watson are longtime residents of Winston-Salem who have a great love for UNCSA students. Because of the Watsons’ generous philanthropy over the years, the hall was named in their honor.
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March 14, 2024
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