Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival Presents: Festival Concert II
The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, which draws outstanding musicians from North America and abroad every September, celebrates its 26th season with a series of concerts from September 7 to 20, 2025.
The 2025 Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival is full of color from around the world, from classic pieces by Schubert, Rachmaninov, and Brahms, to the rhythms of Latin America, and Stravinsky’s theatrical L’Histoire du soldat, and so much more. Playing music is telling stories, the expression of culture, the sound of a place, sometimes a place left behind. It is memories, the expression of emotions deep inside and ones to be wildly danced and celebrated.
In this program, Brazilian pianist Cristian Budu, American violinist Erin Keefe, Iranian-American violist Muriel Razavi, and Finnish clarinetist (and world-famous conductor) Osmo Vänskä join Festival returning musicians performing works by Eugène Ysaÿe and Lili Boulanger, as well as two major pieces from the classical repertoire – Schubert’s tuneful trio The Shepherd on the Rock and Brahms’ stunning Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25.
Program:
Sonata for Two Violins in A minor Eugène Ysaÿe
D’un soir triste Lili Boulanger
D’un matin de printemps Lili Boulanger
Shepherd on the Rock, D. 965 Franz Schubert
Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25 Johannes Brahms
Raphael Bell, Cristian Budu, Erin Keefe, Simone Porter, Muriel Razavi, Timothy Summers, Osmo Vänskä
Sponsored by the Ruffledog Fund
Other 2025 Festival concerts at the Paramount include a ticketed event on Friday, September 19 at 7:30PM and a FREE lunchtime concert open to the public on Friday, September 12 at 12:30PM.
Special thanks to our Festival Season Sponsor: Mrs. Tessa G. Ader
About the Musicians
Raphael Bell enjoys a varied career as a principal cellist, chamber musician, teacher, and festival director. He is currently principal cello of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, co-Artistic Director of La Loingtaine in Montigny-sur-Loing, France, co-founder of the Camerata Fontainebleau, and Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. As a chamber musician he has performed at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Salle Gaveau, Berlin Philharmonie, Köln Philharmonie, Luzerner Theater, Tokyo Suntory Hall, and Kyoto Concert Hall.
Cristian Budu has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Orquestre de la Suisse Romande, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Basel and Lausanne Chamber Orchestras, and as a soloist at festivals such as the Verbier Festival, and La Roque D’Antheron Piano Festival. He has played in duos with Renaud Capuçon and Antonio Meneses, and in chamber music with musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The honor that has special meaning for Cristian came from another Brazilian classical artist. Nelson Freire, regarded as one of the greatest pianists of his generation, said in his last interview that he thought Cristian would become his successor.
American violinist Erin Keefe is currently the Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra and on the violin faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as numerous international competitions, she has appeared as soloist in recent seasons with the Minnesota Orchestra, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony, Lahti Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic and the Gottingen Symphony. She has given recitals throughout the United States, Austria, Italy, Germany, Korea, Poland, Finland, Japan, and Denmark.
Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication. She has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle and Pittsburgh Symphonies and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Donald Runnicles, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Louis Langrée and David Danzmayr.
Muriel Razavi is an American-Iranian violist performing internationally across various formations and genres of classical music. She is the founder and artistic director of Leipzig’s Soundseed Festival, focusing on contemporary works by female composers from the Middle East – North Africa (MENA) region. Previously, Razavi served as Deputy Principal Violist of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig. As a soloist, she has performed with the Bridges Chamber Orchestra, Ankara State Orchestra, and Lviv Philharmonic, among others.
Violinist Timothy Summers is a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and has performed on violin, viola, and occasionally mandolin with the orchestra across the world. He serves on the orchestra’s board and is Artistic Director of the MCO’s ‘Future Presence’ Virtual Reality project with sound artist Henrik Oppermann. Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival since 2000, Timothy has performed as a chamber musician at festivals across the United States and Europe. He served as second violinist of the Orpheus String Quartet, and was for several years a participant in the Emmanuel Music cycle of Bach Cantatas in Boston, led by John Harbison and the late Craig Smith.
Conductor and clarinetist Osmo Vänskä was born in Finland and began his clarinet studies at the age of 11 at the music school in Kotka. He undertook further studies at the Sibelius Academy as a pupil of Sven Lavela, and spent a short but significant period as a pupil of Karl Leister in Berlin in 1974. He has been the principal clarinetist of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (1971-76) and assistant principal clarinetist of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (1977-82). He was the Artistic Director of the Crusell Festival in Uusikaupunki, Finland, from 1989 until 1993.
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