(OCEAN GROVE, NJ) -- Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association will present the Solisti Ensemble in concert on Thursday, July 13 at 7:30pm in the Great Auditorium. This acclaimed string ensemble has garnered a following in Ocean Grove, where it will be back by popular demand after performances over the past several summers.
Founded in 2008 by violinist Byung-Kook Kwak, the Solisti Ensemble celebrated its eighth anniversary this past season. Based in New York, the group consists of eleven active string soloists and chamber musicians dedicated reviving the traditions of small-ensemble chamber music.
The ensemble is exceptional for its unique size of the ensemble and the individual virtuosity of each member and performs not only classical chamber music, but also arrangements of pop, tango, and jazz.
Since its inception, the ensemble has given concerts around the Metropolitan Area, including regular appearances at Alice Tully Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. In January 2013, the ensemble made its debut at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium.
Tickets are $16.00 (plus applicable fees) and are available online at www.oceangrove.org or by phone at 800-590-4064. The Great Auditorium is located at Pilgrim and Ocean Pathways in Ocean Grove, NJ. All facilities are handicapped accessible.
Directed by Byung-Kook Kwak, the Solisti Ensemble will perform the following program*:
Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter” – arranged by B. Kwak
Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92 (1941)
“Oblivion” and “Summer” from “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” – Astor Piazzolla
Handel’s Organ Concerto No. 2 in B Flat - featuring organist Gordon Turk
Mozart’s Violin Concert No. 5 (Third Movement) – featuring violinist Byung-Kook Kwak
Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence” in D Minor (Third Movement)
*additional pieces to be announced
A special part of the program will be performed by Jianbing Hu, who has earned wide recognition for his artistry as a “sheng” soloist and composer. The sheng is an ancient Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes, which is enjoying increasing popularity as a solo instrument. Mr. Hu graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in China and is President of the Chinese Performing Arts of North America. He joined the Silk Road Ensemble (founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma) and has performed at workshops, museums and concert halls around the world. Hu collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony and Seattle Symphony to perform compositions for sheng and orchestra as soloist. In recent years, Mr. Hu has been focused on improvising music, and released a solo album, “Hu Jianbing's Sky,” in 2013. The Boston Globe wrote that Hu “has an impressive command of the sheng and of a broad range of its classical, folk, and modern musical literatures."
Byung-Kook Kwak enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. He has received critical acclaim for his performances with orchestras such as Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, American Symphony, and the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony. In Europe, he has appeared as a soloist with Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Cologne Radio Orchestra, Bamberger Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and French National Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Mr. Kwak is a member of the Sea Cliff Chamber Players. He is also very active as a concertmaster and appears in that capacity with virtually every major symphony orchestra around the Metropolitan New York area. He has been the conductor of the Summit Music Festival Orchestra for the past five years, has conducted the Queens Symphony Orchestra, and the Manhattan School of Music Summer Festival Orchestra in the summer of 1999. He has also been active as a choral conductor for over twenty years. He has been an assistant to Aaron Rosand at Mannes College of Music for ten years, and he is currently a faculty member at Manhattan School of Music Pre-College, Lehman College, Queens College, Westchester Conservatory of Music, and chairman of strings at Jewish Academy of Fine Arts.
