Concert Ludovico Ensemble

performs works by composers Younghi Pagh-Paan, Wolfgang Rihm, and Mathias Spahlinger

The Ludovico Ensemble reprises their performance of Younghi Pagh-Paan's Horizont auf hoher See (2016) for string quartet, along with Wolfgang Rihm's String Quartet, 9, Quartettsatz I (1992) and Mathias Spahlinger's Adieu M'Amour: Hommage A Guillaume Dufay (1983) for violin and cello.

Performing are:
Gabriela Diaz and Lilit Hartunian, violin
Anna Griffis, viola
David Russel, cello

The Ludovico Ensemble is a Boston-based chamber ensemble specializing in modern music. Founded in 2002 by percussionist Nicholas Tolle, the group is known for its carefully curated programs focusing on specific and often unusual instrumentations. From 2007-2014, the group held the position of Ensemble-In-Residence at the Boston Conservatory. In 2010, the group released its first album featuring chamber music by the late Dana Brayton, former composition teacher at the Boston Conservatory. The Boston Globe hailed Ludovico’s recording of Marti Epstein’s Hypnagogia as one of the best classical albums of 2015, and Alex Ross of The New Yorker called it a new release of interest. In 2016 the group released its third album featuring the music of Composer–In–Residence Mischa Salkind-Pearl. The group consists of many of the best freelancers and new music specialists in Boston, and its instrumentation varies wildly from concert to concert as the repertoire demands. The group's name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fictional medical treatment featured in the Anthony Burgess novel and Stanley Kubrick movie "A Clockwork Orange," in which the protagonist is subjected to a classical conditioning regimen that induces nausea at the sight of violent or exploitative acts, but also, inadvertently, to the music of Beethoven.

Bios:

© Kate Lemmon Gabriela Díaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father. A childhood cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to supporting cancer research and treatment as a musician, bringing music to cancer units at various hospitals in Boston. Gabriela is a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, A Far Cry, Castle of Our Skins, and plays regularly with other chamber music ensembles throughout the United States. Her recording of Lou Harrison's Suite for Violin and American Gamelan was highlighted in the New York Times Article "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Classical Music." Gabriela is proud to be a core member of the team that created Boston Hope Music, bringing music to patients and frontline workers during the pandemic.

© Shawn Read Violinist Lilit Hartunian performs at the forefront of contemporary music innovation, both as soloist and highly in-demand collaborative artist. First prize winner in the 2021 Black House Collective New Music Soloist Competition, Ms. Hartunian’s "Paganiniesque virtuosity" and “captivating and luxurious tone” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) are frequently on display at the major concert halls of Boston, including multiple solo performances at Jordan Hall and chamber music at Symphony Hall (Boston Symphony Orchestra Insights Series), as well as at leading academic institutions, where she often appears as both soloist and new music specialist. Highlights from the 2023 season include performances with A Far Cry at The Kennedy Center, Boston Modern Orchestra Project at Carnegie Hall, and [Switch~Ensemble] at June in Buffalo. Described as “brilliantly rhapsodic” by the Harvard Crimson, Ms. Hartunian can be heard on New Focus Records, Innova Recording, SEAMUS records, New Amsterdam Records, and on self-released albums by Ludovico Ensemble and Kirsten Volness. As collaborative artist and ensemble musician, Ms. Hartunian regularly performs with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, A Far Cry, Sound Icon, Emmanuel Music, Callithumpian Consort, Guerilla Opera, and Ludovico Ensemble, and recently performed as guest artist with the Lydian Quartet, Arneis Quartet, and The Rhythm Method

© Kate Raisz Equally at home on steel and gut strings and with new and old music, violist Anna Griffis made her concerto debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at 16 and has gone on to perform in Mexico, Turkey, Austria, Slovenia, Czechia, Taiwan, and across the states. Anna co-founded Chicago-based Trio Speranza, prize winners at the EMA Baroque Competition, and plays with Blue Heron, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and Boston Baroque. She is principal viola with the New Bedford Symphony, member of the Albany Symphony, and can be seen with the Portland Symphony, Emmanuel Music, Odyssey Opera, BMOP, Boston Lyric Opera, and A Far Cry. Anna and is executive director and violist with the new music group Ludovico Ensemble and has premiered solo and duo works by Marti Epstein, Erin Gee, Mischa Salkind-Pearl, Robert Carl, and John McDonald. She teaches at The New School of Music (Cambridge, MA) and Tufts University, is an affiliate artist at MIT, and works as a graphic designer and marketing specialist. From Annapolis, MD, Anna is the proud product of her public school music program, Lawrence University, and Boston University. She lives in Lower Allston with her bassoonist husband and their cat, Pig, and gets excited about fonts, road trips, and diners.

© Tanya Maggi Hailed as “superb”, “incisive” and “sonorous and panoramic” in The Boston Globe, David Russell maintains a vigorous schedule both as soloist and as collaborator in the U.S. and Europe. He was appointed to the teaching faculty of Wellesley College in 2005 and currently serves as Senior Lecturer and Director of Chamber Music. A strong advocate of new music,  Russell has performed with such ensembles as BMOP, Firebird Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Music on the Edge, Dinosaur Annex, Collage, the Fromm Players at Harvard and entelechron. Recent projects include recordings of works by Eric Moe, Lee Hyla, Tamar Diesendruck, Donald Crockett, Chen Yi and Roger Zahab, premieres of chamber works by Barbara White, Daron Hagen, José-Luis Hurtado, Robert Carl and Gilda Lyons, premieres of works for cello and orchestra by Sam Nichols and Laurie San Martin, and new works for solo cello by Andrew Rindfleisch, Nicholas Vines, Martha Horst and John Mallia. He is a busy performer in the Boston area, making regular appearances with such ensembles as Cantata Singers and Ensemble, the Worcester Chamber Music Society and Emmanuel Music. He serves as Principal cello of Odyssey Opera. Russell has recorded for the Tzaddik, Albany, BMOPSound, CRI, Centaur and New World Records labels.

 

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