December 12 will be a night for the lush sounds of strings and piano when Mr. Chamber Music himself returns to Beaufort for the USCB holiday chamber music concert. The audience will have what has become for us a rare treat when the venerable Charles Wadsworth joins the young sensation from Korea, Jeewon Park at the Steinway grand for a Schubert duet. USCB’s Artistic Director, host and cellist Edward Arron will also join Mr. Wadsworth in another Schubert piece, the haunting and exquisite song, “An die musik.”
Charles Wadsworth, a celebrated, living legend in the world of music, was the founding Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, which he led it for twenty years. He is credited with creating the concept of programming for varied instruments and voice that brought chamber music to the popularity it has today and led to the profusion of chamber music festivals throughout the U.S. and worldwide.
He has performed at the White House for four Presidents: Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan, and has been honored by France as a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters and by Italy as a Cavaliere Ufficiale in the Order of Merit. He has been awarded New York’s Handel Medallion, South Carolina’s Order of the Palmetto and the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award, and honorary doctorates from the University of South Carolina, Converse College and Connecticut College.
For fifty years, Charles Wadsworth was a favorite at the Spoleto Festivals, first in Italy and then in Charleston, SC, as Artistic Director for Chamber Music, where he both performed as pianist and was the much-loved host of the daily concerts at the Dock Street Theater. He also was the artistic director of the USCB Festival Series for almost twenty years. In 2007, he founded the acclaimed Festival Internacional de Musica in Cartagena, Colombia.
Relinquishing these extensive responsibilities in 2009 at the age of 80, Wadsworth continues to perform chamber music as Guest Artist. USCB is proud to welcome back this great friend and highly decorated artist.
Sharing the Steinway with Mr. Wadsworth, Jeewon Park will once again delight the audience with her
dazzling technique and poetic lyricism. Praised for her “deeply reflective” playing (Indianalopis Star), Miss Park is rapidly garnering the attention of audiences around the world. Since making her debut at the age of 12 performing Chopin’s First Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, she has performed at major venues such as Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Kaplan Penthouse, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Steinway Hall, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Kravis Center (FL).
As a recitalist, she has given concerts at Steinway Hall in New York, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Caramoor International Festival, and the Norfolk Music Festival, among others. Following her performance of the Mozart Concerto K. 453 with the Charleston Symphony, the Post and Courier acclaimed that “Park demonstrated rare skill and sensitivity, playing with a feline grace and glittering dexterity…. lyrical phrasing and pearly tone quality.”
Besides his work in Ottawa, Yosuke Kawasaki currently serves as Principle Guest Concertmaster of the Century Orchestra Osaka and Concertmaster of the Mito Chamber Orchestra and Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan. Mr. Kawasaki was also Concertmaster of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra from 1999 to 2001.
He has been guest soloist with Aspen Chamber Symphony, Greenwich Village Orchestra, Kyushu Philharmonic, Orquesta Filarmonica de Lima, Singapore National Youth Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the four orchestras of which he is Concertmaster. He is a founding member of the D’Amici String Quartet along with world renowned musicians Federico Agostini, James Creitz and Sadao Harada. Mr. Kawasaki is also a founding member of Trio+, a piano trio with pianist Vadim Serebryany and cellist Wolfram Koessel.
His most recent recordings include chamber works by Beethoven, Mozart and Schumann on the TDK Core Label. He has also recorded Bach’s Double Concerto and the Complete Brandenburg Concertos with Walter van Hauwe and the Saito Kinen Chamber Players, both on the King Label.
Mr. Kawasaki began his violin studies at the age of six with his father Masao Kawasaki and continued with Setsu Goto. At the age of ten he was accepted into The Juilliard School Pre-College Division where he won the school-wide concerto competition. He then continued his education and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1998 under the tutorship of Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Felix Galimir and Joel Smirnoff.
To the delight of the Lowcountry audience, cellist, host and Artistic Director Edward Arron has led the Festival Series with fine and varied programming and impassioned performances. A native of 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Earlier that year, he performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Opening Night Gala of the Caramoor International Festival. Since that time, Mr. Arron has appeared in recital, as a soloist with orchestra, and as a chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
The 2010-2011 season marks Mr. Arron’s eighth season as the artistic coordinator of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber ensemble created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series.
Mr. Arron has performed numerous times at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls, New York’s Town Hall, and the 92nd Street Y, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic. Past summer festival appearances include Ravinia, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, BRAVO! Colorado, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, Seattle Chamber Music, the Chamber Music Conference of the East, and Isaac Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Mr. Arron has participated in the Silk Road Project and has toured and recorded as a member of MOSAIC, an ensemble dedicated to contemporary music.
Edward Arron began his studies on the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and, at age ten, moved to New York, where he continued his studies with Peter Wiley. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro.
For more complete bios of the artists and for a complete program, please go to http://www.uscb.edu/festivalseries.
For advance tickets, call Staci Breton at 843-208-8246, Monday – Friday 8:30 – 4:30. Tickets are also available at the door. Tickets start at $40. The concert begins at 5 on Sunday, December 12 at the USCB Performing Arts Center on Carteret Street.
