Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms

PROGRAM

Beethoven Sonata for Piano and Cello, Op. 102, No. 1

Mozart Divertimento for Violin, Viola, and Cello, K. 563

Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3, Op. 60

Praised by the Kansas City Star for his “sweet, sensuous tone and sophisticated feel for long-breathed lines,” Principal Cellist Mark Tsuyoshi Gibbs holds the Robert A. Kipp chair in the Kansas City Symphony. Prior to this appointment, Gibbs earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University, where he was a student of Hans Jørgen Jensen. While at Northwestern, Gibbs was named principal cellist of the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Gibbs’ numerous awards include the Northwestern University Civic Scholar Fellowship, the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Prize, winner of the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music Concerto Competition, first prize in the Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Artist National Competition, and grand prize in the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition. He has appeared many times as a soloist with the Kansas City Symphony, including twice on Classical Series opening weekend as well as on the Symphony’s 2015 all Saint-Saëns disc from Reference Recordings, which earned a Gramophone editor’s choice and a GRAMMY nomination. Of his 2023 performance(s) of Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote, celebrating Michael Stern’s final season with the KCS, the KC Independent declared that “Principal Cellist Mark Gibbs gave one of the richest, most heart-rending performances of this musical chronicle that I’ve ever heard.”

Gibbs plays on a beautiful modern cello, crafted by Eric Benning in 2008, and a gold-mounted Pierre Guillaume bow. He is proud to be known as a “fine Kansan cellist” (Audiophilia.com) and resides in Overland Park with his wife, Kansas City Symphony Principal Second Violinist Tamamo Someya Gibbs, and their two daughters.

Tamamo Someya Gibbs began taking violin lessons at the age of 3. At age 6 she entered the Tokyo College of Music Prep School, where she received training in violin performance, aural skills and music theory. Her secondary and post-secondary education took place at Toho High School and Toho College of Music under the tutelage of Kenji Kobayashi. Upon graduation, she played for the Shinsei Japan Symphony Orchestra for several months before the New World Symphony in Miami Beach invited her to join as a co-principal violinist. In 1995, Gibbs joined the Sacramento Symphony as a core first violinist, and in 1996 joined the first violin section of the Kansas City Symphony. In 1999, she was appointed principal second violinist of the Kansas City Symphony as well as named co-concertmaster of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in Japan, the United States, France, Monaco, Israel, Brazil and Argentina, and participated in numerous music festivals including the Evian Music Festival in France, the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado, the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. Past solo engagements include appearances with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Penn’s Woods Music Festival Orchestra, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Overland Park Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony. She currently resides in Overland Park, Kansas, with her husband, Mark Gibbs (principal cellist of the Kansas City Symphony), and their two children.

Born into a Tashkent (Uzbekistan) musical family, Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich began studying piano at the age of 4. In 1985 she entered the Uspensky Central Music School in Tashkent. In 1993 she started attending a private school for young musicians in Moscow, and that same year received the first prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Göttingen, Germany. She entered the Tchaikovsky Special Music School in 1995, and two years later was accepted to the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory under the tutelage of Vera Gornostaeva, with whom she continued postgraduate study from 2002 to 2004. Lisovskaya-Sayevich also studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at Park University.

Born to a musical family and raised in New York City, Christine Grossman began playing the violin at the age of 5, piano at the age of 10 and viola at 16. She received both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in viola performance from the Juilliard School.

Before moving to Kansas City, Grossman previously held positions with the Pacific Symphony in Southern California, Delaware Symphony and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Fla. She has also performed as a substitute violist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Mika Gibbs bio coming soon