Concert and Chamber Music Masterclass

The Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio will be performing the Beethoven Piano Trio in E-flat Op. 70 No. 2.

Gloria Chien
Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by the The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR in 2020. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic.Most recently, Gloria released two albums - her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records. Gloria received her bachelor, masters and doctoral degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.

Soovin Kim
Korean-American violinist Soovin Kim is an exciting player who has built on the early successes of his prize-winning years to emerge as a mature and communicative artist. Today he enjoys a broad musical career, regularly performing repertoire such as Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven, Brahms, and Ives, string quartets, Mozart and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season.

Paul Watkins
Acclaimed for his inspirational performances and eloquent musicianship, cellist Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished career as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. Appointed Principal Cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra at age 20, he performs regularly as a concerto soloist with major orchestras throughout the world, including eight concerto appearances at the BBC Proms. A dedicated chamber musician, Watkins was a member of the Nash Ensemble from 1997 to 2013 and joined the Emerson String Quartet in May 2013. I

n 2014, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit. Watkins also maintains a busy career as a conductor and, since winning the 2002 Leeds Conducting Competition, has conducted all the major British orchestras and many others in the USA, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Watkins has made over 70 recordings, including 18 solo albums for Chandos, as well as chamber music discs for Decca Gold, Deustche Grammophon and Hyperion.

At the Yale School of Music, Watkins teaches a studio of graduate-level cellists, coaches chamber ensembles, and directs the Yale Cellos with Assistant Professor Adjunct of Cello Ole Akahoshi. He has been featured in performance many times at Yale as a member of the Emerson String Quartet.

Concert and Chamber Music Masterclass: Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio