Kallos CMS: Carry Me Forward: Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Clarke, Smith

5 PM Doors & Pre-Reception
6 PM Performance
8 PM Post-Reception

Kallos CMS: Carry Me Forward
Nathan Meltzer, violin
Laurel Gagnon, violin
Jordan Bak, viola
*Luosha Fang, viola
*Leland Ko, cello
Josh Halpern, cello
Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Clarke, Smith

Gotham Arts in collaboration with Groupmuse is excited to present an intimate chamber music performance organized by Kallos Chamber Music Series. Carry Me Forward reflects on the enduring echoes of music across time. Spanning the intimate lyricism of Rebecca Clarke and Richard Strauss, the inventive voice of Gabriella Smith, and the expansive emotional landscape of Tchaikovsky, the program illuminates how artistic expression continues to inspire long after its creation. As the final chapter of the season, it offers a meditation on memory, connection, and the lasting impressions that remain.

Wine will be served.

Program

REBECCA CLARKE Two Pieces for Viola and Cello

GABRIELLA SMITH Carrot Revolution for String Quartet

STRAUSS Sextet from Capriccio, Op. 85

TCHAIKOVSKY Sextet for Strings in d minor, Op. 70 ("Souvenir de Florence")

About the Artists

Nathan Meltzer, violin

Recipient of a 2026 Avery Fisher Career Grant, winner of the 2023 Concert Artist Guild Competition, and major prize winner at the 2022 Sibelius and Singapore International Violin Competitions, violinist Nathan Meltzer is establishing a holistic and multi-faceted career as both a soloist and chamber musician, with passions for both standard and contemporary repertoire.

Nathan has performed as a soloist with major orchestras around the world. He has performed with the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Finnish RSO, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Aalborg, Charlotte, Concepción, Indianapolis, Medellín, Montréal, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, among others, performing across Europe and North and South America.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Nathan has performed at celebrated series including the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Dresden Musikfestspiele, Heidelberger Frühling, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Kallos Chamber Music Series, Parlance Chamber Concerts, and Midori’s Partners in Performance, and at festivals including ChamberFest Cleveland, IMS Prussia Cove, Krzyzowa Music, La Jolla SummerFest, Montreal and Moritzburg Chamber Music Festivals, Music@Menlo’s International Program, Newport Classical, the Ravinia Festival Institute, the Perlman Music Program, Verbier Festival Academy, and Yellow Barn.

He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Green Room Ensemble, a non-profit chamber music organization dedicated to new music and historically unexplored works by composers from a variety of backgrounds and heritages.

A Juilliard graduate and student of Li Lin and Itzhak Perlman, Nathan plays on a 1682 Andrea Guarneri violin.

Laurel Gagnon, violin

Violinist Laurel Gagnon’s interpretations praised for their “naturalness that [is] both disarming and distinctive” (The Straits Times, Singapore). Performing as a soloist and chamber musician, she is currently based in New York City and is a fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program for the 2025–2027 seasons. Equally at home performing traditional repertoire and premiering new works, she especially enjoys exploring works written by women of previous centuries.

Gagnon recently won third prize at the 2026 Concours internationale musicale de Montréal, first prize at the 2025 Dallas International Violin Competition, and was previously awarded top prizes at the Elmar Oliveira and Singapore International Violin Competitions. She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Flagey in Brussels, Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

As a chamber musician, Laurel is the founding violinist of Vinola Trio, a clarinet-violin-piano ensemble with an emphasis on contemporary repertoire. The trio received grand prize at the 2025 Plowman Chamber Music Competition; upcoming season engagements include performances at Odyssey Chamber Music Series, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, and a residency at the Avaloch Farms Music Institute for an interdisciplinary project collaborating with digital artist Lee Oliver.

Passionate about engaging with local communities, Laurel worked extensively with Indiana University’s Center for Rural Engagement, where she collaborated with community partners to present public performances in libraries, schools, and senior care centers. A teaching artist with Yale’s Music in Schools Initiative, also participated in Indiana University’s Fairview Violin Project, introducing violin to elementary students.

A graduate of the Yale School of Music under the mentorship of Augustin Hadelich, she previously studied with Ben Sayevich and Mauricio Fuks.

Laurel performs on an 1809 Lupot violin, generously on loan from Canimex Inc., Drummondville, Québec, Canada.

Jordan Bak, viola

Award-winning Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak has earned international acclaim for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless artistry. Critics have described him as "a powerhouse musician, with a strong voice and compelling sound" (The Whole Note) and praised his "haunting lyrical grace" (Gramophone). A recipient of the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Alexandra Jupin Award and former Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) Robey Artist, Bak has also been recognized by the Sphinx, Lionel Tertis, and Concert Artists Guild Competitions, as well as Classic FM, Musical America, and WQXR.

Recent and upcoming highlights include the New York premiere of Michael Frazier's viola concerto Los quetzales with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, following a celebrated North American tour of Mozart viola quintets with the Takács Quartet. During the 2026–2027 season, he also appears in recital at Grace Farms, serves as chamber music artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, presents a recital and masterclass at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and joins composer-pianist Eleanor Alberga for a North American chamber music tour.

A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Bak has given numerous world premieres, including works by Michael Frazier, Chris Rogerson, Kaija Saariaho, Jessica Meyer, Augusta Read Thomas, and Jeffrey Mumford. His acclaimed Delphian recording Cantabile: Anthems for Viola showcases both beloved viola repertoire and contemporary masterworks.

Bak serves on the viola faculties of Manhattan School of Music and NYU Steinhardt and is an Ambassador for UK Music Masters in London. He teaches each summer at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival.

Only the third violist to earn the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, Bak also holds degrees from New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School, where he was a Kovner Fellow. He performs on two violas by Jon van Kouwenhoven.

Luosha Fang, viola

Violinist and violist Luosha Fang brings an adventurous spirit to repertoire ranging from canonical works to world premieres. As a violin soloist, she has performed with orchestras including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony, the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, the Atlantic Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra, with whom she gave the U.S. premiere of Grażyna Bacewicz’s Violin Concerto No. 5. With the Albany Symphony Orchestra, she recorded George Tsontakis’s double violin concerto Unforgettable for release on Naxos Records.

A prizewinner in international competitions on both instruments, Fang won the 2019 Classic Strings International Competition in Vienna and the 2018 Tokyo International Viola Competition. She was also a winner of Astral Artists’ 2013 National Auditions and the S&R Foundation’s 2015 Washington Award.

Chamber music has been central to Fang’s career since she co-founded the Chimeng Quartet, which won the Silver Medal at the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has appeared at festivals including Marlboro, Kronberg, Ravinia, Aspen, Bard Music Festival, Caramoor, and Music from Angel Fire, collaborating with artists such as Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis, Mitsuko Uchida, and Nobuko Imai. She has performed at renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein, and the Library of Congress. From 2021 to 2022, she was a member of the Pavel Haas Quartet in Prague.

Luosha performs on a Gaetano Pollastri violin with an 1840 Jacob Eury bow and on the “Josefowitz” 1690 Andrea Guarneri viola with an 1840 Jean Pierre Marie Persoit bow.

Leland Ko, cello

Cellist Leland Philip Ko (b. 1998) is the kind of person who is always asking “why” — American-born but of Chinese-Canadian descent, schooled at both university and conservatory, and extremely thorough in any number of activities ranging from competitive tennis and distance-running to home-baking and origami, he wants to find the similarities between seemingly disparate things, and in doing so hopefully find something human in everything.

Nicknamed “the storyteller” and “a daring prince” by the media during his time at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and described as “one of those artists who defy analysis, because words simply cannot describe the powerful emotions they evoke” (RTBF), Leland is a first prize winner of the Walter W. Naumburg International Cello Competition, an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, and a third prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Highlights for Leland’s 2026-2027 season include concerto appearances at home with the Kendall Square Orchestra and the Apollo Ensemble of Boston, a recital at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and chamber music events at Shriver Hall in Baltimore, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Newport Classical Festival the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and Wigmore Hall in London.

Leland was a long-time student of Kirsten Peltz, Ronald Lowry, and Paul Katz before attending Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. in German Literature. He went on to complete an M.M. at The Juilliard School under the teaching of Minhye Clara Kim, Timothy Eddy, and Natasha Brofsky, and then earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory under guidance of Laurence Lesser, Yeesun Kim, and Donald Weilerstein. He resides in Boston, with his 14-year-old cat, Ham.

Josh Halpern, cello

Joshua Halpern has appeared on stages around the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal cellist. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists including Jonathan Biss, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Anthony McGill, and Itzhak Perlman, and appeared at music festivals including the Ravinia Steans Institute, Music@Menlo, the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, La Jolla Summerfest, and KrzyzowaMusic.

An eager advocate of contemporary music, he has worked personally with composers including Bruce Adolphe, Richard Danielpour, Kevin Puts, and Kaija Saariaho, and in 2025 debuted In Real Time, an expansive a commissioning series in which he spends a year in deep collaboration with a single composer to build a program for live performance and recording from that composer's musical world outward. He has served as guest principal cello of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, as cellist with the Banff Competition-winning Rolston Quartet, and as guest member of the Varian Fry Quartet.

Josh is the founder and Executive & Artistic Director of the Cultural Caravan, a Colorado-based performing arts series operating at the intersection of small businesses, social-service nonprofits, municipal organizations, and diverse world-class artists. The Cultural Caravan presents 35+ concerts per year in coordination with dozens of local businesses and community organizations, reinvesting nearly $1 million into the community to date. Learn more at culturalcaravan.org.

Josh completed his Artist Diploma at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley. As an undergraduate at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, he studied with Desmond Hoebig and won the school's concerto competition. From 2021 to 2023, he was a member of the Karajan Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker, in which he played 60+ concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker and was mentored by Ludwig Quandt. He lives in New York.

Josh performs on a cello by Domenico Busan, c. 1750, previously owned by his teacher Desmond Hoebig, provided on a generous long-term loan from a member of the Stretton Society

What's the music?

Kallos Chamber Musicians String Sextet