News

String Theory at the Hunter will present its fourth concert of the season featuring baritone Randall Scarlata and pianist Gloria Chien on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 6:30 p.m.

String Theory, founded by Artistic Director Gloria Chien in 2009, is a chamber music series presented in partnership with the Hunter Museum of American Art and Lee University. Musicians from around the world join Chien to perform in the intimate setting of the Hunter.

Scarlata and Chien will present “Winterreise,” a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, for the evening’s performance.

Hailed for his warm, expressive sound, consummate musicianship and winning way with the audience, Scarlata is firmly established as one of the most highly regarded musical interpreters of his generation. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony, Vienna’s Tonkünstler Orchestra, The National Symphony, The Pittsburgh Symphony, the American Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony, as well as the Early Music ensembles Wiener Akademie, Musica Angelica, and the Grand Tour Orchestra.

Scarlata’s awards include First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize at the Das Schubert Lied International Competition in Vienna, First Prize at the Joy in Singing Competition in New York, and the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award.

Chien has emerged in recent years as one of America’s finest young chamber musicians. She has been praised by the Strad for “super performances…accompanied with great character.” Chien has participated in festivals such as Music Academy of the West, Verbier Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts and Chamber Music Northwest. She has also participated for six years in Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was appointed director of the institute in 2011.

Chien won a spot on the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 2012, and now frequently plays at Alice Tully Hall in New York as well as other venues around the country with CMS on Tour.

“Art Connections” will take place at 5:30 p.m., prior to the concert. Former Hunter Museum chief curator Ellen Simak and Maestro Robert Bernhardt, Conductor Emeritus of the Chattanooga Symphony, will explore works from the Hunter Museum collection that relate to the music featured in the concert to follow.

Individual concert tickets are $25 for Hunter members, $35 for non-members, $10 for students with a valid student ID and $25 for groups of 20 or more people.

For more information on String Theory at the Hunter or to purchase tickets, call 423-267-0968 or visit www.stringtheorymusic.org.