Tuesday Evening, February 13, 2018, 6:00 Please be advised:

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Patrons seated in this area may be filmed for the broadcast of this
DAVID M. RUBENSTEIN, Chairman event on the Kennedy Center’s website.
DEBORAH F. RUTTER, President

Presents

Kennedy Center Opera House

Orchestra Musicians SEATING IS ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS.

We regret that as the theater reaches capacity,

Ko Sugiyama, violin seats cannot be saved for patrons who have
Joel Ayau, piano not arrived or are not next in line.
Igor Zubkovsky, cello
Ashley Booher, clarinet Thank you for understanding.
Wei-Han Wu, piano
Please refrain from using audio or video recording equipment during
Program the performance.

J. S. BACH Cello Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009 Due to safety and security considerations, please refrain from
(1685-1750) I. Prelude standing in the aisles during the performance. If you have any
IV. Sarabande questions, the uniformed ushers are available to assist you.
Igor Zubkovsky, cello
Please silence all cell phones and electronic devices during the
JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 performance.
(1833 - 1897) III. Andante
arr. Zubkovsky Joel Ayau, piano Artist Liaison and Multimedia Broadcaster volunteers,
Igor Zubkovsky, cello part of the Friends of the Kennedy Center volunteer program,
assist staff at the Millennium Stage every night of the year.
ROBERT SCHUMANN Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.129
(1810 -1856) I. Nicht zu schnell
Joel Ayau, piano
Igor Zubkovsky, cello

BÉLA BARTÓK Contrasts

(1881-1945) Verbunkos (Recruiting Dance)
Pihenő (Relaxation)
Sebes (Fast Dance) Tonight at the Kennedy Center
Ko Sugiyama, violin
Ashley Booher, clarinet 8:00 PM Shear Madness Theater Lab
Wei-Han Wu, piano
Please visit the Box Office for information on ticket availability.
About the Artists
The year 1971 marked the long-awaited opening of the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. On
opening night, Leonard Bernstein’s MASS made its world premiere in
the Opera House. Among the musicians performing in the orchestra
was a group of Washington, D.C. artists who would become the
nucleus for the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.
In 1993, the world-renowned German opera conductor Heinz Fricke
was appointed to the joint position of Music Director of the Kennedy
Center Opera House Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.
Thanks to his leadership and dedication, the Orchestra reached a
new level of excellence and consistently receives favorable notice
from the press. Maestro Fricke was named Music Director Emeritus
upon his retirement in 2010.
The Orchestra’s current Music Director Philippe Auguin was
appointed at the beginning of the 2010–2011 season. As one of the
most sought-after conductors of his generation in both the operatic
and symphonic fields, he regularly collaborates with leading opera
houses and orchestras throughout the world. The Orchestra
continues its successes and artistic excellence under Maestro
Auguin’s expert direction.
Today, the 62 musicians hail from South Korea, China, Spain, Russia,
and all regions of North America. They are highly trained musicians
who have attended the conservatories of Juilliard, the Eastman
School of Music, Oberlin, the Curtis Institute, and others throughout
the U.S. and Europe. Sixty-five percent of the members hold
advanced degrees in their field. Positions are filled through a highly
competitive process of national auditions, and winning such an
audition is a signal event in any musician’s career.
Ashley Booher is currently the Bass Clarinetist and Third Clarinet of
the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra/Washington National
Opera Orchestra. Booher has performed with the National Symphony
Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, and other D.C. local orchestras.
Booher is also an active solo and chamber musician, giving recitals
in the D.C.-area as well as other parts of the country. She has an
active teaching career, teaching privately at her home and at Howard
University.
Booher completed her M.M. and P.D. in clarinet performance at
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana,
and her B.M. in music education at The University of New Hampshire.
In 2011, Arundo Donax, a reed quintet based in Bloomington, which
she is a member of, won the Bronze Medal at the Fischoff Chamber
Music Competition. With that group, she toured extensively giving
recitals and master classes as part of education outreach. Her
teachers have included James Campbell, David Seiler, Eli Eban,
Howard Klug, David Bourque, and Alfred Prinz.
Described as “brilliant” by The Pittsburgh Tribune, pianist Wei-Han
Wu has performed in venues such as the Chicago Cultural Center,
the Kennedy Center, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, and the DiMenna
Center for Performing Arts in New York City. Committed to the
performance and promotion of new music, Wu served as pianist for
the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (ACE) and is currently a member
of the [Switch~Ensemble], an ensemble dedicated to the
performance of electroacoustic music. Wu was recently featured as
pianist with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and guest soloist at
the Third Practice Festival at University of Richmond, as well as the
2017 New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF). He
has worked with composers such as John Adams, Lee Hyla, Steven
Stucky, Osvaldo Golijov, Eric Wubbels, and John Harbison.
As a vocal coach and accompanist, Wu has worked with artists such
as Vinson Cole, Susanne Mentzer, and Nancy Gustafson. In 2009,
he participated in the first Castleton Music Festival, by invitation of
Maestro Lorin Maazel. In 2012–2013, he was a fellow at the
Tanglewood Music Center, where he worked closely with the vocal
arts program. Most recently, Wu was guest music director of opera at
University of Alabama and University of Colorado at Boulder.
A member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Wu received his bachelor’s degree
from Northwestern University and master’s degrees from University
of Michigan and Northwestern. He is the recipient of the Distinguished
Achievement Award from the Juilliard School, the Felicia Montealegre
Fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Collaborative
Piano Fellowship from Bard College. He is currently a double D.M.A.
degree candidate at the Eastman School of Music, where he served
as president of OSSIA New Music and performed regularly with the
Musica Nova Ensemble.

Pianist, conductor, teacher, and coach, Joel Ayau enjoys an
astonishingly diverse musical career. A recent graduate of the
Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program of the Washington National
Opera, he has also worked on the music staff of companies including
Opera Memphis, Wolf Trap Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, the Castleton
Festival, Toledo Opera, Aspen Opera Theater Center, and Music
Academy of the West. In the 2017–2018 season, he will serve as an
assistant conductor for the Washington National Opera productions
of Aida, The Little Prince, and The Barber of Seville.
As a pianist, Ayau has excelled in the fields of both instrumental and
vocal accompanying. Described as “zesty” and “energetic” by The
New York Times, he has performed instrumental recitals with
luminaries including David Halen, Charles Neidich, and principal
members of the Vienna Philharmonic, National Symphony, and
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. He has accompanied
legendary singers such as Andrea Bocelli, Frederica von Stade, and
George Shirley, as well as rising stars including Alyson Cambridge,
Zach Borichevsky, and Kathryn Lewek, in venues including Stern
Auditorium in Carnegie Hall, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and
National Concert Hall in Taipei. Ayau is a regular performer at many
of the venues at the Kennedy Center; his recent performances of the
Ben Folds Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, accompanying the
Nashville Ballet in the Kennedy Center Opera House, were praised
as “a worthy spectacle” by DC Theatre Scene.
Violinist Ko Sugiyama is the Assistant Concertmaster of the
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra/Washington National Opera
Orchestra, appointed by Music Director Philippe Auguin. Sugiyama is
also a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and a violinist
with the King St. Quartet (a NSO In-School-Ensemble). He maintains
a private violin studio as well. As soloist and/or chamber musician,
Sugiyama has performed at major U.S. venues such as Lincoln
Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St. Y’s Kauffman Concert Hall, the
Kennedy Center, Phillips Collection, Smithsonian American Art
Museum, National Gallery of Art, and Severance Hall. He has
collaborated with members of the Tokyo and Keller String Quartets
and has performed with the Phillips Camerata, 21st Century Consort,
Paul Katz, Nicholas McGegan, Jeremy Denk, Daniel Blumenthal, and
Ole Akahoshi.
Sugiyama received his bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute
of Music and his master’s degree from the Juilliard School while
studying under Paul Kantor and Masao Kawasaki, respectively.
Previous to his appointment as Assistant Concertmaster of
KCOHO/WNOO, Sugiyama spent four years as a fellow with the New
World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida.
Igor Zubkovsky started playing cello in his native Russia and first
appeared as a soloist with the Minsk State Philharmonic Orchestra at
the age of 12, performing Haydn C Major Cello Concerto. He later
studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Natalia Shakhovskaya, the
Gold Medalist of the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition.
Zubkovsky won top prizes at international competitions, including
International Cello Competition in Minsk, Belarus (II prize), and
Tansman Competition in Lodz, Poland (Grand Prix). As a member of
Brahms’s Trio in Moscow, he won second prize at the Trapani, Italy,
and first prize at the Weimar, Germany International Chamber Music
Competitions. With a remarkable record of performances, awards,
and academic distinctions, Zubkovsky was awarded a full scholarship
to the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he earned a Graduate
Performance diploma.
A member of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since
2003, Zubkovsky has been acting principal for several WNO
productions and most recently played solo cello parts in operas Don
Giovanni, Champion (in collaboration with Denise Graves), and
Rigoletto (as part of Justice at the Opera concert that featured
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg). As a soloist and
chamber musician, he has appeared at Merkin Concert Hall in New
York and at the prestigious Newport Music Festival, and he has both
performed recitals in Massachusetts and at the Kennedy Center in
Washington, D.C. Recent engagements include performances of
Brahms’s Double Concerto with West Chester University Orchestra,
Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with Altoona Symphony, series of
chamber music concerts in Paris with Marquis Ensemble,
performances at the Moscow Conservatory Rachmaninov Hall, and
trio concerts as part of the Levine Presents performance series that
aired on WETA, Washington’s Classical Music Radio station.
Zubkovsky is the author of numerous arrangements and
transcriptions for duets and trios featuring the cello; he is the first
performer of “(Cello Sonata)” by Isaac Mikhnovsky and has several
CD recordings to his credit.