GREAT BRITAIN, February 2023

Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 2
Edward Elgar: String Quartet
Philip Sawyers (b. 1951): Bagatelle (world premiere)

Sara Trickey & Airi Yoshioka, violins
David Yang, viola
Sally Pendlebury, cello

CHINA, February 2022

Zhou Long (b. 1953): Chinese Folk Songs
Bright Sheng (b. 1955): String Quartet No. 4 “Silent Temple"
Chen Yi (b. 1953): Three Bagatelles from China
Tan Dun (b. 1957): Eight Colors for string quartet

Airi Yoshioka & Jerry Zheyang, violins
David Yang, viola
Summer Hu, cello

JAPAN, March 2021

James Schlefer: "2 Blue” for shakuhachi and viola
Michiyo Mamiya: “Kio" for cello and shakuhachi
Toru Takemitsu: "A Way A Lone” for string quartet
Yuriko Kojima: “From Sunken Garden” for string quartet (world premiere)
Jay Reise: “The Gift from Urashima Taro” for shakuchi and trio

Shizuka Inoue & Airi Yoshioka, violins
David Yang, viola
Hikaru Tamaki, cello
James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi

Finnish Connection, March 2020

Jean Sibelius: String Quartet in Minor, op. 556 “Voces Intimae”
Einojuhani Rautavaara: String Quartet No. 1
Ilari Kaila (b.1978): Wisteria for String Quartet

Guest Artists: Kurt Nikkanen, violin
Martti Rousi, cello

Argentinian Connection: March, 2019

Fernando Altube (b.1960): String Quartet No. 2 “Palomitas”
Commissioned by The Voyager Ensemble
(World Premiere at the Argentinian Consul in New York City.)
Astor Piazzola: Four for Tango
Alberto Ginastera: String Quartet No. 1

Guest Artists: Alejandro Drago, violin
Juan Sebastian Delgado, cello

French Connection: March, 2018

Nicolas Bacri (b. 1961) Baltimore Sketches, op. 142b , World-Premiere
Henri Dutilleux:  Ainsi la nuit
Debussy: String Quartet in G Major op. 10
Maurice Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Cello

Guest Artists: Solenne Paidassi, violin
Tristan Cornut, cello

Hungarian  Connection: February, 2017

Joseph Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 20. Mo. 5 in f minor
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 2, op. 17
Zoltán Kodály: Duo for Violin and Cello, op. 7

Guest Artists: Jacob Ashworth, violin
Matthew Sharp, cello

David Yang and Airi Yoshioka, co-directors

Photo Credit: Zach Gross

Recipient of an artist fellowship from the Independence Foundation awarded to a small number of exceptional artists, violist David Yang has been called “a conduit for music” and his playing described as “lithe and expressive” in the Strad Magazine. A renaissance man, he has forged a career that is a blend of performing, composition, and storytelling. David has been heard in collaboration with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Jasper, Miro, Pro Arte, Vermeer, and Tokyo String Quartets and Apple Hill Chamber Players, Trio Solisti, and Eroica Piano Trios. Concert highlights include concertos in Canada and Great Britain along with recitals in Italy, the UK, and throughout the USA. As an active advocate of new music he has commissioned dozens of works. Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival (Boston) and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), in his role as leader of the Auricoalae Storytelling and Music Troupe he developed a residency program to foster the creation of new compositions by public school students. A member of string trio Ensemble Epomeo based in the the United Kingdom, their premiere recording was designated “Critic’s Choice” in Grammophone Magazine (“A splendid disc I cannot get enough of” ). Their second CD included the music of Schnittke, Penderecki, and Kurtag (“...remarkable intensity and elegant assurance throughout... bristles with detail – there are finely balanced chords moving from glowing diatonicism to harsh dissonance, and carefully shaped melodies with beautifully expressive vibrato – yet they never lose sight of the work’s broader architecture, nor of its poignant, increasingly bleak mood” – The Strad Magazine). Their third recording of Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht received universal acclaim (“an impressive recording that exposes many details of the score that usually remain obscure”- Gavin Dixon). David records for Avie, New Focus, and Somm.

Photo Credit: Lisa Marie Mazzucco

Hailed by the Gramophone Magazine is “brilliant and intrepid”, violinist Airi Yoshioka has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada.  Deeply committed to chamber music, Ms. Yoshioka is the founding member of the Duo della Luna, Damocles Trio, Voyager Ensemble and has performed and recorded with the members of the Emerson, Brentano, and Arditti Quartets. Damocles Trio’s debut disc of complete Piano Trios and Piano Quartet of Joquín Turina has won a four-star rating from the BBC Music Magazine, Le Monde de la Musique and Diapason. Her orchestral credits include performances with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Sinfonietta and engagements as concertmaster and soloist with the Manhattan Virtuosi and concertmaster of one of the festival orchestras at the Aspen Music Festival. An enthusiastic performer of new music, she has premiered dozens of solo violin and chamber works as well as be a member of Continuum, ModernWorks!, RUCKUS,  Son Sonora,  and Ensemble Pi. Of a performance with the New Juilliard Ensemble, the New York Times wrote, “Airi Yoshioka played the violin solo touchingly”, and of a performance with Continuum of Dallapiccola’s music, the New York Times wrote “Powerfully communicative…violinist Airi Yoshioka [played] a lovely ‘Due Studi.’ The performances were as varied as the music.” She has recorded for New World, Naxos, Claves, Mode, Neuma, Albany and Pony Canyon records.  While at The Juilliard School, she was a winner of the concerto competition and holds MM and DMA from the school. She has B.A. in English from Yale University. She currently teaches at University of Maryland Baltimore County as Professor of Music.