Cello & Piano Recital, Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music Festival

Program

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Divertimento in D (arr. Piatigorsky for Cello & Piano)

I. Adagio
II. Menuet & Trio
III. Allegro di molto

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Sonata in G Minor, op. 5, no. 2

I. Adagio sostenuto e espressivo; Allegro molti più tosto presto
II. Rondo: Allegro

Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979)
Trois Pièces pour Violoncelle et Piano

I. Moderato
II. Sans vitesse et à l’aise
III. Vite et nerveusement rythmé

Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Romance, op. 23

David Popper (1843–1913)
Hungarian Rhapsody, op. 68 for Cello and Piano

The Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music Festival is being held this summer in Lani Hall, a 133-seat auditorium located in the Schoenberg Music Building on the UCLA campus. All concerts are free of charge, and no reservations are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Lot 2 is the closest campus parking lot; click here for full details on UCLA visitor parking, including campus parking maps and rates.

This year’s Festival will be livestreamed on the Center’s YouTube Channel. Please subscribe to our channel to be notified when the concerts go live.

Cello & Piano Recital
Jennifer Kloetzel, cello
Robert Koenig, piano

Jennifer Kloetzel
A graduate of The Juilliard School and a Fulbright Scholar, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. A founding member of the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet (1996-2016), Ms. Kloetzel has toured the globe and performed at such renowned venues as Lincoln Center, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Chautauqua Institute, the Ravinia Festival, the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, and the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna, as well as at prominent colleges and conservatories worldwide.

Ms. Kloetzel is known for her elegant playing and vibrant tone. She is a sought-after recitalist, performing concerts for San Francisco Performances and on WQXR in New York. The Strad magazine raved, “Cellist Jennifer Kloetzel is impressively passionate….” The Cello Museum proclaimed that her “energy, ceaseless intellectual curiosity, and virtuosic command of the instrument unite in exceptional musicianship, making her truly a hero of the cello.” Ms. Kloetzel has recorded thirty-six CDs, including the entire cycle of Beethoven Quartets and Brahms Sextets on the Avie label. Most recently, she released Beethoven: The Conquering Hero – Complete Works for Cello & Piano (with pianist Robert Koenig), which was chosen as “Recording of the Month” by BBC Music Magazine in March 2022; the review praised Ms. Koetzel’s playing: “If only more cellists would play like this—and at this level of ceaseless musicianship….” The review went on to state Ms. Kloetzel’s playing was “a masterclass in how to engage with the most powerful creative personality music has known.” Gramophone magazine hailed the Beethoven collection for “cello playing that’s notable for its warmth, inward expressiveness… Kloetzel comes across as so utterly natural.”

A champion of new music, Ms. Kloetzel received the Copland Award for engaging living American composers, commissioning and premiering over fifty works, including five concertos written specifically for her. In 2016, Ms. Kloetzel was invited to join the faculty at University of California Santa Barbara, where she is Professor of Cello and serves as both Head of the String and Performance Areas. For more information, visit jkcello.com

Robert Koenig
Now in his third decade as a much sought-after performing artist, Canadian pianist Robert Koenig has performed throughout the world to great acclaim as a collaborative pianist and chamber musician. His partnerships with many of today’s leading classical artists have seen him grace the world’s most important stages, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington’s The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Boston’s Jordan Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Vancouver’s Chan Center, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Taiwan’s National Theater, Hong Kong’s City Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Paris’s Louvre Museum, Brussels’s BOZAR, and Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw. His significant discography includes a highly acclaimed recording of Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano with cellist Jennifer Kloetzel on the Avie record label. Koenig is currently Professor and Head of Collaborative Piano at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he served as Chair of the Music Department from 2019-2022. Most recently he was appointed the Artistic Director of the Palm Springs International Piano Competition in 2022.

Read more about Koenig at: https://music.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/robert-koenig

About The Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music Festival

Ambroise Aubrun, D.M.A., Artistic Director

The festival was founded in 1988 by Professor Henry J. Bruman (1913–2005), who sought to introduce new audiences to chamber music at informal concerts on the UCLA campus. The festival is made possible by the Henry J. Bruman Trust, Professors Wendell E. Jeffrey and Bernice M. Wenzel, by a gift in memory of Raymond E. Johnson, and with the support of the UCLA Center for 17th-& 18th-Century Studies.

Photo courtesy of the artists.