Sitka Music Festival: 55th Summer Music Festival Subscription Concert 4
Passionate Threads – Granados Quintet, Novak's Impossible Inventions, Franck Sonata
Balourdet String Quartet, Marta Aznavoorian, Katerina Chatzinikolau, and Piers Lane
Saturday, June 13, 7 p.m. – Harrigan Centennial Hall
Program
Enrique Granados – Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 49
Balourdet String Quartet with Marta Aznavoorian, Piano
Paul Novak – "Impossible Inventions"
Balourdet String Quartet
—Intermission—
César Franck – Violin Sonata in A major
Katerina Chatzinikolau, Violin
Piers Lane, Piano
About the Artists
Violinist Katerina Chatzinikolau has been hailed by the Rheinische Post as a musician of "sparkling vitality and virtuosity". She has made significant strides in her career, including becoming the first-ever female concertmaster in the history of Greece. Since 2023 she is holding the concertmaster position of the Athens State Orchestra. She has held prominent positions as concertmaster of the Duisburger Philharmoniker at Deutsche Oper am Rhein and of the Bergische Symphoniker.
Since January 2025 Katerina is guest professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in the department Musical Studies. Katerina is Youth Ambassador for the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy promoting Greek heritage and culture through music. Her solo debut with conductor Christoph Eschenbach at the International Kalamata Music Days in July 2022 marked a significant milestone.
Katerina is a multiple award-winning artist. She is winner of the first prize of the Golden Classical Music Awards, the eMuse International Music Competition, the Thöne International Competition and a prize winner of the London International Music Competition, the Panhellenic Young Soloists Competition and the Alois Kottmann Prize. Katerina is a tireless explorer with a great desire to offer new artistic approaches. She produces her own music videos that reflect her creativity and remarkable technical skills as virtuoso in original compositions for violin solo. Her videos on Youtube and Instagram reach millions of people worldwide.
In the recent years Katerina has established a rapid career as a soloist. As a soloist she has been invited to perform at prestigious venues the Cologne Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the rbb-Rundfunksaal Berlin, the Royal Theatre of Thessaloniki, the Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Liederhalle Stuttgart and the Ruhrtriennale.
As a chamber musician Katerina played in famous concert halls around the globe such as Beijing Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Lanxess Arena Cologne, the BarclayCard Arena Hamburg, the Allianz Arena Munich & Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, National Theater Kuala Lumpur, Singapore Raffles Center.
She has performed with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bremerhaven Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, Vamos Orchestra, Neues Rheinisches Kammerorchester Köln, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen and Cognimus Kollektiv and the Athens State Orchestra.
In addition, she received numerous scholarships reflecting her dedication and excellence in music from Tarisio Auctions, the Horst and Gretl Will Foundation and the Franz and Christel Kuhlmann Foundation. She has received a scholarship from "Yehudi Menuhin - Live Music Now" and has been awarded the NRW scholarship, the E.ON scholarship fund and a DAAD scholarship.
Katerina began her musical studies in Greece (Goumenissa/Kilkis) and continued her studies at the Pre-College of the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf with Prof. Alexander Kramarov. She is a Master's graduate of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne where she studied "Solo Violin" with Prof. A. Daskalakis as well as Musicology.
She received further musical impulses at international master classes with Leonidas Kavakos, Pavel Vernikov, Andres Cardenes, Mauricio Fuks, Ida Kavafian, Barnabas Kelemen, Mihaela Martin, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Evgueni Sinaiski and Anthony Spiri at the Kronberg Academy and at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, among others.
In the field of historically informed performance practice, she received intense lessons on the baroque violin with baroque violinist Prof. Richard Gwilt and had the opportunity to expand her knowledge in master classes with Sigiswald Kuijken.
As a recording artist she has been broadcasted at German and Dutch TV some of which have been nominated for Cannes International Series Festival. Her performances have been broadcasted on radio and television worldwide, including the Radio France, MDR, ERT, Kol HaMusica, WDR3, KJAG Kansas, KZYK California, KQAC FM, and RTL.
Her variety of sound testifies to an intensive work with historically informed performance practice as well as with contemporary music. The Leverkusen Stadtanzeiger praised her with the words "Pure naturalness, with which she devotes herself equally ingeniously to classical and contemporary music".
A Pianist of exceptionally finished technique and purity of musical Impulse” (Boston Globe), Armenian/American Pianist Marta Aznavoorian is known for her inspiringly spirited playing and vast emotional reach. The multi-Grammy-nominated artist has performed to critical acclaim throughout the world as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She made her professional debut at the age of 13, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, K 491 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the invitation of Sir George Solti. She then went on to engage with orchestras throughout the United States and abroad, including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and many others, including an engagement with the New World Symphony as a result of an invitation from Michael Tilson Thomas, who was also the conductor.
Aznavoorian has many awards and accolades, including First prize in the Stravinsky International Competition and the special prize for best interpretation of the commissioned contemporary work. As a recipient of the Level 1 award in the National Foundation of the Arts talent search, Aznavoorian became a Presidential Scholar and was invited to the White House, where she met former President George H.W. Bush and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. With her expressive energy and originality she brings to new and traditional classical music, Aznavoorian has recorded extensively for Naxos, Warner Classics, and Erato, and has just released her 7th album under the record label, Cedille Records.
Aznavoorian is a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Lincoln Trio, which Fanfare Magazine has labeled as the “hottest Trio in the business”. Aznavoorian also performs extensively with violinist Stefan Milenkovich and her sister, cellist Ani Aznavoorian. The Aznavoorian sister Duo is set to release their debut album in 2022 called “Veiled Mountain: Gems from Armenia” for Cedille Records. A champion and lover of contemporary music, she has recorded music and premieres by the world’s leading composers of our time, including William Bolcom, Osvaldo Golijov, Augusta Read Thomas, Shulamit Ran, Stacy Garrop, Joan Tower, and Jennifer Higdon, among others.
A student of the renowned teacher Menahem Pressler, Aznavoorian received her Bachelor’s Degree and Artist Diploma at Indiana University and her Master’s Degree from New England Conservatory. As a dedicated educator and philanthropist, she gives lessons and masterclasses across the United States and abroad and is on faculty at DePaul University and the Music Institute of Chicago, where she is also an Artist in Residence. Aznavoorian works with many programs to help create training pathways for students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Her new foundation aims to help fund these students and help them achieve their full musical potential. Marta Aznavoorian is a Steinway Artist.
The Balourdet Quartet is acclaimed for their vibrant energy and masterful blend of technical precision and emotional depth that brings a fresh perspective to both beloved classics and modern compositions. Its unique closeness and willingness to take creative risks earned it the 2024Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as Chamber Music America’s 2024Cleveland Quartet Award. With more than 70 concerts per season, recent highlights include the Balourdet’s debuts at Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, and new string quartets by composersKarim Al-Zand,Paul Novak, and Nicky Sohn through grants from Chamber Music America (2021) and theBarlow Foundation (2023). They have recently been named the first ever Quartet-in-Residence at the Seattle Chamber Music Society and have recently completed residencies at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory’s Professional String Quartet Program.
Highlights of the 2025-26 season include performances at Carnegie Hall, the Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian, Boston’s Celebrity Series in Jordan Hall, and Chamber Music Houston. Recently, they have performed at the Kennedy Center, Buffalo Chamber Music, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and La Jolla Music Society and Rockport Music. Collaborations include violinist James Ehnes, pianistsMarc-André Hamelin and Simone Dinnerstein, cellists Zuill Bailey and Astrid Schween, violistJordan Bak, and the Dover, Pacifica, and Ying Quartets. They continue their position as String Quartet in Residence with theChamber Orchestra of the Triangle in North Carolina where they curate the Up Close Chamber Music Series, serve as principals in the orchestra, and engage with the larger community of the Triangle region. Most recently, the Balourdet received the Chamber Music Award from the National Federation of Music Clubs for the 25-26 season and are winners of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s 2025 Innovation Competition for their educational initiative Expedition Strings.
Committed to sharing their musical values with the next generation, the quartet has served regularly as faculty at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, JDR Summer Music Academy, Berkshire Summer Music, and Opus Chamber Music. They have also given masterclasses and coachings at Northwestern University, University of Michigan, Rice University, Emory University, New England Conservatory Preparatory Department, Fischoff Chamber Music Academy, Upper Valley Chamber Music, and Wright State University.
The Balourdet journey began in 2018 in the mountains of New Mexico at the Taos School of Music, where violinists Justin DeFilippis, Angela Bae, and cellist Russell Houston first bonded as friends over long evenings of chamber music, luxurious Peppermint Schnapps and extravagant meals created by chef extraordinaire Antoine Balourdet, a renaissance man with an exceptional love of life and music. It was the friendships, a shared passion for music and food, and gratitude for the role the festival played in the formation of the quartet, that inspired the members to name the ensemble in Chef Balourdet’s honor.
Soon thereafter, in the heat of a waning Texas summer, Justin, Angela, and Russell joined with violist Benjamin Zannoni at Rice University, and the Balourdet Quartet was formed. Inspired by their love for the repertoire and the excitement of having found each other, the four friends found themselves playing quartets late into the night for fun. After having been together for only one year at Rice University, and a summer at the Aspen Music Festival, they took second prize at the Nielsen International String Quartet Competition, and were selected as the only quartet admitted to Boston’s historic New England Conservatory Professional String Quartet Program under the tutelage of Cleveland Quartet cellist Paul Katz.
In 2021, the Quartet won the Grand Prize at New York’s Concert Artists Guild Competition, which included joint management byConcert Artists Guild in the U.S., andYoung Classical Artist’s Trust (YCAT) in the UK and Europe. In addition, the Balourdet has been prizewinners in Canada’s Banff International String Quartet Competition, the International Premio Paolo Borciani Competition in Italy, Gold Medal winners at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and Gold Medal and Audience Prizewinners at the Yellow Springs Competition.
About the Sitka Music Festival The Sitka Music Festival (SMF) inspires audiences, sparks creativity, and strengthens community across Alaska through world-class chamber music performances, education, and artist training. For 55 years, SMF has presented classical music at the highest artistic standards. Festival musicians have traveled to more than 40 Alaskan communities, including remote villages off the road system, sharing music with audiences who might not otherwise experience live chamber music at this level. In turn, visiting artists are enriched by the deep cultural traditions and unique landscapes of Alaska. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, SMF remains committed to bringing exceptional music experiences to communities statewide.