Sitka Music Festival: 55th Summer Music Festival Subscription Concert 4
Passionate Threads – Granados Quintet, Novak's Impossible Inventions, Franck Sonata
Balourdet String Quartet, Alfredo Oyaguez, 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 Alfredo Oyaguez, 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".
Alfredo Oyaguez is a graduate of Yale University, where he earned a Master of Music degree. He has also completed Master of Music degrees in Conducting with Professor Heiichiro Ohyama and Piano Performance with Professor Paul Berkowitz at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He was the associate Conductor and General Manager of the UCSB Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater and a Lecturer for the Conducting Department at the UCSB Department of Music. A native of Spain, he graduated from the Madrid Royal Conservatory with a “High Degree in Music” and the “Piano Professor Diploma” where he studied with Professors Almudena Cano, Consuelo Mejias and Josep Colom. He spent three years in Poland and the Czech Republic pursuing postgraduate studies at the “Frederic Chopin Music Academy” (Warsaw University) and the “Prague Fine arts Academy” with pianists Andrej Stefansky, Ivan Moravec and Boris Krainj. At Yale he studied Piano with Professor Boris Berman.
A member of the Spanish Youth National Orchestra for four years, he performed as a soloist under English conductor Charles Peebles, and appeared with the Malaga City Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Odon Alonso, the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival Orchestra under conductor Edwin Outwater, the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony as a pianist-conductor, The “New Britain” Symphony under Maestro Jesse Levine, Mikkeli Chamber Orchestra in Finland under Maestro Andres Mustonen and the Balearic Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Luis Remartinez and maestro Mathias Aeschbacher.
A member of the Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM) at the University of California, Santa Barbara for five years as a pianist and conductor, he also produced the festival “El Sonido Real” at UCSB featuring the music of contemporary Spanish composers and the prominent Catalonian composer Joan Guinjoan and the Festival dedicated to the “Esbjerg Ensemble” (Denmark) and the Contemporary Danish Composers.
Professional positions have included: Accompanying pianist at the Madrid State Conservatory, Associate Pianist for the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, and Production Manager of the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. First Prize Winner in the 1996 Santa Barbara Performing Arts Foundation Competition, he is the recipient of several grants from the Esperia Foundation for “El Sonido Real” Music Festival and the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony.
He has performed extensively in Europe (Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Check Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Bulgary, Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Greece….), Asia (Omán, Emiratos Árabes, Qatar, Dubái, India, Sri Lanka, Tailandia, Malasia, Brunei, Singapur, Taiwan, Japan …) The whole Caribbean , South America and the United States as a soloist, recitalist, Chamber music pianist and Vocal accompanist recording for the Spanish National Radio, Radio France, Polish Radio and Television, KDB, Santa Barbara, California and The Danish National Radio P2. Master Classes attended include among others Bartok Quartet, Oslo Trio, Muir Quartet, Tokyo Quartet, and the Julliard Quartet.
A regular Jury member of the “Amadeo International Piano Competition” in Aachen and the Geilenkirchen “Euroregio Piano Award” both in Germany , Las Rozas/Madrid International Piano Competition “Compositores de España”, professional engagements have taken him to Spain to perform a series of concerts dedicated to the complete works for Piano by Spanish Composer Oscar Espla and teach Piano and Chamber Music Master classes and Seminars about the Classical Period Performing Practice in American Universities (Yale University, San Francisco Conservatory, University of California-Sacramento, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of Montana-Missoula), Asian Universities (National Taiwan Normal University, Soo Chow University, National Sun Yat Sen University, Taipei Music Society) and Copenhagen University. He was the Artistic Director of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony and a Faculty member of the “Adriatic Chamber Music Festival” (Bonefro-Termoli, Italy) for ten years.
Alfredo Oyaguez collaborates with artists such as violists Jesse Levine, Mikhail Zemtsov, Alexander Zemtsov, Massimo Paris, Alejandro Garrido, Fernando Villegas y Peter Barsony, Clarinet players like Wolfgang Meyer, violinists Agustín León Ara, Jaap Schroeder, Chee Yun Kim, Ervis Gega, Friedman Eichorn, Andrés Mustonen, Aarón Berofsky, Susan Waterbury, Boris Garlitsky, Ezther Halffner, Wolfgang Schroeder y Byron Wallis, cellists Asier Polo, Ramón Jaffe, Zuill Bailey, Peter Hoerr, Andrew Smith, Amit Peled, Alexander Hulshoff, y Andrew Luchansky, saxophon players Rodrigo Pérez Vila, Emiliano Barri y Cesar López, pianists Leonel Morales, Josep Maria Colom y Andreas Frölich, percusionist Armando Llorente, organist Olivier Latry, String Quartets like “Parkanyi” (Holanda) y “Delian”(Alemania), “String Trio Kosova”, Rejkjavik Chamber Orchestra (Iceland), “Villa Musica” in Germany, the “Ensemble Contemporánea” in Copenhaguen andthel” Esbjerg Ensemble” in Denmark among others.
He is on the Faculty of the Palma de Mallorca Conservatory in the Balearic Islands and he serves as the Artistic director of the Deia International Music Festival and the Palau March Chamber series and the Director and Founding member of the Camerata Deia. He serves as a professor at the Folkwang Universitat der Kunste in Essen, Germany and the “International Music Seminars “Musica en Compostela”.
He is a fellow of Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, JONDE, Fundación Loewe, Comunidad de Madrid, Música en Compostela, Fundación “La Caixa” and the “Comité Conjunto Hispano-Norteamericano”.
He has performed in such venues as:Aarhus Opera Theater (Denmark), Danish Radio Orchestra Music Hall in Copenhague, Albanian National Opera Theater in Tirana, New Milenium Series (Sacramento, California, USA), Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs (California), Promenade Center in Singapur, Hapag-Lloyd MS Europa y Europa 2 and the Ciclo de Cámara del Palau de la Música de Valencia with the Camerata Deià in a concert dedicated to Mozart in his 250th birth anniversary. He has been featured in numerous festivals such as Festival Euriade, Amadeo and Nordhorn (Germany), Katrineholm and Malmoe (Sweden), Festival “Con Anima” in Viena yand Hopfgarten (Austria), Cortenova-Lago de Como, Festival Adriático de Música de Cámara and Monteroni Dárbia (Italy), Instituto Cervantes de Paris (France), Belgrade and Nis (Serbia), Varde, Esbjerg, Fanoe and Garnisons in Copenhague (Dinamarca), Skopje (Macedonia), Pristina (Kosovo)…etc,
He is currently the head of the Conducting program and the Orchestra Program at The “Conservatorio Superior de Las Islas Baleares” conducting regularly both the Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra.
In the next couple of years three new recordings will be released featuring his collaborations with american Cellist Andrew Smith on a CD dedicated to the Music of Spanish Composers to be released by DELOS label, with the Russian violist Mikhail Zemtsov on a registration dedicated to the Works of Shostakovich, Britten and Dowland and The Tango Ensemble from Argentina “La Cuarentena”
Upcoming engagements include his return to the USA on a seven concerts tour from coast to coast, European engagemnets, a Concerts tour in New Zealand and a two month tour of Concerts in Africa.
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 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland 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 composers Karim Al-Zand, Paul Novak, and Nicky Sohn through grants from Chamber Music America (2021) and the Barlow 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, pianists Marc-André Hamelin and Simone Dinnerstein, cellists Zuill Bailey and Astrid Schween, violist Jordan Bak, and the Dover, Pacifica, and Ying Quartets. They continue their position as String Quartet in Residence with the Chamber 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 by Concert Artists Guild in the U.S., and Young 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.