May 10, 2025
Unexpected Sources
CMSFW Ensemble
Alexandre Moutouzkine, piano; Daniel Uglunts, baritone; Gary Levinson and Chloé Kiffer, violins; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Bion Tsang, cello
Program includes:
Reinhold Glière: Duos for Violin and Cello, Op. 39
Clara Schumann (née Wieck): Piano Trio in G minor, Op.17
Samuel Barber: Dover Beach for Voice and String Quartet, Op. 3
Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44
Husband and wife team Alexandre Moutouzkine (piano) and Chloé Kiffer (violin) join Gary Levinson and friends for works of Glière, Clara Schumann, Barber, with a finale of Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet.
The Artists
Piano
Alexandre Moutouzkine
Russian-American pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine has toured as a soloist with over 60 orchestras across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Alexandre has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center in the U.S., as well as many of the great halls in music capitals of the world. Currently co-head of the piano department at Manhattan School of Music, Alexandre is a much sought-after teacher and guest artist at music festivals which include the Beijing International Piano Festival, the Paris International Music Academy, Music Fest Perugia, Forum Musicae in Madrid, and the International Piano Festival Genève Musicale.
Baritone
Daniel Uglunts
Rising American baritone Daniel Uglunts made his professional debut at age twelve with The Dallas Opera in the chorus of Puccini’s Tosca, subsequently covering Miles in Britten’s Turn of the Screw. Past operatic roles include The Policeman in Christopher Cerrone’s In a Grove, Second Priest and Second Armored Man (cover) in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, The Loudspeaker in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser Von Atlantis, and Guglielmo (cover) in Così Fan Tutte, all with the Northwestern Opera Theater. Uglunts has also performed Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Enrico in Haydn’s L’isola Disabitata, and Bruschino in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino, all with Northwestern’s Opera Projects for Undergraduate Singers (OPUS).
Additional performed roles include Guglielmo in Così Fan Tutte with Berlin Opera Academy and Opéra de Trois Rivières, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Miami Music Festival, Falke in Die Fledermaus with Northwestern’s Vocal Intensive Seminar, and Publio in La Clemenza di Tito. An avid concert recitalist, Uglunts has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth (CMSFW2), the Bienen Contemporary Music Ensemble, as well as a guest artist on various degree recitals at Northwestern. Upcoming engagements include a performance of Barber’s Dover Beach with the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, as well as singing in the chorus of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Dallas, Texas to a Georgian pianist and Russian violinist, Uglunts began his vocal studies at age eleven. Current and past teachers include Pamela Hinchman, Dolora Zajick, and Nancy Gustafson. Uglunts is currently a third-year undergraduate completing a Dual Degree at Northwestern University in Classical Voice/Opera Performance (Bienen School of Music) and Political Science/Data Science (Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences). He is fluent in English, Russian and Chinese.
Violin
Gary Levinson
Gary Levinson is the Senior Principal Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth. Known for his Bel Canto playing style and adroit technique, Mr. Levinson made his New York Philharmonic solo debut in 1991, under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf, coinciding with the completion of his Master’s of Music degree at the Juilliard School, where his teachers included Dorothy DeLay, Glenn Dicterow and Felix Galimir.
Violin
Chloé Kiffer
Franco-American violinist Chloé Kiffer has received enthusiastic praise by The New York Times for her “pure and beautiful tone” and The Greenwich Sentinel for being “…a star in every sense: performance, exquisite technique and beauty”. Performing solo and orchestra engagements across Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, and Asia, Kiffer has appeared at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Beethoven Hall in Bonn, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Hall, Tel Aviv Opera, and Beijing National Center. In October 2015, Kiffer made her Carnegie Hall debut performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in Stern Auditorium. Kiffer has collaborated alongside Philippe Muller, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Timothy Eddy, the Emerson String Quartet, and pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine.
Viola
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt
Praised by Strad magazine as having “lyricism that stood out…a silky tone and beautiful, supple lines,” Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt has established herself as one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. In addition to appearances as soloist with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, theTokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, and Symphony in C, she has performed in recitals and chamber-music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, which was described in Strad as being “fleet and energetic…powerful and focused.”
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt’s Website
Photo by Roy Cox
Cello
Bion Tsang
Cellist Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition. Mr. Tsang earned a Grammy nomination for his performance on the PBS special A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert (Harmonia Mundi).
Photo by Scott Newton
