A Vibrant Legacy: Chamber Music of a Lost Generation

Yumi Hwang-Williams, violin

Sheila Reinhold, violin

Catherine Beeson, viola

Chloe Hong, cello

Feiner Family Chapel, Temple Emanuel Denver

51 Grape Street, Denver CO 80220

Admission free, registration required.  Registration will open in March

In observance of Colorado Holocaust Remembrance Week, please join violinists Yumi Hwang-Williams and Sheila Reinhold, violist Catherine Beeson and  and cellist Chloe Hong for a concert in Temple Emanuel Denver’s intimate Feiner Chapel, featuring music by composers who were murdered or who suffered persecution, exile, and tragic loss during the Holocaust. We are fortunate to be able to play these wonderful works, and their beauty and creativity still speak to us today.

This year’s short and varied program will include the witty Five Pieces for String Quartet, by Erwin Schulhoff, whose works were performed throughout Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s before his death in a Nazi labor camp;  the sparkling duo for Violin and Cello by Emile Goué, composed during his years of imprisonment as a French officer in a German prisoner of war camp before he perished shortly after liberation from illness contracted in the abysmal conditions there; and the hauntingly beautiful Quartet #8 by Mieczysław Weinberg, who at age 19 was the only one of his family to survive the Nazi invasion of Warsaw.

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Violinist Yumi Hwang-Williams has served as Concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony since 2000. She made her debut at the age of fifteen as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, six years after emigrating from South Korea, and has appeared as soloist with major orchestras both in the U.S. and abroad, including the Cincinnati Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, Sinfonieorchester Basel (Switzerland), and the Bruckner Orchester Linz (Austria), in addition to frequent performances as soloist with the Colorado Symphony. As a chamber musician, she has performed with Gary Graffman, Ida Kavafian, Jeffrey Kahane, Christopher O'Riley, Jon Kimura Parker, and Andrew Litton, and she is especially committed to the work of current-day composers, Strings magazine calling her “a modern Prometheus” who has “emerged as a fiery champion of contemporary classical music”. She is Adjunct Violin Professor at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music and is actively involved in advancing the arts in the community.

Violinist Sheila Reinhold, curator of this concert, first performed as soloist with orchestra at age nine. At fifteen, she joined Jascha Heifetz’s master class, where she studied for five years. Her career has included chamber music with Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, appearances as soloist with major orchestras, and freelance work from Broadway to movie scores. She has had a lifelong dedication to teaching, serving as adjudicator, guest teacher and chamber music coach at, among others, the Juilliard School, Mannes College, Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music and Columbia University, in addition to her private teaching. She is the founder and Music Director of Intimate Voices, a chamber music series with community outreach in New York City, now in its 17th season. In 2023 she offered an evening course through the University of Denver Enrichment Program on the topic of persecuted composers and the Holocaust,  Banned Music Reborn: The Rediscovery of Two Generations of European Composers. 

Violist Catherine Beeson (she/they) is an active performing violist and seasoned arts management professional. Currently, they serve as Colorado Symphony Assistant Principal Viola with additional roles of Prelude Lecturer and Sensory Friendly/Adult/Student community event curator, adjunct faculty for the Arts and Culture Management program at University of Denver, and Artistic Director of the Loon Lake Live (NY) chamber music series. Beeson served as Executive Director of the Longmont Symphony Orchestra during the 2020-2022 performance seasons and was Director of Community & Education Programs for the Colorado Symphony from 2014 to 2018. Beeson has been a Teaching Artist for the New York Philharmonic, Little Orchestra Society (NY), Friends of Chamber Music (Denver), Englewood Arts (CO), and the Colorado Symphony, and has been adjunct viola faculty at Regis University.  As a performer, they have worked with, among others, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New York City Opera National Company, the Handel-Haydn Society of Austin, the Asian Cultural Council (Tokyo and New York), the Lenape Chamber Ensemble (Philadelphia), Santa Fe Pro Musica, Englewood Arts (CO), Denver Eclectic Concerts, and Ensemble Faucheux (CO). 

Cellist Chloe Hong joined the Colorado Symphony as Assistant Principal in 2019. She began her multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer in her native Southern California at the age of eight and made her solo debut with the South Coast Symphony at the age of eleven. Chloe’s passion for orchestral and chamber music has led her to perform in some of the great halls of the world including Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall, and to study in the Perlman Music Program and the Colburn School’s Ed and Mari Chamber Music Institute. Chloe performed for Juilliard’s Chamberfest and Focus! Festival and was principal of the Juilliard School Orchestra under the batons of Alan Gilbert and John Adams. She served as principal cellist at the Verbier Festival Orchestra for three summers, where she worked with renowned conductors including Sir Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others, and additional festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Chloe received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick.