We are glad to present, in our popular online music series, one of the most important Romanian-American collaborative projects, the American Romanian Festival String Quartet (ARF Quartet), made up of four consummate musicians: Sujin Lim - violin, Marian Tănău - violin, Michael Chen - viola, and Jeremy Crosmer - cello. The program features a rarely played piece, “On the River Argeș” by Theodor Grigoriu (1926-2014), an important composer and a musicologist of the second half of the 20th century.
Program:
Theodor Grigoriu: "On the River Argeș"
Ballade: Moderato poco rubato
Dance with flute A la source: Lento soave
The small willow: Allegro molto
Violinist Sujin Lim was born in Seoul, South Korea, where she began her musical studies at age five. She joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as section violinist in 2017. Sujin is a prizewinner in numerous national and international violin competitions, including the Lodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition (Italy), Torun International Violin Competition (Poland), Indianapolis Matinee Musical Scholarship Competition, Indiana University Sibelius Concerto Competition (United States), and the Joongang Music Competition and Ewha Kyunghyang Competition (Korea). Sujin has appeared in recital and as a soloist throughout Korea, Europe, and the United States.
Romanian-born violinist Marian Tănău first picked up the violin at age four and began his musical education in his hometown of Timisoara in Romania and then at the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca. Later in the U.S., he earned a graduate degree from Bowling Green State University. Tănău joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1995. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Romania and the U.S. and is an active chamber musician. In 2004, Tanau joined the violin faculty at Wayne State University. In 2005, he was awarded a sabbatical year and moved temporarily to Romania where he joined the music faculty at the “Ion Vidu” National College of Art, and the Music Conservatory of the West University in Timisoara. His recording of the Violin Sonata by Paul Paray, recorded for Grotto Productions, received praise from critics in the prestigious Strad, Gramophone, and Fanfare Magazines. Marian Tănău is the founder and president of the American Romanian Festival, Inc., a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote American and Romanian music and culture to audiences in the U.S. and Europe.
Michael Chen joined the Viola Section of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2018. He was Associate Principal Viola of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 2012 to 2018 and served as its Acting Principal Violist from 2012 to 2017. He was a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2012, and prior to that, a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 1992 to 1995. Additionally, Michael has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony. In 2017, the violist joined the Cincinnati Symphony on its European Festivals Tour. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University, studying violin with Blair Milton. In 1999 he began playing the viola and studied with Li-kuo Chang. His other teachers include Michael Strauss, Peter Slowik, Keith Conant and Baird Dodge. Michael Chen received a Master’s degree in Conducting at Northwestern University in 1999, studying with Victor Yampolsky and Mariusz Smolij. His other conducting teachers include Gilbert Varga, David Zinman, and Murry Sidlin. He was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen, Colorado in 2008. He has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, guest conductor of the Webster University Community Music School’s Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, and guest conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Side-by-Side Orchestra.
Jeremy Crosmer is a remarkable young artist, both as a cellist and a composer. Crosmer completed multiple graduate degrees from the University of Michigan in cello, composition, and theory pedagogy, and received his DMA in 2012 at age 24. From 2012 to 2017, he served as the Assistant Principal cellist in the Grand Rapids Symphony (GRS), and he joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in May of 2017. He is the composer and arranger for the GRS Music for Health Initiative, which pairs symphonic musicians with music therapists to bring classical music to hospitals. In March of 2017, the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital launched a music channel that runs continuously, using four hours of meditative music composed by Crosmer and performed by musicians of the GRS.