Beaches Fine Arts Series continues to celebrate its 50th anniversary season with the newly formed ESPRESSIVO! Piano Quartet giving its inaugural concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, at St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, 465 11th Ave. N., Jacksonville Beach.
The concert is free. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and seating is first come, first served. A reception follows with an art exhibit by Elena Øhlander.
Three of the members of ESPRESSIVO! are familiar to local audiences. Jaime Laredo, violin, and Sharon Robinson, cello, have appeared in the Beaches Fine Arts Series three times in its history as the Kalichstein Laredo Robinson Trio.
When pianist Joseph Kalichstein died in March 2022 they decided to dedicate their season of music to his memory. Recently, they joined with Anna Polonsky on piano and Milena Pajaro-von de Stadt on viola to form the new quartet.
Milena Pajaro-von de Stadt has appeared twice in the series as a member of the Dover Quartet.
The quartet will perform works by Mozart and Brahms.
Meet the performers
Pianist Anna Polonsky is widely in demand as a soloist and chamber musician.
She has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Major projects include participating in the European Broadcasting Union's recording of all Mozart's keyboard sonatas, and a solo recital at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium inaugurating the Emerson Quartet’s Perspectives Series.
At the age of 7, she made her solo piano debut at the Special Central Music School in Moscow. She emigrated to the United States in 1990. She earned her master's degree from the Juilliard School.
For over six decades, Jaime Laredo has excelled in the roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist, pedagogue and chamber musician. Since his orchestral debut at the age of 11 with the San Francisco Symphony, he has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics and fellow musicians with passionate and polished performances.
Laredo has recorded nearly 100 discs, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Brahms Piano Quartets with Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma.
Laredo’s stewardship of the New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis are educational pillars of the musical community.
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt has established herself as one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. She has performed as orchestra soloist, 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.
She was the founding violist of the Dover Quartet and played in the group from 2008 to 2022. At that time, the Dover Quartet was the winner of multiple awards at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition and 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
Cellist Sharon Robinson is recognized worldwide as a consummate artist and one of the most outstanding musicians of our time.
She divides her time between teaching and performing. She serves as co-artistic director to several prestigious chamber series across the United States and established the Cleveland Chapter of Music for Food.
Highly sought after for her dynamic master classes, she brings insight to her teaching from the combination of her lifetime experiences as a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Duke University's Ciompi String Quartet and the Kalichstein‐Laredo‐Robinson Trio, plus countless solo performances.
Elena Øhlander of Jacksonville is a visual artist and muralist. She earned her BFA in photography from The Art Institute of Jacksonville in 2014 and is pursuing her MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Florida.
For information about Beaches Fine Arts concerts, go to beachesfinearts.org.
For information about ESPRESSIVO!, go to espressivoquartet.com.
