Romantic Piano Quartets | Chamber Music on the Fox

Featuring Chamber Music on the Fox Chamber Players

If you’re looking for musical romance, look no further than this program featuring the CMOTF Chamber Players! Performing the fiery, lush Piano Quartet in G minor by Johannes Brahms, the program also features an early work of the budding young musical genius, Richard Strauss. His Piano Quartet in C minor was influenced greatly by the music of Brahms, so much so that Strauss himself referred to it as his Brahmsschwärmerei (“infatuation with Brahms”) period!

Program

Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13 …… Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949)

I. Allegro
II. Scherzo: Presto
III. Andante
IV. Finale: Vivace

– INTERMISSION–

Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor…… Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)

I. Allegro
II. Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo — Trio: Animato
III. Andante con moto
IV. Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto

Chamber Music on the Fox Chamber Players

Christina Buciu – violin
Dominic Johnson – viola
Sara Sitzer – cello
Liang-yu Wang – piano

Artist Biographies

(click each title below to read)

Cristina Buciu

Cristina Buciu is a native of Bucharest, Romania and comes from a family of well-known musicians. She has soloed extensively with several orchestras in Romania and the U.S., including the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, the Concerto Chamber Orchestra on its European tour, and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. She was twice the winner of the National String Competition in Romania and the International Violin Competition in Stresa, Italy. Cristina lives in Chicago and plays with the Elgin Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, and is a frequent substitute with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra & the Lyric Opera of Chicago..

Dominic Johnson

Dominic Johnson has called Chicago home for over 20 years, and hails originally from the Pacific Northwest. In the 90’s he played viola in an indie-rock band based in Chicago and Louisville called rachel’s, and subsequently felt the Windy City’s magnetic pull draw him into its heady artistic orbit. Career highlights have included co-founding and executive directing the New Millennium Orchestra from 2005-15, performing his silent film score Beats, the Bauhaus, and the Birth of Abstract Film at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in 2016, and spending three seasons in the music department at Comedy Central’s Emmy-nominated TV show Drunk History.

Freelance engagements of note have included performing with Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Renée Fleming, Father John Misty, Lupe Fiasco, and a tag team DJ set at the Kennedy Center with Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates. 2023 featured a few stints as a viola section member of the Chicago Philharmonic, an evening with local jazz heroes Greg Ward, Makaya McCraven, Bill MacKay, and Christian Dillingham at Elastic Arts, a performance of Max Grafe’s piano quintet with David Gresham, MingHuan Xu, Nick Photinos, and Winston Choi at RED NOTE New Music Festival, and a mini world tour/weekend covering Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota with indie rocker Jason Narducy. Other relatively recent superlative musical activities have included membership in the University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble for the 2021-22 season and creating arrangements, music directing, and performing for Sudan Archives’ 2020 NPR Tiny Desk concert.

Sara Sitzer

Sara Sitzer, whose playing has been described as “rich” and “lustrous” by the Chicago Classical Review, leads a varied life as an orchestral, chamber, and solo cellist, as well as entrepreneur, administrator, and music writer. She has performed recitals all over the world, from Frank Gehry’s New World Center in Miami Beach to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her performing career has taken her to Israel, Japan, England, Australia, as well as throughout the United States

Ms. Sitzer’s dedication to connecting with communities through live chamber music performance led her to found both the Gesher Music Festival in St. Louis, Missouri (2011), as well as Chamber Music on the Fox in Elgin, Illinois (2014). She presently serves as founding Artistic Director for both organizations and performs as an artist on both. As a writer, she has been published in the St. Louis Beacon and NewMusicBox (the blog of New Music USA).

Ms. Sitzer is a member of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Opera Theater, among other ensembles. Ms. Sitzer has had the opportunity to perform alongside the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in Sydney, Australia. Additionally, she travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia each summer to perform and to serve as cello and chamber music faculty at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival. Other festivals she has attended include Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival.

A champion of chamber music and new music in Chicago, Ms. Sitzer is a former member of Chicago Q Ensemble, with whom she recorded two albums, gave a TEDx presentation, and was presented by organizations including the Chicago Loop Alliance, Frequency Series, (Un)Familiar Music Series, Chicago Home Theater Festival, City of Chicago, and American Music Project.

Ms. Sitzer holds a Master of Music Degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she attended on a Collins Fellowship. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University as a Trustee Scholar. She also completed a 3-year fellowship with the New World Symphony in Miami under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

Liang-yu Wang

Praised by The Herald Times as a pianist who “strokes and strikes the keyboard pristinely and with elegance” Taiwanese Liang-yu Wang has performed in major concert halls across four continents as well as several unconventional performance venues such as the Woodbourne Correctional Facility, NY. In the summer of 2016, Ms. Wang was featured as an artist in residence at Cité internationale des Arts in Paris, France.

Now based in the United States, Ms. Wang is an enthusiastic chamber musician. She has been featured as guest artist with notable chamber music organizations, including The First Song Series at the Morgan Library & Museum, Lev Aronson Legacy Festival, Sonoran Chamber Music Series, Red Rocks Music Festival, Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival, Burlington Lunchtime Chamber Music Series, Resonant Bodies Festival at Banff Centre, and Downtown Chamber Series. Other festival appearances include Music Academy of the West, Banff Arts Centre, Schlern International Music Festival, and Académie Musicale Internationale “Barbara Krakauer”.

In addition to her expertise in classical chamber music repertoire, Ms. Wang is also an enthusiastic advocate of music by living composers. She has premiered several new music works for both piano solo and chamber music, and has been featured frequently on WIU New Music Festival. In 2015, the celebrated Belgian composer Frank Nuyts wrote his 19th piano sonata for her. Ms. Wang gave its world premiere in Paris in summer 2016, and recently recorded it for the Belgian label “HardScore.”

After serving as Visiting Assistant Professor (Collaborative Piano/String) at the Indiana University-Bloomington, and previously on faculty at Western Illinois University School of Music where she has served as both the artistic coordinator and the featured artist of the WIU Beethoven Festival performing Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano as well as his complete sonatas for violin and piano, Ms. Wang currently serves as the Collaborative Pianist at the Northwestern University Bienen Scchool of Music. She also serves as a collaborative pianist at the prestige summer program, Meadowmount School of Music.

Ms. Wang holds a Diploma in Piano Performance from Indiana University-Bloomington, and received her M.M. and D.M.A. in Collaborative Piano from the Arizona State University. She was on staff with the Eastern Music Festival and the Banff Arts Centre in the past summers and was a recipient of the Collaborative Piano Fellowship from the Bard Conservatory of Music, where she worked closely with renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw, the artistic director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard.