Horowitz Center Playbills and Programs
From Duo to Quartet: A Symphonic String Journey
Saturday, November 8, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Monteabaro Recital Hall
FEATURING
Yoon Young Bae, violin
Andréa Picard Boecker, violin
Rebecca Henry, viola
Yoon Nah Cho, cello
PROGRAM
| Divertimento in F major, KV 138 | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) |
| I. Allegro | |
| II. Andante | |
| III. Presto | |
| Tango Ballet for String Quartet | Astor Piazzolla (1921-1991) |
| I. Titulos | |
| II. La Calle | |
| III. Encuentro-Olvido | |
| IV. Cabaret | |
| V. Soledad | |
| VI. La calle | |
Intermission
| Danse Macabre, op.40 | Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) (arr. Boutellis/Duval for two violins) |
| String Quartet No.12 in F major, op.96 “American” | Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) |
| I. Allegro ma non troppo | |
| II. Lento | |
| III. Molto vivace | |
| IV. Finale: Vivace, ma non troppo | |
ARTIST BIOS
Violinist Yoon Young Bae enjoys a diverse career as a teacher, active chamber musician and orchestra player. As a dedicated pedagogue, she teaches violin and viola at Peabody Preparatory of Johns Hopkins University where she serves as Associate Chair, and at Howard Community College. She also taught violin performance and pedagogy in the master class at Vina del-Mar Conservatory in Chile and served as a music faculty at Baltimore Music School and Maryland Talent Education Center.
Dr. Bae is currently a concertmaster in Washington Chamber Orchestra and plays with Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. She performed on stages in many places including New York, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Chicago, Canada, Chile, Germany, Holland and Korea. This includes her appearances in concerts halls such as Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vina-del-mar concert Hall, Kumho Art Hall. Her performance with Yuri Smirnov was broadcasted in Canada in 2003. She captured first prizes in Donga competition, Korean Ensemble competition and silver medal in Chosun and Ewha competition during years in Korea.
She received her Doctor of Musical Art and Masters of Music at Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University under Victor Danchenko. She also holds her Bachelor's in Music at Seoul National University.
Originally from Québec, Canada, violinist Andréa Picard Boecker has performed across Europe, Asia and North America as a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Her engaging and dynamic performance style delight audiences and she is heard regularly in chamber music series and festivals as well as faculty concerts. Andréa Picard Boecker is the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra’s Principal Second Violin, and is an active performer in the Baltimore-Washington area.
As a teaching-artist, Andréa Picard Boecker has served on the chamber music faculty of Peabody Institute’s Conservatory and Preparatory Divisions, and also as violin faculty at Towson and Susquehanna Universities. She teaches every summer at the Camp Musical des Laurentides and regularly serves on adjudication panels for young artist competitions. Her extensive teaching experience has led to giving teacher-training sessions and masterclasses in France, Canada, and the U.S., including the national conference of the American String Teacher’s Association. Andréa Picard Boecker co-directed the Young People’s String Program at the Peabody Preparatory for nine years and maintains a vibrant studio of passionate young students at the Peabody Preparatory. She firmly believes in the giving power of music, and is intentional about bringing her performances and those of her students to the broader community by organizing innovative outreach concerts and events.
Andréa Picard Boecker received degrees from the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal and the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where she was awarded the Josef Kaspar Award for Strings. Her primary teachers and influences have included Johanne Arel, Raymond Dessaints, Victor Danchenko and Violaine Melançon.
When she isn’t teaching or performing, Andréa Picard Boecker is wholeheartedly involved in the adventure of family life with her husband and three children.
Rebecca Henry holds the Scott Bendann Chair in Classical Music at The Peabody Institute where she teaches Violin /Viola Pedagogy and minor lessons in the Conservatory, teaches violin and viola and is Assistant Chair of Pedagogy in String Department in the Preparatory, and directs Peabody's Pre-Conservatory Violin Program. She was Assistant Professor of Viola at the Gettysburg College Sunderman Conservatory for eight years, and teaches String Pedagogy at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In the summers she returns to her alma mater, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied viola with Kim Kashkashian, Georges Janzer and Mimi Zweig, to teach at the Retreat for Professional Violinists and Violists and is on the faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute. Ms. Henry has performed in chamber music festivals in Canada, Mexico and throughout the USA, and performs regularly in faculty recitals at Peabody and Howard Community College and plays with the Washington Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Henry has presented master classes and workshops throughout the USA and abroad and is co-founder of www.ViolinPractice.com, which is designed to support students, teachers, and parents in their journey towards effective and creative practice. Her former students are performing and teaching around the world.
Yoon Nah Cho was born in Korea, where she began her musical studies at the age of four. She earned her Master of Music in cello performance under Robert Newkirk from the Catholic University of America and her Bachelor of Music in cello performance under Stephen Kates and Andres Diaz at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She received scholarships from both institutions.
In 2005 and 2006, Ms. Cho performed at Morgan State University as a string quartet member and at Young-San Art Hall and Chung-Ju Culture Center in Korea as a piano trio member. Her passion for chamber music continues, as she has collaborated with various chamber groups and performed chamber concerts and solo recitals in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas since 2007. She has received chamber music coaching from esteemed musicians, including Michael Tree, Marian Hahn, Alan Stephansky, Paul York, Thomas Kraine, David Finckel, Wesley Baldwin, Michael Mermagen, Thomas Mastroianni, Rita Sloan, and Christopher Von Baeyer.
As an orchestral musician, Ms. Cho has performed with the Washington Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. John. She is currently a faculty member at Howard Community College and maintains a thriving private studio. Many of her students have won local, regional, and national competitions and have gone on to study at prestigious conservatories and music schools across the country.
Beyond her musical career, Ms. Cho enjoys volunteering at the Hatton Animal Rescue Foundation, where she dedicates her time to caring for and supporting rescued animals.
PROGRAM NOTES
Divertimento in F major, K. 138 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart composed his Divertimento in F major, K.138 in Salzburg in early 1772, at the age of sixteen. It is one of a set of three divertimenti (K.136–138) written after his return from his Italian tours, where he absorbed the graceful Italian orchestral style. Although titled “Divertimento” — a term often associated with light entertainment music — the work’s craftsmanship and structure reveal Mozart’s early experiments in string quartet and symphonic writing. The opening Allegro is bright and spirited, featuring elegant exchanges between the two violins and clear, balanced phrasing typical of Mozart’s youthful style. The Andante offers a lyrical contrast, unfolding a tender, song-like melody that highlights Mozart’s gift for melodic simplicity and balance. The final Presto closes the work with vitality and charm, its brisk tempo and buoyant rhythms making it a delightful example of early Classical energy. (Martin Pearlman)
Tango Ballet for String Quartet - Astor Piazzolla
Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Ballet was composed in 1956, originally for his ensemble Octeto Buenos Aires and later adapted for string quartet. The suite is programmatic, consisting of seven interconnected movements — Tempo di Tango, La Calle (The Street), Encuentro (The Encounter), Olvido (Oblivion), Cabaret, Soledad (Solitude), and Allegro. Each movement portrays a different emotional or narrative scene from the world of Buenos Aires tango. La Calle evokes the restless rhythm of city streets, while Encuentro and Olvido explore the romantic and nostalgic dimensions of tango. In Cabaret and Soledad, Piazzolla fuses the dramatic flair of dance with the expressive depth of chamber music, blending tango’s sensual pulse with classical sophistication. The final Allegro brings the suite to a dazzling, rhythmically charged conclusion. Through this work, Piazzolla redefined tango as an art form — not just dance music, but a serious and expressive medium within the concert hall, embodying his vision of “Nuevo Tango.”(Kai Christiansen)
Danse Macabre - Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns composed Danse Macabre in 1874, originally as a symphonic poem based on an old French legend in which Death appears at midnight on Halloween, summoning the dead to dance until dawn. The violin represents Death’s fiddle, tuning its string to a dissonant tritone — the so-called “devil’s interval.” The piece is filled with ghostly waltz rhythms, rattling bones in the xylophone, and eerie harmonic twists that capture the macabre humor of Saint-Saëns’ imagination. The two-violin arrangement by Boutellis and Duval preserves the virtuosity and intensity of the original orchestral version, distilling its sinister energy into an intimate dialogue between the two instruments. The result is both playful and chilling, a showpiece of French Romantic wit and imagination. ( Philharmonia Orchestra archives)
String Quartet No.12 in F major - Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvořák composed his String Quartet No.12 in F major, known as the “American Quartet,” during the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa, while serving as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Surrounded by the natural beauty and Czech immigrant community of Spillville, Dvořák wrote this quartet in just over two weeks. It reflects both his homesickness for Bohemia and his fascination with the new sounds of America — particularly the pentatonic melodies and syncopated rhythms that reminded him of African-American spirituals and Native American music. The first movement (Allegro ma non troppo) opens with a warm viola theme that blossoms into a joyful conversation among all four instruments. The Lento is soulful and hymn-like, with long melodic lines evoking deep reflection. The Molto vivace functions as a rustic scherzo, full of rhythmic bounce and even bird-song that Dvořák reportedly heard in the fields near Spillville. The Finale: Vivace, ma non troppo brings the quartet to a buoyant and optimistic close, combining folk-like vitality with Classical clarity. The “American” Quartet remains one of Dvořák’s most beloved and accessible chamber works, bridging the Old and New Worlds through melody and heart. (Boise Philharmonic)
HCC CONCERT SERIES
Hsien-Ann Meng, Director, HCC Concert Series
Bill Gillett, Chair, Performing Arts
HOROWITZ CENTER STAFF
Janelle Broderick - Director
Jessica Chaney - Content Coordinator
A. Lorraine Robinson - Production Manager
John Elder - Technical Director
Darius McKeiver - Business Associate
Linwood Milan – Technical Coordinator
Eric Moore - Production Electrician
Mark Smedley - Associate Technical Director
Julie Via - Audience Services Manager
Bill Watson – Gallery Manager and Curator
SPECIAL THANKS
This performance is made possible through generous support from the Galbraith-Winer Family Trust Fund and the Maryland State Arts Council.
