Summer Stars: Solisti Ensemble: ‘Summer Serenade’
Summer Stars at The Great Auditorium
presents
Solisti Ensemble
Thursday, July 16, 2026
in the Great Auditorium
PROGRAM
Gustav Holst
Moorside Suite
III. March: Allegro
Felix Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto in D Minor
III. Allegro
Byung K. Kwak, violin
Christopher Tin
“Flocks a Mile Wide” (from The Lost Birds)
George Frideric Handel
Organ Concerto in B-flat Major, Op. 4, No. 2, HWV 290
I. A tempo ordinario, e staccato
II. Allegro
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro ma non presto
Gordon Turk, Organ
Astor Piazzolla
Verano Porteño (Summer)
Christine Kwak, Violin
……………….. INTERMISSION………………..
Antonín Dvořák
String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 “American”
IV. Finale: Vivace ma non troppo
Tomaso Albinoni/Remo Giazatto
Adagio in G Minor
Gordon Turk, Organ
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Andante
from Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K.467
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70
IV. Allegro con brio e vivace
Solisti Ensemble
Byung-Kook Kwak, Founder and Artistic Director
Violin I
Byung-Kook Kwak
Christine Kwak
Yosub Kim
Violin II
Carlos Rafael Martinez Arroyo
Yeji Pyun
Maïthéna Gerault
Viola
Chieh-Fan Yiu
Olivia Martinez
Cello
Valeriya Sholokhova
Clara Cho
Bass
Bennett Norris
Founded in 2008, Solisti Ensemble is a conductorless string ensemble which seeks to revive the traditions of small-ensemble chamber music while pursuing the rich and vibrant sounds of contemporary, pop, tango, and jazz music. The unique size of the ensemble and each member’s individual virtuosity and musicality create an extraordinary sound that is quite unlike the conventional classical music culture known today.
In hopes of making a meaningful musical contribution to its community, Solisti Ensemble envisions the enthusiastic revival of classical music in a way that is both culturally relevant and nostalgically reminiscent of an oft forgotten period of the art.
Solisti Ensemble promises to bring a most fulfilling and fascinating musical experience to audiences everywhere.
Byung-Kook Kwak
Described by Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times as “… a distinguished artist, the violinist Byung Kook Kwak, brought warm, penetrating sound and tasteful expressivity to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor.”
Acclaimed as one of the finest violinists of his generation, Byung-Kook Kwak enjoys a multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. From coast to coast, critics have hailed him as a premier violinist whose musical gifts and technical wizardry are powerful and sensitive.
Mr. Kwak has performed with orchestras throughout North America, Europe, Scandinavia, and his native South Korea. In the New York metropolitan area, he has appeared as a soloist in Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, as well as most of the prestigious halls in Germany, Finland, and South Korea.
Finalist and prizewinner of many international competitions, he was featured on PBS Live from Lincoln Center as a member of the renowned Sea Cliff Chamber Players. He has taught at Lehman College, Music Conservatory of Westchester, and Mannes College for 10 years as an assistant to Aaron Rosand. He is currently a faculty member at Manhattan School of Music, Pre-College, Queens College, and Nyack College. In addition, he also performs and gives master classes regularly in Seoul, Korea.
Mr. Kwak has occupied himself with a busy conducting schedule as well. He has been the conductor of the Summit Music Festival Orchestra for five years, has conducted the Queens Symphony Orchestra, and the Manhattan School of Music Summer Festival Orchestra from 1999 to 2006. He has been engaged as a guest conductor with the Long Beach Symphony, South Shore Symphony, Yonkers Philharmonic, State Repertory Opera, and the Queens Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Orchestra of the Westchester Conservatory of Music.
As a founder and artistic director of Solisti Ensemble, he has performed with the Ensemble in Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and many other venues in the New York Metropolitan area. He has also been active as a choral conductor for over thirty-five years, and has led countless performances of Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, as well as many of the major choral works with Central Presbyterian Church Choir where he serves as a music director.
Born in Seoul, Korea, Mr. Kwak was hailed as a child prodigy. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 7 with the Seoul Philharmonic. After earning much accolade and winning prestigious competitions in his native country, Mr. Kwak came to the U.S. and, at age 12, became one of Jascha Heifetz’s youngest students. He earned both his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay.
Christine Kwak
Praised as an “extraordinary talent who will become one of the best of the next generation” by the legendary Dorothy DeLay, violinist Christine Kwak has captivated audiences worldwide with her artistry, virtuosity, and remarkable career from an early age. By the age of eleven, she had already debuted at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall, and recorded Paganini’s complete 24 Caprices on a half-size violin—hailed by DeLay as “one of the best caprices I’ve ever heard.”
Born in New York City, Christine began piano at three and violin at four, quickly earning national attention on CNN’s About Child Prodigies at age five, featuring her own compositions on both instruments. At six, she made her orchestral debut with the Queens Chamber Symphony performing Kabalevsky’s violin concerto, and at nine, she performed Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, after which the New York Times raved about the performance and wrote “at the tender age of nine, Christine is a complete violinist who would make any violinist envious.” At eleven, she appeared at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra. She later returned to Carnegie Hall in 2007 with Marvin Hamlisch in a work arranged exclusively for her. She has appeared on the front pages of The New York Times, Daily News, and Newsday, and was featured on the Sally Jessy Raphael show, as well as on NBC News and Fox Channel 5. Christine also performed for First Lady Hillary Clinton in a visit to NY, which was aired on national television.
Since then, Kwak has made appearances as soloist with orchestras across North America and in Asia. She has also appeared in summer festivals including Caramoor and Sea Cliff.
She received her earliest and most formative training from her father, violinist Byung-Kook Kwak, whose guidance and mentorship laid the foundation for her technical and artistic development and has influenced and shaped her playing throughout her career.
Kwak holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University and an M.M. from The Juilliard School, where she studied with the late Dr. Stephen Clapp. She has also been a pupil of the late Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. She has served as Visiting Lecturer in Music at Cornell University from 2011–2014 and continues to be active as a performer and teacher.
