- (718) 261-2900
With our own Ari Evan and his lineup of internationally recognized musicians, we are delighted to present the series in our sanctuary with its outstanding acoustics.
The repertoire of each concert features an acclaimed work by a Jewish composer.
Join us for three Sundays at 2:00 pm.
Members $18; $50 for subscription to all three concerts
Non-members $25; $65 for subscription to all three concerts
$36 at the door
Free for students with ID and those under 18
Or mail your check to RTFH, 71-11 112 Street, Forest Hills, NY 11375
Mozart’s String Trio in E-flat is one of the most celebrated gems of the Classical chamber music canon. Written toward the end of his life, the Divertimento shows Mozart at the height of his compositional prowess. It is full of his trademark joy and wit, though also quite profound in its slower movements. Skipping over the 1800s entirely, the twentieth-century works on this program represent two strikingly different reactions composers had to the bygone Romantic era. The Gideon Klein string trio feels “hyper-romantic,” as he takes romantic voice leading and harmonies a step further, creating exceptionally passionate melodies and pained dissonances that pull at the listener with each note. Schoenberg, by contrast, rejects tonality, separating himself from traditional harmony and using large leaps, dissonances, and rhythmic textures to explore enticing, unusual sound worlds.
Gideon Klein: String Trio (1944) [7′]
II. Lento: Variations on the Moravian Folk Song, The Knezdub Tower
Arnold Schoenberg: String Trio, Op. 45 (1946) [19′]
-Part 1
-Episode 1
-Part 2
-Episode 2
-Part 3
~Brief intermission~
Mozart: Divertimento for String Trio, in E-flat major, K. 563 [39′]
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
IV. Andante: Theme and Variations
V. Menuetto (Allegretto)
Vi. Allegro
Violinist Abi Fayette is the youngest of four children in a musical family. Her violin studies began at age three with her mother and continued on to The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division studying with Ms. Shirley Givens. Other principal teachers include Ann Setzer, Kyung-Wha Chung, and Joseph Silverstein. Fayette received her bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute of Music studying with Ida Kavafian and masters degree from New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Soovin Kim. During the 2019-20 season, Fayette was in residence at the Curtis Institute of Music as a Community Artist fellow where she worked alongside teachers within the Philadelphia School District to create and expand music education programs. She is a member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Fayette’s passionate love for chamber music has led to performances with Jonathan Biss, Brett Dean, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Ida Kavafian, Joseph Silverstein, Steven Tenenbom, Jörg Widmann, and Peter Wiley. During her time at New England Conservatory, she performed alongside the Borromeo String Quartet as a recipient of their Guest Artist Award. She has performed at numerous festivals such as Kneisel Hall, Music from Angel Fire, The Taos School of Music, and Marlboro Music Festival.
As an active touring musician, Fayette’s performances have taken her all over the world with appearances spanning across the United States, Europe, and Asia. During her time at Curtis, she participated in the school’s Global Touring Initiative as a soloist with The Curtis Chamber Orchestra and as a chamber musician playing alongside her former teacher, Ida Kavafian. She will also appear on future Musicians of Marlboro tours. In addition to performing as a soloist and chamber musician, Abi Fayette has served as concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and the New York String Orchestra Seminar.
Laura Liu, a native of Miami, Florida known for “sound deep, warm, and consistently musical” lives in New York City and studies with Cynthia Phelps and Misha Amory at The Juilliard School (Classical Voice America). In the summer of 2026, Liu appeared as an artist at Marlboro Music Festival, Moritzburg Festival, Tippet Rise Art Center, Sunkiss’d Mozart Summerfest, Cultural Caravan’s June Festival, and Rome Chamber Music Festival. Her summer performance of Mozart’s G-minor Piano Quartet alongside Mitsuko Uchida, Stephanie Zyzak, and Elena Ariza was described by the New York Times as “unerringly natural.”
Highlights from past seasons include performing with her quartet, Quatuor Cael as a member of Juilliard Honors Chamber Music program, collaborating alongside Frisson Ensemble, appearing at Santa Fe ProMusica, and making her Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center debut in both their “Meet the Music!” and “Inside Chamber Music” series. This coming season she will reappear at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for their Sonic Spectrum series, appear at Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Program, and return to IMS Prussia Cove to participate in their Open Chamber Music.
Her accolades as a solo artist include the Edwin Caplin Foundation Award from the 2024 Verbier Festival Academy and Honorary Mention and the Pirastro Prize for outstanding young talent at the 2022 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition. In 2026 fall, Liu will continue pursuing her Artist Diploma at Juilliard, where she recently earned both her Bachelor and Master of Music as a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.
Praised for his “evocative, impassioned” playing and “remarkable security,” (New York Concert Review, Shostakovich Concerto No. 1) cellist Ari Evan’s performing career spans through North America and Europe. He has soloed with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Vienna Concert Orchestra, Greenwich Village Orchestra, and Pegasus: The Orchestra, and Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. From 2020-2023 he lived in Belgium, where he completed his Artist Diploma at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapelle under the tutelage of Gary Hoffman, his most important and impactful musical mentor.
A versatile chamber musician, Ari has performed with Itzhak Perlman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Corina Belcea, Colin Carr, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Hsin-Yun Huang, Ani Kavafian, Robert McDonald, Donald Weilerstein, Carol Wincenc, and has toured internationally as guest cellist with the Rolston String Quartet, Aeolus Quartet, FLUX Quartet, and Quatuor MONA. He has world-premiered works by Augusta Reed Thomas, Aaron J Kernis, Philip Lasser, Alexander Liebermann and Pieter Schuermans, and has performed with Steve Mackey and Kinan Azmeh on their own compositions. As a chamber musician, he is featured on the Alpha Classics, DUX, MSR Classics, and Sono Luminus labels.
Ari has served as guest principal with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Princeton Symphony. He has also worked with many of New York’s premiere ensembles, touring with Orpheus and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), and performing with Orchestra of St Lukes, Music from Copland House, NOVUS, Metropolis Ensemble, New York Classical Players, Wet Ink Ensemble, Frisson, and Exponential Ensemble. Additionally, he serves as the co-founder and artistic director of the Forest Hills Chamber Music Series, a project born out of his tenure as an Ensemble Connect Fellow at Carnegie Hall from 2018-2020. He received his Masters degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Timothy Eddy.
