LIVE AT FIELD NOTE MUSIC SCHOOL
6 STATE ST. ELLSWORTH
SEP 25. 6-8 PM.
$5-$20 SLIDING SCALE TICKETS
Recognized as “masterly” with a “soulful, lyrical tone” (Boston Music Intelligencer), cellist Tyler Michael James has established a multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and advocate for contemporary music. He has performed on recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 92nd Street Y, and Rockport Chamber Music Festival, collaborating with acclaimed artists such as Peter Zazofsky, Ayano Ninomiya, and Doris Stevenson. James has been a featured soloist with the Vision Ensemble, New York University Symphony, Longy Orchestra, and the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts. His upcoming season is highlighted by a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Ridgefield Symphony. A dedicated chamber artist, he is a founding member of the Tristan Trio, the Finehouse James Duo, and the Garrison Quartet, and has performed with premier ensembles including A Far Cry, Castle of our Skins, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Fermata.
A champion of new music, James collaborated closely with Pulitzer Prize-winner Raven Chacon on both his solo works for cello and was personally granted recording rights by Jessie Montgomery for her composition Loisaida, My Love following his performance of her work. He has premiered Concertos for Quartet and String Ensemble by Anthony R. Green at Rockport Music and maintains a consistent presence as a guest artist with composers’ collectives at the New England Conservatory and the Peabody Institute. Tyler is the Executive Director of the Cambridge Music Society, Associate Artistic Director of Red Door Chamber Music, and Cello Faculty at both Project STEP and the Montecito Music Festival. He studied with Leslie Frittellie, Marion Feldman and Dr. Terry King on full scholarships respectively and has performed in masterclasses for Alisa Weilerstein and Hans Jensen. Significant musical influences have been members of the Julliard Quartet and Mirecourt Trio. In his free time, he is an avid marathon runner, explorer of America’s National Parks, and an MBA.
Constantine Finehouse has performed extensively in the US and abroad, including in Salzburg, Trieste, London, Ghent, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Odessa. His 2009 solo release, "Backwards Glance," interweaves works by Brahms and Richard Beaudoin. “The Bolcom Project”, made in collaboration with his American Double partner, violinist Philip Ficsor, included an Albany Records two-CD album and a national tour with concerts in Boston, New York, Denver, Santa Barbara, Spokane and at Yale University. Fanfare praised the recording as “indispensable to any serious collector with an interest in later 20th-century duo repertoire for violin and piano.” The American and European premieres of William Bolcom's Horn Trio, in collaboration with Ficsor and Steven Gross took place in the summer and fall of 2018. The work, commissioned by the group, was recorded at the Martinu Hall in Prague and released on Naxos Records in December 2021.
Finehouse's recording of Bolcom’s piano solo works for Naxos saw its world-wide launch in December 2017. His latest album "The Brahms Age" on Hänssler Classic with violinist, Daniel Kurganov, follows their 2021 release "Rhythm and the Borrowed Past" on Orchid Classics and "Between the Notes" on Spice Classics in 2018. "Settling Old Scores" with cellist, Sebastian Bäverstam, duo's second release, features sonatas by Brahms and Shostakovich. During recent concert seasons Finehouse has performed at the Mozarteum (Salzburg), Miaskovsky Hall (Moscow Conservatory), Merkin Recital Hall, Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) and Jordan Hall (Boston), as well as at Harvard, Yale, and Emory universities, and St. Vincent's and Elmira colleges, among others. With degrees from Juilliard and Yale, Finehouse had taught at New England Conservatory, and served as Visiting Artist/Faculty at Westmont College, CA.