Cellist Astrid Schween, formerly of Lark Quartet, performs solo, in Schween-Hammond Duo & in Piano Trio Mirepoix

[ABOVE: Borodin: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2; Lark String Quartet; Arabesque (2010) BELOW: Astrid Schween]

On Oct. 15, 2011 AfriClassical posted: “Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Astrid Schween & Sanford Allen in Leaf Peeper Series, Hillsdale, N.Y. Oct. 15.” We learned of the event from Nokuthula Ngwenyama, who recommended the cellist Astrid Schween as a subject for the blog. Astrid's website is http://www.astridschween.com/, which provides this biography:

Biography

Astrid Schween enjoys a busy international concert career. Known to many in her former role as cellist of the Lark Quartet, she can now be found performing as a soloist, in recital with the Schween-Hammond Duo or with piano trio Mirepoix. Recent activities include recitals in Europe and California, concerto performances of works by Elgar, Lalo, Dvorak, Schumann, Tan Dun and Saint-Säens, and a solo CD recording to be released by Arabesque Recordings in 2011. She is a featured artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society, at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Germany.

In 2010, Ms. Schween commissioned and premiered Music for Electric Cello and Electronics, by Gordon Green. The work, which is fast gaining a following, features the cellist (on a Yamaha SVC210 Electric Cello) as soloist with an “electronic orchestra” in an interactive setting for cellist and composer.

As a member of the Lark and guest with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Astrid Schween performed in some of the world’s most important venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Musikverein in Vienna, L’Opera de la Bastille in Paris, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Library of Congress, and on tour throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

She has received critical acclaim for her performances at festivals as wide-ranging as the Istanbul Festival, Musicades, Lockenhaus, the Schleswig-Holstein and Edinburgh festivals, Moscow’s Beethoven Festival, the Festival da Camera in St. Miguel de Allende, Würzburg’s Mozart Festival and Sweden’s prestigious Siljan Festival. Also with the Lark, she won numerous international prizes including the gold medal at the Shostakovich Competition in St. Petersburg and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in New York.

Ms. Schween received her training at the Juilliard School, where she was twice awarded the Cello Prize. Her teachers there included Harvey Shapiro, Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. After performing as soloist with the New York Philharmonic as winner of their Young Peoples’ Competition, she was selected by Zubin Mehta to study in London with Jacqueline du Pré. She later participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and the William Pleeth Cello Master Classes at Aldeburgh’s Britten-Pears School. Other major teachers included Bernard Greenhouse, Ardyth Alton and Eugene Moye.

With the Lark Quartet, Astrid Schween recorded nearly two dozen CDs for Decca/Argo, Arabesque, Point, Agora, New World, CRI, Koch and Endeavor Classics and commissioned new works from America’s leading composers; Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, Peter Schickele, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) and Julia Wolfe to name a few. She also collaborated with many celebrated artists including Joshua Bell, Branford Marsalis, Edgar Meyer, Karl Leister and choreographer Bill T. Jones.

Ms. Schween currently serves as cello professor at the University of Massachusetts, where she succeeds cellist Matt Haimovitz. She holds a senior faculty position at Interlochen as a Valade Fellow, and serves as juror for the Concert Artist Guild, Chamber Music New England and Sphinx Competitions. She is represented by MCM Arts and Entertainment.