Pleasure is the Law
Nadine Asin, flute
Elaine Douvas, oboe
Darrett Adkins, cello
Steven Beck, piano

Nadine Asin, flute

Nadine Asin currently serves as principal flutist of the Florida Grand Opera and the Palm Beach (FL) Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Great Performers Series of Lincoln Center, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Da Camera Society of Houston This past season she was presented in recital at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL. She commissioned, performed and recorded the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s flute concerto Enchanted Orbits, and David Schiff’s After Hours for flute and piano. She recorded Aaron Avshalomov’s Flute Concerto on the Naxos label. She is a faculty member of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and serves as adjunct faculty at the Juilliard School. Ms. Asin is also a long-standing member of the artist-faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School. As an active commercial recording artist, she can be heard most recently on the soundtracks of Julie and Julia, True Grit, Tower Heist, Tintin, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. She debuted with the Baltimore Symphony at age sixteen and subsequently studied with Julius Baker at the Juilliard School, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. A winner of the Concert Artists Guild competition, she subsequently served on their board. She currently serves on the boards of Chamber Music America and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Elaine Douvas, flute

Elaine Douvas has been Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera since 1977. She has served on the Oboe Faculty of The Juilliard School since 1982 and was appointed woodwind department chairman in 1997. Her solo CDs are issued by Boston Records, Oboe Classics, and Music Minus One. In the summers, Douvas is an artist/faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School and teaches three intensive, one-week oboe seminars in Quebec, Interlochen, MI and the Hidden Valley Music Seminars, Carmel, CA. She trained at the Cleveland Institute of Music under John Mack and at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Her first job was principal oboe of the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Shaw. For many years she has devoted her spare time to figure skating and has passed eleven USFSA tests in free style and “moves”.

Darrett Adkins, cello

Performances by Cellist Darrett Adkins have been called “heroic,” “stunning,” “intensely involving” (NY Times) and “fiery” (Boston Globe). This “adventurous champion of contemporary music” (Strings Magazine) has given important first performances of many works, including the first New York performance and the first recording (on Naxos records) of Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XIV, the first American Performance of Donatoni’s concerto “un ruisseau sur l’escalier” with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the world premier of Andrew Mead’s cello concerto with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble and during his tenure with the Flux Quartet, the first complete performance (and subsequent recording on Mode records) of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet 2, lasting 6 continuous hours. His Aspen debut was with James Conlon conducting Boulez’s “Messagesquisse” on just 3 days notice. No stranger to the standard repertoire, Darrett Adkins has performed concertos with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Tokyo Philharmonic, Cleveland’s Red {an orchestra}, the Prime Orchestra and the Suwon Philharmonic (in the Seoul Arts Center), the Orchestre National de UFF in Rio De Janiero, Brazil, and the North Carolina and New Hampshire symphonies, among others. He was a guest of the Juilliard String Quartet on their recent Sony Masterworks recording of Jay Greenberg’s String Quintet, and subsequently gave the first performance with the Chiara Quartet. His recording of duos by Ravel, Kodaly and Sessions is available on Engine Company Records. Darrett Adkins serves on the cello and chamber music faculties of the Juilliard School, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Steven Beck, piano

American pianist Steven Beck continues to garner impressive acclaim for his performances and recordings worldwide. Praised by the New Yorker as “one of the city’s finest young pianists”, a recent New York concert by Mr. Beck was described as “exemplary” and “deeply satisfying” by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times. Highlights of the 2012-13 season include the American premiere of a piano etude by Charles Wuorinen, recordings of Carter’s late piano works for Bridge Records’ Carter series, and an appearance as soloist on the New York Philharmonic’s “Symphonic Sondheim” concert this spring. In addition, he again performed on the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series, and repeated his annual performance of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” on Christmas Eve at the Barge; this has become a New York institution.

In the words of New York Times critic Allan Kozinn, Mr. Beck is “an eloquent and persuasive performer of contemporary works”; he has worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Poul Ruders, and performed with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae, the Metropolis Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. He is a member of the Talea Ensemble.