Music for Peace: Brahms Birthday Bash

This concert marks the third and final concert of the 2023-2024 Music for Peace series.

For our third and final concert of the season, former Peace concert director, Victor Rosenbaum returns to celebrate Brahms’ birthday with solo and chamber music by Brahms, his friends Clara and Robert Schumann, and Barriere and Popper.  Joining him will be artistic director and cellist, Carol Ou, and cellist Sam Ou.

Johannes Brahms, Intermezzi, op. 117
Clara Schumann, 3 Romances
Robert Schumann, Fantasy Pieces, Op. 73
Jean-Baptiste Barriere, Sonata no 4 in G major for two Cellos
David Popper, Suite for two Cellos, op. 16

The concert will be held at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, 1555 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, near Harvard Law School, at 7:30 pm.

Benefits Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund.  $25 for Mass. Peace Action members, $35 for non-members,  $10 for students and low incomes.

To reserve, write a check to “Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund” or “MAPA EF” and mail to 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, or call 617-354-2169 with credit card number.  Or reserve your tickets online.

Donations to support our work for peace are welcome in any amount.  Supporters donate $250 or more to Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund; they receive two tickets with preferred seating in the first 3 rows and recognition in the program. Sponsors donate $500 and receive four tickets; Benefactors donate $1,000 and receive eight tickets.  All contributions above $35 per concert are tax-deductible.

The audience is invited to join the musicians and Peace Action members at a reception after the concert.  The venue is wheelchair accessible via a ramp to the left of the church.

Victor Rosenbaum, Piano

Internationally known American pianist Victor Rosenbaum has concertized widely as a soloist and chamber music performer in the United States, Europe, Israel, Brazil, Russia, and Asia in such prestigious halls as Tully Hall in New York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has collaborated with such artists as Leonard Rose, Paul Katz, Arnold Steinhardt, Robert Mann, Joseph Silverstein, James Buswell, Malcolm Lowe, and the Brentano, Borromeo, and Cleveland String Quartets. A musician of diverse talents, Rosenbaum is also a composer and has frequently conducted in the Boston area and beyond.  He launched the Music for Peace series and directed it from 2013 to 2022.

Rosenbaum has also become a renowned teacher. Recently retired from the faculty of New England Conservatory in Boston where he taught for more than fifty years, he chaired its piano department for more than a decade, and was also Chair of Chamber Music.  Also a faculty member of Mannes School of Music in New York from 2004-2017, he has been Visiting Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, a guest teacher at Juilliard, and presents lectures, workshops, and master classes for teachers’ groups and schools both in the U. S. and abroad.  During the past year he has been teaching and performing in Japan, Korea, Israel, Taiwan, Austria, and Bulgaria; and was recently appointed Visiting Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at National Taiwan Normal University.  Rosenbaum was also Director and President of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA from 1985-2001.  His highly praised CD’s are on the Bridge and Fleur de Son labels.   

Carol Ou, cello

A dynamic soloist, chamber musician, and award-winning recording artist, Music for Peace artistic director, Carol Ou is known for her “fiery, marvelous” and “meltingly melodic outpourings.” (Boston Globe)

Born in Taiwan, Carol was immersed solely in the sounds of western classical music until the age of 14 when she met Taiwanese composer, Hsiao Tyzen. Hsiao invited her to tour with him across the US and Singapore, playing European cello masterworks alongside Taiwanese folk music. This exposure to the sounds of her homeland led to a lifelong fascination with languages and folk traditions around the world.

Recognized as an extraordinary artist by the Chi-Mei Arts Foundation in Taiwan, Carol inaugurated and popularized their record label with her concerto recordings of Elgar, Haydn, and Tchaikovsky while a student at Yale. Later, her decades-long partnership with legendary violinist James Buswell led to countless performances across five continents. Their recording of “Walter Piston’s Chamber Music” won Chamber Music America’s Best Chamber Music CD Award.

In 2022, Carol founded Trio Flamecrest with close friends Amy Galluzzo and Jean Huang. Prior to this group, she was a member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet. Her extensive touring repertoire encompassed the greatest masterworks by western classical composers along with music influenced by folk traditions from Persia, Turkey, China and the Americas.

Outside of performing, Carol is a passionate teacher who is in demand as a cello and chamber music teacher. She serves on the faculty at New England Conservatory of Music, NYU, and the Cremona International Music Academy and Festival in Italy.

In her free time, Carol enjoys catching sight of bird migrations with her son and cheering her daughter on in ultimate frisbee tournaments.

Sam Ou, cello

Praised for his “impassioned performance” (Boston Globe) and playing “with remarkable ease and clarity, while maintaining a graceful—if vociferous—line that fit well into the narrative” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), cellist Sam Ou enjoys an active musical life in the Greater Boston area.  A recipient of the Rosemary Scales Prize for best cello concerto performance at the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, Mr. Ou has performed at several prestigious summer venues including Tanglewood, Sarasota, Musicorda, Santa Fe, and La Jolla music festivals.  He gave the world premiere performance of Larry Bell’s Cello Concerto entitled The Triumph of Lightness with the Boston Civic Symphony at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall (NEC).

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Ou has collaborated and performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, James Buswell, Lucy Chapman, Hung-Kuan Chen, Pi-Hsien Chen, James Dunham, Thomas Hill, Patricia McCarty, Paul Neubauer, Heiichiro Ohyama, Lois Shapiro, Marcus Thompson, and Yehudi Wyner.  As one-half of the Formosa Duo, he performs regularly with pianist Chi-Chen Wu.

A faculty member at NEC’s Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education, Mr. Ou coaches chamber music and maintains a private teaching studio.