Rachmaninoff 150: Helen Chang Haertzen, Richard Belcher, and Denis Evstuhin in Concert

Join us in the Main Gallery of The Museum of Russian Art for the final concert in our series devoted to celebrating 150 years since the birth of Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Museum is known for offering the best in classical music. Sit amongst the artworks and enjoy the incredible acoustics of the gallery. Featuring renowned musicians Helen Chang Haertzen, violin (Minnesota Orchestra), Richard Belcher, cello (St. Paul Chamber Orchestra), and Denis Evstuhin, piano (TMORA Curator of Classical Music Programs), please join us for what will certainly be a memorable evening.

Thank you to our generous sponsor, Schmitt Music

Sunday, December 3 | 7:00 – 8:30 PM | Doors open at 6:00 PM

All galleries and TMORA Shop will be open prior to and following the performance.

Tickets: Reserved Seating $30 | TMORA Members $25 (Use discount code CELEBRATE150 at checkout to access discount)

BUY TICKETS

PROGRAM

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Helen Chang Haertzen joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s first violin section in 2003. In 2006 she appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Orchestra under Andrew Litton’s direction. She has performed often at the Orchestra’s Chamber Music concerts.

Haertzen, who formerly was associate and principal second violin of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany, has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and played with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She also served on the faculty of Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, teaching orchestral training and chamber music to international students. As soloist, Haertzen has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade and Junge Philharmonie Erlangen, and with the Staatsorchester Braunschweig.

Growing up in the Boston area, Haertzen studied under Bo Youp Hwang and Roman Totenberg. She attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, the Salzburg Mozarteum and the San Francisco Conservatory. Her principal teachers also included Szymon Goldberg, Felix Galimir, Ruggiero Ricci and Camilla Wicks. Haertzen was a prizewinner of the Karol Lipinski-Wieniawski Competition in Poland. In 2017, the Minnesota State Arts Board awarded her the Artist Initiative Grant.

Haertzen was a longtime member of the Isles Ensemble and has performed as a guest artist with the Walden Chamber Players and the Bamberg String Quartet. She has taken part in innovative collaborations with dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and collaborated with the Boston Ballet in a performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. In Boston, she has appeared at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Goethe Institute. She played the Jascha Heifetz ‘David’ 1742 Guarneri del Gesù violin in recital at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor and has appeared as a recitalist throughout Europe. In 2005 Cavalli Records released Haertzen’s recording of the Bach Partitas for Solo Violin, which drew critical acclaim from the American Record Guide. She has also produced and played on American Avenues, a medley of American classics for Centaur Records.

In addition to performing, she enjoys teaching. Her students have gone on to study at top conservatories and music festivals, and to win orchestra positions.

******

New Zealand cellist Richard Belcher joined the SPCO in 2019 after a twenty-year career as founding cellist of the Grammy-nominated Enso String Quartet. With the quartet he earned highly critical accolades from recording and concertizing in many of the world’s major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Kennedy Center in the United States, as well as abroad in Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

Richard is the Artistic Director of Music on the Hill in Mankato, Minnesota, and since 2008 has been Principal Cellist of River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, Texas. He has taught and performed at many festivals including St. Bart’s, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Prussia Cove, Madeline Island, Campos do Jordao International Winter Festival, SummerFest La Jolla, and the San Miguel de Allende International Chamber Music Festival.

In demand as a teacher and chamber music coach, Richard has previously served as Adjunct Faculty at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and has given numerous masterclasses around the world.

Richard moved to the United States in 1998 to study with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, and it was while there that he founded the Enso String Quartet. Richard’s other principal teachers include Norman Fischer, Marc Johnson, and Alexander Ivashkin. He plays an N.F. Vuillaume cello made in 1856, and is married to Cecilia Belcher, Assistant Principal 2nd Violin of the Minnesota Orchestra.

******

Russian-born pianist Denis Evstuhin has appeared on stages of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the great Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff Halls in Moscow, the Mariinsky Theater and Philharmonic Halls in St. Petersburg and Warsaw, as well as Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Evstuhin appeared as a soloist with the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and the Sioux City Symphony.

Denis holds both Graduate and Post-graduate degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, as well as M.M. and DMA degrees in piano performance at the University of Minnesota, where he studied with professor Alexander Braginsky. In 2020-2021 Evstuhin served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Music.

Since 2010, Denis has served as the Music Curator and founder of the classical music series at The Museum of Russian Art. Within twelve years he organized and participated in more than 60 programs featuring many internationally acclaimed musicians.