After years of planning, this concert with Sasha Cooke, Richard O’Neill, and Robert Cassidy is coming to fruition. Upon the passing of Donald McInnes, Richard‘s teacher, and renowned violist, the idea was planted to perform the Brahms viola songs, Op. 91 in his honor. These songs will begin the program as a memorial to Donald McInnes. 

• • • • •

About the Artists

SASHA COOKE

Two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been praised for her “agile, glamorous presence” by Opéra Magazine and as a “luminous standout” by the New York Times. Ms. Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with over a hundred chamber and symphony orchestras worldwide frequently in the works of Mahler. In 2022 Ms. Cooke was appointed at the Music Academy of the West as Co- Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute. Her album how do I find you was nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Solo Album.

In the 2025-2026 season, Ms. Cooke returns to Houston as Hänsel in Houston Grand Opera’s Hänsel und Gretel and later joins Seattle Opera for her role debut in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen in a production by Paul Curran. In recital, Ms. Cooke tours her program Of Thee I Sing with pianist Myra Huang, appearing at the Kennedy Center presented by the Vocal Arts Society of D.C., Baylor University’s Distinguished Artists Series, Park Avenue Armory, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and Matinee Musicale in Duluth. On the concert stage, she sings Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, followed by the world premiere of Alex Turley’s the ocean’s dream of itself at the Grand Teton Music Festival, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. She joins Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and appears with Baltimore Symphony, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, a signature piece of hers. She sings Handel’s Messiah with Music of the Baroque and Jane Glover, and with the Cincinnati Symphony, conducted by Cristian Mǎcelaru. She returns to the San Francisco Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Manfred Honeck, and joins the Wiener Symphoniker in Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 conducted by Petr Popelka. Additional concert appearances include Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Sydney Symphony and Sir Donald Runnicles and Verdi’s Requiem with Detroit Symphony. She joins the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonika and Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players for Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.

Ms. Cooke began the 2024/25 season with a return to the Bard Festival as Marguerite in La Damnation de
Faust followed by Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Gstaad Festival, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. On the operatic stage, she debuts at La Monnaie de Munt as Emilie Ekdahl in the world premiere of Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek’s Fanny and Alexanderopposite Thomas Hampson and Anne Sofie von Otter in a production by Ivo van Hove, and returns to Houston Grand Opera in her role debut as Venus in Francesca Zambello’s new production of Tannhäuser. On the concert stage, Ms. Cooke reprises much of her most celebrated repertoire, singing Mahler’s Second Symphony with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Daniel Harding, San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen in his final performances as music director, and Vienna Radio Symphony and Marin Alsop at the Wiener Konzerthaus. She sings Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Karina Canellakis, the Cologne Philharmonic and Cristian Macelaru, and the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra, where she also sings the Rückert-Lieder. She joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel for a program of Alma Mahler, which she also brings to Royal Festival Hall in London with the London Philharmonia and Marin Alsop. Other concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder with the Vienna Symphoniker, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with St. Louis Symphony and Gemma New, and a concert with the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra featuring Des Knaben Wunderhorn with her husband, baritone Kelly Markgraf. In recital, Ms. Cooke returns to Wigmore Hall for a recital with pianist Malcolm Martineau, and Carnegie Hall for Shostakovitch’s From Jewish Folk Poetry with Susanna Phillips, Brandon Jovanovich, and pianist Evgeny Kissin.

how do I find you, a collection of words and music created in 2020 and released on Pentatone records, is intended as a tribute to both the struggles and hopes of artists that have been wrought by the pandemic. The album can be listened to on all streaming platforms.

As a dedicated recitalist, Ms. Cooke was presented by Young Concert Artists in her widely acclaimed New York and Washington debuts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and the Kennedy Center. She has also appeared in recital at Alice Tully Hall, The Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center and the 92nd St Y. Her recordings can be found on the Hyperion, BIS, Chandos, Pentatone, Naxos, Bridge Records, Yarlung, GPR Records and Sono Luminus labels. Most recently she appears on recordings including Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer on Pentatone, Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke with the San Francisco Symphony with won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium, L’enfance du Christ with Sir Andrew Davis and the Melbourne Symphony on Chandos, Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobson Pentatone which won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra on BIS and Sasha Cooke LIVE a collection of her performances from the Music@Menlo chamber music festival released on their label.

A graduate of Rice University and The Juilliard School, Sasha Cooke also attended the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival, the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and Seattle Opera and Central City Opera’s Young Artist Training Programs. Ms. Cooke has given masterclasses throughout the United States, Australia and Canada. She resides in Bloomington, IN with daughters Evelyn and Julia and husband baritone Kelly Markgraf, Associate Professor of Voice at the Jacobs School at Indiana University.

For more information, please visit sashacooke.com

• • • • •

RICHARD O’NEILL

Praised by the London Times as “ravishing,” the New York Times for his “elegant, velvety tone,” the Los Angeles Times as “sensational,” the Seattle Times as “sublime,” and the Guardian as “O’Neill’s viola playing is a ballet in itself,” violist Richard O’Neill has distinguished himself as one of the great instrumentalists of his generation. Winner of both a Grammy and Emmy Award, and recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has achieved recognition and critical acclaim not only as a champion of his instrument but also as a social and musical ambassador. He has appeared as a soloist with the London, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Euro-Asian Philharmonics; the Albany, BBC, KBS, Hiroshima, and Korean Symphonies; the Moscow, Vienna, and Wurttemburg Chamber Orchestras; Alte Musik Koln, Kremerata Baltica, and Sejong with conductors Andrew Davis, Miguel Harth Bedoya, Vladimir Jurowski, Nicholas McGegan, Eiji Oue, Francois Xavier Roth, Vassily Sinaisky, Leonard Slatkin, Osmo Vanska, and Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Since June 2020, he has been the violist of the world- renowned Takacs Quartet.

As a recitalist, he has performed in many of the greatest halls in the world, including Carnegie, Alice Tully, David Geffen, Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, Disney, Herbst Theater, Wigmore, Salle Cortot, the Louvre, Madrid National Concert Hall, Teatro Colon, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Shanghai Concert Hall, Tokyo International Forum and Opera City, Osaka Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and LOTTE Concert Hall. For many years, he has been an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as Principal Violist of Camerata Pacifica. He has frequently collaborated with the world’s greatest musicians, including Emanuel Ax, Jeremy Denk, Leon Fleisher, Gidon Kremer, Warren Jones, Garrick Ohlsson, Menahem Pressler, Daniil Trifonov, James Ehnes, Kyung-Wha Chung, Augustin Hadelich, Boris Giltburg, Mischa Maisky, Steven Isserlis, Edgar Meyer, and The Juilliard, Emerson, Borromeo, Syzmanowski String Quartets, among many others. Festival appearances include Marlboro, Aspen, Bridgehampton, Casals, Chamber Music Northwest, Dresden, Evian, Great Mountains, Hatfield House, La Folle Journee, La Jolla, Leicester, Mecklenburg, Menlo, Moritzburg, Mostly Mozart, Music Academy of the West, Prussia Cove, Saint Barthelemy, Saratoga, Seattle, and Tongyeong.

A Universal/Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, he has released ten solo albums, which have sold more than 200,000 copies. He has remained one of the best-selling South Korean recording artists for over a decade, with multiple platinum disc awards. His recordings of Schoenberg were twice nominated for a Grammy in 2006 and 2010, and his recording of Christopher Theofanidis’s Viola Concerto earned him his third nomination and first Grammy in the Best Instrumental Solo Category.

Dedicated to the music of our time, he has worked with composers Lera Auerbach, Lembit Beecher, Mason Bates, Elliott Carter, Paul Chihara, Unsuk Chin, Mario Davidovsky, John Harbison, Jo Kondo, Chris Paul Harman, Matthias Pintscher, Huang Ruo, Christopher Theofanidis, George Tsontakis, Melinda Wagner, John Zorn, and has premiered works commissioned and composed for him by Beecher, Carter, Harbison, Ruo, and Chihara. In 2018, he premiered composer Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes with the composer at the piano for Camerata Pacifica. In 2019, he recorded Huang Ruo’s Viola Concerto “In Other Words” at Bavarian Radio, and in 2022, he premiered Paul Chihara’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with the Seoul Philharmonic and Osmo Vanska.

A popular figure in South Korea, he has appeared on major television networks, newspapers, and publications. His 2004 appearance in the KBS Documentary Series, Human Theater, was viewed by over 12 million and led to a second series and his popularity with the Korean public. In 2013, he led a documentary series featuring his work with a multicultural youth orchestra for MBC, “Hello?! Orchestra,” which led to an International Emmy in Arts Programming and a feature-length film that debuted at the Busan International Film Festival. For thirteen seasons, he served as the artistic director of DITTO, introducing tens of thousands to chamber music in South Korea and Japan. On DITTO’s two international tours, he sold out both Tokyo’s International Forum and Osaka Symphony Hall, as well as the Shanghai Concert Hall.

The first violist to receive the Artist Diploma from Juilliard, he holds a Bachelor of Music from The USC Thornton School of Music magna cum laude and a Master’s from The Juilliard School: Donald McInnes, Karen Tuttle, and Paul Neubauer were his mentors. In 2006, he was honored with a Proclamation from the New York City Council for his achievement and contribution to the arts. He serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Korean Red Cross, The Special Olympics, and UNICEF, runs marathons for charity, and serves on the faculty of the CU Boulder College of Music and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

He performs on two rare violas: one made by Matteo Goffriller of Venice, the ex-Trampler, made in 1727, and the other, a Gasparo da Salo, ex-Iglitzin, the Counts of Flanders. Richard is a Thomastik-Infeld artist.

For more information, please visit richardyongjaeoneill.com

• • • • •

ROBERT CASSIDY

Celebrated pianist, Robert Cassidy, has received widespread praise for his performances and recordings of solo piano repertoire, as well as vocal and instrumental chamber music.

Cassidy has been the Artistic Director of the Santa Ynez Valley Concert Series in Los Olivos, California since 2019. He has performed chamber music with members of the Cleveland Orchestra, cellist Ani
Aznavoorian; violist, Richard O’Neill; Ruysdael Quartet; and with many other esteemed musicians and ensembles.

An extremely active and highly sought-after teacher and chamber music coach, Cassidy is in demand for master classes, workshops and lectures, private teaching, and adjudication. A former member of the faculty at Cleveland State University, Cassidy currently teaches piano and chamber music at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

Dr. Cassidy holds degrees from Ball State University and the Manhattan School of Music.

For more information, please visit robertcassidypianist.com