Community Concert – “Compass: Musical Distance”
When
Where
30 Maple Ave, Millbrook, New York, 12545
Season
Performers:
Balourdet Quartet
Angela Bae, violin
Justin DeFilippis, violin
Benjamin Zannoni, viola
Russell Houston, cello
Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet
Program:
This program centers on Da Lontano—music shaped by distance, direction, and memory—anchored by a unique collaboration between clarinetist Graeme Johnson and the Balourdet Quartet, recent winners of the Cleveland Quartet Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. At its core is Compass, a new clarinet quintet by Viet Cuong written at Johnson’s urging, inspired by the composer’s mother’s refugee journey and reflecting the act of navigating uncertainty, memory, and hope. Framed by reimagined Mozart, Milhaud’s Saudades do Brasil, and Brahms’ iconic Clarinet Quintet, the program traces musical journeys across cultures, styles, and time—exploring how music remembers, transforms, and ultimately finds its way home.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Tema con variazioni from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331 [arr. Graeme Steele Johnson]
- Darius Milhaud: Selections from Saudades do Brasil [arr. Graeme Steele Johnson]
- Viet Cuong:Compass (2025)
–intermission–
- Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115
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About the Artist
Balourdet Quartet
The Balourdet Quartet is acclaimed for combining technical precision with expressive depth. The ensemble received the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant and Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award. With more than 70 concerts per season, they have debuted at Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall and premiered new works by Karim Al-Zand, Paul Novak, and Nicky Sohn with support from Chamber Music America and the Barlow Foundation.
They are Graduate Quartet in Residence at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and alumni of the New England Conservatory’s Professional String Quartet Program. The quartet has appeared at the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and Chamber Music Houston, and collaborated with artists including Marc-André Hamelin, Simone Dinnerstein, Stewart Goodyear, and Astrid Schween.
From September 2025 through May 2026, the Balourdet Quartet serves as String Quartet in Residence with the Seattle Chamber Music Society, where they perform, teach, and lead community and educational initiatives in King County.
They are prizewinners of the Concert Artists Guild, Banff International String Quartet, Premio Paolo Borciani, Fischoff National Chamber Music, and Yellow Springs competitions.
Graeme Steele Johnson
Graeme Steele Johnson is a clarinetist, curator, and artistic director recognized for his innovative approach to chamber music. He gained international attention for rediscovering and reconstructing a long-lost Octet by Charles Martin Loeffler; his world-premiere recording appears on the album Forgotten Sounds, named one of The New York Times’ Best Classical Music Albums of 2024, nominated for a Gramophone Classical Music Award, and awarded BBC Music Magazine’s Chamber Choice. As Artistic Director of the Loeffler Octet ensemble, he has led performances at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, and Harvard Musical Association.
Johnson performs widely as a chamber musician and soloist at major festivals and venues including Ravinia, La Jolla Music Society, the Kennedy Center, and the Dame Myra Hess series. Since 2022, he has served as clarinetist of the award-winning quintet WindSync. He is also Artistic Director of the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival in Houston.
Program Notes From the performer-
A brand new clarinet quintet by Viet Cuong written at Johnson’s urging anchors a unique collaboration with the Balourdet Quartet, recent winners of the Cleveland Quartet Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Compass was inspired by Cuong’s mother’s journey by sea as a refugee following the Fall of Saigon, ultimately settling in America. But, Cuong writes, “Compass is not a literal retelling of my mother’s journey, but rather an homage to the idea of direction itself—how one navigates uncertainty, memory, and hope.” The concert program Da Lontano captures the sound of musical distance, responding to the language of direction, travel and memory built into the way we speak about music: from the proverbial “home key” of music theory, to the sense of “a journey” engendered by a particularly epic piece.
A reimagined Mozart piano sonata emphasizes the distancing effect of the variations form, with increasing distance from a theme—rather than proximity to a goal—as the only way to track progress through a movement. Meanwhile, Milhaud’s Saudades do Brasil verticalizes the idea of distance by allowing us to experience two distinct sound worlds at once: samba and modernism, Latin America and France, “popular” and “art” music. And Brahms’ immortal Clarinet Quintet, a “journey” piece if there ever was one, plays with distance with references to the wandering Roma people, and by creating musical memory through recurring material—always somehow transformed from the original through the haze of recall, as if to suggest the distortion of intervening time.