Piano Quartets
Ismar Gomes & Friends
Please note that for those who received their tickets by mail before August 18th, there is an error on some of the tickets:
The October 12 date should be OCTOBER 11.
The November 16 date should be NOVEMBER 8.
The May 24 date should be MAY 16.
We regret the printing error-please correct your calendars if you were looking at the dates on the tickets and marking your calendars based on those incorrect dates.
Josef Suk: Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 1
Dora Pejačević: Piano Quartet in D minor, Op. 25
Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet in A major, Op. 26
The Musicians
Wan-Chi Su, piano
Meira Silverstein, violin
Renate Falkner, viola
Ismar Gomes, cello
Photo of Wan-Chi Su by Chih-Hao Su
Wan-Chi Su
Praised by The American Scholar for her “sensitivity and imagination,” Taiwanese pianist Wan-Chi Su has appeared at distinguished venues including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Washington National Cathedral, and Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.
Wan-Chi is a founding member of Duo Sorolla and an artist with the Piatigorsky Foundation, through which she performs widely throughout the United States in traditional concert halls and community-centered settings. She serves on the faculties of Georgetown University and Loyola University Maryland and is the organist at Memorial Episcopal Church in Baltimore. As Artistic Director of Chamber Music in Historic Landmarks, she curates chamber music programs in partnership with Manor Mill in Monkton, Maryland.
Her professional festival engagements include the Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival and the Rushmore Music Festival, where she serves as a faculty artist. She has also participated in the Taos School of Music, the Beethoven Institute, the Paris Piano Program, and the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival. A dedicated collaborator, she frequently performs with musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. She is also an advocate for contemporary music and has premiered works by Curt Cacioppo, Jordan Chase, Aaron Malone, and Binna Kim.
Wan-Chi holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
Meira Silverstein
An accomplished violinist, Meira Silverstein has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad,with appearances at the Jerusalem Music Center, The Cosmopolitan Club in New York, and the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina. She performs regularly with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and theMinnesota Orchestra. As a soloist, she has appeared with the South Carolina Philharmonic and New York’s Manhattan Virtuosi, among others, and made her debut at age nine as the concerto competition winner with theLouisville Youth Orchestra.
A frequent chamber musician, Silverstein has collaborated with members of the Muir Quartet. Festivalappearances include Music Mountain, the Montana Chamber Music Festival, the Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival, and the Music Festival of the Hamptons, where she performed alongside the late Lukas Foss. Her recording credits include Spirals of Light, featuring works by composer Meira Warshauer, on which she premiered Bracha for violin and piano; the album has been broadcast on Kol Yisrael radio. Crossing genres, she has alsoperformed at Radio City Music Hall with Jay-Z and the Hustler Orchestra.
Equally committed to teaching and mentorship, Silverstein has devoted much of her career to arts education andcommunity engagement. She has served on the faculty of the Thurnauer School of Music and the Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey, founded Chamber Music for Children in Minneapolis to bring livechamber music into local schools, and currently teaches at Peabody Preparatory, where she continues to nurturemusicians young at heart.
Silverstein is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and the Mannes College of Music, and also studied in Israelwith renowned pedagogue Chaim Taub. Her principal teachers include Syoko Aki, David Nadien, and LucyRobert.
Renate Falkner
Praised for her versatility and creativity, American violist Renate Falkner leads an active career as an educator, recitalist, and orchestral and chamber musician, performing across the U.S. and abroad. Equally at home on both modern and baroque viola, she performs regularly with groups such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (at home and on international tours), Cincinnati Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Artis-Naples, and is a former member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. As a baroque violist, she has performed with Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, the Yale Collegium Players, Baltimore’s Pro Musica Rara and Quartetto Antico.
A frequent chamber music collaborator, Renate is Artistic Director of the Charm City Chamber Players and the violist of the international Embassy String Quartet. She
collaborates regularly with colleagues from the Peabody Institute, the BSO, and in Washington D.C. She has been heard in venues as diverse as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book Library, and in orchestras at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and London’s Royal Albert Hall for the Proms.
Summer appearances have included the Verbier Festival, Switzerland, the Spoleto Festival, Italy, the Bellingham Festival of Music, WA, on international tours with the
BSO, and faculty appointments at the Carvalho Festival of Music, Brazil, the Orfeo Music Festival, Italy, and the National Music Festival in Maryland. She has recorded
for the Chandos, Nimbus, and Rezound music labels.
Renate received her undergraduate training at the Oberlin College and Conservatory, earning degrees in both viola and Ancient Greek, completed graduate studies at the Yale School of Music, and holds a doctorate from the Florida State University. She is on faculty of the Peabody Institute and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC), where she teaches viola and coaches chamber music.
Ismar Gomes
Dr. Ismar Gomes is a passionate and adventurous cellist, equally at home in the worlds of modern and early music—as both a performer and pedagogue. For 15 years, he has presented recitals across the U.S. as a member of Duo Sorolla, and collaborates with acclaimed musicians from the Pittsburgh Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Emerson and Johannes Quartets. His performances are marked by warmth, curiosity, and a deep sense of musical storytelling.
A former member of the Virginia and Richmond Symphonies, Dr. Gomes now performs regularly with the Baltimore Symphony. As a period instrumentalist, he was cellist in Mélomanie for several seasons and continues to work with other early music ensembles, including several tours with Ken Slowik. He recently joined the innovative Valencia Baryton Project, with whom he tours internationally and records for NAXOS.
Alongside the canon, Dr. Gomes is a devoted advocate for underrepresented and contemporary voices. He has worked closely with celebrated composers including George Walker, Aaron Jay Kernis, James Lee III, and David Lang, while also commissioning and premiering works by a new generation of composers. His discography reflects this range—from collaborations with the Harlem Quartet on Canteloupe Music to recent albums with Mélomanie, and recordings of works by Larry Nelson, Mark Hagerty, and others.
Equally committed to mentorship and musical growth, Dr. Gomes is Artistic Director of the Rushmore Music Festival, where he also serves as a Faculty Artist and sits on the Board of Directors. He is a dedicated teacher, currently on the cello and chamber music faculties of the Peabody Institute, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and George Mason University, and regularly gives masterclasses nationwide, at institutions such as Shenandoah Conservatory and Duke University.
Dr. Gomes earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, under the tutelage of Colin Carr. He previously studied at the Peabody Conservatory with Alison Wells and Amit Peled, and his development was further shaped by work with Marc Johnson and Clive Greensmith of the Vermeer and Tokyo Quartets.
Return to the 2026-2027 Concert list.