Artistic Directors
David Finckel and Wu Han
Music@Menlo Founders and Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han lead multifaceted careers as concert performers, recording artists, educators, arts administrators, and cultural entrepreneurs, which places them in the ranks of today’s most esteemed and influential classical musicians. Their busy seasons include performances as a duo, and as chamber musicians (including, in David Finckel’s case, more than one hundred concerts annually as cellist of the Emerson String Quartet), and have appeared in the world’s most prestigious concert series and festivals. The duo’s repertoire spans the entire literature for cello and piano. Their commitment to new music has brought commissioned works by Bruce Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, and Augusta Read Thomas to audiences around the world, and a new work for cello and piano by award-winning composer Pierre Jalbert is scheduled for the 2007–08 season.
This spring, the duo gives the world premiere of Gabriela Frank’s double concerto Compadrazgo with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. Since 2004, David Finckel and Wu Han have served as Artistic Directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Their wide-ranging musical activities also include the launch of ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company. All nine ArtistLed recordings have received critical acclaim and are available from the company’s Web site at www.artistled.com. ArtistLed’s tenth CD, Russian Recital, marks Wu Han’s first full-length solo album and is due for release this spring to mark the label’s tenth anniversary.
In recent years, David Finckel and Wu Han have become widely recognized for their initiatives in expanding the audience for classical music and for guiding the careers of countless young musicians.