Joyce Rudolph
It's been a musical relationship for husband-and-wife duo, cellist
David Finckel and his wife, pianist Wu Han.
They met 24 years ago when Finckel was a cellist with the Emerson
String Quartet and Han won the Emerson Quartet competition in
Hartford, Conn.
A native of Taiwan, Han could hardly speak English at the time,
but she shared the language of music with Finckel.
They have been married for almost 20 years and have created a
musical partnership that enriches classical music audiences around
the world.
Finckel got to know Han when she would perform as a guest artist
with the quartet. They found they shared a kindred spirit through
music.
"You don't need words for it," she said. "Eventually we fell in
love."
Finckel is still with the Emerson Quartet, but he and Han perform
together and share other projects. They created the Music at Menlo in
2003, a chamber music festival in Northern California that has
attracted international acclaim.
"It's good for the musicians," Finckel said. "We all get to stay
in one place for a couple of weeks, which is unusual, instead of
running around from city to city performing and we also form a
community of musicians. We combine our talents to play together and
that's a very happy occasion."
In 2004, Finckel and Han were also named artistic directors of the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, where they live.
The couple will perform with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at
8 p.m. tonight at the Alex Theater.
Conductor Jeffrey Kahane collaborated with Finckel when performing
with the Emerson String Quartet, and invited the duo for this
concert. The couple will be joined by concertmaster Margaret Batjer
to perform Beethoven's "Triple Concerto."
Finckel will also be in the spotlight playing one of his signature
pieces, the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1.
"We've known about the orchestra for a long time," Finckel said.
"Kahane is a longtime friend."
He is looking forward to playing with the Chamber Orchestra for
the first time.
"Jeffrey is a well-respected conductor in the world," Han said.
"We've wanted to do the Beethoven concerto for four years but
couldn't get our schedules to coincide. It's exciting to bring it to
fruition."
