Irena Portenko and the Cuatro Puntos Ensemble offer the Piano Quintet, Opus 42 “Ukrainian Quintet” of Boris Lyatoshynsky. This sumptuous late romantic work by the “father of contemporary Ukrainian music” is imbued with the lyrical folk songs and traditional music of that country. The rarely heard work is brought to life by Aaron Packard, violin, Annie Trépanier, violin, Kevin Bishop, viola, Allan Ballinger, cello, and Irena Portenko, piano.
This concert is made possible, in part, with the generous support of Victor Goldsmith.
Cuatro Puntos Ensemble is ensemble in residence for Cuatro Puntos, an organization in Hartford, CT dedicated to intercultural dialogue through the writing, performance, and teaching of music, performing in United States, Bolivia, Brazil, England, Germany, the Netherlands. They collaborates with local, national, and international guest artists to produce genre-defying and culturally significant concert programing and album recordings, aiming for the highest in artistic excellence while centering underrepresented, silenced, and persecuted performing musicians and composers.
Annie Trépanier (violin) — Annie’s playing has been hailed by The Boston Globe as “supercharged, clear-headed, yet soulful.” She is a founding member of the acclaimed Avery Ensemble and has performed throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. Ms. Trépanier is on the faculty of The Hotchkiss School while performing and teaching each summer at the Wintergreen Festival in Virginia. She is currently the concertmaster of the Connecticut-based chamber orchestra Aeterna.
Kevin Bishop (viola) — Kevin’s life work serves the ideal of “music as social action:” the belief that long-term music education can aid community building, personal elevation, and reconstruction. His varied career as a violist, violinist, conductor, composer, educator, researcher, and arts administrator has taken him around the world to study, witness, engage with, and lead social music projects. Having grown up in a broken home amid a troubled neighborhood near Los Angeles, his entrepreneurial career began young when he founded the Western Society of Chamber Music after tragedy caused the demise of his school’s music program. He led this organization and its community-minded efforts for 8 years before moving to Connecticut and founding Cuatro Puntos in 2012.
Dr. Allan Ballinger (cello) has pursued dual paths in the fields of music and history over the course of his life, following careers of his father, a high school history teacher and his mother, a church organist and choir director. While frequently performing with Cuatro Puntos, Allan also teaches history and political science at Gateway Community College in New Haven, CT, reflecting his lifelong commitment to empowering the disenfranchised and underserved in our society.
Aaron Packard (violin) performs music of many genres and periods. He is an avid improviser and proponent of new music, working closely with composers such as U.S.-born Norway resident Ellen Lindquist, and Elizabeth Adams and Ted Hearne in New York, to find and experiment with new sound ideas. He currently teaches at the Joy of Music Program in Worcester, MA, and at the Groton School in Groton, MA.
Dr. Irena Portenko is a sought-after concert performer named to a “select circle” of pianists by The New York Times. Her career has included a distinguished array of programs in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Since 2013, Dr. Portenko has organized the annual Summer International Festival “Music in the Alps” in Bad Gastein, Austria. She is a music educator on the faculties of Sacred Heart University, CT, and the Music Conservatory of Westchester, NY. Dr. Portenko has been a participant of Downtown Music Series for more than a decade, enjoying its various music programs, collaborative experiences, and incredibly appreciative audiences.