Nicholas Kitchen, New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble & Frank Epstein
Biography Nicholas Kitchen, New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble & Frank Epstein
Nicholas Kitchen
is a solo violinist, chamber musician, teacher, technology innovator and arts administrator, with The New York Times naming him as one of the most active and innovative performers in the music world today. He is artistic director of the Heifetz International Music Institute, as well as a professor of violin at the New England Conservatory. He has performed worldwide for the last 30 years as first violinist and founder of the award-winning Borromeo String Quartet, currently the faculty quartet-in-residence at New England Conservatory. He has performed in many of the world’s most illustrious concert halls, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Dvořák Hall in Prague, Suntory Hall and Dai-Ichi Seimei Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals. Kitchen enjoys performing relationships with the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Library of Congress, and the Taos School of Music in New Mexico.
The New England Conservatory (NEC) Percussion Ensemble
was founded by Frank Epstein in 1968. The ensemble has toured throughout the New England area and in more recent times performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. The ensemble has produced a two album set on the Naxos label, American Music for Percussion (Vol. 1: 8.559683; Vol. 2: 8.559684), featuring commissioned pieces by American composers Elliott Carter, Peter Child, Edward Cohen, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, Fred Lerdahl, Robert Xavier Rodríguez, Felicia Sandler, Gunther Schuller and Joan Tower. The ensemble continues to produce two concerts a year at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.
Frank Epstein
is a graduate of the University of Southern California, the New England Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center. In 1968 he joined the Boston Symphony, with whom he performed for 43 years, and in the same year, as part of the New England Conservatory faculty, he founded and directed the NEC Percussion Ensemble. In addition he served as chairman of the brass and percussion department for over 25 years. As founder of Collage New Music, and music director from its inception in 1972 through to 1991, he has overseen the commissioning and performance of over 200 new works as well as the production of 17 recordings, with the ensemble celebrating its 50th anniversary season in 2022/23. Epstein has been involved with the Avedis Zildjian Company as a consultant on new product development (including the introduction of the Classic Orchestral Cymbal Selection), and as a clinician, conducting workshops and seminars throughout the country and in Europe. His book Cymbalisms, a complete guide for the orchestral cymbal player, was published in 2007 by Hal Leonard.
