Sheryl Staples, violin; Yalin Chi, piano
Poulenc, Violin Sonata; Debussy, Violin Sonata
Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster, The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair, in 1998 and made her solo debut with the orchestra in 1999 performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto led by Kurt Masur. Since that time she has been featured in concertos of Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Bach and Vivaldi with conductors including Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis, Alan Gilbert, Kent Nagano, Jeffrey Kahane and Jaap van Zweden. She has also appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony and San Diego Symphony among many others. The New York Times wrote that “she is a perceptive musician, who plays with great rhythmic integrity and a lucid sense of phrase structure… she draws a wonderful array of vibrant and luminous colors…interpretive honesty and unmannered elegance.”
In demand as a chamber musician, Ms. Staples performs frequently in the New York area with Philharmonic colleagues as well as other esteemed artists including Yefim Bronfman and Emanuel Ax, and has performed for US Ambassadors in London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong and Beijing as well as touring the US, Asia and Latin America. She was a founding member of the New York Philharmonic String Quartet and now leads the newly formed New Jersey String Quartet. Summer festival appearances include La Jolla Summerfest, Salt Bay Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe, Seattle, Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard, Sarasota and Strings Music Festivals. Ms. Staples is a member of the violin faculty at Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard Pre-College. She also teaches at The Juilliard School in orchestral studies. Originally from Los Angeles, Ms. Staples began studying violin at age five, and her major mentors were Robert Lipsett and Heiichiro Ohyama.
Ms. Staples is married to percussionist Barry Centanni and they have two adult children, Michael and Laura.
With performances in venues including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Gardner Museum in Boston, Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, and ZhongShan Music Hall in Beijing, pianist Yalin Chi has delighted audiences with her “gorgeous tonal coloring” and “masterful and flowing” playing (Leslie Garber, Hudson Valley One). An active chamber musician, Yalin is a founding member of Trio Raconteur and together with pianist Steve Beck performs as the At Once Duo. Yalin has also performed with principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic Joseph Alessi, principal trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra Philip Cobb, clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein and Charles Neidich, concertmaster of the Seoul Symphony Orchestra Wayne Lin, concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Andrew Wan, with the Knights chamber orchestra, and regularly performs with the Albany Symphony and the New Jersey Festival Orchestra.
As a soloist, Yalin has appeared with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Bard Orchestra, the Central Opera Symphony Orchestra, and the West Point Band. Yalin has held the principal keyboard position at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic since 2014, and has been pianist with the West Point Band since 2008. In 2022 Yalin became Co-Artistic Director of the Chapel Restoration’s Sunday Music Series, in Cold Spring, New York. Originally from Beijing, China, Yalin studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy before earning her bachelor’s and master’s at the Juilliard School, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin and Jerome Lowenthal, and pursued additional studies with Peter Frankl at Yale School of Music.