Sheryl Staples, violin; Yalin Chi, piano

Sheryl Staples, violin; Yalin Chi, piano

Program: Debussy, Violin Sonata; Lili Boulanger, Deux morceaux; Beethoven, Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 2.

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 then, she has been featured in concertos by 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 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 and other artists, including Yefim Bronfman and Emanuel Ax. She has performed for US Ambassadors in London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong, and Beijing, and toured 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. Her 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 orchestral studies at The Juilliard School. Originally from Los Angeles, she began studying violin at age five. 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.

Pianist Yalin Chi has performed at 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. She has been praised for 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 performs with pianist Steve Beck as the At Once Duo. She has also performed with New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joseph Alessi, London Symphony Orchestra principal trumpet Philip Cobb, clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein and Charles Neidich, Seoul Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Wayne Lin, Montreal Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Andrew Wan, the Knights chamber orchestra, the Albany Symphony, and the New Jersey Festival Orchestra.

As a soloist, Yalin has appeared with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Bard Orchestra, Central Opera Symphony Orchestra, and West Point Band. She 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, she became Co-Artistic Director of the Chapel Restoration’s Sunday Music Series in Cold Spring, New York. Originally from Beijing, China, Yalin studied at Interlochen Arts Academy before earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Juilliard, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin and Jerome Lowenthal. She pursued additional studies with Peter Frankl at Yale School of Music.