The final weekend of the Minnesota Sinfonia’s free Winter Concert Series will feature cellist Soo Bae, the top young cellist in Canada and 2006 winner of the Canada Council of the Arts Instrument Bank competition.Bae will perform with the Sinfonia in two free-admission concerts, the first at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 9 at First Covenant Church, 1280 Arcade Street, St. Paul, and again at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 10 at the Basilica of St. Mary, 88 North 17th Street, Minneapolis. Both concerts are free and children are welcome to attend.
Born in Seoul, Korea, Bae began her cello studies at age six and moved to Toronto two years later, where she enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She received her Bachelor of Music from The Curtis Institute of Music and later attended The Julliard School.
For the Minnesota Sinfonia concerts, Bae will perform Gabriel Faure’s “Elegy, op. 24,” David Popper’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” and her own arrangement of “Salut d’amor” by Edward Elgar. The Sinfonia will also perform works by J.C. Bach, J.S. Bach and Bedrich Smetana.
Bae was recently praised by The New Yorker as “superb” and by The Strad, for being “rich and romantic with crisp incisive technique.” Honored in March 2009 as the musician of the month in Musical America Magazine, Bae is also a winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.
In 2006, the Canada Council of the Arts awarded her First Prize in its Instrument Bank Competition, resulting in a three-year loan of the ca. 1696 Bonjour Stradivari cello. Earlier that same year, she became the first Canadian ever awarded a prize at the Adam International Cello Festival and Competition in New Zealand. She recently recorded her debut CD for the Naxos label featuring all twelve solo caprices of cellist-composer Alfredo Piatti.
The Winter Concert Series, now in its 21st season, is a series of classical concerts offered free to the public by the Minnesota Sinfonia in venues throughout the Twin Cities. Concerts feature accomplished guest soloists from around the world, and repertoire includes well-known classical works as well as new pieces by American composers. More information is available at www.mnsinfonia.org or 612-871-1701.
