Three-time Latin Grammy nominee Jovino Santos Neto (piano, flute) performs with Jeff Busch (drums), Tim Carey (bass), Ben Thomas (vibraphone), and Mark Ivester (percussion) in a joyful celebration of Brazilian music.

Seattle Symphony musicians Rachel Swerdlow (viola), Walter Gray (cello), and colleagues present a captivating program, connecting audiences to the historic roots of chamber music.

The Fulton Street Chamber Players are an ensemble of dedicated chamber musicians in the Seattle area supplemented with fantastic colleagues from around the country. Founded in 2015 by Seattle Symphony members Rachel Swerdlow and Walter Gray, their performances have been enjoyed throughout the Northwest. The FSCP performs in house concerts and eclectic venues that brings our audiences closer to the historic roots of chamber music.

With a performance history spanning more than 30 years and having released 17 CDs, Pearl Django endures as one of the most highly regarded Hot Club style groups working today. Although the band’s roots are firmly in the music made famous by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, its extensive repertoire includes traditional jazz classics and original compositions. They have played at the prestigious Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois sur Seine and have been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” The band’s signature style is marked by pristine and dexterous string work, colors of Bal Musette, the steady pulse of rhythm guitar and an unmistakable swing that delights audiences of all musical sensibilities.

First Sundays Concerts
2nd Annual Outdoor Summer Concert

DUENDE LIBRE

June 14 — 4:00 PM
📍Waterfront Park

Free Admission - All Welcome, Families Encouraged!

About DUENDE LIBRE

DUENDE LIBRE celebrates the connections between jazz and music from Cuba, Brazil, and the Mediterranean. Their stewardship is a natural continuation of decades of dedicated apprenticeship with master musicians from around the world. DUENDE LIBRE's empathic on-stage chemistry, formed through years of performing, touring, and recording together, sets the band apart along with their eclectic sonic palette.

“Each member’s experiences are vital as they filter West African traditional rhythms through their own hands, voices, minds, bodies, each song as much choreography as a composition,” PopMatters wrote. “Hopeful in sound as well as in ideological foundation [the band creates music] full of heart and historical multitudes.”

2025 Summer Concert Photos

Violinist Dawn Posey, cellist Sarah Rommel, and pianist Michelle Huang will dazzle the audience with a thoughtfully curated program from the whimsical Mozart Trio in B-flat Major, to the elegant and intensely romantic Queen of Hearts by Kati Agócs, and ending with the monumental Mendelssohn D minor Trio. 

This concert is SOLD OUT. Join the wait list below.

About the Musicians

Dawn Posey

Dawn Posey maintains an active and varied performing, teaching, and coaching career. She is currently Concertmaster of the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra in Bellingham, WA and Assistant Concertmaster of the Northwest Sinfonietta in Tacoma, WA. She also teaches violin and coaches musicians of all instruments.

Dawn has held the positions of principal second violin with the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra and Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra. She has performed with the Boston Conservatory Honors Quartet, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Dawn’s performances have taken her around the world, including Festival A Tempo in Caracas, Venezuela, the Chamber Music Festival of Amman, Jordan, Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, and Tanglewood Music Center in Boston. She has been featured as a soloist with orchestras in Washington, Missouri, Indiana, and England, and has worked with Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, and Lukas Foss in principal roles.

Dawn is a devotee of baroque performance practice and has been a frequent guest artist with Chatham Baroque, including tours to Ecuador and Los Angeles. In 2015, she participated in the world-renowned training program, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. Dawn continues to perform with baroque ensembles around the United States.

Dawn is a founding member of two chamber music ensembles, Kassia Ensemble and Jade Trio. Kassia Ensemble is made up entirely of female performers and seeks to empower women through quality performance, collaboration, diverse programming, and outreach.

Dawn currently lives in Seattle, WA where she is a frequent substitute with the Seattle Symphony. She also continues to perform with chamber ensembles in the pacific northwest. For more information please visit www.poseyviolin.com.

Michelle Huang

A native of Taiwan, pianist Michelle Huang enjoys a rewarding career as a dynamic soloist and chamber musician. She is equally at home performing music ranging from the esteemed masters to the novel voices. Since moving to Seattle in 2021, she has collaborated with musicians from the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Philharmonic, and Seattle Pro Musica to curate and present innovative programs. She is happiest when playing concerts that allow her to storytell, to make connections, and to create an expansive and imaginative listening experience for the audience.

She has appeared as a guest artist across the continents, giving concerts, lectures, workshops, and master classes. As a devoted educator, she held teaching positions at Lincoln Memorial University, Edward Waters College, and Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to collegiate teaching, she maintains a vibrant private teaching studio in Seattle, where she works with a group of piano students with immense talent.

She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Master of Music from the University of Tennessee, and Doctor of Music from Florida State University. Her mentors include Barbara Rowan, David Northington, and Read Gainsford.

Sarah Rommel

Emerging into a singularly creative career, Sarah Rommel is a cellist whose rare sincerity and honest musicianship has established her as a sought-after collaborator, educator, and curator. Sarah’s passion for unconventional programming that incites curiosity and her deep commitment to long-standing artistic and human values are branding her as a unique and quietly rising force in the musical landscape.

After capturing Third Prize at the 2014 George Enescu International Cello Competition in Bucharest, Romania, Sarah has given recitals at Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Showcase, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and across the United States from Maine to Seattle. She has participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Academie Musicale de Villecroze in France, and IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England where she has worked closely with distinguished professors such as David Geringas, Gary Hoffman, and Frans Helmerson. Praised for her rich sound and colorful approach to the cello, Sarah’s performances have been reviewed as “dimensional and expansive” and “captivating.”

As a member of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Sarah performs regularly in Boston in addition to having toured with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Musicians from Marlboro. Through chamber music collaborations, Sarah has performed on stages such as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, the Kennedy Center, the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. International chamber music collaborations have found Sarah touring New Zealand with Chamber Music New Zealand and as an organizer and performer for the SOTA Resonance Festival in Hyderabad, India. Sarah has been invited to perform at festivals such as the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Chamber Music Palisades, Chamber Music Sedona, as well as Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Series, Yellow Barn, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and Marlboro Music Festival. Memorable collaborations include working with composers John Adams, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Mackey, and Kaija Saariaho, pianists Jonathan Biss and Gil Kalish, violinists Lucy Chapman, Pamela Frank, Joseph Lin, and Don Weilerstein, and violists Atar Arad, Kim Kashkashian, and Nobuko Imai.

The coming year will see long-standing projects come to fruition, most notably Sarah’s forthcoming Arioso Project, which will culminate in the first commercial recording of a piece written in 1929. “Resurrecting” and accompanying this piece into the present will be five newly commissioned works that will be a reflection on themes of adversity and oppression and the distinct creativity that flows from such circumstances.

Sarah began her musical studies at age nine on piano and was later introduced to the cello through her public school at age twelve. She was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at eighteen years old where she pursued a Bachelor Degree with Peter Wiley. Previous teachers include Efe Baltacigil and Hans Jørgen Jensen. She received her Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles studying under the

tutelage of renowned pedagogue and mentor Ralph Kirshbaum. Sarah recently completed three years as Artist-in-Residence and cello faculty at the University of Washington in addition to being guest faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for their 2025 Spring Semester.

Based in Seattle, Sarah is a passionate knitter and reader, and enjoys the mountain views with her partner Jonathan, their dog Rhubarb, and cat Laptop.

“Brushes & Bass” (drummer Greg Williamson and bassist Heather Chriscaden) focuses on the lighter side of acoustic jazz textures while celebrating the drive and sonic palette of classic swing, bebop, and bossa nova.  The duo, along with special guests Brent Jensen and Susan Pascal, features unique, inventive arrangements that highlight the textures of each instrument.

About the Musicians

Greg is a devotee of the art of brush playing, but has driven the big bands of Woody Herman, Glenn Miller, Ernestine Anderson and his own Pony Boy All-Star Big Band. Heather studied with jazz bass legends Ray Brown and John Clayton and maintains an active performing and teaching schedule in the Seattle region. She was the cover story of the December 2023 issue of Earshot Jazz magazine.

Joining Greg & Heather for this First Sundays Concert will be special guests Susan Pascal (vibraphone) and Brent Jensen (saxophone). Susan has toured Singapore four times and played concerts and workshops across the United States. She has appeared at the Earshot Jazz Festival, Jazz Port Townsend and as a featured artist with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra and the popular Seattle “gypsy jazz” group, Pearl Django. Brent has recorded and performed with a wide range of jazz artists including Gene Harris, Bobby Shew, John Stowell, Bill Anschell, Jamie Findlay and many others. His recording, “The Sound of a Dry Martini: Remembering Paul Desmond” charted at the #1 position on jazz radio stations across the country upon its release in 2001 and continues to receive heavy airplay on numerous music streaming services. 

About the Musicians

LAUREN ASIMAKOUPOULOS, FLUTE

Lauren Asimakoupoulos is a flutist in the greater Seattle area. Lauren holds both a Bachelors and a Masters Degree in Flute Performance from Wheaton College and The University of Tennessee, respectively. Lauren has participated in several festivals and competitions around the globe, including Interharmony music festival in Italy, Flute Days Hamburg Festival in Germany, and the Global Summer Institute of Music in Virginia, where she won the international concerto competition in 2018. Lauren has studied with Sandra Saathoff, Jennie Brown, Aleksandr Haskin, and many more. Currently, she teaches privately on Mercer Island, is a flute clinician for several Washington school districts, and performs with different ensembles in the area.

BRIAN MADSEN, OBOE

A graduate of WWU, Brian Madsen is a freelance musician in Seattle. His current projects include performing and arranging chamber music, as well as his work recording and audio engineering with a particular focus on woodwind instruments. Brian maintains a private lesson studio, where he enjoys helping develop musical artistry, and has sent students on to further pursue their own degrees at music schools around the US.

BRIAN SCHAPPALS, CLARINET

Brian Schappals is a clarinetist, composer and educator based in Seattle, WA. He holds a Master’s in Music degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Washington and Bachelor’s of Arts degrees in Clarinet Performance and Music Composition from Whitworth University. Brian is the principal clarinetist of Northwest Symphony Orchestra and an active musician in the greater Seattle area, having played with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Emerald Ballet Academy Orchestra, Inverted Space Ensemble, Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, Saratoga Orchestra, The Sound Ensemble, and Bellingham Chamber Chorale. He recently participated in an album recording of Harry Partch's original version of The Bewitched with the Harry Partch Ensemble. Brian is also an active composer of contemporary classical music and serves as an Adjunct Faculty of Music Composition at Whitworth University. Most recently, he has been nominated as a finalist for the American Prize in Wind Ensemble Composition's Professional Division for his concerto for clarinet and mixed ensemble titled light...pale and angered. https://briannschappals.weebly.com/ 

ANNA BARBEE, HORN

Anna Barbee is a horn player and teacher local to Seattle. She earned her doctoral degree in Horn Performance from the University of Washington, performs regularly with Olympia Symphony, and teaches at Tacoma Community College and Pierce Community College.

DAVID WALL, BASSOON

A native of Southern California, David grew up playing saxophone before making the switch to bassoon and eventually receiving a degree in music from University of Washington where he studied with Seth Krimsky, principal bassoonist of the Seattle Symphony. David is a weekend radio host at Classical KING 98.1, has been principal bassoon for the Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra for 10 years and plays with various groups around the greater Seattle area. He is also an avid photographer and enjoys playing tennis, cooking, reading (mostly scifi/fantasy), and playing with his cat, Minerva.

http://www.davidlwall.com/

Reflections

7:00 pm performance

In this program, music acts as a mirror where one era reflects another. Beethoven’s Sonata in E major, Opus 109, moves between calm reflection and bursts of drama, followed by a piano transcription by the pianist and composer Asiya Korepanova from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Ravel’s Miroirs and Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin show how composers can reshape voices of the past into something new. Together, these pieces invite us into a hall of musical mirrors, where memory and imagination meet across time.

Reflections

4:00 pm performance - SOLD OUT

In this program, music acts as a mirror where one era reflects another. Beethoven’s Sonata in E major, Opus 109, moves between calm reflection and bursts of drama, followed by a piano transcription by the pianist and composer Asiya Korepanova from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Ravel’s Miroirs and Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin show how composers can reshape voices of the past into something new. Together, these pieces invite us into a hall of musical mirrors, where memory and imagination meet across time.

Since their memorable 2006 tour of Peru, pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Chris Symer, and drummer/percussionist Jeff Busch have been performing regularly as the Peru Reunion trio. Anschell had previously toured South America five times with his Atlanta trio before moving to Seattle in 2002. For all of the tours, Anschell arranged traditional South American songs, building a repertoire that offers a personal take on the beautiful and memorable melodies. The trio’s repertoire has continued to expand, now including songs from Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, as well as many of Anschell's original compositions.

About the Musicians

Bill Anschell
Pianist Bill Anschell’s concert credits include eight European tours with vocalist Nnenna Freelon and seven South American tours leading his own trio. He was featured as pianist, arranger, and composer on Freelon’s CD, Shaking Free, which was Grammy-nominated. He is a prolific composer; his original pieces have been placed more than 90 times on programs including “The West Wing,” “The Wire,” and “Yellowstone.”

Anschell, a Seattle native, returned to the Emerald city in 2002 after a long residency in Atlanta. He received Golden Ear Awards as the “Northwest Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year” in 2005, 2010 and 2011; his trio was named “Northwest Acoustic Jazz Ensemble of the Year” in 2006 and 2022; his CD Figments won “Northwest Jazz Recording of the Year” in 2011; and in 2016 he was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame.

Anschell is also well known as a jazz humorist, and in 2014 he was a winner of the inaugural Paul Desmond Award, allaboutjazz.com’s celebration of the funniest jazz artists.

Chris Symer
Bassist Chris Symer moved to Seattle in 2002 from Los Angeles, where he was an in-demand player for live gigs and studio work. Feeling at home playing almost any type of music, he has been busy working in a wide variety of musical situations. He has performed in groups ranging from the unclassifiable Southern California based band "Headless Household"; to sideman work with Bennie Maupin, Charlie Byrd, Tierney Sutton, Roger Kellaway and Robben Ford; to orchestral playing for film scores. Symer's consistent sound and reliable sense of direction have not only helped him find work, but to get there on time as well.

Since moving to Seattle from Los Angeles in 2002, Symer has become an integral part of the city's jazz scene, freelancing as a bass-for-hire and playing regularly in the bands of Bill Anschell, Johnaye Kendrick and Nelda Swiggett.

Jeff Busch
Jeff Busch is an exuberant drummer/percussionist, vocalist, and composer who has been active on the Seattle jazz, gospel, and Latin jazz scenes for the past 13 years. He is a member of the Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto, whose 2004 recording ‘Canto do Rio’ was nominated for a Latin Jazz Grammy. In 2007, one of Jeff’s original compositions entitled ‘the Struggle’ from his album ‘Song for the Ninth Ward, was selected as a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition’s jazz category. He has drummed at Seattle’s First AME church for the past 12 years, and has collaborated with a wide variety of artists.

From 1988-96, Jeff studied fine art, and music in Leeds, England. He studied percussion and drum set with Dave Hassel, calypso with steel drum master Dudley Nesbitt, and later Brazilian percussion with Jesse Bannister. In Leeds he first worked as a percussion accompanist for three of the city’s dance companies. In 1997, Jeff spent six months in Brazil and studied with a variety of percussionists including Edmilson Costa Teixeira, Gilo do Pandeiro, and Mestres Memeu and Lazaro from Olodum; he returned to tour as a performer in 1998. He was the recipient of a King County Arts grant for a recording project entitled “Drums and Voices – A Collage of Negro Spirituals,” with gospel singer Patrinell Wright and Master Senegalese drummer Thione Diop. In addition to performing, Jeff continues his work as a dance accompanist, producer, educator, studio musician and visual artist.

Getting There

The concert will take place on the lawn just below the Waterfront Park Community Center. It’s a short walk from the street and is accessible for wheelchairs.

PARKING
We suggest parking on Bjune or Brien.

Eleonora Karpukhova, Associate Professor at the Moscow Conservatory will perform a radiant Solo Piano recital. Winner of numerous international competitions Eleanora was born in Kazan and began her musical studies at age 5. She performs widely in Russia and regularly around Europe, in South America, and since 2014 in the United States.

Featuring works by Bach, Rachmaninov, Ravel and others.

This performance is sold out.

More about Eleonora Karpukhova

Russian pianist, winner of numerous international piano competitions and Associate Professor at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory — was born in Kazan (Russia) and began her musical studies at the age of 5.

 In 2000, Eleonora graduated from the Moscow Conservatory under Prof. V. V. Kastelsky with honors degree. She completed her music education in 2003 as a probation assistant under Prof. M. S. Voskresensky.

While a student, she won numerous international competitions. Eleonora convincingly confirmed her complete professionalism in 2002 by winning the 18th Varallo Sessia International Competition in Italy and the 29th Dr. Luis Sigall International Piano Competition in Chile. "The final round of the music competition in Viña del Mar was a phenomenal event", wrote the Domingo newspaper. "An exceptional performance of Mozart's concerto No. 20 in D minor by Eleonora Karpukhova got the audience into blissfulness and tranquility." Further performances also brought her winning titles. In 2004, Eleonora won the Zlatko Grgosevich Competition in Zagreb, Croatia (Second Prize) and the Jose Vianna da Motta Piano Competition in Lisbon, Portugal.

Eleonora Karpukhova successfully combined her recitals in Russia and abroad.  She regularly performs in Russia, Ukraine, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Austria, Chile, Brazil and Portugal. Her concerts in the Small and Rachmaninov Halls and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Salle Cortot in Paris, Saal Gasteig in Munich, Teatro "Gil Vicente" in Coimbra, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon and philharmonic halls of Kiev, Kazan, Donetsk, Kharkov and other cities have always been very successful. In the United States, she has performed at Benaroya Hall for the Russian Chamber Music Foundation of Seattle.

Moscow pianists have long esteemed Eleonora for a harmonic combination of strong will, warm emotions, inspiration and naturalness of her performing style.

Eleonora has vast experience of performing with an orchestra. She played numerous concerts with Orquestra Sinfonica de Chili, Orquestra Fundacao Gulbenkian,Polish Baltic Philharmonic orchestra, Orquestra Metropolitana, Orquestra de Algarve, Orquestra Sinfonica de Providencia ( Chile ). Eleonora Karpukhova actively cooperates with such famous conductors as S. Soldatov, Y. Yanko, A. Cassuto, D. del Pino Klinge, F. Lentini, D. Nazareth and M. Zilm, D.Kolobov, A. Dumay.

In 2013, Eleonora initiated and organized in Moscow the Rachmaninov Fest music festival to mark the 140th anniversary of the composer's birth. Eleonora has recorded two CDs of Rachmaninov's music, for both solo and two pianos.  Also solo CD album  featuring  complete Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux released in 2014 by Classical Records. In 2017 the new recording of pianist from live concert with Tchaikovsky’s piano masterpieces was released in Moscow. In 2024 she completed a three-year eight-concert series in the Conservatory playing everything Rachmaninov wrote for solo piano, in honor of the 150th anniversary of his birth. 

Internationally reknowned jazz guitarist Jean Chaumont performs with his quintet.

Correo Aereo performs traditional music of Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela, as well as striking original compositions. A concert of rich, haunting, and joyful music.

Efe Baltacigil, principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony, brings to life works by iconic composers. Delight in the melodic charm of J.S. Bach's cello suite, revel in the avant-garde brilliance of Yörgy Sándor Ligeti's Sonata, and be mesmerized by the virtuosic compositions of Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe's Sonata in this cello and piano performance.

SOLD OUT