By Kathleen Suss

May 17, 2023: Concordia Conservatory presents the More Than Music concert on May 21, at 4 pm "Stories & Fairy Tales" with Concordia Conservatory faculty Emanouil Manolov, violin; Chungsun Kim, cello; and Clare Hoffman, flute in a chamber music program with music by Claude Debussy, Georg Telemann, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Reinhold Glière.

The concert will take place at the home of Laurie & Hoke Slaughter, 2 Elm Rock Road, Bronxville.

This 45-minute concert/lecture program explores the joy of storytelling through music, with a chamber program that dives into the world of legend, drama, and mythology. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for seniors and children. To purchase tickets, visit www.concordiaconservatory.org or call 914-395-4507.

About the Artists

Violinist Emanouil Manolov made his debut playing on Bulgarian National Television at the age of ten. Since then he has gone on to concertize throughout his native Bulgaria, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. Solo and chamber recitals include performances at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Embassy Series, and Weill Hall. Mr. Manolov has collaborated in chamber music performances with members of the Emerson Quartet, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center. He serves as Artistic Director of the North Shore Pro Musica chamber music series.

A dynamic and versatile artist, cellist Chungsun Kim has been widely recognized for performances in  major music capitals in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Her expressive playing and extraordinary musicianship have led her to perform many different concerts at venues in the United States and abroad, including Alice Tully Hall, Sejong Concert Recital Hall (Korea), Araki Concert Hall  (Japan), Chiesa Santo Spirito (Italy), Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall (David Geffen Hall) at Lincoln Center. She has appeared as a soloist with Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Sarah Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, National Repertoire Orchestra, Philharmonia Lawrencia, New York Virtouosi, Ars Ensemble, and Aspen Summer Music Festival  Orchestra. She has also been featured as a guest artist at music festivals such as Arcady Music Festival, InterHarmony International Music Festival (Italy), New International Music Festival (Korea), Laurentian Summer Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (Germany), Beethoven Festival, Summit Music  Festival, and The Academy of Music Festival. She was featured to perform Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed  Man” Benedictus at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center as part of the Nyack College School of Music celebration in 2015 and 2017.

As an active chamber musician, Ms. Kim was a founding member of Amasi Trio, the Trio in Residence of Nyack College School of Music for twenty-five years. Amasi Trio, named in dedication to the Asian American identity, committed to performing music composed by Asian composers, in addition to  performing other western classical music. In the fall of 2013, the trio released a CD with Parker, Rachmaninoff, and Chaminade Trios in the repertoire. She was also a member of Trio di Buson, and the  group released the CD under the Guild label in 2014. She joined the Orion Music Ensemble in 2011 and had been involved with the Balcony Chamber Music Series in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. As an orchestra player, she was a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Westchester Philharmonic, the New York Virtuosi, the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and a soloist and principal of the New York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Kim is also a dedicated teacher and cello pedagogue. She has taught a variety of audiences and at  various institutions, including the Sarah Lawrence Music Festival, the New International Music Festival, and master classes at the University of Florida, Ithaca College, and the Ithaca Violoncello Institute. She is  a current faculty member at Nyack College, Concordia Conservatory, and the Hotchkiss School. She has  been teaching at InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Piedmont, Italy since the  summer of 2016. In 2021, she founded the Community Cello Ensemble, a group committed to performing cello ensemble repertoire, to play concerts for the senior members and raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association.

Clare Hoffman, flute, has toured the United States, Europe, and Asia, performing in a variety of settings from major concert halls to an ancient amphitheater on the Greek island of Rhodes and Vivaldi’s parish church in Venice. Locally, she has performed with the Berkshire Bach Society (Tanglewood), Bang on a Can Festival (Lincoln Center), Cutting Edge (New York City, Victoria Bond, director), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series). She has premiered works by John Corigliano, Seymour Barab, Brent Michael Davids, Arnold Black, and Richard Einhorn, and recorded for television and film. She is a dedicated advocate for arts education and has worked throughout the United States with students from diverse backgrounds, from inner-city schools in places like Los Angeles and New York City to farming communities in Iowa and Native American communities in Arizona. Her education projects for the Grand Canyon Music Festival include an arts curriculum for fifth graders that integrates music and visual arts with core subjects. She is co-founder and artistic director of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, currently in its 40th season presenting critically acclaimed concerts and award-winning education programming, including the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), with composers-in-residence Pulitzer Prize-winner Raven Chacon, Trevor Reed, and Michael Begay, and ensembles including the Catalyst Quartet, ETHEL, and Sweet Plantain, which was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, and with an Infusion Award from the Lewis Prize for Music, NewMusic USA’s New Music Educators Award, and the Governor's Arts Award.

She is currently on the faculties of Concordia Conservatory and the Dalton School. She studied at the Mannes College of Music with Andrew Lolya, at L’École d’Été in France with legendary French flutists Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion, and with Samuel Baron and in master class with Julius Baker.