(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Violinist Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Edward Arron will perform two of the most treasured masterworks in the repertoire: Heinrich Biber’s Passacaglia in G Minor for Solo Violin, and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, at the Clark Art Institute on Sunday, April 12, 2015, at 4 pm, in the Clark Center, West Pavilion. Immediately following the concert, there will be a brief reception with the artists.

The program begins with one of the most hauntingly beautiful and virtuosic works ever written for violin, the Passacaglia in G Minor by Heinrich Biber, composed in 1696. It will be followed by the epic and beloved Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach, in an arrangement transcribed for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky in 1985. The piece is represented in its full glory, with not a single note added or subtracted. But with three players instead of one, the work takes on an exquisite dimension in vivid dialogue among the trio.

Cellist Edward Arron, “an inventive impresario” (The New Yorker), has garnered recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Arron has appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2013, Arron completed a ten-year residency as the artistic director of the critically acclaimed Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Currently, he is the artistic director, host, and resident performer of the Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, Connecticut, as well as the Festival Series in Beaufort, South Carolina and Chamber Music on Main at the Columbia Museum in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School and has served on the faculty of New York University since 2009.

Violist Nicholas Cords, a musician with “impeccable command” (Textura), has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the New York String Seminar Orchestra. His debut solo album, Recursions, features works ranging from Biber to Hindemith to Cords’ recently composed Five Migrations. Cords is a regular member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and is an active part of two long-term residencies with the group: one at the Rhode Island School of Design and one at Harvard University. He is also a founding member of the critically acclaimed string quartet Brooklyn Rider. Cords began his musical education at the Juilliard School and completed his studies at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. He currently teaches at Stony Brook University in New York and spends part of the summer teaching at the Bennington Chamber Music and Composers Conference.

Violinist and composer Colin Jacobsen is “one of the most interesting figures on the classical music scene” (The Washington Post). He was named one of the top 100 composers under 40 by NPR listeners and is an Avery Fisher Career Grant-winning soloist and a touring member of Yo-Yo Ma’s famed Silk Road Ensemble. For his work as a founding member of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider and orchestra The Knights, Jacobsen recently received a prestigious and substantial United States Artists Fellowship. He has participated in residencies and performances at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hollywood Bowl, and across the United States, as well as in Azerbaijan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Switzerland. As a violin soloist, Jacobsen has collaborated with the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony, and has regularly appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, at Bargemusic, and as a member of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the Royal Conservatory of the Hague.

The concert is a presentation by Performing Artists in Residence at the Clark, co-directed by Edward Arron and Jeewon Park.

Tickets are $25 ($20 members; free for students with college ID). To order tickets, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 0524.