French Masterpieces
The Balourdet Quartet joins Asiya Korepanova (piano) and Arnaud Sussmann (violin) at the UM Knight Center for Music Innovation in FOCM’s 71st Anniversary Season.
Composed within little more than a decade of one another, Ernest Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet and César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor stand among the most ambitious achievements of the French chamber music tradition. Both works combine expansive Romantic expression with the cyclical forms and richly chromatic harmonies that became hallmarks of the French school in the late nineteenth century. Chausson’s unique concerto blends the intimacy of chamber music with the virtuosity of a concerto, while Franck’s passionate quintet unfolds with remarkable emotional intensity and structural unity. Performed by the Balourdet Quartet together with pianist Asiya Korepanova and violinist Arnaud Sussmann, this program celebrates two composers whose works helped define a distinctive French voice in chamber music.
- Chausson
Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet - Franck
Piano Quintet in F minor
Watch the Balourdet Quartet
Artist Spotlight
Balourdet Quartet
Acclaimed for its vibrant energy and emotional depth, the Balourdet Quartet creates “a world where memory and transformation coexist” (Seen and Heard International). Described as “an ensemble unafraid to show its personality” (The Strad), the Quartet was awarded the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award. In 2026 the Balourdet Quartet was named the inaugural fellow of the Resonance String Quartet Fellowship.
Highlights of the 2025–26 season include performances at Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian Museum, Boston’s Celebrity Series, the Rockport Music Festival, and La Jolla Music Society. The Balourdet collaborates with leading artists of our time including Yo-Yo Ma, Marc-André Hamelin, James Ehnes, Misha Dichter, Simone Dinnerstein, Zuill Bailey, and the Dover, Pacifica, and Ying Quartets.
Asiya Korepanova
The pianist who performed the complete Rachmaninoff solo piano works within the composer’s 150th-anniversary year in 2023, Asiya Korepanova is a pianistic powerhouse hailed as a “tremendously gifted pianist who exhibits a singular affinity for Rachmaninoff’s Russian romantic idiom and possesses the blazing technique to fully realize his distinctive scores” (South Florida Classical Review), who is also highly recognized as a composer, visual artist, and poet.
A herald of a repertoire encompassing over 65 piano concertos and solo works spanning five centuries, Asiya is a quintessential completist. She finds unique joy in performing programs such as the 24 Liszt Etudes or the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach. Her emotionally charged and colorfully nuanced performances have gained her the admiration of audiences and resulted in many repeat engagements.
Arnaud Sussmann
Violinist Arnaud Sussmann is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach and Founding Artistic Director of the Boscobel Chamber Music Festival. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has distinguished himself with his unique sound, bravura and profound musicianship.
Born in Strasbourg, France, Sussmann trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and the Juilliard School with Boris Garlitsky and Itzhak Perlman. Winner of several international competitions, including the Andrea Postacchini of Italy and Vatelot/Rampal of France, he was named a Starling Fellow in 2006, an honor which allowed him to be Mr. Perlman’s teaching assistant for two years.