Matthew Christakos | Lyric Chamber Music

MATTHEW CHRISTAKOS

Assoc. Principal Cello, NY Philharmonic

Hanna Kim, Piano

Monday, October 20, 2025

7.30 p.m.

PROGRAM (TBA)

All Russian program featuring Sonatas by Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, and works by Sergei Rachmaninov & Peter Tchaikovsky.

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

Matthew Christakos joined the New York Philharmonic as Associate Principal Cello in January 2024. Originally from Toronto, he studied with Peter Wiley and Gary Hoffman at the Curtis Institute of Music, and has served as principal cello of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Christakos’s recent honors include the 2019 Canada Council for the Arts’s Michael Measures Prize, second prize in the Canadian Music Competition’s 2019 Stepping Stone, and first prize in the 2017 Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival President’s Trophy Competition. CBC Music included him in its 2019 edition of 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30.

Before attending Curtis, Christakos studied in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists, where he won the concerto competition and performed as soloist with the Academy Chamber Orchestra. In 2019 he toured Canada and Spain as a featured soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He is an alumnus of the Morningside Music Bridge program. He previously studied with David Hetherington and Hans Jørgen Jensen. He began cello at age four.

Highly praised by both jurors and audiences alike, South Korean pianist Hanna Hyunjung Kim has garnered an impressive list of international competition successes. Her most recent success was in the 2016 6th Sendai International Music Competition in Japan, where she won first prize and received numerous concert engagements. Previous successes include second prize and the special Jury Award at the 2010 Paderewski International Piano Competition, first prize in the 2008 Asia Chopin International Piano Competition, and second prize at the 2008 Taipei International Chopin Piano Competition.

Additionally, she has been a top prize winner at the 2011 Seoul International Piano Competition in Korea, the 2009 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, the 2010 Rhodes International Piano Competition in Greece, and the 2006 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in USA.

HyunJung made her debut as soloist with the Seoul Symphony at the age of 10. She has since been involved in building an international career, having soloed with many other orchestras including the Japan Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic, Hiroshima Symphony, Qingdao Symphony, Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic, Kaoshung Symphony, KBS Symphony, Sungnam Philharmonic, Prime Philharmonic, and Suwon Symphony. As a recitalist, Ms. Kim has been performed in major concert venues in Japan such as Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, Munetsugu Hall in Nagoya, Hitachi System Hall in Sendai, ACT City Ongaku Hall in Hamamatsu. In addition, her solo and concerto performances have been aired on KBS 93.1 FM in Korea and on WBJC 91.5 FM in Baltimore, USA.

Ms. Kim successfully finished giving a nationwide recital tour in Japan in 2017 and released her debut CD in Japan featuring works by Mozart, Schumann, Prokofiev and Grünfeld. In the 2018-19 season she will also appear in recitals and solo performances with orchestra in Hamamatsu, Sendai, Hiroshima, Seoul, Qingdao and Osaka.

She is currently pursuing her Artist Diploma in Piano Performance at the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Yong Hi Moon.