Opera for Five

Casual Concert: May 19, 2024 @ 7 PM
3rd Street Market, Fort Worth

Salon Concert: May 13, 2024 @ 7:30 PM
Private Home, Fort Worth
Address will be sent to you upon reservation.

For its closing concert, Opus Nova performs two classic masterpieces that bring operatic elements to the chamber setting: Meyerbeer’s Clarinet Quintet in E-flat major, and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major. Sit back and enjoy two of the works that introduced the clarinet to the genre, accompanied by Fort Worth’s own Sedici Strings. ​

​The Casual Concert on May 19th and 7 PM will be held at 3rd Street Market  (downtown Fort Worth). Doors open at 6:30 PM, food and drinks are available for purchase. Come and enjoy high-level classical music in a laid-back environment! Tickets are $25 for adults and $5 for students. 

Our Salon Concert on May 13th at 7:30 PM will be presented at the beautiful private home in Fort Worth. The concert includes a complimentary pre-concert reception with refreshments and hors d’oeuvres and free valet parking. Enjoy this wonderful chamber music concert played by outstanding artists in a private atmosphere. Share the moment with fellow music lovers and artists. Tickets are $65 per person.
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Program

Giacomo Meyerbeer: Clarinet Quintet in E-flat major (1813)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581

Musicians
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Stas Chernyshev, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, is recently appointed principal clarinetist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He is the founder and artistic director of Fort Worth Performances for Autism, and a co-director of Opus Nova Chamber Music Series. Mr. Chernyshev is a prize winner of many international competitions, and has appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Japan. A devoted chamber musician, Mr. Chernyshev has collaborated with Grammy-winning ensemblesEighth Blackbird and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, commissioned new works for his instrument. He has been featured on WQXR -New York’s classical music station and WHYY’s television program - On Stage at Curtis. Mr. Chernyshev holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and a Master’s degree from St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia. He is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect (formerly Ensemble ACJW), a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute, and ArtistYear, a program of the Curtis Institute of Music.

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Ann Hung, born in Taipei, Taiwan, began her musical studies at a young age, starting with piano at age five and clarinet at age nine. Dr. Hung is an active performer in the Dallas and Fort Worth area who regularly performs in the realms of both the orchestral and chamber music. She has shared the stage with the Fort Worth Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the faculty of the Juilliard School. Dr. Hung is always pushing the boundaries of her repertoire and skills, such as collaborating with jazz musicians and commissioning new composers. As a proponent of new music, she has avidlycommissioned new works including a wind quintet with her quintet Opus Now premiering in Symphony Space in NYC. One of the new works that Dr. Hung commissioned is included in a recently released album “Stained Glass Story” by Eldad Tarmu. Dr. Hung is currently teaching in Lewisville ISD, Burleson ISD as private lesson instructor and often plays with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She is the associate director of the Fort Worth Performances for Autism and co- founder of Opus Nova Chamber Music Series.

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Jen Betz has been a member of the first violin section of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 2012. Originally from California, she began playing the violin at age seven.
She studied at the preparatory division in San Francisco Conservatory with Doris Fukawa and then with Zaven Melikian at the San Domenico School in San Anselmo, CA. She was accepted into the studio of Almita and Roland Vamos at Northwestern University and was also a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2007-2008. After graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree, she moved to Miami to play with the New World Symphony as a Fellow for four years. There she worked closely with conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa- Pekka Salonen. She now lives in Fort Worth with her husband, her beautiful daughter, and two rescued lab mixes.

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Molly Baer joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 2012. Before moving to Texas, Molly was a violin fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. She graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston as a student of Miriam Fried, and received her Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music, where she studied with Andrés Cárdenes. Molly has participated in the National Orchestral Institute, National Repertory Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and Music Academy of the West. Molly grew up in a suburb of Baltimore and enjoys returning to spend time with her family.

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A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Dmitry Kustanovich immigrated with his family to the U.S. at age 5, settling in Worcester, MA. After completing violin studies at the New England Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, Dmitry became a violist. He then attended the Curtis Institute of Music, working with Joseph de Pasquale.
Dmitry joined the FWSO in 2005. He has also performed with the
Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Seattle Symphony orchestras. He has toured the U.S. and Europe, working with many of the world's greatest conductors.
His summers at the Greenwood Music Camp and participation in Alexander Schneider's New York String Seminar propelled him into a career in music. In his spare time, Dmitry enjoys playing chamber music with his FWSO colleagues in their group Sedici Strings, road trips, hiking, cycling, baseball and chess.

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Allan Steele, principal cellist with the Fort Worth Symphony, is a performer, teacher, and composer. Mr. Steele maintains an active solo career and has performed with the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony, and others. He has premiered several works in chamber or orchestral settings by composers such as Mark Antony Turnage and Stephen Cohn, as well as performing the world premiere of Henri Lazarof's Fifth Cello Concerto. Mr. Steele has studied with a number of notable pedagogues such as Tanya Carey, Hans Jensen, and Susan Moses. Music festival appearances include Indiana University's Summer String Program, The Meadowmount School of Music, and the Montreal International String Quartet Academy. He is a graduate of the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where he studied with Ronald Leonard. He is a regular in the chamber music scene, performing with musicians such as Edgar Myers, Paul Coletti, Arnold Steinhardt, and Vadym Kholodenko. Steele is a founding member of the classical music group, "MC2" and devotes much of his spare time to composing and arranging. ​