Handout
From the left, Zachary Mowitz, Sahun "Sam" Hong, Stephanie Zyzak, Luther Warren.
The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once described chamber music as "four rational people conversing." And if you were to ask any of the 11 members of the near 10-year-old ensemble132 how they would describe what they do, they would probably agree.
Founded by four core members who met at a summer music program in Taos, New Mexico, more than nine years ago, ensemble132 includes Zachary Mowitz on cello, TCU alum Sahun (Sam) Hong on piano, Stephanie Zyzak on violin, and Luther Warren on viola.
Although these four still play together, there are now seven other members who help fill out the ensemble’s performances depending on where and when they occur.
Next month, ensemble132 is scheduled to make its first stop in Fort Worth-Dallas, home of one of the group’s founding members.
The name Sahun (Sam) Hong might ring a bell because he was only 16 years old when he graduated magna cum laude with a double major in math and piano performance from TCU in 2011.
Born in South Korea in 1994, his family moved to Fort Worth in 2002 from Orlando so his father could continue his schooling at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
John Owings, a pianist teaching at TCU, became Hong’s teacher. Owings retired in August after 33 years with TCU’s School of Music. He received the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Creative Activity in 1993 for his performances of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas.
By age 12, he was wearing TCU purple and going to school there.
Since graduating, Hong has been busy living his dream playing live music with trusted friends/musicians who share the same artistic vision.
“We started playing as a trio in 2015, which lasted about four years,” Hong says. “But in 2019, we decided to do a new kind of project.”
This meant keeping the four to five musicians used for a chamber ensemble intact but having a bigger team of likeminded musicians to pull from.
“We've all gone to school together, all gone to festivals together, and we all love playing together,” Mowitz says. “And I guess there has been this kind of model of a set string quartet or a set piano trio, which is something we all dreamed of joining in our careers. But then we had this idea, ‘Why not have the best of all worlds?’ ‘Why not be able to play with all these people in different scenarios and have it be an intense commitment to the art and to the performance, but still have it be different every time?’”
Enter ensemble132, a collective that allows solo musicians a chance to collaborate and reimagine the chamber music landscape.
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments — traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most chamber music consists of traditional pieces set up for a series of four to eight instruments. Anything above this gets into the orchestra realm, which takes a larger set of musicians to pull off.
The name ensemble132 was taken from Beethoven's String Quartet in A Minor, “a piece that inspires us all, and which we feel transformed the chamber music landscape in its own time,” Mowitz says.
Handout
From left, Inmo Yang, Sahun "Sam" Hong, Zachary Mowitz, guest violist Yuchen Lu.
With nearly a decade under their belt as a musical collective, ensemble132 has its repertoire down.
With several of the original members now living on the East Coast, Hong says the ensemble’s practices normally take place in New York City area when time permits. Currently, ensemble132 does about 24 to 25 shows a year, which vary in musical styles.
“I think we're like a musical family,” says Mowitz, a native of New Jersey. “I mean, we know each other so well we’ve reached a point where you breathe together, you express together. And that's, I think, the joy of what we've got going on here. We're a nice musical extended family.”
Even in silence, Hong says the group has an effect on the crowds the collective performs for.
"Let's say people are not clapping in between movements, the audience can feel our energy, even if that bright spotlight is on us, we're still totally the energy of the audience,” says Hong, who serves on the music faculty at Merrimack College in Andover, Massachusetts.
“And that's really, really important that we are putting energy into the air via our instruments, and it literally goes into whoever's listening, and we are also listening to each other. And so, we're all kind of in it together in that way.”
Hong also was the winner of the 2017 Vendome Prize at Verbier, and received Second Prize at the 2017 International Beethoven Competition Vienna. He was also a recipient of a 2021 American Pianists Award.
In addition to playing a few dates while in the DFW area, Hong and Mowitz say that they will also be working with chamber music students at TCU. This is being set up as an inspirational residency that will allow the members of ensemble132 to mentor up-and-coming musicians. This afternoon workshop will integrate nearly 10 musicians into an ensemble where they will perform six pieces of music, both traditional and non-traditional as a learning experience.
“It's not all that long ago that we were in school, that we were in the same places as these students,” Mowitz says. “It's been such a journey over the last almost 10 years, learning the artistic push and commitment of not just playing, but also putting together these programs, as well as the very practical side of figuring out how do you make a group happen. it's been thrilling and eye-opening to see how that happens. And I'd love to share that with students who are just eight to ten years younger than me because there's so many things I could have been.”
ensemble132’s upcoming schedule:
Feb. 2: Dallas: Collora Piano (1451 Wycliff Ave), 7 p.m.
Feb. 3: Fort Worth: TCU (Van Cliburn Concert Hall), 7 p.m.
Feb. 4: Fort Worth: TCU (PepsiCo Recital Hall), 3 p.m.**
**Collaborative concert with TCU chamber music students
ensemble132 Members:
Violin Abi Fayette • Maria Ioudenitch • Inmo Yang • Stephanie Zyzak
Viola Luther Warren • Zhanbo Zheng
Cello Jonah Ellsworth • Zachary Mowitz • Chase Park
Piano Janice Carissa • Sahun Hong