Between Two Worlds
January 11, 2026 at 3pm
Trinity Chapel
Bethany Lutheran College​
Piano Trio in B-minor. Op.16
Emilie Mayer | 25’
Allegro di molto e con brio
Un poco adagio
Scherzo. Allegro assai
Finale. Allegro
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Piano Trio #2 in E-minor, Op.67
Dmitri Shostakovich | 30’
Andante – Moderato
Allegro con brio
Largo
Allegretto – Adagio
Violinist Cecilia Belcher, who joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 2014, was named assistant principal second violin in 2017. Previously, she performed with the St. Louis Symphony from 2008 to 2014, and also frequently performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the New York City chamber orchestra The Knights. She has been principal second violin of ROCO in Houston and the Minnesota Bach Ensemble and, as concertmaster, she led the New World Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Aspen Music Festival Opera Orchestra and Mississippi Valley Orchestra. She has enjoyed traveling the world for festivals and performances, including to Aspen, Tanglewood, Verbier, Banff, Beijing, the BBC Proms, South Africa, New Zealand and throughout Europe.
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From St. Louis, Missouri, Belcher began violin studies at the age of 3, and was a student of the renowned Suzuki pedagogue Winifred Crock. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Paul Kantor, and a master’s degree from the Shepherd School of Music, studying with Kathleen Winkler. She and her husband Richard Belcher, a cellist in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, live in Minneapolis with their two young children.
New Zealand cellist Richard Belcher joined the SPCO in 2019 after a twenty-year career as founding cellist of the Grammy-nominated Enso String Quartet. With the quartet he earned highly critical accolades from recording and concertizing in many of the world’s major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Kennedy Center in the United States, as well as abroad in Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand.
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Richard is the Artistic Director of Music on the Hill in Mankato, Minnesota, and since 2008 has been Principal Cellist of River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, Texas. He has taught and performed at many festivals including St. Bart’s, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Prussia Cove, Madeline Island, Campos do Jordao International Winter Festival, SummerFest La Jolla, and the San Miguel de Allende International Chamber Music Festival. In demand as a teacher and chamber music coach, Richard has previously served as Adjunct Faculty at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and has given numerous masterclasses around the world.
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Richard moved to the United States in 1998 to study with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, and it was while there that he founded the Enso String Quartet. Richard’s other principal teachers include Norman Fischer, Marc Johnson, and Alexander Ivashkin. He plays an N.F. Vuillaume cello made in 1856, and is married to Cecilia Belcher, Assistant Principal 2nd Violin of the Minnesota Orchestra.
American pianist Matthew McCright has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific and on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Ireland’s National Concert Hall. He has thrilled audiences and critics alike with imaginative programming that places the greatest piano repertoire alongside the music of today’s most innovative composers. A native of Pennsylvania, McCright now resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a member of the piano faculty of Carleton College.
A four-time winner of the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative, McCright’s affinity for contemporary music and curiosity in seeking new sound worlds has led him to premiere numerous pieces, and has collaborated with such composers as Pauline Oliveros, Augusta Read Thomas, Paul Dresher, Michael Gordon, Mary Ellen Childs, Julia Wolfe, Mark Anthony Turnage, Terry Riley, Alvin Lucier, Amy Williams, Kirsten Broberg, Daniel Nass, Laura Caviani, Andrea Mazzariello, Sean Friar, Justin Merritt, Dorothy Hindman, Robert Voisey, Christopher Coleman, Kyong Mee Choi, Ingrid Stölzel, Justin Rubin, Mike McFerron, Reinaldo Moya, Stephen Andrew Taylor, David Evan Thomas, Edie Hill, Linda Buckley, Garrett Sholdice, Razak Abdul-Aziz, Greg Hutter, and Judith Lang Zaimont among many others.
McCright completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota, Master of Music Degree in Piano from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance, Magna Cum Laude, from Westminster College. His past teachers include Lydia Artymiw, Lisa Moore, Nancy Zipay DeSalvo, and Richard Morris. He is represented by Proper Canary Artist Services. For more information please
visit: www.matthewmccright.org
