Knudsen, Sato (1955-Present)

Cellist from Baltimore, Maryland, who started out on the violin when he was three years old and gravitated to the cello at the tender age of seven.

He attended the New England Conservatory of Music, the Piatigorshky Seminar, and the Tanglewood Music Center. His instructors comprised Madeleine Foley, Stephen Geber, Robert Ripley, and David Soyer.

In 1971, Harold Ried Laudenslager wrote Two Miniatures for Cello & Piano, Op. 41 (Breadsticks and Wishbone) for Mayumi and Sato Knudsen.

Groups with whom Sato has performed include the Anima Piano Trio, the Boston Pops, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Opera Company, the Brockton Symphony, the Hampton String Quartet, the New Hampshire Symphony, the New Philharmonia Orchestra, the Newton Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, and the Worcester Symphony.

He was a guest soloist with the BSO as early as 1974, and became a full-time member of the orchestra in 1983.

One of his earliest recordings was 1989’s Something About the Moon by Matt Johnson. Sato performed at the CD release concerto on 5^th May 1989 at the Longy School of Music, which is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Other recordings on which he appears include: America, The Celtic Album, Holiday Pops, My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration and A Splash of Pops by the Boston Pops; End of a Day by Matt Johnson; Full Circle by Lisa Meri; Haas/Krasa: String Quartets by the HSQ; Jazz for Lovers and Mistletoe Sax by Bruce Abbott; Keisuke Wakao Plays Mozart, Bach, Britten, Prokofiev; The Radiant Voice of Barbara Bonney; and, Virtuoso Trumpet by Charles Schlueter.

He also performed on the soundtracks of The American Experience, Last Dance, Secrecy, and Sunshine State.

In the 1996-1997 season, the HSQ collaborated with the New Philharmonia Orchestra on Johannes Brahms’ Concerto for String Quartet and Chamber Orchestra. Sato was a guest soloist with the New Philharmonia in the 2000-2001 season when they performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin and Cello.

On 8^th August 2008, members of the BSO joined forces with the HSQ for a pre-concert recital of Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C, John Harbison’s Six American Painters, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quintet in G minor.

The HSQ were the ensemble in residence at Skidmore College, where they participated in the Skidmore String Music Festival from 27^th February to 1^st March 2009. On 28^th February 2009, they interpreted Elliott Carter’s Fragment No. 2, Charles Ives’ String Quartet No. 1, and Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 13 (Rosamunde). They were joined by college and high school students for the finale from Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet on 1^stMarch 2009.

On 20^th April 2009, they appeared with guitarist Joel Brown at Tang Gallery for a program of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Quintet for Guitar and Strings, Op. 143, Pavel Haas’s String Quartet No. 3, Op. 15, Gideon Klein’s Fantasie a Fuga, and Pavel Novak-Zemek’s String Quartet No. 6 (Bells of Light).

Sato, clarinetist Thomas Martin, violinist Si-Jing Huang and violist Mark Ludwig took part in the Prague Spring Festival with Andre Previn on 28^th March 2010. The evening included Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E flat major and the world premiere of Previn’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano.

On 26^th September 2010, the musicians above minus Previn plus harpist Jessica Zhou were onstage at Boston Symphony Hall for the world premiere of Escape Routines by MiroslavSrnka.

The HSQ helped unveil the Art of the Americas Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on 20^th November 2010 with some musical paintings of their own, Morango Almost a Tango by Thomas Oboe Lee and music from quartets by Ives and David L. Post.

In February 2011, Sato’s father, Ron Knudsen, conducted the New Philharmonia Orchestra in a program entitled Three Bs: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, William Boyce’s Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, and Brahms’ Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Sato and Haldan Martinson handling solo duties.

The HSQ premiered Previn’s Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet with Thomas Martin in November 2011.

Sources:

Knudsen, Sato (1955-Present)

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