Musician Bios
Helen Chang Haertzen
Helen Chang Haertzen joined the Minnesota Orchestra in the fall of 2003 and made her solo debut a few years later performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto. Formerly associate and principal second with the Bamberg Symphony in Germany, Helen toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and appeared as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade, and Staatsorchester Braunschweig. She recorded the Bach Partitas for Cavalli Records which received critical acclaim from the American Records Guide and produced her most recent CD release "American Avenues" for Centaur Records.
As a chamber musician Helen performs with the Isles Ensemble and Lady Slipper. She has been a guest with the Bamberg String Quartet and Walden Chamber Players and has taken part in innovative collaborations with dancer Bill T. Jones at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and with the Boston Ballet Company, performing Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending. As a recitalist she has performed throughout Europe, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Goethe Institute of Boston, The Russian Museum of Art, and Legion of Honor in San Francisco where she played on the Jascha Heifetz 'David' Guarneri del Gesu of 1742.
Helen grew up in Massachusetts and studied with Roman Totenberg. She furthered her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and Salzburg Mozarteum. Her mentors include Szymon Goldberg, Ruggiero Ricci, and Camilla Wicks.
She is a 2017 recipient of the Artist Initiative Grant through the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Timothy Lovelace
Pianist and conductor Timothy Lovelace has performed on four continents and has been featured at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, Philadelphia’s Trinity Center, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts and on chamber music series sponsored by the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minnesota, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The roster of internationally-known artists with whom Lovelace has appeared includes Miriam Fried, Alban Gerhardt, Nobuko Imai, Robert Mann, Charles Neidich, Paul Neubauer, Ayano Ninomiya, Paquito D’Rivera, and Dawn Upshaw. He has also concertized with the Bergen Woodwind Quintet and the Pacifica String Quartet. As a soloist, he performed Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques on subscription series concerts of the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä.
For thirteen years, Lovelace was a staff pianist at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, where he played in the classes of Barbara Bonney, Christoph Eschenbach, Thomas Hampson, Christa Ludwig and Yo-Yo Ma, among others. Other professional staff pianist engagements include two International Double Reed Society conferences, two International Viola Congresses, the ClarinetFest of The International Clarinet Association, and The Wideman International Piano Competition.
A proponent of new music, Lovelace has performed under the supervision of composers Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Steve Heitzeg, Andrew Imbrie, Leon Kirchner, Libby Larsen, Lowell Liebermann, Thea Musgrave, Gunther Schuller, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, David Evan Thomas, Dan Welcher, and Judith Zaimont, and he presented the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Third World.
“The superb collaborations of pianist Timothy Lovelace can’t be understated,” wrote Gramophone magazine in praise of Forgotten Romance, one of two Lovelace recordings on the Albany label. The American Record Guide declared his performance of Loeffler’s Rhapsodies on the Boston Records CD …is but a dream “the very best I have ever heard. Anyone wanting a definitive modern recording of this work need look no further.” Lovelace has received similarly positive reviews in recent recordings on the Blue Griffin and MSR labels.
As a conductor, Lovelace has led numerous operatic and symphonic ensembles. At the University of Minnesota, he has conducted productions of The Seven Deadly Sins, Suor Angelica, and La Voix humaine.
Timothy Lovelace holds the Ethel Alice Hitchcock Chair in Collaborative Piano and Coaching at the University of Minnesota. He previously taught at The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, the Green Lake Chamber Music Camp, and The Madeline Island Music Camp. His principal teachers were Pat Curtis, Harold Evans, Clifford Herzer, Gilbert Kalish, Donna Loewy, and Frank Weinstock. He studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Stony Brook University, and the Aspen and Eastern Music Festivals.