2017/2018 28TH SEASON
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Mission Statement Camerata Pacifica’s mission is to affect positively how people experience live performances of classical music. The organization will engage our audience intellectually and emotionally by presenting the finest performances of familiar and lesser-known masterworks in venues that emphasize intimacy and a personal connection with the music and musicians.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jordan Christoff, President David Robertson, Treasurer Sandra Tillisch-Svoboda, Secretary Peter Beuret Brenton Horner Susan Keats Adrian Spence Judith Vida-Spence
CAMERATA PACIFICA STAFF Adrian Spence, Artistic Director
Donna Jean Liss, Director of Operations Andrea Moore, Program Annotator
Dani Couture, Production Manager Maria Norris, Bookkeeper
LIFETIME MEMBERS OF CAMERATA PACIFICA Warren Jones Jordan and Sandra Laby Lillian Lovelace Donald McInnes John Steinmetz William A. Stewart P.O. Box 30116, Santa Barbara, CA 93130 (805) 884-8410 (800) 557-BACH www.cameratapacifica.org
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CAMERATA INTERACTIVE Camerata Pacifica has a significant digital presence, offering many resources to our audience members. A fun way to stay in touch is to “LIKE” and “FOLLOW” our Facebook and Instagram pages — there we post regular updates, stories, and photographs. Camerata Pacifica maintains audio and video libraries online. With over 600,000 visits, people around the world are enjoying these resources. Videos of live performances of the following pieces are available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/cameratapacifica
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• Auerbach, 24 Preludes for Cello & Piano, Op. 47 • Bach, Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 • Bach, Fugue BWV 1001 arr. for Marimba • Bach, The Goldberg Variations for Sting Trio (arr. Sitkovetsky) • Barber, String Quartet in B Major, Op. 11 • Bax, Quintet for Oboe & Strings • Beethoven, Clarinet Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 11 • Beethoven, Quintet for Piano & Winds, Op. 16 • Beethoven, String Trio, Op 9, No. 3 • Beethoven, Violin Sonata in G Major, Op. 96 • Bennett, After Syrinx II • Bennett, Tango After Syrinx • Brahms Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 • Brahms String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111 • Brahms, Cello Sonata in E Minor, Op. 38 • Brahms, Piano Quartet No. 2, Op. 26 • Brahms, Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8 • Bruce, Steampunk • Bruce, The Consolation of Rain • Caplet, Conte Fantastique • Clarke, Viola Sonata • d'Rivera, Bandoneon • Deane, Mourning Dove Sonnet • Debussy, Syrinx • Debussy, Violin Sonata • Destenay, Trio in B Minor for Piano, Oboe & Clarinet, Op. 27 • Dring, Trio for Flute, Oboe & Piano • Dvořák, Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 65 • Franck, Piano Quintet in F Minor • Ginastera, Sonata Para Piano No. 1, Op. 22 • Golijov, Mariel • Gounod, Petite Symphonie • Grieg, Violin Sonata in C Minor, Op. 45 • Haas, Suite for Oboe & Piano, Op. 17 • Harbison, Songs America Loves to Sing • Harbison, String Trio • Harbison, Wind Quintet • Haydn, Piano Trio in G Major • Howells, Sonata for Oboe & Piano • Janácek, Violin Sonata • Lizst, Transcendental études, No. 11 in D-flat Major • Loeffler, 2 Rhapsodies • Messiaen, Appel Interstellaire • Mozart, Adagio for Cor Anglais & Strings, K580a
• Mozart, Divertimento in E-flat Major, K 563 • Mozart, Serenade in C Minor, K. 388 • Mozart, Trio in E-flat Major, K. 498, “Kegelstatt" • Mozart, Violin Sonata in A, K 526 • Novacek, Four Rags for Two Jons • Puts, And Legions Will Rise • Reich, Sextet • Reinecke, Flute Sonata "Undine", Op. 167 • Rubinstein, Sonata for Viola & Piano, Op. 49 • Ruo, In Other Words • Ruo, To The 4 Corners • Saint-Saëns, Fantaisie for Violin & Harp, Op. 124 • Sarasate, Spanish Dances, Op. 22, “Romanza Andaluza” • Schubert, Divertissement sur des motifs originaux français, D.823 • Schubert, Piano Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929 • Shaw, Boris Kerner for Cello & Flower Pots • Sheng, Hot Pepper • Takemitsu, Towards the Sea • Turina, Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op. 67 • Wiegold, Earth, Receive an Honoured Guest • Wilson, Dreamgarden • Wilson, Spilliaert's Beach • Wolfgang, Vine Street Express • Xenakis, Dmaathen for Oboe & Percussion • Ysaÿe, Sonata No. 3 in D Minor for Solo Violin, Op. 27 • Zemlinksy, Thee Pieces for Cello & Piano Audio recordings of live performances of the following pieces are available at: http://www.instantencore.com/cameratapacifica • Auerbach, Prayer for English Horn • Auerbach, 24 Preludes for Cello & Piano • Bach, Sonata for Flute & Harpsichord in A Major, BWV 1032 • Beethoven, Trio for Piano, Clarinet & Cello No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 11 • Beethoven, Quintet for Piano, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon & Horn in E-flat Major, Op. 16 • Beethoven, Sonata for Violin & Piano No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 • Brahms, Quintet for Piano & Strings in F Minor, Op. 34 • Chopin, Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor, B. 160/Op. 65 • Debussy, Danse sacrée et danse profane • Debussy, Première Rhapsodie for Clarinet & Piano • Grieg, Sonata for Cello & Piano in A Minor, Op. 36 • Harbison, Quintet for Piano & Strings • Haydn, Divertimento in G Major, Hob. XVI: 8 No. 9 • Klughardt, Schilflieder, Op. 28 • Lizst, Transcendental études for Piano, S. 139 • Loeffler, Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola & Piano • Mendelssohn, Trio for Piano & Strings No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49 • Mozart, Duo for Violin & Viola No. 1 in G Major, K. 423 • Mozart, Adagio for English Horn & Strings in C major, K Anh. 94 (580a) • Piazzolla, Histoire du Tango • Piazzolla, Oblivion • Piazzolla, Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas • Psathas, One Study • Rachmaninov, Sonata for Viola & Piano in G Minor, Op. 19 • Rheinberger, Nonet, Op. 139 • Rubinstein, Sonata for Viola & Piano, Op. 49, “Andante” • Ruo, To The Four Corners • Schoenberg, Verklaerte Nacht, Op. 4 • Schumann, Quartet for Piano & Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 47 • Shostakovich, Quintet for Piano & Strings in G Minor, Op. 57 • Turina, Quartet for Piano & Strings in A Minor, Op. 67 • Villa-Lobos, Capriccio, Op. 49 • Wilson, Dreamgarden • Wilson, Concerto for Violin & Chamber Ensemble, "Messenger" • Wolfgang, Vine Street Express
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Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata for Flute & Piano in D Major, Op. 94
(1891 – 1953)
I. Moderato II. Scherzo. Presto III. Andante IV. Allegro con brio
20’00”
Adrian Spence, flute; Inna Faliks, piano
John Harbison
String Trio
(b. 1938)
I. II. III. IV. V. VI.
30’00”
Allegro moderato Adagio, appassionato Intermezzo – Allegretto Variations – Molto moderato Intermezzo – Allegro arieggiato Finale – Allegro moderato
Paul Huang, The Bob Christensen Chair in Violin; Richard O’Neill, viola; Ani Aznavoorian, cello
INTERMISSION Dmitri Shostakovich
Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67
(1906 – 1975)
I. Andante – Moderato II. Allegro con brio III. Largo IV. Allegretto
30’00”
Paul Huang; Ani Aznavoorian; Inna Faliks
Programs & Artists subject to change without notice.
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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SEPTEMBER NOTES Sergei Prokofiev, Sonata for Flute and Piano in D Major, Op. 94 In June 1941, Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union by bombing the latter’s positions in Poland and sending ground troops across the Soviet border. In August of that year, Sergei Prokofiev, along with many other important artists, was evacuated to the Caucasus. It was in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), then the capital of Kazakhstan, that Prokofiev began working on the film score to Ivan the Terrible, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, and on the Sonata, which he would complete following another move, to Perm. This sonata, a staple of the flute repertoire, was commissioned by Levon Atovmyan, who worked for the Union of Soviet Composers. Offered a solid commissioning fee, and with a long-standing wish to write for the flute, Prokofiev took it on. The piece was premiered in December of 1943, and was well received; Prokofiev quickly made an arrangement of the piece for violinist David Oistrakh, a reversal of the flute’s habit of borrowing from the violin repertoire. Oistrakh would also premiere Prokofiev’s first Violin Sonata (see November program). This piece is in four movements and requires what one flutist describes as “epic breath control.” Despite this, and its overall virtuosity, the piece often strikes a lighthearted tone. Both themes in the opening movement’s sonata form are lyrical, juxtaposed with some more square, martial rhythms. The energetic Scherzo is rhythmically more complex, alternating between a waltz-like pattern and a more ambiguous triple meter. The third movement opens with a simple, upward-arching melody and accompaniment, but in its middle section Prokofiev dips into the instrument’s lower registers for long running passages. The final movement’s opening statement may briefly call to mind Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, but any hint of child’s play is dispelled by the extreme virtuosity the piece’s conclusion requires.
John Harbison, String Trio Commissioned for Camerata Pacifica by: Peter & Linda Beuret, Bob Klein & Lynne Cantlay in memory of Michael Benjamin Klein, Roger & Nancy Davidson, Stanley & Judith Farrar, Ann Hoagland in memory of her husband Stephen C. Hoagland, John & Susan Keats, Jordan & Sandra Laby and Alejandro Planchart in memory of Milton Babbitt. Prior to the trio’s premier the composer wrote: “When I was fifteen years old I began a string trio. I wrote about three pages before deciding it was too difficult for me at that time. All subsequent attempts over the last forty years yielded the same result. In the meantime I have performed string trios by Beethoven and Mozart, and studied others. I have no reason to believe the medium has gotten easier, but my music has become somewhat simpler and has fewer notes, which I imagine to be an advantage. The piece begins very loud, or perhaps very soft, or better with an intriguing neutrality of mood which takes on a kind of menace. The impression is formidable but at the same time winning, even droll. Let the critic not be fooled however by this veneer of friendliness. I have a knife for his ribs later on, at the moment of greatest security. By the end even the violist has lost all sense of normalcy, or decency. Most of the motives in the piece are based on the name of Barcelona’s forward, the Mozart of world soccer, Lionel Messi. This is all I can reveal of the piece at this point, but even the construction of this program notes spell confidence that finally at this point I will make friends with this dragon.” (April 2012) “Continuing this note over a year later, now with a completed piece, I am very happy that Adrian Spence asked me to write a String Trio for the wonderful players of Camerata Pacifica. To the performers, sponsors, and staff members – thanks. As you have read in the proto-note Adrian asked me to write when the piece was barely a gleam eye, I was waiting for the chance. Isn’t there always a bit of sadness, though, when a long-anticipated project ends? All my pieces are short of my fondest dreams for them (this one less than most). Can it ever be truly what it was, glowing in the mind’s eye, at age fifteen?
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The original fictional note is amazingly close to what I might say now about the piece. I would only add a few remarks about the once and future king of the String Trio repertoire, Mozart’s Divertimento K. 563 (563 Franklin St. was my address from 1967 to 1985). Mozart’s piece hides under its title, but we are not fooled: it is one of his most ambitious and comprehensive pieces. It contains stretches of great learnedness and patches of casual geniality. It re-examines the “highest” symphonic structures and the “lowest” popular dances. Rather than mask the difficulty, the leanness of the texture, Mozart disdains orchestral effects; he writes few multiple stops, exults in the sufficiency of two or three voices. The players and their parts pleasurable, grateful, demanding and unforgiving. Virtuosity happens, it is never obligatory. When I mentioned to some friends that I had written a String Trio, they said “Does it have too many movements, like the Mozart?” Irreverence is the only defense, as we look with an eye both jaundiced and bewitched at the wonders of Ozymandias.” – JOHN HARBISON John Harbison’s String Trio was premiered September 11 – 16, 2014 in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Pasadena. The work has been recorded, and is available on Harmonia Mundi (HMU907619).
Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67 At the time he wrote this piece, Dmitri Shostakovich had recently been through one of the most harrowing events of his life: being excoriated in the Soviet newspaper Pravda for his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk. In an unsigned editorial, the author claimed that Shostakovich had “ignored the demand of Soviet culture that all coarseness and savagery be abolished” and had offered “’leftist’ confusion instead of natural human music.” That the full power of the Soviet state was behind this editorial made it a devastating blow for Shostakovich— this was not a mere bad review, but one that could have ended his career altogether, and possibly his life. As a kind of response to the Pravda critique, Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 5, which was described in another Moscow paper as a response to “just criticism.” Aside from his massive string quartet output (15 works) Shostakovich did not write a great deal of chamber music. He wrote this piece in 1944, following the death of one of his closest friends, musicologist Ivan Sollertinsky, who died quite young. In addition, the war may have been on Shostakovich’s mind; not only had the Soviet Union been at war with Germany since 1941, but the news of the death camps had reached Russia. While not overtly written in memoriam, the piece’s dark tone suggests that both Sollertinsky and the war itself were Shostakovich’s subjects. The opening of this piece is eerie, with the cello playing a sparse theme in high harmonics, joined by the violin below. The anxiety of that opening is barely allayed in the rest of the movement, which remains bleak even as the tempo picks up. In the second movement, Shostakovich’s satirical side, often mixed with a kind of bitterness that pervades many of his works, comes through in the brutal repetitions of chords or even single pitches. The third movement is launched with a dramatic 8-chord progression in the piano that yields to an elegiac, lyrical series of passages in the strings. This movement is built on the repetition of those opening piano chords, which are repeated several times underneath the variations above. The final movement brings together some of the moods of the preceding movements; its primary allusion, though, is to Jewish folk or dance music, beginning with the violin’s sly pizzicato statement of the theme. Here, the heavy downbeats and intended to evoke Jewish folk or dance music, transformed here into something much darker. Shostakovich’s sardonicism, always near the surface, informs the character of the dance, which winds down near the end of the piece and is quickly transformed into a series of high harmonics, underscored by a chord progression—the piece’s own past returned to haunt it.
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Sunday 15, 3:00 p.m. Ventura The Jordan and Sandra Laby Series Tuesday 17, 7:30 p.m. San Marino Thursday 19, 8:00 p.m. Los Angeles Friday 20, 7:30 p.m. Santa Barbara
Carl Vine
Inner World 13’00”
(b. 1954)
William Kraft (b. 1923)
Ani Aznavoorian, cello
Encounters V, for Cello & Percussion, “In the Morning of the Winter Sea”
13’00”
Ani Aznavoorian; Svet Stoyanov, percussion
John Cage
In a Landscape 8’00”
(1912 – 1992)
Osvaldo Golijov
Svet Stoyanov
Mariel 8’00”
(b. 1960)
Ani Aznavoorian; Svet Stoyanov
INTERMISSION Felix Mendelssohn
Songs Without Words 10’00”
(1809 – 1847)
I. II. III. IV.
Op. 85, No. 1 in F Major Op. 102, No. 2 in D Major Op. 38, No. 3 in E Major Op. 102, No. 4 in G Minor
Nicholas Daniel, oboe; Bridget Kibbey, harp
David Bruce (b. 1970)
The Consolation of Rain 25’00” Nicholas Daniel; Ani Aznavoorian; Bridget Kibbey; Svet Stoyanov
Programs & Artists subject to change without notice. The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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OCTOBER NOTES Carl Vine, Inner World The Australian composer Carl Vine (b. 1954) grew up playing cornet, piano, and organ, and began composing before finishing high school. Interested in electronic media as a teenager, one of his earliest pieces was the competition-winning electronic work Unwritten Divertimento, from 1970. He has written in most genres, including symphonies, concertos, and chamber works, along with his electronic music, and a great deal of film and television music. His piano works have been especially successful, finding worldwide performances and a place in the contemporary piano repertoire. He has also written extensively for dance, including an early collaboration with the Sydney Dance Company, Poppy, and 1988’s The Tempest. Vine’s works have been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, the cellist Steven Isserlis (who has recorded Inner World), and the Takács Quartet. Recent premieres include a new trombone concerto, Hallucinations, inspired by the writings of the late Oliver Sacks and written for soloist Michael Mulcahy and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Of Inner World, the composer writes: “Inner World was written for and is dedicated to cellist David Pereira. When a great musician performs, one is not just witnessing the dutiful reproduction of a series of notes but rather the intimate relationship between a craftsman and his instrument. Every sound is carved from the string, hair and wood with loving care. My aim in Inner World is to focus on this amazing symbiosis and to create a sound world that tries to reflect some of the internal processes involved in a truly musical performance. The sounds that accompany the solo cello are derived entirely from a recording of David playing the cello. The performer is not only live, but also surrounded by his own creation: dissected, crystallized, modified and re-arranged. The cello is not only an instrument of natural materials but also an enveloping shroud of sound – a hall of mirrors in which artifice and reality collide and in which the sounds we hear may be no more than a product of the performer’s own imagination. Inner World was commissioned by 2MBS-FM Radio with financial assistance from the Performing Arts Board of the Australian Council.”
William Kraft, Encounters V, “In the Morning of the Winter Sea” The American composer William Kraft has spent most of his career in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, where he has worked as a composer, professor of composition, conductor, and percussionist. A member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for over 25 years, Kraft was the orchestra’s principal timpanist for 18 years. His collection of works under the title Encounters began in 1966 with an invitation to present his work on a Pasadena concert series of the same name. Seeking to fill a short slot on the program, Kraft wrote the first of the series, Encounters II for solo tuba (another composer had written a piece called Encounters for the series, although Kraft would eventually composer a piece titled Encounters I). Next came Encounters III: Duel for Trumpet and Percussion. Others followed, the bulk of them in the early 1970s, and most of them featuring percussion. Encounters V: In the Morning of the Winter Sea, is for cello and percussion. It features many of the percussion techniques and instrumentations Kraft had developed over decades of writing for, and playing, percussion. The emergence of percussion into a solo and serious chamber ensemble instrument (or set of instruments) is one of the most significant developments in a century full of significant musical developments. Composers who were also percussionists had an edge in pushing the capacities of the instruments and players. Encounters V is fairly typical of modern and contemporary percussion writing: it includes an elaborate “key” at the beginning, which uses symbols to indicate mallet selection and shows how the other instruments will be notated; it also includes a diagram suggesting how the percussionist might set up the collection of instruments.
John Cage, In a Landscape The American composer John Cage, whose famous 4’33” was performed by Camerata Pacifica last season, wrote this piece while in residence at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Black Mountain was a fairly
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short-lived experiment in higher education, that over the course of its 25 years or so attracted some of the most significant artists of the twentieth century, either as full faculty members or as part of its famous summer sessions, which in one scholar’s words, altered “not only the artists’ lives but also the course of the arts in the United States in the twentieth century and beyond.” Cage first went to Black Mountain in the spring of 1948, with his partner Merce Cunningham. Cunningham performed and offered classes, while Cage gave a performance of his Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano. The pair were invited to return for the summer session, which also included Willem de Kooning, faculty members Anni and Josef Albers, and Buckminster Fuller. Cage, who was a great advocate for the music of Erik Satie, performed regular short concerts of Satie’s music and gave a lecture titled “Defense of Satie,” where he argued against music that put harmony at its center, and in favor of making time the defining musical quality. This piece was written for the choreographer and dancer Louise Lippold at the summer session. It is unmistakably evocative of Satie’s work, with a dream-like lyricism and a simple harmonic structure that alternates between B and G. The short piece follows the structures of Lippold’s dance, with phrases of 5, 7, and 3 measures’ duration.
Osvaldo Golijov, Mariel The composer Osvaldo Golijov was born in La Plata, Argentina, in 1960, into a family of Eastern European Jewish heritage. As a young man, he moved to Jerusalem where he studied with composer Mark Kopytman, before moving to the U.S. to earn a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, working with George Crumb. His music has been described as “defying the distinctions of genre,” as he has repeatedly drawn on aspects of his own identity in his work, writing works for klezmer clarinet, using Argentinian instruments like the bombo (a drum) or the guitar in an Argentinian style. One critic called his tango piece, Last Round, “the best Piazzolla tango Piazzolla never wrote.” Golijov is perhaps best known for his Passion of St. Mark (La Pasión segun San Marco), which he wrote for the Bachakemie Stuttgart’s “Passion 2000” project, and which left both audiences and critics amazed during its U.S. premieres in 2001 and 2002. Mariel is a very different kind of piece. Despite its unusual instrumentation, it has quickly become a staple of the new music repertoire and is regularly performed around the country. Golijov writes: “I wrote the original version of this piece in memory of my friend Mariel Stubrin. I attempted to capture that short instant before grief, in which one learns of the sudden death of a friend who was full of life: a single moment frozen forever in one’s memory and which reverberates through the piece, among the waves and echoes of the Brazilian music that Mariel loved.”
Felix Mendelssohn, Songs Without Words Instrumental music of the 19th century was largely dominated by the symphony, which, after Beethoven, became a kind of proving ground for composers who wished to be taken seriously. (Brahms was so anxious about Beethoven’s symphonic legacy that it took him almost 15 years to write his own first symphony.) Yet simultaneous with the loud, public debates about the symphony and the proper heir to Beethoven, chamber music and other, more intimate musical forms also flourished. The Lied, or art song, was one of these, a genre most strongly associated with Franz Schubert (who wrote over 600 of them), but also taken up by Beethoven before him, and Schumann, Brahms, and Hugo Wolf after. Lieder are usually fairly short songs, for voice and piano; both parts often play and equal role in illuminating the text, particularly in Schubert’s lieder and those influenced by his work. The Lied ohne Worte, song without words, plays with both the conventions of short solo piano pieces, and traditional Lieder. It was Mendelssohn who first published works under this title, eventually putting out eight volumes of six such “songs” each. Schumann described the genre as art songs abstracted for the piano, with texts deleted. The first volume is dedicated to his sister Fanny Mendelssohn, a formidable composer and pianist in her own right. The pieces on this program come from three different volumes, and are arranged for oboe and harp. Bridget Kibbey wrote that she and Nicholas Daniel selected these in the interest of creating an interesting color palette; they are arranging some themselves, and some are arranged by David Walter. She writes, “The lovely thing about these songs without words is the fact that they are simply that: a ‘vocal line’ with beautiful configurations undulating underneath. So it’s very natural to divide these for oboe and harp.” Continued on page 41
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NOVEMBER 2017 Sponsored by:
The Bissell House
Sunday 12, 3:00 p.m. Ventura The Jordan and Sandra Laby Series Tuesday 14, 7:30 p.m. San Marino Thursday 16, 8:00 p.m. Los Angeles Friday 17, 7:30 p.m. Santa Barbara
Sergei Prokofiev
Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80
(1891 – 1953)
I. Andante assai II. Allegro brusco III. Andante IV. Allegrissimo
30’00”
Giora Schmidt, violin; Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Olivier Messiaen
Quartet for the End of Time 50’00”
(1908 – 1992)
I. Liturgie de cristal II. Vocalise pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps III. Abîme des oiseaux IV. Intermède V. Louange à l’Éternite de Jésus VI. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes VII. Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’Ange qui announce la fin du Temps VIII. Louange à l’Immortalité de Jésus Bil Jackson, clarinet; Giora Schmidt; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Gilles Vonsattel
Programs & Artists subject to change without notice. The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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NOVEMBER NOTES Sergei Prokofiev, Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80 The Russian composer and pianist Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891 and began his musical training by studying piano with his mother. He entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory in his teens, where among other things he studied orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov. Early successes included a commission from Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the legendary Ballets Russes (the score, commissioned on the eve of World War I, was never performed as a ballet), and his Classical symphony from 1917, which he described as “a symphony in the style of Haydn.” He departed Russia for the U.S. in 1918, where he had mixed success as a performer of his own music; in 1920 he relocated again, to Paris. Always in an uneasy relationship with his homeland, Prokofiev made several visits to Russia in the 1920s, and returned for good in 1936. He wrote a number of film and ballet scores, and 1938 began the initial drafts of what gradually became this sonata. In 1943, he wrote that he was having trouble completing it, but was encouraged by the piece’s dedicatee, violinist David Oistrakh, who went to Prokofiev’s home to hear the work in progress and premiered it at the Moscow Conservatory in 1946. After a round of revisions, the piece was more to Prokofiev’s satisfaction—and that of the Stalin Prize Committee, which declared the piece “the pride of Soviet music.” The piece opens with dark, sparse chords in the piano’s lower register in dialogue with a series of trills in the violin. Toward the end of the movement, Prokofiev includes the mark “freddo,” or cold, and the piano once more plays steady chords beneath the violin’s somewhat frenetic runs. The second movement is marked “brusco,” brusque, and the agitated repeated notes in the violin are especially dissonant, bordering on aggressive; a second theme is entirely different in character, with long melodic lines and more traditional harmonies. The Andante is lyrical, and often hovers between major and minor, and in mood, between hope and despair. The final movement makes use of mixed meters, and also evokes the moods and materials of the rest of the piece, including a return of the “freddo” portions of the first movement. Prokofiev and Stalin died on the same day in 1953; this piece was with Prokofiev at the very end, as Oistrakh performed the first and third movements at his funeral.
Olivier Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time Olivier Messiaen, a composer, organist, and teacher, began his musical life around age seven, composing and playing the piano, but undertook formal training only after the end of World War I. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1919 at the age of 11, studying composition (with Paul Dukas), as well as piano, organ, improvisation, and music history. At age 23 he became organist at La Trinité in Paris, a position he would hold for decades; the organ there inspired some of his many works for that instrument. A devout Catholic all his life, much of Messiaen’s work concerns Christian liturgy and doctrine. His massive opera, Saint François d’Assise, was based on St. Francis’s writings and aimed to show, over the course of its approximately 5 hours, “the progress of grace in St. Francis’s soul.” Another of his works which receives regular performances today is Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, for piano, comprising twenty movements, or contemplations, on the infant Christ, with titles such as “contemplation of the Father,” “contemplation of the Son upon the Son,” “contemplation of the Cross,” and so on; it requires about two hours for a complete performance. The scale of those two works gives some indication of Messiaen’s interest in temporal matters. Taken as a prisoner of war in 1940, Messiaen was sent to a prisoner of war camp at Görlitz, where he wrote Quartet for the End of Time. Messiaen himself played the piano, joined by musicians he met at the camp on violin,
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clarinet, and cello. The unusual “quartet” of the title was therefore a matter of availability more than aesthetics. A great deal of mythology has sprung up around the conditions of the premiere, some of it by Messiaen himself, who reported that the cellist had only three strings, while the cellist has reported otherwise. What is confirmed is that it was premiered on the terribly cold night of January 15, 1941, and that it was prefaced in the score with a text from Revelation: “I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth; and the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever that there should be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” Among other things, Messiaen is known for his transcriptions and evocations of birdsong. His orchestral piece Oiseaux Exotiques is only the most famous example of his meticulous depictions of many kinds of birds, and this preoccupation makes an early appearance in Quartet for the End of Time. The violin and clarinet take a bird role in the first movement, “Liturgie de cristal,” while the third movement, “Abime des oiseaux,” is a monumental clarinet solo in which time itself becomes the titular abyss. The second movement, “Vocalise pour I’ange, qui annonce la fin du temps” (Vocalise for the angel who announces the end of time) opens with dramatic piano chords and evoke the power of the angel referred to in the text, while the middle section is gentler, with mellifluous piano chords moving against the unison violin and clarinet; this lyricism gives way to a rapid descent and an ominous low trill marking an abrupt coda to the movement. The fourth movement, “Intermède” is an extroverted scherzo without piano, with an unusual levity for the piece. Opening with clarinet and violin in unison, the short movement ends with a sustained trill and a glissando that brings an unexpected dose of humor to the work. The fifth movement, “Louange a l’Eternite de Jesus” (Praise to the Eternity of Jesus) spins out a long, gorgeous melody in the cello over the slow pulse of piano chords. The movement is marked “infinitely slow,” bringing together a concept of eternity with what might seem its opposite, temporal progression; Messiaen described the extraordinary cello line—which spools out over the entire course of the long movement—as stretching “majestically into a kind of gentle, regal distance.” The sixth movement, “Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes” (Dance of Wrath for the Seven Trumpets) recalls the unison of the “Intermède”—all four instruments play elaborate phrases in unison throughout the opening section—but is even more notable for the complexity of its rhythms. Again, Revelation—the original apocalyptic text—is the reference here, the seven trumpets blown by seven angels each bringing horror to the earth in the form of blood, fire, hail, and darkness. Messiaen described “music of stone, formidable granite sound; irresistible movement of steel, huge blocks of purple rage, icy drunkenness.” In the seventh movement, “Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour I’ange qui annonce la fin du temps” (A tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time), the Angel of the second movement reappears in several quotations. The final movement is the second Louange, this time with violin instead of cello, and addressing the immortality, rather than eternity, of Jesus; the entire movement is essentially a long, gradual ascent. Of this conclusion to a remarkable work, Messiaen wrote: “Why this second encomium? It addresses more specifically the second aspect of Jesus; Jesus the man, the Word made flesh, raised from the dead, immortalized to grant us his life. This movement is pure love. Its slow ascent toward the extreme peak is the ascension of man toward his God, of the child of God toward his Father, the deified creation ascending toward paradise.”
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Camerata Pacifica’s Commissioning Portfolio Commissioning new music has become an integral part of Camerata Pacifica’s artistic mission. Not because we are a new music group — we are not. But because this is a live, dynamic art form. Even if the music originated in the 18th or 19th century, at that moment of performance, the minute it becomes a reality, it is live and of the moment. No matter when the music was written, it has that in common with every other piece. Hopefully hearing new music also informs our listening to pieces we know very well — there can be a danger that with familiarity we lose awareness of the innovation and novel nature of pieces now acknowledged as masterworks. Commissioning has become a favorite means to support our work. From the beginning of the compositional process, commissioners get to engage with the composer and the musicians as the work is brought to life. Finally the manuscript arrives and the musicians begin preparation. Commissioners attend first rehearsals and after the premiere performances, when corrections are made, the score arrives from the publisher engraved with the commissioners’ names on the title page — forever. Commissioning opportunities begin with an investment of as little as $2,000.
COMMISSIONS JAKE HEGGIE | WINTER ROSES (MEZZO SOPRANO & CHAMBER ENSEMBLE) | Premiered October 9, 2004, Santa Barbara Commissioned by Richard & Luci Janssen for Frederica von Stade and Camerata Pacifica IAN WILSON | MESSENGER CONCERTO (VIOLIN & CHAMBER ENSEMBLE) | Premiered May 18, 2007, Santa Barbara Commissioned by Richard & Luci Janssen for Catherine Leonard and Camerata Pacifica Toured Internationally April 22nd – May 3rd, 2008: Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, Los Angeles; Library of Congress, Washington DC; Morgan Library, New York; The Guidhall, Londonderry; Northern Ireland; National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland; Wigmore Hall, London, England; St. Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, Northern Ireland IAN WILSON | HEFT (FLUTE/ALTO FLUTE & PIANO) | Premiered January 11, 2008, Santa Barbara Commissioned by Jordan & Sandra Laby for Adrian Spence/Camerata Pacifica HUANG RUO | BOOK OF THE FORGOTTEN (OBOE & VIOLA) | Premiered April 17, 2010, Los Angeles Commissioned by a consortium led by Hyon Chough for Richard Yongjae O’Neill and Nicholas Daniel BRIGHT SHENG | HOT PEPPER (VIOLIN & MARIMBA) | Premiered September 10, 2010, Santa Barbara Commissioned by Bob Peirce as a birthday present for his wife Sharon Harroun Peirce for Catherine Leonard and Ji Hye Jung BRIGHT SHENG | MELODIES OF A FLUTE (FLUTE/ALTO FLUTE, VIOLIN, CELLO & MARIMBA) Premiered April 10, 2012, San Marino
Commissioned by Luci Janssen for her husband Richard on the occasion of their 40TH wedding anniversary for Camerata Pacifica 18
JAKE HEGGIE | SOLILOQUY (FLUTE & PIANO) | Premiered May 10, 2012, Los Angeles Commissioned by Adrian Spence in memory of Suzanne Makuch HUANG RUO | IN OTHER WORDS (CONCERTO FOR VOCALIZED VIOLIST & CHAMBER ENSEMBLE) Premiered September 20, 2012, Los Angeles
Commissioned by Frank & Ann Everts in celebration of their 50TH wedding anniversary for Richard Yongjae O’Neill and Camerata Pacifica IAN WILSON | DREAMGARDEN (MEZZO SOPRANO & CHAMBER ENSEMBLE) | U.S. Premiere May 16, 2013, Los Angeles Supported by Robert M. Light and Anne Koepfli in memory of Sandy & Lulu Saunderson for Camerata Pacifica LERA AUERBACH | DREAMMUSIK (CELLO & CHAMBER ENSEMBLE) | Premiered March 6, 2014, Los Angeles Commissioned by Sandy Svoboda in memory of her husband Al for Ani Aznavoorian and Camerata Pacifica JOHN HARBISON | STRING TRIO (VIOLIN, VIOLA, CELLO) | Premiered September 11, 2014, Los Angeles Commissioned by Peter & Linda Beuret; Bob Klein & Lynne Cantlay - in memory of Michael Benjamin Klein; Roger & Nancy Davidson; Stanley & Judith Farrar; Ann Hoagland - in memory of her husband Stephen C. Hoagland; John & Susan Keats; Jordan & Sandra Laby; Alejandro Planchart - in memory of Milton Babbitt Recorded for international release on the Harmonia Mundi label IAN WILSON | THREE SONGS OF HOME (ALTO FLUTE, VIOLA & HARP) | A gift from the composer to celebrate Camerata Pacifica’s 25TH Season
Premiered October 10, 2014, Santa Barbara
IAN WILSON | AT (FLUTE, VIOLA & CELLO) | Premiered October 8, 2015, Los Angeles Commissioned by Jordan Christoff for Adrian Spence, Catherine Leonard & Ani Aznavoorian DAVID BRUCE | THE CONSOLATION OF RAIN (OBOE, HARP, CELLO & PERCUSSION) | Premiered April 10, 2016, Ventura Commissioned by Bob Klein & Lynne Cantlay for Nicholas Daniel, Bridget Kibbey, Ani Aznavoorian and Ji Hye Jung LERA AUERBACH | 24 PRELUDES FOR VIOLA & PIANO | Premier Date April 18, 2018, San Marino Commissioned by: Hyon Chough; May Chung; Christina Chung; Sookee Chung; May Kim; Sook Hee Lee & Seong Ae Kim; Chae Ma; Karin Nelson, Maren Henle, & Rick Hibbs; Stuart & Judith Spence; Diane Henderson; Marion Stewart; David Robertson & Nancy Alex; and Arnold & Gretl Mulder for Richard Yongjae O’Neill
UPCOMING COMMISSIONS JOHN LUTHER ADAMS | there is no one, not even the wind | Premiering 2018/19 Season Co-commissioned by Camerata Pacifica, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, Emerald City Music, and Redlands Symphony 19
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JANUARY 2018 Sponsored by:
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Thursday 11, 8:00 p.m. Los Angeles Friday 12, 7:30 p.m. Santa Barbara Sunday 14, 3:00 p.m. Ventura The Jordan and Sandra Laby Series Tuesday 16, 7:30 p.m. San Marino
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Op. 81a, “Les adieux”
(1770 – 1827)
I. Das Lebewohl (Les Adieux), Adagio - Allegro II. Abwesenheit (L’Absence), Andante espressivo III. Das Wiedersehn (Le Retour), Vivacissimamente
18’00”
Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Olivier Messiaen
Appel Interstellaire 5’00”
(1908 – 1992)
Martin Owen, horn
György Ligeti
Trio for Violin, Horn & Piano
(1923 – 2006)
I. II. III. IV.
24’00”
Andantino con tenerezza Vivacissimo molto ritmico Alla Marcia Lamento. Adagio
Martin Owen; Kristin Lee, violin; Gilles Vonsattel
INTERMISSION Benjamin Britten
Suite for Violin & Piano, Op. 6
(1913 – 1976)
I. March II. Moto perpetuo III. Lullaby IV. Waltz
16’00”
Kristin Lee; Gilles Vonsattel
Béla Bartók
Out of Doors Suite, Sz. 81
(1881 – 1945)
I. Sippal, dobbal (With Drums and Pipes) II. Barcarolla III. Musettes IV. Az ejszaka zeneje (The Night’s Music) V. Hajsza (The Chase)
15’00”
Gilles Vonsattel Programs & Artists subject to change without notice. The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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JANUARY NOTES Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Op.81a, “Les adieux” While some of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas got their nicknames from others well after they were written— publishers, eager to sell music, were especially prone to creating programmatic associations—Beethoven himself indicated a variety of “farewells” in this piece. It was written in 1809-1810, in response to the forced departure from Vienna of Beethoven’s most devoted patron, Archduke Rudolph, by the approach of Napoleon Bonaparte. Many of Beethoven’s friends also left the city ahead of its surrender to the French, and he expressed some of the difficulties of that summer in this sonata. The word “Lebewohl” (literally, “live well,” but a general term of farewell) is written into the score over the opening three chords. This three-chord motive is voiced in E-flat, and is an explicit allusion to the natural horn (that is, a horn that can only play the harmonic series of a pitch, without pitches in between). Beethoven is playing with the “horn call” trope, here not referring to a hunt or chase, necessarily, but more likely to the horn calls that announced the departure of carriages like the one carrying the Archduke out of the city. This sonata was not composed all at once: Beethoven wrote “Lebewohl” when the Archduke departed in May of 1809, the second and third movements were written months later, after the Archduke’s return. The second movement, “Die Abwesenheit,” (the absence), is melancholy and reflective, with an improvisatory feel to the opening theme. The second theme is a bit sunnier than the first, and is marked “cantabile,” indicating a song-like sweetness. A return of the opening material yields to a short series of ascending dotted rhythms, harmonically ambiguous, which in turn yield to the triumphant final movement, “Das Wiedersehn,” the reunion. This is a standard sonata form, with an exuberant tone—Beethoven marks the movement Vivacissimamente, an amplification of mere Vivace, or lively.
Olivier Messiaen, Appel Interstellaire The French composer Olivier Messiaen can be difficult to fit into a simple music historical timeline. An organist and teacher as well as composer, Messiaen developed his own system of modal composition early in his career, to which he adhered for the rest of his life, even as he expanded it further. His system was based partly on his synesthesia, of which he said, “whenever I hear music, or even if I read music, I see colours. They correspond to the sounds, rapid colours which turn, mix, combine and move with the sounds…The colours do just what the sounds do.” Messiaen never became a serialist, nor did he fit stylistically with other French composers like Debussy and Ravel. A devout Catholic, Messiaen wrote a great deal of music on Catholic and liturgical themes, including his monumental opera, Saint François d’Assise. This piece for solo horn, “Appel Interstellaire,” comes from a much larger work for piano and chamber orchestra, Des canyons aux étoiles, commissioned in 1970 by the American philanthropist, Alice Tully, who wanted a new work to honor the upcoming American bicentennial. The work was premiered in Alice Tully Hall in 1974. Messiaen said, “It was a commission for a work in honour of the United States. I thought it over for a long time, I looked at my geography books… and I said to myself, the grandest and the most beautiful marvels of the world must be the canyons of Utah. So, I’ll have to go to Utah.” And so he did, traveling with his wife to explore Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Messiaen’s synesthesia informed his response to these locations; he said, “Bryce Canyon was of special interest to me. That’s because it had all those wonderful colours, and I wanted to put them into music.” While the piece is titled “Appel Interstellaire,” “Interstellar Call,” Messiaen once referred to it as “Interstellar Appeal,” saying, “one calls for help in the midst of the stars, to the void between the stars.” The piece is incredibly difficult for the soloist, calling for multiple techniques, unusual timbres, and the ability to impart a sense of great space and powerful emotion. Always a believer, Messiaen’s further inspiration for this piece comes from two Biblical passages, one from Psalms, including “He determines the number of the stars and give to all of them their names,” and one from Job, “O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place!” “Appel Interstellaire” is by turns forceful, spare, jagged, anguished, and lyrical.
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György Ligeti, Trio for Violin, Horn & Piano The Hungarian composer György Ligeti was born in 1923, and studied at the Budapest Academy of Music from 1945 to 1949. His more experimental music was politically suppressed, and he left for Western Europe in 1955, connecting with Karlheinz Stockhausen and making tape pieces, studying the music of Webern, and eventually making his home in Vienna. Some of his most important earlier works include the orchestral pieces Apparitions and Atmosphères, both of which explore the possibilities of orchestral color and texture. However, his technical capacity was almost endless, and his music suggests a voracious experimental and historical imagination—the basic harmonies of works like Lux Aeterna offering a very different view of the composer than his massive opera, Le Grand Macabre, which brought together multiple forms and styles, including a passacaglia, and allusions to major operatic composers like Rossini and Verdi. After Grand Macabre, Ligeti’s output slowed for several years as he grappled with the legacy of the avantgarde and sought new sources of inspiration. This Horn Trio marked his reemergence. Despite its subtitle, listeners might recognize in the opening of the Ligeti Trio not a reference to Brahms, but to Beethoven, specifically to the “Lebewohl” motive/horn call with which Beethoven opens “Les Adieux”—played here by the violin. Given his explicit allusion to two of classical music’s most monumental figures, it is no surprise that critics understood this Trio as marking a turning point in Ligeti’s output, as he began overtly addressing and mining the western classical music tradition. In the first movement, the instruments are relatively independent, with the piano taking over most the horn call statements (despite the horn’s presence), while the violinist undertakes a series of variations. The propulsive second movement, in Ligeti’s own words, is imagined as a “dance inspired by various kinds of folk music from non-existent peoples; as if Hungary, Rumania, and all of the Balkan countries lay somewhere between Africa and the Caribbean.” The third movement also alludes to the horn calls, and is formally evocative of classical music, with its more lyrical middle section. The final movement, “Lamento. Adagio,” alludes to Brahms’s Adagio movement, described as “an imagined memorial to his mother.” It also involves all the instruments in a poignant and elaborate reference to the centuries-old lament trope, where short downward-moving motives are associated with mourning.
Benjamin Britten, Suite for Violin & Piano, Op. 6 Benjamin Britten began composing at a young age, producing over 100 pieces by his teens. He is perhaps the central figure in English music of the twentieth century, as he sought a new path more influenced by international styles and schools. His output was significant, and he worked brilliantly across genres, writing everything from solo works to massive pieces like the War Requiem, and is especially renowned for his operas Billy Budd and Peter Grimes. Arriving in London in 1930 to study at the Royal College of Music, Britten was soon exposed to the music of Stravinsky, Mahler, Schoenberg, and Webern. During the 1930s, Britten honed his skills by scoring short promotional films made by the British postal service, often with scripts by W.H. Auden. He traveled to Vienna with his mother in 1934, hoping to meet Alban Berg (he was unable to do so), and it was during that trip that he began work on this piece; it is one of his early mature works. Written for the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Barcelona, it premiered in 1936 with Britten at the piano alongside violinist Antonio Brosa. Each movement is like a short character piece, or perhaps a piece with multiple characters. The “March” is witty, with half-complete gestures and glissandi interspersed with heavy chords. Moto perpetuo finds the two instruments alternating the work of perpetual motion, sometimes with a high-register violin melody, sometimes a low, mechanistic process in the piano. Lullaby is wistful and appropriately dreamlike, with spare piano chords underneath a ruminative melody. The concluding Waltz has something of the first movement’s character, sardonic and a bit off kilter; it may remind some listeners of Stravinsky.
Béla Bartók, Out of Doors Suite, Sz. 81 In addition to being one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century and an ethnomusicologist, Béla Bartók was a serious pianist, whose early lessons were with his mother. He studied at the Academy of Music Continued on page 41
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FEBRUARY 2018 Sponsored by:
Stratz & Company
Sunday 11, 3:00 p.m. Ventura The Jordan and Sandra Laby Series Tuesday 13, 7:30 p.m. San Marino Friday 16, 7:30 p.m. Santa Barbara Saturday 17, 8:00 p.m. Los Angeles
Hamilton Harty
In Ireland 8’00”
(1879 – 1941) Adrian Spence, flute; Warren Jones, The Robert & Mercedes Eichholz Chair in Piano
Walter Rabl
Four Songs, Op. 5
15’00”
(1873 – 1940) Andrew Garland, baritone; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Warren Jones
Franz Schubert
Der Wanderer, D. 489
5’00”
An Schwager Kronos, D. 369
3’00”
Wanderers Nachtlied, D. 768
3’00”
Der Musensohn, D. 764
3’00”
(1797 – 1828)
Andrew Garland; Warren Jones
INTERMISSION Rebecca Clarke (1886 – 1979)
Morpheus for Viola & Piano
7’00”
Paul Coletti, viola; Warren Jones
Charles Martin Loeffler
Four Poems for Voice, Viola & Piano
(1861 – 1935)
I. La Cloche fêlée II. Dansons la gigue! III. Le son du cor s’afflige vers les bois IV. Sérénade
22’00”
Andrew Garland; Paul Coletti; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Warren Jones
Programs & Artists subject to change without notice. The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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FEBRUARY NOTES Hamilton Harty, In Ireland Northern Irish composer Sir Hamilton Harty was born in 1879 and studied music with his father, becoming a professional organist by age 12. He also studied counterpoint, and made a reputation as a composer, conductor, and collaborative pianist upon moving to London. He led the Hallé Orchestra (Manchester) for many years, where he was known for his relatively adventurous programming; later in his career, he primarily conducted London orchestras. He was knighted in 1925 and died in 1941. Although he was not a prolific composer, several of his works have Irish themes, including the Irish Symphony (1904) and the much later The Children of Lir (1938), based on Irish folk tales. This short piece is one of his Irish-themed works. It is subtitled “Fantasy,” and the slow, lyrical opening, in which the flute plays as though improvising, is indeed dreamlike, though also virtuosic. The second part of the piece is an Allegro, and evocative of traditional Irish music. A short note at the top of the score reads “In a Dublin street at dusk, two wandering street musicians are playing;” even without that scene setting, however, the piece is clearly intended to evoke a romantic notion of Ireland and Irish music.
Walter Rabl, Four Songs, Op. 5 The Viennese composer Walter Rabl was also a pianist, conductor, and music theorist, who received his doctorate under the supervision of Guido Adler (a founder of the discipline of musicology). Like a number of composers working in the last quarter of the 19th century, Rabl benefitted from the patronage of Brahms, who arranged for his own publisher, Simrock, to publish some of Rabl’s work. In the latter part of his career, Rabl focused primarily on conducting, promoting the music of Franz Schreker, Richard Strauss, and Erich Korngold, and conducting at least one Ring cycle. This set of songs is one of the few works of his that remain published, and none of his music is performed with any regularity. He wrote multiple sets of Lieder, which are set apart from the genre’s traditional voice-piano structure by often including additional instruments; his Op. 12 includes four horns, his op. 3 includes violin. This set, Op. 5, is for voice, cello, and piano. Like many Lieder, it uses poems that take nature—and often, humankind’s relationship with nature—as its subject. The first song, Zu spät (Too late) makes a fairly common connection between a simple image of nature and some aspect of youth or love lost. The song builds toward its apex—“you foolish man!”—and ends on a note of resignation. The second song, Vorbei (Finished, or past), uses a steady, strumming accompaniment to illustrate the steady march of time, as the narrator again uses images of nature—a brook, the moon—to reminisce about a time long past. The piano part is as illustrative of the text as the vocal part—for example, a measure or two before the text refers to a flowing brook, the piano begins to play flowing sixteenth notes. It also quickens and slows down again around lyrics that address the passage of time. The third song, Spielmannslied, or the musician’s song, is about an itinerant musician who faces his regrets. It is more chromatic than the previous songs, and almost declamatory in style. As the narrator grows more impassioned, the pitch and dynamics rise to his final line—“if only it could have been different!”—before falling again, perhaps illustrating the idea that his time and possibilities have come to an end. The final song, Soldatentod, the soldier’s death, is another song of reminiscence. In keeping with the character of its narrator, it is set as a march, at least at first, when the soldier sings about fighting for the fatherland. When he begins to sing about more personal matters, the music changes, growing softer, as he recites his story on a series of repeated pitches that emulate soft speaking. These two moods—the martial and the personal—are the essential tension, and the song alternates between them to the end.
Franz Schubert, Der Wanderer, D. 489 An Schwager Kronos, D. 369 Wanderers Nachtlied, D. 768 Der Musensohn, D. 764 Franz Schubert was one of the great composers of lieder, German art songs; he wrote over 600 of them during his short career. While the genre has a long history, its nineteenth-century incarnation was especially important in music history, giving composers like Mendelssohn, Schumann, and above all, Schubert a venue for some of their
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most profound, yet compact, compositions. Schubert’s song Gretchen am Spinnrade is sometimes suggested as the first Romantic lied; its illustration of the titular spinning wheel through the piano’s motion set the lied on a path marked by deep engagement with texts. A desire to set texts that the public would know meant composers worked with Goethe’s poems more than any others. Three of the lieder on this program are settings of Goethe poems; Der Wanderer is the exception, setting a text by Georg Philipp Schmidt von Lübeck. The range of moods across these four songs is great, from the bleakness of Der Wanderer, whose last line is “there, where you are not, is happiness,” to the unstoppable exuberance of Der Musensohn (The Muses’ Son). Schubert’s capacity for subtle inflection of the text cannot be overstated. In the intense, laborious opening of An Schwager Kronos, for example, both parts are depicting the text’s call for “haste,” for a “rattling trot,” and so on, with a repetitive hammering in the piano and a kind of breathlessness in the voice. But when the text says “striving and hoping onwards,” the music very briefly changes to major from minor—a quick musical illustration of hope. The Goethe poem Wandrers Nachtlied was a favorite of composers. In addition to Schubert, it was set by Fanny Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Hugo Wolf, and countless others. Schubert’s setting is especially beautiful and responsive to the text. A slow, two-measure introduction comes to a complete cadence, which hints at conclusion before the song even begins. The first line, “Over all the hilltops it is peaceful” is then sung on only three pitches, suggesting a peaceful state. As the text further describes the stillness—“you scarcely feel a breeze”—the piano’s rhythm quickens and Schubert introduces some chromatic pitches in both parts, creating a slight break in the stillness. The last two lines are extraordinary. With the phrase “only wait,” the rocking motion in the piano stops, and both parts outline the text together. On the word “soon,” Schubert places a fermata, suspending time altogether, before finishing the phrase with “you will also rest.” But the song isn’t quite finished; instead, Schubert repeats everything from “only wait” once more, again playing with the temporal dimension of both the text and the music. The cadence of the last vocal line is then echoed once—only once—by a final measure in the piano, truncating the time given to the cadence at the beginning.
Rebecca Clarke, Morpheus for Viola & Piano Rebecca Clarke wrote Morpheus in 1917-18 under the pseudonym Anthony Trent, later saying, “This is one for Women’s Lib … The piece by Anthony Trent had much more attention paid to it than the pieces I had written, I mean in my own name.” Indeed in a 1976 radio interview she described the reception of her 1919 Viola Sonata thus: “And when I had that one little whiff of success that I’ve had in my life, with the Viola Sonata, the rumour went around, I hear, that I hadn’t written the stuff myself, that somebody had done it for me. And I even got one or two little bits of press clippings saying that it was impossible, that I couldn’t have written it myself. And the funniest of all was that I had a clipping once which said that I didn’t exist, there wasn’t any such person as Rebecca Clarke, that it was a pseudonym for Ernest Bloch” Clarke was born in England and studied composition at the Royal College of Music in London with Sir Charles Stanford. Later she moved to the United States, where most of her composing took place. The short work for viola and piano, Morpheus, takes its title from the Greek god of dreams. He is said to have had 1,000 siblings, collectively known as the Oneiroi. Oneiros being the Greek word for dream. (Program notes by Adrian Spence)
Charles Martin Loeffler, Four Poems for Voice, Viola & Piano, Op. 5 The composer Charles Loeffler made his living as a violinist, a professional path on which he decided at age 13. His parents were from Berlin, but the family had political problems in Germany, which eventually led Loeffler to claim Alsatian birth. Nonetheless, he studied in Berlin (his actual birthplace) from 1874 to 1877 before moving to Paris to play in several orchestras, and hone his “French” manners and style. Within a few years, he departed for the U.S., where after his first trip in 1881, he would remain for the rest of his life. He was successful in the U.S., becoming assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he remained for 21 years, and where he had many opportunities as a popular soloist. The BSO was also supportive of his work as a composer, premiering many of his works. The piece was written in 1893, and premiered in Boston a few years later with Loeffler on viola — a great success. Loeffler’s biographer calls these songs “symphonic,” and they may indeed remind listeners of some of Continued on page 42
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Krzysztof Penderecki
Sextet for Clarinet, Horn, String Trio & Piano
(b. 1933)
I. Allegro moderato II. Larghetto
31’00”
Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Martin Owen, horn; Kristin Lee, The Bernard Gondos Chair in Violin; Richard O’Neill, viola; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Molly Morkoski, piano
Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952)
Petals 9’00” Ani Aznavoorian
INTERMISSION
Somei Satoh (b. 1947)
Birds in Warped Time II
11’00”
Kristin Lee; Molly Morkoski
David Bruce
Gumboots 24’00”
(b. 1970) Jose Franch-Ballester; Kristin Lee; Jason Uyeyama, violin; Richard O’Neill; Ani Aznavoorian
Programs & Artists subject to change without notice. The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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MARCH NOTES Krzysztof Penderecki, Sextet for Clarinet, Horn, String Trio & Piano Krzysztof Penderecki was born in De˛bica, Poland in 1933. He studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków and then joined the composition faculty. Working in Poland during the Cold War, he came to the attention of audiences and publishers outside the country through early works like Strofy and Emanacje, which won prizes at competitions sponsored by the Union of Polish Composers. International acclaim followed for one of his most widely known pieces, Threnody “To the Victims of Hiroshima” from 1960, and Passio et mors domini nostri Jesu Christi secunduum Lucam (St Luke Passion), written 1963-66. Both of those works call for substantial forces; chamber music was not a significant part of Penderecki’s output during the earlier years of his career, with the exception of his Second String Quartet, from 1968. Since the 1980s, Penderecki has moved away from the techniques he developed as a young composer, including graphic notation and other avant-garde methods, and has turned more to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for models. This Sextet, for example, follows Ernst von Dohnányi’s Sextet of 1935 in its unusual instrumentation of clarinet, horn, piano, violin, viola, cello. In two large-scale movements, the piece is reminiscent of several of Penderecki’s Eastern European colleagues; it evokes Stravinsky at time, Bartók at other times, and Shostakovich as well. The piece is in two large movements, opening with an ominous, or possibly ironic, pounding in the piano followed by an elaborate statement in the clarinet. The movement grows rhythmically and texturally more complex, occasionally disrupted by more lyrical lines, and ends on a forceful note. Each individual part is virtuosic, as with the interplay between horn and violin near the beginning, but the requirements of the ensemble are formidable as well. Of particular note is the offstage horn part in the second movement. This movement opens in a more contemplative mode, which is temporarily altered when the clarinet’s melody unspools. Overall this movement maintains a more subdued, even melancholy mood, though it is periodically disrupted by more rhythmically energetic and elaborate sections.
Kaija Saariaho, Petals The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has become one of the most performed composers working today, not only in Finland, nor in her adopted home of France, but worldwide. Her formal education includes the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she studied with Paavo Heininen, studies with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber, and the famous summer courses at Darmstadt. In 1982, she began studying and working at IRCAM, the Paris center for research into acoustics where many advances in electronic music and audio processing have been made. It was at IRCAM that Saariaho developed her formidable technical abilities, working with tape and with live electronics, a development that altered her approach to acoustic music as well. Her opera, L’Amour de Loin, received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 2003, and was produced by the Metropolitan Opera last season (the first opera by a woman produced by the Met in over a century). Petals can be performed as a solo piece, or with electronics. Saariaho writes: “Petals for solo cello was written abruptly in a few days, but evidently after a long unconscious preparation. The material stems directly from Nymphéa for string quartet and electronics. The name of the piece is derived from this relationship. The opposite elements here are fragile coloristic passages which give birth to more energetic events with clear rhythmic and melodic character. These more sharply focused figures pass through different transformations, and finally merge back to less dynamic but not the less intensive filigration. In bringing together these very opposite modes of expressions I aimed to force the interpreter to stretch his sensibility.“
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Somei Satoh, Birds in Warped Time II Somei Satoh was born in 1947, and is an almost entirely self-taught composer. His music sometimes resembles minimalism, at other times what has been called “gendai hogaku” (contemporary traditional music), and is often—as with Birds in Warped Time II —suggestive of both. The piano part is repetitive, and makes very gradual changes; for example, between its first and second gestures, it adds a single pitch, then one more at the third gesture, and so on. The pianist is instructed to leave the pedal down throughout, creating a texture that underlies the violin’s often ascending lines, which are also subject to the composer’s precise instructions: he specifies five different kinds of vibrato, among other things. Satoh’s emphasis on texture, timbre, and time are not dissimilar to the aesthetic of other Japanese composers born just before and after World War II, including Toru Takemitsu (also self taught) and Jo Kondo. Like many of his works, Birds in Warped Time II is tonal, more or less, centering on the D pitch that occupies the piano throughout. There is little “progression” in the traditional sense of tonal music, however; this is about as far from a sonata form as one can get. Instead, the piece’s structure might be diagrammed as a very slow ascent, during which the texture also gets more complex, as the violinist’s ornaments and gestures become more elaborate and more frequent. In this way, the piece is reminiscent of one of western classical music’s most effective and well-worn techniques: heightening emotion by heightening pitch. Of his music, Satoh writes: “Our [Japanese] sense of time and space is different from that of the West. For example, in the Shinto religion, there is the term ‘imanaka’ which is not just the present moment which lies between the stretch of past eternity and future immortality, but also the manifestation of the moment of all time which is multi-layered and multi-dimensional.... I would like it if the listener could abandon all previous conceptions of time and experience a new sense of time presented in this music as if eternal time can be lived in a single moment.”
David Bruce, Gumboots The composer writes: “There is a paradox in music, and indeed all art, that life-enriching works have been produced, even inspired, by conditions of tragedy, brutality and oppression. A famous example is Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, written while he was imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp. “Gumboot dancing” bears this trait. It was born out of the brutal labour conditions in South Africa under Apartheid, in which black miners were chained together and wore gumboots (wellington boots) while they worked in the flooded gold mines because it was cheaper for the owners to supply the boots than to drain the floodwater from the mine. Slapping the boots and chains was used by the workers as a form of communication, which was otherwise banned in the mine, and this later developed into a form of dance, characterized by a huge vitality and zest for life. For me this is a striking example of how something beautiful and life-enhancing can come out of something far more negative. Of course this paradox has a far simpler explanation—the resilience of the human spirit. My Gumboots is in two parts of roughly equal length: the first is tender and slow, at times “yearning,” at times seemingly expressing a kind of tranquility and inner peace. The second is a complete contrast, consisting of five, ever-more-lively “gumboot dances;” often joyful and always vital. Although there are some African music influences in the music, I don’t see the piece as being specifically “about” the gumboot dancers. If anything, it could be seen as an abstract celebration of the rejuvenating power of dance, moving as it does from introspection to celebration. I would like to think, however, that the emotional journey of the piece, specifically the contrast between the two parts, will force the listener to conjecture some kind of external “meaning” to the music. The tenderness of the first part should “haunt” us as we enjoy the bustle of the second. That bustle should force us to question or re-evaluate the tranquility of the first part. But to impose a meaning beyond that would be stepping on dangerous ground. The fact is you will choose your own meaning, hear your own story, whether I want you to or not.” For information on Bruce, please see October’s program notes.
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Lera Auerbach
24 Preludes for Viola & Piano (WORLD PREMIERE)
(b. 1973)
50’00”
Richard O’Neill, viola; Lera Auerbach, piano
No. 1 in C Major No. 2 in A Minor Commissioned by May Chung No. 3 in G Major No. 4 in E Minor Commissioned by Chae Young Ma No. 5 in D Major No. 6 in B Minor Commissioned by Sookee Chung No. 7 in A Major No. 8 in F-sharp Minor Commissioned by Karin Nelson, Maren Henle & Rick Hibbs No. 9 in E Major No. 10 in C-sharp Minor Commissioned by Marion Stewart No. 11 in B Major No. 12 in G-sharp Minor Commissioned by David Robertson & Nancy Alex No. 13 in G-flat Major No. 14 in E-flat Minor Commissioned by Christina Chung & May Kim No. 15 in D-flat Major No. 16 in B-flat Minor Commissioned by Stuart & Judith Spence No. 17 in A-flat Major No. 18 in F Minor Commissioned by Arnold & Gretl Mulder No. 19 in E-flat Major No. 20 in C Minor Commissioned by Hyon Chough No. 21 in B-flat Major No. 22 in G Minor Commissioned by Sook Hee Lee & Seong Ae Kim No. 23 in F Major No. 24 in D Minor Commissioned by Diane Henderson INTERMISSION Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828)
Piano Trio in B-flat Major, D. 898, Op. 99 I. II. III. IV.
45’00”
Allegro moderato Andante un poco mosso Scherzo. Allegro - Trio Rondo. Allegro vivace
Paul Huang, The Bob Christensen Chair in Violin; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Warren Jones, The Robert & Mercedes Eichholz Chair in Piano Programs & Artists subject to change without notice. The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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APRIL NOTES Lera Auerbach, 24 Preludes for Viola & Piano (WORLD PREMIERE) Notes to be provided by composer.
Franz Schubert, Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, D. 898 By 1827, Schubert was fairly poor, and living primarily on the largesse of his friends. Nonetheless, he wrote a great deal of music during the last few years of his life, including his song cycle Winterreise, his last three piano sonatas, the piano Impromptus, and more. He also wrote his two exceptional Piano Trios during these years. His late works are sometimes characterized by a new sense of scale—they are grander and more ambitious than his earlier music, even his chamber music. This trio, D. 898 in B-Flat Major, is one of those more ambitious pieces. It did not receive a public performance in Schubert’s lifetime, and in fact was not even published until 8 years after his death. However, there is evidence that Schubert heard it performed in a private concert at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. The performers were friends of Schubert’s, and among the most important chamber musicians in Vienna at the time: Czech pianist Karl Maria von Bocklet, cellist Josel Linke, and the great violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who had made a reputation playing Beethoven’s Sonatas. This Piano Trio is in four movements, and like many of the pieces Schubert wrote during the last year of his life, it is quite long—a typical performance clocks in around 40 minutes. Unlike some of his late works, however, this is largely buoyant in character, and showcases Schubert’s (possibly unparalleled) capacities for lyricism and melody. The first movement opens with a statement of the upward-surging primary theme in the strings, which is immediately repeated a step higher; listen, too, for the underlying dotted rhythms buried at the bottom of the texture in the piano’s left hand. The cello introduces the lyrical second theme; likewise, the cello takes the lead in the second movement, followed by the violin and piano. The dreaminess and introspection of the outer portions is offset by a more driven middle section, the latter characterized by elaborate figures in the piano and an uneasy pulsing in the strings. The scherzo makes use of two dances, the Ländler for the A sections and the waltz for the B section in the middle. The final movement is titled “rondo,” and the opening material does recur throughout in some ways; however, Schubert makes such drastic alterations to it across the movement that the form itself departs from the expectations of familiarity, even simplicity, that it sets up.
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Claude Debussy (arr. Schoenberg) Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 10’00” (1862 – 1918) Adrian Spence, flute; Nicholas Daniel, oboe; Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; Paul Huang, The Bob Christensen Chair in Violin; Kristin Lee, The Bernard Gondos Chair in Violin; Richard O’Neill, viola; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Timothy Eckert, double bass; Ji Hye Jung, percussion; Egle Janulevicuite, harmonium; Molly Morkoski, piano
Erik Satie
Gnossiennes Nos. 1 – 3
(1866 – 1925)
Molly Morkoski
Emma-Ruth Richards (b. 1985)
13’00”
Hora de la Circ 5’00”
Adrian Spence; Jose Franch-Ballester; Kristin Lee, Paul Huang; Richard O’Neill; Ani Aznavoorian; Bridget Kibbey, harp; Ji Hye Jung
Maurice Ravel
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée 7’00”
(1875 – 1937)
I. Chanson romanesque II. Chanson épique III. Chanson à boire Andrew Garland, baritone; Molly Morkoski
INTERMISSION Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
Introduction & Allegro
12’00”
Adrian Spence; Jose Franch-Ballester; Paul Huang, Kristin Lee; Richard O’Neill; Ani Aznavoorian; Bridget Kibbey
Gustav Mahler (arr. Schoenberg)
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen 17’00”
(1860 – 1911)
I. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht II. Ging heut morgen übers Feld III. Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer IV. Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz
Andrew Garland; Adrian Spence; Jose Franch-Ballester; Kristin Lee, Paul Huang; Richard O’Neill; Ani Aznavoorian; Timothy Eckert; Ji Hye Jung; Egle Janulevicuite; Molly Morkoski Programs & Artists subject to change without notice. The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photography or sound recording is prohibited.
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MAY NOTES Claude Debussy, Prelude l’après midi d’un Faun (arr. Arnold Schoenberg) Debussy’s orchestral work, Prelude l’après midi d’un Faun, was one of his early big successes. Written between 1891 and 1894 after a poem by Stèphane Mallarmé, it was intended to truly be a prelude to a larger project based on a poem of the same name. Mallarmé was one of the most significant of the French Symbolist writers, aesthetic descendants of Baudelaire whose early manifesto rejected “plain meanings, declamations, false sentimentality,” aiming instead, as Mallarmé put it, “to depict not the thing but the effect that it produces.” Debussy has sometimes been considered an honorary Symbolist, and was certainly one of the great musical interpreters of symbolism’s aims. His remarkable emphasis on timbre and color suited Mallarmé’s work especially well. Debussy wrote, “The music of this prelude is a freeform illustration of the beautiful poem by Mallarmé; it does not attempt to be a synthesis. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the deisres and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon.” While the rest of the project never came to fruition, Prelude circulated widely with performances in Boston, Berlin, London, and Constantinople by 1904. It is a staple of the orchestral repertoire to this day. In 1918 (coincidentally the year of Debussy’s death), the composer Arnold Schoenberg founded the Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen, the Society for Private Musical Performances. The Society offered a place for composers to hear and discuss new music of the day, not limited to works by its membership, which included Berg and Webern, among others. In order to explore orchestral works in a small space with limited resources, they also made a practice of arranging larger pieces for smaller ensembles. Schoenberg, who knew Debussy’s work as early as 1907, oversaw this arrangement of Prelude l’après midi d’un Faun, though it is unclear how much of the actual arranging he did. That the Society took up this piece is further testament to how influential Debussy was, and how radical and interesting his music was considered to be, not only in France but throughout classical music culture. The arrangement manages to retain both Debussy’s timbral interest and the character of the piece, with the flute taking on the faun’s role in both. The arrangement adds harmonium and the occasional “antique cymbals” (crotales, a high-pitched, shimmery percussion keyboard instrument) to the palette.
Erik Satie, Gnossiennes, No. 1-3 Like many of his contemporaries, the French composer Erik Satie studied at the Paris Conservatoire, having been pushed to attend by his stepmother (a composer in her own right); unlike many of his contemporaries, however, Satie was miserable there, and was described as “gifted but indolent.” It wasn’t just indolence, but also Satie working out the foundations of his aesthetic, which—in stark contrast to a prevailing ethos—rejected virtuosity, romanticism, and emotional excess. Wagner’s music was inescapable in Paris during the last decades of the 19th century, so Satie’s aesthetic has often been understood as a rejection of Wagnerism in particular. He worked off and on as a pianist in a Montmartre café for many years, focusing most of his energy on composing. He did eventually return to formal study as well, at the Schola Cantorum where he studied counterpoint and orchestration. He came to the attention of Ravel and Debussy, both of whom performed his music, and brought him to a larger audience. Other successes followed, often through admirers such as Jean Cocteau, who created opportunities for Satie. Among his large-scale works are the ballet Parade, a collaboration with Diaghilev and Picasso, and Socrate, which Satie called a “drame symphonique.” Satie is also known for his Musique d’ameublement, Furniture Music, which was intended, like furniture, to occupy the background. Such an intention for a composition speaks directly to Satie’s anti-romanticism, and would become enormously influential on a later generation of American experimental composers, most notably John Cage. The Gnossiennes 1-3 are early works, probably written between 1890 and 1893. They are fairly well known, though less so than Satie’s Gymnopédies, which have had a second life in film scores. Each of them combines a spare melody with an almost static chordal accompaniment, and resists the romantic insistence on forward motion and development. They appeal and are accessible to the amateur pianist with minimal skill, and the professional virtuoso at once.
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Emma-Ruth Richards, Hora de la Cerc Emma-Ruth Richards has been commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, percussionist Colin Currie, oboist Nicholas Daniel, among many others. Her formal education was at Cardiff University and the Royal Northern College of Music. Her opera, Traffick, a co-commission of the Nordland Teater, Norway, and the Royal Opera House, London, will premiere in the 2018-2019 season. Of this piece, the composer writes: “Hora de la Cerc is closely developed with elements of an anonymous Romanian folk song: Hora Spoitorilor. There are several examples where the folk song appears in full in this piece but it is mainly the grace note idea of the folk theme that serves as a signpost within the complex and busy framework; at times it fractures into minute decorative figures that repeat, circle around, or embed into a melodic line and at other times it is left bare. Whilst weaving these small details into the fabric of the piece doesn’t necessarily have a definitive musical consequence (it doesn’t grow, develop or change) it is a compositional device that creates a sense of interiority and fluidity in the journey much like the spinning circle dancers. The idea that simplified forms and saturated, repetitive colours could project a mood and establish a structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world led to me to consider Post-Impressionist painters such as Matisse. The circle of figures in Matisse’s Dance 1 express light pleasure and joy despite the inherent flatness of the canvas; within that pictorial space, each element plays a specific role. The immediate visual impression of the work is strong and unified and this is what I have attempted to capture in my writing by using the rhythmic quality of the folk song, strong colours, expressive lines and repetition.”
Maurice Ravel, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée This set of three songs was the last piece Maurice Ravel completed before his death. It was commissioned by the film director Georg Wilhelm Pabst for use in a new film about Don Quixote, but Ravel’s pace of composition was too slow for the deadlines, and his fellow composer, Jacques Ibert, provided the songs instead. Here, Ravel draws on Spanish forms and sounds, basing each of his movements on a Basque or Spanish dance, corresponding with three roles taken up by the addled Don Quixote: lover, soldier, and drinking comrade. The first, Chanson Romanesque, is based on the guajira, a dance in that alternates between meters in 3 and 6 counts; the text is directed at Dulcinea, the unseen beloved of Don Quixote, and promises her the hero’s devotion and commitment to impossible tasks on her behalf. The second movement, Chanson épique, evokes the Basque zortziko, in a 5/8 meter, and the text implores Saints Michael and George to bless the hero’s sword and grant him purity and piety. The final song, Chanson à boire, is boisterous and based on the Spanish jota, a rhythmically complex dance from Aragon; the hero sings a drunken ode to joy and inspiration.
Maurice Ravel, Introduction & Allegro Despite its title, which suggests an ensemble of equal parts, Ravel’s Introduction & Allegro is really a harp showcase, even a chamber concerto, in all but name. And small wonder: it was commissioned by the harp manufacturer Èrard et Compagnie, which had manufactured a pedal harp for almost a century, and which was the supplier for the Paris Conservatoire’s harps and pianos. Eager to hold onto that contract, Èrard et Compagnie executives were well aware that the harp builder Gustav Lyon and his company, Pleyel, Wolff et Cie, were gaining on them. Lyon had invented a new chromatic harp, which was intended to allow more exploration of pitch on the instrument. Rather than being strung essentially in C major, with pedals supplying all the pitches in between (the double-action pedal harp promoted by Pleyel), Lyon’s harp had a separate string for each pitch. In promoting their instrument, Pleyel offered Debussy a commission, which became the two-movement Danse sacrée et Danse profane, which quickly became (and remains) standard harp repertoire, being both crowdpleasing and relatively accessible technically. Èrard countered with this commission to Ravel.
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The harp is clearly the soloist here, with the winds and string quartet providing support and allowing Ravel to bring in a wide range of color. The sensuous and languid Introduction is followed by a dance, and Ravel’s later explorations of orchestral sonority get a preview here within this tightly restricted ensemble. The coda to the rivalry of the harps is that Debussy’s work is performed more often, but the Pleyel chromatic harp for which it was commissioned quickly fell out of favor, being too unwieldy and taking far too much time to tune.
Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (arr. Arnold Schoenberg) When Gustav Mahler wrote this set of four songs, he was working in Kassel as conductor and composer at the Königliche Schauspiele. He held the job only briefly, from 1883 to 1885, during which time he had an unhappy relationship with one of the singers. That inspired a set of six love poems, dedicated to the singer (soprano Johanna Richter), from which Mahler drew the texts for Songs of a Wayfarer. The original version was for piano and voice, but Mahler—whose orchestral compositions are both massive and intricate—orchestrated the set, and it was this version that premiered in 1896. Since then, there have been multiple arrangements for smaller ensembles. In a letter, Mahler described the songs’ narrative: “The idea of the songs as a whole is that a wayfaring man, who has been stricken by fate, now sets forth into the world, traveling wherever his road may lead him.” This idea of a spurned or disappointed lover wandering in response to heartache may evoke Schubert’s great song cycle, Winterreise. The first song, “Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht” (If my sweetheart gets married) opens quietly, even mournfully, as the narrator expresses sorrow about his beloved’s wedding day. Typical of Mahler, however, that sorrow is leavened by the joy the narrator finds in nature—if there is a fundamental tension in these songs, it is that almost constant veering between mourning and romantic despondence, and the Romantic’s commitment to finding solace in the natural world. The theme of the second song, “Ging heut’ morgen übers Feld,” (I went over the fields this morning) will be familiar to many symphony lovers, as Mahler reused it as the primary theme in his first symphony’s opening movement. In this song, the narrator begins with utter delight in morning, with an exuberant setting that gives
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voice to birds and flowers alike; but the song takes a sorrowful turn in a short coda at the end, as the narrator concludes that the happiness cannot be his. The third movement, “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer” (I have a glowing knife) is marked “fast and wild,” is an unequivocal expression of pain and fury, opening with heavy chords and agitated rhythms. Where the previous two songs draw heavily on folk-like music and imagery, this is more in keeping with Mahler’s more modernist side, although when the narrator reminisces about the beloved’s “blue eyes” the music grows gentler. That only makes the contrast starker at the end, when he bleakly describes his wish to close his own eyes forever. The final movement “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (my sweetheart’s two blue eyes) is one of Mahler’s early funeral marches, which he would continue to compose throughout his career. Again evocative of Schubert, the narrator comes across a linden tree and find solace in sleep. The movement alternates frequently between major and minor, a simple illustration of the narrator’s sorrow and joy, yet Mahler is careful to mark the movement with a warning—“Without sentimentality”—and the piece ends on a note of acceptance, though even that is ambiguous.
October Notes, continued from page 13 David Bruce, The Consolation of Rain Commissioned for Camerata Pacifica by Bob Klein and Lynne Cantlay. Premiered April 10, 2016. The British-American composer David Bruce enjoys a growing reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. Of particular interest to Southern California audiences, he has worked closely with Camerata Pacifica for several seasons now, and was a former Associate Composer at the San Diego Symphony. He often collaborates with musicians who work in both classical and folk/world music traditions. Listeners who have attended Camerata Pacifica concerts over the last few years may remember Bruce’s Caja de música and especially the costumed performance of his piece, Steampunk. Of The Consolation of Rain, a Camerata Pacifica commission, Bruce writes: “We all take consolation from different things, and without wanting to be overly morbid, I would like to think that after I die, my loved ones could take consolation from the sense that I was quite literally all around them, in the air, water and earth as part of the natural cycle of things. There are numerous poems on this theme, including the famous “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye in which, rather than being dead, the deceased speaks directly to us: “I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. ” Clearly I am not alone in my way of thinking there is something very moving about the idea that you can reconnect with someone you’ve lost simply by looking at nature. Perhaps an inevitable topic for an Englishman, the focus in this piece is rain. Taking Debussy’s method of portraying the sea in “La Mer” as something of a model, the piece is primarily an abstract musical construction, but one that constantly and variously evokes different aural images of rain, whether it be rippling, glistening, dripping, rumbling, swooshing or showering; gathering pace or subsiding; distantly echoing or vigorously present. But throughout, the impression is of rain not as dark and depressing, but as something positive, consoling, life affirming and renewing the ‘gentle autumn rain’ mentioned in the Frye poem.” David Bruce’s The Consolation of Rain was premiered April 10 – 15, 2016 in Ventura, San Marino, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
January Notes, continued from page 23 in Budapest, where he eventually joined the faculty. His first compositions, from childhood, were for piano, and he continued to write for the instrument for decades. Notable in his output is the collection Mikrokosmos, a multivolume set of instructional piano pieces with graduated levels of difficulty. Out of Doors was written in 1926, and premiered, at least in part, by Bartók himself. Each movement refers either to a dance or to another programmatic element. The first movement, “With Drums and Pipes,” is heavy
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and rhythmic, utilizing the low end of the piano for dissonance chords and percussive effect. It is also in mixed meter, making it difficult to hear a particular pulse despite the heavy accents. Barcarolla first sounds typical of its genre (the barcarolle, a Venetian gondoliers’ song), but the steady 6/8 rhythm is disrupted by changes in meter, leaving the whole thing a bit off center. The rocking rhythm continues, but loses its predictability. Musettes — the reference is both to a type of bagpipe and to a 17th century court dance—is built on open intervals in the piano, which evoke the pipes. The quick little trills that punctuate many of the phrases may also be sly allusions to Baroque ornamentation. One of the things for which Bartók is known is his development of a style he called “night music.” Difficult to define, but often quick to be identified, Bartók’s night music emphasizes timbre and effect over more traditional materials like harmony and rhythm; there is often an ostinato or other repetition, as well as sound effects like glissandi. Bartók builds “The Night’s Music” over a barely varied figure: three grace notes that become a tone cluster. Over these are other gestures that might evoke the sounds of nighttime: crickets, moths, bird calls. There is a brief melodic section in the middle, and Bartók dedicated it to his wife, pianist Ditta Bartók. The final movement, “The Chase,” is intense and propulsive, with the right hand playing a rhythmic 6/8, while being driven ever forward by inexorable 16th notes below, grouped in 5-note patterns. The piece is unrelenting until its abrupt, surprising end.
February Notes, continued from page 27 Mahler’s orchestral vocal writing, with their variety of colors, moods, and textures. Loeffler has been described as “cosmopolitan,” and his music reflects the influence of multiple national and other styles. He was influenced by Russian music as well as jazz, and his works from around the turn of the twentieth century were often associated with the “decadence” of the French Symbolists. These songs set texts by Baudelaire and Verlaine, so they are perhaps best understood as part of musical symbolism, particularly in their emphasis on gesture. Like the Rabl songs, these are distinctive partly for departing from the piano-vocal format and adding a viola. The first song, La cloche fêlée evokes the titular bells in the piano part, while the voice and viola bring out the narrator’s memories. Toward the end, Loeffler hints twice at a quotation from the Dies Irae, a strange ending to this beautiful song. Dansons la Gigue opens with a dance melody in the viola, elaborated by the singer; this alternates with more lyrical sections where the narrator thinks of lost love, along with a fleeting, did-I-really-hearthat quotation of the Dies Irae in the piano. Le son du cor s’afflige vers les bois is largely about timbre and color, and experimenting with harmonies. The final song, Serenade, is energetic, and the three voices are equal partners; the voice and viola, in particular, seem set up as two lyrical voices, one untexted.
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CAMERATA PACIFICA Principal Artists Ani Aznavoorian, PRINCIPAL CELLO The Strad magazine describes cellist Ani Aznavoorian as having “Scorchingly committed performances that wring every last drop of emotion out of the music. Her technique is well-nigh immaculate, she has a natural sense of theater, and her tone is astonishingly responsive.” Ms. Aznavoorian is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician with some of the most recognized ensembles, and she has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony, the International Sejong Soloists, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Edmonton Symphony. This season marks Ms. Aznavoorian’s eleventh year as principal cellist with Camerata Pacifica. Ms. Aznavoorian received the prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award for her outstanding cello playing and artistry. Some of her other awards include first prizes in the Illinois Young Performers Competition (televised live on PBS with the Chicago Symphony), the Chicago Cello Society National Competition, the Julius Stulberg Competition, and the American String Teachers Association Competition. She was a top prizewinner in the 1996 International Paulo Competition, held in Helsinki, Finland. As a recipient of the Level I award in the National Foundation for the Arts Recognition and Talent Search, Ms. Aznavoorian was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performed as soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. where she met former U.S. President Bill Clinton. As a first-year student at The Juilliard School, Ms. Aznavoorian won first prize in the institution’s concerto competition—the youngest cellist in the history of the school’s cello competitions to do so. As a result, she performed with the Juilliard Orchestra in a concert with conductor Gerard Schwarz at Avery Fisher Hall. With only 12 hours notice, Ms. Aznavoorian stepped in to replace Natalia Gutman in three performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with the San Jose Symphony—concerts that were hailed by the San Jose Press. Other notable appearances include concerts at Weill Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Ravinia’s Bennett Hall, Aspen’s Harris Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, WFMT Live from Studio 1, and NPR’s Performance Today. She has been a member of the renowned string ensemble the International Sejong Soloists, and also performs frequently on the Jupiter Chamber Music series in New York. Ms. Aznavoorian received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School where she studied with Aldo Parisot. In addition to performing, teaching plays an important part in Ms. Aznavoorian’s career. She has been a member of the distinguished music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, and in the summers has served on the faculty of the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. Ms. Aznavoorian enjoys performing new music and has made the world premiers of many important pieces in the cello repertoire. Some of these include Ezra Laderman’s Concerto No. 2 with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic under the baton of Lawrence Leighton Smith, Lera Auerbach’s “24 Preludes for Cello and Piano” on stage at the Hamburg Staatsoper with the Hamburg State Ballet—choreographed by John Neumeier, and Lera Auerbach’s “Dreammusik” for
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Cello and Chamber Orchestra, which was written for her and commissioned by Camerata Pacifica and Sandra Svoboda. In addition to return engagements at chamber music festivals around the globe, this season will include a debut concert tour of Armenia, the country of her ancestors. Ms. Aznavoorian records for Cedille Records, and she proudly performs on a cello made by her father Peter Aznavoorian in Chicago.
Nicholas Daniel, PRINCIPAL OBOE Nicholas Daniel has long been acknowledged as one of the world’s great Oboe players, and is one of Britain’s best known musicians. In a distinguished career that began more than four decades ago he has become an important ambassador in many different musical fields, and with the commissioning of hundreds of new works for his instrument has significantly enlarged its repertoire. Nicholas dedicates himself to music in many different ways. He has recorded and broadcast widely, recording regularly now for the Harmonia Mundi Label, and his popular YouTube site has had over a million visitors. He is proud to support and patronize many important initiatives, charities and trusts, and plans Music Festivals and concert series, most notably in Germany, Dartington and Leicester, UK. He is highly sought after as a teacher, being Professor at the Trossingen Musikhochschule in Germany and the Guildhall School in London. As a conductor he works with many fine ensembles in wide ranging repertoire from the baroque to contemporary with small ensembles to Opera, having made his conducting debut at the 2004 BBC Proms. In recognition of his achievements he was honored in 2011 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth with the prestigious Queen’s Medal for Music, cited as having “a significant effect on the musical life of the nation.” Having sung as in the choir of Salisbury Cathedral as a boy, Nicholas was, at the age of 18, put directly into the spotlight when he won the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year Competition while still at school. After a short period of study at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Janet Craxton and Celia Nicklin and then privately with Clarinetist Anthony Pay and Hans Keller he quickly established himself with early debuts at the BBC Proms and on disc. He has been a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, performing a huge repertoire from Bach to Xenakis and beyond, premiering works written for him by living composers including Harrison Birtwistle, Henri Dutilleux, Thea Musgrave, John Tavener, James MacMillan and Michael Tippett, as well as encouraging many younger composers to write for the Oboe. His recording of concertos by Vaughan Williams and MacMillan was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Premiere Award in 2016. As chamber musician Nicholas is a founder member of the award winning Britten Sinfonia, the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet, whose debut disc was released on the Harmonia Mundi label in 2017. He also regularly works with the pianists Charles Owen and Julius Drake, and with many leading String Quartets including the Carducci and Vogler. He is Principal Oboist of Camerata Pacifica, California’s leading Chamber Music Ensemble, and is a popular guest in Music Festivals all over the world. Nicholas Daniel is proud to play the world’s first ‘fair trade’ oboe, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and made especially for him specifically by Marigaux in Paris.
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Timothy Eckert, PRINCIPAL DOUBLE BASS Described by Placido Domingo as “an artist of musicality and dedication” (Los Angeles Times), Timothy Eckert enjoys a dynamic career in Los Angeles as a double bassist, composer and teacher. Mr. Eckert performs as a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and has appeared with ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Santa Barbara and Pasadena Symphonies. Past positions include the Long Beach Symphony and assistant principal bass with the Kalamazoo Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Timothy performs as principal bassist with the Camerata Pacifica, and has also appeared at the Idyllwild Chamber Music Festival and on Santa Monica’s Jacaranda series. He has performed extensively at the Aspen Music Festival, where he was twice awarded fellowships, and at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where he served as principal bass of the Spoleto Opera. Recent highlights include performances with pianist Barry Douglas, Frederica von Stade, and appearances at Wigmore Hall, the Library of Congress, Dublin’s National Concert Hall and the Morgan Library. Mr. Eckert is also active in the recording industry, having appeared live or in studio with a diverse array of artists such as Eric Clapton, Disturbed, Madonna, Bjork, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band and Alanis Morrisette. Composers with whom he has worked include Thomas Newman, Joseph Trapanese, James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri and James Horner. Writing in a broad range of styles, Timothy’s compositions have appeared in hundreds of television programs on networks such as CBS, ABC, Bravo, E!, History, Discovery and A&E. Mr. Eckert holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University, where he was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate, and a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University, cum laude. He additionally completed the Advanced Studies Program at USC. Mr. Eckert has also participated in renowned bassist Franco Petracchi’s master class at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, where he was awarded the Diploma di Merito, and at the Sermoneta Corsi di Perfezionamento. Additionally he is an alumnus of the Music Academy of the West, studying with Nico Abondolo. Eckert’s principal teachers have included Bruce Bransby, Franco Petracchi, Paul Ellison and Eugene Levinson. In addition to his performing and composition activities, Mr. Eckert is on the faculty at Azusa Pacific University, teaching graduate and artist certificate students, as well as maintaining a private studio.
Jose Franch-Ballester, PRINCIPAL CLARINET The multi-award-winning Spanish clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester is considered one of the finest classical soloists and chamber music artists of his generation. He has been hailed for his “technical wizardry and tireless enthusiasm” (The New York Times), and his “subtle and consummate artistry” (Santa Barbara Independent). The recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2008, and winner of both the Young Concert Artists and Astral Artists auditions, he is a solo artist and chamber musician in great demand. Recently appointed Assistant Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Mr. Franch-Ballester regularly performs as the Principal Clarinetist at Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, California and appears with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York. As a concerto soloist, he
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has performed with orchestras such us the BBC Concert Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Mexico, I Musici Montreal, and Orquesta of the Radio Television in Spain, among others. He collaborates regularly with chamber music festivals around the globe such as Music@Menlo, Mainly Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest, Nexus Festival Tokyo, Westport Festival Ireland, Kon-Tiki Festival Norway and the Dresden Music Festival. Born in Moncofa into a family of musicians, Mr. Franch-Ballester graduated from the Joaquin Rodrigo Music Conservatory in Valencia, continuing his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Donald Montanaro and Ricardo Morales. As a recording artist, he has appeared on labels such as Deutsche Gramophon, Harmonie Mundi and Warner Music.
Paul Huang, PRINCIPAL VIOLIN The Bob Christensen Chair in Violin Recipient of the prestigious 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, violinist Paul Huang is quickly gaining attention for his eloquent music making, distinctive sound, and effortless virtuosity. His recent and forthcoming engagements include debuts with the Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev (St. Petersburg’s White Nights Festival), Berliner Symphoniker with Lior Shambadal (Philharmonie Berlin debut), Detroit Symphony with Leonard Slatkin, Houston Symphony with Andres Orozco-Estrada, Orchestra of St. Luke’s with Carlos Miguel Prieto, Seoul Philharmonic with Markus Stenz, Taipei Symphony with Gilbert Varga (both in Taipei and on a U.S. tour), and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra with the late Christopher Hogwood. This season, he will also be performing with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Knoxville Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, Brevard Symphony, Windsor Symphony, and the Hilton Head Symphony. During the 2017-18 season, Mr. Huang also embarks on a recital tour in La Jolla, Chicago, Toronto, Palm Dessert, Taiwan (Taipei, Hsinchiu, Tainan), New York, and culminating at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In addition, Mr. Huang continues his association with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for three separate tours in the U.S., Europe, and the Far East as well as his fourth season as a Principal Artist for the Camerata Pacifica. During 2014-15 season, he debuted on Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers” series and stepped in for Midori with Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony to critical acclaim. He has also made debuts at the Wigmore Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and the Louvre in Paris. His first solo CD, Intimate Inspiration, is a collection of favorite virtuoso and romantic encore pieces released on the CHIMEI label. In association with Camerata Pacifica, he recorded “Four Songs of Solitude” for solo violin on their album of John Harbison works. The album was released on the Harmonia Mundi label in fall 2014. A frequent guest artist at music festivals worldwide, he has performed at Seattle, Music@Menlo, La Jolla, the Moritzburg and Kissinger Sommer in Germany, the Sion Music Festival in Switzerland, Orford Musique in Canada, White Nights in St. Petersburg, and the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea. His collaborators have included Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Nobuko Imai,
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Winner of the 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Huang made critically acclaimed recital debuts in New York and in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center. Other honors include First Prize at the 2009 International Violin Competition Sion-Valais (Tibor Varga) in Switzerland, the 2009 Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation Arts Award for Taiwan’s Most Promising Young Artists, the 2013 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and the 2014 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award. Born in Taiwan, Mr. Huang began violin lessons at the age of seven. He is a proud recipient of the inaugural Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees under Hyo Kang and I-Hao Lee. He plays on the 1742 ex-Wieniawski Guarneri del Gesù on loan through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Warren Jones, PRINCIPAL PIANO The Robert & Mercedes Eichholz Chair in Piano Warren Jones enjoys a notably eclectic career that has taken him to virtually every corner of the musical world. He performs with some of today’s best-known artists: Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Dean Griffey, Bo Skovhus, Eric Owens, John Relyea, and Richard Yongjae O’Neill. In the past he has partnered such great performers as Marilyn Horne, Håkan Hagegård, Kathleen Battle, Samuel Ramey, Christine Brewer, Barbara Bonney, Carol Vaness, Judith Blegen, Salvatore Licitra, Tatiana Troyanos, Thomas Hampson, James Morris, and Martti Talvela. He is a longtime faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music and the Music Academy of the West, and recently finished an appointment as Artist in Residence in Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. In 2017, Mr. Jones was invited by the National Association of Teachers of Singing to be the inaugural Master Teacher in their Intern Program for young collaborative pianists; and later in the year he serves as Artist in Residence in Opera at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA. Mr. Jones received the “Achievement Award” for 2011 from the Music Teachers National Association of America, their highest honor; and in 2010 he was selected as “Collaborative Pianist of the Year” by the publication Musical America. He has been an invited guest at the White House to perform for state dinners in honor of the leaders of Canada, Russia, and Italy; and three times the invited guest of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court for musical afternoons in the East Conference Room at the Court. As a musical jurist, he has participated in judging the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, and the Naumberg Awards— and he will join the jury of the Montreal International Vocal Competition in the Spring of 2018. A graduate of both New England Conservatory and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mr. Jones currently serves on the NEC Board of Visitors and has been honored with the Doctor of Music degree from SFCM. His discography contains thirty-one recordings on every major label in a wide range of classical, romantic, and contemporary repertory. His conducting appearances are similarly varied: he has led sold-out critically-acclaimed performances of Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Mozart’s Die Zauberfloete; and in 2014 he conducted the world premiere of a new operatic version of A Christmas Carol at the Houston Grand Opera. Mr. Jones returned to the Merola Opera Program at San
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Francisco Opera for performances of Donizetti’s comedy Don Pasquale in the summer of 2015. In February 2016 he led an innovative new production of Menotti’s The Telephone and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti for Tri-Cities Opera.
Ji Hye Jung, PRINCIPAL PERCUSSION Ji Hye Jung joined the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University as Associate Professor of Percussion in 2015. She previously directed the percussion studio at the University of Kansas for six years. Ms. Jung began concertizing in her native South Korea at the age of nine where she performed more than one hundred concerts, including solo appearances with every major orchestra in Korea. Soon after coming to the United States in 2004, Ms. Jung garnered consecutive first prizes at the 2006 Linz International Marimba Competition and the 2007 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. An advocate for new music, Ms. Jung has commissioned and premiered works by several important composers including, Kevin Puts, Alejandro Viñao, Paul Lansky, John Serry, Lukas Ligeti, and Jason Treuting. In 2013 she made the premier recording of Michael Torke’s marimba concerto, Mojave, and in 2014 recorded Phillip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra for the Naxos label. Ms. Jung frequently performs with many of today’s most important conductors and instrumentalists. For six years she has served as principal percussionist with the west coast-based chamber music ensemble Camerata Pacifica, with whom she has premiered works by Bright Sheng, John Psathas, David Bruce, and Huang Ruo. Other performance credits include appearances at Portugal’s Tomarimbando Festival, New Music Indaba in South Africa, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Grachtenfestival in Holland. Ji Hye Jung completed a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, both under the tutelage of Robert van Sice. As an artist endorser, she proudly represents Pearl/ Adams instruments, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, and Zildjian cymbals.
Bridget Kibbey, PRINCIPAL HARP According to the New York Times, harpist Bridget Kibbey “…made it seem as though her instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the gorgeous colors and energetic figures she was getting from it.” In demand as a soloist and collaborator alongside today’s top artists, harpist Bridget Kibbey is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist Award, a Salon de Virtuosi Grant, the only harpist to win a position with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society II, a winner of Concert Artist Guild’s International Competition, Astral Artist Auditions, and Premiere Prix at the Journées de les Harpes Competition in Arles, France. Ms. Kibbey’s solo performances have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, on New York’s WQXR and Q2 Radio, WNYC’s Soundcheck, WETA’s Front Row Washington, WRTI’s Crossover, and A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts.
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She has toured and recorded with Dawn Upshaw and Placido Domingo for SONY Records and Deutsche Grammaphon; and, her own solo debut album, Love is Come Again, was named one of the Top Ten Releases by Time Out New York. Bridget is featured annually with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Knights Chamber Orchestra, The International Contemporary Ensemble, and various festivals across the United States. She has appeared as featured soloist and chamber artist at the Bravo!Vail, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton, Aspen, Bay Chamber, Pelotas, Savannah Music Festival, Music@Menlo Festivals, among others. With a passion for expanding the scope and platform of the harp, Bridget spearheads and tours cross-genre collaborations that reignite an ancient instrument. This season Bridget presents J.S. Bach’s most iconic keyboard works adapted on the harp alongside the Sebastians, “New York’s leading early music ensemble” (New York Times). Having launched the project at fellow CP Artist Kristin Lee’s Emerald City Music this past season, Seattle’s City Arts Online heralded, «It gave a fresh face to the familiar music, and the result was extraordinary.» Bridget travels across the country with a special appearance at the Colombian Embassy with Chalaca, a new trio exploring the cross-pollination of folk music in South America, alongside Colombian clarinetist Benito Meza, and percussionist Samuel Torres. She will be a featured soloist with the San José Chamber Orchestra, the Dulce Suono Ensemble in Boston, and Chamber Music Silicon Valley – in works of Debussy, Ravel, and Caplet. With a passion for commissioning new repertoire for the harp, Bridget will soon announce participating orchestras in a new concerto consortium, with performances launching in 2019/2020, featuring a new harp concerto by Brazilian-born João Luiz Rezende. Bridget recently spear-headed a five orchestra concerto-commissioning consortium with Juno-Award winning composer Vivian Fung. Bridget performed five world-premiere performances with The Karlsruhe Badische Symphoniker (Germany), The Phillips Camerata in Washington, DC, The Alabama Symphony, The San José Chamber Orchestra, and the Metropolis Ensemble. Bridget maintains harp studios at Bard Conservatory, The Juilliard School Pre-College Program, and The Curtis Young Artist Institute.
Kristin Lee, Principal Violin, PRINCIPAL VIOLIN The Bernard Gondos Chair in Violin A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”
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Kristin Lee has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, New Mexico Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, the Ural Philharmonic of Russia, the Korean Broadcasting Symphony of Korea, and many others. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Steinway Hall’s Salon de Virtuosi, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. She has been featured on the Ravinia Festival’s Rising Stars Series and has toured throughout northern Italy. She recently curated a program that premiered at Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live and New York’s (le) Poisson Rouge in which she commissioned five new works for the violin and various instruments. Her recent engagements include debuts with the Milwaukee Symphony and at Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection, recitals in New York’s Merkin Concert Hall and Florida’s Kravis Center, appearances with the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and concerts around the United States with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Highlights of her 2016-2017 season include debuts with the Tacoma Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Nordic Chamber Orchestra of Sweden, and a return engagement with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. Lee will also continue touring with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center throughout 12 states. An accomplished chamber musician, Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center following her completion of a three-year residency as a CMS Two artist. She has appeared with Camerata Pacifica, at the Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, La Jolla Festival, Medellín Festicámara of Colombia, the El Sistema Chamber Music festival of Venezuela, and the Sarasota Music Festival, among many others. She is the concertmaster of the groundbreaking Metropolis Ensemble, with whom she premiered Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto, written for her, which appears on Fung’s CD Dreamscapes, released on Naxos. Fung’s Violin Concerto won the 2013 Juno Award. Lee’s performances have been broadcast on PBS’s “Live from Lincoln Center,” the Kennedy Center Honors,, WFMT Chicago’s “Rising Stars” series, and on WQXR in New York. She also appeared on Perlman in Shanghai, a nationally broadcast PBS documentary that chronicled a historic cross-cultural exchange between the Perlman Music Program and Shanghai Conservatory. Lee’s many honors include awards from the 2015 Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, 2011 Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation. She is also the unprecedented First Prize winner of three concerto competitions at The Juilliard School – in the Pre-College Division in 1997 and 1999, and in the College Division in 2007. Born in Seoul, Korea, Lee began studying the violin at the age of five, and within one year won First Prize at the prestigious Korea Times Violin Competition. In 1995, she moved to the United States and continued her musical studies under Sonja Foster. Two years later, she became a student of Catherine Cho and Dorothy DeLay in The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. In January 2000, she was chosen to study with Itzhak Perlman after he heard her perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Juilliard’s PreCollege Symphony Orchestra. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School,
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where she studied with Itzhak Perlman and Donald Weilerstein, and served as an assistant teacher for Perlman’s studio as a Starling Fellow. She is a member of the faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and the co-founder and artistic director of Emerald City Music, a chamber music series based out in Seattle. She has also served on the faculties of the LG Chamber Music School in Seoul, Korea, El Sistema’s chamber music festival in Caracas, Venezuela, and the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival.
Richard O’Neill, PRINCIPAL VIOLA Praised by the London Times as “ravishing” the New York Times for his “elegant, velvety tone” the Los Angeles Times as “energetic and sassy…exceptional” and Seattle Times as “sublime” violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill has distinguished himself as one of the great instrumentalists of his generation. An Emmy Award winner, two-time Grammy nominee, and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he has achieved recognition and critical acclaim not only as a champion of his instrument but as a social and musical ambassador as well. He has appeared as soloist with the London, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Euro-Asian Philharmonics; the BBC, KBS, and Korean Symphonies; the Moscow, Vienna, and Württemburg Chamber Orchestras; and Alte Musik Köln with conductors Andrew Davis, Miguel Harth Bedoya, Vladimir Jurowski, Vassily Sinaisky, Leonard Slatkin and Yannick Nezet-Sequin. Highlights of this season include recitals at the Louvre, collaborations with Gidon Kremer, concertos with Kremerata Baltica and the Hiroshima Symphony and the opening ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games with Lang Lang. As recitalist he has performed in many of the greatest halls of the world including Carnegie, Alice Tully, Avery Fisher, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot, the Louvre, Madrid’s National Concert Hall, Buenos Aires’s Teatro Colon, Tokyo’s International Forum and Opera City, Osaka Symphony Hall and Seoul Arts Center. An Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as Principal Violist of Camerata Pacifica he frequently collaborates with the world’s greatest musicians including Emanuel Ax, Jeremy Denk, Leon Fleisher, Warren Jones, Garrick Ohlsson, Menahem Pressler, Daniil Trifonov, James Ehnes, Steven Isserlis, Edgar Meyer and The Emerson Quartet, among many others. Festival appearances include Marlboro, Aspen, Bridgehampton, Casals, Chamber Music Northwest, Dresden, Great Mountains, La Folle Journée, La Jolla, Mecklenburg, Menlo, Mostly Mozart, Prussia Cove, Saint Barthélemy, Saratoga, Seattle and Tongyeong. A UNIVERSAL/DG recording artist, he has made eight solo albums that have sold more than 150,000 copies and has remained for over a decade one of the best selling South Korean recording artists with multiple platinum disc awards. Dedicated to the music of our time, he has worked with Mario Davidovsky, Jo Kondo, Chris Paul Harman, Matthias Pintscher, George Tsontakis, Melinda Wagner, John Zorn, and has premiered works composed for him by Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Huang Ruo, and Paul Chihara. In his ninth season as artistic director of DITTO he has introduced tens of thousands to chamber music in South Korea and Japan: on its first international tour DITTO sold out Tokyo’s International Forum and Osaka Symphony Hall. The first violist to receive the Artist Diploma from Juilliard, he holds a Bachelors of Music from The USC Thornton School of Music magna cum laude and a Masters from The Juilliard School. In 2007 he was honored with a Proclamation from the New York
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City Council for his achievement and contribution to the arts. He serves as Goodwill Ambassador for the Korean Red Cross, The Special Olympics, and UNICEF, runs marathons for charity and serves on the faculty of The Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA and The Music Academy of the West.
Martin Owen, PRINCIPAL HORN Martin Owen is widely regarded as one of Europe’s leading horn players, appearing as soloist and chamber musician at some of the leading music festivals around the world. Martin currently holds the position of Principal Horn at the BBC Symphony Orchestra, having served as Principal Horn of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for ten years, and during the 2012/13 season, Martin was Principal Horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker on a temporary contract. Martin also currently holds the position of Principal Horn of the California-based ensemble, Camerata Pacifica. Recent highlights include performances of concertos by Mozart, Richard Strauss, Schumann, Messiaen, Britten, Elliott Carter and Oliver Knussen, with orchestras including the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacional de España, The Hallé, New World Symphony and Aalborg Symfoniorkester. This season’s highlights include Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner / Mark Padmore in October 2015; Strauss: 1st Horn Concerto with the Staatsphilharmonie Nurnberg Orchestra / Sir Roger Norrington in January 2016; Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with Britten Sinfonia at Shanghai Concert Hall, China, in May and also with Britten Sinfonia / Ian Bostridge (tenor/director) in June. Next season, Martin Owen will perform Strauss: 1st Horn Concerto with the Liceu Symphony Orchestra / Josep Pons in Barcelona in October. In 2006, Martin Owen also gave the world premiere of Malcolm Arnold’s recently discovered Burlesque with the Royal Philharmonic in the composer’s home town of Northampton, and, in 2007, made his solo debut at the BBC Proms performing Schumann›s Konzertstück with the BBC Philharmonic. Martin returned to the Proms as soloist in 2009 in a highly acclaimed performance of Oliver Knussen›s Horn Concerto with the BBC Symphony conducted by the composer, broadcast live on BBC television and radio. In 2008, he made his Barbican debut in the London premiere of Elliott Carter›s Horn Concerto with the BBC Symphony/Knussen as part of Carter›s 100th birthday celebrations (the performance was released by Bridge Records in March 2010). More recently, in May 2011, Martin performed both the Knussen and Elliott Carter horn concertos with the Orquesta Nacional de España in Madrid, broadcast live on Spanish national radio; and in 2013, Martin performed Benjamin Britten’s Serenade with Ben Johnson at Aldeburgh, the Centenary of Britten›s birth, as well as giving concerts with Ensemble Berlin in Portugal, Germany and Croatia. Other recordings include Mozart’s horn concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (for RPO classics), Britten’s Serenade with Toby Spence and the Scottish Ensemble directed by Clio Gould (for Linn), Britten’s Canticles with tenor Ben Johnson (for Signum Classics), Schubert’s Octet with Michael Collins (which was recorded for Wigmore Hall’s Live label), Schumann’s Konzertstuck with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/ Mackerras (on the BBC’s label), Danzi›s Sinfonia Concertante with the Orquestra de Cadaques/Marriner (on the Trito label) and Roderick Elms› Four Seasonal Nocturnes with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Cleobury (for Dutton). Additionally, Martin Owen
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has performed on over 300 movie soundtracks to date including James Bond, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Gladiator and Pirates of the Caribbean films. Martin Owen is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where he is Professor of Horn.
Adrian Spence, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL FLUTE Under the leadership of Adrian Spence, Camerata Pacifica has become one of the most notable chamber music organizations in the country, distinctive not only for its exceptional artistic quality, but also for its dynamic sense of community. Spence carefully selected the group’s exceptional international artists over the course of many seasons, giving them the rehearsal and performance environment necessary to form an ensemble unique in style and sensibility. The bond between the artists is clear, as is theirs with the audience. The Los Angeles Times recently highlighted the emphasis of Spence’s work: “What was out of the ordinary was the wildly enthusiastic response that each work received. Whatever it’s doing, Camerata Pacifica seems to be cultivating a passionate audience – and that’s good news.” Spence’s conviction of this music’s viability and of the intellectual curiosity of the Camerata Pacifica audience is evident at every performance, where a broad range of programming is presented in a manner both welcoming and provocative. Over the course of 28 seasons Camerata Pacifica has developed a loyal following and now presents resident series in Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Marino & Los Angeles. As an administrator, Spence created a business model that permits the presentation of world class artists in small, intimate venues, thereby preserving the essence of ‘chamber music.’ Spence views classical music as an inviolable record of human emotional history, with distinctions such as period and style less critical to a vital performance than the communication of the expressive intent of the composer. The entire canon is part of that record and the creation of music of our time is essential. Camerata’s commissioning began prominently with “Winter Roses”, a song cycle by Jake Heggie and premiered with Frederica von Stade. In 2006 Spence announced a major commissioning initiative, commissioning seven works from three composers: Ian Wilson, Huang Ruo and Lera Auerbach. The first commission, Wilson’s Messenger Concerto for Violin and Chamber Ensemble, received its premiere with 5 Southern Californian performances in May 2007 and a subsequent tour to The Library of Congress in Washington DC, New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and venues in Northern Ireland. The Irish Times referred to the Camerata as a “miracle of modern artistic organisation” and London’s Daily Telegraph referred to the ensemble as, “a very serious group of fine artists, both innovative and intrepid.” Spence comes from Newtownards in County Down, Northern Ireland. He has three children, Erin, Keiran and Kaeli, is a master-rated skydiver with over 1000 skydives, and most recently obtained his Advanced Scuba Certification. Adrian Spence is a member of the Board of Directors of the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara.
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Guest Artists Lera Auerbach, COMPOSER & PIANIST Russian-American composer and concert pianist Lera Auerbach is one of today’s most sought after and exciting creative voices. Auerbach’s intelligent and emotional style has connected her to audiences around the world and her work is championed by today’s leading performers, conductors, choreographers, choirs and opera houses, including the Theatre an der Wein, New York’s Lincoln Center, the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow, the Hamburg Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Netherlands Dance Theater, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of China; choreographers, John Neumeier, Aszure Barton, Goyo Montero, Terence Kohler, Sol León, Paul Lightfoot, Tim Plegge and Medhi Walerski; violinists Gidon Kremer, Leonidas Kavakos, Daniel Hope, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Gluzman, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Dmitry Sitkovetsky; violist Kim Kashkashian; cellists Alisa Weilerstein, Gautier Capuçon, Alban Gerhardt, David Finckel, Joshua Roman, Clive Greensmith, David Geringas, Ani Aznavoorian, Wendy Warner, and Narek Hakhnazaryan; the Artemis, Borromeo, Tokyo, and Ying string quartets and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Her orchestral works have been brought to life by Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Andris Nelsons, Vladimir Jurowski, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Neeme Järvi, Vladimir Spivakov, Osmo Vänskä, Andrey Boreyko, and many others. In 2015, Auerbach was composer-in-residence at the Trans-Siberian Art Festival and the Rheingau Musik Festival in Germany. Past residencies include the Staatskapelle Dresden, Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, Norway’s Trondheim Festival, the São Paulo Symphony in Brazil, and Marlboro Music Festival in the USA. Awards include the Hindemith Prize, a Golden Mask, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, German National Radio prize and the ECHO Klassik award. In 2011, her opera GOGOL marked the first time a major opera written by a female composer was produced in Vienna. Auerbach is equally prolific in literature and the visual arts (especially painting and sculpture) and incorporates these forms into her professional creative process, simultaneously expressing ideas visually, in words, and through music. She has published three books of poetry in Russian and her first English-language book, “Excess of Being”— in which she explores the difficult form of the aphorism — was published by Arch Street Press in 2015. Her visual art has been included in several exhibitions, is often exhibited at performances of her musical work, and has been reproduced in magazines, CDs and books. As a poet, Ms. Auerbach has been long established and was named Poet of the Year in 1996 by the International Pushkin Society in New York. Her poetry and prose has been included in various anthologies and high school textbooks. She is the author of several librettos and is a regular contributor to the Best American Poetry blog through her column, The Trouble Clef. From 2007-2012 Auerbach was a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Today, she serves the WEF as a Cultural Leader, giving presentations around the world on Borderless Creativity. The LeraArt Foundation, a 501c3 organization, was established in her name in 2015 and seeks to create an artist-centric paradigm for composers through its “Modern Renaissance” project.
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Auerbach was raised in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on the border of Siberia. She graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degree in composition from the Juilliard School and a post-graduate degree in piano from Hanover University. Her work is published exclusively by the Internationale Musikverlage Hans Sikorski. Her music is available on Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, BIS, Cedille and other labels.
Paul Coletti, VIOLA Paul Coletti enjoys a prolific career as a performer, composer, professor, and recording artist. Since 2003 he has taught at the Colburn School. He has been a professor at UCLA where he was Head of Chamber Music, the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland, the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Washington where at 25 he was appointed Head of Strings. His students hold positions of prominence throughout the world. As a soloist, Coletti has performed in every major European capital, frequently on the BBC, NHK, Classical Arts and NPR’s St Paul Sunday. Solo performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Soloists, and the Berlin and Hannover Radio symphonies. He performed a tango show live from the Argentine consulate for CNN. After his New York Debut at 23, the New York Times wrote, “The violist Paul Coletti is a remarkable musician with a distinct artistic personality that is entirely his own. Although Mr. Coletti has an impeccable technique, there is nothing ostentatious about his playing; the mastery is there and needs no promotional fanfare. He is an elegant artist who enhances all he plays.”
Presenting the world’s finest classical artists since 1919
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Paul Coletti has performed at the Sydney Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Suntory Hall, San Miniato Cathedral in Florence, and in Chicago where he performed on Paganini’s Stradivarius viola. Coletti’s full conducting debut was in an all Mozart program with the New Japan Philharmonic orchestra in Tokyo in which he also appeared as soloist. A prolific solo recording artist, Coletti has been Grammy nominated, and has won accolades for Hyperion’s ‘English Music for Viola’, which won best CD awards from Gramophone and BBC Music magazines and was named one of the 100 best CDs of all time. With the Menuhin Festival Piano Quartet, their recording of the chamber music of Brahms won the ’Forderpreiz’ for Europe’s best recording of the year. In Japan his pioneering group Typhoon performed over 500 sold-out concerts and released 2 full length DVD’s and six chart-topping CD’s. He has been featured in articles for Strings and Strad magazines and wrote, acted and produced a music video with actor Leonard Nimoy filmed in the Scottish isles to his own piece, Dreamocean. Oxford University Press published his composition; 3 pieces for Viola and Piano. It was recorded on Epic Sony, and reached No.1. His several viola compositions are performed worldwide. In 2013 Fanfare Magazine wrote, “I don’t believe there is a better violist currently on the musical scene today, and few that can match the standard set by this artist.”
Inna Faliks, PIANO “Adventurous and passionate” (The New Yorker) Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most exciting, committed, communicative and poetic artists of her generation. Faliks is Head of Piano and Professor of Piano at UCLA. Renowned for her versatility, Faliks is equally at home in the great concerti, standard solo repertoire, chamber music, interdisciplinary projects and work with contemporary composers. After her acclaimed debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart. Critics praise her “signature blend of lithe grace and raw power“ (Lucid Culture), “courage to take risks, expressive intensity and technical perfection” (General Anzeiger, Bonn), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post), and “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun). Her lauded discography includes a recent all-Beethoven release, “Sound of Verse — music of Boris Pasternak, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff”— both on MSR Classics, and a Disklavier recital recording for Yamaha. Upcoming recordings include ”Polonaise-Fantasie, story of a pianist” theater-piano piece, and her Music/Words new commissions CD. Faliks’s distinguished career has taken her to numerous recitals and concerti in prestigious venues in the US, Europe and Asia. Winner of many competitions, including the ProMusicis International Award, she has been featured on radio and international television broadcasts, and has performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Concert Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris’ Salle Cortot, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, LA’s Zipper Hall, in Festival Internacional de Mexico, Portland Piano International, Music in the Mountains, Verbier Festival, Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, Fazioli Series in Italy, Tel Aviv Museum in Israel. She is consistently engaged as concerto
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soloist with orchestras throughout the US. Recent highlights include a tour of China in all of its major halls, including Beijing CPA, Shanghai Oriental Arts Theater and Tianjin Grand Theater, many concerti including Rachmaninoff 2 with Greensboro Symphony Festival, Prokofiev 1 and 3 at Peninsula Festival, Clara Schumann Concerto at Wintergren Festival, and numerous return engagements — at Minnesota Sinfonia, Newport Festival, Bargemusic, Broad Stage Santa Monica, and more. An artist as committed to genre-bending and new music as she is to the core repertoire, Faliks is currently presenting Reimagine: Ravel and Beethoven, commissioning today’s leading composers such as Timo Andres, Richard Danielpour, Billy Chilrds and Paola Prestini to create responses to pieces of Ravel and Beethoven. She premiered 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg —variations by contemporary composers on Bach’s Aria, She has performed and recorded the unknown piano works of Russian poet Boris Pasternak, appeared in theatrical productions such as “Admission: One Shilling” with Downton Abbey star Lesley Nicol, collaborated with the modern dance troupe Bodytraffic, and has premiered new works by many contemporary composers, including Ljova, Clarice Assad, Jan Freidlin, Sean Hickey, Tania Leon, and others. Faliks is the founder and curator of Music/Words, a series that pairs together live performances with readings by established contemporary poets. The series has been heard and seen nation-wide for 8 seasons, live and on radio. Faliks is in demand as an Artist teacher, and is frequently invited to guest residencies at leading conservatories, festivals and universities internationally. Her own teachers included Leon Fleisher, Boris Petrushansky, Gilbert Kalish, Ann Schein and Emilio del Rosario.
Andrew Garland, BARITONE Baritone Andrew Garland is widely recognized as a leader in recital work with dozens of performances around the country including Carnegie Hall with pianist Warren Jones and programs of modern American songs all over the Unites States and in Canada. Jones, Marilyn Horne, Steven Blier, a number of American composers and several major music publications all endorse him as a highly communicative singer leading the way for the song recital into the 21st Century. He brings his highly communicative style to the concert stage with orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Youth Symphony, National Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Washington Master Chorale at the Kennedy Center and National Chorale at Lincoln Center. Garland is a regular with the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) and has given multiple recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Ravinia festival as well as Vocal Arts DC, Marilyn Horne Foundation, The Bard Festival, Camerata Pacifica, Andre-Turp Society in Montreal, Voce at Pace, Huntsville Chamber Music Guild, Fort Worth Opera, Seattle Opera, Fanfare in Hammond, LA, Cincinnati Matinee Musicale, Cincinnati Song Initiative, Tuesday Morning Music Club and dozens of college music series around the country. In 2014 he was the featured recitalist for the NATS National convention where that organization’s president declared him “the next Thomas Hampson.”
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His latest solo CD American Portraits (with Donna Loewy, piano) went to Number 1 on Amazon classical. Garland has five other recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, Roven Records and Azica Labels. During the 2016–2017 season, Garland performed in the world premiere of William Bolcom’s “Dinner at Eight” with Minnesota Opera, joins the Houston Symphony for the world premiere of “The Conquest Requiem” by Gabriela Lena Frank, debuts as Prior Walter in “Angels in America” with New York City Opera, reprises Guglielmo in “Cosí fan tutte” with Ash Lawn Opera and Dancaïre in “Carmen” with Boston Lyric Opera. On the concert stage he joins the New York Festival of Song at the Moab Music Festival and National Sawdust, sings “Messiah” with Boston Baroque and Colorado Bach Ensemble, sings in orchestral performances of Vaughan Williams’ “Five Mystical Songs,” “Dona Nobis Pacem” and “Hodie,” solos in the Bach B Minor Mass with the Amherst Bach Festival and sings recitals in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Boston, Fort Worth, Springfield, Boulder and other cities. The 2015-2016 season was highlighted by his return to Seattle Opera as Harlekin in “Ariadne auf Naxos.” During previous seasons he joined Boston Baroque as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte where the Boston Globe said “He had the audience in the palm of his hand.” He also returned to Boston Lyric Opera in “La Bohème,” Bob Jones University at Dandini in “La Cenerentola,” and made his debut with the Colorado Symphony for performances of “Messiah.” Other highlights include Dandini with Opera Philadelphia and Fort Worth Opera, Mercurio (La Calisto) and the title role in Galileo Galilei (by Philip Glass) at Cincinnati Opera, and Riolobo (Florencia en el Amazonas) and Schaunard (La Bohème) at Seattle Opera. In past seasons Garland has portrayed Rossini’s Figaro with Dayton Opera, Knoxville Opera and Cincinnati Opera (cover), Schaunard at Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Saratoga, Atlanta Opera, Fort Worth Opera and Dayton Opera; Ping (Turandot) at Arizona Opera, Silvio (I Pagliacci) with Hawaii Opera Theatre, Don Giovanni at Opera New Jersey, Mozart’s Count at Dayton Opera, Guglielmo at Opera Saratoga, Mercutio at Lyric Opera of San Antonio and Annapolis Opera, Giuseppe (The Gondoliers) with Utah Opera and Danilo with Sarasota Opera Artist Concert Series. Other concert performances include Handel’s Messiah with Boston Baroque, UMS (Ann Arbor, MI), Dartmouth Handel Society (Helmuth Rilling, conductor) the Colorado Bach Ensemble, Arizona Symphony, Virginia Symphony and others; “Carmina Burana,” Ein Deutches Requiem, “Five Mystical Songs,” “Dona Nobis Pacem,” “Hodie,” Faure Requiem and Durufle Requiem. Particularly suited for baroque repertoire, Garland has sung numerous performances with Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, and the Colorado Bach Ensemble and sang in Cincinnati Opera’s first Baroque production (La Calisto). He has also soloed with Emmanuel Music in Boston. Garland is the winner of the Lavinia Jensen, NATSAA, Washington International, American Traditions, NATS and Opera Columbus Competition and was a prize winner in the Montreal International, Jose Iturbi, Gerda Lissner, McCammon and Palm Beach International Competitions. He was an apprentice at the San Francisco Opera Center and the Seattle Opera and Cincinnati Opera Young Artists programs.
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Bil Jackson, CLARINET Bil Jackson, in his sixth year as associate professor of clarinet at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, enjoys a varied musical career that includes solo, orchestral and chamber music appearances. Before joining the faculty at the Blair School, Mr. Jackson served as principal clarinetist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony and has performed as guest principal clarinetist with the St Louis, St. Paul Chamber, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Cincinnati symphony orchestras. He also has appeared as a soloist with the Colorado, Honolulu, Denver, Charlotte, Dallas Chamber, and Aspen Chamber orchestras. Mr. Jackson taught at the Aspen Music Festival for 34 years and retired as Artist Faculty Emeritus in 2016. He has previously served on the faculties of the University of Texas, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado and Duquesne University. Mr. Jackson studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he won the IAA’s concerto competition three years in a row and was awarded the gold medal for superlative musicianship upon graduation. Mr. Jackson is the only person to win the International Clarinet Competition twice and he was a finalist in the Prague International Clarinet Competition. Mr. Jackson began his orchestral career with the Honolulu Symphony as principal clarinetist at the age of 19. Mr. Jackson currently performs recitals and presents master classes throughout the United States and abroad. Bil was featured at the 2016 International Clarinet convention in August performing the Weber clarinet quintet with the Miro Quartet and performed a recital tour to Japan, Korea and China in October 2016. Mr. Jackson has presented master classes at the Yale, Shepherd School, Northwestern, Manhattan, Eastman, and Colburn schools of music. Mr. Jackson premiered a trio composed by Lowell Liebermann at the Tucson Chamber Music Festival, which was recorded and released on CD. In March 2017, Mr. Jackson presented at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, an International Clarinet Symposium and solo competition sponsored by Backun Musical Services. This symposium featured prominent clarinet guest artists from around the world. Mr. Jackson commissioned, and premiered with the Honolulu Symphony, Dan Welcher’s Clarinet Concerto which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music. He subsequently returned to the Honolulu Symphony to record the concerto for the Naxos label. During the 2008-2009 Colorado Symphony season, Bil premiered 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts’ Clarinet Concerto, also written for him with Jeffrey Kahane conducting. Additionally, he performed the Puts concerto via a live NPR national broadcast from the Aspen Music Festival’s 2010 season. Mr. Jackson also recorded the concerto with the Colorado Symphony with Andrew Litton conducting. Mr. Jackson teams with pianist Bill Douglas to present concerts that synthesize jazz, classical, and contemporary formats. Together they record for the Hearts of Space label. Mr. Jackson’s chamber music affiliations have included performances-collaborations with: David Shifrin, Ida Kavafian, Jeffery Kahane, Cho-Liang Lin, Peter Wiley, Emanuel Ax, Jon Kimura Parker, Milan Turkovic, Stephen Hough, Awadagin Pratt, Anne Marie McDermott, Eugenia Zukerman, Steve Prutsman, Pamela Frank, Ransom Wilson, Sharon Isbin, Toby Appel, Bill Douglas, Tokyo String Quartet, Shanghai String Quartet, American String Quartet, Pacifica Quartet, Miro Quartet and the Miami String Quartet.
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Additionally, Mr. Jackson is a guest artist with the Music from Angel Fire, Camerata Pacifica, Chamber Music Unbound, Bravo! Colorado, Chamber Music Northwest, Arizona friends of Chamber Music, Strings in the Mountains and Sunflower chamber music festivals. Mr. Jackson has also toured with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and the Australian Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Jackson is sponsored by Backun Musical and Légère corporations.
Egle Januleviciute, KEYBOARD Egle Januleviciute was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, into family of professional musicians. She holds the Diploma with Highest Honors from Academy of Music of Lithuania, Vilnius, Master of Music in Piano Performance degree from Bowling Green State University, OH, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from University of California Santa Barbara. Egle Januleviciute has toured Lithuania, Germany, Finland, Japan, Italy, Belgium and the former Soviet Union, both as soloist and collaborative artist. Egle was awarded the Premiere Prix Concert Recital Diploma from Guildhall School, London, was a finalist and prize-winner in Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition, Cleveland, Ohio, and the first prize winner in the Young Keyboard Artists Association International Piano Competition, Oberlin, Ohio. Her discography includes M.K.Ciurlionis (1875-1911) Pieces for Piano (Tembras Studios, Lithuania, 1992), works by Faure, Franck, Debussy and Ravel for “Young Maestros Label” by Hurstwood Farm Music Studios, U.K., 1998, J.S.Bach Keyboard Works by Eroica Classical recordings, 2006, and works by W.A.Mozart and Chopin, (Opus One recordings, 2013). Egle currently teaches piano at Westmont College and Cate School, as well as privately.
Molly Morkoski, PIANO Pianist Molly Morkoski has performed as soloist and collaborative artist throughout the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean, and Japan. In 2007, she made her solo debut in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. As a soloist, she enjoys championing the classics, such as Bach’s Goldberg Variations and contemporary masterworks such as Ives’ Concord Sonata and Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus, as well as premiering new works of current composer colleagues. Molly Morkoski has performed in many of the country’s prestigious venues, including Weill and Zankel Halls, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, (Le) Poisson Rouge, National Sawdust, Boston’s Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall, St. Louis’ Powell Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, San Francisco’s SoundBox Theater, Los Angeles’ Zipper Hall, and Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian. She has performed concertos with the Raleigh, Asheville, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Indianapolis, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestras, and she recorded Martin Kennedy’s Piano Concerto with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic. An avid chamber musician, Molly Morkoski has collaborated with some of today’s leading musicians, including Dawn Upshaw, John Adams, Orli Shaham, John Corigliano, and David Robertson. She has performed with the Camerata Pacifica and New York Philharmonic Ensembles, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, St Louis Symphony, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, and with the Lark, Chiara, and
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Momenta Quartets. She has worked with composers John Harbison, Elliott Carter, Gabriela Lena Frank, Steven Stucky, Steve Mackey, David Bruce, Louis Andriessen, Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Eric Nathan, David Little, Andrew Waggoner, Melinda Wagner, Joan Tower, Magnus Lindberg, Augusta Reed Thomas, Timo Andres, Judd Greenstien, David Del Tredici, Charles Wuorinen, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, David Bruce, Lisa Bielawa, Tania Leon, and more. Recent highlights include an invitation by the San Francisco Symphony and John Adams to perform on their Soundbox series celebrating the composer’s 70th birthday, a tribute concert at National Sawdust in NY for John Harbison premiering his “Bag of Tails,” a work dedicated and written for Ms. Morkoski and six other pianists, and concerto appearances with the Mendocino Festival Orchestra and at the Big Sky Festival in Montana. Her debut solo CD, Threads, was released on Albany Records, to critical acclaim, and she has enjoyed numerous other recording collaborations, most recently Compadrazgo a disc dedicated to the piano music of Gabriela Lena Frank. Molly Morkoski was a Fulbright Scholar to Paris, where she was an apprentice with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. The recipient of many awards, she holds degrees from UNC Chapel Hill, Indiana University Bloomington, and SUNY Stony Brook. She has given masterclasses at numerous universities and has served as a chamber music coach for programs at the Juilliard PreCollege, New York Youth Symphony, SUNY Stony Brook, Columbia and more. She is currently Associate Professor of Piano at CUNY-Lehman College in the Bronx.
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Giora Schmidt, VIOLIN Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “impossible to resist, captivating with lyricism, tonal warmth, and boundless enthusiasm,” violinist Giora Schmidt has appeared with many prominent symphony orchestras around the globe including Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Toronto, Vancouver and the Israel Philharmonic. He made his Carnegie Hall debut performing the Barber Violin Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony. In recital and chamber music, Giora (pronounced ghee-OH-rah) has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, San Francisco Performances, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Tokyo’s Musashino Cultural Hall. Festival appearances include the Ravinia Festival, the Santa Fe and Montreal Chamber Music Festivals, Bard Music Festival, Scotia Festival of Music and Music Academy of the West. He has collaborated with eminent musicians including Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum and Michael Tree. Born in Philadelphia in 1983 to professional musicians from Israel, Giora began playing the violin at the age of four. He has studied with Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music, and Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School. Committed to education and sharing his passion for music, Giora was on the faculty of the Juilliard School and the Perlman Music Program from 2005-2009. Through technology and social media he continues to find new ways of reaching young violinists and music lovers around the world. His Facebook page (facebook.com/gioraschmidt) has over 70,000 global followers. Giora was the First Prize winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Greenfield Competition in 2000, the recipient of a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 2005 won the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award. From 2004-2006 he was selected to be a Starling Fellow at the Juilliard School.
Svet Stoyanov, PERCUSSION Praised by the New York Times for his “understated but unmistakable virtuosity” along with a “winning combination of gentleness and fluidity,” Svet Stoyanov is a driving force in modern percussion. Winner of the prestigious Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Mr. Stoyanov was most recently presented with the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Award. His career highlights feature solo concerto appearances with the Chicago, Seattle, and the American Symphony Orchestras, as well as solo performances in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and Taiwan National Concert Hall amongst many others worldwide. Some of the conductors he has performed with include James Conlon, Gerard Schwarz, Oliver Knussen, Marin Alsop and Pierre Boulez. Svet Stoyanov has recorded for numerous labels, featuring Telarc, Naxos and Bridge Records. His recent albums “Percussive Counterpoint”, as well as “Textures and Threads” were broadcast internationally and applauded for their artistic integrity, virtuosic ingenuity and excellent quality. Mr. Stoyanov’s upcoming recording projects feature an
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original concept audio-visual album, as well as a record, celebrating the music of his native country: Bulgaria. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Svet Stoyanov has commissioned a significant body of solo and chamber works. Most recently, American Rome Prize winner Andy Akiho completed a work for Mr. Stoyanov and his Time Travelers Percussion Project, called Pillar IV. The work was recently premiered to great acclaim in New York’s National Sawdust. A significant recent collaboration of Mr. Stoyanov is the commission of “Sideman”— a percussion concerto written for him by the composer and musical mastermind Mason Bates. The concerto was already performed in Miami and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. This season Mr. Stoyanov will perform the piece again in Miami, Kansas City and Baltimore. The concerto was also just recorded by Mr. Stoyanov for an upcoming release. Alongside his diverse performance career, Svet Stoyanov is the Director and Associate Professor of Percussion Studies at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami, where he has collaboratively built a most unique and innovative modern percussion program. Mr. Stoyanov endorses some of the finest percussion instruments and products today, namely Adams, Remo, Zildjian, Pearl and Pro Mark. Svet Stoyanov has performed in more than one thousand recitals and has presented over two hundred masterclasses worldwide. His artistic mission is committed to the purity, quality and virtue of music.
Jason Uyeyama, VIOLIN Jason Uyeyama is founder and director of the Orange County String Studio. He is also Associate Professor of Music and Director of String Studies at La Sierra University, where he teaches violin, viola, and chamber music. He holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Masao Kawasaki. Previous teachers include Itzhak Perlman, Dorothy DeLay, and Yao-Ji Lin. Mr. Uyeyama continues to lead an active career as recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and soloist. He has performed regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2005, and has performed with the Pacific Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Festival appearances include Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, Festicamara in Medellin, Colombia, as well as the festivals of Aspen, Tanglewood, and Taos. Students of Mr. Uyeyama have been accepted to The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, The Colburn School of Performing Arts, University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the Mannes School of Music. His students have also been accepted to numerous summer festivals including Aspen, Music Academy of the West, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the Montecito International Summer Music Festival.
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Gilles Vonsattel, PIANO A “wanderer between worlds” (Lucerne Festival), Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. Comfortable with and seeking out an enormous range of repertoire, Vonsattel displays a musical curiosity and sense of adventure that has gained him many admirers. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions as well as a Honens laureate, Vonsattel has in recent years made his Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, and San Francisco Symphony debuts, while performing recitals and chamber music at Ravinia, Tokyo’s Musashino Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bravo! Vail, Music@ Menlo, the Gilmore festival, the Lucerne festival, and the Munich Gasteig. A recent New York solo recital was hailed as “tightly conceived and passionately performed…a study in intensity” by The New York Times. Gilles was the 2016 recipient of the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, which is solely awarded to influential chamber pianists. Previous recipients include Jeremy Denk, Jonathan Biss, and Max Levinson. Reengaged by the San Francisco Symphony, he has also appeared with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Québec, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Staatskapelle Halle, and L’orchestre de chambre de Genève. Chamber partners include musicians such as James Ehnes, Frank Huang, Nicolas Altstaedt, David Shifrin, David Finckel, Stefan Jackiw, Jörg Widmann, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, Anthony Marwood, Paul Neubauer, Paul Watkins, Phil Setzer, Emmanuel Pahud, Karen Gomyo, David Jolley, Ida Kavafian, and the Swiss Chamber Soloists. He has appeared in concert with the Pacifica, Orion, Ebène, Danish, Daedalus, Escher, and Borromeo Quartets. Deeply committed to the performance of contemporary works, Vonsattel has premiered numerous works both in the United States and Europe and worked closely with notable composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, and George Benjamin. Vonsattel’s 2011 recording for the Honens/Naxos label of music by Debussy, Honegger, Holliger, and Ravel was named one of Time Out New York’s classical albums of the year, while a 2014 release on GENUIN/Artist Consort received a 5/5 from FonoForum and international critical praise. His most recent album includes the music of Scarlatti, Webern, Messiaen, Debussy, and George Benjamin’s Shadowlines and was released to great acclaim, with The New York Times calling it a “mesmerizing” album in which Vonsattel traced an “intelligent and imaginative path” throughout the pieces. His latest projects include the Berg Kammerkonzert with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, a tour with Jörg Widmann and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Mozart concerti with the Vancouver Symphony and Florida Orchestra, performances at Seoul’s LG Arts Centre and at the Beijing Modern Music Festival, as well as multiple appearances internationally and throughout the United States with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performing music ranging from Beethoven and Dvorak, to Lachenmann. Mr. Vonsattel received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Columbia University and his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. He is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and makes his home in New York City. Gilles Vonsattel is a Steinway Artist.
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C P
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A is a select group of Camerata Pacifica supporters committed to ensuring the ensemble’s next 25 years. The aim of its members is the continuity of Camerata Pacifica’s artistic excellence and to build a better awareness of that excellence, while contributing to the creation of new works that future chamber music audiences will appreciate, as our generation appreciates what commissioners over the years have left for us to enjoy. A means gold. Gold marks a personal or organizational milestone of 50 years. A members are doing their part to help Camerata Pacifica towards a golden anniversary celebration. That will be in 2040. We hope to see you there. You never know.
2 0 1 7 M embe r s A n n & F r a n k Ev erts
A leja n dro P l a nc h a rt
Dr. Bernard Gondos
Ba r ry & M o l l i e Tay l o r
CHARTER MEMBERS Charter Members are an essential part of Camerata Pacifica’s history. Listed in perpetuity, Charter Members’ contributions at critical times in the organization’s growth helped Camerata Pacifica realize its vision of becoming one of the most acclaimed chamber music ensembles in the country, with an international profile and deep roots in California.
Baroness Léni Fé Bland Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Hahn Mrs. Richard H. Hellman Mr. Brenton Horner Mr. & Mrs. Richard Janssen Mr. & Mrs. Donald Kosterka Mr. & Mrs. Jordan Laby Miss Dora Anne Little
Mr. & Mrs. Jon Lovelace Mr. & Mrs. Eli Luria Ms. Deanna McHugh Mr. Stephen McHugh Mr. Spencer Nilson & Ms. Margaret Moore Mssrs. Ralph Quackenbush & Robert Winkler
The Viscount & Lady Ridley-Tree Dr. & Mrs. Jack Sheen Mrs. Jeanne Thayer Mr. Michael Towbes Graphic Traffic Anonymous
ENDOWED CHAIRS The Bob Christensen Chair in Violin, occupied by Paul Huang The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Chair in Piano, occupied by Warren Jones The Bernard Gondos Chair in Violin, occupied by Kristin Lee 65
PREMIERE CIRCLE MEMBERS Camerata Pacifica continues to thrive thanks to the support of its patrons. Members of the Premiere Circle are not only supporters, but friends to Camerata Pacifica, meeting several times a year for house concerts, pre-concert parties and other events. For information on becoming a Premiere Circle member, call Camerata Pacifica at 805-884-8410.
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Olin & Ann Barrett
Mr. Palmer G. Jackson
Marianne Battistone & Philip Norwood
Richard & Luci Janssen
Peter & Linda Beuret
Dr. Susan Keats
Alan Bloch & Nancy Berman
Richard & Connie Kennelly
Diane Boss
Robert Klein & Lynne Cantlay
Jeannie Christensen
Jordan Laby
Jordan Christoff
Elinor & James Langer
May Chung
John & Barbara Larson
NancyBell Coe & William Burke
Lillian Lovelace
Bruce & Marty Coffey
Leatrice Luria
Benjamin J. Cohen & Jane S. DeHart
Helmut & Vera M. Muensch
Marilyn & Don Conlan
Dr. & Mrs. Arnold Mulder
Mr. & Mrs. Michael J. Connell
Karin L. Nelson & Eugene B. Hibbs, Jr.
Karen Davidson
Susan & Terry Northrop
Roger & Nancy Davidson
Alejandro Planchart
Joan Davidson & John Schnittker
David Robertson & Nancy Alex
Edward S. DeLoreto
Regina & Rick Roney
David & Leslie Dodson
Robert & Ann Ronus
Frank & Ann Everts
Elizabeth Loucks Samson & Jack Stumpf
Stanley & Judith Farrar
Jasminka & Richard Shaikewitz
Eric Fischer & Richard West
Jack & Anitra Sheen
Sarah Fox & Denny Klos
Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Sherman
Dr. Bernard Gondos
Stuart & Judy Spence
Marie-Paule Hajdu
Marion Stewart
Edward Henderson &. Carolyn Kincaid
Stan Tabler & Teresa Eggemeyer
Diane Henderson
Barry & Amalia Taylor
Maren Henle
Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd Sherman Telleen
Carol & Warner Henry
Sandra Tillisch-Svoboda
Ann Hoagland
Mrs. Anne Towbes
Daniel & Donna Hone
Lawrence Wallin & Kathy Scroggs
Brenton Horner
Robert W. Weinman
DONORS Our sincerest gratitude to the following individuals, corporations and foundations for their dedication to supporting Camerata Pacifica’s continued success. The following list reflects donations recorded between July 1, 2016 and August 1, 2017. $10,000 +
The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation Diane Boss Jordan Christoff The SahanDaywi Foundation The Michael J. Connell Foundation The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation Frank & Ann Everts Stanley & Judith Farrar Dr. Bernard Gondos The Henry Family Fund Brenton Horner $5,000 - $9,999 Peter & Linda Beuret Diane J. Henderson, MD Lillian Lovelace Alejandro E. Planchart Anonymous Anonymous Jack & Anitra Sheen Barry & Amalia Taylor $2,500 - $4,999 Olin & Ann Barrett May Chung NancyBell Coe & William Burke Bruce & Marty Coffey/ The Marty & Bruce Coffey Family Foundation Roger & Nancy Davidson Eric Fischer & Richard West Ann Hoagland in Memory of Stephen C. Hoagland Dr. & Mrs. Arnold Mulder Regina and Rick Roney Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Sherman Marion Stewart Telleen Family Charitable Fund Robert W. Weinman
$1,000 - $2,499 Marianne Battistone & Philip W. Norwood Jane S. De Hart & Benjamin J. Cohen in Memory of Mike Towbes Dr. Karen Davidson in Memory of Dr. David Davidson Edward S. DeLoreto Dr. David and Leslie Dodson Sarah Fox and Dennis Klos Drs. David & Janice Frank David & Susan Grether Mrs. Marie-Paule Hajdu Edward S. Henderson & Carolyn Kincaid Daniel & Donna Hone Richard & Connie Kennelly Elizabeth L. Kilb Elinor & James Langer Barbara & John Larson Drs. Helmut & Vera Muensch Karin L. Nelson & Eugene Hibbs, Jr. Terry & Susan Northrop William & Oliva Odom Reiche Charitable Fund Mrs. Margaret C. Richards Lyndon Robert Shaftoe
The Ann Jackson Family Foundation Richard & Lucille Janssen Susan Keats Robert Klein & Lynne Cantlay Jordan & Sandra Laby Lee Luria Efrem Ostrow Living Trust David Robertson & Nancy Alex Stan Tabler & Teresa Eggemeyer Sandra Tillisch-Svoboda The Towbes Fund for the Performing Arts, a field of interest fund at the Santa Barbara Foundation Jasminka & Richard Shaikewitz
Jerry & Terri Kohl
Stuart Spence & Judy Vida-Spence
David & Claire Oxtoby
Jack Stumpf & Elizabeth Samson
Heather Mobarak Jennifer and Richard Quint
Mrs. Norma Van Riper
Luann Rolly & Tom Etheridge in Honor of Sandra Svoboda, in Gratitude and Friendship
Miriam Wille
Perry and Jody Shapiro
$500 - $999
Joan Tapper Siegel & Steven Richard Siegel
Margaret Adams & Joel Edstrom
Mrs. Delia Smith
The Thornton Foundation
Robert C. Anderson Frank & Cecilia Bellinghiere Mr. Edward Bigger Ella Bishop Barbara Bates Bonadeo Betsy Chess Jeannie Christensen Wayne & Madelyn Cole Caroline M. Coward Linda S. Dickason Tom and Doris Everhart Martin & Ann Gelfand in Honor of Richard O’Neill
Marta V. Smith George & Gretel Stephens Nancilu Todd Mr. & Mrs. A. Jean Verbeck Brenn Von Bibra Catherine Weary Marney Weaver $250 - $499 Catherine Albanese Richard & Frances Bohn Virginia Bottorff
James B. & Mary Jo Hartle
Max Brennan and Sigrid Burton
Lorna S. Hedges
Patricia Carver
Ms. Maren Henle
David S. & Ann M. Dwelley
Ken & Sandy Homb
Joseph & Elaine Gaynor
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Carol Howe & Lucien Lacour
Dennis & Evette Glauber
Hope Rosenfeld
Claire C. Greenberg
Naomi Schmidt
Lorraine Hansen
Susan Schmidt
Sarah Hearon
Sheila Lodge
Jennifer & Jonathan Grossman in Honor of the wonderful musicians of Camerata Pacifica
Les & Maureen Shapiro
Doris Anne Hendin
Jan & Don O’Dowd
Bea Hamlin
Leslie Steinmetz
John F. Isenberg
Dr. Steven & Charlene Pearlman
Bill and Chris Harper
Gretchen Jacobson
Harvey and Jessica Harris
Elizabeth & Martin Stevenson
William Robinson & Hiroko Yoshimoto
Mrs. Mary Hintz
Michael Talvola
Barbara Madden
Tony & Anne Thacher
Agnes & Harold Jacobson
Minie & Hjalmar Pompe van Meerdervoordt
Ruth O. Johnson
Kathryn Lawhun & Mark Shinbrot
Stephen C. Iglehart
Matt Weiss
Willoughby Johnson & Victoria Matthews
Robin & Wendy Willis
Eunice M. Koch
Anonymous
Steve & Karen Kohn
Robert & Imelda Zakon
Ernest & Mary Lou Kopka
Sanford Zisman & Janis Frame
Mary H. Walsh Mort and Judy Weisman J. Patrick Whaley David & Debbie Whittaker
Dr. Stephen A. Kanter Carol A. Marsh Barbara Maxwell Ms. Shirley Millligan Nancy Mitchell
$0 - $99
Lyn A. Munro and Robert Barber
MacFarlane, Faletti & Co., LLP
Colleen O’Hara
William Kraft & Joan Huang
Mike Beckage & Bridget Spanier
Patricia Savoie
Lois S. Kro
George Berg
Mr. & Mrs. Samuel J. Losh
Sandra J. Bickford
Ms. Jacqueline Lunianski
Mr. Titus Brenninkmeijer
Barbara H. Merkle
Margaret Bruell
Jon Miller
Bruce & Karen Brunschwig
Thomas & Victoria Ostwald
Robbin Close
Warren & Gail Paap Barbara J. Parkhurst
Mr. & Mrs. John W. De Haven, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. William Pollock
James & Marlene Denny
Phillip & Diane Rammon
Philip Eggers
Prof. Andrews Reath & Mrs. Blandine Saint-Oyant
Ralph B. Ellis
Claire & Patrick Dunavan Richard & Barbara Durand
Diane Roberts
Dolores Airey Gillmore
David R. Falconer
Prof. Mark Rose
Jo Ann Gordon
$100 - $249 Jorgia Bordofsky Carolyn F. Chase Edith Clark Michael & Susan Connell Mike Crawford & Pat Wiese Doug Crowley Bess B. DeWitt Sylvia S. Drake
Mr. Timothy Pearson Laurel Schwartz Edda Spielmann Julie and Richard Steckel Sandy Stinson Anonymous Ray and Flori Turchin Susie Williams
Frances L. Gagola
VOLUNTEERS Volunteers are an indispensible part of our organization. We have had a variety of services and talents given to us during the past year, from ushering to editing, proofreading and translation, consultation, mailings, poster distribution, audience development, piano page turning, general office assistance, photography and more! We remain extremely grateful for the following volunteers and their ongoing contributions: Barbara Alderson Marie Battle Doris Blethrow Kathleen Boehm Diane Boss Evelyn Burge Donna Burger Jeannie Christensen Claudia Elmes & Steve Shulkin Cindy Garcia
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Bradley Gregory & Tachell Gerbert Debbie Gross & Sam Levy Janice Hamilton Julie Henry Allan & Lorraine Hoff Rich & Luci Janssen Lois Klein & Ronald Doctors Judith Kopf Ingrid Lindgren Maura Lundy & Edward Cooper
Pat Malone Dick Malott Nancy McCurley Dennis & Carolyn Naiman Kathy & Chris Neely Stephanie Pawlowicz Barbara Rosen William Schrack Richard & Jasminka Shaikewitz Erik Siering & Ann Kramer
Erika Smith Pat Spence Sandra Tillisch-Svoboda Marcella Tuttle Nga Vuong Lawrence Wallin Katherine Butts Warwick Susie Williams Ditte Wolff & Robert Yaris Mary Wolthausen
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Camerata Pacifica is excited to announce a collaboration with The Calder String Quartet. As part of the 18/19 & 19/20 seasons, The Calders will perform the late string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven, which will serve as the foundation for an exploration of the master’s three compositional periods, and as a stepping off point for the Camerata’s signature programming eclecticism. BEETHOVEN’S WORKS TO BE PERFORMED INCLUDE: Piano Trio, Op. 1, Nº. 1 String Trio, Op. 9, Nº. 1 Quintet for Piano & Winds, Op. 16 String Quartet, Op. 18, Nº. 2 Septet, Op.20 Violin Sonata, Op. 30, Nº. 2 String Quartet, Op. 74, “Harp” Piano Trio, Op. 97, “Archduke” Cello Sonata, Op. 102, Nº. 1 Wind Octet, Op. 103 Piano Sonata, Op. 111 String Quartet, Op. 127 String Quartet, Op. 130 String Quartet, Op. 131 String Quartet, Op. 132 Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 String Quartet, Op. 135 (subject to change)
Photo: Autumn de Wilde
CAMERATA PACIFICA THE CALDER QUARTET BEETHOVEN
18/19 & 19/20 seasons will be announced in January 2018. Existing subscribers get priority access and early booking opportunities. MAKE SURE YOU ARE A SUBSCRIBER TODAY! 4
cameratapacifica.org 805 884 8410