BRIDGING CULTURES THROUGH THE ARTS
AMERICAN ROMANIAN FESTIVAL
2010 September 17-25, 2010 FILM SERIES September 26, 2010 CHAMBER CONCERT SERIES
Table of Contents Calendar
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People
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Thank You
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Sponsors
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Film + Discussions California Dreamin'
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Sequences
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Award-Winning Short Films
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Police, Adjective
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Gently Anastasia Was Passing
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US 2010 Film Premiere
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Chamber Concert Program
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Fusion Project
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About the Artists Marcy Chanteaux, cello
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Robert Conway, piano
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Jennifer Goltz, soprano
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Christopher Harding, piano
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James Hartway, piano
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Donald Jones, photographer
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Dan Popa, film-maker + director
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Larisa Simington, piano
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Marian Tanau, violin
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Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, cinema + language
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Jim VanValkenburg, viola
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Program Notes by Lori Newman
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CALENDAR Friday, September 17, 2010, 7:15 p.m.
Saturday, September 25, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
FILM + DISCUSSION
FILM + DISCUSSION
California Dreamin’
Gently Anastasia Was Passing
Nesfârsit, 2007, Cristian Nemescu, Cannes, Un Certain Regard, 155 min, R , English subtitles
Pre-screening Talk, 7 p.m., Ramona Uritescu-Lombard and Marian Tanau. Saturday, September 18, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
Duios Anastasia Trecea, 1979, Alexandru Tatos, 100 min, English subtitles
Q&A after the screening, Dan Popa, Ramona Uritescu-Lombard and Marian Tanau.
FILM + DISCUSSION
Sequences Secvente, 1982, Alexandru Tatos, 98 min, NR, English subtitles
Q&A after the screening, Ramona Uritescu-Lombard and Marian Tanau. Saturday, September 18, 2010, 7:30 p.m. FILM + DISCUSSION
Award-Winning Short Films Q&A Ramona Uritescu-Lombard and Marian Tanau. Friday, September 24, 2010, 7:15 p.m. FILM + DISCUSSION
Police, Adjective
Saturday, September 25, 2010, 7:30 p.m. FILM + DISCUSSION
US 2010 Film Premiere: La Métropolitaine by Director Dan Popa and other short movies Q&A after the screening, Dan Popa, Ramona Uritescu-Lombard and Marian Tanau. Sunday, September 26, 2010, 7:30 p.m. CONCERT
Enescu & Schumann Chamber Music Concert Chanteaux, Goltz, Harding, Simington, Tanau, VanValkenburg.
Politist, Adjectiv, 2009, Corneliu Porumboiu, Cannes, Un Certain Regard, 115 min, NR, English subtitles
September
Pre-screening Talk, 7 p.m., Dan Popa, Ramona Uritescu-Lombard and Marian Tanau.
Education Tour Photography & Music
FUSION PROJECT
Chanteaux, Conway, Hartway, Jones, Tanau.
More information visit www.americanromanianfestival.org. Ticket and Reservation: (734) 308-5372. Events take place at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). 525 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.
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AMERICAN ROMANIAN FESTIVAL
PEOPLE. BOARD
John Rakolta Jr. John Santeiu Jr. Maureen D’Avanzo Franz Herbert Charles Slater ARTISTIC AND SENIOR STAFF
Marian Tanau Logan Skelton Claudia Petrescu Felicia Secosan Mioara Clesiu
President and Artistic Director Artistic Advisor Development Director Marketing Romania Education Director Romania
VOLUNTEERS
Thank you to the following volunteers for their hard work and support. Ramona Uritescu-Lombard Ethan Allen Ho Fan Lee Ioana Missits Cristina Muresan Jiva Tanau Jennifer Tanau
Consulting, Editing, Presentation Library Services Technology Operations Operations Operations Operations
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THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
George Barba Lisa Borgsdorf Manager, Public Programs UMMA Justin DiPietro IFC Films Joyce and Ted Flanagan Natasa Gruden-Alajbegovic Administrator, WCEE Christopher Kendall Dean, School of Music, University of Michigan Nicolae Margineanu President, Ager Film Ioana Missits Violinist with Cleveland Orchestra Marysia Ostafin Program Manager, WCEE Claudia Petrescu Professor, Political Science Department, EMU Dan Popa Film Director John Rakolta Jr. Romanian Honorary Consul in Detroit Alina Roibu Film Consultant Alina Salcudeanu Responsible Foreign Affairs, Romanian Film Center The Santeiu Family Sean R. Smith Music Director, Detroit School for the Performing Arts Liana Tatos Marian Tutui Chief Editor, Romanian National Film Archives Ramona Uritescu-Lombard Lecturer, German and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan John D. Vander Weg Chair, Department of Music, Wayne State University
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SPONSORS. GOLD LEVEL
National Endowment for the Arts Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs Walbridge and John and Terry Rakolta Jr. Anonymous Romanian Friend SILVER LEVEL
University of Michigan Museum of Art Jim and Ann Nicholson BRONZE LEVEL
University of Michigan Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia University of Michigan Department of Music and Dance Wayne State University Department of Music Romanian Film Center Romanian National Film Archives Joyce and Ted Flanagan Silviu and Gela Pala FRIENDS CIRCLE
Rodica Busui Maureen D’Avanzo Sherban and Mioara Dragoi Frans Herbert and Elizabeth Greve Cristina Muresan and Rabah Hadjit Iuliana Niculescu Charles and Carol Slater Dan and Laura Zetu SUPPORTER CIRCLE
Linda Joy and Brad Carol Jennifer Jue Octavian and Janice Arps Prundeanu Henry and Vicki Swain
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FILM + DISCUSSION
Friday, September 17, 2010, 7:15 p.m., Pre-screening Talk, 7 p.m.
California Dreamin’
Nesfârsit, 2007, Cristian Nemescu, Cannes, Un Certain Regard, 155 min, R , English subtitles.
Helmut Stern Auditorium 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor 48109 Please join American Romanian Festival Executive Director Marian Tanau and Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, film scholar and Lecturer in the German and Comparative Literature departments at the University of Michigan, for a discussion before the film at 7 p.m. and Q&A after the film. California Dreamin’ was Cristian Nemescus last film before his death in a car accident, California Dreamin’, winner of the prestigious Cannes award for Un Certain Regard in 2007, film is based on a true story: a NATO train transporting military equipment is stopped in the middle of nowhere by an overzeal-
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ous chief of a Romanian train station. Set against the backdrop of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the film explores with humor and gritty realism the impact that the arrival of the American soldiers led by Captain Jones has on the small village community. A cinematic tour de force not to be missed! ❖
FILM + DISCUSSION.
Saturday, September 18, 2010, 4 p.m.
Sequences
Secvente, 1982, Alexandru Tatos, 98 min, NR, English subtitles
Helmut Stern Auditorium 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor 48109 Please join American Romanian Festival Executive Director Marian Tanau and Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, film scholar and Lecturer in the German and Comparative Literature departments at the University of Michigan, for a discussion before the film at 7 p.m. and Q&A after the film. In this interesting drama, three sequences which could have formed separate stories are linked together to give a larger perspective on the nature of reality and film. The three episodes are joined together by one film crew at work on two different jobs. In the beginning, the crew is introduced as they juggle their dual roles as State-supported propagandists who laud their government and society, and as private movie-makers working on their own film. Next, they are in a restaurant
looking for suitable locations to film when the eatery's owner, through no fault of his own, is induced to wax long and lugubriously on his miserable life. In the last segment, two extras are in the background of a scene, sitting at a table in a restaurant. It slowly becomes apparent to one of them that the man he's sitting with tortured him more than 40 years ago at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. â?–
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FILM + DISCUSSION Saturday, September 18, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Award-Winning Short Films Helmut Stern Auditorium 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor 48109 Please join American Romanian Festival Executive Director Marian Tanau, and Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, film scholar and Lecturer in the German and Comparative Literature departments at the University of Michigan, for a talk about Alexandru Tatos and Q&A after the film.
A Trip To The City
Cigarettes and Coffee
Calatorie la Oras; 2003, Corneliu Porumboiu, 19 min, Cinefondation Prize, Cannes 2004, Best PrizeMontpelier, France 2004, English subtitles
Un cartus de kent si un pachet de cafea; 2003, Cristi Puiu, 13 min, Golden Bear Award, Berlin 2004, English subtitles
A beautiful morning, the need of the internet in a little village and the toilet that the mayor’s wife is crying for, bring together the computer pensioned teacher and the mayor’s driver for a little trip to the nearby city in this short film by Corneliu Porumboiu, the director of 12:08 East of Bucharest and Police Adjective. ❖
From the director of “Death of Mr. Lazarescu” comes this short movie about a very common problem with which the elder generations are confronted: the issue of knowing little and being offered even less. An old man enters a restaurant in Bucharest. He takes a seat at a table where a younger man who looks like he could be a successful businessman is already eating dessert. Their conversation revolves around a job opening for the older man, who has been out of work for two years. However, if you want work these days, it’s no good coming empty-handed — even if it’s your son who’s doing the employing. ❖ continued on page 11 ›
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› Award-Winning Shorts, continued from page 11
FILM + DISCUSSION.
The Apartment
Humanitarian Aid
Apartamentul; 2003, Constantin Popescu, 20 min, Best Prize- Venice Film Festival 2004, English subtitles
Ajutoare Umanitare; 2002, Hanno Höfer, 16 min, Great Prize-Cottbus, Germany 2002, English subtitles
It’s morning. A man wakes up and gets ready for a new day of work or maybe for a short trip. His wife makes him breakfast and then she prepares him a little suitcase. The man leaves, exits the apartment building. The man returns using the back entrance. A farce without a dialogue between the characters. ❖
Three young men come to Romania to bring humanitarian aid. The inhabitants of a small mountain village await them. ❖
Traffic Trafic; 2003, Catalin Mitulescu, 15 min, Palme D’Or –Cannes 2004, English subtitles
Challenge Day 2004, Napoleon Helmis, 10 min, English subtitles
Today is Challenge Day. This means everybody must do sport. It is a competition between a city in Romania and one in Japan. ❖
On his way to the next business meeting, Tudor has a 20-minute break. This is enough time to invite a girl to drink a coffee, talk about his daughter and take a photo. ❖
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FILM + DISCUSSION
Friday, September 24, 2010, 7:15 p.m., Pre-screening Talk, 7 p.m.
Police, Adjective
Politist, Adjectiv; 2009, Corneliu Porumboiu, Cannes, Un Certain Regard, 115 min, NR, English subtitles
Helmut Stern Auditorium 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor 48109 Please join American Romanian Festival Executive Director Marian Tanau, Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, film scholar and Lecturer in the German and Comparative Literature departments at the University of Michigan, and Director Dan Popa for a discussion and Q&A after the film. Cristi is a policeman who refuses to arrest a young man who offers hash to two of his school- mates. "Offering" is punished by the law. Cristi believes that the law will change, he does not want the life of a young man he considers irresponsible to be a burden on his conscience. For his superior the word conscience has an entirely different meaning. â?–
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FILM FESTIVALS & AWARDS 2009 Cannes International Festival Un Certain Regard Jury Prize 2009 Toronto International Film Festival New York Film Festival
FILM + DISCUSSION.
Saturday, September 25, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
Gently Anastasia Was Passing Duios Anastasia Trecea; 1979, Alexandru Tatos, 100 min, English subtitles
Helmut Stern Auditorium 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor 48109 Please join American Romanian Festival Executive Director Marian Tanau, Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, film scholar and Lecturer in the German and Comparative Literature departments at the University of Michigan, and Director Dan Popa for a discussion and Q&A after the film. This drama is set on a border town on the Danube in 1944 in a town occupied by the Germans. There are plenty of collaborators eager to please the Germans. A number of the young men join the partisans which by orders of
the Germans are to be killed on sight. When a Serbian partisan is killed and the orders are to have his body thrown into the village, forbidding anyone to bury it - Anastasia refuses to obey the order. â?–
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FILM + DISCUSSION Saturday, September 25, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
US 2010 Film Premiere: La Métropolitaine by Director Dan Popa and other short movies The Metropolitan, 2010, Dan Popa, 24 min, TIFF 2010 entry, Fiction, French, English subtitles
Helmut Stern Auditorium 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor 48109 Please join American Romanian Festival Executive Director Marian Tanau , Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, film scholar and Lecturer in the German and Comparative Literature departments at the University of Michigan, and Director Dan Popa for a discussion and Q&A after the film. Discussion and Q&A after the screening.
Oli's Wedding
La Métropolitaine
Nunta lui Oli, 2009,Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, 22 min, Best Romanian Short Film NexT IFF 2009, NR, English subtitles
The Metropolitan, 2010, Dan Popa, 24 min, TIFF 2010 entry, Fiction, French, English subtitles
Alone in his kitchen in Bucharest, Dorel prepares for what seems to be a party. Actually, it’s his son’s wedding which takes place in the USA. Dorel is going to watch the wedding through a webcam together with two of his son’s friends. On the small display they are going to meet the bride, her father and will witness the ceremony. A bittersweet story about scattered families and lonely parents.❖
The Metropolitan is an experimental fiction film that combines architecture, travel and love. The love story takes place in seven underground subway systems around the world. The film is characterized by colors and poetry which depict themes on life in transition. Visually the film consists of a montage of 21000 pictures from several hundred subway stations as we follow the protagonist in his search for true love.❖ US 2010 Film Premiere, continued on page 14 ›
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› US 2010 Film Premiere, continued from page 15
FILM + DISCUSSION.
La Métropolitaine
Midi Noon, 2008, Dan Popa, 6 min, TIFF 2008 entry, Fiction, NR, French, English subtitles
Today is Koppa’s birthday, and he is celebrating it by sitting on his 9th floor balcony and putting the finishing touches on his customized fishing hooks. After dinner, and a brief oneway conversation, Koppa reveals to the audience the nature of his anxiety; he hates his own inability to do anything about his future.❖
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CHAMBER CONCERT Saturday, September 26, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Enescu & Schumann Concert Apse, University of Michigan Museum of Art 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor 48109 Trois melodies sur poemes de Fernand Gregh, op. 19 George Enescu Pluie (1881-1955) Le silence musician De la flute au cor Jennifer Goltz, soprano • Larisa Simington, piano Cello Sonata op. 26, nr. 2 “Buruiana” George Enescu Allegro moderato ed amabile Allegro agitato, non troppo mosso Andantino, cantabile, senza lentezza Final à la Roumaine: Allegro sciolto Marcy Chanteaux, cello • Larisa Simington, piano - INTERMISSION -
Sept chansons de Clement Marot, op. 15 George Enescu Estrene a Anne Languir me fais Aux damoyselles paresseuses d'escrire a leurs amys Estrene de la rose Present de couleur blanche Changeons propos—c'est trop chante Du confict en douleur Jennifer Goltz, soprano • Larisa Simington, piano Piano Quartet op. 47 Robert Schumann Sostenuto assai. Allegro ma non troppo (1810-1854) Scherzo: Molto Vivace Andante cantabile Finale: Vivace Marian Tanau, violin • Jim VanValkenburg, viola Marcy Chanteaux, cello • Christopher Harding, piano
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FUSION PROJECT. Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 9:00 a.m. Monroe High School
Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 8:15 a.m. Detroit School for the Performing Arts
Schedule Pending Brighton High School or Pinckney High School
Education Tour Fusion of Photography & Music The Fusion is a series of concerts to be presented in high school, featuring a Photography Exhibit entitled, Uniquely Detroit, as well as chamber music inspired by the city of Detroit or other locations in Michigan. Each event will consist of a 15 minute photography projection/lecture, a short chamber music performance with the composer in attendance, and a short workshop on how to get inspired by sounds and how to translate them into music. MISSION OF FUSION The Fusion Performances have the mission to inspire students to discover the jewels in the life around them that would foster their artistic creativity, and will give new meaning and value to places and situations from their surroundings. PARTICIPANTS Don Jones, photographer James Hartway, composer Marcy Chanteaux, assistant principal cellist with DSO and WSU faculty Rob Conway, pianist DSO and piano professor at WSU Marian Tanau, violinist with DSO and WSU faculty
WHAT TO EXPECT • The length of the program will be approximately 45–60 minutes. • We would have a screen and a projector • Don Jones, the photographer would show his works from Detroit, in combination with some photographs from your city (15–20 minutes). • Composer James Hartway would talk before each movement of his 5 movements trio City Sketches (20 minutes). The composer would talk to the students on a few techniques they might use to produce sounds from their environment: rain, wind, a truck going by etc (10–25 minutes).
For scheduling a Fusion performance at your school, please call Marian Tanau at 734-308-5372 or send an email to arf@americanromanianfestival.org.
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CHAMBER CONCERT FUSION PROJECT
ABOUT THE ARTIST
ABOUT.. .THE.. ARTIST..
Marcy Chanteaux CELLO Marcy Chanteaux is Assistant Principal Cello of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Having grown up in a musical household in South Dakota, Chanteaux received her initial piano training from her parents and studied cello with a local violin teacher. At 16, she won a national competition sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association. After Chanteaux graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music, she joined the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. While there, she was invited to perform several concerts at the Smithsonian Institution. Chanteaux then moved to Detroit, where she joined the DSO as orchestra pianist. Several years later, she was appointed Assistant Principal Cello. Chanteaux performs regularly as a soloist with the DSO and with several orchestras in Michigan and Canada. She has given the DSO premiere of cello
concertos by Lutoslawski, Victor Herbert and Erich Korngold. A successful chamber music collaborator, Chanteaux was invited to perform a Brahms sextet with Isaac Stern in 1995 in Ann Arbor. She regularly performs with the Lyric Chamber Ensemble, and plays internationally with the St. Clair Trio, which recently made its debut performances at the Phillip’s Gallery in Washington, D.C., and on the Dame Myra Hess Music Series at the Cultural Center of Chicago. The trio has been named the Motor City’s Best Small Ensemble in Detroit and can be heard on Koch International Records. Chanteaux has also recorded various standard concerti for the Music Minus One label. During recent summers, Chanteaux has performed as both member and soloist with Music In The Mountains in Purgatory, Colorado. For the past few summers she has given master classes continued on page 23 ›
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ABOUT THE. ARTIST
FUSION PROJECT.
Robert Conway PIANO Robert Conway is associate professor of piano and music history at Wayne State University where he is also the director of the piano division. Since 1989 he has performed regularly as orchestral keyboardist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has been a soloist with them on multiple occasions. In 1997, he was an Artistic Ambassador of the United States Information Agency on a month-long tour of South Asia and the Middle East. In 2008, he was a U.S. Department of State Cultural Envoy to Azerbaijan, performing concerts as well as giving lectures and
master classes. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared at numerous festivals, performed concertos with a number of orchestras, collaborated with many prestigious composers of the world, given countless premieres and is featured on several recordings on a variety of labels. Conway received a bachelor's degree in piano performance from the New England Conservatory and master's and doctoral degrees in piano performance from the University of Michigan. His principal teachers were Theodore Lettvin, Rudolf Kolisch and Eugene Bossart.â?–
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CHAMBER CONCERT
ABOUT.. .THE.. ARTIST..
Jennifer Goltz SOPRANO Soprano Jennifer Goltz specializes in the performance of new music and fin de siècle art song. Her eleven-year affiliation with the ensemble Brave New Works has yielded performances across the country of such works as Leslie Bassett's Pierrot Songs, William Bolcom's Briefly It Enters, George Crumb's Madrigals, and Bright Sheng's Three Chinese Love Songs, as well as numerous premieres, including Far Cry by Andrew Mead and The Black Sword of Sappho by Forrest Pierce. At the invitation of the composer, she performed Luciano Berio's Circles with Klangforum Wien at the Salzburg Music Festival. She continues to premiere new works written for her by pianist-composer Logan Skelton; in summer 2009 the pair recorded two new cycles of Emily Dickinson settings. With French cabaret specialist Stephen Whiting she has given lecture-recitals on early European cabaret, most recently at the Chicago Humani20
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ties Festival. In recent years, Ms. Goltz has become known for her sensitive and elegant Mozart interpretations, including appearances as soprano soloist for the Mass in C Minor, Coronation Mass, and Requiem at the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria and Stephansdom in Vienna. She can be heard on Evan Chambers' Cold Water, Dry Stone (Albany) and Logan Skelton's An American Circus (Centaur). In 2007 she released Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire and Brettl-lieder with the Los Angeles-based ensemble inauthentica on MSR Classics; Gramophone magazine calls her performance here "captivating" and "brilliant.... a voice full of subtle allure and sprightly energy." Ms. Goltz holds a Master's degree in Vocal Performance and a Ph.D. in Music Theory from the University of Michigan School of Music; she currently teaches in the Music Theory department of the UM School of Music.â?–
ABOUT THE. ARTIST
CHAMBER CONCERT.
Christopher Harding CELLO Pianist Christopher Harding maintains a flourishing international performance career, generating acclaim and impressing audiences and critics alike with his substantive interpretations and pianistic mastery. He has given frequent solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in venues as far flung as the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, and halls and festival appearances in Newfoundland, Israel, Romania, and China. His concerto performances have included concerts with the National Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, the San Angelo and Santa Barbara
Symphonies, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic, working with such conductors as Taijiro Iimori, Gisele Ben-Dor, Fabio Machetti, Randall Craig Fleisher, John DeMain, Ron Spiegelman, Daniel Alcott, and Darryl One, among others. His chamber music and duo collaborations have included internationally renowned artists such as clarinetist Karl Leister, flautist Andras Adorjan, and members of the St. Lawrence and Ying String Quartets, in addition to frequent projects with his distinguished faculty colleagues at the University of Michigan. He has recorded two solo CDs and one chamber music CD for the Brevard Classics label. Professor Harding has presented master classes and lecture recitals in universicontinued on page 23 ›
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FUSION PROJECT
James Hartway PIANO Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1944, James Hartway began a lifelong study of music with piano lessons at the age of seven. Hartway earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees from Wayne State University, and a Ph.D. in music from Michigan State University. James Hartway has received sixty commissions from major musical organizations and educational institutions, and has composed 89 works. He has been asked to create pieces for numerous orchestras, festivals and chamber music groups, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Michigan Opera Theater, the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit for the Papal visit of John Paul II to the United States, the
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Verdher Trio. He is the proud recipient of an Arts Foundation of Michigan Award and has received a Resolution of Tribute from the Michigan Senate. He has been an annual winner of the ASCAP Standard Panel Award for his compositions since 1978, and has been named the Detroit Music Awards Outstanding Classical Composer three times. His Affair of the Harp CD was the Detroit Music Awards Outstanding Classical Recording for 2005. James Hartway is currently a Distinguished Professor of Music at Wayne State University and is the Director of its Division of Music Composition and Theory.â?–
ABOUT THE. ARTIST › Marcy Chanteaux, continued from page 18
and teaching sessions to young professional cellists for the National Repertory Orchestra at Breckenridge, Colo. In residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Chanteaux conducts master classes at the Interlochen National Music Camp, where she also regularly performs chamber music. She is an adjunct member of the Wayne State Uni-
versity Music Department, where she offers cello instruction. In addition, she teaches and coaches privately at home. Chanteaux’s hobbies include gardening and the arts. She and her husband enjoy traveling and visiting museums all around the world in pursuit of the appreciation for the history of art, specifically paintings.❖
› Christopher Harding, continued from page 21
ties across the United States and Asia, as well as in Israel and Canada. His most recent tours to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China included presentations and master classes at Hong Kong Baptist University, National Taiwan Normal University, SooChow University, the National Taiwan University of Education, and conservatories and universities in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hefei, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Dalien, and Chongqing. He has additionally performed and lectured numerous times in Seoul, including lecture recitals and classes at Seoul National University, Ewha Women’s University, and Dong Duk University. Fall 2007 saw Mr. Harding expand his international activities to include performances in Romania for the American-Romanian Music Festival and a tour of China under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. In May 2008, he completed a one-month residency at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu, China, as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate piano performance and chamber music at the University of Mich-
igan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Mr. Harding also serves on the faculty of the Indiana University Summer Piano Academy and is a frequent guest artist and teacher at the MasterWorks Festival in Winona Lake, IN. Mr. Harding was born of American parents in Munich, Germany and raised in Northern Virginia. His collegiate studies were with Menahem Pressler and Nelita True. Prior to college, he worked for ten years with Milton Kidd at the American University Department of Performing Arts Preparatory Division, where he was trained in the traditions of Tobias Matthay. He has taken twenty-five first prizes in national and international competitions and in 1999 was awarded the special "Mozart Prize" at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, given for the best performance of a composition by Mozart. His current recording projects include the Brahms sonatas for piano and violin with Stephen Boe, several other chamber music discs (including the complete piano chamber music of Franz Xaver Mozart), and solo piano music by Beethoven, Barber, Schumann and Copland.❖ 2010
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FUSION PROJECT
ABOUT.. .THE.. ARTIST..
Donald Jones PHOTOGRAPHER Donald Jones is a street photographer from the Detroit area whose fascination is the energy of our down, but not out, city and the fierce spirit that survives. Jones attended Wayne State University and studied with Michael Dickey at the Society of Arts and Crafts, now known as the College for Creative Studies. He is also a musician and studied music with Sam Sanders at Oakland University. Donald Jones photos have been reproduced in such diverse publications as the American Veterinary Journal, Detroit Metro Times, and F Stop Magazine. His photos were exhibited at the White Wall Gallery Deadpan Show in Hamtramck, the “Conspicuous Consumerism” show at the 555
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Gallery in Detroit and are currently in the www.contactexhibition.com show at the University of Michigan’s Work: Detroit Gallery. His photos were recently selected to be exhibited at the “Summer in the City” show at the Russell Gallery in Detroit. Many of Don Jones's images are available in the “Detroit Greeting Card” series exclusively at The Book Beat in Oak Park, Michigan. “This is Detroit, straight up. Donald has one of the best collections of the odd and funky in the City of Detroit. Take a cruise through his portfolio and you gather a sense of the soul of the city.” —Buckshot Jones ❖
ABOUT THE. ARTIST
FILM +. DISCUSSIONS.
Dan Popa FILM MAKER + DIRECTOR Dan Popa is a Montreal based filmmaker, of Romanian origin, who directs and photographs his own work. He studied filmmaking at Concordia University and has worked as a freelancer in both film and design. In 2006, he started NATALI film, his own film production company. His main interest is opposing artificial environments to social interactions. His research focuses on the exploration of contradictions, both esthetically and formally, through new cinematic approaches. He is currently working on a poetic feature film, filmed on four continents, about the rise and fall of a republic that never existed.â?–
FILMOGRAPHY
2010 The Metropolitan Short experimental fiction 24 minutes, HDCAM 2010 Off-road to Mexico (in production) documentary 52 minutes 2010 The republic of MIRA (in production), fiction 72 minutes 2008 Midi (Noon) fiction, 6 minutes 2008 Beyond the Valley documentary, 35 minutes 2007 Neon Colony documentary short, 12 minutes
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CHAMBER CONCERT
ABOUT.. .THE.. ARTIST..
Dr. Larisa Simington PIANO Dr. Larisa Simington is currently Adjunct Instructor of piano at Eastern Michigan University and Adjunct Professor of piano and music theory at Concordia University, Ann Arbor. Dr. Simington received her doctorate from the Eastman School of Music in 2007. She studied with Rebecca Penneys and held the Edith Babcock award. She received her master’s degree from the University of Toronto in 2002, where she studied under Patricia Parr and held the Alberto Guerrero fellowship. Her undergraduate degree is from the Gh. Dima Conservatory in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Dr. Simington has also taught at the New England Music Camp and the Faber
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Piano Institute. She has performed extensively as a soloist and as a chamber musician in Romania, France, Canada and the US. She has collaborated with musicians from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Eastman faculty. While she was a doctoral candidate at the Eastman School of Music, she participated in source research on George Enescu’s manuscripts in at the national archival sites in Bucharest. In 2009, she performed various works in the Music Now Festival at Eastern Michigan University, including the world premiere of Brian McCloskey’s Two Poems of Robert Frost. ❖
ABOUT THE. ARTIST
CHAMBER CONCERT. FILM + DISCUSSIONS. FUSION PROJECT.
Marian Tanau VIOLIN Romanian-born violinist Marian Tanau first picked up the violin at age four and began his musical education in his hometown of Timisoara in Romania. He graduated from Liceul de Muzica “Ion Vidu” where he studied violin with Maria Cleşiu. He then left for the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca and the Conservatorul de Muzica “G. Dima,” where he earned an Artists Diploma. Later in the US, he earned a graduate degree from Bowling Green State University. Tanau joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1995. Tanau has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Romania and the US and is an active chamber musician. Since 2004 Tanau joined the violin faculty at Wayne
State University. In 2005 Tanau was awarded a sabbatical year and moved temporary to Romania where he joined the music faculty at the National College of Art “Ion Vidu” and the Music Conservatory of the West University from Timisoara. His recording of the violin sonata by Paul Paray, recorded for Grotto Productions, got praised by critics in the prestigious Strad, Gramophone and Fanfare magazines. Marian Tanau is the founder and president of the American Romanian Festival Inc., a nonprofit organization with the mission of promoting American and Romanian music and culture to audiences in the US and Europe.❖
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ABOUT.. .THE.. ARTIST..
FILM +. DISCUSSIONS.
Ramona Uritescu-Lombard FILM SCHOLAR + LECTURER Ramona Uritescu-Lombard is a Lecturer in German and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she teaches courses in German and French literature. She was born in Timisoara, Romania, and her training is in Comparative Literature (University of Western Ontario,
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Harvard University). Her interests include migration literature, affect in literature and film, and more recently, New Romanian Cinema. She will be teaching a brief introductory course on Romanian culture in the twentieth century in Winter 2011 at the University of Michigan.â?–
ABOUT THE. ARTIST
CHAMBER CONCERT.
James VanValkenburg VIOLA James VanValkenburg, Assistant Principal Viola of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, came to orchestral playing after a satisfying career in chamber music. As a founding member of the International String Quartet, he toured the world with concerts in Europe, the Far East, South America, and the United States. The quartet won several notable prizes, including the Munich Competition, East & West Artists of New York, and first prize in the Premier Grand Prix at the International Chamber Music Competition in Evian, France. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Indiana University School of
Music, VanValkenburg has enjoyed chamber music collaborations with many of his favorite musicians: Menahem Pressler, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, David Shifrin, and Isaac Stern. He became a member of Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings in 2004. His recent recordings, all on the Koch International label, include a violin-viola duet by William Bolcom, piano quartets by Franz Waxman and the Stravinsky septet. VanValkenburg enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys, ages 14 and 11, as well as training for and competing in Ironman triathlons.â?–
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CHAMBER CONCERT
.. PROGRAM.NOTES BY LORI NEWMAN
George Enescu
Trois Mélodies sur Poèmes de Fernand Gregh, Op. 19 (1916) Born 1881, Liveni, Romania; died 1955, Paris, France
George Enescu was a child prodigy who became an exceptional violinist, pianist, conductor, composer and teacher. He studied in Vienna, where he met Brahms in 1894, and in Paris, where he studied with among others, Gabriel Fauré. His compositions combine the influence of Romanian folk music, the Viennese style of Brahms and the French style of Fauré. Enescu was known for his compositional steadfastness: Not only did he allow his works the chance to mature for years (most notably, in the case of his opera Oedipe, for which he spent twenty-five years writing and rewriting), but also acknowledging very few compositions, leaving many complete and incomplete works aside. Enescu entered the Vienna Conservatory at the age of seven, studying with Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Robert Fuchs and Sigismund Bachrich. He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire studying violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with André Gédalge, and composition with Jules Massanet and Gabriel Fauré. Enescu's classmates in Fauré's composition class included Maurice Ravel and Florent Schmitt. He completed his studies at the Conservatoire in 1899, and was awarded the first prize for violin playing.
He made his conducting debut in 1923 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and continued to make guest conducting appearances with various American orchestras. In 1936 he was in the running to replace Toscanini as the permanent conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He maintained dual residency in Romania and Paris, but fled to Paris (where he remained until his death) after the Soviet occupation of Romania. Enescu wrote in all genres, his most important works being the two Romanian Rhapsodies, the opera Oedipe, and his suites for orchestra. His extraordinary musical talent was once commented on by the esteemed cellist Pablo Casals, who said, “He is the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart.” The poetry used for Enescu's Trois Mélodies sur poèmes de Fernand Gregh is by the French poet Fernand Gregh (1873-1960), who was also a critic and member of the Académie Française. He was associated with the literary school of Humanism which never fully developed, but the aesthetic is found liberally in his prose. Enescu's settings present the rich use of layers of melodic lines in a parlando style which is evocative of Romanian folk music.
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SONG TRANSLATIONS BY JENNIFER GOLTZ + PETER LOW Y
CHAMBER CONCERT.
› Program Notes, continued from page 30
Rain Slow, rainy night in July! I hear the rain in the distance fall in the dark, drip by drip... A wind, humid and fresh, ruffles the branches. All the dogs are silent in the distant hamlets. All the smells of the day are dead under the leaves: You only smell the odor of the moist greenery. Oh sweetness, oh immense mystery of the night! Not a star in the sky; no singing, no steps, no noise. Only, on a background of indefinite murmurs, the gentle dripping of the rain in the treetops. The earth is a garden, closed and silent, A grove, dark and warm, sleeping under the skies, Where nothing lives, if not the smooth sound and numberless drops of rain scattered in the shade. The musical silence In the silent song of a marble flute which murmurs under the nimble fingers of a satyr, mouth open in a silent cry of delirium, the satyrs and the marble nymphs danced. And the sun glistened in the branches of a tree, Golden like a murmur on the strings of a lyre; And, in the calm air where the wind's flute sighs, A fawn laughed vaguely at the foot of a tree.
The flute to the horn A horn whispers in the woods, distantly; Flutes, by the sleeping lake, like voices, Sweet, double, gossip a little, Modulating the alternating responses that lead a slow rhythm. The one deep, the other more clear, blend with the horn, slow down or accelerate in the golden evening. Then sometimes both cross their light plays, like shepherds cross their fingers over their mouths. They sing for a long time in the deep of night their sweet double song of Spring, of the dove, and of hope; Then, confounding their sister song which trembles again, Die in the immense sweetness of the sonorous horn... And those two songs, one more ardent, the other sweeter, This is our souls responding to our essence; This is first your soul and mine singing a little, And struggling first like a duel, the double flute; This is your soul, sweet and feminite, And this is my soul, more sonorous and sadder, like a man, Uniting like the two unite amongst the rumor of the extinguished horn, These tender flute who die in distant accord. ❖
From the dark grass sprang the cry of the roses, A harmony was scattered at the heart of things. The silence was like a song with mouths closed; The ray was a hymn and the voices were flames, And all was silence like our souls, And all was musical like our souls.
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.. PROGRAM.NOTES BY LORI NEWMAN
CHAMBER CONCERT › Program Notes, continued from page 31
George Enescu
George Enescu
Born 1881, Liveni, Romania; died 1955, Paris, France
Born 1881, Liveni, Romania; died 1955, Paris, France
Cello Sonata No. 2 in C Major, “Buruiana” (“The Weed”), Op. 26 (1935)
Sept Chansons de Clément Marot, Op. 15 (1908)
Despite the fact that Enescu's two cello sonatas are published under the same opus number, almost forty years passed between the two compositions. The second cello sonata represents Enescu's mature style, both harmonically and melodically. While published in C Major, the sonata regularly shifts tonality and is rarely in the advertised key, but manages to maintain a sense of established tonality. The second sonata is dedicated to the renowned cellist, Pablo Casals. ❖
Clément Marot (1496-1544) was a French Renaissance poet, known for his wit, grace, and ease with vernacular poetry, as well as his association with the Protestant Reformation. His texts were often set as chansons by the great Renaissance composer and Marot contemporary, Claudin de Sermisy. In these neo-classical settings, Enescu often asks the piano to approximate a lute, and the voice to embody the charm of Marot's style. Enescu's settings of these chansons show his affectibility to the French texts of Marot. Unfortunately, Enescu's accompaniment of Constantin Stroescu on his own recording of the chansons remain unavailable today. A Gift for Anne This New Year, I give you this present: my wounded heart, newly wounded. I'm forced to; it is commanded by Love, in whose service I'm attempting a paradoxical thing: for my heart is my true wealth (the rest of my goods are nothing to build on), yet I have to give away my best possession if I wish to be rich in this world. You Make Me Pine Away You make me pine away, though I haven't offended you. You've stopped writing to me, or asking after me. But despite this I do not desire any other lady: I'd rather die than change my mind. I don't say that your love has vanished, continued on page 33 ›
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SONG TRANSLATIONS BY JENNIFER GOLTZ + PETER LOW Y
CHAMBER CONCERT.
› Program Notes, continued from page 32
but I complain of the anguish I receive. And far from you I humbly beg you not to be angry at me. To the Damsels Too Lazy to Write to their Suitors Good day! And also, What's new? Is there no way to hear from you? If you don't inform me soon I'll make up news of you all. Since you are so recalcitrant, I bid you good afternoon, good night, Good evening, good day! But if you're picking berries, do send me some, because I'm desperate just to see you some morning,my ladies. Good day! The Gift of the Rose The fair rose, consecrated to Venus, is a great pleasure to see and to smell. And I will tell you, lady, the reason why roses are red. One day, Venus followed her Adonis through gardens full of thorns and branches, with bare feet and uncovered arms, when the thorn of a rose bush scratched her. At that time all roses were white, but her blood made some red. Now I've made good use of this rose as a gift to you, because, more than anything else, your face, utterly gentle and sweet, resembles a fresh red rose. A White-Colored Present Gift, gift the color of a dove, Go where my heart is most devoted; Go gently and gently settle there, But don't be too dumb-struck to speak: Say that you are destined for True Love, Say also (since I commit you to him) that the lord to whom you are given is less true than the lady who gives you.
Let's Change the Subject, That's Too Much Singing of Love Let's change the subject, that's too much singing of love. It's empty noise, let's sing of the pruning-knife: All wine-growers use it. It's their tool for cutting their vines; Oh tiny knife, oh cute little knife, With your help they trim and train the young plants Which produce good wines every year. The god Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods, Wrought in heaven that good sharp blade Out of fine steel soaked in good old wine To make it sharper and more valiant. Bacchus praised it, declaring it A fit and ideal tool for the good man Noah To use for vine-pruning season. At that time Bacchus wore a vine-leaf hat And used to come to bless the vines. Bearing flagons Silenus followed him; He used to drink standing straight up, And then stagger about and bump his head. He had a nose as red as a cherry And many folk are his descendants. Full of Suffering If I suffer, I cannot help it, And if someone tries to comfort me, His comfort cannot appease my pain. And so I pine away in misery With no hope of an increase in joy. And it must be that anguish can never leave me For thus my lot was cast since birth; Yet don't be offended if I suffer. When I die my pain will be dead; But meanwhile my poor heart endures My sad days in ill-fortune, Which compels me to love my own anguish And forbids me to feel depressed if I suffer. ❖
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.. PROGRAM.NOTES BY LORI NEWMAN
Robert Schumann Born 1810, Zwickau, Germany; died 1856, Endenich, Germany
Piano Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 47 (1842) The 19th-century German composer, Robert Schumann, had initially planned a career as a piano soloist, until a hand injury changed the trajectory of his musical ambitions. Until 1840 his works were written solely for keyboard; after that, he began composing lieder, symphonies and chamber music. He was a co-founder and wellrespected critic of the Lepzig-based publication Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (“New Journal for Music”). Schumann attempted suicide in 1854 by throwing himself into the Rhine River. He survived the ordeal and voluntarily committed himself to an asylum in Edenich, where he remained until his death. Schumann began his Piano Quartet in Eb Major on October 24 1842, and completed it within one month's time. The Piano Quartet, op. 47, similar to most of Schumann's chamber music, is characteristically piano driven with the strings often echoing the piano part or acting in opposition. As with much of
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Schumann's music, there are many thematic links between the movements of the quartet. Beethoven's influence can be found throughout this work, from the arrangement of the movements (the scherzo placed second, not third), the static, non-thematic opening of the first movement, its rhythmic ambiguity through displacement of the downbeat, and its similarity to Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 127. Of special note is the third movement in which Schumann directs the cello to tune its C string down a whole step to Bb, thus allowing the cello to play a Bb pedal tone beneath the violin and viola's staccato scale passages. The Finale is considered a sonata-rondo form which opens with a fugue-like section with the viola initiating the theme, followed by the piano on the dominant, finally stated by the violin. The movement ends with a prolonged coda which uses the primary material in a developmental extension. ❖
NOTES.
FIN.
Part of the Fourth Annual American Romanian Festival, the 2010 events are sponsored by the Michigan Arts Council and Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, and the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, with additional support from Walbridge Aldinger, the Santeiu Family, John and Terry Rakolta and other private donors.
AMERICAN ROMANIAN FESTIVAL
2010
To make a tax-deductible contribution to the American Romanian Festival Inc., please make checks and mail to:
American Romanian Festival Inc. 1407 Ferdon Road Ann Arbor, MI 48104
www.americanromanianfestival.org