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DIRECTOR’S WELCOME
When the Battell family built their Norfolk estate in the 19th century, they designed an oasis of tranquility and beauty in the midst of a troubled world. They opened their home to the community and shared the extraordinary music that thrived under their patronage with audiences from throughout the Northeast. Today their estate survives as a haven where families and friends can escape the daily grind of the city and enjoy time with each other in a peaceful environment saturated with beautiful music. It is a pleasure to welcome you on behalf the Yale School of Music and all the Artists, Fellows and Staff of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. The Battell Stoeckel Estate has been our summer home since 1941. If you are visiting for the first time, please be sure to say hello; and to all of our returning friends, welcome back. Throughout this season, we will be celebrating the anniversaries of three 19-century giants: Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin and Gustav Mahler, as well as that of American composer Samuel Barber. We are hosting some very special guest Artists: the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (June 20) and the Zukerman ChamberPlayers with world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman (July 10 Gala). As always, the heart of our program will be the Young Artists’ Performance Series on Thursday evenings at 7:30 pm and Saturday mornings at 10:30 am (also the first two Tuesdays in August at 7:30 pm). An extraordinary group of some of the best young musicians from around the globe will be in residence. You can hear them free of charge all summer! You are also invited on Wednesday evenings to our free informal In Context talks or to the popular Listening Club sessions with Jim Nelson. There is much more information about these and many other activities on our website www.norfolkmusic.org. It contains features on our artists and the music they perform, as well as updates on programs, lectures and special ticket offers. We hope you will find the site interesting, informative and easy to use, and we would be very grateful for your comments on the website blog. Anything you would like to contribute about our programs or other aspects of chamber music will be most welcome. We hope you will visit the site often as it grows and develops with input from people like you. In the meantime, returning patrons will have noticed the new landscaping and paving around the Music Shed. Over the winter we were able to complete a major excavation project to improve drainage and curtail the water erosion that had been threatening the building. These repairs were the second phase of a series of improvements planned to ensure that our magnificent concert hall remains safe and comfortable for another generation of concert-goers. We are also very excited this summer to begin work on the renovation of Whitehouse. The architectural firm, John G. Waite, Associates, has been engaged to oversee the restoration of the Battell family home. A world-renowned expert in historic preservation, “Jack” Waite has supervised the renovation of George Washington’s Estate, Mount Vernon, the Baltimore Cathedral, the Truman Library, and the Jefferson Rotunda at the University of Virginia. We are extraordinarily fortunate to have the benefit of such expertise for Whitehouse – one of America’s historic and architectural treasures right here in Norfolk. Though our original plan had been to begin work on Whitehouse after this season, plumbing issues made it expedient to move the starting date forward. One result is that we will not be able to hold our annual Open House this year. Instead we are initiating what we hope will become a new tradition – Family Day at the Norfolk Festival, Sunday afternoon, July 18. We will begin with a children’s concert at 2:30 pm, followed by a performance by the wonderful Professors of Bluegrass at 4:00 pm. Both concerts will be free of charge, and ice cream (also free!) will be served. For now, please settle back in your seat and enjoy the performance by some of the world’s finest musicians. I want to extend our most sincere thanks to all of the volunteers, donors and patrons who have helped make the season possible. And a very special thanks to you for joining us tonight in this century-old tradition of Music Among Friends.
Paul Hawkshaw, Festival Director, June 2010.
D i r e c t o r ’s W e l c o m e
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BALKAN JAMES BROWN YEUX NOIRS BEAT
Nina Ananiashvili FELIX MENDELSSOHN June 23-27 and the State Ballet of Georgia •LES
LOU REED ARVO
BETTY CARTER GIUSEPPE SANGEETA BOX PÄRT VERDI SHANKAR NANCY WILSON
RHYS CHATHAM
JACOB’SFESTIVAL PILLOW DANCE 2010 JUNE 19-AUGUST 29 MUSIC IN MOTION
THE CRACOW GEORGES DMITRI KLEZMER BAND BIZET SHOSTAKOVICH YEHUDA HANANI
ELLA FITZGERALD
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
MAURICE
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William Isaac, Emily Wagner of Armitage Gone! Dance; photo Julieta Cervantes
Featuring Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia, June 23-27, with live accompaniment by musicians from The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale School of Music. Additional live music engagements include the Season Opening Gala June 19, Shantala Shivalingappa July 7-11, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company July 21-25, and The Vanaver Caravan August 25-29.
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TA B L E O F
C ONTEN TS
3 ....................... Director’s Welcome 5 ....................... Table of Contents 7 ....................... Festival Acknowledgements 9 ....................... Festival History 11 ....................... Robert Schumann 15 ....................... Samuel Barber 17 ....................... Faculty Artists 19 ....................... Fellowship Recipients 21 ....................... Administration of the Festival 23 ....................... Saturday, June 19 - Lisa Moore in Recital 24 ....................... Sunday, June 20 - Preservation Hall Jazz Band 27 ....................... Thursday, July 2 - Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble 28 ....................... Friday, July 9 - Opening Night 30 ....................... Saturday, July 10 - Zukerman ChamberPlayers 32 ....................... Friday, July 16 - Haydn – Beethoven – Tull 34 ....................... Saturday, July 17 - Chopin & Brahms 36 ....................... Family Day Schedule of Events 37 ....................... Sunday, July 17 - Professors of Bluegrass 38 ....................... Friday, July 23 - An Evening of Schumann 40 ....................... Saturday, July 24 - Tokyo & Ettore Causa 42 ....................... Friday, July 30 - In Honor of Claude Frank 44 ....................... Saturday, July 31 - Tokyo & Wei-Yi Yang 46 ....................... Friday, August 6 - Tokyo String Quartet 48 ....................... Saturday, August 7 - Mahler Symphony & More 50 ....................... Friday, August 13 - Haydn – Schubert – Brahms 52 ....................... Saturday, August 14 - Tokyo String Quartet 55 ....................... Saturday, August 21 - Norfolk Choral Festival 56 ....................... Music in Context Series 56 ....................... Norfolk Fellows’ Performance Series 57 ....................... Artist Biographies 69 ....................... Festival Mission & Leadership Council 70 ....................... Festival Contributors
Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s
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Betsy Little Real Estate, LLC F —I —R C N C C - ..
F E S T I VA L
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival — Yale School of Music wishes to express its enormous gratitude to the many individuals and organizations that have helped to make this season possible Agent 16, New York Bill Brown Alexandra Bissett Burton & Joyce Ahrens Lynne Addison Liz Allyn Dana Astmann John & Astrid Baumgardner Rick & Candace Beinecke Botelle School Peter Michelson, Principal Botelle School Parent Teacher Organization Chaya Berlstein Katie Brock, English Speaking Union Katharine Brown Margaret Lioi, President, Chamber Music America Susan L. Carney, Deputy General Counsel, Yale University Ken Crilly, Associate University Librarian, Yale Univeristy Laura A. Cruickshank, Director of University Planning, Yale University John Perkins & Hope Dana Tara Deming Ed Domaney, Domaney Wines Carl Dudash Gil Eisner & Kate Wenner Jeff Euben, ITS Network Services Yale University Sandy Evans Rev. Erick Olsen First Congregational Church Valerie Fitch
Pamela Frank Adrienne Gallagher Patricia Garland Nancy Genga Bill & Barbara Gridley Katharine Griswold Ann Havemeyer Susan Hawkshaw Mara Hazzard-Wallingford Danielle Heller Elizabeth Hilpman & Byron Tucker Dan Hincks Infinity Music Hall Martin Jean Yale Institute of Sacred Music Helen & Philip Jessup Gregory Johnson Krista Johnson Doreen & Michael Kelly Jenna-Claire Kemper Eugene Kimball Robert King, CPA Christopher & Betsy Little Marty Johnson M & R Liquors Suzanne Eggleston Lovejoy Susan MacEachron & Bruce Patrick John Martin Associates, Architects Susan Matheson, Yale University Art Gallery Margaret McInnis Chris Melillo Cecily Mermann Samuel D. Messer, Director Yale Summer School of Art Anne Moses
And ... Kari Nordstrom, Director of Project Management, The citizens of Norfolk who Yale University share their lovely community The Norfolk Historical Society with our Fellows, Artists Barry Webber and audiences The Norfolk Library The host families who graciously Richard Dann open their homes to our Fellows Robin Yuran Norfolk Lions’ Club The Battell Arts Foundation, Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department sponsors of the Norfolk Fellows’ Kevin O’Connor Performance Series Barbara Oligino, Steinway & Most of all, Ellen Battell Stoeckel, Sons, Westport, CT our founder & patroness Vincent Oneppo Monica Ong Patricia Pappacoda Aldo Parisot Dan Pellegrini Drew & Sally Quale Nancy & Jim Remis YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC Kathy & Curtis Robb Arthur Rosenblatt Kim & Julie Scharnberg Anthony & Helen Scoville Anne-Marie Soullière & Lindsey Kiang Ashley Starkins Carol Stein Robert Storr, Dean, Yale School of Art Jerry & Roger Tilles Sukey Wagner John G. Waite, John G. Waite Associates, Architects Mark & Tania Walker Elizabeth Wilford Michael Yaffe, Associate Dean, Yale School of Music
Festival Acknowledgements
7
ABOUT THE
F E S T I VA L
Music in Norfolk has a long and vibrant history, dating back to the 1890s when Ellen Battell and her husband Carl Stoeckel, son of the Yale School of Music’s first professor, founded the Litchfield County Choral Union. Chamber music and choral concerts in their 35-room mansion, Whitehouse, were the beginning of the Festival that, by the turn of the century, was already considered one of the country’s most prestigious. As audiences grew, the Stoeckels commissioned New York architect, E.K. Rossiter, to design the larger and acoustically superior Music Shed. Dedicated in 1906, to this day the hall retains all of its original glory and stunning acoustics. It has remained essentially unchanged since its stage was graced by such renowned musicians as Fritz Kreisler, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Jean Sibelius. Upon her death in 1939, Ellen Battell Stoeckel left her estate in a private trust with instructions that the facilities be used for Yale University’s summer music school, ensuring an enduring artistic legacy. Now in its 69th season, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival — Yale School of Music has a dual teaching/performance purpose. Audiences from around the country come to northwest Connecticut to hear world-class artists, such as the seven-time Grammy® nominee Tokyo The Music Shed c. 1920 (Left to Right ) Conductor Arthur Mees, String Quartet, which has been in soprano Alma Gluck, violinists Efrem residence since 1976. Boris Berman, Zimbalist and Fritz Kreisler in Alma’s new Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, David Ford, purchased on the way to Norfolk Shifrin, William Purvis, Frank Morelli, Photo courtesy of the Mees Family. Ani Kavafian and artists from around the world perform as part of a series of more than 30 concerts over a nine-week period. These professional musicians also serve as teachers and mentors to the Fellows who come to Norfolk each year to study. Young instrumentalists, singers, conductors and composers are selected through a highly competitive international admissions process to spend their summer participating in the intensive program of coaching, classes and performances. They are exposed to every aspect of their future profession: their colleagues, their mentors, and most importantly, their audience. Alumni of the Norfolk program include Alan Gilbert, Richard Stoltzman, Frederica von Stade, Pamela Frank, the Eroica Trio, So Percussion, eighth blackbird, and the Ying, Miró, Shanghai, Saint Lawrence, Cavani, Calder and Biava quartets. A strong bond exists with the community, as The interior of the Music Shed c. 1906 residents of Norfolk and the surrounding area host the Fellows throughout their summer experience. The Fellows perform on the Norfolk Fellows' Performance Series which is offered free to the public throughout the summer. The community of music lovers supports the young performers and becomes their most enthusiastic advocate. Over the years, while Norfolk has become a symbol of quality in chamber music performance and professional study, thousands have enjoyed the picturesque environment of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate and the excellence of one of America’s most distinguished musical traditions.
Festival History
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ROBERT SCHUMANN BY LAURA USISKIN
In the past two years we have celebrated the bicentenaries of three of Romanticism’s greatest composers: Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, and Robert Schumann. Schumann outlived the other two and, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was the most avant-garde of the three. In the eyes of posterity his music, with its profound expressiveness, ingenious innovation, and constant eccentricity has come to embody the heart of romanticism.
THE MAN Schumann was born in Zwickau, Saxony, on 8 June1810. His father, August, a notable bookseller, publisher and novelist, instilled in Robert a love for literature that he nurtured while studying piano and composition as a boy. Despite a clear penchant for music and literature, at his mother’s request, Schumann matriculated to the University of Leipzig in 1828 to study law. He showed no enthusiasm for law school and seems to have known all along that music would be his ultimate passion. “A twenty-year struggle between poetry and prose, or rather, between music and law” is how he described to his mother his decision to leave law school Robert Schumann, 1839 lithograph by Joseph Kriehubere without graduating in 1830. An incurable self-inflicted hand injury put an end to his dreams of a career as a virtuoso pianist. Although all the circumstances surrounding the injury are not clear, one probable cause was Schumann’s use, despite his piano teacher Friedrich Wieck’s objections, of a mechanical device called a chiroplast. He aimed to strengthen his fingers by means of the device, though in the end he permanently damaged them. Schumann earned his early living instead as a composer of piano music and writer on music. In 1834 he co-founded the music journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, intended to both “erect a barrier against convention” in the music world and provide a “definite social standing” for himself. In this highly influential publication, Schumann endorsed composers he admired and disparaged those he disrespected. About Chopin, for example, he exclaimed, “I bow my head to his genius, his determined striving, his diligence, and his imagination!” whereas “insipid music” was all he had to say about a Meyerbeer opera. Schumann’s life in the late 1830’s included a tumultuous love affair and eventual marriage to piano prodigy and daughter of his piano teacher, Clara Wieck. Clara and Schumann met through his piano lessons when he was 20 and she only 11. Schumann had to wait patiently for Clara to reciprocate his love. When they finally decided to marry, Clara’s father refused to give his approval and did everything possible to interfere, from threatening to confiscate Clara’s professional earnings to publicly denigrating Schumann as a poor, stupid liar and drunkard. Schumann filed a lawsuit to obtain the right to marry in 1840. During sixteen years of marriage, which ended with the composer’s death in 1856, husband and wife often toured with Clara performing Robert’s compositions. Tensions arose over her popularity and Robert’s refusal to compose more publicly accessible music. The couple also cultivated a busy home life, raising seven children; an eighth child died in infancy. In addition to his work as a composer and critic, Schumann was appointed conductor of the orchestra in Düsseldorf in 1850. The players complained so much about his conducting technique and musical competency that he eventually left the post. This setback did not diminish his stature in the avant-garde musical community where he was especially close to Mendelssohn, Liszt, and, late in life, the young Brahms. Throughout his life, Schumann suffered from depression and anxiety that sometimes made composing nearly impossible. His first mental breakdown coincided with news of the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law in 1833, though it was probably also due to long-term stress and anxiety. Clara Wieck, 1835 lithograph by His second breakdown came at the end of a tour through Russia in 1844 and was the culmination Julius Giere of years of mental struggle. In early 1854 he attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge; a fisherman saved him. Soon after, he entered a mental asylum at his own request and spent the final two years of his life there. Speculation continues to this day over what Schumann suffered from precisely. It has been diagnosed as a combination of bipolar disorder and syphilis which he may have contracted early in life. Mercury poisoning is another possibility.
Robert Schumann
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ROBERT SCHUMANN BY LAURA USISKIN
CONTINUED
THE MUSIC Often a composer’s output falls into distinct stylistic periods: Beethoven, for example, had three periods; Stravinsky and Schoenberg each had four. Schumann’s oeuvre is better described by genre and year rather than style and period. The 1830s were devoted to piano music; in 1840 he turned to the song; in 1841 to the symphony; in 1842 to chamber music; and in 1843 to the oratorio. He then spent several years working in various genres, including opera, until 1849, a prolific year which produced more than 30 compositions, many of them for small ensembles. Beginning in 1850, he ran through the entire gamut again -- song, orchestra, chamber music and oratorio. Both personal and practical factors contributed to this compositional approach. One concern was how he would be viewed by future generations. Schumann felt he needed to establish himself as a composer of all genres of music just as the great composers of the past had done. At the very least, he did not want a reputation only as a composer of piano pieces. He always wanted to write large-scale compositions, believing these would put him on par with the greatest composers. Beethoven in particular was a model. But Schumann felt he needed to work his way up if he were to come anywhere close to Beethoven’s legacy – hence the progression of his own works through solo, to duo, to chamber music, to orchestra, to orchestra plus choir. Another obvious concern was money. In 1840, for example, when he needed an income to obtain Clara’s hand, he turned to songs which, at the time, were the genre with the potential for the most immediate financial gain. He was meticulous about money matters in general; in his personal journals, he Frédéric Chopin, 1838 painting by scrupulously kept track of all his finances Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix down to the last cent. His habit of writing in one genre at a time may have been an outgrowth of his tendency to focus on one subject or one issue at a time in all facets of his life. In his explorations of literature, for example, he often read only one writer’s output until he completed everything he could get his hands on. Composing, he often concentrated on one piece at a time with unbridled intensity: his First Symphony, for example, took only an astonishing four days to write. Many of his chamber compositions, including his three string quartets, a piano quartet, the piano quintet (see July 9 program), Phantasiestücke, Opus 88 for piano trio, and Andante and Variations for two pianos, French horn, and two cellos date from 1842. In addition, he composed two piano trios in 1847, two violin sonatas in 1851, and many small-scale chamber works during his fruitful year of 1849, including Märchenbilder, Opus 113, and the Drei Romanzen, Opus 94 (see July 23 program). The large chamber works, such as the piano quintet, stem from the traditions established by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. “I love Mozart dearly but Beethoven I worship like a god,” he wrote in a diary entry in 1842. These pieces have the traditional fourmovement format and, except for the Phantasiestücke, do not have any of the fanciful titles of his smaller compositions. Schumann felt that works in these genres should have a unique voice while retaining a direct relationship to the past. The monothematicism of the first movement of his first string quartet, for example, harkens back to Haydn, while the finale of the third quartet uses a “parallel” form that is uniquely Schumann, where the material in the second section closely mirrors that of first up a minor third. The small ensemble compositions from 1849, by contrast, are shorter and more pictorial. They often have descriptive titles and are programmatic in content. Märchenbilder (Fairy-Tale Pictures) for example, received its inspiration from the popular fairy tales
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Robert Schumann
ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
by the Grimms and E. T. A. Hoffmann. Schumann wrote many of these works for amateurs, though they are often quite technically challenging. They call for a wide variety of instruments including horn, oboe, clarinet, viola, and cello. Homage to tradition is not as evident in these works as in the large chamber ensembles. In Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Opus 102 (Five Pieces in a Folk Style) for cello and piano, he often uses asymmetric melodic divisions, such as in the second movement, where the lullaby contains a seven-bar melody divided first as three + four and then as four + three.
THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC When examining a composer’s music, one often tends – for better or for worse – to place it within the context of his or her personal life: joyous fanfares corresponding with good fortune; funeral dirges arising from deaths in the family; and everything in between. Schumann is one of the composers most susceptible to this type of bibliographic analysis. His personal circumstances were often extreme by normal standards: the bitter court battle to marry the woman of his dreams; a mental state that most likely would be diagnosed today as bipolar disorder; a self-inflicted hand ailment that destroyed his career as a concert pianist; a wife whose career often upstaged his own; a suicide attempt; and a two-year demise in a mental institution. The dramatic events of Schumann’s life are preserved vividly in his extensive diaries and letters. He had various objectives in keeping journals – financial organization, stability in his marriage – though, as his biographer Daverio postulates, it appears that Schumann often wrote with a larger audience in mind, perhaps intending them to be read by others someday. His language is stylized and literary: about a lover, he wrote, “If merry violets, the adornment of golden spring, bloom around my present love, why should I preserve the wilted, though still beautiful roses more lovingly in my bosom?” He once even wrote about himself in the thirdperson in this self-evaluation: “I would not reckon him among ordinary men...His temperament is melancholy, more sentimental than contemplative, more subjective than objective… distinguished in music and literature. Not a musical genius.” Schumann himself agreed that a man’s art and life are intertwined: “Certainly much in my music embodies, and indeed can only be understood against the background of the battles that Clara cost me.” He also felt, however, that one must look at art autonomously. Indeed, one must be wary of allowing knowledge of the poor mental health of Schumann’s later years to loom over an appreciation of the musical idiosyncrasies of his output. Worse still is to describe his innovative musical forms as confused or immature when in fact they were simply inventive. Many times an era of music is defined retroactively. J. S. Bach, for example, did not know himself to be a “Baroque” composer, though that is often the first word used to categorize his musical style. Schumann, on the other hand, was well aware that he was a Romantic. In an article in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Schumann described Romanticism as “liberal,” full of “young newcomers” who “scorn formal strictures.” He felt it was the duty of a Romantic to transform the past into something new for the future. Schumann’s music is thus quintessentially “Romantic” through inventiveness – at times playful, quirky, or heart-wrenching – that is embedded within a carefully conceived and informed context. Schumann always surprises the listener with a startling harmony, a rhythmic incongruity, or an unexpected melodic gesture. In this way, his music mirrors his life, a balancing of the emotional with the orderly, the irrational with the sane, the innovative with the traditional. Rather than his life informing his music, Schumann’s music mirrors his intrinsic character, with all of its splendor and eccentricity. Distinct, unexpected, and beautiful: in essence, his music expresses what it means to be human.
Robert Schumann
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SAMUEL BARBER
BY DANA ASTMANN How beautiful music is… There should be no summer vacation from music! Not one day! – Samuel Barber, in a letter written in 1952
In many ways, Samuel Barber stood alone. He wrote with romantic lyricism while the music world turned increasingly to abstractionism. A devotee of Bach and Brahms, he adhered to classical European aesthetics while other Americans developed a national sound inspired by local landscapes or incorporating native forms like jazz. He worked independently of most alliances formed by his composer colleagues. On a personal level as well Barber often struggled with a melancholy solitude. Barber had already begun to write down compositions at the age of seven. At nine, he wrote to his mother confessing a “worrying secret: I was meant to be a composer, and will be I’m sure.” He was hired as the church organist at Westminster Church in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania, when he was twelve. At fourteen, he became one of the first students to enter the new Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The young Barber spent many summers with his uncle and aunt, the composer Sidney Homer and the contralto Louise Homer who sang at the Met and appeared often at the Norfolk Festival. Her photograph remains on the wall of the Music Shed to this day. Louise Homer promoted Barber’s career by performing many of his songs on national tours, Samuel Barber beginning while the composer was still a teenager. Barber corresponded with his uncle Sid throughout his life, receiving encouragement and practical advice. Barber’s forthright music shows the influence of Sidney Homer’s advice to “write naturally and spontaneously.” What came naturally to Barber was melody. He wrote over 100 songs as well as more extended vocal works like the nostalgic Knoxville: Summer of 1915. His instrumental music also shows his love of melody. Though the level of dissonance in his music increased after 1940 or so, melody never lost its primacy. His extensive use of counterpoint reflects both the importance of melody as well as the influence of his traditional classical training. Barber wrote relatively little chamber music, but his Cello Sonata (1932), Summer Music for wind quintet (1955), and especially the String Quartet (1936) have all earned important places in the repertoire. One his fellow students at Curtis was Gian Carlo Menotti, the Italian-born composer of Amahl and the Night Visitors and numerous other operas, who became Barber’s partner for most of his life. In 1943, Barber and Menotti would buy Capricorn, a house in Mount Kisco, New York, where the two composers could work at opposite ends of the building so they couldn’t hear each other. Menotti called Barber “the star” at Curtis. He was the only student with three majors: piano, voice (he was a baritone), as well as composition. Throughout his career, he performed many of his Louise Homer as Azucena in own works as pianist or vocalist. Giuseppe Verdi s “Il Trovatore” While still a student, Barber made his first trips to Europe and tried to figure out his musical focus. A cousin wrote in her diary: “Sam gloomy over his future. He doesn’t want to be a pianist. Says he can’t. Singing still very indefinite, and he’s not sure whether he can be better than a second-rate composer.” He met Mary Curtis Bok, the founder of Curtis, in 1934; she introduced him to the Schirmers, which paid off when G. Schirmer Company became Barber’s publisher. In 1935, after graduating from Curtis, he performed his music in successful radio broadcasts and recorded his vocal work Dover Beach. An hour-long broadcast of his music caught the attention of the prominent conductor Arturo Toscanini, who began to perform Barber’s works with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. From his string quartet (see July 24 program), written in Italy in 1936, Barber arranged the elegiac second movement for string orchestra. That piece, called simply Adagio, was premiered by Toscanini and the NBC orchestra, and gained national prominence when it was chosen to be played at the funerals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 and Albert Einstein, ten years later.
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Samuel Barber
Barber began to receive prizes for his compositions, including awards that enabled him to study in Europe. By the time he was 28, his successes allowed him to compose mostly on commission. He wrote the Piano Sonata for Vladimir Horowitz; a ballet (Medea) for Martha Graham; the Second Symphony, Cello Concerto, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for premieres by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; his opera Vanessa for the Met; and three works for the opening of Lincoln Center. Up to the end of the 1930s, Barber had worked largely with traditional forms. Throughout the 1940s, he experimented more with modernist language including a higher level of dissonance, chromaticism, and syncopation. A few works, such as the Piano Sonata (1949), take on elements of serialism. When writing solo works or concertos, Barber often worked closely with specific performers, asking them about their instruments and writing to their strengths. In addition to Vladimir Horowitz, he collaborated with artists such as soprano Leontyne Price, cellist Raya Garbusova, pianist John Browning, and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. “Performers have always helped me,” he said later in life. The years following the war saw the apex of Barber’s career and included numerous successes. He received three Guggenheim fellowships (1945, ’47, and ’49) and two Pulitzer Prizes (1958 and ‘63). Even the salty critic and composer Virgil Thomson offered praise. The Cello Concerto, he said, “has the feel of serious repertory about it”; a suite from the ballet Medea “brings its author suspiciously close to the clear status of a master.” Despite being such a vocally oriented composer, Barber was already in his forties when he wrote his first mature opera Vanessa. (His very first opera he wrote as a boy of ten, with roles for himself and his sister Sara.) Menotti wrote the libretto to Vanessa, basing the strange and dark story on Isak Dinesen’s Seven Gothic Tales. After its premiere at the Met, Vanessa was honored as the first American opera to be performed at the Salzburg Festival and won Barber his first Pulitzer Prize. Another great success came with the Piano Concerto, commissioned in 1959 in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Barber’s publisher, G. Schirmer. Both audience and critics reacted to the premiere with enthusiasm. The piece, one of his few to incorporate jazz rhythms, earned Barber his second Pulitzer. Barber’s second opera Antony and Cleopatra was commissioned for the 1966 opening of the Met’s new home at Lincoln Center. Franco Zeffirelli condensed Shakespeare’s play into the libretto. He also created the production which was universally panned for its gaudy excess and malfunctioning sets. Barber lamented: “What I wrote and what I envisioned had nothing to do with what one saw on that stage.” The music, too, received negative reviews. Barber was crushed. Several years later, even though they were growing apart, Barber and Menotti revised Antony and Cleopatra. This more intimate version, first staged in 1975, was regarded much more positively. Its first recording won a Grammy® Award after Barber’s death. The failure of the original production had sent Barber into a depression. He was proud of the vocal writing in the score, and the nearly unanimous criticism hurt deeply. Heinsheim, his publisher at the time, believed that “Antony and Cleopatra was… a terrible catastrophe from which he never recovered.” Barber became even more private and spent increasing amounts of time in Italy. He was heartbroken by the sale of Capricorn, the house that he and Menotti had shared for so long. He drank heavily. His music from this point on is more introverted, and composing became more and more of a struggle. Though working on commission had marked his success a composer, now Barber focused on works that he wanted to write. In response to one offer, he wrote: “I must stick to my decision not to accept any more orchestral commissions. I have fulfilled so many of them, but now want to compose what I want on my own Gian Carlo Menotti time, be it 48 preludes and fugues for piccolo!” He wrote several vocal works touching on dark themes such as solitude and mortality. His output slowed; the 1970s produced only a few works, such as the Third Essay for Orchestra (1978). In 1977, Barber was diagnosed with melanoma. In 1980, on a visit to Menotti in Scotland, he suffered a stroke. He returned to New York where friends brought music to his bedside. When he died in 1981, he was buried in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Fond of good food in his lifetime, he once said, “I would like to be buried with a sprinkling of croutons over my coffin.”
“My aim is to write good music that will be comprehensible to as many people as possible, instead of music heard only by small, snobbish musical societies in the large cities. The universal basis of artistic spiritual communication by means of art is through the emotions.” – Samuel Barber
Barbara Heyman. Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music. (Oxford Univeristy Press; 1992). Mathew Broder. Samuel Barber (Greenwood Press, 1985).
Samuel Barber
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GrahamAllyn John Allyn
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Nutmeg Ballet’s
Summer Dance Festival An eclectic showcase of classical and modern dance repertoire performed by the talented students, graduates and guests of Nutmeg’s 41st International Summer Training Program
Sharon Dante
Founder/Artistic Director
Established1917 Dustin Shane (Nutmeg 2006 graduate) Performing Guest Artist 2009 Courtesy San Francisco Ballet
Friday, July 23 at 8:00 pm Saturday, July 24 at 2:00 pm A special program in the Carol and Ray Neag Performing Arts Center’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre Warner Theatre, 68 Main Street, Torrington, CT 06790 www.warnertheatre.org or 860.489.7180 Seats: $25, $20 seniors & children 13 and under
Join us for a free performance at Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 6:15 pm
FA C U LT Y
ARTISTS ROBERT BLOCKER Dean PAUL HAWKSHAW Diretor
Cover Drawing by Gil Eisner Photo Credits Dario Acosta Jared C. Benedict Richard Bowditch Tania Demiray Christian Ducasse J. Henry Fair Betty Freeman Matthew Fried Katherine Griswold Bob Handelman Paul Horton Kathie Johnson David Long Michael Marsland Bernard Mindich Vincent Oneppo John Pearson Nina Roberts Peter Schaaf Harold Shapiro Carol Stein Christian Steiner Chandra Villanueva Cori Wells Braun Michael Williams Susan Wilson For artist photo credits, please visit our website at www.norfolkmusic.org.
TOKYO STRING QUARTET
FESTIVAL ARTISTS
GUEST LECTURERS
Martin Beaver violin
Ole Akahoshi cello
Samuel Adams
Kikuei Ikeda violin
Syoko Aki violin
Astrid Baumgardner
Kazuhide Isomura violin
Janna Baty soprano
Simon Carrington
Clive Greensmith violin
Boris Berman piano
Michael Friedmann
Robert Blocker piano
William Hosley
KELLER QUARTET
Simon Carrington conductor
James Kendrick
András Keller violin
Ettore Causa viola
Patrick McCreless
János Pilz violin
Allan Dean trumpet
Jon Solins
Zoltán Gál viola
Claude Frank piano
Christopher Theofanidis
Judit Szabó cello
Peter Frankl piano Scott Hartman trombone
COMPOSERS IN
ZUKERMAN
Jihee Kim soprano
RESIDENCE
CHAMBERPLAYERS
Humbert Lucarelli oboe
Martin Bresnick
Pinchas Zukerman violin
Lisa Moore piano
Jessica Linnebach violin
Frank Morelli bassoon
Aaron Kernis
Jethro Marks viola
Joan Panetti piano/composer
Ezra Laderman
Ashan Pillai viola
Julian Pellicano conductor
David Lang
Amanda Forsyth cello
William Purvis French horn
Ingram Marshall
André-Michel Schub piano
Christopher Theofanidis
PRESERVATION HALL
David Shifrin clarinet
JAZZ BAND
Richard Stoltzman clarinet
Director, New Music Workshop
Stephen Taylor oboe THE PROFESSORS OF
Ransom Wilson flute/conductor
BLUEGRASS
Carol Wincenc flute
Craig Harwood mandolin
Randall Wolfgang oboe
Sten Havumaki guitar
Lucas Wong piano
Oscar Hills banjo
Wei-Yi Yang piano
Peter Salovey bass Katie Scharf fiddle NORFOLK FESTIVAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS NORFOLK CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
Artists and programs are subject to change without notice.
Faculty Artists
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BATTELL ARTS FOUNDATION Is proud to be in its 10th year of supporting the Norfolk Fellows’ Performance Series The Battell Arts Foundation (formerly the Battell Stoeckel Associates) is a philanthropic organization dedicated to the support of educational and performance events involving music, drama and the visual arts in Norfolk and the surrounding area. To that end, we continue to support the Norfolk Fellows’ Performance Series on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings (and the first 2 Tuesdays in August), as well as the Community Drawing classes and Children’s Art Camp that are provided by the Art Division of the Yale Summer School. Other recent projects include: Ongoing sponsorship of a three-week Drama workshop at the local Grammar school that ends in a public performance.
Participation with the Northwest Arts Council in large scholarship fund raising event “Chairish the Arts”.
Support for Yale School of Music students to provide 3 workshops for local grammar school musicians.
We invite you to join the Battell Arts Foundation in supporting our mission to promote education and participation in the Arts in our area. Please contact us for more information about our activities. All donations are tax deductible.
Battell Arts Foundation P O Box 661, Norfolk, CT 06058
FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS
CHAMBER MUSIC SESSION Andy Akiho composer JOHN AND ASTRID BAUMGARDNER SCHOLARSHIP
Yale School of Music Yeseul Ann violin Yale School of Music Lauren Blackerby oboe 2006 CENTENARY COMMITTEE SCHOLARSHIP
LINDEN STRING QUARTET Cleveland Institute of Music Catherine Cosbey violin Sarah McElravy violin Erik Wong viola Felix Umansky cello OBSIDIAN BRASS QUINTET Northwestern University Nina Dvora trumpet Kyle Dobbeck trumpet Jamin Morden French horn Mary Tyler trombone Erik Saras bass trombone
Manhattan School of Music
Yun-Chu Chiu perussion Yale School of Music
Yale School of Music
The Juilliard School
Ben Larsen cello Manhattan School of Music
Juan Carlos Fernandez-Nieto piano
Eric Fischer double bass Yale School of Music
LOUISE W. WILLSON SCHOLARSHIP
SCHOLARSHIP
Rebecca Kim oboe Manhattan School of Music
Ping Feng piano University of Minnesota
Guildhall School, England
Colin Stokes cello
CLEMENT CLARKE MOORE
LOUISE W. WILLSON SCHOLARSHIP
Yale School of Music
SCHOLARSHIP
Chris Jackson French horn
Ji Eun Kim violin
SCHOLARSHIP
ENGLISH SPEAKING UNION
Alexander Smith double bass Yale School of Music
Yale School of Music
JOHN AND ASTRID BAUMGARDNER
Magdalena Filipczak violin
Mei-En Ho cello University of North Texas
LOUISE W. WILLSON SCHOLARSHIP
Reena Esmail composer
Yale School of Music
Nicholas Pappone violin Manhattan School of Music
Edwin Kaplan viola
Lee Erik Dionne piano Yale College
Jeremy Friedland bassoon Yale School of Music
Alice Jones flute City University of New York
John Corkill perussion Yale School of Music
SCHOLARSHIP
Dashiel Nesbitt viola Indiana University
Kirsten Jermé cello Eastman School of Music
Minjung Chun viola Yale School of Music
CLEMENT CLARKE MOORE
Thomas Fleming bassoon Yale School of Music
The Juilliard School Ko Sugiyama violin New World Symphony Scott Switzer bassoon Yale School of Music Eve Tang viola Yale School of Music Elizabeth Upton French horn Yale School of Music Mark Wallace double bass Yale School of Music Sungmin Yoo violin New England Conservatory Mialtin Zhezha violin LOUISE W. WILLSON SCHOLARSHIP
Manhattan School of Music
Graham Lord clarinet McGill University Zöe Martin-Doike violin Curtis Institute of Music Christopher Matthews flute Yale School of Music Steven Naimark clarinet Arizona State University
All Fellows receive a full scholarship covering tuition, room and board.
Fellowship Recipients
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FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS
CONTINUED
NEW MUSIC WORKSHOP Jeremy Beck composer The Juilliard School
Christian Gentry composer Brandeis University
Daniel Walden piano Oberlin Conservatory
Jake Wright trombone Yale School of Music
Emily Cooley composer Yale College
Michael Gilbertson composer The Juilliard School
Alex Weiser composer Yale College
Mari Yoshinaga percussion The Curtis Institute of Music
Brian Ellingsen double bass Yale School of Music
Hleb Kanasevich clarinet Peabody Conservatory
Emily Westell violin McGill University
CHAMBER CHOIR & CHORAL CONDUCTING WORKSHOP Samuel Adams composer JOHN AND ASTRID BAUMGARDNER SCHOLARSHIP
Laurie Ellington soprano The Hotchkiss School
Kieun Kim baritone Westminster Choir College, Rider University
Lauren Fowler-Calisto soprano/conductor David Lee bass baritone Joseph Baldwin baritone/conductor Director of Choral Studies, New England Conservatory Northwestern University Christopher Newport University Woo Chan Lee bass baritone Joy Berg alto/conductor Williams College Emily Fuhrmann mezzo soprano Associate Professor of Music, Longy School of Music James Niblock tenor/conductor Concordia University Director, Choral and Vocal Fabiana Gonzalez mezzo soprano Megan Berti mezzo soprano Activities, Colgate University Yale Institute of Sacred Music Eastman School of Music Christopher Nickelson Elliot Hines bass baritone Margaret Carpenter soprano tenor/conductor Oberlin Conservatory of Music Keele University, England Choral Director Winchester Richard Hutton tenor High School/ Music Director, Cheryll Chung alto/conductor Westminster Choir College, First Congregational Church University of Toronto Rider University of Stoughton John Cox tenor/conductor Árni Ingólfsson Sherezade Panthaki soprano University of Illinois bass baritone/ conductor Yale Institue of Sacred Music Iceland Academy of Arts Marcio de Oliveira tenor/conductor Westminster Choir College, Rider University Yale School of Music
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Nia Rhein soprano Westminster Choir College, Rider University Helena von Rueden soprano University of California, Santa Barbara Robert Strebendt tenor Eastman School of Music Adrianna Tam mezzo soprano Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All Fellows receive a full scholarship covering tuition, room and board.
Fellowship Recipients
A D M I N I S T R AT I O N O F T H E F E S T I VA L
NORFOLK CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL LEADERSHIP COUNCIL Robert Blocker Dean Paul Hawkshaw Director Joyce Ahrens John Baumgardner Christopher Little James Remis Anne-Marie Soullière Byron Tucker Sukey Wagner
ADMINISTRATION & STAFF Robert Blocker Paul Hawkshaw James Nelson Deanne Chin
Dean Director General Manager Associate Manager
Brandon Bresson Brian Daley William Harold Richard Henebry Emily Howe Carol Jackson Kenneth Mahoney Jason Robins Stephanie Seward Shannon Whitney Rachel Wilkinson Donna Yoo
Facilities Staff Piano Curator Piano Curator Production Manager Librarian/ Director’s Assistant Box Office Manager Head Chef Recording Engineer Facilities Staff Facilities Staff Facilities Staff Associate Administrator
YALE UNIVERSITY Richard C. Levin President Peter Salovey Provost Linda Koch Lorimer Vice President & Secretary Dorothy K. Robinson Vice President & General Counsel Bruce D. Alexander Vice President & Director of New Haven and State Affairs Inge Theresa Reichenbach Vice President for Development Emily P. Bakemeier Deputy Provost for the Arts and Humanities Jack Beecher Senior Director of Business Operations Regina Starolis Executive Assistant to the President
CONTACT THE FESTIVAL Email:
ELLEN BATELL STOECKEL TRUST William G. Gridley, Jr. James B. Lyon, Esq. Peter Salovey Joseph Veronesi, Jr. Hooper Fendley John Hester
Trustee Trustee Trustee (Yale University) Estate Manager Estate Staff Estate Staff
norfolk@yale.edu
Website: www.norfolkmusic.org
June - August Mail: PO Box 545, Norfolk, CT 06058 Street: Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Rtes. 44 & 272, Norfolk, CT 06058 Tel: / Fax: 860.542.3000 / 860.542.3004 September - May Mail: PO Box 208246, New Haven, CT 06520 Street: 500 College St, Ste 301, New Haven, CT 06520 Tel: /Fax: 203.432.1966 / 203.432.2136
Festival Administration
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MEET THE ARTISTS Australian-American pianist LISA MOORE is based in New York City where she has lived since 1985, collaborating with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists. The New York Times claims “her energy is illuminating” and the New Yorker magazine crowned her “visionary” and “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano.” She has released 5 solo discs (on Cantaloupe Music and Tall Poppies) and 30 collaborative discs (on Sony, Nonesuch, DG, CRI, BMG, Point, New World, ABC Classics, Albany and New Albion). Two solo EPs are scheduled for release in 2010 featuring original music by Annie Gosfield and Donnacha Dennehy. Lisa Moore has performed with the New York City Ballet, London Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can All-Stars, BargeMusic, American Composers Orchestra, Steve Reich Ensemble, So Percussion, Don Byron Adventurers Orchestra, Signal, Da Capo Chamber Players, Paul Dresher Double Duo, Mabou Mines Theater, Susan Marshall Dance Co, Sequitur, Newband, Music Lisa Moore at the Anthology, The Crosstown Ensemble, Australia Ensemble, Westchester Philharmonic, New York piano League of Composers ISCM, Alpha Centauri Ensemble, Terra Australis, Essential Music, and the John Jasperse Dance Co. As a concerto soloist she has played with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany, Sydney, Tasmania, Thai and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, Philharmonia Virtuosi and the Queensland Philharmonic, under the baton of conductors Reinbert de Leeuw, Pierre Boulez, Jorge Mester and Edo de Waart. She has performed at La Scala, the Musikverein, the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall and has made guest appearances at festivals such as Holland, Lincoln Center, Schleswig-Holstein, BBC Proms, Israel, Warsaw, Uzbekistan, Musica Ficta Lithuania, Prague Spring, Istanbul, Athens, Taormina, Southbank’s Meltdown, Dublin’s Crash, Graz, Huddersfield, Scotia, Paris d’Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Turin, Palermo, Barcelona, Heidelberg, Berlin, Perugia, Tanglewood, Houston Da Camera, Jacob’s Pillow, Aspen, Norfolk, Sandpoint, Saratoga, Victoriaville, Ojai, Other Minds, NY’s Sonic Boom, BAM Next Wave, MassMoca, Bang on a Can, Keys to the Future, Healing The Divide, Adelaide, Perth, Queensland, Canberra, Sydney, Sydney’s Olympic Arts, Sydney Spring and Mostly Mozart, Brisbane Biennale, and the Darwin Festival. Lisa Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. From 1992-2008 she was the founding pianist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars -- the New York based electro-acoustic sextet and winner of Musical America’s 2005 “Ensemble of the Year” Award. Moore will teach this summer at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival - Yale Summer School of Music’s New Music Workshop and at Wesleyan University. She was born in Canberra and raised in Australia and London. Moore is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Eastman School of Music and SUNY Stonybrook.
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June 19, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
LISA MOORE IN RECITAL SAT URDAY, JUNE 19, 7:30 P M
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Selections fromWaldscenen Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
On An Overgrown Path from Paralipomena Don Byron (b. 1958)
Selections from Seven Etudes for Piano
Samuel Adams (b. 1985)
A new work to be announced
Ingram Marshall (b. 1942)
Authentic Presence
David Lang (b. 1957)
Wed
Martin Bresnick (b. 1946)
The Dream of the Lost Traveler
June 19, 2010
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MEET THE ARTISTS The PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue located in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe. The band has traveled worldwide spreading their mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz. Whether performing at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, for British Royalty or the King of Thailand, this music embodies a joyful, timeless spirit. Under the auspices of current director, Ben Jaffe, the son of founders Allan and Sandra, Preservation Hall continues with a deep reverence and consciousness of its greatest attributes in the modern day as a venue, band, and record label. The building that houses Preservation Hall has housed many businesses over the years including a tavern during the war of 1812, a photo studio and Preservation Hall an art gallery. It was during the years of the art gallery that then owner, Jazz Band Larry Borenstein, began holding informal jam sessions for his close friends. Out of these sessions grew the concept of Preservation Hall. The intimate venue, whose weathered exterior has been untouched over its history, is a living embodiment of its original vision. To this day, Preservation Hall has no drinks, air conditioning, or other typical accoutrements strictly welcoming people of all ages interested in having one of the last pure music experiences left on the earth. The PHJB began touring in 1963 and for many years there were several bands successfully touring under the name Preservation Hall. Many of the band’s charter members performed with the pioneers who invented jazz in the early twentieth century including Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Bunk Johnson. Band leaders over the band’s history include the brothers Willie and Percy Humphrey, husband and wife Billie and De De Pierce, famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, and in the modern day Wendall and John Brunious. These founding artists and dozens of others passed on the lessons of their music to a younger generation who now follow in their footsteps like the current lineup.
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June 20, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 4:00 P M
This afternoon’s program to be announced from the stage
June 20, 2010
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NEW MUSIC IN NORFOLK
The philosophy behind Norfolk's New Music Workshop is equal collaboration between composers and performers under the supervision of distinguished resident composers and guest Artist-Faculty. Fellows take part in a rigorous curriculum of coaching, master classes, rehearsals, discussions and performances. Ample time is allowed for composing and practicing. The Workshop is interactive in the truest sense, focusing on the process of musical creation and collaboration from concept to concert. Each composer writes a new work and collaborates on its composition with performers over the course of the session. All compositions are performed and recorded. Composers have written for, studied at, and enjoyed world premieres of their music at Norfolk for more than a century. Tonight the works of five Fellows in residence during the 2010 New Music Workshop will receive their world premieres. Each Fellow will tell us about his/her music before the respective work is performed. Later in the summer three recipients of the John & Astrid Baumgardner Scholarships will have their works presented by the Festival for the first time: Andy Akiho on July 31; Reena Esmail on August 14; and Samuel Adams on August 21. Please join us for these exciting events and share in the fun of bringing new works to the public.
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New Music In Norfolk
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
NORFOLK CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE F RI DAY, JUNE 25, 7:30 P M
Jeremy Beck (b. 1985)
Mosh (World Premiere)
Emily Cooley (b. 1990)
Dreamsong Nocturnes (World Premiere)
Christian Gentry (b. 1978)
Title to be announced (World Premiere)
Michael Gilbertson (b. 1987)
Title to be announced (World Premiere)
Alex Weiser (b. 1989)
Title to be announced (World Premiere)
Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble
Martin Bresnick director — Julian Pellicano conductor — Lisa Moore piano
Hleb Kanasevich clarinet — Jake Wright trombone — Daniel Walden piano — Mari Yoshinaga percussion Emily Westell violin — Brian Ellingsen double bass
June 25, 2010
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PROGRAM NOTES BY LAURA USISKIN
Franz Josef Haydn
Haydn is identified as the composer on the manuscript of this charming divertimento, though most scholars believe the attribution is false. The attribution has stuck nevertheless. The history of music (1732-1809) for wind ensemble harkens back to medieval times, when bands of pipers roved through towns entertaining at civic occasions. By the late eighteenth century, the ensemble had solified into a Divertimento in B-flat group of eight musicians in instrumental pairs, sometimes with a double bass. The Saint Anthony Major, Saint Anthony, Divertimento is the last in a set of six for this ensemble. The four short movements are pleasant, HOB II/46 upbeat and relatively simplistic, appropriate to social occasions (rather than a concert) for which they were almost certainly intended. The informed listener will recognize the five-bar theme of the second movement – the chorale movement from which the work’s title stems – as the theme of Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn.
Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakovich wrote the Seven Romances in 1967 for himself and three of his closest friends, who also happened to be among the world’s greatest performers on their instruments: Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano, David Oistrakh, violin, and Mstislav Rostropovich, cello. His intimacy with the performers, his recent rehabilitation from a major heart attack, and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Seven Romances of October Revolution all possibly contributed to the strikingly personal and heartfelt nature of the work. Alexandr Blok, Op 127 Each of the first three movements is scored for a single instrument (cello, piano, violin); the next three are duets (piano/cello, violin/piano, violin/cello); and the final movement uses all three instruments. Alexandr Blok was one of the leading Russian poets of the 20th century. In this cycle many of the poems have a foreboding element, such as the second about Gamayun, a bird of prophecy and knowledge in Slavic mythology. The third poem We Were Alone is one of the few with a glimmer of hope. The sixth movement moves without pause to the seventh, which ends with the strings shimmering in high registers and the piano ominously knocking in the bass.
(1906-1975)
Iván Fischer (b. 1951)
A German-Yiddish Cantata: The Voices of the Spirits
Robert Schumann
Iván Fischer is one of the world’s leading orchestral conductors. He has held principal conducting positions with major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, including the National Symphony and Budapest Festival Orchestra, and has guest conducted with most of the world’s major symphonies, including the Berlin and New York Philharmonics. He also has done much to promote music in his native Hungary where he has been awarded the prestigious Kossuth Prize. Though he spends much of his time with orchestras, when he composes, Fischer mainly writes for small chamber ensembles that include voice. His most frequently performed work is A German-Yiddish Cantata.
Of the many chamber music compositions Schumann wrote in 1842, his piano quintet was the best received at the time and remains one of his most popular works. Though he had models for all of the (1810-1856) other instrumental genres from this year, the piano quintet had no precedent. Though the eighteenthcentury Italian master, Boccherini, had composed several piano quintets, Schumann was most likely Piano Quintet in E-flat unaware of them. Mozart had arranged several of his piano concertos for piano and string quartet, Major, Op 44 but these were still principally solo pieces with string accompaniment. Schumann’s quintet provided the impetus for the establishment of an entirely new genre, and most likely inspired such composers as Brahms and Dvořák to write their own piano quintets. The declamatory opening statement of the first movement is fresh, joyous and grandiose. The middle two movements are both organized in rondo form with highly contrasting middle sections. The second, labeled “in the style of a march,” is a funeral march rather than a civic parade. The material for the third movement comes from a rising major scale that is rhythmically arranged so as to eschew a clear sense of the beat. The finale both stands on its own and brings the entire work to a satisfying close. Near the end, after a pregnant pause, the second violin regally declares the opening theme while the piano plays the principal subject from the first movement. It is a majestic close to a magnificent work.
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July 9, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
OPENING NIGHT F RI DAY, JULY 9, 8 :00 P M
Haydn
Divertimento in B-flat Major, Saint Anthony, HOB II/46
Allegro con spirito
Andante quasi allegretto: Choral St. Antoni
Minuetto Stephen Taylor oboe — Lauren Blackerby oboe Rondo: Allegretto Thomas Fleming bassoon — Jeremy Friedland bassoon Scott Switzer bassoon — Chris Jackson French horn Elizabeth Upton French horn — Mark Wallace double bass
Shostakovich Seven Romances of Alexandr Blok, Op 127 Ophelia’s Song
Gamayun, Bird of Prophecy
We Were Together
The Town Sleeps
The Storm Secret Signs Music
Judit Szabó cello — Peter Frankl piano
INTERMISSION
Fischer
Janna Baty soprano — András Keller violin
A German-Yiddish Cantata: The Voices of the Spirits (US Premiere)
Dreistimmiges Preludium Wiegenlied Deutsche Arie Jiddische Arie Grabschrift
Janna Baty soprano — Allan Dean trumpet Peter Frakl piano
Schumann Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op 44 Allegro brillante
In Modo d’una Marcia: un poco largamente
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Allegro ma non troppo
Keller Quartet— Peter Frankl piano
Keller Quartet
András Keller violin — János Pilz violin — Zoltán Gál viola — Judit Szabó cello
July 9, 2010
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MEET THE ARTISTS A prodigious talent recognized worldwide for his artistry, Pinchas Zukerman has been an inspiration to young musicians throughout his adult life. In a continuing effort to motivate future generations of musicians through education and outreach, in 2002 the renowned artist teamed up with four colleagues to form the ZUKERMAN CHAMBERPLAYERS (Pinchas Zukerman violin, Jessica Linnebach violin, Jethro Marks viola, Ashan Pillai viola, Amanda Forsyth cello). The ensemble has amassed an impressive international touring record of over 110 concerts and has performed with some of today’s most prestigious artists. The Zukerman ChamberPlayers has recorded four discs on the CBC, Altara and Sony labels. The latest album, featuring Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major with Yefim Bronfman, was released in May 2008.
Zukerman ChamberPlayers
The Zukerman ChamberPlayers has appeared regularly at the most prominent festivals throughout the United States, including Ravinia, Aspen, Tanglewood, La Jolla and Santa Fe. Additional worldwide engagements have included London’s BBC Proms, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Italy’s Cortona Festival, and performances in Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, Barcelona and Copenhagen.
2010 NORFOLK FESTIVAL GALA CO-CHAIRS John Perkins and Hope Dana — Curtis and Kathy Robb — Byron Tucker and Elizabeth Hilpman
VICE-CHAIRS (As of May 10, 2010) Joyce and Burton Ahrens — Astrid and John Baumgardner — Noha and John Carrington — Herbert and Jeanine Coyne Donald R. Crawshaw and Matthew D. Hoffman — Rohit and Katherine Desai — Michael Emont and Margo Rappoport Barbara and Bill Gridley — Patricia Nooy and Roger Miller — Kevin and Hatice Morrissey — Sally and Drew Quale James and Nancy Remis — Richard and Sandy Rippe — Cameron Smith and Liza Vann — Lionel Goldfrank, III and Dotty Smith Goldfrank Anne-Marie Soullière and Lindsey Kiang — Roger and Jerry Tilles — Christina Hoyt Vanderlip —Sukey Wagner
DINNER COMMITTEE Joyce and Burton Ahrens — Sally Carr and Larry Hannafin — Rohit and Katherine Desai — Christopher & Betsy Little Curtis and Kathy Robb — Anne-Marie Soullière and Lindsey Kiang — Carol Stein
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July 10, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
ZUKERMAN CHAMBERPLAYERS SAT URDAY, JULY 10, 8:00 P M
Tonight’s program to be announced
Zukerman ChamberPlayers
Pinchas Zukerman violin — Jessica Linnebach violin
Jethro Marks viola — Ashan Pillai viola — Amanda Forsyth cello
Mr. Zukerman has recorded for CBS Masterworks, Philips, Angel, Deutsche Grammophon, CBC Records, Altara and BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal. Exclusive Representation for Pinchas Zukerman: Kirshbaum Demler & Associates, Inc. 711 West End Anvenue, Suite 5KN New York, NY 10025
July 10, 2010
31
PROGRAM NOTES BY LAURA USISKIN
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven’s Serenade for Flute and Piano, Opus 41, is an arrangement of his Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola, Opus 25, which he most likely wrote in 1795-96 with the string trios Opus 8 and (1770-1827) Opus 9; the latter is also a serenade. The Opus 41 version for flute and piano received its later opus number because it was not published until 1802. Beethoven’s publisher made the arrangement, as Serenade for Flute and well as an arrangement of Opus 8 for viola and piano, though Beethoven found them inadequate Piano in D Major, Op 41 and made extensive revisions to both pieces. In this piece the flute part is almost the same as in the trio version, while some parts of the piano part deviate substantially from the original version. Like Haydn, Beethoven uses the word “serenade” instead of the more serious “sonata” to reflect the light-hearted nature of a piece. Here the opening flute call, akin to what a piper might intone, sets the character for the rest of the piece, which is mostly jovial in character. Short, contrasting movements frame a longer, more poignant fifth movement, which is a theme and variations.
Fisher Tull’s career encompasses a broad spectrum of musical achievements as a performer, arranger, composer, educator and administrator. A native Texan, he earned three degrees from (1934-1994) the University of North Texas: B. Mus. in music education (1956), M. Mus. in music theory (1957), and PhD, in music composition (1965). He studied trumpet with John Haynie and composition with Chamber Concerto for Samuel Adler. Trombone & Tull spent most of his long professional life as professor at Sam Houston State University in Woodwind Quintet Huntsville, Texas. He wrote more than 80 compositions, many for large ensembles as well as many which feature brass instruments. He once commented on his own music, “Some of my works are neo-classical, some are quite romantic while others are rather experimental. At this time [1984] I have no interest in electronic or computergenerated music because I still enjoy the humanistic aspects of interaction with performers, both as a composer and as a conductor.”
Fisher Tull
Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano in D Major, HOB XV/16
Haydn’s Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano in D Major is one of three for the same instrumentation composed in 1789 or 1790. Haydn enjoyed using the flute in his chamber music compositions, as evidenced by his popular “London” trios for two flutes and cello. In his piano trios, the cello mainly doubles the left hand of the piano, making the work more of a duet for flute and piano right-hand with cello/piano left-hand accompaniment. Piano trios during Haydn’s time were meant for amateurs to play and were thus expected to be relatively simple and light in character. This work, while delightful in character, is relatively virtuosic. Haydn inserts some of his trademark humor, including an unexpected pause near the end of the first movement.
Of the five sonatas Beethoven wrote for cello and piano, the Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Opus 69, is perhaps the most famous and often played. Its lyricism, fieriness, and virtuosity make it irresistible to performers and audiences alike. Sketches from the work appear alongside those of his Violin Sonata for Cello and Concerto and Fifth Symphony in manuscripts dating from 1806. The sonata was published in 1808. Piano in A Major, Op 69 Unlike the his first two cello sonatas, where the demanding piano part tends to dominate that of the cello, this work presents the piano and cello on equal footing and in particular accentuates unique and outstanding characteristics of the cello: soulful lyricism, wide range, and potential for fast, impressive virtuosity. Unusual for a three-movement work, there is no slow movement. The first movement shows off the lyricism and range of the cello, while the second is a light-hearted scherzo with an expansive middle section. The only slow portion of the entire work occurs at the opening of the third movement in a sublimely beautiful duet between the two instruments. This music moves with little hesitation to a virtuosic main section that brings the work to a breath-taking close.
Beethoven
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July 16, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
HAYDN − BEETHOVEN − TULL F RI DAY, JULY 16, 8:00 P M
Beethoven
Serenade for Flute and Piano in D Major, Op 41
Entrata: Allegro
Tempo ordinario d’un Minuetto
Allegro molto
Andante con variazioni
Allegro scherzando e vivace
Adagio; Allegro vivace disinvolto
Tull
Chamber Concerto for Trombone & Woodwind Quintet
Carol Wincenc flute — Peter Frankl piano
Allegro molto Andante Allegro
Scott Hartman trombone solo with Alice Jones flute — Rebecca Kim oboe Graham Lord clarinet — Jeremy Friedland bassoon Elizabeth Upton French horn
Haydn
Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano in D Major, HOB XV/16
Allegro
Andantino piu tosto Allegretto
Vivace assai
Carol Wincenc flute — Ole Akahoshi cello Peter Frankl piano
INTERMISSION
Beethoven
Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major, Op 69
Allegro ma non tanto
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Adagio cantabile; Allegro vivace
Ole Akahoshi cello — Peter Frankl piano
July 16, 2010
33
PROGRAM NOTES BY LAURA USISKIN
Frédéric Chopin
Chopin was a child prodigy par excellence; he could improvise a Polonaise before he knew how to write one down, and he published his first work at age 15. His piano and compositional (1810-1849) skills were so remarkable that he was already famous in Paris long before he first set foot there at age 21. He did not actively pursue a career as a performer (he gave less than forty concerts in his short lifetime). He chose instead to focus almost exclusively on the composition of smallPiano Concerto No. 2 in scale piano works during an era when Beethoven and large-form compositions reigned. f minor, Op 21 His two piano concertos in f and e minor are the exceptions that prove the rule. He wrote the one in f minor first, though it was published later and will forever be known as his Concerto No. 2. His understanding of a balance between composition and improvisation comes through vividly in the work, which includes grandiose, robust passages as well as sensitive flourishes more fit for a salon. The first movement includes dark, ominous passages as well as lyrical, hopeful melodies. The second is a sublime nocturne, perhaps an expression of youthful love. Chopin was only nineteen when he composed it and was in love at the time with a young singer, Constantia Gladkowska. He initially dedicated the work to her. When it was finally published in 1836, he changed the dedication to a new love, Delfina Potocka. The finale is a mazurka full of unabashed virtuosity. Though the work was originally scored for full orchestra, due to the overall secondary role that the orchestra plays, this arrangement for piano and string quintet allows it to be performed in a chamber music setting without losing its integrity.
Johannes Brahms
Musicologist Piero Weiss wrote: “In chamber music, the difference between four and six is greater than two.” In a string quartet, each player has an indispensable role in the ensemble, (1833-1898) constantly working to strike a delicate balance between soloist and ensemble performer. In a sextet the players relax into subordinate positions at times and rise to the foreground at others. String Sextet in G Major, As a result, the medium has an expansive feeling almost akin to that of a small string orchestra. Op 36 Brahms knew that marketing a string sextet in an era when the quartet dominated the chamber music repertoire would be a risky move for a publisher. After he completed his Sextet in G Major in 1864, he wrote to publisher, Franz Simrock, in the hope of convincing him that the jovial nature of the work was “a favor one is seldom in a position to grant the public.” Though Simrock initially refused to publish the piece, he eventually conceded. The work has been a success ever since. The first movement opens with a spacious, inviting quality created by the first viola’s oscillating murmuring and the first violin’s melody. The first cello introduces the second theme, an exuberant, almost youthfully enthusiastic melody. In the middle section, the opening viola ostinato becomes a vehicle for development. The second movement initially deviates from the “jovial” nature that Brahms described to his publisher. Its first section is delicate, intimate, and melancholy. Its trio section, however, abruptly shifts to a raucous dance character, appropriately labeled Presto giocoso (fast and joyous). The third movement is a magnificent theme and variations that begins again in a dark, melancholy character but moves gradually towards optimism and light. The jovial character returns in the fourth movement, which alternates lush melodic sections with repeating, scherzo-like passagework. These two contrasting musical gestures combine at the end to bring the work to a fast, exhilarating close.
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July 17, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
CHOPIN & BRAHMS SAT URDAY, JULY 17, 8:00 P M
Chopin
Piano Concerto No. 2 in f minor, Op 21
Maestoso Larghetto Allegro vivace
Peter Frankl piano — Alexander Smith double bass Linden String Quartet
INTERMISSION
Brahms
String Sextet in G Major, Op 36
Scherzo: Allegro non troppo
Allegro non troppo
Poco Adagio
János Pilz violin — Ko Sugiyama violin
Poco Allegro
Zoltán Gál viola — Eve Tang viola Judit Szabó cello — Ole Akahoshi cello
Linden String Quartet
Sarah McElravy violin — Catherine Cosbey violin — Eric Wong viola — Felix Umansky cello
July 17, 2010
35
F A M I L Y D AY
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
S U N D AY, J U LY 1 8
ALL EVENTS WILL BE HELD AT THE MUSIC SHED AND ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
2.00
pm
Children's Concert by Fellows of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival
3.00
pm
4:00
36
Ice Cream Social Children's Games & Activities (Sponsored by the Battell Arts Foundation)
pm
The Professors
July 18, 2010
of
Bluegrass
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
THE PROFESSORS O F BLUEGRASS SUNDAY, JULY 18, 4:00 P M
This afternoon’s program to be announced from the stage
The Professors of Bluegrass
In the early ‘90s, now Yale University Provost, Peter Salovey, and fellow Psychology Professor, Kelly Brownell, assembled a group of Yale community members who, like themselves, loved to play and listen to bluegrass music. The group enthralled the rest of the community, and as the picture to the left documents, it carries on that tradition to this day. As members of the original band moved on, a brief lull in the music was relieved by a second incarnation of the group. That edition enjoyed great popularity from 1996 to 1999, but sadly for music lovers, members continued to move on and the Professors of Bluegrass once again descended into quiescence. Now, thanks to some returning members, some new members, and the passion for the music that unites bluegrass musicians everywhere, the Professors of Bluegrass are alive and well once again!
The Professors of Bluegrass Craig Harwood (Dean of Yale’s Davenport College) mandolin — Sten Havumaki (Havumaki Fine Custom Woodwork) guitar Oscar Hills (Yale Department of Psychiatry) banjo — Peter Salovey (Yale University Provost) bass — Katie Scharf (Yale Law School Class of 2006) fiddle
July 18, 2010
37
PROGRAM NOTES BY DANA ASTMANN
Robert Schumann, a perpetual dreamer, turned often to fairytale themes. Perhaps, then, it is appropriate that 2010 is the anniversary of not only Schumann’s birth but also of Hans Christian Andersen’s. When he was twenty, Schumann wrote: “My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it Music and Law.” Not long after, he made the decision to devote himself to music. He studied piano before a permanent hand injury turned him toward composition. Even then, prose remained important. Schumann wrote music criticism, co-founded the journal Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (The New Journal for Music), and consistently sprinkled literary themes throughout his compositions. In 1847, Schumann wrote privately about having “trio thoughts.” That summer, he composed his first two piano trios. The tempestuous Trio in d minor, his first, was written in just one week and published (1810-1856) as his Opus 63. The first movement, marked “with energy and passion” explodes with fitful melodies and jagged rhythms. At the opening, piano arpeggios support the string melodies. As the movement Piano Trio in d minor, develops, the piano increases its melodic role. The second movement is a scherzo in triple time: “lively, Op 63 but not too fast.” The momentum relents in the introspective, harmonically restless third movement. The opening motive evokes the shape of the first movement’s primary theme. The fitful last movement, to be played “with fire” moves the piece into D major but not without frequent jumps into subordinate themes and momentary stabs of minor.
Robert Schumann
Three Romances, Op 94
A burst of duets came in 1849, the year Schumann called his “most fruitful,” including the Three Romances, Opus 94. Though Schumann permitted these pieces to be played by clarinet or violin, it was the pungent, poignant sound of the double reed oboe that he originally envisioned. This evening they are heard on bassoon. He wrote the romances in three December days and gave them to his beloved wife, Clara, on Christmas. They are lyrical and evocative rather than virtuosic. Each has its own distinct melody, without thematic overlap, but they are so compatible in mood that they flow easily from one to the next.
1851 produced the Märchenbilder (Pictures of Fairy Tales) as well as two violin sonatas and the third piano trio. In contrast to the Romances, the Märchenbilder are virtuosic in both their technical demands and their abrupt emotional changes. Schumann wrote them in four heady days and dedicated them to his close friend Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, a violinist and violist who immediately played them with Clara. The first piece has been described as a “simple ‘Once Upon a Time’” introduction. Rhythm drives the second movement, which alternates between a militaristic march and dance-like sections. Fast and restless, the third piece is driven by romantic intensity, with a brief respite in the middle. The gentleness of the first movement returns in the incredibly beautiful closing slow movement, marked “with melancholy expression” – perhaps a poignant variation on a fairy tale’s “happily ever after”.
Märchenbilder, Op 113
Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op 47
With the exception of his three string quartets, all of Schumann’s chamber works feature the piano in a major role. He tended to work in bursts, such as the chamber music flurry of 1842 that produced the Piano Quartet on this evening’s program as well as the Piano Quintet and all three string quartets. The Piano Quartet is one of Schumann’s more classic works in its use of counterpoint and the expansive structure resulting from extensive thematic development. The Quartet’s slow introduction contains a version of the opening notes of the main theme of the sonata-form first movement and returns at structural points later in the movement. Four crisp chords announce the start of the exposition and are extended by a graceful melodic answer from the piano. In making the second movement a scherzo and the third a slow Andante, Schumann reverses the usual order. The lively Scherzo features fragmented phrases and impish pizzicatos. In the scherzo’s second trio section, off-beat sustained chords confound the listener’s sense of where the downbeat falls. The slow third movement opens with a rising theme of expressive sevenths in the cello which is then echoed in the violin. At one point, the cello is instructed to tune its lowest string down to B flat in order to play repeated pedal points underneath the skittering scales in the upper strings. Counterpoint drives the energetic finale, with fugal passages anchoring structural points. The viola first states the theme, followed by the piano, then the violin. A lively continuation of the fugal ideas brings the work to a close.
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July 23, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
AN EVENING OF
SCHUMANN F RI DAY, JULY 23, 8:00 P M
Schumann Piano Trio in d minor, Op 63 Mit Energie und Leidenschaft
Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch
Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung
Mit Feuer
Syoko Aki violin — Clive Greensmith cello Boris Berman piano
Schumann
Three Romances, Op 94
Nicht schnell Einfach, innig Nicht schnell
Schumann
Märchenbilder, Op 113
Nicht schnell
Frank Morelli bassoon — Boris Berman piano
Lebhaft Rasch
Langsam, mit melancholischem Ausdruck
Ettore Causa viola — Boris Berman piano
INTERMISSION
Schumann Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op 47 Sostenuto assai; Allegro ma non troppo
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Andante cantabile Finale: Vivace
Martin Beaver viola — Ettore Causa viola Clive Greensmith cello — Boris Berman piano
Welcome to Colebrook night at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival July 23, 2010
39
PROGRAM NOTES BY JACOB COOPER
Franz Josef Haydn
The two quartets, Opus 77, were the only two Haydn completed of a set of six commissioned by his Viennese patron Prince Lobkowitz. Various reasons have been cited for his failure to complete the (1732-1809) other four: declining health, pressing deadlines for other compositions, and the rise of Beethoven as a composer of string quartets. Just as Haydn refrained from writing piano concertos and operas String Quartet No. 67 in after Mozart’s success in those genres, he may have quietly retreated from writing string quartets as F Major, Op 77, No. 2 Beethoven completed his first set of quartets, Opus 18. These were also commissioned by Lobkowitz. Opus 77/2 (1799), Haydn’s last quartet, begins with a simple violin line that eventually gives way to fierce unison passages and a stormy development section. The humorous minuet – as in Haydn’s earlier quartets, the second movement – is characteristic of his style in its unpredictable phrase structure and emphasis on two-beat groupings within triple meter. The Andante begins with an ornamented theme stated by the violin and cello; the inner voices sneak in to provide support and take on leading roles in several variations. The unabashedly energetic finale features a polonaise rhythm and lively syncopations. It closes not, as one might expect, by augmenting this energy, but with several progressively quieter utterances truncated by an abrupt forte utterance. With no desire to upstage Beethoven, and with no knowledge that this would be his last quartet, Haydn had no reason to provide a grand valedictory conclusion. “I have vague quartettish rumblings in my innards,” wrote Barber to the cellist Orlando Cole in May of 1936, “and need a bit of celestial Ex-Lax to restore my equilibrium.” Fortunately for us, (1910-1981) his resulting string quartet is more heavenly than excremental. The opening movement illustrates very well that, even as an eager young man, Barber String Quartet, Op 11 was more interested in the tonal and formal languages of the nineteenth century than in the radicalism and experimentalism of many of his contemporaries. It retains the traditional sonata form, and its first passage – an aggressive unison line whose defining motive provides the inspiration for the entire movement – is undeniably Beethovenian in character. Listeners will likely recognize the elegiac second movement: Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings is a later orchestral arrangement of it. The opening passage, a long first violin line that slowly wanders upward over a mostly static harmonic foundation, is gradually developed, resulting in music that steadily increases in intensity (though not tempo) and ultimately comes to a heartwrenching climax. A brief recapitulation of the opening material closes the movement. Composing the appropriate music to follow the other-worldly Adagio proved to be problematic, and Barber revised the last movement considerably after each of the first few performances. In the end, he decided simply to close the work with a terse varied recapitulation of the opening movement. The young composer’s prolonged frustration in writing the finale might explain why he never completed a second string quartet.
Samuel Barber
Mozart’s six string quintets include an additional viola (rather than the more standard additional cello) not only because the composer appreciated Michael Haydn’s previous works in the same medium, but (1756-1791) also because the composer enjoyed playing the viola. The instrumentation also enabled the first viola to take on the role of a soloist and allowed the cello, supported by the accompaniment of both violas, String Quintet in to have a more independent character. C Major, K 515 The C-Major Quintet (1787) in fact begins with several melodic statements by the cello, each answered by the first violin. Together they create an odd phrase length (five measures instead of the usual four) that is rare in eighteenth-century music. The first movement is also distinctive for its sheer length. Charles Rosen noted that it is the longest exposition of any classical work before Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The first viola flexes its melodic muscles in the ensuing Andante, engaging in a lyrical dialogue with the first violin. Mozart’s instrumental writing is often noted for its operatic character, and one might very well interpret this movement as a love duet. After the minuet echoes the first movement in its unusual length and asymmetrical phrases (here 10-bar groupings dominate), the closing Allegro starts innocently enough, but soon features sixteenth-note runs in the violins and violas that make this one of Mozart’s most challenging chamber works to perform. The forte double- and triple-stops that form the composition’s final chord illustrate another, more obvious advantage of adding an instrument to the quartet: there can be an even louder ending.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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July 24, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
TOKYO QUARTET WITH ETTORE CAUSA SAT URDAY, JULY 24, 8:00 P M
Haydn
String Quartet No. 67 in F Major, Op 77, No. 2
Allegro moderato Menuetto Andante Finale
Barber
String Quartet, Op 11
Molto allegro e appassionato
Tokyo String Quartet
Molto adagio — attacca: Molto allegro (come prima) — Presto Tokyo String Quartet
INTERMISSION
Mozart
String Quintet in C Major, K 515
Allegro Menuetto: Allegretto Andante Allegro
Tokyo String Quartet — Ettore Causa viola
Tokyo String Quartet Martin Beaver violin — Kikuei Ikeda violin — Kazuhide Isomura viola — Clive Greensmith cello
July 24, 2010
41
PROGRAM NOTES BY MINDY HEINSOHN
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Winds, K 452, was completed on 30 March 1784 shortly after the Piano Concerto in E- flat Major. Mozart described the quintet as “the best thing (1756-1791) I have ever written.” His preoccupation with piano concertos at the time is probably reflected in the enormous piano part for this piece. Quintet for Piano The quintet is in three movements, all of which are in typical forms. The first movement and Winds in is concerto-like, with the piano often dominating the texture. A serious tone is created E-flat Major, K 452 immediately in the extended and extremely operatic slow introduction during which the winds exchange melodic material seamlessly against the virtuoso piano part. In the second movement the winds are more dominant, thus creating a more chamber-like atmosphere. Although the melodic material is gentle and colorful, the harmony is daring. The last movement returns to a concerto-like texture, except this time the winds also have their own small cadenzas. The piece concludes with exuberant piano writing and tonic chords in the winds, providing a concerto-like finish to this masterful chamber piece.
Concerto No. 14 for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, K 449
From 1782 to1785, Mozart was the leading pianist in Vienna. His reputation as a virtuoso was at its height. Not surprising, he turned to writing piano concertos. His Concerto in E-flat Major, K 449, is considered his first mature work of this genre, as well as one of the best concertos of his career. He completed the work for his student Barbara Ployer, on 9 February 1784. Mozart wrote in a letter to his father that “the [concerto] in E Flat...is one of a peculiar kind.” The Allegro is in 3/4 time, which is unusual for the opening of an eighteenth-century concerto. Another unusual element lies in the modulation to the dominant in the orchestral exposition; this is usually reserved for the solo piano exposition. Mozart constantly shifts characters and writes effectively in minor keys, alluding to the dramatic style of his operatic writing. The Andante, in the dominant key of B-flat Major, has a very elegant feel which is heard first in the strings in the opening measures. The piano then enters and embellishes upon the main thematic material presented by the strings. The third movement is like a sonata-rondo form, which can be divided into contrasting sections with four distinct expositions. However, the contrasting sections merely vary the first theme, thus giving the impression that the movement is monothematic. The triplets in the middle foreshadow the 6/8 meter coda while giving an overall sense of lilt to the Allegro ma non troppo.
Serenade No. 11 in c minor, K 388
The Serenade in c minor, K 388, was written at the end of a quarrelsome, yet liberating time for Mozart. In March of 1781, Mozart was called to Vienna to perform at the celebration of the accession of Joseph II to the Austrian throne. Mozart’s employer, Archbishop Colloredo in Salzburg, refused permission to perform at the coronation, and Mozart resigned. As a result, he was treated disrespectfully by the Archbishop and rejected by his father. Mozart went to Vienna nevertheless and settled in with the Weber family. He fell in love and married one of the daughters of the family, Constanze Weber, on 4 August 1782. The Serenade in c minor, K 388, was completed July 1782, one month prior to his wedding. The ensemble, consisting of two oboes, two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons is commonly referred to as Harmoniemusik. Unlike the serenades from Mozart’s years in Salzburg, which had numerous movements, the Serenade in c minor has a standard four-movement structure. It is also more somber and serious in tone. This can be heard immediately in the opening of the Allegro. The Andante juxtaposes the lighter, more lyrical moments with darker, aggressive passages. Perhaps this is a reflection of Mozart’s own life, representing both the happiness in his marriage and the quarrel with his father. The third movement is a minuet in canon. The oboes play the melody and are answered by the bassoons one measure later. The trio is also canonic, but the melody is played in inversion. The fourth movement is a set of variations, ending radiantly in the parallel key of C Major.
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July 30, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
CONCERT IN HONOR OF CLAUDE
FRANK
F RI DAY, JULY 30, 8:00 P M
Mozart
Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, K 452
Largo; Allegro moderato
Larghetto Rondo: Allegretto
Randall Wolfgang oboe — Richard Stoltzman clarinet Frank Morelli bassoon — William Purvis French horn Wei-Yi Yang piano
Mozart Concerto No. 14 for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat Major, K 449 Allegro vivace Andante
Allegro ma non troppo
Tokyo String Quartet — Robert Blocker piano
INTERMISSION
Mozart
Serenade No. 11 in c minor, K 388
Allegro Andante
Menuetto in canone; Trio in canone al rovescio
Allegro
Randall Wolfgang oboe — Rebecca Kim oboe Richard Stoltzman clarinet — Graham Lord clarinet Frank Morelli bassoon — Jeremy Friedland bassoon William Purvis French horn — Elizabeth Upton French horn
Tokyo String Quartet Martin Beaver violin — Kikuei Ikeda violin — Kazuhide Isomura viola — Clive Greensmith cello
July 30, 2010
43
PROGRAM NOTES BY LAURA USISKIN
Franz Schubert
Published posthumously in 1830, Schubert’s Quartet in E-flat Major is actually the sixth of fifteen quartets Schubert composed. Schubert wrote the first six for his family’s string quartet in 1813 (1797-1828) while studying at the Imperial and Royal State School in Vienna. His father played cello, his two brothers violin, and Franz was the violist. Though it is a relatively early work, one can see String Quartet in the maturing composer who would eventually produce such incredible chamber works as the E-flat Major, string quartet “Death and the Maiden”, the “Trout” Quintet, and the String Quintet in C Major. Op 125, No. 1; D 87 Playfulness abounds in this quartet, particularly in the openings of both the first and second movements. The third movement is more sentimental. The finale alternates passages where the second violin and viola chatter in excitement with passages that alternate between lyrical and dance-like.
Among his many and varied contributions to music, Bartók’s six string quartets span his entire career and represent some of the greatest achievements of the twentieth century. The fourth (1881-1945) quartet was written in 1928, only one year after the third. In all his quartets, Bartók explores extraordinary contrapuntal possibilities as well as String Quartet No. 4 the unique timbres achievable by string instruments. He utilizes such “extended” techniques as putting the bow right next to the bridge to create a scratchy sound; plucking the string so that it snaps against the fingerboard; sliding the fingers of the left hand along the fingerboard in a glissando; hitting the strings with the wood of the bow; and more. In his quartets Bartók also experiments with ways of creating overall unity in a manner not dissimilar from that employed by César Franck in his Piano Quintet, also featured on this program. Bartók’s solution in his Quartet No. 4 is to create an “arch” form of the five movements so that the first mirrors the fifth, the second mirrors the fourth, and the third acts as the focal point. The first movement is intense, dissonant, and dense in texture. The second is lightning fast and calls for all of the instruments to be muted. The third movement is a classic example of Bartók’s “night music,” which is intended to evoke the sounds and atmosphere of a nocturnal nature scene. The fourth movement is entirely pizzicato and has the most obvious folk elements in the piece. The finale, with its many offbeat accents, has a raucous atmosphere and ends with a direct quote from the opening of the piece.
Belá Bartók
Though César Franck is known as one of the most important of all French composers, he did not begin to focus on composition until 1870. He eventually became revered as a composition (1822-1890) teacher, with such pupils as Vincent d’Indy and Ernest Chausson. His training began as a pianist and, throughout most of his career, he was famous as an organist, in particular as a remarkable Piano Quintet in f minor improviser. He wrote his Piano Quintet in 1878-79. Franck’s works are in a late Romantic style, and his organ background often permeates them even when no organ is present. In this work, for example, Franck frequently puts the strings in rhythmic homophony that produces large blocks of sound similar to what one might create with an organ. In addition, he builds massive, over-the-top musical climaxes that suggest he had the enveloping sound of the organ in mind when writing them. The work also uses Franck’s “cyclic form,” a compositional method he developed and regularly used where thematic material occurs across movements to create a unified whole. Franck dedicated the quintet to Camille Saint-Säens, his friend and colleague at the Société Nationale de Musique. At the work’s premiere, Saint-Säens performed at the piano but left the stage in disgust for reasons that have never been confirmed. Today the work is both one of Franck’s most celebrated as well as one of the most popular pieces for piano quintet.
César Franck
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July 31, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
TOKYO QUARTET WITH WEI-YI YANG SAT URDAY, JULY 31, 8:00 P M
Schubert String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op 125, No. 1; D 87 Allegro moderato Scherzo: Prestissimo Adagio Allegro
Bartók
Tokyo String Quartet
String Quartet No. 4
Allegro
Prestissimo, con sordino
Non troppo lento
Allegretto pizzicato Allegro molto
Tokyo String Quartet
INTERMISSION
Franck Piano Quintet in f minor Molto moderato quasi lento; Allegro
Lento, con molto sentimento
Allegro non troppo, ma con fuoco
Tokyo String Quartet — Wei-Yi Yang piano
Tokyo String Quartet Martin Beaver violin — Kikuei Ikeda violin — Kazuhide Isomura viola — Clive Greensmith cello
July 31, 2010
45
PROGRAM NOTES BY JACOB COOPER
One of the last artists to defect the Soviet Union, Lera Auerbach is a prolific composer, virtuoso pianist, and acclaimed poet. Her Primordial Light, composed in 2006 for a religious music (b. 1973) festival in Spain, contains six prayer-like movements that blend the secular and the sacred. “The act of praying here is seen not in a traditional religious manner,” the composer has written of String Quartet No. 2, the quartet, “but rather as a most intense act of soul-searching, a hard and honest look into “Primordial Light” oneself, questioning and searching for answers.” Throughout the work, solo passages provide this introspective “questioning,” often through simple melodies that seemingly yearn for the past. Hushed utterances in extreme registers create an atmosphere that lies somewhere between strained and restrained; pulsing accompaniment figures and low pedal points build intensity and contribute a monolithic feel. The music is at points reminiscent of Bartók, at other points of Samuel Barber. While a foreboding mood dominates, the closing chorale provides a glimpse of hope, of the light buried deep in the past.
Lera Auerbach
Claude-Achille Debussy
Debussy’s String Quartet stunned audiences at its 1893 premiere, introducing a style that would define his mature works. Its tonality is obscured by a reliance on modality, its form arises more from (1862-1918) a stringing together of ideas rather than traditional development, and its melodies are often driven by pentatonicism. His approach to the different instruments’ roles was also revolutionary: as Paul String Quartet Griffiths writes, the Debussyan quartet is “worlds away from the classical norms of quartet texture.” in g minor, Op 10 This is apparent from the outset of the piece, as the four strings seem to state four separate melodies. The opening motive is nevertheless clearly audible, and it not only recurs throughout this movement, but serves as the seed for the entire work. The second movement is a kind of scherzo, rife with pizzicati and driven by a stubborn ostinato that begins in the viola before spreading to the other instruments. The ensuing Andantino begins, as Debussy instructs, in a “sweetly expressive” way, and features an impassioned climax before ending as quietly as possible. The sedate mood and the key (D-flat) persist as the finale delicately begins. By the work’s end, however, this key and mood transform; while so much of this work exhibits the dawn of Debussy’s innovative style, it closes not with the evaporation of melody and texture that characterizes the ends of his later works, but with a more traditional triumphant ending in G major.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart wrote his masterful D-Major Quintet (1790) in a year that otherwise proved largely unproductive. His frustration with composing was probably rooted in his financial troubles; never (1756-1791) adept at self-promotion or at managing his income, his inability to secure a steady job and his wife’s recent sicknesses made money particularly hard to come by at this time. It is possible Quintet for Strings that Mozart even chose the novel “viola quintet” instrumentation not simply to explore a new in D Major, K 593 medium, but also to allow himself to earn some money playing the extra viola part. The work opens with a slow introduction that features several arpeggiated gestures in the cello, each of which is answered by the four other instruments. Mozart was apparently fond of this material, as he reintroduced it near the end of the march-like Allegro. The pensive second movement begins with a descending theme in the first violin, but it is the ensuing trill gesture introduced again by the cello that provides the most significant material for the movement. The minuet returns to the energetic mood of the opening Allegro, with weak-beat accents and playful interplay between the instruments. In the finale, chromatic melodies, pungent harmonies, abrupt changes in texture and register, intricate counterpoint, and a quick tempo all create an atmosphere of, as the musicologist Alfred Einstein has noted, “wild, disconsolate mirth.” As the work ends, one may appreciate how, even if Mozart’s compositions did not make him wealthy, they have undoubtedly enriched many lives.
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August 6, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
TOKYO STRING QUARTET F RI DAY, AUG UST 6, 8:00 P M
Auerbach
String Quartet No. 2, “Primordial Light”
Adagio Monologo — Andante, ma poco con moto Cuatro Preguntas Con moto
Con moto, ma molto pesante, intensivo e tragico
Adagio
Debussy
Tokyo String Quartet
String Quartet in g minor, Op 10
Animé et très décidé
Assez vif et bien rythmé
Andantino, doucemente expressif
Très modéré
Tokyo String Quartet
INTERM ISSION
Mozart
Quintet for Strings in D Major, K 593
Larghetto; Allegro Adagio Menuetto: Allegretto Finale: Allegro
Tokyo String Quartet — Minjung Chun viola
Tokyo String Quartet Martin Beaver violin — Kikuei Ikeda violin — Kazuhide Isomura viola — Clive Greensmith cello
August 6, 2010
47
PROGRAM NOTES BY LAURA USISKIN
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Adagio & Allegro for Horn and Piano in A-flat Major, Op 70
The invention of valves for the French horn in the nineteenth century enabled players to execute all of the notes in the chromatic scale comfortably and changed the instrument to this day. Schumann, always at the forefront of innovation, was one of the first composers to write for the valved instrument with his Adagio and Allegro, Opus 70, completed in 1849. Schumann deliberately shows off the new instrument in the opening bars of the Adagio by using a four-note motive that spans only five half steps. Chromaticism abounds in the movement, which is a magnificent duet between the two instruments. The ensuing Allegro is a bright, virtuosic display in rondo form.
Brahms composed this magnificent work after hearing clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld in 1891. By that time the composer had more or less retired, but Muhlfeld’s awe-inspiring playing moved (1833-1897) him to compose four major works for the clarinet including this sonata which would prove to be the last piece he ever wrote. The premiere of the work in 1895 also marks the last time Brahms Sonata for Clarinet and performed in public. Up to that time, the clarinet repertoire had only a handful of notable works, Piano in E-flat Major, including a concerto and trio by Mozart. The late works of Brahms immediately became an Op 120, No. 2 indispensable part of the clarinet repertoire. The first movement of this sonata is tender, inviting, and accurately entitled Allegro amabile (amiable). It exudes an autumnal sense of reflection, perhaps representative of the composer in his twilight years. The outer sections of second movement are impetuous and breathless, with a constant sense of urgency. The trio in the middle, in contrast, is more sturdy and grounded. The finale presents a lilting theme followed by six variations, one of Brahms’ favorite formal structures.
Johannes Brahms
It may be hard to imagine that any of Mahler’s symphonies, known for their massive scope and large orchestral forces, could work successfully in a chamber setting. The Symphony No. 4, (1860-1911) the shortest and most transparent of them all, is perhaps the only one that works in this context. Thoughtfully constructed by Schoenberg pupil, Erwin Stein, in 1921, this arrangement has Symphony No. 4 in stood the test of time and continues to allow chamber music audiences to hear this celebrated G Major (arr. Erwin Stein) work. Stein wrote it for the Society for Private Musical Performances, an organization founded by Arnold Schoenberg that programmed contemporary music but only had the resources for chamber works. Mahler’s original score already calls for a relatively small orchestra to begin with – no trombones or tuba and fewer woodwinds and strings – yet Stein manages to reduce the instrumentation even further to a sparkling sound with the twelve instrumentalists and soprano. Mahler knew from the beginning that he wanted to end this symphony with the song Das himmlische Leben (Heavenly Life) as a portrayal of the innocence of childhood. He thus wrote the last movement first and then composed the first three movements to serve as a progression to the fourth. To accomplish this task, the four movements diminish gradually in complexity, taking the listener on a journey from experience to childhood, earth to heaven. Childlike qualities, such as the naïve melody at the opening of the first movement, are heard throughout. Mahler originally inscribed the second movement “Friend Hain Strikes Up” at the top of the manuscript, referring to a character in German folklore who plays his violin and leads his victims toward death. The third movement is an extensive, sublime theme and variations that prepares the fourth movement, where the soprano sings of the wonders of heaven: “There is just no music on earth that can compare to ours.”
Gustav Mahler
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August 7, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
MAHLER SYMPHONY 4 & MORE SAT URDAY, AUG UST 7, 8:00 P M
Schumann Adagio & Allegro for Horn and Piano in A-flat Major, Op 70 Adagio: Langsam, mit innigem Ausdruck Allegro: rasch und feurig - etwas ruhiger - Tempo 1 William Purvis French horn — André-Michel Schub piano
Brahms Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat Major, Op 120, No.2 Allegro amabile
Allegro, molto appassionato
Andante con moto - Allegro David Shifrin clarinet — André-Michel Schub piano
INTERMISSION
Mahler
Symphony No. 4 in G Major (arr. Erwin Stein)
Bedächtig, nicht eilen
In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast
Ruhevoll, poco adagio
Sehr behaglich Ransom Wilson conductor — Jihee Kim soprano Christopher Matthews flute — Lauren Blackerby oboe Steven Naimark clarinet Ping Feng piano — Lee Dionne piano Juan Carlos Fernandez-Nieto harmonium Yun-Chu Chiu percussion — John Corkill percussion Mialtin Zhezha violin — Ji Eun Kim violin Edwin Kaplan viola — Colin Stokes cello Eric Fischer double bass
August 7, 2010
49
PROGRAM NOTES BY MICAHLA COHEN
Franz Josef Haydn
Dedicated to Hungarian Count Joseph Erdödy, String Quartet No. 65 in E-flat major, Opus 76, No. 6 is one of Haydn’s last complete set of six quartets. It is commonly known by its nickname “Sunrise” in (1732-1809) England and America because of its picturesque opening in which the violin soars over chords held by the three other voices. String Quartet No. 65 Considered one of Haydn’s most innovative works, the quartet emphasizes thematic continuity in E-flat Major, Op 76, and the seamless passing of motives from one instrument to another. The four movements demonstrate No. 6, HOB III/80 a wide variety of musical forms. The first is in classical sonata form. The second is an extremely slow Adagio – among the slowest movements Haydn ever composed. The third is a traditional minuet that begins as though we are at a formal eighteenth-century court ball and ends as a central-European peasant dance. The finale is also in sonata form with a brisk folk tune that is momentarily interrupted by a minor section but quickly returns, spiraling faster and faster to the end. The entire set of six quartets was completed in 1797 but not published until 1799 because of confusion between Haydn and his printers. There was concern that the Viennese would release them before Haydn’s publisher in London, which would violate the exclusivity agreement with Count Erdödy. In the end, the quartets were published at the same time in both cities.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Also called Adagio, Schubert’s Notturno in E-flat Major, Opus 148, is a beautiful but brief nocturne for piano trio, composed one year before his death. It is believed that this nocturne was initially meant to be the slow movement of his Piano Trio in B-flat major D. 898, which he was working on at the same time. Why the composer did not include it in the larger work is not Notturno in E-flat Major, known. Because this work stands so well on its own, it was published separately with the editor’s Op 148, D 897 title Notturno twenty years after. Opus 148 shares characteristics with some of Schubert’s most celebrated works, such as the C-Major string quintet and ‘Unfinished’ Symphony No. 8. The entire movement has three sections which include a beautiful slow introduction that gives way to the main melodic idea – a three-note, dotted march. It has been thought that this tune comes from a folk song Schubert heard while vacationing near Salzburg.
Brahms wrote this quartet in his late twenties between 1856 and 1861. It has become one of his most popular chamber works because of its well-known “gypsy rondo” fourth movement. The entire work is full of German folk song and Hungarian gypsy elements. Piano and strings share the beautiful melodies equally throughout. Perhaps the greatest tribute to the work is Arnold Piano Quartet in g minor, Schoenberg’s arrangement for orchestra. Op 25 The first public performance of Brahms’ Opus 25 was in Hamburg with his close friend Clara Schumann as the pianist. Clara had advised him while writing the work. The first movement is a sonata form in g minor. Even though, for Brahms, this is a relatively light-textured piece, each section is composed of two or more contrasting ideas linked together with expansive transitions. The second movement, tender and mysterious, is in ternary form in c minor with a trio in E-flat major that ends with military-like passages in C Major. The third movement is E-flat major. The forth movement returns to g minor to begin a lively gypsy tune that dances dizzyingly faster and faster to the end.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
50
August 13, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
HAYDN − SCHUBERT − BRAHMS F RI DAY, AUG UST 13, 8:00 P M
Haydn
String Quartet No. 65 in E-flat Major, Op 76, No. 6, HOB III/80
Allegretto Fantasia: Adagio Menuetto: Presto
Finale: Allegro spirituoso
Magdalena Filipczak violin — Sungmin Yoo violin Minjung Chun viola — Mei-En Ho cello
Schubert Notturno in E-flat Major, Op 148, D 897 Martin Beaver Adagio
violin — Clive Greensmith cello
Juan Carlos Fernandez-Nieto piano
INTERMISSION
Brahms
Piano Quartet in g minor, Op 25
Allegro
Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo
Andante con moto
Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto
Kikuei Ikeda violin — Kazuhide Isomura viola Clive Greensmith cello — Joan Panetti piano
August 13, 2010
51
PROGRAM NOTES BY DANA ASTMANN
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
In 1787, a miserable and insolvent Mozart wrote to his friend Michael Puchberg: “Oh, God! The situation I am in I would not wish on my worst enemy… instead of paying off my debts, I come (1756-1791) asking for more…. In the meantime I’m composing six easy piano sonatas for Princess Fredericka and six quartets for the King, which I am going to have engraved at my own expense at Kozeluch’s; String Quartet in D Major, the two dedications will bring in something as well.” K 575, “Prussian” The quartets were commissions from Friedrich Wilhelm II, the King of Prussia. Mozart wrote the D-Major first and finished only two more. As the King was a cellist, the cello plays a prominent role throughout the work. The sonata-form first movement opens with a sunny theme in the first violin, repeated by the viola. The development section features several solos for the cello in its high register. The Andante second movement is in a simple A-B-A form; after the simple opening, the B section features the different instruments trading thematic material. A melodic turn opens the bright Minuet, which gains energy from its use of contrasting elements. In the rondo fourth movement – again marked Allegretto – Mozart unites the entire work by borrowing melodies from the first two movements. The movement features a variety of textures and inventive reworkings of the main theme.
Anton Webern
Anton Webern only studied formally with Arnold Schoenberg for a few years, but the two always remained close. In 1911, shortly after Schoenberg wrote the freely atonal Six Little Piano Pieces, (1883-1945) Opus 19, Webern wrote what he then considered his second string quartet, in four very short movements. In June of 1913, Webern wrote Three Pieces for string quartet. The middle piece, like Six Bagatelles for Schoenberg’s second string quartet (1908), featured a voice singing in the Sprechstimme (speechString Quartet, Op 9 song) style of Schoenberg’s recently completed Pierrot Lunaire. In an important break from the strong influence of his teacher’s works, Webern discarded the vocal work and used the other two pieces to frame the 1911 quartet. The result was the Six Bagatelles, published as his Opus 9. Webern’s methodical use of all twelve notes of the scale has attracted attention for its presaging of twelve-tone technique. He wrote to Schoenberg: “While working on them I had the feeling that once the twelve tones had run out, the piece was finished…. One appearance of the twelve tones gives the piece, the idea, the theme, a formal caesura.” Altogether, the Six Bagatelles last only a few minutes but give the impression of great density of musical thought. The sparse textures and juxtapositions of disparate gestures contribute to the weight that each fragment of music carries. In the words of Mark Steinberg, “The music manages to compress immense expressivity into wisps of sound which become symbolic of more sprawling gestures.”
Schubert’s String Quartet in d minor, D. 810, is one of his last pieces of chamber music. In the two years that preceded it, the composer developed symptoms of the syphilis that would trouble him until (1797-1828) his death at 31. Keenly aware of his mortality, Schubert turned to “Death and the Maiden,” a song he had written six years earlier to a text by Matthias Claudius. The maiden pleads with Death to String Quartet pass her by; Death assures her of quiet sleep. in d minor, D 810, While thematic material from “Death and the Maiden” appears only in the quartet’s somber slow movement, the darkness of the song hangs over the entire work. The tempestuous sonata-form first “Death and the Maiden” movement opens with five severe chords, a terse theme developed both rhythmically and melodically in the driving exposition. The lyrical second theme emerges in startling sweetness. The two themes duel throughout the development, each transforming the other. After the stark recapitulation, a reflective coda closes the movement. In Schubert’s time, sets of variations were most often light salon pieces; not so the haunting variations of this second movement. Schubert built the theme from the piano accompaniment, rather than the melody, of his own song “Death and the Maiden.” The variations grow in intensity through a rich variety of means: increasing chromaticism, accompanimental figurations and angular rhythms. The coda brings the peace that Death promised in Claudius’ poem. The brusque Scherzo recalls the brutality of the first movement, with harsh chords and pessimistically descending melodic lines. A respite arrives in the gentle trio. The breathless Presto finale is a tarantella in sonata-rondo form. Several fragments and textures are derived from previous movements, helping to tie the work together. A furious coda toys with D Major before twisting back to the minor.
Franz Schubert
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August 14, 2010
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
TOKYO STRING QUARTET SAT URDAY, AUG UST 14, 8:00 P M
Mozart String Quartet in D Major, K 575, “Prussian” Allegretto Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Allegretto
Webern
Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op 9
Mässig Leicht bewegt Ziemlich fliessend Sehr langsam Äusserst langsam — Fliessend
INTERMISSION
Schubert String Quartet in d minor, D 810, “Death and the the Maiden” Allegro
Andante con moto
Scherzo: Allegro molto — Trio
Presto
Tokyo String Quartet Martin Beaver violin — Kikuei Ikeda violin — Kazuhide Isomura viola — Clive Greensmith cello
August 14, 2010
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Yale University
GRADUATE STUDY IN VOICE: ART SONG AND ORATORIO Special Emphasis On Early Music and Chamber Ensemble
The Yale Institute of Sacred Music and School of Music offer to 8 singers selected to form an octet: 路 2 year program leading to Master of Music degree 路 Full tuition scholarships for two years plus stipends awarded to all singers 路 Numerous opportunities for solo work with the Yale Schola Cantorum and elsewhere 路 Additional degree options after 2 years FACULTY James Taylor, Program Advisor, Oratorio and Voice Masaaki Suzuki, Director, Yale Schola Cantorum Judith Malafronte, Early Music, Performance Practice, and Chamber Ensemble Coaching Ted Taylor, Art Song Coaching Yale University / Institute of Sacred Music / 409 Prospect Street / New Haven, CT 06511 tel 203.432.9753 www.yale.edu/ism
N O R F O L K C H A M B E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L
NORFOLK CHORAL FESTIVAL SAT URDAY, AUG UST 21, 4:00 P M Simon Carrington conductor Lucas Wong organ/piano
Herman Contractus (1013-1054)
Alma Redemptoris Mater
Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)
Alma Redemptoris Mater
The glorious company; Thou art the King of Glory;
When thou tookest upon thee; We believe that Thou; Vouchsafe O Lord;
O Lord in thee have I trusted
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)
Einkehr (Sechs geistliche Lieder No. 2)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Litaniae de Beata Virgine in B-flat
Charles Hoag (b. 1931)
Cicada Songs (2000)
Happy are the Cicadas; An die Zikade; Kyoto Summer; Seara, Seara
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
La Mort d’Ophélie
Samuel Adams (b. 1985)
To Be Announced (World Premiere)
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Heaven-Haven
Pero de Gamboa (d. 1638)
Egressus Jesus
Te Deum in A Major We Praise thee O God; To thee all angels; To thee cherubim;
Kyrie; Sancta Maria; Salus infirmorum; Regina Angelorum; Agnus Dei
Dog Day Harvest Fly; Like Cicadas; Now Near, Now Far; Four Haikus;
Norfolk Festsival Orchestra Christopher Matthews flute — Lauren Blackerby oboe — Steven Naimark clarinet — Jeremy Friedland bassoon John Corkill percussion — Nicholas Paponne violin — Zöe Martin-Doike violin — Dashiel Nesbitt viola Kirsten Jermé cello — Eric Fischer bouble bass This concert is co-sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.
The Faculty, Fellows and Staff of the Festival would like to welcome the many volunteers from throughout the Norfolk community to this afternoon’s concert. August 21, 2010
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MUSIC IN CONTEXT
Free & Open to the Public!
Wednesdays, June 16 — August 18, at 7:30 pm — Battell Recital Hall June 16 THE NORFOLK LISTENING CLUB Led by JIM NELSON The Bach Cello Suites, LAURA USISKIN, cello June 23
CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS
Composer, Yale School of Music The Influence of Non-Western Music on New Music Today June 30
NO PROGRAM SCHEDULED
July 7 WILLIAM HOSLEY Historian, President of Terra Firma Northeast John Brown: the Litchfield and Battell Family Connections to an American Legend July 14 JON SOLINS Program Director 99.5, Boston’s All Classical Station. A service of WGBH. “Classical Radio in the Internet Age”
July 21 MICHAEL FRIEDMANN Professor of Music Theory, Yale University Schumann’s Chamber Music: Classicism and Intimacy July 28 JAMES KENDRICK Intellectual Property Attorney, Music Publisher Tales from the Copyright Wars - or How Do Musicians Make a Living if Music Wants to be Free? August 4 PATRICK MCCRELESS Professor of Music Theory, Yale University Mahler, Schoenberg and Questions of Arranging August 11 THE NORFOLK LISTENING CLUB Led by JIM NELSON (Session with live music) August 18 SIMON CARRINGTON, Conductor SAMUEL ADAMS, Composer What’s New: Composing and Performing a Brand New Work
NORFOLK FELLOWS’ PERFORMANCE
SERIES
Free & Open to the Public!
Sponsored by the Battell Arts Foundation
CATCH A RISING STAR as the Festival presents its
Norfolk Fellows’ Performance Series. These casual concerts are in the Music Shed and are free of charge. Throughout the years, Norfolk audiences have heard hundreds of emerging artists who have gone on to successful professional careers. Norfolk alumni perform with the most illustrious musical organizations in the world: the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Saint Lawrence, Muir, Miró, Ying, Brentano, Shanghai and Maia string quartets; the Claremont and Eroica trios; and new music ensembles such as eighth blackbird and SO PERCUSSION. Syoko Aki, Claude Frank, Pamela Frank, Frederica von Stade, Alan Gilbert, and Richard Stoltzman are all former students of Norfolk. Whether you are an aficionado or a chamber music novice you will enjoy the wonderful performances and casual environment these programs offer. Families with children are most welcome.
Performance dates:
Concerts are held in the Music Shed.
Thursday, July 8, 7:30 pm Saturday, July 10, 10:30 am Thursday, July 15, 7:30 pm Saturday, July 17, 10:30 am Thursday, July 22, 7:30 pm Saturday, July 24, 10:30 am Thursday, July 29, 7:30 pm Saturday, July 31, 10:30 am Tuesday, August 3, 7:30 pm Thursday, August 5, 7:30 pm Saturday, August 7, 10:30 am Tuesday, August 10, 7:30 pm Thursday, August 12, 7:30 pm Saturday, August 14, 10:30 am
Repertoire and ensembles are chosen weekly. Program details will be posted on the Norfolk website as they become available. Please visit us at www.norfolkmusic.org
ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
German cellist OLE AKAHOSHI has concertized on four continents in recitals and as soloist with orchestras, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin, Symphonisches Orchester Berlin, and the Czechoslovakian Radio Orchestra. Winner of numerous competitions including Concertino Praga and Jugend Musiziert, Akahoshi’s performances have been featured on CNN, NPR, Sender-Freies-Berlin, RIASBerlin, Hessischer Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Korean Broadcasting Station, and WQXR. He is recipient of the fellowship award from Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi. Akahoshi has performed in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory Hall, and Tsuda Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Berliner Philharmonie. He has made recordings for the Albany, New World Records, Composers Recording Inc., Calliope, Bridge, and Naxos labels. At age eleven Akahoshi was the youngest student to be accepted by Pierre Fournier. He received his bachelor's from Juilliard and his master's from Yale where he studied with Aldo Parisot. He also received the artist diploma from Indiana University where he studied with Janos Starker. Akahoshi was teaching assistant for both Aldo Parisot and Janos Starker. His other mentors were Wolfgang Boettcher and Georg Donderer. Mr. Akahoshi is the principal cellist of Sejong Soloists in New York. He has been a member of Seiji Ozawa’s Saito Kinen Orchestra since 1998 and the Tokyo Nomori Opera. He is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and he has been on the faculty of the Yale University School of Music since 1997. — 7th Season at Norfolk SYOKO AKI, violinist, studied in Japan at the Toho Academy of Music and in the United States at Hartt College and the Yale School of Music. She has taught at the Eastman School and the State University of New York at Purchase. She has appeared as soloist with leading conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Gerard Schwartz, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Kenneth Schermerhorn. As concertmaster and soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, Miss Aki has recorded extensively on several major labels including Delos and Pro Arte. She has served as concertmaster of the New Japan Philharmonic, Waterloo Festival Orchestra and the New Haven and Syracuse symphonies, and has appeared in concerto and chamber music performances with Syzmon Goldberg, Henryck Szeryng, Broadus Erle, Leon Fleisher, Jaime Laredo, Joan Panetti and many others. Miss Aki joined the Yale faculty in 1968 and became a member of the Yale String Quartet which earned international praise for its performances and many fine recordings. She has also recorded music by Faculty composer Martin Bresnick on the Composers Recordings label, and has recently recorded a disc of works by Schumann, Schubert, Debussy, and Gershwin with her long-time faculty colleague, pianist Joan Panetti, on the Epson label. A highlight of their collaboration was a complete performance of Mozart’s violin sonatas over two seasons as part of Yale’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Bernard Holland of the New York Times wrote: “What a pleasure it was to hear this great music portrayed with such calm and exquisite thoughtfulness.” Syoko Aki appears regularly in Yale concerts, both in New Haven and at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival where she has performed since 1969. — 35th Season at Norfolk Soprano JANNA BATY has appeared with the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Hartford Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá (Colombia), Eugene Opera and Boston Lyric Opera. She has sung under Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Carl Davis and Robert Spano among others, and has appeared at the Aldeburgh and Britten festivals in England, the Semanas Musicales de Frutillar Festival in Chile, as well as at Tanglewood. She has won several international competitions, most notably the XXI Concurso Internacional de Ejecución Musical “Dr. Luis Sigall” (Chile). She has worked with violist Nobuko Imai, pianists Claude Frank and Peter Frankl, guitarist Stephen Marchionda, Bernard Rands, Sydney Hodkinson, Peter Child, Christopher Lyndon Gee, Fred Lerdahl, Yehudi Wyner and John Harbison. Ms. Baty can also be heard on Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s Naxos disc of works by Reza Vali. — 2nd Season at Norfolk
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Well known to the audiences of more than forty countries on six continents, pianist BORIS BERMAN regularly appears with leading orchestras, on major recital series, and in important festivals. An active recording artist and a Grammy nominee, Mr. Berman was the first pianist to record the complete solo works of Prokofiev (Chandos). Other acclaimed releases include all piano sonatas by Alexander Scriabin (Music and Arts) and a recital of Shostakovich piano works (Ottavo), which received the Edison Classic Award in Holland, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy. The recording of three Prokofiev concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi conducting (Chandos), was named the Compact Disc of the Month by CD Review. Other recordings include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Franck, Weber, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Joplin, and Cage. In 1984 Mr. Berman joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music, where he chairs the Piano department and serves as music director of the Horowitz Piano Series. He was the founding director of the Yale Summer Piano Institute and of the International Summer Piano Institute in Hong Kong. He also gives master classes throughout the world, and in 2005 he was given the title of honorary professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2000 Yale University Press published Mr. Berman’s Notes from the Pianist’s Bench, which has been translated into several languages. His newest book, Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas, has been published by Yale University Press. — 18th Season at Norfolk ROBERT BLOCKER is internationally regarded as a pianist, for his leadership as an advocate for the arts, and for his extraordinary contributions to music education. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, he debuted at historic Dock Street Theater (now home to the Spoleto Chamber Music Series). He studied under the tutelage of the eminent American pianist, Richard Cass and later with George Bolet. Today, he concertizes throughout the world. Recent orchestral engagements include the Beijing and Shanghai Symphony orchestras, the Korean and Daejon Symphony orchestras, the Prague and Moscow chamber orchestras, the Monterrey Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony. His appearances at the Beethoven Festival (Warsaw) and the Great Mountains International Music Festival (Korea, with Sejong) add to his acclaim as noted in the Los Angeles Times: “…great skill and accomplishment, a measurable virtuoso bent and considerable musical sensitivity...” In 1995, Blocker was appointed the Henry and Lucy Moses Dean of Music and Professor of Piano at Yale University and in 2006, he was named honorary Professor of Piano at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. His many contributions to the music community include service on the advisory boards for the Avery Fisher Artist Program and the Stoeger Prize at Lincoln Center, the Gilmore Artist Advisory Board, and the Curatorium of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. He is a member of the American Music Center Board of Directors. Robert Blocker appears regularly on national radio and television as an artist and commentator and is active as a consultant to major educational institutions and government agencies. In 2000, Steinway and Sons featured him in a film commemorating the tercentennial year of the piano. His recent recording of three Mozart concerti appear on the Naxos label. In 2004, Yale University Press published The Robert Shaw Reader, a collection of Shaw’s writings edited by Robert Blocker. The volume received considerable acclaim and is now in its third printing and is presently being translated into Korean. — 5th Season at Norfolk MARTIN BRESNICK’S compositions, from chamber and symphonic music to film scores and computer music, are performed throughout the world. Bresnick delights in reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable, bringing together repetitive gestures derived from minimalism with a harmonic palette that encompasses both highly chromatic sounds and more open, consonant harmonies and a raw power reminiscent of rock. At times his musical ideas spring from hardscrabble sources, often with a very real political import. But his compositions never descend into agitprop; one gains their meaning by the way the music itself unfolds, and always on its own terms. Besides having received many prizes and commissions, the first Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Koussevitzky Commission, among many others, Martin Bresnick is also recognized as an influential teacher of composition. Students from every part of the globe and of virtually every musical inclination have been inspired by his critical encouragement. Martin Bresnick’s compositions are published by Carl Fischer Music Publishers, New York; CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven; Böte & Bock, Berlin; and have been recorded by Cantaloupe Records, New World Records, Albany Records, Bridge Records, Composers Recordings Incorporated, Centaur and Artifact Music. — 14th Season at Norfolk — www.martinbresnick.com
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SIMON CARRINGTON, conductor, has enjoyed a long and distinguished career performing as singer, double bass player and conductor, first in the UK where he was born, and latterly in the USA. From 2003 to 2009 he was professor of choral conducting at Yale University and director of the Yale Schola Cantorum, a 24-voice chamber choir which he has brought to national and now international prominence. From 2001 until his Yale appointment, he was director of choral activities at the New England Conservatory, Boston, where he was selected by the students for the Krasner Teaching Excellence Award, and from 1994 to 2001 he held a similar position at the University of Kansas. Prior to coming to the United States, he was a creative force for twentyfive years with the internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble The King’s Singers, which he co-founded at Cambridge University. He gave 3,000 performances at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls, made more than seventy recordings, and appeared on countless television and radio programs, including nine appearances on the Tonight Show with the late Johnny Carson! In the early days of The King’s Singers he had a lively career as a double bass player, first as sub-principal of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and then as a freelance player in London. He specialised in continuo playing, particularly for his Cambridge contemporary John Eliot Gardiner, with whom he made a number of recordings, but he also played with all the major symphony and chamber orchestras under such diverse maestri as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Benjamin Britten, Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Carlo Maria Guilini, Otto Klemperer, Ricardo Muti, Georg Solti and George Szell. As a teacher of conductors himself for fifteen years he only wished he’d paid more attention! Now a Yale professor emeritus he maintains an active schedule as a freelance conductor and choral clinician, leading workshops and master classes round the world. — 5th Season at Norfolk — www.simoncarrington.com Since 2001, ETTORE CAUSA has served as professor of viola and chamber music at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland, and he regularly presents master classes throughout Europe and South America. Additionally, he is a member of the Aria Quartet, with whom he performs throughout the world. Mr. Causa studied at the International Menuhin Academy with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Johannes Eskar, and Alberto Lysy. His advanced studies were with Michael Tree at the Manhattan School of Music. Immediately following his studies, Mr. Causa was appointed as the First Solo Viola of the Carl Nielsen Philharmonic in Denmark and was also leader of the Copenhagen Chamber Soloists. In 2000, he was awarded both the Schidlof Prize and the J. Barbirolli Prize at the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in England. Since then, he has concertized in major artistic capitals of the world and performed in notable venues such as Victoria Hall (Geneva), Salle Cortot (Paris), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Tokyo and Osaka Symphony Halls, and the Zurich Tonhalle. He regularly performs at major festivals, such as Salzburg, Tivolli, Perth, and Festival de Estorial (Portugal). He joined the Yale School of Music faculty in the 2009. — 1st Season at Norfolk ALLAN DEAN is Professor in the Practice of Trumpet at the Yale University School of Music and is currently performing with Summit Brass, St. Louis Brass and the Yale Brass Trio. In the early music field he was a founding member of Calliope: A Renaissance Band and the New York Cornet and Sackbut Ensemble. Dean was a member of the New York Brass Quintet for 18 years and freelanced in the New York City concert and recording field for over 20 years before joining the faculty of Indiana University in l982. Upon retirement of the New York Brass Quintet in 1984, Dean joined the St. Louis Brass. In 1989 he moved back to the Northeast to join the Yale faculty. At Yale, Dean coaches brass chamber music and directs the Yale Cornet and Sackbut Ensemble in addition to teaching trumpet. Dean performs and teaches each summer at the Mendez Brass Institute and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. He is a frequent soloist with Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band. Dean has also appeared at the Spoleto and Casals festivals, the Banff Centre (Canada), the Orford Arts Centre (Canada), Musiki Blekinge (Sweden), the Curitiba Music Festival (Brazil) and the Morella Festival (Spain). He can be heard playing both modern trumpet and early brass on over 80 recordings on most major labels including RCA, Columbia, Nonesuch, Summit and others. On early instruments he has recorded with Calliope, The New York Cornets and Sackbuts, the Waverly Consort, the Ensemble for Early Music and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. Dean joined the Yale faculty in 1988. He previously served on the faculties of Indiana University, the Manhattan School of Music, The Hartt School and the Eastman School. He lives in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts with his wife, Julie Shapiro, an artist, and his daughter, Eloisa. He is an avid tennis player and practices hatha yoga daily. — 26th Season at Norfolk
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Having enjoyed one of the most distinguished careers of any pianist, CLAUDE FRANK has repeatedly appeared with the world’s foremost orchestras, at major festivals and at its most prestigious universities since his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in 1959. During recent seasons, Claude Frank has given joint recitals with his daughter, violinist Pamela Frank, throughout the United States and abroad. He also appeared with his late wife, pianist Lilian Kallir, at Town Hall in New York City, and has performed in recitals at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. In chamber music, Mr. Frank has appeared with such eminent groups as the Guarneri Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Emerson Quartet, American Quartet, Mendelssohn Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, and the London Mozart Players, as well as with Alexander Schneider’s chamber ensembles. Among the many festivals at which he has appeared are Menuhin’s Gstaad Festival in Switzerland, the Midsummer Mozart Festival in California, Portland, Norfolk, Vancouver and Marlboro. He is a frequent performer in New York City’s Mostly Mozart Festival. A milestone in Claude Frank’s career was RCA’s release of his recordings of the 32 Beethoven sonatas and his worldwide performances of the cycle. Time Magazine proclaimed it as one of the year’s “10 Best,” and High Fidelity and Stereo Review recommended it above other renditions. Mr. Frank has recorded the cycle of Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonatas with his daughter, Pamela, for Music Masters. A renowned teacher as well as performer, Claude Frank has been professor of piano at the Yale School of Music since 1973 and is on the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Claude Frank lived in Nuremberg until the age of 12, when he joined his father in Brussels. Shortly thereafter he went to live in Paris, where he studied in the Paris Conservatoire. The German occupation forced Mr. Frank to leave France. While in Spain illegally, he was invited to perform at a party given by the Brazilian ambassador. There, he won his first “fee”—a visa to come to the United States granted by the American Consul, who attended the party. — 24th Season at Norfolk PETER FRANKL, piano, made his London debut in 1962 and his New York debut with the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell in 1967. Since that time he has performed with some of the world’s finest orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, all the London orchestras and the major American orchestras. He has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barbirolli, Blomstedt, Boulez, Chailly, Davis, Doráti, Fischer, Haitink, Kempe, Kertész, Leinsdorf, Maazel, Masur, Muti, Sanderling and Solti. His world tours have taken him to Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and he has appeared at many European and American festivals. His many chamber music partners have included Kyung Wha Chung, Peter Csaba, Ralph Kirshbaum, and the Tokyo, Takacs, Guarneri, Bartók and Lindsay quartets. Among his recordings are the complete works for piano by Schumann and Debussy, Bartók and Chopin solo albums, a Hungarian Anthology, Concerti and four-hand works by Mozart, the piano quintets of Brahms, Schumann, Dvořák, and Martinu, and the Brahms violin sonatas and trios. In recognition of his artistic achievements, he was awarded the Officer’s Cross and Middle Cross by the Hungarian Republic. He is Honorary Professor at the Liszt Academy. He joined the Yale faculty in 1987. — 24th Season at Norfolk SCOTT HARTMAN, trombone, began his chamber music career by joining the Empire Brass Quintet and the Boston University faculty in 1984. His performing career has been primarily as a chamber musician and soloist. Mr. Hartman has taught and played concerts throughout the world and in all fifty states. He now performs and records regularly with numerous ensembles including Proteus 7, Millennium Brass, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, the Yale Brass Trio and Four of a Kind. He has recorded for the Angel/EMI, Sony, Telarc, Summit and Dorian labels. Mr. Hartman is a clinician for the Bach instrument company and has served as a member of the faculties of Indiana University and the New England Conservatory. He grew up in Elmira, New York, and attended the Eastman School of Music where he received his bachelor and master’s degrees. Mr. Hartman joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2001. — 10th Season at Norfolk — www.slushpump.com
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PAUL HAWKSHAW is Professor in the Practice of Music History and Deputy Dean at the Yale School of Music and Director of the Norfolk Chamber Festival. He is recognized as an authority on the music of Anton Bruckner. Dr. Hawkshaw’s publications include seven volumes of Anton Bruckner’s Collected Works (Vienna) which are performed by major orchestras and choruses throughout the world. His articles have appeared in the Musical Quarterly, Nineteenth-Century Music and the Oesterreichische Musikzeitschrift, and he wrote the Bruckner biography for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. In 1996 he was awarded the special honor of an invitation from the Austrian National Library, Vienna, to give the commemorative address celebrating the centenary of the composer’s death. Since coming to Yale in 1984, Dr. Hawkshaw has taken an active interest in community affairs and public education in New Haven. He was co-founder of a program involving Yale Music Faculty and students in the curriculum at the local Co-operative High School for the Arts. In 1998 the program was recognized by Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley as a model of how music plays an integral role in improving overall education standards. Dr. Hawkshaw has also helped organize and participated in a number of teacher training initiatives for New Haven Public School teachers on the Yale Campus. Most recently he worked with the local Board of Education and the Yale University Class of ‘57 to establish an experimental music and literacy program at the Lincoln Bassett School, an elementary inner city public school in New Haven, Connecticut. In May 2007 the Class announced the establishment of an endowment of $6,000,000.00 at the Yale School of Music to support music education and public school music education. Dr. Hawkshaw has been publicly recognized for his contribution to the New Haven schools by an official proclamation of Mayor John DeStefano and, in the spring of 2000, he was awarded the Yale School of Music’s highest honor, the Simon Sanford Medal, for his scholarship and community service. — 7th Season at Norfolk The KELLER QUARTET (HUNGARY) (András Keller, violin - János Pilz, violin - Zoltán Gál, viola Judit Szabó, cello) was founded in 1987 at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Three of the Conservatory’s most renowned professors can be regarded as their mentors to this very day: Sandór Devich, András Mihály and György Kurtág, who has composed for the Quartet. The Keller Quartet achieved its international breakthrough in 1990 by winning all prizes and special awards at both the Evian and Borciani Competitions. Throughout its history, the Quartet has exhibited extraordinary musical curiosity: curiosity about encounters with musicians and composers of all genres; curiosity about unknown works; and curiosity about new forms of programming, where unusual combinations develop their own dramatic tension. Examples include their famous Bach/Kurtág program, where selections from Bach’s Art of Fugue are intertwined with works of György Kurtág, and their performance of Zwiegespräch for string quartet and synthesizer by Kurtág father and son. The Süddeutsche Zeitung has written, “They have courage and they take their time for profound mourning. They never fall into an abyss of sentimentality.” The Keller Quartet has recorded on the ECM, Erato, and Euro Arts labels. Their instruments were created by violin maker Peter Greiner in 2000. — 4ht Season at Norfolk A winner of the coveted 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition and one of the youngest composers ever awarded the Pulitzer Prize, AARON KERNIS has taught composition at the Yale School of Music since 2003. His music figures prominently on orchestral, chamber, and recital programs worldwide and he has been commissioned by many of America‘s foremost performing artists, including sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw, violinists Joshua Bell and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and guitarist Sharon Isbin, and by institutions including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Birmingham Bach Choir, Minnesota Orchestra, and Los Angeles and Saint Paul chamber orchestras, the Walt Disney Company, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Rose Center for Earth and Space at the Museum of Natural History in New York. He was awarded the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, and he received Grammy nominations for Air and his Second Symphony. He served as composer-in-residence for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Public Radio, and the American Composers Forum, and, since 1998, as new music adviser to the Minnesota Orchestra, a position he retains today. He is chairman and co-director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. His music is available on Nonesuch, Phoenix, New Albion and Argo and CRI. — 3rd Season at Norfolk
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Soprano JIHEE KIM’s passion for both the art song and opera brought her to the United States to study at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied voice with John Shirley-Quirk and Ah Young Hong and coached with Ernest Ligon. In 2006, she made her debut solo performance at the Peabody Conservatory of Music singing Poulenc’s Gloria with the Peabody Concert Orchestra, The Peabody Singers, and The Peabody-Hopkins Chorus under the baton of Maestro Edward Polochick. Opera roles at Peabody included Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. After earning both a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma at Peabody, she entered the Artist Diploma program in 2009 at the Yale School of Music as a student of Doris Yarick-Cross. — 1st Season at Norfolk
EZRA LADERMAN is a distinguished and widely performed composer. His commissions have included works for the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony; for the orchestras of Minnesota, Dallas, Louisville, Houston, Detroit, Albany, Denver, New Jersey, Indianapolis, Syracuse, and New Haven; and for the New York City, Turnau, and Tri-Cities operas. He has written works for such chamber ensembles as the Tokyo, Juilliard, Concord, Colorado, Lenox, Vermeer, Audubon and Composers quartets, and for soloists Yo-Yo Ma, Judith Raskin, Elmar Oliveira, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Samuel Baron, Sherrill Milnes, Emanuel Ax, Eugene List, Ronald Roseman, Bernard Garfield, and Ilana Vered, among many others. In February 2003, the Pittsburgh Symphony, with Gunter Herbig conducting and Richard Page as soloist, premiered Mr. Laderman’s Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Orchestra. Mr. Laderman is the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships, the Prix de Rome, and Rockefeller and Ford Foundation grants. He has served as president of the National Music Council, chair of the American Composers Orchestra, director of the NEA Music Program, and president of the American Music Center. Mr. Laderman was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1989, and became its president in 2006. From 1989 to 1995 he served as Dean of the Yale School of Music, where he is currently professor of composition. — 7th Season at Norfolk The music of DAVID LANG has been performed by major musical, dance, and theatrical organizations throughout the world, including the Santa Fe Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, the Nederlands Dans Theater, and the Royal Ballet, and has been performed in the most renowned concert halls and festivals in the United States and Europe. He is well known as co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music festival Bang on a Can. In 2008 David Lang was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for The Little Match Girl Passion, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Paul Hillier’s vocal ensemble, Theater of Voices. He has also been honored with the Rome Prize, the BMW Music-Theater Prize (Munich), a Kennedy Center/Friedheim Award, the Revson Fellowship with the New York Philharmonic, a Bessie Award, a Village Voice OBIE Award, and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work is recorded on the Sony Classical, Teldec, BMG, Point, Chandos, Argo/ Decca, Caprice, Koch, Albany, CRI, and Cantaloupe labels. David Lang holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of Iowa, and received the D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music in 1989. He has studied with Jacob Druckman, Hans Werner Henze, and Martin Bresnick. His music is published by Red Poppy (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc. David Lang joined the Yale School of Music faculty in 2008. — 2nd Season at Norfolk — www.davidlangmusic.com
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HUMBERT LUCARELLI, hailed as “America’s leading oboe recitalist” by the New York Times, has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and Asia. He has appeared as soloist at the Aspen Music Festival, the Victoria International Festival, the Chautauqua Festival, and the Romantic Music Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. International performances include appearances with the American Symphony Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, London’s Orchestra of St. John’s Smith Square, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo, and the Philharmonia Virtuosi. Additional chamber music collaborations have included the Original Bach Aria Group and the American, Colorado, Emerson, Leontovich, Manhattan, Muir, Panocha, and Philadelphia string quartets. In the summer of 2002, Mr. Lucarelli was the first American oboist to be invited to perform and teach at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China. He has performed and recorded with some of the world’s leading conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Fiedler, Kiril Kondrashin, James Levine, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Georg Solti, Leopold Stokowski and Igor Stravinsky among others. Mr. Lucarelli has recorded for Koch International, Lyrichord, MCA Classics, Musical Heritage Society, Pantheon, and Stradivari. John Corigliano’s Oboe Concerto, both written for and premiered by Mr. Lucarelli (BMG Classics). Professor of Oboe at The Hartt School and the Conservatory of Music at SUNY-Purchase, he has been the recipient of a Solo Recitalists Fellowship, Consortium Commissioning and Music Recording grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. — 5th Season at Norfolk Composer INGRAM MARSHALL lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1973 to 1985 and in Washington State, where he taught at Evergreen State College, until 1989. His current base is Connecticut where he serves as Visiting Lecturer in Composition at the Yale School of Music. He studied at Columbia University and California Institute of the Arts, where he received an M.F.A., and has been a student of Indonesian gamelan music, the influence of which may be heard in the slowed-down sense of time and use of melodic repetition found in many of his pieces. In the mid-seventies he developed a series of “live electronic” pieces such as Fragility Cycles, Gradual Requiem, and Alcatraz in which he blended tape collages, extended vocal techniques, Indonesian flutes, and keyboards. His music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras such as the Theater of Voices, Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and American Composers Orchestra. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recent recordings are on Nonesuch (Kingdom Come) and New Albion (Savage Waters). Among recent chamber works are Muddy Waters, which was commissioned and performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and In Deserto (Smoke Creek), commissioned by Chamber Music America for the ensemble Clogs. January 2004 saw the premiere of Bright Kingdoms, commissioned by Magnum Opus/Meet the Composer, and performed by the Oakland-East Bay Symphony under Michael Morgan. The American Composers Orchestra in New York premiered his new concerto for two guitars and orchestra, Dark Florescence, at Carnegie Hall in February 2005. Orphic Memories, commissioned by the Cheswatyr Foundation, was composed for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and premiered in Carnegie Hall in April 2007. — 3rd Season at Norfolk — www.ingrammarshall.com Please see page 22 for LISA MOORE‘S biography. — 5th Season at Norfolk — www.lisamoore.org
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FRANK MORELLI, was the first bassoonist awarded a doctorate by The Juilliard School, where he studied with Stephen Maxym. With over 150 recordings for major labels to his credit, his release of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Orpheus on the DG label won international critical acclaim. The Orpheus CD Shadow Dances, featuring Frank Morelli, won a 2001 Grammy® Award. He has made nine appearances as a soloist in New York’s Carnegie Hall and has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on numerous occasions, including at the White House for the final state dinner of the Clinton presidency. A member of the renowned quintet, Windscape, an ensemble in residence at the Manhattan School of Music, he also serves on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Yale School of Music and SUNY Stony Brook. He is co-principal bassoonist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Frank Morelli has released three solo recordings on MSR Classics: Romance and Caprice; Bassoon Brasileiro and Baroque Fireworks. Gramophone Magazine has said that “Morelli’s playing is a joy to behold,” and the American Record “the bassoon playing on this recording is as good as it gets.” He has published several transcriptions for bassoon and woodwind quintet, and compiled the first collection of Stravinsky’s music for the bassoon, entitled Stravinsky: Difficult Passages. — 17th Season at Norfolk — www.morellibassoon.com JOAN PANETTI, pianist and composer, garnered first prizes at the Peabody Conservatory and the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. She holds degrees from Smith College and the Yale School of Music. She taught at Swarthmore College, Princeton University, and the Department of Music at Yale University before joining the faculty of the Yale School of Music. Her principal mentors were Olivier Messiaen, Yvonne Loriod, Wilhelm Kempff, Alvin Etler, Mel Powell and Donald Currier. She has toured extensively in the United States and Europe and performs frequently in chamber music ensembles. She has recently recorded a disc of works (Epson) by Schumann, Schubert, Debussy, and Gershwin with violinist Syoko Aki. Her most recent compositions include a piano quintet, commissioned by Music Accord, which she performed with the Tokyo String Quartet; a piano trio, commissioned by the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and performed by members of the ensemble with the composer at the piano; A gust inside the god, for chorus and chamber ensemble, commissioned and premiered at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2006; Fanfare for six trumpets (2007) a; Lobgesang for Keith for eight clarinetists (2007); Within the cycles of our lives: Movement for String Quartet (2007); and To the flashing water say: I am; premiered at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2008. A renowned teacher, Ms. Panetti has developed a nationally recognized course, that emphasizes the interaction between performers and composers. In 2007, she conducted an interactive workshop at the National Conference of Chamber Music America and taught and coached at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China. She is the recipient of the Luise Voschergian Award from Harvard University, the Nadia Boulanger Award from the Longy School of Music, and the Ian Minninberg Distinguished Alumni Award from the Yale School of Music. She was named the Sylvia and Leonard Marx Professor of Music at Yale University in 2004 and served as Director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival from 1981 to 2003. — 30th Season at Norfolk JULIAN PELLICANO earned double Bachelor’s degrees in percussion and philosophy from the Peabody Conservatory and Johns Hopkins University and a Graduate Performance Diploma in percussion from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Pellicano then entered the Yale School of Music as a major in percussion and was simultaneously appointed Assistant Conductor of the Yale Philharmonia. Upon earning his Master of Music degree in percussion, Pellicano was became an orchestral conducting fellow, leading the Philharmonia in several concerts and teaching conducting at the School of Music and Yale College; his teachers at Yale have included Shinik Hahm, Joan Panetti and Robert van Sice. Julian Pellicano’s additional training includes a Fellowship in Conducting at the Centre Acanthes, where he studied with conductors Peter Eötvös and Zsolt Nagy. His honors include the 2008 Presser Music Award and the Yale School of Music’s Philip F. Nelson Prize. Pellicano has also participated in the Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar hosted by the Manhattan School of Music, as one of thirteen conductors selected from around the world. He has served as conductor of the Norfolk New Music Ensemble, assistant conductor of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra of South Korea, assistant conductor of the New Britain (CT) Symphony, conducted the American premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Drei Geistliche Konzerte, and appeared as guest conductor of the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra. Pellicano serves as the Longy School of Music Artistic Director of Large Ensembles and principal conductor of Longy Chamber Orchestra and Longy Chamber Winds. — 2nd Season at Norfolk
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Artist Biographies
ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
Please see page 24 for the PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND’S biography. — 1st Season at Norfolk — www.preservationhall.com
Please see page 36 for the PROFESSORS OF BLUEGRASS’ biography. — 1st Season at Norfolk
A native of western Pennsylvania, WILLIAM PURVIS, French horn, pursues a multifaceted career in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concertos by Peter Lieberson and Bayan Northcott; trios for violin, horn, and piano by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky; Steven Stuckey’s Sonate en Forme des Préludes with Emanuel Ax as part of his Perspectives Series at Carnegie Hall; and Ezra Laderman’s Brass Trio and Quartet for Brass Trio and Piano. Mr. Purvis is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Yale Brass Trio and Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, and Fine Arts string quartets. His extensive list of recordings spans an unusually broad range from original instrument performance and standard repertoire through contemporary solo and chamber music to recordings of contemporary music as conductor. Recent recordings include the Horn Concerto of Peter Lieberson on Bridge (which received a Grammy® and a WQXR Gramophone Award); works of Schumann; Etudes and Parodies for Violin, Horn and Piano of Paul Lansky; the Wind Quintet of Schoenberg with the New York Woodwind Quintet; and the Quintet for Horn and Strings by Richard Wernick with the Juilliard Quartet. Mr. Purvis is currently a faculty member at the Yale School of Music and The Juilliard School. At Yale, he is coordinator of winds and brass and was recently appointed interim director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments. — 26th Season at Norfolk Pianist ANDRÉ-MICHEL SCHUB’S recent appearances have included orchestras in Memphis, Santa Barbara, and Williamsburg, Virginia, and solo recitals in Washington and Phoenix. He has also performed joint recitals with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and trio concerts with David Shifrin and Ani Kavafian and completed a recording project of Mozart’s music to commemorate the tenth season of the Virginia Arts Festival. Winner of the 1974 Naumburg International Piano Competition, recipient of the 1977 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and grand prize winner of the 1981 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Mr. Schub has been the Artistic Director of the Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Music Series since 1997. He appears as guest artist at Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Ravinia, the Blossom Festival, Wolf Trap, and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. He has performed with the Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, St. Louis and Milwaukee symphonies; the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras; the Los Angeles, New York, and Rochester philharmonics; the Royal Concertgebouw; the Bournemouth Symphony and the New York Pops in Carnegie Hall. — 4th Season at Norfolk
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ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
CONTINUED
DAVID SHIFRIN, clarinet, has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Calgary, and Edmonton symphony orchestras, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Chamber Symphony. Currently music director of Chamber Music Northwest, Mr. Shifrin was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in May 1987. He is also the recipient of a Solo Recitalist Fellowship from the NEA. His recording for Delos of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto received a 1987 Record-of-the-Year award from Stereo Review, and he was nominated for a Grammy® as Best Classical Soloist with Orchestra for his 1989 recording of the Copland Clarinet Concerto on Angel/EMI. Since 1989, he has been an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and from 1992-2004 he was its Artistic Director. Mr. Shifrin also serves as Artistic Director of the Yale School of Music’s Chamber Music Society and Yale in New York series. — 10th Season at Norfolk Clarinetist RICHARD STOLTZMAN’S virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism have made this two-time Grammy® Award winner one of today’s most sought-after concert artists. As soloist with more than 100 orchestras, as a captivating recitalist and chamber music performer (performing the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall), and as an innovative jazz artist, Stoltzman has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike while bringing the clarinet to the forefront as a solo instrument. A prolific recording artist, Stoltzman’s acclaimed releases can be heard on BMG/RCA, SONY Classical, MMC, Naxos and other labels, and include the Grammy® winning recordings of Brahms’ sonatas with Richard Goode; and trios of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma; as well as Hartke’s Landscapes with Blues, a New York Times “Best of 2003.” He performed Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto (which was written for him) at the Norfolk Festival in 2008. — 4th Season at Norfolk — www.richardstoltzman.com Oboist STEPHEN TAYLOR holds the Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III solo oboe chair with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is also solo oboe with the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble (where he is co-director of chamber music), the American Composers Orchestra, the New England Bach Festival Orchestra and Speculum Musicae. He also plays as co-principal oboe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He appears regularly as soloist and chamber musician at such major festivals as Spoleto, Caramoor, Music from Angel Fire, Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, Santa Fe, Aspen and Schleswig-Holstein. Stereo Review named his recording on Deutsche Grammophon with Orpheus of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for winds as the Best New Classical Recording. Included among his more than 200 other recordings are premieres of the Wolpe Oboe Quartet, Elliott Carter’s Oboe Quartet, for which Mr. Taylor received a Grammy® nomination, and works of Andre Previn. Mr. Taylor a faculty member of The Juilliard School. He also teaches at SUNY Stony Brook and the Manhattan School of Music. The Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University awarded him a performer’s grant in 1981. Mr. Taylor joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in the fall of 2005. — 4th Season at Norfolk Composer CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS has had performances by many leading orchestras from around the world, including the National Symphony, the London Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Moscow Soloists, the Atlanta and Houston Symphonies, the California Symphony (for which he was composer-in-residence from 1994 to 1996), the Oregon Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. He served as Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony for their 2005–2006 season. He holds degrees from Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the Masterprize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize, six ASCAP Gould Prizes, a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Tanglewood Fellowship, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Charles Ives Fellowship. Theofanidis’ recent projects include an opera for the Houston Grand Opera, a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, and a work for the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus based on the poetry of Rumi. He has served as a delegate to the U.S.-Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program. He has been on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Juilliard School in New York City. He joined the Yale School of Music faculty in 2008. — 2nd Season at Norfolk — www.theofanidismusic.com
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ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
Since its founding over 30 years ago the TOKYO STRING QUARTET (Martin Beaver, violin - Kikuei Ikeda, violin - Kazuhide Isomura, viola - Clive Greensmith, cello) has collaborated with a remarkable array of artists and composers, built a comprehensive catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings and established a distinguished teaching record. Performing well over a hundred concerts worldwide each season, the Tokyo String Quartet has a devoted international following that not only includes the major capitals of the world but also reaches all four corners, from Australia to Estonia to Scandinavia and the Far East. The members of the Tokyo String Quartet have served on the faculty of the Yale School of Music since 1976 as quartet-in-residence. Deeply committed to teaching young string quartets, they devote a considerable amount of time to Yale during the academic year and to the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in the summer. An exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon firmly established the Quartet as one of the world’s leading chamber music ensembles, and it has since released more than 30 landmark recordings on DG, BMG/RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel-EMI, CBS Masterworks and Vox Cum Laude. The Quartet’s recordings have earned such honors as the Grand Prix du Disque and Montreux, “Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year” awards from Stereo Review and Gramophone magazines, as well as seven Grammy® nominations. The Tokyo String Quartet performs on “The Paganini Quartet,” a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments named for legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during the 19th century. The instruments have been loaned to the ensemble by the Nippon Music Foundation since 1995, when they were purchased from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. Officially formed in 1969 at The Juilliard School of Music, the Tokyo String Quartet traces its origins to the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, where the founding members were profoundly influenced by Professor Hideo Saito. Instilled with a deep commitment to chamber music, the original members of what would become the Tokyo String Quartet eventually came to America for further study with Robert Mann, Raphael Hillyer and Claus Adam. Soon after its creation, the Quartet won First Prize at the Coleman and Munich Competitions and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. — 33rd Season at Norfolk — www.tokyoquartet.com RANSOM WILSON, flute, studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts and The Juilliard School, before working with Jean-Pierre Rampal. As soloist he has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, among others. He is an Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. An active conductor, Mr. Wilson is Music Director of Solisti New York and has held that position with Opera Omaha, the San Francisco Chamber Symphony, and the OK Mozart Festival in Oklahoma. He founded the Mozart Festival at Sea, and received the Republic of Austria’s Award of Merit in Gold for his efforts on behalf of Mozart’s music in America. More recently he has conducted at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera. A supporter of contemporary music, he has had works composed for him by Steve Reich, Peter Schickele, Joseph Schwantner, John Harbison, Jean Françaix, Jean-Michel Damase, George Tsontakis, Tania Léon and Deborah Drattel. — 10th Season at Norfolk — www.ransomwilson.com CAROL WINCENC, flute, was First Prize Winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with such ensembles as the Chicago, Saint Louis, Atlanta and London symphonies; the BBC and Buffalo philharmonics; the Saint Paul and Stuttgart chamber orchestras; and the New York Woodwind Quintet. She has performed in the Mostly Mozart Festival and music festivals in Aldeburgh, Budapest, Frankfurt, Santa Fe, Spoleto and Marlboro. Ms. Wincenc has premiered numerous works written for her by many of today’s most prominent composers including Christopher Rouse, Henryk Gorecki, Lukas Foss, Peter Schickele, Joan Tower and Tobias Picker. In great demand as a chamber musician, Ms. Wincenc has collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo and Cleveland string quartets, and performed with Jessye Norman, Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. Ms. Wincenc has recorded for Nonesuch, London/Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and Telarc. Ms. Wincenc created and directed a series of International Flute Festivals in St. Paul, Minnesota, featuring such diverse artists as Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Mann and the American Indian flutist, R. Carlos Nakai. Ms. Wincenc is currently teaching at The Juilliard School. — 9th Season at Norfolk
Artist Biographies
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ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
CONTINUED
RANDALL WOLFGANG, oboe, is an acclaimed musician whose career has led him to perform throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and the Far East. He currently holds the position of Principal Oboe with both the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera orchestras. A frequent performer and soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Wolfgang also enjoys an active freelance career in the New York recording scene. His past accomplishments include many years as principal oboe and faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and Guest Artist and faculty member at the Aspen music Festival in Nagano, Japan and appeared at the Marlboro and Monadnock Music Festivals. Mr. Wolfgang has recorded extensively on the Deutsche Grammophon, Pro Arte and Nonsuch labels, including a recording of the Mozart Oboe Concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He was on the faculty of Queens College and Manhattan School of Music in New York. — 4th Season at Norfolk LUCAS WONG made his orchestral debut at the age of 21 with the UBC Symphony Orchestra and the New Westminster Symphony Orchestra. He is an award recipient of the 2003 Début Young Artists Competition in Canada, the 2004 Vancouver Foundation Award, the 2006 Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize, and the 2008 Marilyn Horne Foundation Song Competition, and has been invited to perform on the stages of Carnegie Hall in New York City, Salle Molière in Lyon, CBC Studio One Vancouver and the Chan Center for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, among others. Mr. Wong’s performances and musical arrangements are available on CBC Radio and the First Impression Music labels. As a keen interpreter of contemporary works, Mr. Wong has worked with composers John Harbison, Jake Heggie, and Ricky Ian Gordon. In 2008, he assisted the Bard Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program, under the mentorship of Dawn Upshaw, in a new opera production A Bird in Your Ear by David Bruce. . Mr. Wong will be returning as the resident collaborative pianist for the 2009 Eckhardt-Gramatté Strings Competition. — 3rd Season at Norfolk — www.lucaswongpiano.com Internationally acclaimed pianist WEI-YI YANG enjoys a flourishing career, appearing throughout the world in solo recitals, chamber music concerts and with symphony orchestras. Winner of the Gold Medal and Grand Prize in the fifth San Antonio International Piano Competition, Mr. Yang has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York; the Kennedy Center in Washington; the Kumho Art Hall in South Korea; and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Scotland, among many others. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Yang has performed with members of some of the world’s finest ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Orpheus, the London Symphony and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II. Born in Taiwan of Chinese and Japanese heritage, Mr. Yang was garnered top prizes in the Manhattan Concerto Competition, New York’s Five Town Arts Foundation Competition and the San Jose International Piano Competition. He co-founded the award-winning Soyulla Ensemble, which recently debuted at Alice Tully Hall, toured Korea, and released a CD (Renegade Classics). Mr. Yang’s performances have been featured around the globe via international television, radio, and web broadcasting medias. Mr. Yang has also appeared at festivals in Serbia, Mexico, Montenegro, Connecticut and California. In recent festival performances, Mr. Yang has collaborated with such renowned artists as mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. Mr. Yang will serve on the selection jury for the 2009 San Antonio International Piano Competition. Wei-Yi Yang joined the faculty at Yale University in 2005. — 3rd Season at Norfolk Please see page 30 for the ZUKERMAN CHAMBERPLAYER’S biography. — 1st Season at Norfolk
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Artist Biographies
F E S T I VA L
MISSION
1. To provide artistic and academic preparation for the most gifted graduate-level performers and composers from around the world under the tutelage of an international faculty 2. To support and extend the Yale School of Music’s internationally recognized music programs by serving as a pedagogical and performance venue for faculty and fellows as well as provide opportunities for the development of special projects consistent with YSM activities 3. To foster the creation of new chamber music through commissions, concerts, workshops, competitions and residencies for established and student composers from around the world 4. To seek new possibilities for the international cultivation of chamber music through exchange programs as well as by developing new media and performance venues 5. To invite audiences to discover, explore and appreciate chamber music through concerts, lectures, listening clubs, school programs and creative outreach activities
F E S T I VA L
LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
The Leadership Council is an advisory board which works with the Director to advance the mission of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival through support, advocacy, participation in its educational activities and fundraising. Council members contribute in a variety of ways including helping to develop new audiences, implementing fund-raising initiatives and providing advice and counsel. The Dean of the Yale School of Music serves on the Leadership Council ex officio. COUNCIL MEMBERS Robert Blocker, Dean Paul Hawkshaw, Director Joyce Ahrens John Baumgardner Christopher Little James Remis Anne-Marie Soullière Byron Tucker Sukey Wagner
Festival Mission
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LEADING
CONTRIBUTORS We wish to thank the many individuals and organizations who, through their support, have made this season possible. (Gifts received May 11, 2009 — May 21, 2010)
Joyce & Burton Ahrens Battell Arts Foundation, Inc. Astrid & John Baumgardner Centenary Scholarship Fund Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism Rohit & Katharine Desai Ellen Battell Stoeckel Trust Elizabeth Hilpman & Byron Tucker Clement Clarke Moore Scholarship Fund National Endowment for the Arts Ronald & Susan Netter Jim & Nancy Remis Richard and Sandy Rippe Cameron O. Smith & Liza Vann Anne-Marie Soullière & Lindsey C.Y. Kiang Steinway & Sons Roger & Jerry Tilles Tokyo String Quartet Sukey Wagner Louise Willson Scholarship Fund 70
Leading Contributors
F E S T I VA L
CONTRIBUTORS PATRONS Anthony Angarano The Astmann Family Linda & Frank Bell Peter & Amy Bernstein Nadzia Borowski Ann & Bob Buxbaum Hope Childs Herbert & Jeanine Coyne John & Helen Davis
Drew S. Days, III & Ann R. Langdon Michael Emont & Margo Rappoport Adrienne Gallagher & Jim Nelson Mrs. John T. Gallagher Dotty Smith Goldfrank & Lionel Goldfrank, III
Barbara & Bill Gridley Molly Butler Hart & Michael D. Griffin anonymous Jim & Leni Herzog Leila & Daniel Javitch Philip & Helen Jessup Samuel H. Kress Foundation John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Tom Martin & Susan Spiggle Patricia Nooy & Roger Miller Roger Mitchell & Pete Peterson David & Katherine Moore
Kevin & Hatice Morrissey anonymous John Perkins & Hope Dana Andrew & Sally Quale Kathy & Curtis Robb Jacqueline & Frank Samuel Shirley & Ben Sanders Richard & Marilyn Schatzberg Anthony & Helen Scoville Pat & Kurt Steele Carol Stein Christina Vanderlip Nancy R. Wadhams Mark & Tania Walker Shigeru Yamano
Mr. & Mrs. Samuel
Deborah Foord
Marcie & Fred Imberman
Jacqueline Silver &
Sally & William Fuller
Eileen & Edgar Koerner
Erzsebet & Donald Black
anonymous
Ileen Smith & Howard Sobel
Constantin Boden
John Garrels
Mr. & Mrs. James R. Miller
Linda Bland Sonnenblick
Elizabeth Borden
Mahomi Gendron
Ingrid & Michael Morley
Alyson & Tony Thomson
Dr. & Mrs. Edward G. Bradley
Morton E. Grosz
Jim & Jeanne Moye
Alex & Patricia Vance
Denise & John Buchanan
Thomas & Stephany Haines
Kevin M. O’Connor
Betsy Vandeventer
Dennis & Pamela Collins
Carol Camper & John Hartje
Lois A. & Richard A. Pace
T. John Crockett, III
Evan G. Hughes &
Karen DiYanni-Peterson &
Doolittle Lake Company
Peter Ermacora in memory
Louise Ducas
of Nancy Crocker
Daniel Dwyer &
Daphne Hurford &
Marvin & Joyce S. Schwartz Fund
SPONSORS A. Anderson, III
James Montanari
Susan A. & Jon Eisenhandler
Charitable Fund
Sandy Padwe
David Hurvitz & Martha Klein
Philip Sapienza
Ned Peterson
Pfizer Foundation Matching Gifts Program
Margaret & Adrian Selby
Festival Contributors
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F E S T I VA L
CONTRIBUTORS
CONTINUED
CONTRIBUTORS Alderman Family
Ralph C. Burr, Jr. &
Elaine & Jonathan Hyman
Linda & Frank Pizzica
Elizabeth Austin
IBM Matching Gifts Fund
Eileen E. Reed &
Joanna Aversa
Campbell & Forrester Hammer
Colta & Gary Ives
Bank of America
Jane & Oscar Chase
Doreen & Michael Kelly
Anitra Powers
Matching Gifts Fund
Andrew E. Cushing
C.A. Polnitsky, M.D.
Ted & Victory Chase
Galene & Richard Kessin
Patricia & Herbert Prem
Patricia J. Barnett
Roger & Marjorie Clarke
David C. Knapp
ReneĂŠ E. Priggs
anonymous
Mary Lou & Michael Cobb
Susan Knight
Raynard & Pierce, Inc.
Francis & Christianne Baudry
Peter N. Coffeen
Marilyn & Jay Koslow
Marjory Reid
Barbara & Malcolm Bayliss
Sara & Lewis G. Cole
Lawrence & Roberta Krakoff
Christopher & Elizabeth Reinhart
Mr. & Mrs. Warren Bender
Phyllis & Joe Crowley
Alan & Linda Kugler
Susan & Peter Restler
Kitty C. Benedict & Foxhall P. Jones
Sheila & John D’Agostino
Dr. & Mrs. Robert Lapkin
Belle K. Ribicoff
Ann Marie & Jonathan Berger
Allan Dean & Julie Shapiro
Evelyn & Marcel Laufer
Dr. Andrew Ricci, Jr. &
Jerome & Bella Berson
Tony Dobrowolski, in honor of
Peter & Suzanna Lengyel
Donald A. Bickford
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Lesch
Aaron & Judith Rosenberg
Gayle H. Blakeslee
Dobrowolski
Joan & Arthur Lesemann
Naomi Rosenblum
Mr. & Mrs. Edward H. Boehner
Judith & Paul Dorphley
Levi Strauss Foundation
Frederick Russell
D. Weston Boyd
Randall R. Dwenger &
Lincoln Financial Foundation
Barbara & John Rutledge
Bernard & Awilda Buchholz
(matching gifts)
Joyce Y. Freundlich &
Cynthia & Burton Budick
Priscilla Ellsworth
Jerry & Selma Lotenberg
Francesca Turchiano &
Bonner & David Elwell
Maija Lutz & Peter Tassia
Chris & Frank Silvestri
Bob & Eiko Engling
James B. Lyon
Harvey B. Simon
Mr. & Mrs. William Ewen
Mrs. Stanley Mand
Nealie & Jon Small
Karen Burlingame &
Scott Falk
Robi & Steve Margolis
Robert H. & Sharon Smith
Marilyn Davidson &
Leta W. Marks
Richard & Gretchen Swibold
Mary Ann McGourty
Graham Taylor
Susan Fish & Robert Richardson
Gwen Melvin
Linda & William Terry
Mary Kay & Woody Flowers
Merck Matching Gifts Fund
Sally & Nicholas Thacher
Gerald Freedman & Kristin King
Robert M. & Andrea
Richard & Sandra Tombaugh
Judith Friedlander in memory of
Shelley Harms & David Torrey
Bob Bumcrot
David & Leslie Burgin
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Anders P. Bolang
Festival Contributors
Martha & Joseph
Steven B. Callahan
Charles Fidlar
Seigerman Milstein
Jacqueline Ann Muschiano
Norman J. Schnayer
Michael J. Moran
Mr. & Mrs. Courtland W. Troutman
Lloyd & Sarah Garrison
Ingegerd Mundheim
Sandy & David van Buren
J. Gillespie
Carlos E. & Alda Neumann
Peter and Edwina Vosburgh
Ellen D. Glass, M.D.
Judith & Marvin Nierenberg
Nancy Wadelton
Dr. Richard J. Glavin, M.D.
Kerry Noble
Roberta J. Warren
Anne & Ken Green
Norfolk Artists & Friends
George Weichun &
Rev. Mary N. Hawkes
J. & T. Papachristou
Peter Heller
Jane & Lee Perkins
Dr. Steven Wernick
Suzanne M. Hertel
Vivian Perlis
Patricia Winer
Norman & Harriette Hewitt
Charles Perrow &
Edgar & Beatrice Wolf
Philip E. Hoskins
Jeppy M. Yarensky
Arthur & Meredith Hurst
Florence D. Persons
Erwin Fleissner
Barbara Wareck
Marsha Keskinen
Over 200 concerts every year, most of them free and open to the public, many streaming live online! From early music to new music, from opera to jazz, featuring Norfolk’s favorite performers in chamber music, solo recitals, opera, orchestra, and countless other concerts. chamber music society
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