ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Maria Dell’Orefice, pianoMaria, a classical pianist and avid violinist, has shared the stage with performers such as Alexander Markov, Francesca DePasquale and Chris Botti. While Maria frequently presents solo and collaborative performances in the Philadelphia area, she has also performed solo piano in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as a result of winning several competitions. Maria is the pianist for the Haverford College choirs, Staff Pianist Artist in Residence at Temple University, and Staff Pianist for the Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy (PYPA) Piano Festival.
Maria has studied under Charles Abramovic, Lambert Orkis, Jane Abbott-Kirk, and Sheila Paige and is an advocate of the Taubman technique. She earned her B.M. in Piano Performance from Baylor University and earned a double M.M. in Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano from Temple University.
Glenn Fischbach, cello
Glenn Fischbach is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Orlando Cole and William Stokking. Following his graduation, Mr. Fischbach spent six seasons as principal cellist of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra. Now living in Philadelphia, Mr. Fischbach is active both as a teacher and performer. He maintains a private teaching studio at his home in Drexel Hill and has served as acting principal cellist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia while performing regularly as a substitute musician with The Philadelphia Orchestra.
John Koen, cello
John Koen has been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1990. He was promoted to Acting Assistant and then Acting Associate Principal Cello from 2011 to 2016. He graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with David Soyer and Peter Wiley of the Guarneri Quartet. He has collaborated in chamber music with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Christoph Eschenbach, Stephen Hough, Lang Lang, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and many others.
Mr. Koen became the Music Director of The Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble in 2022. He performs as a recitalist, and as a soloist with orchestras across America as well as in Europe. He has given master classes in universities from Seoul to Sofia and has been artist faculty at Temple University since 2006.
His recording of "Seven Mad Gods" by Robert Maggio was nominated for GLAAMA’s "Best Instrumental Performance.” He received the C. Hartman Kuhn award from The Philadelphia Orchestra for “a musician who has shown both musical ability and enterprise of such character as to enhance the musical standards and reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra.”
His interests include reading, languages, traveling, food and health, technology, and playing with his two cats.
Ovidiu Marinescu, celloOvidiu Marinescu is internationally recognized as a cellist, composer, conductor, and educator. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Merkin Hall (New York), the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Holywell Room in Oxford, Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, and has appeared as soloist with the London Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Helena, Great Falls, Portsmouth, and Newark Symphonies, Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Philharmonic, Limeira Symphony in Brazil, Orquesta de Extremadura in Spain, Sinfonietta Vidin (Bulgaria) and most of the professional orchestras in his native Romania. Marinescu’s compositions have been performed in Romania, China, Brazil, Bulgaria, Russia, Guatemala, Montenegro, and across the United
States. He has been composer-in-residence for the International Chamber Music Festival in Guatemala City and the International String Encounters in Limeira, Brazil.
Marinescu has more than 25 album releases for Parma Recordings and Cambria. His MOTO series, developed with Parma Recordings, has premiered works by nearly fifty composers in both recordings and performance at Carnegie Hall. Marinescu is cello professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania as well as founder and Artistic Director of the International Musicians Academy, an intensive program for aspiring artists.
Claire
Schneider, celloClaire Schneider is a graduate of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, where she studied with John Koen. There, she was a Temple University Symphony Orchestra member and later served as principal cellist of the Temple University Concert Orchestra. Claire is completing graduate work at West Chester University, where she studies with Ovidiu Marinescu. At West Chester, she also receives chamber coaching from Jesús Morales, cellist of the Dali Quartet. She is an avid chamber music performer and teacher in the Philadelphia area.
Fantasiestücke,Op.73, RobertSchumann(1810-1856)
Fantasiestücke, or Fantasy Pieces, comes from one of the happier periods in Schumann’s career. The pieces were written quickly in 1849 and published later that year. Originally written for clarinet and piano, Schumann indicated that the pieces could also be performed by violin or cello, a practical consideration of the domestic market for this sort of home entertainment. Fantasiestücke was a title that Schumann used often in his works, and it promotes the fundamental Romantic notion that creative expression and sudden mood changes are the product of the composer’s unrestricted imagination. The pieces, Zart und mit Ausdruck (Tender and with expression), Lebhaft, leicht (Lively, light), and Rasch und mit Feuer (Quick and with fire), are highly unified and intended to be played as a group. Each piece is written in A-B-A song form typical of Romantic miniatures.
CelloSonataNo.4inCMajor,Op.102No.1,LudwigvanBeethoven(1770-1827)
Beethoven’s Op. 102, written in 1815, consists of two cello sonatas; No. 4 in C Major and No. 5 in D Major. From 1812-1827, Beethoven, ailing and overcome with difficulties, experienced a period of literal and figurative silence as his deafness progressed and his productivity diminished. The Op. 102 cello sonatas begin Beethoven’s "Late Period”, where we also receive his Ninth Symphony, late string quartets, and last four piano sonatas. Sonata No. 4 in C Major is a short work, with only two movements. Both movements begin with slow introductions that share thematic materials in a manner suggesting an interconnected, cyclic design or rather, that one theme influences both movements and therefore the whole work.
SonataforVioloncelloandPiano,Op.6,SamuelBarber(1910-1981)
Barber’s only cello sonata was written when he was just 21-22, in 1932. The piece was composed during a trip to Europe, when Barber was finishing his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The score is dedicated to his composition teacher, Rosario Scalero. The sonata was premiered in New York City in 1933 with Barber on the piano and Orlando Cole, his friend and colleague, on the cello. The profound and passionate Op. 6 sonata is in C minor and is characterized by interesting and exciting rhythms and harmonies; sometimes soulful, yet often slightly turbulent.
AveMaria,Op.41,WilhelmFitzenhagen(1848-1890)
Wilhelm Fitzenhagen was a German cellist, composer, and teacher. He is best known today as the dedicatee of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. Fitzenhagen studied under Theodore Müller and Friedrich Grützmacher in Germany, before accepting a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory from Nikolai Rubinstein. There, Fitzenhagen became well known as a cello instructor, chamber musician, and soloist, and wrote many cello concertos, works for cello and piano, and a string quartet. He was an active member of the German Lutheran Church in Moscow and often wrote music for the service. His Op. 41, Ave Maria for Four Cellos, is one such piece. The piece was composed in the mid 1880s and published posthumously.