PAST ARTISTS FEATURED AT THE LYRIC

2008-2009 Composers | 2008-2009 Performers

SEASON 2008-2009 COMPOSERS

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 - 1809)
Haydn-Go-Seek:
- October 29, 2008: Opening Night
- November 12, 2008: The String Quartet - Then and Now
- February 25, 2009: Haydn and His Influence
Works Presented:
- Flute Quartet in C major - Hob. V:6
- Divertimento a Tres for Horn, Violin, and Cello in Eb major- Hob. XLV:5
- “The Sunrise” String Quartet - Hob. LXXVI:4
- String Quartet in D major - Hob. LXXVI:5
- String Quartet in G major - Hob. LXXVII:1
- String Quartet in C major - Hob XX:2
- String Quartet in F major - Hob LXXVII:2
The son of a wheelwright, he was trained as a choirboy and taken into the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, where he sang from circa 1740 to circa 1750. He then worked as a freelance musician, playing the violin and keyboard instruments, accompanying for singing lessons given by the composer Porpora, who helped and encouraged him. At this time he wrote some sacred works, music for theatre comedies and chamber music. Circa 1759, he was appointed music director to Count Morzin; but he soon moved, into service as Vice-Kapellmeister with one of the leading Hungarian families, the Esterházys, becoming full Kapellmeister (on Werner's death) in 1766. He was director of an ensemble of generally some 15-20 musicians, with responsibility for the music and the instruments, and was required to compose as his employer - from 1762, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy - might command. At first he lived at Eisenstadt, circa 30 miles south-east of Vienna; by 1767 the family's chief residence, and Haydn's chief place of work, was at the new palace at Eszterháza. In his early years Haydn chiefly wrote instrumental music, including symphonies and other pieces for the twice-weekly concerts and the prince's Tafelmusik, and works for the instrument played by the prince, the baryton (a kind of viol), for which he composed circa 125 trios in ten years. There were also cantatas and a little church music. Around 1766 church music became more central, and so, after the opening of a new opera house at Eszterháza in 1768, did opera. Some of the symphonies from circa 1770 show Haydn expanding his musical horizons from occasional, entertainment music towards larger and more original pieces, for example nos.26, 39, 49, 44 and 52 (many of them in minor keys, and serious in mood, in line with trends in the contemporary symphony in Germany and Austria). Also from 1768-72 come three sets of string quartets, probably not written for the Esterházy establishment but for another patron or perhaps for publication (Haydn was allowed to write other than for the Esterházys only with permission); op.20 clearly shows the beginnings of a more adventurous and integrated quartet style.

Among the operas from this period are Lo speziale (for the opening of the new house), L'infedeltà delusa (1773) and Il mondo della luna (1777). Operatic activity became increasingly central from the mid-1770s as regular performances came to be given at the new house. It was part of Haydn's job to prepare the music, adapting or arranging it for the voices of the resident singers. In 1779 the opera house burnt down; Haydn composed La fedelta premiata for its reopening in 1781. Until then his operas had largely been in a comic genre; his last two for Eszterháza, Orlando paladino (1782) and Armida (1783), are in mixed or serious genres. Although his operas never attained wider exposure, Haydn's reputation had now grown and was international. Much of his music had been published in all the main European centres; under a revised contract with the Esterházy family, his employer no longer had exclusive rights to his music.

His works of the 1780s that carried his name further afield include piano sonatas, piano trios, symphonies (nos.76-81 were published in 1784-5, and nos.82-7 were written on commission for a concert organization in Paris in 1785-6) and string quartets. His influential op.33 quartets, issued in 1782, were said to be 'in a quite new, special manner': this is sometimes thought to refer to the use of instruments or the style of thematic development, but could refer to the introduction of scherzos or might simply be an advertising device. More quartets appeared at the end of the decade, op.50 (dedicated to the King of Prussia and often said to be influenced by the quartets Mozart had dedicated to Haydn) and two sets (opp.54-5 and 64) written for a former Esterházy violinist who became a Viennese businessman. All these show an increasing enterprise, originality and freedom of style as well as melodic fluency, command of form, and humour. Other works that carried Haydn's reputation beyond central Europe include concertos and notturnos for a type of hurdy-gurdy, written on commission for the King of Naples, and The Seven Last Words, commissioned for Holy Week from Cadíz (Spain) Cathedral and existing not only in its original orchestral form but also for string quartet, for piano and (later) for chorus and orchestra.

In 1790, Nikolaus Esterházy died; Haydn (unlike most of his musicians) was retained by his son but was free to live in Vienna (which he had many times visited) and to travel. He was invited by the impresario and violinist J.P. Salomon to go to London to write an opera, symphonies and other works. In the event he went to London twice, in 1791-2 and 1794-5. He composed his last 12 symphonies for performance there, where they enjoyed great success; he also wrote a symphonie concertante, choral pieces, piano trios, piano sonatas and songs (some to English words) as well as arranging British folksongs for publishers in London and Edinburgh. But because of intrigues his opera, L'anima del filosofo, on the Orpheus story, remained unperformed. He was honoured (with an Oxford DMus) and feted generously and played, sang and conducted before the royal family. He also heard performances of Handel's music by large choirs in Westminster Abbey.

Back in Vienna, he resumed work for Nikolaus Esterházy's grandson (whose father had now died); his main duty was to produce masses for the princess's nameday. He wrote six works, firmly in the Austrian mass tradition but strengthened and invigorated by his command of symphonic technique. Other works of these late years include further string quartets (opp.71 and 74 between the London visits, op.76 and the op.77 pair after them), showing great diversity of style and seriousness of content yet retaining his vitality and fluency of utterance; some have a more public manner, acknowledging the new use of string quartets at concerts as well as in the home. The most important work, however, is his oratorio The Creation in which his essentially simple-hearted joy in Man, Beast and Nature, and his gratitude to God for his creation of these things to our benefit, are made a part of universal experience by his treatment of them in an oratorio modelled on Handel's, with massive choral writing of a kind he had not essayed before. He followed this with The Seasons, in a similar vein but more a series of attractive episodes than a whole.

Haydn died in 1809, after twice dictating his recollections and preparing a catalogue of his works. He was widely revered, even though by then his music was old-fashioned compared with Beethoven's. He was immensely prolific: some of his music remains unpublished and little known. His operas have never succeeded in holding the stage. But he is regarded, with some justice, as father of the symphony and the string quartet: he saw both genres from their beginnings to a high level of sophistication and artistic expression, even if he did not originate them. He brought to them new intellectual weight, and his closely argued style of development laid the foundations for the larger structures of Beethoven and later composers.

JOHANN MICHAEL HAYDN (1737 - 1806)
Haydn-Go-Seek: October 29, 2008: Opening Night
Works Presented:
Divertimento for Flute, Horn, Violin, Viola and Cello in G major - Perger #94
Michael Haydn, like his older brother Franz Joseph, was a chorister at St Stephen's in Vienna. Shortly after leaving the choir-school, he was appointed Kapellmeister at Großwardein and later, in 1762, at Salzburg. The latter office he held for forty-three years, during which time he wrote over 360 compositions for the church and much instrumental music. He was an intimate friend of Mozart, who had a high opinion of his work, and the teacher of Carl Maria von Weber.

Michael Haydn's sacred choral works are generally regarded as being his most important, including the Missa Hispanica (which he exchanged for his diploma at Stockholm), a Mass in D minor, a Lauda Sion, and a set of graduals, forty-two of which are reprinted in Anton Diabelli's Ecciesiaslicon. He was also a prolific composer of secular music, including forty symphonies, a number of concerti and chamber music including a string quintet in C major which was once thought to have been by his brother Joseph.

Michael Haydn was the victim of another case of posthumous mistaken identity: for many years, the piece which is now known as Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 26 was thought to be Mozart's Symphony No. 37 and assigned K. 444. The confusion arose because an autograph was discovered which had the opening movement of the symphony in Mozart's hand, and the rest in somebody else's. It is now thought that Mozart had composed a new slow opening movement for reasons unknown, but the rest of the work is known to be by Michael Haydn. The piece, which had been quite widely performed as a Mozart symphony, has been performed considerably less often since this discovery in 1907.

DANIEL SCHNYDER (b. 1961)
November 12, 2008
Haydn-Go-Seek: The String Quartet, Then and Now
Works Presented:
- Zoom In (NEW YORK PREMIERE)
- selected short pieces
Daniel Schnyder is known as a composer/performer with a dynamic reputation in both jazz and classical fields. He recorded over ten CDs of his own music for Enja Records, Col Legno, Koch Jazz, CCnc, Universal, BIS, TCB, Arabesque and Red Records. As a performer Daniel toured and recorded with many well known classical musicians, world music artists and jazz players.

Daniel was born 1961 in Zurich, Switzerland and lives in New York City. His orchestral works and his chamber music compositions have been performed and recorded all over the world. Among his credits as a composer are commissions to write compositions for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York, the Tonkuenstler Orchestra in Vienna, the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, The Norrlands Operan in Sweden, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Vienna Art Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich (4th Symphony, commissioned by David Zinman), the Opera of Bern ("Tempest" by Shakespeare), the NDR Orchestra in Hannover, the NDR Big Band in Germany, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the New York based new music group "Absolute Ensemble" under the direction of Kristjan Jaervi (Bass Trombone Concerto for David Taylor) and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra among many others.

The Album "Absolution" (Enja Nova) featuring Daniel Schnyder's Trombone Concerto received a Grammy nomination for "Best Classical Small Ensemble Recording" in 2002.

Daniel toured Europe and Australia with his trio, featuring David Taylor and Kenny Drew jr., playing the music of Gershwin, Bach, Vivaldi, Wagner and Ellington in addition to his own new compositions bridging the worlds of classical music and jazz.

He frequently performs with his special chamber music project for saxophone and string quartet, combining composition and improvisation, jazz and traditional chamber music. His third string quartet was commissioned by the Carmina Quartet, the 4th string quartet was a commission by the Amar Quartett, the 5th str 4tet a commission by the Stradivari Quartet.

Daniel appears as a soloist with orchestras playing his "Songbook for Saxophone and Orchestra" and his ‘Oriental Suite’ beside other works. He played Songbook in Germany and Switzerland on a tour with the NDR Radio Philharmonic in November 2006 and with the MDR Orchestra in 2008. In the Fall 2008 he tours with the Saarlaendische Rundfunk Orchestra as a soloist.

The vast catalogue of his chamber music works has been performed by many famous artists like Emmanuel Pahud, Eroica Trio, Schweizer Klaviertrio, Radek Baborak, Borislav Strulev, Ole Edvard Antonsen, Reinhold Friedrich, Carmina Quartett, David Jolley, David Taylor and the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble just to mention a few.

He also writes orchestral variations on themes by non classical music icons like the Rolling Stones, Duke Ellington or Jimi Hendrix, picking up on a 19th century tradition designing whole programs for orchestras outside the mainstream concert format - as played by the Calgary Symphony, the Absolute Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786 - 1826)
Haydn-Go-Seek: February 25, 2009: Haydn and his Influence
Works Presented:
Clarinet Quintet in Bb major - Opus 34
Von Weber studied in Salzburg (with Michael Haydn), Munich (J.N. Kalcher) and Vienna (Abbé Vogler), becoming Kapellmeister at Breslau (1804) and working for a time at Württemberg (1806) and Stuttgart (1807). With help from Franz Danzi, intellectual stimulation from his friends Gänsbacher, Meyerbeer, Gottfried Weber and Alexander von Dusch and the encouragement of concert and operatic successes in Munich (especially Abu Hassan), Prague and Berlin, he settled down as opera director in Prague (1813-16). There he systematically reorganized the theatre's operations and built up the nucleus of a German company, concentrating on works, mostly French, that offered an example for the development of a German operatic tradition. But his searching reforms (extending to scenery, lighting, orchestral seating, rehearsal schedules and salaries) led to resentment. Not until his appointment as Royal Saxon Kapellmeister at Dresden (1817) and the unprecedented triumph of Der Freischütz (1821) in Berlin and throughout Germany did his championship of a true German opera win popular support. Official opposition continued, both from the Italian opera establishment in Dresden and from Spontini in Berlin; Weber answered critics with the grand heroic opera Euryanthe (1823, Vienna). His rapidly deteriorating health and his concem to provide for his family induced him to accept the invitation to write an English opera for London; he produced Oberon at Covent Garden in April 1826. Despite an enthusiastic English reception and every care for his health, this last joumey hastened his decline; he died from tuberculosis, at 39.

Weber's Romantic leanings can be seen in the novel emotional flavour of his music and its relevance to emergent German nationalism, his delicate receptivity to nature and to literary and pictorial impressions, his parallel activities as critic, virtuoso pianist and Kapellmeister, his dedication to the evolution of a new kind of opera uniting all the arts and above all his wish to communicate feeling. His role as a father-figure of musical Romanticism was acknowledged by those who succeeded him in the movement, from Berlioz and Wagner to Debussy and Mahler. His melodic and harmonic style is rooted in classical principles, but as he matured he experimented with chromaticism (the diminished 7th chord was a particular favourite). He also was among the subtlest of orchestrators, writing for unusual but dramatically apt and vivid instrumental combinations (clarinet and hom, muted and unmuted strings etc). All his most successful music, including the songs and concertos, is to some degree dramatically inspired.

Weber won his widest audience with Freischütz, outwardly a Singspiel celebrating German folklore and country life, using an idiom touched by German folksong. Through his skilful use of motifs and his careful harmonic, visual and instrumental designs notably for the Wolf's Glen scene, the outstanding example in music of the early Romantic treatment of the sinister and the supernatural - he gave this work a new creative status. Euryanthe, despite a weak libretto, makes a further advance in the unity of harmonic and formal structures, moving towards continuous, freely composed opera. In Oberon Weber reverted to separate numbers to suit English taste, yet the work retains his characteristically subtle motivic handling and depiction of both natural and supernatural elements. Of his other works, some of the German songs, the colouristic Konzertstück for piano and orchestra, the dramatic clarinet and bassoon concertos and the virtuoso Grand duo concertant for clarinet and piano deserve special mention.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809 - 1847)
Mendelssohn: What's New?
- February 3, 2009: World Premiere - A Recently Discovered Christmas Gift
- March 18, 2009: Three Concertos - 2 Premieres
- May 20, 2009: Felix and Fanny - Brother and Sister
Works Presented:
- Liederbuch für Cecile - WORLD PREMIERE - Lieder Ohne Worte - WORLD PREMIERES
- Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in e minor - U.S. PREMIERE, as completed by Dr. Larry Todd
- Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in e minor, Opus 64 - EARLY VERSION
- Double Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Orchestra in d minor
- Piano Trio in d minor, Opus 49
Of a distinguished intellectual, artistic and banking family in Berlin, he grew up in a privileged environment (the family converted from Judaism to Christianity in 1816, taking the additional 'Bartholdy'). He studied the piano with Ludwig Berger and theory and composition with Zelter, producing his first piece in 1820; thereafter, a profusion of sonatas, concertos, string symphonies, piano quartets and Singspiels revealed his increasing mastery of counterpoint and form. Besides family travels and eminent visitors to his parents' salon (Humboldt, Hegel, Klingemann, A.B. Marx, Devrient), early influences included the poetry of Goethe (whom he knew from 1821) and the Schlegel translations of Shakespeare; these are traceable in his best music of the period, including the exuberant String Octet op.20 and the vivid, poetic overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream op.21. His gifts as a conductor also showed themselves early in 1829 he directed a pioneering performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Berlin Singakademie, promoting the modern cultivation of Bach's music.

A period of travel and concert-giving introduced Mendelssohn to England, Scotland (1829) and Italy (1830-31); after return visits to Paris (1831) and London (1832, 1833) he took up a conducting post at Düsseldorf (1833-5), concentrating on Handel's oratorios. Among the chief products of this time were The Hebrides (first performed in London, 1832), the g Minor Piano Concerto, Die erste Walpurgisnacht, the Italian Symphony (1833, London) and St. Paul (1836, Düsseldorf). But as a conductor and music organizer his most significant achievement was in Leipzig (1835-47), where to great acclaim he conducted the Gewandhaus Orchestra, championing both historical and modern works Bach, Beethoven, Weber, Schumann, Berlioz), and founded and directed the Leipzig Conservatory (1843).

Composing mostly in the summer holidays, he produced Ruy Blas overture, a revised version of the Hymn of Praise, the Scottish Symphony, the now famous Violin Concerto op.64 and the fine Piano Trio in c Minor (1845). Meanwhile, he was intermittently (and less happily) employed by the king as a composer and choirmaster in Berlin, where he wrote highly successful incidental music, notably for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1843). Much sought after as a festival organizer, he was associated especially with the Lower Rhine and Birmingham music festivals; he paid ten visits to England, the last two (1840-7) to conduct Elijah in Birmingham and London. Always a warm friend and valued colleague, he was devoted to his family; his death at the age of 38, after a series of strokes, was mourned internationally.

With its emphasis on clarity and adherence to classical ideals, Mendelssohn's music shows alike the influences of Bach (fugal technique), Handel (rhythms, harmonic progressions), Mozart (dramatic characterization, forms, textures) and Beethoven (instrumental technique), though from 1825 he developed a characteristic style of his own, often underpinned by a literary, artistic historical, geographical or emotional connection; indeed it was chiefly in his skilful use of extra-musical stimuli that he was a Romantic. His early and prodigious operatic gifts, clearly reliant on Mozart, failed to develop (despite his long search for suitable subjects), but his penchant for the dramatic found expression in the oratorios as well as in Ruy Blas overture, his Antigone incidental music and above all the enduring Midsummer Night's Dream music, in which themes from the overture are cleverly adapted as motifs in the incidental music. The oratorios, among the most popular works of their kind, draw inspiration from Bach and Handel and content from the composer's personal experience, St. Paul being an allegory of Mendelssohn's own family history and Elijah of his years of dissension in Berlin. Among his other vocal works, the highly dramatic Die erste Walpurgisnacht op.60 (on Goethe's poem greeting springtime) and the Leipzig psalm settings deserve special mention; the choral songs and lieder are uneven, reflecting their wide variety of social functions.

After an apprenticeship of string symphony writing in a classical mould, Mendelssohn found inspiration in art, nature and history for his orchestral music. The energy, clarity and tunefulness of the Italian have made it his most popular symphony, although the elegiac Scottish represents a newer, more purposeful achievement. In his best overtures, essentially one-movement symphonic poems, the sea appears as a recurring image, from Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and The Hebrides to The Lovely Melusine. Less dependent on programmatic elements and at the same time formally innovatory, the concertos, notably that for violin, and the chamber music, especially some of the string quartets, the Octet and the two late piano trios, beautifully reconcile classical principles with personal feeling; these are among his most striking compositions. Of the solo instrumental works, the partly lyric, partly virtuoso Lieder ohne Worte for piano (from 1829) are elegantly written and often touching.

FANNY MENDELSSOHN HENSEL (1805 - 1847)
Mendelssohn: What's New?
- February 3, 2009: World Premiere - A Recently Discovered Christmas Gift
- May 20, 2009: Felix and Fanny - Brother and Sister
Works Presented:
- Selections from “Lieder für das Pianoforte”
- Selected songs
- Piano Trio in d minor
- Selections from “Das Jahr”
Fanny Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, the oldest of four children. She was descended on both sides from distinguished Jewish families; her parents were Abraham Mendelssohn, (who was the son of Moses Mendelssohn and later changed the family surname to Mendelssohn Bartholdy), and Lea, née Salomon, a granddaughter of the entrepreneur Daniel Itzig.

Fanny benefited from the same musical education and upbringing as her brother Felix, sharing a number of his music tutors, including Zelter. Like Felix (who was born in 1809), Fanny showed prodigious musical ability as a child and began to write music. Visitors to the Mendelssohn household in the early 1820s, including Ignaz Moscheles and Sir George Smart, were equally impressed by both siblings.

However, she was limited by prevailing attitudes of the time toward women, attitudes apparently shared by her father, who was tolerant, rather than supportive, of her activities as a composer. Her father wrote to her in 1820 'Music will perhaps become his [i.e. Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament'. On the other hand, Felix was supportive of her, as a composer and a performer, although cautious (professedly for family reasons) of her publishing her works under her own name. He did however arrange with her for a number of her songs to be published under his own name. In turn Fanny helped Felix by constructive criticism of pieces, which he always considered very carefully.

In 1829, after a courtship of several years, Fanny married the painter Wilhelm Hensel who was supportive of her composing. Subsequently, her works were often played alongside her brother's at the family home in Berlin in the concerts which were held there. Her public debut at the piano (and only known public performance) came in 1838, when she played her brother's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Fanny Hensel died in Berlin in 1847 of complications from a stroke suffered while rehearsing one of her brother's oratorios, 'The First Walpurgis Night'. Felix himself died less than six months later.

In recent years, her music has become better known thanks to concert performances and a number of CDs being released on labels such as Hyperion and CPO. Her reputation has also been advanced by those researching female musical creativity, of which she is one of the relatively few exemplars in the early 19th century. Fanny Mendelssohn composed 466 pieces of music. Her compositions include a piano trio (presented by the Lyric on May 20, 2009) and several books of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were originally published under Felix's name in his opus 8 and 9 collections. One of these songs , 'Italy', was a favorite of Queen Victoria, who thought Felix had written it. Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and many carry the name Lied ohne Worte (Song without Words). This style (and title) of piano music was most successfully developed by Felix Mendelssohn, though some modern scholars assert that Fanny may have preceded him in the genre. She also wrote a cycle of pieces depicting the months of the year, Das Jahr ('The Year').

FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810 - 1849)
Chamzz Series: December 17, 2008: A Holiday Concert - From Chopin to Ellington
Works Presented:
- Waltz in Ab major - Opus 69, No. 1
- Prelude in e minor - Opus 28, No. 4
- Prelude in F# major - Opus 28, No. 13
The son of French émigré father (a schoolteacher working in Poland) and a cultured Polish mother, he grew up in Warsaw, taking childhood music lessons (in Bach and the Viennese Classics) from Wojciech Zywny and Jósef Elsner before entering the Conservatory (1826-9). By this time he had performed in local salons and composed several rondos, polonaises and mazurkas. Public and critical acclaim increased during the years 1829-30 when he gave concerts in Vienna and Warsaw, but his despair over the political repression in Poland, coupled with his musical ambitions, led him to move to Paris in 1831. There, with practical help from Kalkbrenner and Pleyel, praise from Liszt, Fétis and Schumann and introductions into the highest society, he quickly established himself as a private teacher and salon performer, his legendary artist's image being enhanced by frail health (he had tuberculosis), attractive looks, sensitive playing, a courteous manner and the piquancy attaching to self-exile. Of his several romantic affairs, the most talked about was that with the novelist George Sand (Aurore Dudevant) though whether he was truly drawn to women must remain in doubt. Between 1838 and 1847 their relationship, with a strong element of the maternal on her side, coincided with one of his most productive creative periods. He gave few public concerts, though his playing was much praised, and he published much of his best music simultaneously in Paris, London and Leipzig. The breach with Sand was followed by a rapid deterioration in his health and a long visit to Britain (1848). His funeral at the Madeleine was attended by nearly 3000 people.

No great composer has devoted himself as exclusively to the piano as Chopin. By all accounts an inspired improviser, he composed while playing, writing down his thoughts only with difficulty. But he was no mere dreamer - his development can be seen as an ever more sophisticated improvisation on the classical principle of departure and return. For the concert-giving years 1828-32 he wrote brilliant virtuoso pieces (e.g. rondos) and music for piano and orchestra; the teaching side of his career is represented by the studies, preludes, nocturnes, waltzes, impromptus and mazurkas, polished pieces of moderate difficulty. The large-scale works - the later polonaises, scherzos, ballades, sonatas, the Barcarolle and the dramatic Polonaise-fantaisie - he wrote for himself and a small circle of admirers. Apart from the national feeling in the Polish dances, and possibly some narrative background to the ballades, he intended notably few references to literary, pictorial or autobiographical ideas.

Chopin is admired above all for his great originality in exploiting the piano. While his own playing style was famous for its subtlety and restraint, its exquisite delicacy in contrast with the spectacular feats of pianism then reigning in Paris, most of his works have a simple texture of accompanied melody. From this he derived endless variety, using wide-compass broken chords, the sustaining pedal and a combination of highly expressive melodies, some in inner voices. Similarly, though most of his works are basically ternary in form, they show great resource in the way the return is varied, delayed, foreshortened or extended, often with a brilliant coda added.

Chopin's harmony however was conspicuously innovatory. Through melodic clashes, ambiguous chords, delayed or surprising cadences, remote or sliding modulations (sometimes many in quick succession), unresolved dominant 7ths and occasionally excursions into pure chromaticism or modality, he pushed the accepted procedures of dissonance and key info previously unexplored territory. This profound influence can be traced alike in the music of Liszt, Wagner, Fauré, Debussy, Grieg, Albéniz, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and many others.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 - 1827)
Chamzz Series: December 17, 2008: A Holiday Concert - From Chopin to Ellington
Works Presented:
Piano Sonata in E major - Opus 109, No. 30
Ludwig van Beethoven studied first with his father, Johann, a singer and instrumentalist in the service of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn, but mainly with C.G. Neefe, court organist. At 11 ½ he was able to deputize for Neefe; at 12 he had some music published. In 1787 he went to Vienna, but quickly returned on hearing that his mother was dying. Five years later he went back to Vienna, where he settled. He pursued his studies, first with Haydn, but there was some clash of temperaments and Beethoven studied too with Schenk, Albrechtsberger and Salieri. Until 1794 he was supported by the Elector at Bonn but he found patrons among the music-loving Viennese aristocracy and soon enjoyed success as a piano virtuoso, playing at private houses or palaces rather than in public. His public debut was in 1795; about the same time his first important publications appeared, three piano trios op.l and three piano sonatas op.2. As a pianist, it was reported, he had fire, brilliance and fantasy as well as depth of feeling. It is naturally in the piano sonatas, writing for his own instrument, that he is at his most original in this period; the Pathetique belongs to 1799, the Moonlight ('Sonata quasi una fantasia') to 1801, and these represent only the most obvious innovations in style and emotional content. These years also saw the composition of his first three piano concertos, his first two symphonies and a set of six string quartets op.l8.

1802, however, was a year of crisis for Beethoven, with his realization that the impaired hearing he had noticed for some time was incurable and sure to worsen. That autumn, at a village outside Vienna, Heiligenstadt, he wrote a will-like document, addressed to his two brothers, describing his bitter unhappiness over his affliction in terms suggesting that he thought death was near. But he came through with his determination strengthened and entered a new creative phase, generally called his 'middle period'. It is characterized by a heroic tone, evident in the Eroica Symphony (no.3, originally to have been dedicated not to a noble patron but to Napoleon), in Symphony no.5, where the sombre mood of the c Minor first movement ('Fate knocking on the door') ultimately yields to a triumphant C Major finale with piccolo, trombones and percussion added to the orchestra, and in his opera Fidelio. Here the heroic theme is made explicit by the story, in which (in the post-French Revolution 'rescue opera' tradition) a wife saves her imprisoned husband from murder at the hands of his oppressive political enemy. The three string quartets of this period, op.59, are similarly heroic in scale: the first, lasting some 45 minutes, is conceived with great breadth, and it too embodies a sense of triumph as the intense f Minor Adagio gives way to a jubilant finale in the major embodying (at the request of the dedicatee, Count Razumovsky) a Russian folk melody.

Fidelio, unsuccessful at its premiere, was twice revised by Beethoven and his librettists and successful in its final version of 1814. Here there is more emphasis on the moral force of the story. It deals not only with freedom and justice, and heroism, but also with married love, and in the character of the heroine Leonore, Beethoven's lofty, idealized image of womanhood is to be seen. He did not find it in real life he fell in love several times, usually with aristocratic pupils (some of them married), and each time was either rejected or saw that the woman did not match his ideals. In 1812, however, he wrote a passionate love-letter to an 'Eternally Beloved' (probably Antonie Brentano, a Viennese married to a Frankfurt businessman), but probably the letter was never sent.

With his powerful and expansive middle-period works, which include the Pastoral Symphony (no.6, conjuring up his feelings about the countryside, which he loved), Symphony no.7 and Symphony no. 8, Piano Concertos nos.4 (a lyrical work) and 5 (the noble and brilliant Emperor) and the Violin Concerto, as well as more chamber works and piano sonatas (such as the Waldstein and the Appassionata) Beethoven was firmly established as the greatest composer of his time. His piano-playing career had finished in 1808 (a charity appearance in 1814 was a disaster because of his deafness). That year he had considered leaving Vienna for a secure post in Germany, but three Viennese noblemen had banded together to provide him with a steady income and he remained there, although the plan foundered in the ensuing Napoleonic wars in which his patrons suffered and the value of Austrian money declined.

The years after 1812 were relatively unproductive. He seems to have been seriously depressed, by his deafness and the resulting isolation, by the failure of his marital hopes and (from 1815) by anxieties over the custodianship of the son of his late brother, which involved him in legal actions. But he came out of these trials to write his profoundest music, which surely reflects something of what he had been through. There are seven piano sonatas in this, his 'late period', including the turbulent Hammerklavier op.106, with its dynamic writing and its harsh, rebarbative fugue, and op.110, which also has fugues and much eccentric writing at the instrument's extremes of compass; there is a great Mass and a Choral Symphony, no.9 in d Minor, where the extended variation-finale is a setting for soloists and chorus of Schiller's Ode to Joy; and there is a group of string quartets, music on a new plane of spiritual depth, with their exalted ideas, abrupt contrasts and emotional intensity. The traditional four-movement scheme and conventional forms are discarded in favour of designs of six or seven movements, some fugal, some akin to variations (these forms especially attracted him in his late years), some song-like, some martial, one even like a chorale prelude. For Beethoven, the act of composition had always been a struggle, as the tortuous scrawls of his sketchbooks show; in these late works the sense of agonizing effort is a part of the music.

Musical taste in Vienna had changed during the first decades of the 19th century; the public were chiefly interested in light Italian opera (especially Rossini) and easygoing chamber music and songs, to suit the prevalent bourgeois taste. Yet the Viennese were conscious of Beethoven's greatness: they applauded the Choral Symphony even though, understandably, they found it difficuit, and though baffled by the late quartets they sensed their extraordinary visionary qualities. His reputation went far beyond Vienna: the late Mass was first heard in St. Petersburg, and the initial commission that produced the Choral Symphony had come from the Philharmonic Society of London. When, early in 1827, he died, 10,000 are said to have attended the funeral. He had become a public figure, as no composer had done before. Unlike composers of the preceding generation, he had never been a purveyor of music to the nobility he had lived into the age - indeed helped create it - of the artist as hero and the property of mankind at large.

DUKE ELLINGTON (1899 - 1974)
Chamzz Series: December 17, 2008: A Holiday Concert - From Chopin to Ellington
Works Presented:
Selections from “The Sacred Concerts”:
- In the Beginning,God
- Heaven
- My Love
- Come Sunday
- Freedom
Born Edward Kennedy Ellington, Duke Ellington brought a level of style and sophistication to Jazz that it hadn't seen before. Although he was a gifted piano player, his orchestra was his principal instrument. Like Jelly Roll Morton before him, he considered himself to be a composer and arranger, rather than just a musician. Duke began playing music professionally in Washington, D.C. in 1917. His piano technique was influenced by stride piano players like James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith. He first visited New York in 1922 playing with Wilbur Sweatman, but the trip was unsuccessful. He returned to New York again in 1923, but this time with a group of friends from Washington D.C. They worked for a while with banjoist Elmer Snowden until there was a disagreement over missing money. Ellington then became the leader. This group was called The Washingtonians. This band worked at The Hollywood Club in Manhattan (which was later dubbed the Kentucky Club).

During this time Sidney Bechet played briefly with the band (unfortunately he never recorded with them), but more significantly the trumpet player Bubber Miley joined the band, bringing with him his unique plunger mute style of playing. This sound came to be called the "Jungle Sound", and it was largely responsible for Ellington's early success. The song "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" is a good example of this style of playing. The group recorded their first record in 1924 ("Choo Choo (Gotta Hurry Home)" and "Rainy Nights (Rainy Days)", but the band didn't hit the big time until after Irving Mills became their manager and publisher in 1926. In 1927 the band re-recorded versions of "East St.Louis Toodle-Oo," debuted "Black and Tan Fantasy" and "Creole Love Call", songs that would be associated with him the for rest of his career, but what really put Ellington's Orchestra over the top was becoming the house band at the Cotton Club after King Oliver unwisely turned down the job.

Radio broadcasts from the club made Ellington famous across America and also gave him the financial security to assemble a top notch band that he could write music specifically for. Musicians tended to stay with the band for long periods of time. For example, saxophone player Harry Carney would remain with Duke nonstop from 1927 to Ellington's death in 1974. In 1928 clarinetist Barney Bigard left King Oliver and joined the band. Ellington and Bigard would later co-write one of the orchestra's signature pieces "Mood Indigo" in 1930. In 1929 Bubber Miley, was fired from the band because of his alcoholism and replaced with Cootie Williams. Ellington also appeared in his first film "Black and Tan" later that year. The Duke Ellington Orchestra left the Cotton Club in 1931 (although he would return on an occasional basis throughout the rest of the Thirties) and toured the U.S. and Europe.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, the Ellington Orchestra was able to make the change from the Hot Jazz of the 1920s to the Swing music of the 1930s. The song "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" even came to define the era. This ability to adapt and grow with the times kept the Ellington Orchestra a major force in Jazz up until Duke's death in the 1970s. Only Louis Armstrong managed to sustain such a career, but Armstrong failed to be in the artistic vanguard after the 1930s . Throughout the Forties and Fifties Ellington's fame and influence continued to grow. The band continued to produce Jazz standards like "Take the 'A' Train", "Perdido", "The 'C' Jam Blues" and "Satin Doll". In the 1960s Duke wrote several religious pieces, and composed "The Far East Suite". He also collaborated with a very diverse group of musicians whose styles spanned the history of Jazz. He played in a trio with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, sat in with both the Louis Armstrong All-Stars and the John Coltrane Quartet, and he had a double big-band date with Count Basie. In the 1970s many of Ellington's long time band members had died, but the band continued to attract outstanding musicians even after Ellington's death from cancer in 1974, when his son Mercer took over the reins of the band.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908 - 1992)
Chamzz Series: December 17, 2008: A Holiday Concert - From Chopin to Ellington
Works Presented:
- Le Baiser de l’Enfant-Jesus - No. 15
- Regard de l’eglise d’amour - No. 20
Messiaen studied at the Paris Conservatoire (1919-30) with Dukas, Emmanuel and Dupré, and taught there (1941-78) while also serving as organist of La Trinité in Paris. Right from his first published work, the eight Preludes for piano (1929), he was using his own modal system, with its strong flavouring of tritones, diminished 7ths and augmented triads. During the 1930s he added a taste for rhythmic irregularity and for the rapid changing of intense colours, in both orchestral and organ works. Most of his compositions were explicitly religious and divided between characteristic styles of extremely slow meditation, bounding dance and the objective unfolding of arithmetical systems. They include the orchestral L'ascension (1933), the organ cycles La nativité du Seigneur (1935) and Les corps glorieux (1939), the song cycles Poèmes pour Mi (1936) and Chants de terre et de ciel (1938), and the culminating work of this period, the Quatuor pour la fin du temps for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1941).

During the war he found himself surrounded by an eager group of students, including Boulez and Yvonne Loriod, who eventually became his second wife. For her pianistic brilliance he conceived the Visions de l'amen (1943, with a second piano part for himself) and the Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus (1944), followed by an exuberant triptych on the theme of erotic love: the song cycle Harawi (1945), the Turangalîla -symphonie with solo piano and ondes martenot (1948) and the Cinq rechants for small chorus (1949). Meanwhile the serial adventures of Boulez and others were also making a mark, and Messiaen produced his most abstract, atonal and irregular music in the Quatre études de rythme for piano (1949) and the Livre d'orgue (1951).

His next works were based largely on his own adaptations of birdsongs: they include Réveil des oiseaux for piano and orchestra (1953), Oiseaux exotiques for piano, wind and percussion (1956), the immense Catalogue d'oiseaux for solo piano (1958) and the orchestral Chronochromie (1960). In these, and in his Japanese postcards Sept haïkaï for piano and small orchestra (1962), he continued to follow his junior contemporaries, but then returned to religious subjects in works that bring together all aspects of his music. These include another small-scale piano concerto, Couleurs de la cité céleste (1963), and the monumental Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum for wind and percussion (1964). Thereafter he devoted himself to a sequence of works on the largest scale: the choral-orchestral La Transfiguration (1969), the organ volumes Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité (1969), the 12-movement piano concerto Des canyons aux étoiles... (1974) and the opera Saint François d'Assise (1983).

ERNEST BLOCH (1880 - 1959)
Chamzz Series: April 29, 2009 - Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
Works Presented:
Three Nocturnes for Piano Trio
The creator of music of great spiritual expression, Ernest Bloch was born on 24 July 1880 in Geneva, Switzerland. In his native city, he studied violin with Louis Rey and composition with Emile Jaques-Dalcroze and later studied under Eugene Ysaye and Francois Rasse in Brussels. Bloch's principal training, however, would be in Frankfurt with Iwan Knorr, who most influenced the composer's distinct musical personality. Bloch appropriated established and novel musical elements into highly dramatic scores, often influenced by philosophical, poetic, or religious themes.

A masterly composer of music for strings, Bloch wrote four string quartets, Schelomo--A Hebrew Rhapsody (for cello and orchestra), and A Voice in the Wilderness (for orchestra and cello obbligato), which are deeply emotional works and rank among the most distinguished achievements in the neo-classic and neo-romantic idiom of early 20th-century music. Bloch's pupil Roger Sessions praised him for his special ability to express "the grandeur of human suffering." The successful premiere by the Boston Symphony of Bloch's Trois Poemes Juifs in 1917 encouraged the composer to settle in the United States. He soon assumed the directorship of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He also taught at the University of California at Berkeley.

Bloch was distinguished in his lifetime by a long list of honors including honorary membership in the Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome, the first Gold Medal in Music of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York Music Critics' Circle Award for his String Quartet No. 2, and the same award later for his Concerto Grosso No. 2 and String Quartet No. 3. He was also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees.

JOHN WILLIAMS (b. 1932)
Chamzz Series: April 29, 2009 - Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
Works Presented:
Suite from "Schindler's List"
John Williams was born in New York and moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948. There he attended UCLA, Los Angeles City College, and studied composition privately with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After service in the Air Force, Mr. Williams returned to New York to attend Juilliard University, where he studied piano with Madame Rosina Lhevinne. While in New York, he also worked as a jazz pianist, both in clubs and on recordings. He then returned to Los Angeles, where he began his career in the film industry, working with such composers as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for many television programs in the 1960s, winning four Emmy Awards for his work.

Mr. Williams has composed the music and served as a music director for more than one hundred films, including, War of the Worlds, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Minority Report, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Patriot, Angela's Ashes, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Stepmom, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Seven Years in Tibet, The Lost World, Rosewood, Sleepers, Nixon, Sabrina, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Far and Away, JFK, Hook, Presumed Innocent, Born on the Fourth of July, the Indiana Jones trilogy, The Accidental Tourist, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, E.T. (the Extra-Terrestrial), Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Star Wars trilogy, Jaws, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He has received forty-five Academy Award nominations, most recently for his scores from Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich, making him the Academy's most nominated living person. He has been awarded five Oscars, seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), twenty Grammys, four Golden Globes, four Emmys and numerous gold and platinum records.

In January 1980, Mr. Williams was named nineteenth Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor which he assumed following his retirement in December, 1993 after 14 highly successful seasons. Mr. Williams also holds the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood.

Mr. Williams has written many concert pieces, including two symphonies, a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994, concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, concertos for the clarinet and tuba, and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded by Mr. Williams with Ms. LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra and has recently been released by Sony Classical to critical acclaim. In addition, Mr. Williams has composed the well-known NBC theme "The Mission," "Liberty Fanfare" composed for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin Good!," composed for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic games and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

His concert work "Seven for Luck" for soprano and orchestra, a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Mr. Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon at Tanglewood in 1998. Mr. Williams also composed his "American Journey", an orchestral work written to commemorate the new Millennium and to accompany the retrospective film The Unfinished Journey directed by Steven Spielberg. The film and music were premiered at the "America's Millennium" concert in Washington, D.C. on New Year's Eve 1999. Mr. Williams recently premiered a new concerto for french horn and orchestra, a work that was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for their principal horn Dale Clevenger.

Many of Mr. Williams' film scores have been released as recordings; the soundtrack album Star Wars has sold more than four million copies, making it one of the most successful non-pop albums in recording history. Mr. Williams' highly acclaimed series of albums with the Boston Pops Orchestra began in 1980 on the Philips label, for which he recorded Pops In Space, Pops On The March, Aisle Seat, Pops Out Of This World, With A Song In My Heart (a collaboration with soprano Jessye Norman), America, The Dream Goes On (a collection of favorite Americana), Swing, Swing, Swing, Pops In Love, By Request…(featuring music composed by John Williams), Holst's The Planets, Salute To Hollywood, and an all-Gershwin album entitled Pops By George. In 1990, John Williams and the Boston Pops started making recordings exclusively for the Sony Classical label. To date, these have included Music Of The Night (an album of contemporary and classical show tunes), I Love A Parade (a collection of favorite marches), The Spielberg / Williams Collaboration (featuring John Williams' music for Steven Spielberg's films), The Green Album (which includes "This Land Is Your Land," "Simple Gifts," and "Theme For Earth Day"), a Christmas album entitled Joy To The World, an album of music by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Jerome Kern entitled Unforgettable, a tribute to Frank Sinatra entitled Night And Day, an album featuring music by John Williams and Aaron Copland entitled Music For Stage And Screen, It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, with vocalist Nancy Wilson, and Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores. Mr. Williams' most recent recording with the Boston Pops Orchestra is entitled Summon The Heroes, the title track of which was the official theme for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Mr. Williams has led the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra on United States Tours in 1985, 1989, and 1992 and on a tour of Japan in 1987. He led the Boston Pops Orchestra on tours of Japan in 1990 and 1993. In addition to leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood, Mr. Williams has appeared as guest conductor with a number of major orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with which he has appeared many times at the Hollywood Bowl. Mr. Williams holds honorary degrees from twenty-one American universities, including The Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music in Boston, Boston College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, Boston University, the New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, The Eastman School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the University of Southern California. Mr. Williams recently served as the Grand Marshal of the 2004 Rose Parade in Pasadena, and was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor in December of 2004.

MATT HERSKOWITZ
Chamzz Series: April 29, 2009 - Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
Works Presented:
selected pieces, including the WORLD PREMIERE of a work commissioned by the Lyric.
see bio above

2008-2009 SEASON PERFORMERS

ROBERT LANGEVIN
Principal Flute, New York Philharmonic
October 29, 2008
Opening Night: Principal Players Series
Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Mr. Langevin began studying flute at age 12 and joined the local orchestra three years later. While studying with Jean-Paul Major at the Montreal Conservatory of Music, he started working in recording studios, where he accompanied a variety of artists of different styles. He graduated in 1976 with two first prizes, one in flute, the other in chamber music. Not long after, he won the prestigious Prix d’Europe, a national competition open to all instruments with a first prize of a two-year scholarship to study in Europe. This enabled him to work with Aurèle Nicolet at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, where he graduated in 1979. He then went on to study with Maxence Larrieu, in Geneva, winning second prize at the Budapest International Competition in 1980.

With the start of the 2000-2001 season, Robert Langevin joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Flute, in The Lila Acheson Wallace Chair. Most recently, Mr. Langevin held the Jackman Pfouts Principal Flute Chair of the Pittsburgh Symphony and was an adjunct professor at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh. Prior to his appointment to the Pittsburgh Symphony, Mr. Langevin served as Associate Principal of the Montreal Symphony for 13 years, playing on more than 30 recordings. As a member of Musica Camerata Montreal and l’Ensemble de la Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, he premiered many works, including the Canadian premiere of Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître. In addition, Mr. Langevin has performed as soloist with Quebec’s most distinguished ensembles and has recorded many recitals and chamber music programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He also served on the faculty of the University of Montreal for nine years.

Mr. Langevin is currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Orford International Summer Festival.


SHERYL STAPLES
Principal Associate Concert Master, New York Philharmonic
October 29, 2008
Opening Night: Principal Players Series
A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Staples was a scholarship student at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, a Young Musicians Foundation Scholar, and a W.M. Keck Scholar at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, spending summers at the Encore School for Strings. She earned an Artist Diploma from the University of Southern California. Her principal teacher was Robert Lipsett and her ensemble mentor was Heiichiro Ohyama.

At the age of 26, Ms. Staples was appointed associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra, a position she held for three years. In addition, she taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Encore School for Strings, and Kent/Blossom Music Festival, and she was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio. Previously, in Southern California, she was concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and held faculty positions at the University of Southern California and the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Currently on leave from the Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Staples has recently joined the faculty of The Juilliard School, teaching orchestral excerpts.

An active chamber musician, Ms. Staples has participated in the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Brightstar, Martha’s Vineyard, and Seattle Chamber Music festivals, and she has been a faculty artist at the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Sarasota music festivals. She appears on three Stereophile compact discs with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. In the New York area, she performs with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles and the Lyric Chamber Music Society.

Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster in September 1998. In addition to her orchestral career, she has performed as soloist with more than 40 orchestras nationwide, including The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Albany Symphony, and Louisiana Philharmonic. She made her solo debut with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic in 1999, performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, and has since performed concertos of Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Haydn.


CYNTHIA PHELPS
Principal Viola, New York Philharmonic
October 29, 2008
Opening Night: Principal Players Series
Cynthia Phelps enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist, and Principal Violist of the New York Philharmonic, a position to which she was appointed in 1992. Her concerto appearances with the Philharmonic have taken her to the major concert halls of North America and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Royal Festival Hall, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She has also been engaged as soloist with orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica, de Bilbao, and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Sought after by many chamber music organizations, Ms. Phelps regularly appears in New York with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, in Boston with the Boston Chamber Music Society, and as guest artist at the 92nd Street Y. She has performed with the Guarneri, American, Brentano, St. Lawrence, and Prague string quartets, as well as The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She has appeared in the summer festivals of Marlboro, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Seattle, Mostly Mozart, Bridgehampton, Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Music at Menlo, as well was in Europe in Schleswig-Holstein, Naples, and Cremona. She is also a founding member of the chamber group Les Amies, a flute-harp-viola group recently formed with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen, and flutist Carol Wincenc.

Ms. Phelps is a first-prize winner of both the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Washington International String Competition, and is the recipient of the Pro Musicis International award. Under the auspices of this philanthropic organization, she has appeared as soloist in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Rome, and Paris, as well as in jails, hospitals and drug rehab centers worldwide. Her most recent recording is a solo CD on Cala Records, and her television and radio credits include Live From Lincoln Center; St. Paul Sunday Morning on NPR; Radio France; Italy’s RAI; and WGBH in Boston. A native of Southern California and the fourth of five girls, all of whom are musicians, Ms. Phelps has served on the faculties at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. She is married to cellist Ronald Thomas, with whom she has three girls, Lili, Christina, and Caitlin.

EILEEN MOON
Associate Principal Cello, New York Philharmonic
October 29, 2008
Opening Night: Principal Players Series
Eileen Moon joined the cello section of the New York Philharmonic in 1998, and was named Associate Principal Cello in September 2007. Previously, she had performed with the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. A native of California, she began her studies with Irene Sharp at the San Francisco Conservatory, and subsequently received a bachelor of music degree from The Juilliard School and a performance diploma from the Hochshule für Musik in Vienna, Austria.

Ms. Moon won fourth prize at the Tchaikovsky International Cello Competition in Moscow in 1994, and second prize at the Geneva International Cello Competition in 1991, which resulted in performances with l’Ensemble Instrumental de Grenoble as well as a radio recording with l’Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. Ms. Moon has performed chamber music in numerous venues in New York City, and appears frequently with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Concert Hall. She resides in upstate New York.

ERIK RALSKE
Acting Associate Principal French Horn, New York Philharmonic
October 29, 2008
Opening Night: Principal Players Series
Erik Ralske joined the New York Philharmonic as third horn in September 1993 after eleven years of experience in principal positions in five different North American orchestras. These include six years as Associate Principal Horn with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, three years as Principal Horn with the Vancouver Symphony, and one season each as Principal Horn in the Florida Symphony and Tulsa Philharmonic orchestras. A native of Long Island, he received both his bachelor of music and master of music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Ranier De Intinis (former New York Philharmonic third horn).

Along with his Philharmonic horn colleagues, Mr. Ralske has been featured as a soloist with the orchestra in nearly a dozen performances of Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns — in New York as well as on tour in Europe and South America, with Kurt Masur conducting. Other recent solo engagements include appearances with the West Virginia Symphony, Jupiter Symphony, Texas Music Festival, and Nassau-Suffolk Wind Symphony. His 2004 solo appearance with the Tainan Symphony was televised throughout Taiwan.

Outside the orchestra, Mr. Ralske maintains a busy schedule as a chamber musician, teacher, and recording artist. He is a member of The Philharmonic Quintet of New York, which includes New York Philharmonic colleagues Robert Langevin (flute), Sherry Sylar (oboe), Mark Nuccio (clarinet), and Judith Leclair (bassoon). Together since 2001, they have toured in Asia and the United States, in addition to frequent performances in the New York metropolitan area. They anticipate the release of their first CD of a series later this year. In past seasons he has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music Academy of the West, as well as the Seattle, Vancouver, and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festivals. Mr. Ralske is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music.

Erik Ralske has long been active in the recording industry, having performed on many movie soundtracks — from Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), to many recent releases, such as The Manchurian Candidate and Failure to Launch. He appears on a recent CD entitled Take 9, which combines the talents of the New York Philharmonic horn section and the American Horn Quartet.

CARMINA STRING QUARTET
November 12, 2008
Haydn-Go-Seek: The String Quartet, Then and Now
The Carmina Quartet, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2009, is one of the leading European string quartets. Based in Zürich, Switzerland, the quartet has concertized extensively, appearing in major music venues worldwide (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; Sidney Opera House; Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.; Carnegie Recital Hall, New York City; etc.) They have recorded over 20 CDs, including a series of prizewinning recordings for the DENON label. The Carmina Quartet teaches chamber music at the Zürich University of the Arts.

Matthias Enderle, violin, received a soloist’s diploma in Winterthur before continuing his studies at Indiana University and at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. As first violinist of the Carmina Quartet, he has won numerous competitions and awards, most notably the Borciani competition in Reggio Emilia. Matthias Enderle teaches violin and chamber music in the U.S. and Switzerland.

Susanne Frank, violin, received a soloist’s diploma in Winterthur. She won a first prize at the National Swiss Competition for Young Musicians, and performed widely as a soloist before joining the Carmina Quartet in 1988. In addition to her chamber music class at the Zürich University of the Arts, she is increasingly in demand as a violin teacher.

Wendy Champney, viola, studied at Indiana University and at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. She was a prize winner in 1982 at the Jeunesses Musicales viola competition in Belgrade. Wendy Champney teaches viola at the Zürich University of the Arts.

Stephan Goerner, cello, studied in Winterthur, at the Juilliard School in New York, and in Paris. He is the artistic director and founder of the Kyburgiade and other music festivals, and is professor of chamber music in Graz, Austria.

DANIEL SCHNYDER
Saxophone
November 12, 2008
Haydn-Go-Seek: The String Quartet, Then and Now
see bio under composers

HAI-YE NI
Principal Cello, Philadelphia Orchestra
February 25, 2009
Haydn-Go-Seek: Haydn and his Influence
One of the most accomplished young cellists of our time, Hai-Ye Ni is currently principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She came into prominence via her critically praised New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1991. This noted performance came as a result of Ms. Ni capturing the first prize at the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and thus becoming the youngest recipient to receive this distinguished award. In 1996, Ms. Ni was the unanimous choice for first prize in the International Paulo Cello Competition in Finland. In 2001 she received the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Ms. Ni's performance with the Chicago Symphony under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach was a highlight of 1997, a year which also included winning second prize in the International Rostropovich Competition in France, as well as a 14-city tour of the U.S. introducing Bright Sheng's new cello concerto "Two Poems," for which she was recommended by Yo-Yo Ma. During the 1998-99 season, Ms. Ni performed at Lincoln Center as a member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II. She also performed in recital in London, at Harvard University and at the Freer Gallery/Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC with Cho-Liang Lin. The 1999-2000 season saw Ms. Ni's appointment as associate principal cellist for the New York Philharmonic, while in 2001 she made her Kennedy Center debut.

Ms. Ni's many engagements include the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, the Houston Symphony, and the Odense (Denmark) Symphony; the International Cello Festival in Brazil, the Kuhmo Festival/Finland, the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, as well as the Naantali Festival in Finland. She has also had return engagements with the Ravinia Festival, the Finnish Radio Symphony, Spoleto/Italy, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony, Korsholm/Finland, and the Peninsula Festival. Ms. Ni participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and the Steans Institute for Young Artists/Ravinia, and has performed with such artists as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Joshua Bell, Emanuel Pahud, Leonidas Kavakos, Barry Douglas, Ida Kavafian, Pinchas Zukerman, David Shifrin and Bobby McFerrin.

Ms. Ni's performances have been broadcast throughout the USA on National Public Radio. She was featured on the ABC television show "20/20" and on a PBS documentary of the Tchaikovsky International Cello Competition in Moscow. Her performance of Bright Sheng's concerto was aired on "CBS Sunday Morning". She was the cover story in the May/June 1997 issue of Strings magazine and is featured along with Yo-Yo Ma in the book Twenty-first Century Cellists. Ms Ni's first solo CD, on the Naxos label, was chosen CD of the week by Classic FM, London. Ms. Ni's other awards include the 1995 SONY ES Career Award, and the best performance prize of Tchaikovsky at the 1994 International Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow.

Born in Shanghai in 1972, Hai-Ye began her cello studies with her mother and later at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Hai-Ye continued her musical education with Irene Sharp at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, with Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School of Music, and with William Pleeth in London.

IGOR BEGELMAN
Clarinet
February 25, 2009
Haydn-Go-Seek: Haydn and his Influence
Winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2000, clarinetist Igor Begelman exudes an exhilarating virtuosity and a gracious sense of style. He has performed recitals in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Israel, and as a soloist with such orchestras as the Houston, Savannah and New Haven Symphonies, the Odense Simfoniker, and L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Equally accomplished as a soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Begelman opened the Lyric’s 2006-7 season. He has also performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at festivals throughout the world, including Marlboro, Caramoor, Tanglewood, and Schleswig-Holstein. An avid proponent of new music, Mr. Begelman has premiered compositions by Anton Kuerti, Alex Krasotov, Meyer Kupferman, Elliot Schwartz, Roland Tec, and recently a new concerto by Ralph Shapey. Through his association with the Piatigorsky Foundation he is able to perform classical music in less traditional settings.

An active educator, Mr. Begelman teaches at Brooklyn and Swarthmore Colleges and has taught on various occasions at Yale, at Juilliard, and at the Manhattan School of Music. Additionally, he has taught master classes at such festivals as Caramoor and Bowdoin, and throughout the U.S. Mr. Begelman was awarded top prizes at the First Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition in Denmark and at the 53rd Geneva International Competition in Switzerland. In addition, he has earned top prizes at the William C. Byrd Competition, the Koussevitsky Competition, the International Clarinet Society Competition, the Heida Hermanns International Competition, the Tilden Prize Competition, and the Crane New Music Competition. His honors include the Special Prize at the 41st Munich International Competition and awards from the Altamura/Caruso Foundation and Salon de Virtuosi.

Igor Begelman was raised in Kiev, Ukraine, and came to the United States in 1989. He received his Bachelor’s degree from The Manhattan School of Music and his Master’s degree from The Juilliard School of Music. His major teachers include Charles Neidich and Stanley Drucker.

Igor Begelman is affiliated with Astral Artistic Services, a Philadelphia nonprofit organization dedicated to guiding the careers of America’s most exceptional musicians. He currently resides in New York.

TATIANA GONCHAROVA
Piano
Mendelssohn: What's New:
- March 18, 2009: Three Concertos - Two Premieres
- May 20, 2009: Felix and Fanny - Brother and Sister
An inspiring soloist and ensemble partner, Russian-born pianist Tatiana Goncharova has performed throughout the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. Praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer for her “exceptional musicianship,” and hailed by the Washington Post as “a musician on the threshold of a brilliant career,” Ms. Goncharova has appeared at such noted venues as Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kravis Center, Ravinia, Caramoor, and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. 

Frequent collaborations with international artists have taken Ms. Goncharova to such renowned venues as Aspen Music Festival, Japan’s Miyazaki Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival in Lincoln Center, National Hall in Taipei, Colden Center for the Arts, Singapore Sun Festival, Montpellier Music Festival in France; at the Appalachian Summer Music Festival and the Great Composers Festival in Canada she performed a duo-recital with one of the world’s most celebrated violinists, Pinchas Zukerman. In May 2003, Ms. Goncharova performed again in recital with Mr. Zukerman, in Tokyo for the Empress of Japan. Her performances were broadcast by Radio France, New York's WNYC and WQXR, nationally on PBS and NPR’s Performance Today, and in Japan.

A resident artist of the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, she founded the TAGI ensemble (formerly known as the New York Lyric Chamber Players) with Francesco Mastromatteo, Igor Begelman and Grigory Kalinovsky. The highlights of the group’s recent seasons include performances and masterclasses at Asheville Chamber Series, Universities of South and Western Carolina, Sevenars, Bentley College, Howland Music Center, Emelin Theater, Lukas Foss’s Festival of the Hamptons, and the Lyric Chamber Music Society.

Ms. Goncharova is on the faculty of Pinchas Zukerman’s National Arts Center Young Artists Program in Canada, the pre-college division of the Manhattan School of Music in New York, the Zukerman Performance Program; she was also formerly at the Perlman Music Program, Fordham University, and the Illona Feher Festival in Israel. She is involved with a number of educational projects through her affiliation with Astral Artistic Services and the Piatigorsky Foundation, which allows her to perform classical music in less traditional settings.

Called “a sensational pianist” by the Providence Journal, Ms. Goncharova is a winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the Olga Koussevitzky Piano Competition, the Bergen Philharmonic Concerto Competition, the Moscow Conservatory Concerto Competition, and the Byelorussian National Competition. She has studied with such renowned musicians as Leon Fleisher, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Eugene Malinin and Oxana Yablonskaya at the Moscow State Conservatory, the Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School.

Tatiana Goncharova made her debut recording with violinist Grigory Kalinovsky, featuring the Violin Sonata and 24 Preludes by Dmitriy Schostakovich, which has been recently released worldwide by Centaur Records. The International Record Review praised it for its “emotional intensity” and “overwhelming mastery.”

JESUS REINA
Violin
March 18, 2009
Mendelssohn: What's New? Three Concertos - 2 Premieres
bio coming soon.

ANNA RABINOVA
Violin, New York Philharmonic
May 20, 2009
Mendelssohn: What's New? Felix and Fanny - Brother and Sister
Violinist Anna Rabinova was 13 when she performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, and also performed the Ernst Concerto and Paganini Concerto No. 1. Born in Moscow, she studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Leonid Kogan and Igor Bezrodnyi. After graduation, she toured extensively throughout the former Soviet Union.

Ms. Rabinova was the winner of the Bach International Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and was awarded first prize at the 16th International Competition in Belgrade. As winner of the 1993 Concerto Competition at The Juilliard School, she performed Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 (Stanislav Skrowaczewski conducting).

She has toured Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, performing concertos with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and numerous other European orchestras including the Halle Philharmonic, Schwerin Philharmonic, Moscow Radio Orchestra (Vladimir Fedoseev conducting), Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Eisenach Symphony, Russian State Symphony, Junge Europa Philharmonie, and Berlin Symphony (Lior Shambadal conducting). German newspapers highly acclaimed her recent appearances with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic. In the United States, she has made solo appearances with the American Symphony Orchestra (Leon Botstein conducting), Memphis Symphony, Asheville Symphony, and Maryland Symphony. Ms. Rabinova has premiered works by John Corigliano, Alfred Schnittke, and has collaborated with such noted musicians as pianist Vladimir Stoupel and Alexander Paley.

Among other engagements, Ms. Rabinova’s recital appearances have taken her to venues in Moscow, Berlin, Rome, Leipzig, and Belgrade, as well as in the United States to places such as the Phillips Gallery (Washington, D.C.), Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Rockefeller University Concert series. In April 2004 she served as concertmaster of the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Symphony Orchestra. Her festival performances include Tanglewood, Caramoor, Berlin Chamber Music Festival, Schubertiad 2000 at Mannes College, and Lyric Mountain festivals. Ms. Rabinova’s recent performances at a festival in Berlin were highly praised by the press. In 1998 she recorded sonatas by Brahms and Schubert together with pianist Vladimir Stoupel for NHK-TV (Japan) chamber music series. This TV production was broadcast throughout the world.

SOPHIE SHAO
Cello
May 20, 2009
Mendelssohn: What's New? Felix and Fanny - Brother and Sister
Cellist Sophie Shao is rapidly gaining international acclaim for her brilliant, mature interpretations of repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Crumb and Wilson. Strad Magazine praised her "superior sense of style" and the World News described her "sensitive, stylistic playing, with great finesse, emotion, and gorgeous tone."

Winner of top prizes at the 2001 Rostropovich Competition and the XII Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002, Ms. Shao received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant at the age of nineteen. She made her first appearance with the Houston Symphony at the age of eleven, playing Boccherini's Cello Concerto, and has returned to perform with the orchestra on numerous occasions. Other orchestral appearances include the Orchestre de Paris with Christoph Eschenbach, the Russian State Academic Symphony Cappella with Valery Poliansky, Erie Symphony, Yale Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has performed recitals throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has appeared in performances in such venues as the 92nd Street Y, Carnegie, Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, and Merkin Halls in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Ford Centre in Toronto, and Rice University in Houston.

In great demand as a chamber musician, she has collaborated with members of the Beaux Arts Trio, the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Cleveland, Mendelssohn String Quartets, and has performed with such distinguished artists as Gary Graffman, David Shifrin, Jaime Laredo, Andre Previn, Eugene Istomin, Cho-Liang Lin, Andre-Michel Schub, Paquito D'Rivera, Andras Schiff, Fred Sherry, Ani Kavafian, Claude Frank, Andre Watts, Martha Argerich, and Christoph Eschenbach. Ms. Shao's many festival appearances include Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Bard, Caramoor, Bridgehampton, Sarasota, Music from Angel Fire, Vail, Saratoga, and Ravinia. In the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons, Sophie Shao was a member of Chamber Music Society Two, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's program for emerging young artists, and continues to be a regular guest at the Chamber Music Society. In the 2003-2004 season, she performed frequently with Concertante, an ensemble devoted to playing chamber works of five people or more, and her chamber music collaborations this season takes her throughout the United States and Taiwan.

Ms. Shao can be heard on EMI Classics, playing Andre Previn's Reflections with the Curtis Orchestra under the direction of the composer. Her 1995 performance of Mendelssohn's Quartet in a minor appears on Marlboro Music Festival's 50th Anniversary Album on Bridge Records. Just released by Albany Records in July of 2005, "Diablerie" features the music of composer Richard Wilson, performed by Rolfe Schulte, violin, Sophie Shao, cello, Allen Blustine, clarinet, and Richard Wilson, piano.

A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six, and was a student of Shirley Trepel, then the principal cellist of the Houston Symphony and professor at Rice University. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer and chamber music with Felix Galimir. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. She now resides in Manhattan, and teaches cello at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Vassar College, and Princeton University.

KENNY DREW JR..
Piano
December 17, 2008
A Holiday Concert: From Chopin to Ellington
Kenny Drew Jr. was born in New York City in 1958. He started music lessons at the age of four. After studying classical piano with his Aunt Marjorie, he branched out into the area of jazz music.Kenny Jr. has performed worldwide with a comprehensive variety of musicians, including Stanley Jordan, Out of the Blue (OTB), Stanley Turrentine, Slide Hampton and the Jazz Masters, the Mingus Big Band, Steve Grossman, Yoshiaki Masuo, Sadao Watanabe, Smokey Robinson, Frank Morgan, Daniel Schnyder, and many others.

Kenny Drew Jr. was the winner of the 1990 Great American jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville FL. He has appeared as a leader at many major festivals, including the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, Kyoto Jazz Festival, Savannah on Stage Festival, Clearwater Jazz Festival, and the Newark Jazz Festival. Kenny has also performed as leader at many major jazz clubs around the country, such as Bradley's (NY), Visiones (NY), The Blue Note (NY), Blues Alley (DC), Fat Tuesday's (NY), The VIllage Gate (NY), Trumpets (NJ), The Jazz Showcase (Chicago), Twins Lounge (DC), One Step Down (DC), and the Montreal Bistro (Toronto). He has recorded nine albums as a leader and has also made numerous recordings as a sideman. Kenny has performed at concerts & in clubs with The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Faddis/Hampton/Heath Sextet, Steve Turre, Jack Walrath, David Sanchez, Jack Wilkins, Michael Mossman, Ronnie Cuber, Steve Slagle, and Marlena Shaw. Other performances included appearances with Jon Faddis, Slide Hampton, and Jimmy Heath at the Montreal North Sea, and Lugano festivals and with the Mingus Big Band at the Chicago & Detroit festivals.

Kenny has also begun to gain a reputation as a performer of classical music. He has performed both jazz & classical music at the Barossa Music Festival in Australia. The classical repertoire included Bach concertos and music by African-American composers. These concerts consisted of solo piano recitals and appearances with renowned classical musicians such as violinist Jane Peters and pianist Peter Waters. Kenny participated in a performance of Charles Mingus' large-scale composition "Epitaph" at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam under the direction of Gunther Schuller. He performed a Mozart concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony conducted by Andreas Delfs, and appeared at the International Bach Festival in Leipzig, playing Bach's music with Daniel Schnyder and David Taylor. Further appearances as a classical performer include,the Luzern Piano Festival and in Key West.

In addition to his work as a soloist and jazz side man, Kenny has been playing with a classical/chamber-jazz trio led by composer/saxophonist/flautist Daniel Schnyder, with David Taylor on bass trombone. In addition to appearances at the Barossa Festival in 1997, the group has performed concerts in Switzerland and New York.

Among Kenny's recordings with Daniel Schnyder are, the "Sonata for Soprano Saxophone & Piano" and the "Sonata for Bass Trombone & Piano" (with David Taylor). Kenny also participated in the recording of Schnyder's Third Symphony with the Basel Radio Orchestra under the direction of Hans Drewanz.

Other groups and artists Kenny has performed with are: The Absolute Ensemble, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Shirley Horn,Teddy Edwards and Henry Johnson. Kenny also played a solo piano tribute to Duke Ellington on Ellington's 100th birthday at the Tonhalle in Zurich. He has recently appeared with his own trio at the Village Vanguard in New York,the Jazz Showcase in Chicago and on the Queen Elizabeth 2 Jazz Cruise.

Kenny has recorded over twenty albums as a leader, amongst them, in 2001, "Autumn" for the Japanese label Pony Canyon. The CD features George Mraz on bass and Tony Jefferson on drums. Drew recorded a CD of two-piano jazz arrangements of music by Ravel with pianist Peter Waters. This CD, which was recorded in Switzerland, also features the Winterthur Chamber Orchestra. Kenny Drew Jr. taught at the Engadin International Summer Piano Academy in Switzerland, giving master classes and private lessons. He was one of the featured artists at the West Coast Jazz Party in California. He has touredSwitzerland with Daniel Schnyder, including a concert with members of the Zurich Opera Orchestra. Kenny played two concerts at the Umea Jazz Festival in Sweden, including a performance of Daniel Schnyder's Piano Concerto with the Norrlands Opera Orchestra under the direction of Krystian Jarvi. This concert was recorded for release as a CD.

MATT HERSKOWITZ
Piano
Lyric Artist-In-Residence
April 29, 2009
Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
see bio above

MAT FIELDES
Bass
April 29, 2009
Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
Mat Fieldes is one of the most sought-after bass players on the New York freelance scene today. Equally comfortable in jazz, rock, hip-hop, R&B, and classical genres, Mr. Fieldes has collaborated with such luminaries as Joe Jackson, John Cale, Ornette Coleman, Steve Vai, Peter Erskine, Paquito D'Rivera, Kristian Jarvie, Joe Williams, Arturo Sandaval and Toni Tennille, among others. His recent appearances include Dream Engine - the latest vehicle for legendary song-writer Jim Steinman. Mr. Fieldes was honored to perform with the acclaimed crossover hip-hop virtual band the Gorillaz, live at the Apollo Theater, and hip-hop luminary Jay-Z at Radio City Music Hall in the spring of 2006. In 2001, he performed on Joe Jackson's album Symphony, which won a Grammy Award for "Best Pop Instrumental".

Mr. Fieldes tours extensively as a solo bassist for Absolute Ensemble, an electro-acoustic crossover chamber orchestra, which performs at major venues worldwide. Recent appearances include the Sydney Opera House, Koln Philharmonie, London Barbican, the Estonia Concert Hall, and residencies at Bremen and Adelaide Festivals. In 2000, the ensemble won the coveted German Record Critic's Award for its album Mix. The ensemble received a Grammy nomination in the "Best Small Ensemble" category for its album Absolution (2002, Enja Records). Concert collaborations include recordings and touring with Joe Zawinul, and a Frank Zappa tribute featuring Mike Keneally and Napoleon Murphy Brock.

As a soloist, Mr. Fieldes has performed Mark Anthony Turnage's concerto for jazz quartet Blood on the Floor with Peter Erskine, at Miller Theater, New York City in 2001. In 2004, he performed the same concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Also that year, he premiered Gene Pritsker's concerto for electric and acoustic bass, Lost Illusions, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in front of 30,000 people.

Mr. Fieldes is currently a member of the acclaimed MaD Fusion. Other performances and collaborations include the New York based Quasilulu, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestras, Continuum, Bronx Arts Ensemble, Second Generation Productions, and the Jose Limon Dance Company.

Mr. Fieldes was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He earned his Master's degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Eugene Levinson, Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic.
DAVID ROZENBLATT
Percussion
April 29, 2009
Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
David Rozenblatt's talents have drawn him to all corners of the globe and all styles of music, performing in the worl's most revered concert halls as well as intimate nightclubs. He has performed and collaborated with some of the finest talents in pop, jazz and classical and is currently performing with Barry Manilow, with whom he can be seen on the 2006 Emmy Awards, A&E's Live By Request, PBS's Soundstage, ABC's Good Morning America, The Ellen Show, The Society of Singers honoring Elton John, BBC Television, The Jerry Lewis Telethon, and currently in his Emmy nominated show Music and Passion in Las Vegas. Mr. Rozenblatt performed and/or collaborated with Paul Simon (involving the first stages of his Broadway show The Cape Man), Judy Collins, Cindy Lauper, Donna Summer, Micky Dolenz, Jon Secada, Joe Sawinul, Paquito D'Rivera, Ornette Coleman, Dave Koz, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Mike Keneally, Mark Egan, Danny Gottlieb, Peter Erskine, the Executioners, Pierre Boulez, Dimitry Hvorostovsky, Vladimir Spivakov and Elliot Carter. Mr. Rozenblatt has performed at Madison Square Garden, Nassau Coliseum, the Meadowlands, Gund Arena, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall, Blenheim Palace, Santori Hall, the Barbocan and Shostakovich Hall.

As a drummer and composer for the critically acclaimed and Grammy Award-nominated Absolute Ensemble, Mr. Rozenblatt can be heard on the group's eight released CDs and serves as a producer on Fix (2002, Enja) and their latest CD Arabian Nights (2006) featuring the grat Marcel Halife. He is also featured on many renowned artists' albums of various genres, and on the soundtrack recordings for the feature films The Chamber, Wide Awake, You've Got Mail and Swat.

On Broadway, Mr. Rozenblatt performed in Swan Lake, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Sunset Boulevard, The King and I, Miss Saigon, Elton John's Aida, and Jim Steinman's Dance of the Vampires featuring Michael Crawford. He has performed with the Met Orchestra, NYC Opera and Ballet, St. Luke's Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Jupiter Symphony, Concordia Orchestra, EOS Moscow Chamber Symphony, the Moscow Virtuosi, and as a soloist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Rozenblatt received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School, where he became a founding member of the critically acclaimed New York Percussion Quartet. Born in the Ukraine, Mr. Rozenblatt moved to the United States at the age of four and one year later began playing drums professionally. He began his formal training at the Kaufman Cultural Center in New York City and, following graduation, was appointed to the faculty - a position he held for over ten years. Mr. Rozenblatt also devotes his time to producing music from his recording studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
ALEXANDRE DA COSTA
Violin
April 29, 2009
Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
Alexandre Da Costa was born in Montreal Canada in 1979. He shows an uncommon interest for both the violin and piano at a very early age. By the age of nine, he has the astounding ability to perform his first concerts with stunning virtuosity on both instruments, which brought him recognition as a musical prodigy. His chosen professional career as a violinist begins very early and he is soon performing regularly as soloist with orchestra as well as in recital.

In 1998, at the age of 18, he receives a Master’s degree in violin and a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec where he studies with Johanne Arel. Concurrently, he also received a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Interpretation from the faculty of music of the University of Montreal. From 1998 to 2001, he studies at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid with the violin master Zakhar Bron who formed Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin. In 2002, he wins the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award. Between 2003 and 2006, after winning the Musical Instrument Bank competition of the Canada Council for the Arts, he plays the 1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius.

Winner of many prestigious national and international first prizes, he appears as soloist throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, and many countries in Europe and Asia. Between 1998 and 2006, he records many CDs for the XXI-21 Record label, among them the world premiere recording of violin Concerto by Portuguese composer Luis de Freitas Branco. This recording is received with great acclaim by the critics and music lovers around the world, and is nominated at the JUNO Awards 2006.

All reviews are unanimous in saluting Alexandre’s faultless technique, inherited directly from the Russian School, his exceptional energy and musical talent. Alexandre da Costa now plays the 1667 “Dubois” Stradivarius and a Sartory bow, courtesy of the Canimex.

DENISE DJOKIC
Cello
April 29, 2009
Exciting Young Virtuosos: Jewish Music
One of the most captivating young artists of her generation, cellist Denise Djokic has thrilled audiences and critics worldwide with the passion, vigor, and sensitivity of her playing.

Already one of North America's most sought after soloists, she has performed as guest soloist with every leading orchestra in Canada, including the orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. She has also appeared with many orchestras in the United States and in Mexico, including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Omaha Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony, and the Orquesta Filharmonica UNAM of Mexico City.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Denise performs throughout North America and Europe. She has performed at the Phillips Collection and the museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and has also performed in San Francisco, Cologne, Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende, at Chicago's Dame Myra Hess Series, at Bargemusic and with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York, in addition to all major Canadian centers. Her avid involvement in chamber music brings her to many festivals yearly, including the chamber festivals of Caramoor, Ottawa, Vancouver, Park City, Parry Sound, Domaine Forget, and Ravinia.

Denise has toured Canada extensively, during which she was featured as the subject of the documentary film "Seven Days, Seven Nights", which aired on Bravo TV and was screened at the Atlantic Film Festival. She was also named by MacLean's magazine as one of "25 Young Canadians who are changing our World", and by ELLE magazine as one of "Canada's 30 most Powerful Women".

Denise's debut recording was released in 2002 on the Sony Classical label to great critical acclaim, and won her an East Coast Music Award for "Best Classical Recording of the Year". During the same year, Denise was a featured performer at the 2002 Grammy Awards. She recently released her second recording, entitled "Folklore", on the Allegro/Endeavor label, which was featured on NPR's renowned "All Things Considered" program.

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, into a large musical family, Denise began her studies with Olive Shaw and Shimon Walt. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music's "Young Artist Program", where she was a student of Richard Aaron, and later continued her studies in Boston with Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser. Denise has been a recipient of several grants and prizes from the Canada Council for the Arts, and is grateful for their generous and continuing support.