2020 Concert Notes by Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Manhattan Chamber Players

The Manhattan Chamber Players is a collective of New York-based musicians who share the common aim of performing the greatest works in the chamber repertory at the highest level. Formed in 2015 by Artistic Director Luke Fleming, MCP comprises an impressive roster of musicians who all come from the tradition of great music making at the Marlboro Music Festival, Steans Institute at Ravinia, [email protected], Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, and Perlman Music Program, and are former students of the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, Colburn School, New England Conservatory, and Yale School of Music. MCP was recently praised in Strings Magazine for “a fascinating program concept…. It felt refreshingly like an auditory version of a vertical wine tasting.” The article went on to applaud MCP for “an intensely wrought and burnished performance…. Overall, I wished I could put them on repeat.”

Mark Dover, clarinet ~ Katie Hyun, violin ~ Michael Katz, cello Luke Fleming, viola ~ Francesca dePasquale, violin ~Adam Golka, piano

Rolston String Quartet

The 2018 recipient and first international ensemble chosen for the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America, Canada’s Rolston String Quartet continues to receive acclamation and recognition for its musical excellence. In 2016, a monumental year, it earned First Prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC). In that same year, the Quartet’s prizes included Astral’s National Auditions and Grand Prize of the 31st Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. The ensemble was also a prizewinner at the 2016 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition and the inaugural M-Prize Competition and named among CBC Radio’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” in 2016.

Luri Lee, violin ~ Emily Kruspe, violin ~ Hezekiah Leung, viola ~ Joshua Halpern, cello

Boston Chamber Music Society with Ann Hobson Pilot, Harp

The Boston Chamber Music Society (BCMS) is an ensemble of superb musicians who come together in different combinations to perform chamber music. Since its founding in 1982, BCMS has built a reputation for impassioned performances, ripened over time by the long personal and professional histories of its member musicians. BCMS invites guest artists, chosen for their particular affinity for the works they will play, to join its members, expanding the artistic possibilities to virtually all works in the chamber music repertory. BCMS’s mission is to provide the public with exceptional performances of chamber music repertory from the Baroque era to the present day while fostering understanding and appreciation of the art form, making it more accessible to all.

Ann Hobson Pilot

Ann Hobson Pilot was Principal Harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1980 through the 2009 Tanglewood season, having joined the BSO in 1969 as Assistant Principal Harpist and Principal Harpist with the Boston Pops. She was previously Substitute Second Harpist with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Principal Harpist of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.

Max Levinson, piano ~ Markus Placci, violin ~ Raman Ramakrishnan, cello Marcus Thompson, viola and BCMS Artistic Director ~ Jennifer Grim, flute with
ANN HOBSON PILOT, harp

2020 National Chopin Piano Competition Winner

The National Chopin Piano Competition offers performance opportunities and financial support to young American pianists. Initiated in 1975 and held every five years, the National Competition was held this year in Miami from February 22 to March 1. It is open to United States citizens who were born between 1990 and 2004. The winner receives a cash prize of $100,000, a concert tour in the United States and abroad, and complete financial support to attend the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, which was founded in 1927 and is one of the few competitions devoted to the music of a single composer. The Sanibel Music Festival proudly presents the first appearances of this year’s winner following the close of the Competition in Miami.

About Avery Gagliano

Ms. Gagliano hales from the Washington D.C./Philadelphia area and at age 18 studies piano at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Jonathan Biss and Gary Graffman. She is a four-year winner of the Chopin Foundation Scholarship (2016 – 2019) and a Young Scholar of the Lang International Music Foundation (2014 – 2016). At age nine, she made her orchestral debut with the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra at Strathmore Concert Hall and performed at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York.

Gould Trio with Robert Plane, Clarinet

The Gould Piano Trio, which was compared by the Washington Post to the great Beaux Arts Trio for its “musical fire” and “dedication to the genre,” has remained at the forefront of the international chamber music scene for a quarter of a century. Launched by their First Prize at the Melbourne Chamber Music Competition and subsequently selected as “Rising Stars” by Britain’s Young Concert Artists Trust Artists, the ensemble made a highly successful debut at New York’s Weill Recital Hall that was described by Strad Magazine as “Pure Gould.”

Robert Plane

Robert Plane’s varied career has seen solo appearances in the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in Madrid with the City of London Sinfonia, in Beijing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and in America with the Virginia Symphony. In 1992, Mr. Plane won the Overall Gold Medal at the Royal OverSeas League Music Competition in London. He made his BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011 and recently performed Piers Hellawell’s Agricolas with the Ulster Orchestra and RTE Symphony Orchestra, as well as music of Gerald Finzi with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and of Charles Villiers Stanford with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Lucy Gould, violin ~ Richard Lester, cello ~ Benjamin Frith, piano with ROBERT PLANE, clarinet

Singing Andrew Lloyd Webber, Superstar of Song and Stage, Presented by Opera Theater of Connecticut

Opera Theater of Connecticut celebrates its 35th anniversary this year! Founded in 1986, it provides professional artists with the vital opportunity to realize their talents in the practice of their crafts, provides access to the Performing Arts to a wide audience by presenting high quality productions at an affordable price, and brings the performing arts into communities not regularly serviced by performing arts companies. Our MainStage productions are fully mounted and accompanied by our orchestra of professional musicians, giving the artists (singers, musicians, designers, and support staff) the chance to expand their potential by experiencing an actual performance. By keeping the ticket prices for our high-quality, fully produced operas, low, and by being the only professional opera company that performs in the summer, we bring in an audience otherwise unreached in the state.

Kate A. Ford, General Director ~ Alan Mann, Artistic Director Eric Trudel, Music Director and Piano, Carly Callahan, Sarah Callinan, Matt Morgan, Charles Widmer, Mark Womack

Emerson String Quartet

The Emerson String Quartet has maintained its stature as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles for over four decades. The Quartet has made more than thirty acclaimed recordings and been honored with nine Grammys® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, an Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year.” The Emerson frequently collaborates with some of today’s most esteemed composers to premiere new works, keeping the string quartet art form alive and relevant, and has commissioned new works from such composers as Thomas Adés, Kaija Saariaho, Wolfgang Rihm, Mark- Anthony Turnage, and Edgar Meyer. The ensemble has also partnered with such stellar soloists as Reneé Fleming, Barbara Hannigan, Evgeny Kissin, Emanuel Ax, and Yefim Bronfman

Eugene Drucker, violin ~ Philip Setzer, violin Lawrence Dutton, viola ~ Paul Watkins, cello