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Collegial Concert II

May 2, 2010, 7:00 p.m.

Church of Christ and St. Stephen's
(West 69th Street between Columbus and Broadway)

Admission: New York Viola Society members: free.
General Admission:$15. Seniors: $10. Students: $5.

Program

Gottfried Rudinger - Divertimento for Viola, Saxophone and Piano, Op. 75
Ann Roggen, Viola
Tim Ruedeman, Saxophone
Steven Beck, Piano

Frank Bridge - Lament, for two Violas
Eddy Malave and Sheila Browne

Scott Ordway - "The Dreams We Dream for the City of Roses"
Jessica Meyer, Viola
Steven Beck, Piano

Joseph Jongen - Allegro Appassionato Op. 79, (1925)
Sheila Browne, Viola
Steven Beck, Piano

Intermission

Henri Vieuxtemps - Elegie for Viola and Piano, Op. 30
William Frampton, Viola
Larry Weng, Piano

Nick Revel - Premiere of Broken Lines for Four Violas
Nick Revel, Nora Krohn, Liyuan Liu and Brian Lindgren

Henri Vieuxtemps (arranged by Frank Foerster) - Souvenir d'Amérique, Variations burlesques, Op. 17
Frank Foerster, Viola
Steven Beck, Piano

Piano courtesy of YAMAHA PIANOS

About the Performers

Violist Sheila Browne has performed in many of the world’s major halls as soloist, chamber musician, and as an orchestral principal. She has soloed with the Juilliard Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic, New World Symphony, South African International Viola Congress Festival Orchestra, and the Viva Vivaldi!, Reina Sofia and German-French chamber orchestras. She is a member of the newly formed flute-viola-harp Fire Pink Trio. She has recorded concerto, solo and chamber works for the Nonesuch, Sony, Albany, Centaur and ERM labels, and has premiered a concerto written for her at the most recent international viola congresses in Australia and South Africa. The only viola finalist in the 2004 International Pro Musicis Solo Awards at Carnegie Hall, Sheila is a graduate of the Juilliard School, MusikHochschule Freiburg and Rice University. She was Karen Tuttle's teaching assistant for four years as well as a student of Kim Kashkashian, Karen Ritscher's teaching assistant, and Paul Katz was her quartet mentor. She has performed in many festivals including Banff, Donaueschingen, Evian, Great Lakes, Jeunesses Musicales, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, Port Townsend, Sun Valley, and Tanglewood. She has given recitals and /or masterclasses at many schools, including Eastman, McGill, Oberlin, Duke, and Boston University. She was appointed to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts faculty in 2006, New York University faculty in 2009 and is on the Executive Board of the American Viola Society. She is the first viola professor ever to teach in Iraqi Kurdistan at the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. She also teaches at California Summer Music, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and Viva Virginia!. Upcoming projects include a Vivaldi-Primrose viola concerto recording, a solo CD, and performances with Joe Robinson, Arnold Steinhardt, and Shmuel Ashkenazy.

Violist Frank Foerster enjoys a varied career as orchestral and chamber musician, soloist, and composer. He studied at the music schools of Hannover and Berlin and with Yehudi Menuhin in Switzerland before coming to New York to study at the Juilliard School with Lillian Fuchs and Karen Tuttle. He received his doctorate from Juilliard, where he was appointed principal violist of the Juilliard Orchestra. After winning several competitions in Europe, he became the first solo violist to win the Artists International Auditions in New York. He made his New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.

As an orchestral musician, he has performed under Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic and under Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic.

Since 1988, he has served as principal violist of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Under the baton of Zdenek Macal he was soloist in Bartok’s viola concerto with the NJSO. He is also first violist of the New York Scandia Symphony, and member of the Scandia String Quartet.

He has composed several works for viola and piano, as well as viola and orchestra. Many of his orchestral arrangements have been performed and recorded by New York Scandia Symphony. He taught at CUNY, at Columbia University and as guest artist at the Juilliard Pre-College. A participant in many summer festivals as teacher and performer, he was winner of the Aspen Concerto Competition at the Aspen Music Festival.

He performs on a viola made by the brothers Amati in 1620 from the NJSO’s collection of antique Italian instuments.

Violist William Frampton, born in 1986, is rapidly emerging as an exciting and unique artist. Having made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2009 at Weill Recital Hall, he has also appeared as soloist in Boston’s Jordan Hall in performances of Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher” Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” with Joseph Silverstein conducting. William has appeared in recital in New York, Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Florida, and Wellesley. In 2008, he collaborated with conductor David Hoose and the Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble for a unique recital featuring the premiere of a viola concerto by Peter Homans. An enthusiastic performer and promoter of new music, William has worked with composers such as Gyorgy Kurtag and Malcolm Peyton.

An avid chamber musician, William’s festival and workshop appearances have included Verbier Festival Academy, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, Sarasota Music Festival, The Perlman Music Program, and others. He has collaborated with such artists as Paul Katz, Roberto and Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Robert McDuffie, and others. William was a member of the Redwood Quartet, which was invited to study intensively with renowned composer and pedagogue Gyorgy Kurtag at IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England, performing in Boston and England. William has been a soloist with the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey twice, the winner of two New England Conservatory Concerto Competitions, and his recognitions include a Marian Anderson Young Artist Grant. An enthusiastic outreach performer, he has performed in schools, nursing homes, senior centers, and alternative venues. William is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Music at Bunker Hill, a chamber music series in Southern New Jersey.

William’s primary studies were with Byrnina Socolofsky and Choong-Jin Chang. He recently completed his undergraduate studies with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory of Music, and currently studies with Samuel Rhodes at the Juilliard School.

Violist Nora Krohn, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University, where she earned a Bachelors degree in Music and Hispanic Studies. She received her Masters degree in Viola Performance from SUNY Purchase College, where she studied with Ira Weller, founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet. Summer studies include Eastern Music Festival, the Pierre Monteux School, the Meadowmount School, and the Manchester Music Festival. A busy freelancer in New York City and the metro area, Nora also works part time at Tarisio Auctions, where she manages an inventory of over 1,000 instruments and bows.

Brian Lindgren is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he studied viola performance under John Graham. He now lives in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to performing as a freelance violist, Brian Lindgren also composes and performs electronic music. He teaches strings at two New York junior high schools in addition to maintaining his private studio. Please visit www.brianlindgren.com for more information.

Violist Liyuan Liu has performed as a soloist for the President of Austria in the People’s Hall of China. She was the third prize winner at the National Viola Competition of China in 2003 (and also its youngest participant). Her orchestral experience includes being the principal violist of the China Youth Symphony Orchestra, Bard Conservatory Orchestra, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as well as appearing in the New World Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has worked with members of the Juilliard, Shanghai, Takács ,Guarneri and Cleveland quartets. She has also performed at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Library of Congress, Music Mountain, and Bard Music Festival. While attending these festivals, she had the privilege of working with Ida Kavafian, Peter Wiley, Melvin Chen, Jeremy Denk, John Tower, and Robert Martin. Having studied at the Central Conservatory of China and the Bard Conservatory, where she was under Ira Weller and Michael Tree, Ms. Liu is currently a full scholarship student at The Juilliard School studying with Heidi Castleman and Steven Tenenbom.

Eddy Malave was born on Long Island, New York where he began his musical training on the viola and piano under Irene Stitt. From this time onward, he has won many competitions and awards, participated in various summer music festivals and has performed with orchestras, chamber music and in recitals across the globe. He holds both bachelors and masters degrees from the Juilliard School in viola performance studying under the late William Lincer. Past teachers have also included Patinka Kopec, Margaret Pardee and Roland Vamos.

Eddy has performed a wide variety of musical genres from playing for President Bill Clinton at the middle east peace talks (Israel forum policy) to Elton John to collaborating with dj Victor Calderone along with many other prominent artist in various venues.

Musically he performs with the Sejong soloists, the Orchestra of St Lukes, and various broadway shows and is a certified Suzuki violin/ viola teacher (school for strings) and is currently on faculty at 3rd Street Music Settlement.

He is also trained certified teacher of the Alexander technique (American Center for the Alexander Technique), studies extensively with Thom Lemmons and John Nicholls. He is also serving on the faculty at the Steinhardt School, NYU (in professor Stephanie Baer's program). Eddy has presented the technique at NYU, the British Columbia music teachers conference in Surrey, B.C., Canada, at A.I.M.S., Graz, Austria, at the Volterra Project in Volterra, Italy and at the National Conservatory in Amman, Jordan.

Acclaimed for her "polish, focus, and excitement" (Allan Kozinn, The New York Times), violist Jessica Meyer is a versatile performer who has been featured as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout the world. As a passionate advocate of new music, Ms. Meyer is the the co-founder of the critically-acclaimed contemporary music collective counter)induction, which performs regularly in NYC and around the country. Jessica has premiered pieces for solo viola at Merkin Concert Hall and the MATA Festival, and has played with ensembles such as Continuum, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, the Glass Farm Ensemble, and SONYC (the String Orchestra of New York City).

Jessica strives to perform a wide variety of chamber music and has appeared in many venues both large and small - including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Miller Theatre in NYC, Symphony Hall in Boston, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. She is also the founder of Piaclava - a touring clarinet, viola, and piano trio that is often called upon to perform interactive outreach concerts sponsored by Lincoln Center and various other educational organizations. Equally at home with many other styles of music, Ms. Meyer has performed with singers ranging from Elton John to Sarah Brightman, and has improvised with tap dancer Savion Glover and his jazz band at the Joyce Theater and B.B. King’s Blues Club.

Preppy CT-grown kid, Nick Revel, aims to break down boundaries in the world of classical music. By combining classical music with new sounds and techniques in viola and popular instruments Nick brings new crowds together in the concert hall...or club, wherever the show happens to be.

Violist Ann Roggen's talents stem from a wide range of solo and ensemble experience.

She has been awarded grants from Chamber Music America and the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, has recorded extensively for the Telarc, Sony and Deutsche Gramaphone recording labels.

She maintains an active and vital studio at William Paterson University where she is professor of viola, chamber music and orchestral studies, as well as in New York City where she teaches viola and chamber music. As a member of the Bennington College faculty, she has had great success in developing interdisciplinary cultural events designed to combine music with literature, history, dance and language in performance.

Ms. Roggen is a tireless advocate for unique and unusual repertoire for the viola in combination with other instruments and voice. In her role as Vice President of the New York Viola Society, she has been successful in creating numerous performance opportunities in New York City for dedicated violists to explore this repertoire, both old and new. In the fall of 2008, she was elected to the national board of the American Viola Society.

Some of Ms. Roggen's recent creations include an evening of music for multiple violas, with violists of the London Symphony Orchestra, concerts of viola music by film composers, as well as an event presented by the Pen and Brush organization devoted to the life and works of composer Rebecca Clarke.

Highlights of recent seasons include concerto performances with the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra (Croatia), as well as recitals and master classes under the auspices of the American Cultural Centres in Zagreb and Vilnius, Lithuania.

Ms. Roggen received her musical training at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and the Juilliard School. Her principal teachers and mentors have included Karen Tuttle, Lillian Fuchs, Joseph Fuchs and the Juilliard String Quartet.

Steven Beck - "...one of the city's most admired young pianists..." - the New Yorker, Nov. 28th, 2005

American pianist Steven Beck was born in 1978. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where his teachers were Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin and Bruce Brubaker.

Mr. Beck made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, and has toured Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Other orchestras with which he has appeared include the New Juilliard Ensemble (under David Robertson), Sequitur, the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and the Virginia Symphony.

Mr. Beck has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theater, Steinway Hall, Tonic, and Barbes, as well as on the New York Philharmonic Ensembles Series and WNYC; summer appearances have been at the Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Greenwich Music Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival, the Woodstock Mozart Festival, the Wellesley Composers’ Conference, and the Walden School. He is an Artist Presenter and regular performer at Bargemusic (where he recently performed all of the Beethoven piano sonatas), and has performed as a musician with the New York City Ballet, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and the Christopher Caines Dance Company. He has worked with Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, George Perle, and Charles Wuorinen, and has appeared with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Manhattan String Quartet, the Pacifica String Quartet, The Metropolis Ensemble, New York Philomusica, the New York New Music Ensemble, Ensemble 21, Mosaic, the Lyric Chamber Music Society, the Omega Ensemble, the Fires of New York, Ensemble Sospeso, the Second Instrumental Unit, the Argento Ensemble, the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the East Coast Composers’ Ensemble. He is a member of the Knights, counter)induction, Talea, Pleasure is the Law, and the new music ensemble Future In Reverse (FIRE). His recordings are on the Albany, Bridge, Boston Records, Monument, Mulatta, and Annemarie Classics labels.

Saxophonist Tim Ruedeman has performed throughout the Unites States, Western Europe, and Asia. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “Tim Ruedeman’s saxophone solos were the evening’s tour de force. He proved the extreme virtuosity required for playing slowly and softly, and the intricacy of holding a tone.”

Recent and upcoming seasons include performances at the Lincoln Center Festival, Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Late Show with David Letterman, Bang On A Can Marathon, and the Macau China International Music Festival. A committed performer of new music, Dr. Ruedeman has given the premieres of over sixty pieces and is a member of the new-music ensemble, Flexible Music, and the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet. He has appeared as soloist with the S.E.M. Ensemble, Greenwich Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Hanover Wind Symphony, and Metamorphosen Orchestra and as an orchestral and chamber performer with the Long Island Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Absolute Ensemble, Juilliard Orchestra, North-South Consonance, Bridgeport Symphony, Desshoff Choir, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Equally at home in commercial and jazz music Tim has toured with rock legends The Cars, Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Lou Gramm of Foreigner, Denny Laine of the Moody Blues, Bo Bice of American Idol, Findlay Brown, M. Ward, and The Walkmen; and has shared the stage with jazz legends Muhal Richard Abrams, Ned Rothenberg, Billy Drewes, Bruce Arnold, and Peter Erskine. Dr. Ruedeman can be heard on recordings with the Absolute Ensemble, S.E.M. Ensemble, the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet, Flexible Music, and The Walkmen for the Naxos, Helicon, Allegro Records, New Focus Records, and CC’nC labels. Dr. Ruedeman is currently on the faculty of NYU, Montclair State University, William Paterson University, and C.W. Post Long Island University. He holds a BA in English Literature from Oberlin College, a BM in music performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and an MA and PhD in music performance from New York University.

Larry Weng began his piano studies at the age of seven with Dorothy Shi. At the age of eleven, he enrolled in the New England Conservatory Preparatory School under the tutelage Sylvia Chambless. Larry Weng is a laureate of numerous competitions, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition and the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition for Young Musicians. He has performed in many renowned concert halls such as Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and the Kaufman Center. He has also worked with numerous orchestras, including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, he was admitted to the joint degree program between Columbia University and The Juilliard School. In the past few years, Larry has continued to garner recognition in the music world, with top prizes from the New York Piano Competition and the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin competition.

Hailed by renowned professors and performers such as Arie Vardi and Paul Badura-Skoda as a "fine musician with a bright future," Larry is dedicated to not only the artistic creation of music in the concert hall, but also to education and outreach in the broader community. He firmly believes in the transformative powers of music, and the importance of immersing the youth in music in both an understandable and interesting manner. Larry has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Economics at Columbia University, is currently finishing his Masters degree at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Jerome Lowenthal and Matti Raekallio, and will be beginning the Artist Diploma program at Yale School of Music next fall.