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Fire and Ice
December 2, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Christ and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
120 West 69th Street (East of Broadway), New York City
Admission: New York Viola Society members: Free
General Admission: $15, Seniors: $10, Students: $5
More information: (212) 592-7785
An evening of exciting and unusual viola music from New Zealand, Argentina,
Iceland, Norway, Chile and Russia.
Program
Sergei Prokofiev - Five Pieces from "Romeo and Juliet" (arr. Borisovsky)
Dan Avshalomov, Viola
Joanne Polk
Edvard Grieg - Sonata for Cello and Piano (arr. for viola and piano)
Elizabeth Prior Runnicles, Viola
Jeanne-Minette Cilliers, Piano
Astor Piazzola - Two Short Pieces For Viola and Piano
Nardo Poy, Viola
Margaret Kampmeier, Piano
Martin Lodge - Cadenza (2007)
Douglas Lilburn - Poco Lento from Suite for Solo Viola (1956)
Tim Deighton
Áskell Másson - A Voce Sola
Margret Hjaltested
Jean Sibelius - Duo for Violin and Viola
Ketil Hvoslef - Duo for Violin and Viola
Sophia Kessinger, Violin
Shmuel Katz, Viola
Piano courtesy of Yamaha Pianos
About the Artists:
Daniel Avshalomov is violist of the American String Quartet. Before joining the Quartet, he was principal violist for the orchestras of the Spoleto, Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals as well as for the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Composers Orchestra. He performed as solo violist with the Bolshoi Ballet and was a founding member of the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble. A frequent guest artist with the Guarneri Quartet, he has also been featured artist with such groups as the Da Camera Society, Marin Music Fest and La Musica di Asolo, and has shared the stage with Norbert Brainin, Misha Dichter, Maureen Forrester, Bruno Giuranna and the Juilliard and Tokyo quartets. Mr. Avshalomov gave the premiere in New York of Giampaolo Bracali's Concerto per Viola, which has also been broadcast in Europe by RAI. His essays and criticism appear in respected musical journals, and he has prepared editions of contemporary viola works for publication. His most recent recording, Three Generations Avshalomov (Albany Records), was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in Classical Pulse. Recent solo appearances have included recitals in Vermont, New York, Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. He is a faculty member of Manhattan School of Music as well as Aspen Music School. For balance he climbs mountains. His instrument is by Andrea Amati (Cremona, 1568).
Pianist Joanne Polk has been
catapulted into the public eye because of her traversal of the complete
piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944). In March 2000,
Ms. Polk celebrated the centennial of Beachís Piano Concerto in C-sharp
minor by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber
Orchestra at the Barbican Centre under the baton of Paul Goodwin. A few
days later, Ms. Polk performed the same concerto with the Women's
Philharmonic in San Francisco with conductor Apo Hsu in a performance
described as "brilliant" by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco
Chronicle. He went on to describe Ms. Polkís performance as "an enormously
vital, imaginative reading. Her playing was expansive in the opening
movement, brittle and keen in the delightful scherzo. She brought a
light touch to the foreshortened slow movement and fearless technical
panache to the showy conclusion."
Empress of Night, released
on Arabesque Recordings, is the fifth volume of Ms. Polk's ongoing survey
of Beach's piano works, and includes the Piano Concerto with the English
Chamber Orchestra, again with Paul Goodwin conducting. The first recording
in the Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award
for best solo recording. In the fifth volume of the series, Morning
Glories, Ms. Polk joins the Lark Quartet in three outstanding chamber
music works by Amy Beach. Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert
Hall, which featured Joanne Polk and the Lark Quartet, were applauded
by the New York Times, that reviewed Polkís performances as
"polished and assured." The American Record Guide reported, "Polk
and the Larks played their hearts out. We in the audience shouted
ourselves hoarse with gratitude."
Prior to recording the complete
piano music of Amy Beach, Ms. Polk recorded lieder and chamber music
for Arabesque Recordings. Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck
Schumann, Ms. Polk's debut CD for Arabesque Recording featuring
Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker, was selected as a "Best of
the Year" recording by the Seattle Times and was featured on
Performance Today on National Public Radio. Ms. Polk's most
recent CD for Albany Records, Callisto, was released in January 2004
and features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont. She has
recorded a CD of Amy Beach songs, with baritone Patrick Mason
for Bridge Records, due for release in 2005.
Ms. Polk has performed in solo
recitals; with chamber ensembles; and as a soloist with orchestras in
Europe, the United States and Australia. With composer Judith Lang
Zaimont, she cofounded American Accent, a New Yorkñbased contemporary
music group specializing in coveted repeat performances of new
works.
Ms. Polk received her bachelor of
music and master of music degrees from The Juilliard School and her
doctor of musical arts degree from Manhattan School of Music.
She has recently given master classes at the Summit Music Festival
and at the University of Minnesota and joined the piano faculty
of the Castelnuovo di Garfagnana Music Festival in Italy in the
summer of 2004. She is presently the director of the Precollege
Division at Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Polk is an exclusive
Steinway artist.
A noted violist, Elizabeth Prior-Runnicles performs regularly with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (where she has served as Associate Principal) as well as the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and, as Associate Principal, the Marin Symphony. Other orchestral credits include the Baden Baden Radio, Stuttgart Radio, Basel Symphony, and Mannheim Opera Orchestras, as well as the Freiburg Philharmonic and Cape Town Symphony.
A native of South Africa, she was a prizewinner in the International String Competition in Pretoria, and has toured extensively as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and in chamber music ensembles such as the Broderick String Quartet, the Marin Harp Trio, Trio Resonance, the Barbican String Quartet, and Ensemble 13 Karlsruhe.
Festival performances include the Colorado Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, the Grand Tetons Music Festival, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and the Fredener Musiktage. Ms Runnicles is also known for organizing a series of 'house concerts' on behalf of the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music.
New York City-based pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers has been called "a pianistic poet", garnering rave reviews for her color-rich and imaginative performances.
A native of South Africa, she has received numerous awards and prizes since she began playing at age three, and made her orchestral debut at twelve playing JoaquÌn Turina's Rapsodia sinfÛnica. She won her first national competition in 1990, continuing to capture grand prizes in, among others, the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale and the Kalamazoo Young Artists Bach Competition, as well as the silver medal in the 2000 Nena Wideman Concerto Competition. She has won prizes in all of South Africa's major competitions, including the 1999 Unisa Overseas Music Scholarship Competition and two special prizes at the Ninth Unisa International Piano Competition (2000).
Past solo appearances include the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago.
Ms. Cilliers earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees (with distinction) from the University of Michigan in 1995 and 1997, respectively, while studying with fellow South African Anton Nel. As a student of Menahem Pressler's, she earned an Artist's Diploma from Indiana University in 2000. Currently she is the first and only Artist Diploma candidate in vocal accompanying at the Manhattan School of Music, working with Warren Jones.
Nardo Poy, violist, has been a member of the world-renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra since 1978 and has been featured as soloist in the United States, Europe and Japan with Orpheus, the North Carolina Symphony, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia and the Kansas City Camerata. Other groups with which Mr. Poy performs are the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Perspectives Ensemble and the Lighthouse Chamber Players, among many others. Recordings include over 60 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as numerous chamber music recordings with the Perspectives Ensemble, the Harmonie Ensemble, the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble and colleagues from the Bard Music Festival. Among his many chamber music performances have been collaborations with Isaac Stern, Elmar Oliveira, Bernard Greenhouse and Aaron Rosand. He has held the principal viola position with the Lake George Opera Company, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Santa Fe Opera, L'Opera Francais de New York, the Philharmonia Orchestra of Philadelphia and the Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra. Mr. Poy has also been an Artist-in-Residence at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music with the Carnegie String Quartet. He presently is the principal violist with the American Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2002.
Since receiving her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 1990, pianist Margaret Kampmeier has performed in hundreds of concerts, presented numerous premieres and recorded extensively. She has performed across the United States, in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia, and is active as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral keyboardist and teacher of piano. She is a founding member of the New Millennium Ensemble, a mixed chamber group which won the 1995 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and released its debut CD in January of 1998. Ms. Kampmeier has appeared as guest artist with the Kronos Quartet, performs regularly with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and appears frequently with New York area groups such as Speculum Musicae, and the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. Active as an educator, Ms. Kampmeier teaches at Princeton University and has presented forums on music of women composers and contemporary techniques.
Highlights of past seasons include performances with the Kronos Quartet at the Kennedy Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music, a concerto and solo recital for Saarland Radio in Germany, and numerous educational concerts sponsored by the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. As a recording artist, Ms. Kampmeier can be heard on the Centaur, CRI, Koch, Nonesuch and Bridge labels. Festival appearances include Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, Vancouver Recital Society, Bard and Tanglewood. Ms. Kampmeier earned her Bachelor's Degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Barry Snyder. She received Master's and Doctoral Degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she studied with pianist Gilbert Kalish. A native of Rochester, NY, she resides currently in New York City with her husband, composer Ed Harsh and their son Andrew.
Timothy Deighton is Associate Professor of viola at Penn State University where he teaches viola, chamber music, viola literature, pedagogy, and orchestral excerpts classes, and directs the Penn State Viola Ensemble. A native of New Zealand, he received a bachelor of music and first class honours degree from Victoria University of Wellington, an artist diploma from the Hartt School of Music, and a doctor of musical arts degree in viola and violin from the University of Kansas.
In 2002 Deighton was recognized by the Pennsylvania-Delaware String Teachers Association as String Teacher of the Year. Several of his former students now hold positions in professional orchestras and on the faculties of music schools in the United States and overseas. Recent teaching engagements include master classes and lessons in the UK at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, and Chethams School of Music. A regular contributor to musical periodicals, his articles have appeared in such publications as Strings, the American String Teacher, Journal of the American Viola Society, the New York Violist, and the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Viola Society. In 1999 he organized and directed "ViolaFest" at Penn State, involving more than 200 violists from across North America and abroad. The Penn State Viola Ensemble, which he directs, has given numerous performances since its formation in 1999, including a recent appearance on a New York Viola Society Collegial Concert where they presented two world premieres.
Having long held a fascination for new music, he has performed premieres of more than fifty new works for viola, many of which were commissioned by or written for him. His first solo CD, Viola Aotearoa, featuring music for viola by New Zealand composers, was released in 2002 on the Atoll label. His playing on this disc was described in The Strad as "brilliant and differentiated," and the CD was one of the New Zealand Listenerís Top 10 classical recordings of 2002. As a member of the contemporary chamber music duo The Irrelevants, he and saxophonist Carrie Koffman have commissioned and premiered many new works. Deighton has appeared at three International Viola Congresses as recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra, and as master class presenter and panelist.
Recent collaborations include those with the American String Quartet, the New Zealand String Quartet, and Quartet Accorda, as well as with musicians outside the traditional classical field such as the traditional M”ori musical instrumentalist (Taongo Puoro) Richard Nunns. Many of Deightonís solo and chamber music performances have been broadcast on U.S., European, and Australasian radio. He is a National Recording Artist for Radio New Zealand, and was a member of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He often appears in recital with his wife, pianist Ann Deighton. During the summers he serves on the faculty of the International Musical Arts Institute (IMAI) in Fryeburg, Maine. Other festivals at which he has recently appeared include Music at Pennís Woods (PA), The Pierre Monteux Festival (ME), the Gold Coast Music Festival (CA), the Dublin International Symphonic Festival, Ireland, the Adam New Zealand Festival of Chamber Music, and Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves, France.
Violist Margrét Hjaltested is an active performer and teacher in the New York area. She has played with orchestras such as Westchester Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony and Key West Symphony. On baroque viola she has performed with the American Classical Orchestra and Concert Royal. MargrÈt has toured internationally both with chamber groups and orchestras, including the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, the New York Symphonic Ensemble on its annual tour of the Far East and with the Icelandic award-winning pop artist Bj–rk. MargrÈt is a recipient of the American Scandinavian Society's Cultural Award for her musical contributions to Scandinavian communities in New York and New Jersey. MargrÈt is currently on the faculty of the Queens College preparatory division and Summerkeys in Lubec, Maine. She is a graduate of the ReykjavÌk College of Music, the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music. Her teachers include Karen Tuttle, Karen Ritscher, Richard Simon and Joey Corpus.
Sophia Kessinger is a member of the first violin section of the New York City Opera Orchestra, and of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. She performs frequently as a substitute violinist with the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Lukeís. After beginning her academic studies at the University of California at Berkeley, she went on to attend the Manhattan School of Music where she received both Bachelorís and Masterís degrees while studying with Sylvia Rosenberg and Mitchell Stern. Ms. Kessinger has studied chamber music with members of the Guarneri, Julliard, Amadeus, Cleveland and American String Quartets. She has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Manhattan School Symphony, the Mendocino Symphony, the Round Top Festival Orchestra and the Jupiter Symphony.
A native of Israel, Shmuel Katz maintains a performing career on the viola and violin as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral player. He received Bachelor and Master degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Pinchas Zukerman, and Michael Tree, and he participated in masterclasses given by Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Josef Gingold and Dorothy DeLay. His awards include 2nd prize in the HAMS viola competition, Chicago 2003, 1st prize in the CIMS chamber music competition, Palermo, Italy, 1995, and America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships. Shmuel Katz has collaborated in chamber music concerts with Pinchas Zukerman, Tabea Zimmermann, Michael Tree, Ralph Kirschbaum and members of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Katz is a member of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. He is a frequent guest violist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Met Opera Orchestra.
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