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The New York Viola Society's 2004-2005 Season of
Concerts, Recitals and other Viola Events
The New York Viola Society's Thirteenth Season:
- The Violist as Composer - October 19,
2004
- Showcase: Viola Makers - November 19,
2004
- Steven Dann - January 9, 2005
- Collegial Concert I - January 30, 2005
- Csaba Erdélyi - March 6, 2005
- Collegial Concert II - May 1, 2005
October 19, 2004, 7:00 p.m.
Mannes College of Music
The Violist as Composer!
Program (Where not otherwise indicated, the composer
performed their own work)
Kenji Bunch - "Crawl Space" for Solo Viola
Louise Schulman - "Daphne Variations" for Solo Viola
Henri Vieuxtemps - "Elegie" for Viola and Piano
Sheila Browne, Viola
Dmitri Shteinberg, Piano
Frank Bridge - "Lament " for two Violas
Liuh Wen Ting and David Blinn, Violas
Martha Mooke - Two works for Electric Viola:
"...as the Phoenix"
Cafe Mars
David Cerutti - "The Mirabal Fragments" for Viola and
Voice
with Desiree Halac, Mezzo-Soprano
LJOVA (a.k.a. Lev Zhurbin) - "'FOUR' (the title is temporary)"
Played by Kenji Bunch, Liuh Wen Ting, Ann Roggen and Lev
November 19, 2004, 7:30 p.m.
Mannes College of Music
Showcase: Viola Makers
Among the community of string players, it is no
secret that there are string instrument makers working today whose
creations rival those of the works of the revered masters of the
past. While these makers are found all over the world, a large number
of them have their homes and workshops in the greater New York area.
This evening began with a short introduction of
each maker. Each maker was given an opportunity to briefly describe
his or her top priority in building a viola (perhaps size, shape,
bass bar placement, varnish or some other factor) and how they go
about achieving that goal.
After these brief statements, we were treated to
a demonstration of instruments by Misha Amory, violist of the Brentano
String Quartet and Juilliard faculty member.
After the formal offerings, the audience was given
a chance to meet with the individual makers, ask questions and try
some of the instruments.
Viola makers presented were: Ron Fletcher, Andrea
Hoffman-Simmel, Robert Isley, Geoffrey Ovington, Guy Rabut, Charles
Rufino, Alexander Tulchinsky and David Wiebe. In addition, instruments
by Nicholas Frirsz, Christophe Landon, Clifford Roberts and David
Rivinus (the "Pellegrina") were represented.
January 11, 2005, 4:00 p.m.
Manhattan School of Music
Steven Dann, Viola
Lambert Orkis, Piano
Susan Platts, Mezzo-soprano
All-Brahms Program:
Sonata, Op. 120 No. 1, in F minor
Gestillte Sehnsucht and Geistliches Wiegenlied, Op. 91
Sonata, Op. 120 No. 2, in E flat major
About the Artists:
 Steven
Dann holds the finest qualities of musicianship in a true
balance: reason and passion, curiosity and composure, engagement
and introspection; all with the most elegant sense of proportion.
He has held the position of principal viola with some of the world's
finest orchestras. Now he devotes his time to performing as a soloist
and chamber musician and commissioning and performing works by many
of the leading composers of our time. Steven Dann was born in Vancouver,
Canada in 1953. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto where
he studied viola with Lorand Fenyves. Other teachers have included
William Primrose in Banff, Canada, Robert Pikler in Sydney, Australia,
and Bruno Giuranna in Siena, Italy. Mr. Dann also spent six summers
at the Banff School of Fine Arts studying the string quartet repertoire
with Zoltan Szekely and other members of the Hungarian String Quartet.
Upon graduation from the University of Toronto in 1977, Mr. Dann
was named Principal Viola of the National Arts Centre Orchestra
in Ottawa, Canada, a position he has subsequently held with the
Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
in Amsterdam, the Vancouver Symphony and until 2000, the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra. He performed concerti with these orchestras
under the direction of such Maestri as Sir Andrew Davis, Jiri Belohlavek,
Sir John Elliott Gardiner, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
He has also been guest principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
under Seiji Ozawa, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under
Sir Simon Rattle and, in both performance and recordings, with the
Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund
and Pierre Boulez.
Since 1990 Mr. Dann has been
a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington D.C. and
is violist of the Axelrod String Quartet, which is in residence
at the Smithsonian Institution. The quartet performs an annual series
of concerts at the museum on its extraordinary collection of Stradivari
and Amati instruments. Mr. Dann has been a featured performer on
the Smithsonian's series of recordings for the Sony Classical Vivarte
label. Two of these recordings have won the Diapasson d'Or in France
for chamber music recording of the year. Solo recordings include
"A Portrait of the Viola", "Winter Music" for viola and orchestra
by Alexina Louie (Written for Mr. Dann and nominated for a Juno
award) and "the Mega4 Meta4" by Christos Hatzis, all for CBC records
and the Sequenza #6 of Luciano Berio for the Naxos label. Mr. Dann
has a great interest in contemporary music and has commissioned
many new works including concerti from Alexina Louie and Peter Lieberson
and chamber works from R. Murray Shafer, Frederick Schipitsky, Peter
Lieberson and Christos Hatzis. As both a performer and teacher,
Mr. Dann is a regular guest at many international festivals in Canada
and abroad.
Mr. Dann teaches viola and
chamber music at the Glenn Gould School of Toronto's Royal Conservatory
of Music.
Pianist Lambert Orkis
has achieved international renown for his performances as a chamber
musician, for his renderings of contemporary music, for his interpretations
on period instruments, and for his acclaimed recordings which have
received multiple Grammy Award nominations. For more than a decade,
the celebrated duo of violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Lambert
Orkis has appeared worldwide to capacity audiences. The duo's recordings
and DVDs for Deutsche Grammophon include the Grammy Award-winning
complete Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin. Mr. Orkis' substantial
career includes more than ten years of international touring as
a partner with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and appearances with
cellists Lynn Harrell, Anner Bylsma, Han-Na Chang and with violinist
Julian Rachlin. Lambert Orkis performs regularly with the Smithsonian
Institution's Castle Trio, which, using period instruments, has
recorded the cycle of Beethoven Trios, and is a founding member
of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players consisting of National Symphony
Orchestra string and keyboard principal players.
Mr. Orkis has premiered and
recorded compositions of numerous composers including solo works
by George Crumb, Richard Wernick, Maurice Wright, and James Primosch.
His most recent discs are: for innova Records under the auspices
of the 20th Century Consort, contemporary works by Crumb, Wright,
William Penn, and Dexter Morrill; for Bridge Records ("From Hammers
to Bytes"), works by Wernick (for piano) and Primosch (for piano
and synthesizer) commissioned and premiered by Mr. Orkis. In addition
to performing as principal keyboard with the National Symphony Orchestra,
he is professor of piano at Temple University's Esther Boyer College
of Music where he has been teaching for more than thirty years.
Temple University has honored Mr. Orkis with its Faculty Award for
Creative Achievement and the Alumni Association Certificate of Honor.
British-born Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan
Platts brings a uniquely rich and wide-ranging voice to the
concert and recital repertoire for alto and mezzo-soprano.
This past October, Ms. Platts
made her debuts at the Teatro alla Scala under the direction of
Gary Bertini and with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, as well
as return performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and Vancouver
Symphony.
In May of 2004, as part of
the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, world-renowned
soprano Jessye Norman chose Ms. Platts from 26 candidates world-wide
to be her protégé. She will have the honour of spending
the year mentoring with Ms. Norman.
In February of 2004, Ms. Platts
gave her Carnegie Hall debut, and in April returned to Lincoln Center's
Avery Fisher Hall to sing Elgar's Sea Pictures with the American
Symphony Orchestra. During past seasons she has appeared with the
Philadelphia Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra (Mario Bernardi), L'Orchestre
de Paris (Christoph Eschenbach), NAC Orchestra (Pinchas Zuckerman),
Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Sir Andrew Davis), Les Violons du Roy
(Bernard Labadie), the Oregon Bach Festival (Helmuth Rilling), and
the Detroit Symphony (Itzhak Perlman). Ms. Platts has opened two
of America's distinguished art song series: the Vocal Arts Society
at the Kennedy Center, in Washington D.C. and the "Art of the Song"
Series at Lincoln Center, in New York City.
She recently recorded Mahler's
Das Lied von der Erde for Fontec Records with Gary Bertini and the
Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, a CD of dramatic sacred art songs
with Dalton Baldwin, and Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden
Gesellen with the Smithsonian Chamber Players and Santa Fe Pro Musica
for Dorian Records.
January 30, 2005, 2:30 p.m.
Donnell Library Center Auditorium
Collegial Concert I
Rosemary Glyde - Weiji
Daniel Avshalomov
Melissa Reardon
Ann Roggen
Rebecca Osborn
Gordon Jacob - Suite for Eight Violas
Ann Roggen
Daniel Avshalomov
Melissa Reardon
Rebecca Osborn
Christine Ims
Denise Cridge
Jessica Troy
Olivia Koppel
Frank Bridge - Lament
Ann Roggen
Daniel Avshalomov
Music by Richard Lane
Eight Duos for Two Violas (1985) - "for Manny and Lenore Vardi"
V: Souvenir, Semplice
VI: Song, Moderato
VII: March, Allegretto scherzando
Naomi Graf Rooks
Judith Insell
Quartet for Violas (1978) - "for Myron Rosenblum"
Christine Ims
Olivia Koppell
Jessica Troy
Lisa Whitfield
Triptych for Six Violas (2004), World Premiere, dedicated to Myron
Rosenblum
I: Intrada, Allegro
II: Canzona, Andante, espressivo
III: Finale, Allegro moderato
Myron Rosenblum
Veronica Jacobs
Paula Washington
Nancy Eliot Mack
Ellen Hill
Karin Satra
Richard Lane (1933-2004), New Jersey-born
composer, was extremely fond of the viola and featured it in many
settings: 3 sonatas with piano, two sets of viola duos, 2 trios
for clarinet, viola and piano, a trio for viola, cello and piano,
5 flute and viola duets, the Viola Quartet, Nocturne for viola and
piano, the Song and Dance (written for Emanuel Vardi), the Aria
and Allegro for Viola and Strings, written for the Primrose Memorial
Scholarship Competition at the 19th International Viola Congress,
Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, and the Triptych for Six Violas.
The Triptych was written over 2003 and 2004 and will be performed
for the first time here.
March 6, 2005, 7:30 p.m.
Manhattan School of Music
Csaba Erdélyi,
Viola
Laura Melton, Piano
Brahms (arranged by Erdélyi for Viola and Piano) - Sonata
in D major, op. 78 ("Rain Song")
Paul Chihara - Sonata for Viola and Piano (1996 - revised 1999)
Bohuslav Martinu - Sonata for Viola and Piano No. 1
Manuel De Falla (arranged by Erdélyi for Viola and Piano)
- "El Amor Brujo" Suite
This presentation was funded in part by the MidAmerican
Center for Contemporary Music at the College of Musical Arts of
Bowling Green State University, Ohio.
About the Artists:
 Csaba
Erdélyi, born in the Hungarian
capital, Budapest, opened a new chapter in the history of the
viola, when, in 1972, he won the prestigious Carl Flesch Violin
Competition with the viola - the first, and so far, only time.
Lionel Tertis, who was present at the finals, called Erdélyi
"a great ambassador for the viola and for his country". The Flesch
Prize launched Erdélyi's international career; in the same
year he was invited by Joseph Szigeti and Rudolph Serkin to the
Marlboro Festival (USA) where he also worked with Pablo Casals. A viola student of Pál
Lukács and subsequently Yehudi Menuhin and Bruno Giuranna,
Erdélyi became Menuhin's partner in concertos and chamber
music, the two playing together in several countries. Menuhin
wrote to Benjamin Britten: "Erdélyi is an invaluable link
between the two great musical cultures of Eastern and Western
Europe."
Erdélyi has played
in concerts and recordings with Maurice Gendron, Franco Gulli,
Yo-Yo Ma, George Malcolm, Jessye Norman, András Schiff.
He was the viola soloist in the film score of Amadeus,
with Sir Neville Marrriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
As a soloist he has recorded for Concordance, Decca, Hungaroton,
Lyrita, Nimbus and Philips records. He has played viola concertos
with the leading British orchestras in the Royal Festival Hall
and on the BBC Promenade Concerts, as well as major international
music festivals with Rudolf Barshai, Colin Davis, Andrew Davis,
Raymond Leppard, Riccardo Muti and Kurt Sanderling conducting.
Erdélyi was principal
viola of the Philharmonia Orchestra of London from 1974 to 1978.
He was guest principal violist of the BBC Symphony, invited by
Gennady Rozhdestvensky. As a member of the Eszterházy Baryton
Trio, he recorded exclusively for EMI. In 1980 Sir Georg Solti
invited Erdélyi to the principal viola post in the Chicago
Symphony. He declined in order to embark on a new career as the
violist of the London-based Chilingirian Quartet, as well as professor
of viola at the Guildhall School of Music (1980-1987). Erdélyi
has held viola and chamber music master classes in major conservatories
all over the world. He was a patron and jury member of the first
Tertis International Viola Competition on the Isle of Man (1980).
A dual citizen of Hungary
and Great Britain and a permanent resident of the United States,
Erdélyi taught at Indiana University (1987-1991), Rice
University (1991-1995), Butler University (1998-2003) as professor
of viola and chamber music, and he has also established a new
course of its kind: "The History of the Viola and Viola Players".
In addition to performing,
recording, and teaching, Erdélyi devotes much time to research
and publication with the utmost respect for original manuscripts.
His publications include Bach: Suite pour la luth (BWV
995) and Fantasia Cromatica (BWV 903) for viola solo; Bartók:
Hungarian Suite; Brahms: Sonata in D, op. 78; DeFalla:
"El Amor brujo"; Liszt: 5 late works, all for viola
and piano; and Mozart-Erdélyi: Sinfonia Concertante
(KV 364), for string sextet. In August 1998, Professor Erdélyi
gave the world premiere of Bach's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
in E-flat (the manuscript lost to the present day), which
he reconstructed from the composer's well-known later version
for harpsichord (BWV 1053). The performance took place at the
Schnackenburg Musikfestival in Germany with the St. Petersburg
Chamber Orchestra.
Erdélyi was the first
violist to research the original manuscript of the Bartók
Viola Concerto. Since 1980 he has been working on the composer's
last masterpiece which was left in its first draft. He corrected
the mistakes of the first edition and with the help of world-renowned
Bartók scholars: Elliott Antokoletz and László
Somfai as well as composers Péter Eötvös and
György Kurtág restored and orchestrated the work in
the purest and most authentic manner. Former violist of the Kolisch-quartet,
Eugene Lehner, friend of Bartók, praised Erdélyi's
score and recording as "an invaluable service to Bartók
and all violists." The score has been published by Promethean
Editions (www.promethean-editions.com) and a CD was recorded in
2001 with Erdélyi and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
with conductor Marc Taddei on Concordance label (www.concordance.co.nz).
Csaba Erdélyi is
professor of viola and chamber music at Bowling Green State University
in Ohio. He performs on a magnificent viola made for him by master
luthier Joseph Curtin in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
 A
native of Wilmington, North Carolina, and a member of the Piano
Faculty at Bowling Green State University, Laura
Melton has been a prizewinner in several major international
competitions including the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin,
the New York Recital Division of the Joanna Hodges Competition
and, most recently, the Mu Phi Epsilon Competition in 1998. She
has reached the Semi-Finals of the Orleans International Competition
in France, the Concurso International de Ejecucion Musical in
Vina del Mar, Chile, and was the only remaining American in the
Semi-Finals of the 1991 Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland.
After winning the National Symphony Orchestra's Young Artist Competition,
she performed with the orchestra four times at the Kennedy Center
in Washington, D.C. Other orchestral appearances include the Freiburg
Musikhochschulorchester of Freiburg, Germany, the San Francisco
Chamber Players, and the International Chamber Orchestra of Idyllwild,
California. Her numerous appearances on radio and television include
recordings for Sudwestfunk Radio in Germany and an appearance
on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" in celebration
of the birthday of composer John Corigliano. She has also appeared
in several summer festivals including Ravinia, Aspen, Sarasota,
and festivals in Holland, Switzerland and Germany. In addition,
she is on the summer piano faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp
in Michigan.
Ms. Melton received her
DMA from Rice University in Houston where she was a graduate fellow
and teaching assistant to John Perry. As a student of Robert Levin,
she spent three years in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, earning
the Solistendiplom while studying at the Staatliche Hochschule
fur Musik in Freiburg, Germany. Her previous studies include a
Masters Degree from USC under John Perry and a Bachelor of Music
Degree from the University of Maryland at College Park as a student
of Nelita True. She also spent her formative years studying with
Mary Eunice Troy in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Ms. Melton joined the BGSU
faculty from the Idyllwild Arts Academy, where she had been on
the faculty since 1993. Her students have won numerous competitions
and awards and have continued their studies at some of the finest
conservatories and music programs in the country including the
Curtis Institute, Juilliard, Eastman, Oberlin, Peabody and the
New England Conservatory.
May 1, 2005, 7 p.m.
ArtsIndia Gallery ( 206 5th Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets)
Collegial Concert II
Scharwenka - Sonata for Viola and Piano
Christine Ims, Viola
Yi-Fang Huang, Piano
Yanjun Hua - "The Moon Mirrored on the Er Spring" arranged for
solo viola by Ding Zhinuo/Ching Chen Juhl
Ching Chen Juhl, Viola
Krystof Penderecki - Cadenza
Henryk Wieniawski - Scherzo-Caprice
Melissa Reardon, Viola
Yi-Fang Huang, Piano
Jean-Marie Leclair - Duo in A Major for Violas
Adria Benjamin, Viola
Rebecca Osborn, Viola
George Quincy - "Fanfare for a Choctaw Soul" and "Callisto, a Moon
of Jupiter"
Joel Rudin, Viola
Mary Barto, Flute
George Quincy, Piano
Giacomo Zucchi - Adagio, Theme and Variations and Polacca Allegretto
Rebecca Osborn, Viola
Andrea Andros, Viola
Nancy Reed, Violin
Alessandro Benetello, Cello
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