The Atlanta Chamber Players

Concerts @ First presents

The Atlanta Chamber Players

Atlanta Chamber Players November 14th, 2021 4:00 P.M Alcides Rodriguez, clarinet; Helen Hwaya Kim, violin; John Meisner, violin; Catherine Lynn, viola; Brad Ritchie, cello; Elizabeth Pridgen,piano

Peace

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981) Alcides Rodriguez Elizabeth Pridgen

Dies Irie

Kenji Bunch (b.1973) Helen Hwaya Kim Brad Ritchie

Elizabeth Pridgen

Southern Harmony I. Sof Summers II. Reel Time III. Gentle Waltz

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)

Helen Hwaya Kim

John Meisner

Catherine Lynn Brad Ritchie

Notes From Inside I. Clockwork II. Indoor Games III. Time Capsule (Palindrome) IV. Intermezzo V. Diversions VI. What Happens Up Here Alcides Rodriguez

Helen Hwaya Kim

Benjamin Krause (b. 1985)

Catherine Lynn

Brad Ritchie

INTERMISSION Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60 (1875, Germany)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

I. Allegro non troppo II. Scherzo: Allegro III. Andante IV. Finale: Allegro comodo Helen Hwaya Kim

Catherine Lynn

Brad Ritchie Elizabeth Pridgen

About the Artists Helen Hwaya Kim, violin Helen Hwaya Kim made her orchestral debut with the Calgary Philharmonic at the age of six, and has gone on to become a respected and sought-after artist. She has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops at Boston's Symphony Hall, as well as with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.

Ms. Kim earned her Bachelor and Master's Degree from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Cho-Liang Lin and Dorothy DeLay. While at Juilliard, she served as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and was the winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition at both the pre–college and college levels. She is the recipient of more than one hundred national and international awards. She won the prestigious Artists International Competition in New York and, as a result, gave debut recitals at Carnegie Weill Hall and the Aspen Summer Music Festival.

A native of Canada, Ms. Kim has been engaged by many of Canada's leading orchestras, including the National Arts Center Orchestra, Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, McGill Chamber Orchestra, and the Windsor, Regina, Victoria and Prince George Symphonies. She has also appeared with the DeKalb, New Orleans, Aspen and Banff Festival Orchestras, and with orchestras in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.

Ms. Kim has toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Santa Fe and La Jolla International Music Festivals, where she performed with Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Andre Previn, and the Orion String Quartet. She performed Bach’s Double violin concerto with Hilary Hahn at the Amelia Island Chamber music festival. She most recently made her debut performance at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Other festival highlights include performances at the Highlands-Cashiers, Banff, Zenith, St. Miguel De Allende and Sitka International Chamber Music Festivals.

An avid performer of new music, she can be heard on the recent CD release of the works of Alvin Singleton on Albany records. Helen performed the world premiere of the “Concertino” by Chen Yi, scored for solo violin and orchestra that was commissioned especially for her and the KSU Orchestra and was recently released by Centaur in 2016.

Ms. Kim currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, where she served as Assistant and Associate Concertmaster for the Atlanta Symphony for three seasons. She is currently the Assistant Concertmaster of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and serves as Professor of Violin and Chair of the String Department at Kennesaw State University.

About the Artists Catherine Lynn, viola Catherine Lynn joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2002 and became Assistant Principal Viola in 2009.

An active teacher and chamber musician, Ms. Lynn is on the faculty of Kennesaw State University and plays with the Atlanta Chamber Players.

Ms. Lynn is a viola coach for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra and has performed as a soloist with the Kennesaw State University and Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestras.

Prior to joining the Atlanta Symphony, Ms. Lynn was Principal Viola of the Flint Symphony Orchestra in Michigan and a member of the Rosseels String Quartet in residence at the University of Michigan.

Ms. Lynn received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and her Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she studied with Yizhak Schotten and Andrew Jennings.

John Meisner, violin John Meisner has been a member of the first violin section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) since 2000.

From 1991-1996, Mr. Meisner performed in chamber music concerts throughout the United States as a member of the Harrington String Quartet in residence at West Texas A&M University. During this period, he also performed as Concertmaster and soloist with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he has held positions with the orchestras of Denver, St. Louis, and Ft. Worth.

Since joining the ASO, Mr. Meisner has been an active participant in the Atlanta chamber music scene. He is a founding member of the Peachtree String Quartet and has also performed frequently with the Atlanta Chamber Players, including concerts at Clayton State University’s prestigious Spivey Hall. Past summer activities have included participation at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC, and the New Hampshire Music Festival in Plymouth, NH. Currently, Mr. Meisner performs at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival in Virginia.

Mr. Meisner holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University and a Master of Music degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where his teachers included James Buswell, Josef Gingold, and Joyce Robbins.

About the Artists Elizabeth Pridgen, piano Pianist Elizabeth Pridgen has distinguished herself as a soloist and chamber musician.

Named Artistic Director of the Atlanta Chamber Players in 2014, she has led the group in performances of both new and standard chamber works to critical acclaim. Ms. Pridgen made her major orchestral debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano and recently released three albums including the Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet with Andres Cardenes and the Vega String Quartet and albums with violinists Robert McDuffie and Anne Akiko Meyers.

An advocate of new music, Ms. Pridgen has participated in the commissioning of works by noted composers such as Adam Schoenberg and Michael Gandolfi and supports underserved composers through her leadership of the Rapido! National Composition Contest.

Ms. Pridgen has toured extensively throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe and performs regularly at festivals including the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Rome, Italy, the Aspen Music Festival, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the HighlandsCashiers Chamber Music Festival, the Madison Chamber Music Festival and the Kon-Tiki Chamber Music Festival in Oslo, Norway. An avid chamber performer, she is a member of the Cortona Trio and Georgian Chamber Players.

Ms. Pridgen served as a Distinguished Artist and Piano Chair at the McDuffie Center for Strings and held the G. Leslie Fabian Piano Chair at the Townsend School of Music at Mercer University. She received her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School where she studied with Joseph Kalichstein and earned her bachelor's degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music as a student of Ann Schein.

Brad Ritchie, cello Cellist Brad Ritchie joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1997. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he earned his Bachelor of Music at Indiana University where he studied with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Janos Starker. In his senior year, his string quartet won the school's Kuttner Quartet Competition, which provided them with a year of recitals and trips to a number of chamber music competitions from Osaka, Japan, to Evian, France. Following a summer of quartet concerts in Europe, Ritchie enrolled in the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany, and earned his graduate degree studying with Adriana Contino.

After completing his studies in Germany, Ritchie played for two years in the New World Symphony in Miami under Michael Tilson Thomas. In 1997, he became a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and also joined the Atlanta Chamber Players. During his tenure with the Atlanta Chamber Players, he has made recordings on the CRI, ACA Digital, and MSR labels and toured extensively, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall, the American Cathedral in Paris, France, and at the International Chamber Music Festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

In addition to his Orchestra commitments, Ritchie has played with many other chamber music and new music ensembles in and around Atlanta, including Riverside Chamber Players, Thamyris Ensemble, Emory Chamber Players, Franklin Pond Quartet, GLO-ATL, and Bent Frequency, as well as annual concerts with faculty at Kennesaw State University and recitals with Robert Henry in Highlands, NC. He is a founding member of the contemporary music ensemble Sonic Generator, currently in its 10th season in residence at Georgia Tech University.In his spare time, Ritchie enjoys traveling to distant lands, running through the woods and finding new places to eat.

About the Artists Alcides Rodriguez, clarinet Alcides Rodriguez joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2005 as clarinet and bass clarinet.

A versatile musician, Rodriguez can be heard in chamber, orchestral and concerto performances on clarinet and bass clarinet. He is a member of the Atlanta Chamber Players.

A dedicated educator, he is on the faculty of the Atlanta Symphony's Talent Development Program and maintains a private studio at home. He is an Artist and Clinician for the Buffet Group and Vandoren, and plays Buffet clarinets and Vandoren reeds exclusively.

A native of Venezuela, Rodriguez obtained his musical training through the System of Youth Orchestras of Venezuela before moving to the United States. He obtained a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Baylor University. His main teachers were Russell Dagon, Richard Shanley and J. Lawrie Bloom.

Rodriguez has participated in various summer music festivals, including the New Hampshire Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra and the National Orchestral Institute. Internationally, he has performed at the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival (Mexico), the Pacific Music Festival (Japan) and the Campos do Jordao International Winter Festival (Brazil).

An avid advocate of Venezuelan music, Rodriguez also plays maracas and cuatro. He has been featured as a maracas soloist, performing the Concerto for Maracas and Orchestra by Ricardo Lorenz. He has also played maracas in the percussion section of the Atlanta Symphony. His album The Venezuelan Clarinet (2010) is a tribute to the music of his native country, and a showcase of Rodriguez' versatility.

Throughout his career, Rodriguez has earned prizes in clarinet competitions such as the Young Texas Artist Music Competition, the Kingsville Competition and the Orchestral Excerpts Competition of the International Clarinet Association. While in Venezuela he often performed as a soloist with various youth orchestras, playing some of the most important works in the clarinet repertoire. In 1997, he gave the first performance in Venezuela of Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto.

Composers Kenji Bunch, Portland, OR (b. 1973) Kenji Bunch is one of America’s most engaging, influential, and prolific composers.

Through an expansive blend of classical and vernacular styles, Bunch makes music that’s “clearly modern but deeply respectful of tradition and instantly enjoyable.” (The Washington Post) Deemed “emotional Americana,” (Oregon ArtsWatch) and infused with folk and roots influences, Bunch’s work has inspired a new genre classification: “Call it neoAmerican: casual on the outside, complex underneath, immediate and accessible to first-time listeners… Bunch’s music is shiningly original.” (The Oregonian) Hailed by The New York Times as “A Composer To Watch” and cited by Alex Ross in his seminal book The Rest Is Noise, Bunch’s wit, lyricism, unpredictability, and exquisite craftsmanship earn acclaim from audiences, performers, and critics alike. His interests in history, philosophy, and intergenerational and cross-cultural sharing of the arts reflect in his work. Varied style references in Bunch's writing mirror the diversity of global influence on American culture and reveal his deft ability to integrate bluegrass, hip hop, jazz, and funk idioms.

Rich, tonal harmonies and drawn-out, satisfying builds characterize Bunch’s work and easily lend themselves to dance and film. Over sixty American orchestras have performed Bunch’s music, which “reache(s) into every section of the orchestra to create an intriguing mixture of sonic colors.” (NW Reverb) As the inaugural Composer in Residence for the Moab Music Festival (2021), Bunch composed Lost Freedom: A Memory in collaboration with and starring actor George Takei as the narrator of his own writings, interwoven with chamber ensemble. Other recent works include commissions and premieres from the Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Lark Quartet, Britt Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Music From Angel Fire, Chamber Music Northwest, Eugene Ballet, Third Angle New Music, Grant Park Music Festival, and 45th Parallel (2020 Composer in Residence). His extensive discography includes recordings on Sony/BMG, EMI Classics, Koch, RCA, and Naxos labels among others. Also an outstanding violist, Bunch was the first student ever to receive dual Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in viola and composition from The Juilliard School and was a founding member of the highly acclaimed ensembles Flux Quartet (1996-2002) and Ne(x)tworks (2003-2011). Bunch currently serves as Artistic Director of Fear No Music, directs MYSfits, the Metropolitan Youth Symphony’s conductorless string orchestra, and teaches viola, composition, and music theory at Portland State University, Reed College, and for the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Johannes Brahms Hamburg, 7 May 1833-Vienna, 3 April 1897 Brahms accepted the Classical traditional substantially without question. His contribution to the development of Romantic music was to put “new wine into old bottles”; he infused the standard forms with all of the Romantic devices of his craft. Even more so than Beethoven, whom Brahms both revered and feared, his formal treatments stretch the limits of Classical practice while simultaneously remaining generally faithful to the original models. In this sense, Brahms was a musical conservative. His music is structured according to various formal and technical principles rather than along literary or dramatic lines. Not for him were the programmatic symphonies and single-movement concertos of Mendelssohn and Berlioz with their self-indulgent posturing. Brahms felt that an overabundance of emotion resulted in undisciplined work.

Brahms worked constantly under “the shadow of Beethoven.” In 1870, during the course of work on his first symphony, Brahms despaired “You have no conception how the likes of us feel when we hear the tramp of a giant like him behind us.” This keen awareness of historical perspective, judging his own achievement against that of Beethoven, made of Brahms a severely self-critical composer. No one knows how much music Brahms actually wrote. He destroyed many complete works and other unfinished and unpublished compositions which did not stand up to his own scrupulous standards of excellence. Many of these works would likely have passed as masterpieces in any eyes other than the composer’s, and the repertoire is undoubtedly poorer for their absence.

Ed Trafford Jennifer Higdon, Brooklyn, NY (b. 1962) Jennifer Higdon is one of America’s most acclaimed and most frequently performed living composers. She has is a major figure in contemporary Classical music, receiving the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, a 2010 Grammy for her Percussion Concerto and a 2018 Grammy for her Viola Concerto, and a 2020 Grammy for her Harp Concerto.

Most recently, Higdon received the Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University, given to contemporary classical composers of exceptional achievement who have significantly influenced the field of composition. Higdon enjoys several hundred performances a year of her works, and blue cathedral is today’s most performed contemporary orchestral works, with more than 650 performances worldwide. Her works have been recorded on more than sixty CDs, and her Percussion Concerto recording was recently inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Higdon’s first opera, Cold Mountain, won the prestigious International Opera Award for Best World Premiere. Dr. Higdon holds the Rock Chair in Composition at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Benjamin Krause, Holland, MI (b. 1985) A composer and pianist with interdisciplinary engagement across a wide range of media, Benjamin Krause is a recipient of a Copland House Residency Award, Houston Symphony Emerging Composer Award, a Presser Award, the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau’s Prix Marion Tournon Branly, and was named the 2018 Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teachers National Association. His music has been performed worldwide, with performances and commissions by the Houston Symphony, Network for New Music, Da Camera of Houston, Musiqa, Lynx Project, and the Delgani String Quartet. Other recent honors include an Honorable Mention in the NATS Art Song Composition Competition (2019) and the winner of the 2020 Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra/ ISU Contemporary Music Festival Contest. His work Pathways will be performed by ICO in 2021. Krause received his D.M.A. from Rice University, and, as a pianist, performs music ranging from the traditional classical repertoire to new music and jazz. He often joins his wife, pianist Christina Giuca Krause, in performances as the piano duo 4x5. He has taught at Rice University, the University of Oregon, and Valparaiso University, and is currently on the music faculty at Hope College, where he teaches composition and theory.

Jessie Montgomery, New York, NY (b. 1981) Composer, violinist, and educator Jessie Montgomery is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation. Performed frequently around the world, her works interweave classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her music has been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post). In the 2019– 20 season, her new works will be premiered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the National Choral Society, and ASCAP Foundation. She is working with Jannina Norpoth to reimagine Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha, produced by Volcano Theatre and cocommissioned by Washington Performing Arts, Stanford University, London’s Southbank Centre, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Since 1999 she has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization, which supports young AfricanAmerican and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the organization’s professional touring ensemble. A graduate of The Juilliard School and New York University, Jessie Montgomery is currently a graduate fellow in music composition at Princeton University.

Program Notes Notes From Inside I am repeatedly drawn to the tradition of Western classical chamber music in which each instrument is an individual voice in conversation with other voices—a conversation that blooms and develops in ways that give texture and life to the music. The immediacy, intimacy, and variety intrinsic to this manner of music-making allow it to express a wide range of emotional states and experiences. For this reason, I believe that this tradition remains vital today, and, inspired (as I am) by the musical developments of the 20th century and by the vitality of jazz and popular music, that it continues to offer fertile ground for reflecting our complex and evolving human experience. My intent, therefore, is not to repeat the past, but to engage with chamber music as a living tradition, hoping to uncover and expose new dimensions of its expressive potential.

“Notes from Inside,” for clarinet and string trio, comprises six short pieces that respond in various ways to life during the pandemic. The title itself refers both to the physical “indoors” and the emotional “interior” (it is also a slight play on Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, itself told from the perspective of isolation and confinement). As a whole, the pieces in “Notes from Inside” address the changes in our perception (of time and space) and of the blurring between the interior and exterior worlds. They attempt to reflect our distorted sense of the passage of time (“Clockwork,” “Time Capsule (Palindrome),”); to harness the restless energy built up over periods of confinement (“Indoor Games,” “Diversions,”); and, from a more personal, emotional space, to capture the little daily moments of beauty (“Intermezzo”), and of collective grief and hope (“What Happens Up Here”).

I am grateful to the Atlanta Chamber Players for the opportunity to create this work, and to the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, where it was completed. www.benkrause.com Benjamin Krause

Up next: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at First Presbyterian Friday, January 7th 8:00 P.M. Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with Jens Korndörfer

Tickets available at firstpresatl.org/concerts-at-first

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Concerts @ First presents September 10, December 10, February 18, May 13 12:00 P.M. Bach’s Lunch Series Co-presented with the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta

With members of Julliard and Vega string quartets, and Zuill Bailey Friday, October 29, 2021 8:00 P.M. Battle of the Keys Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto mvt. 1 arr. for piano and organ and a world premiere performed by Julie Coucheron and Jens Korndörfer Sunday, November 14, 2021 4:00 P.M. Atlanta Chamber Players Works by Brahms, Krause, Bunch, and more Sunday, December 12, 2021 10:00 A.M. Christmas Concert Telemann’s Latin Magnificat in C FPC Choir and Orchestra Friday, January 7, 2022 8:00 P.M. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with Jens Korndörfer Sunday, January 23, 2022 3:00 P.M. Georgian Chamber Players Friday, February 4, 2022 8:00 P.M. Piano Dedication Concert With Chopin Competition Prize Winner Charles Richard– Hamelin Works by Mozart, Schumann, and Chopin Wednesday, February 23, 2022 8:00 P.M. Masterworks Concert Principal Flutist Christina Smith (ASO) with Georgia State University’s Symphony Orchestra Sunday, April 3, 2022 3:00 P.M. Atlanta Chamber Winds Works by Dvorak, Mozart, Shulz Saturday and Sunday, June 18 and 19, 2022 Challenge the Stats Celebrating Artists of Color