Frankly Music0-Schumann and Chopin

Monday, November 29, 2010 – 7 p.m.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 – 7 p.m.

Bader Recital Hall Wisconsin Conservatory of Music

Schumann and Chopin Frank Almond, violin Max Mandel, viola Stephen Balderston, cello William Wolfram, piano Märchenbilder (Fairy Tales), Op. 113 Nicht schnell Lebhaft Rasch Langsam Max Mandel, viola William Wolfram, piano Nocturne in C# minor, Op. posthumous

Fantasia in A flat, Op. 49

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Scherzo in b minor, Op. 20 Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliant, Op. 22 William Wolfram, piano Intermission Piano Quartet in E flat, Op. 47 Sostenuto assai- Allegro non troppo Lebhaft Scherzo. Molto vivace Andante cantabile Finale. Vivace

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

This concert is generously sponsored by Judy Keyes.

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FR ANK ALMOND Violinist Frank Almond holds the Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He returned to the MSO after holding positions as Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev, and Guest Concertmaster of the London Philharmonic with Kurt Masur. He has also appeared as a guest concertmaster for the Seattle Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, and the Grand Tetons Music Festival. He continues an active schedule of solo and chamber music performances in the US and abroad including recent appearances with the Ojai Festival, the American String Project in Seattle, Frankly Music, the Nara Academy in Nara, Japan, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Music in the Vineyards, and various solo appearances with orchestras. He has been a member of the chamber group An die Musik in New York City since 1997, and also directs the highly successful Frankly Music Chamber Series based in Milwaukee. At 17, he was one of the youngest prizewinners in the history of the Nicolo Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy, and five years later was one of two American prizewinners at the Eighth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, which was documented in an awardwinning PBS film. Since then he has kept up an eclectic mix of activities in addition to his Concertmaster duties, appearing both as a soloist and chamber musician.

In addition to his work with An die Musik, Mr. Almond’s talent as a chamber musician has generated collaborations over the years with many of today’s well-known institutions, including the Chamber Music

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Society of Lincoln Center, the Hal Leonard Corporation, the Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Music in the Vineyards, and numerous other summer festivals.

He has recorded for Summit, Albany, Boolean (his own label), Innova, Newport Classic, Wergo and New Albion and has appeared numerous times on NPR’s Performance Today. In both 2002 and 2004 An die Musik received Grammy nominations for its “Timeless Tales” series. The re-release of Mr. Almond’s recording of the complete Brahms Sonatas, performed in collaboration with pianist William Wolfram, brought extraordinary critical acclaim, and was listed in the American Record Guide top recordings of 2001.

Frank’s most recent CD with William Wolfram was released on the AVIE label to much acclaim, and was named a “Best of 2007” by the American Record Guide. His new CD of American violin and piano music was released in 2010 on Innova Recordings with pianist Brian Zeger, and has also received outstanding press response. A CD of selected works of Samuel Barber was recently released, in cooperation with the Hal Leonard Corporation.

Mr. Almond holds two degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay. Other important teachers included Michael Tseitlin, Felix Galimir, and Joseph Silverstein. In Fall 2010 he joined the faculty at Northwestern University.

When he’s not traveling around playing the violin he lives in Milwaukee with his wife and two young daughters. He plays on a violin by Antonio Stradivari from 1715, the “ex-Lipinski”.

In 2008 he started writing an online column called nondivisi.

W I L L I A M WO L F R A M American pianist William Wolfram was a silver medalist at both the William Kapell and the Naumburg International Piano Competitions, and a bronze medalist at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. A versatile recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, he has won the respect of musicians and critics across the country and abroad. Wolfram has several recordings on the Naxos label, has played recitals in cities throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe, and has performed with dozens of the finest orchestras in the world.

He enjoys regular and ongoing close associations with the Dallas Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Jerzy Semkow, Joseph Silverstein, Jens Nygaard, Mark Wigglesworth, Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Spivakov, Gerard Schwarz, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Jeffrey Kahane, James Judd, Roberto Minczuk, Stefan Sanderling, JoAnn Falletta, James Paul, and Carlos Kalmar.

Abroad, Wolfram has appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Warsaw, Moscow, and Budapest philharmonics, the Capetown and Johannesberg symphonies of South Africa, L’Orchestre de Bretagne, the orchestras of Thailand and Singapore, and the National Symphony of Peru.

In 2010-11 William Wolfram’s engagements include performances with the Seattle and Wheeling symphonies, the Boise and Fort Wayne philharmonics, and the New Philharmonic (IL), in addition to several chamber music appearances. In summer 2010 he performed Mendelssohn under Christopher Seaman at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro (NC). His 2009-10 season included appearances with the North Carolina Symphony, under Andrew Litton, in Lowell Liebermann’s Piano Concerto No. 2; with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Music Director JoAnn Falletta conducting, in Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 2; and with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (Canada), under Edwin Outwater, in Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3. He also performed Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 with the City of Birmingham Symphony, conducted by Andrew Litton.

An enthusiastic supporter of new music, he has collaborated with and performed music by composers such as Aaron Jay Kernis, Kenneth Frazelle, Marc Andre Dalbavie, Kenji Bunch, and Paul Chihara. His world premiere performance of the Chihara re-orchestration of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with the Milwaukee Symphony under the baton of Andreas Delfs, was met with great critical attention and acclaim.

Wolfram has extensive experience in the recording studio. For the Albany label, he recorded the piano concertos of Edward Collins with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Wolfram has recorded, and continues to record, the solo piano music of Franz Liszt for Naxos records.

These recordings include Liszt’s rarely heard Etudes en douze exercices, as well as opera transcriptions of both Donizetti and Bellini. Wolfram was the focus His concerto debut with the Pittsburgh of a full chapter in Joseph Horowitz’s Symphony under the baton of Leonard Slatkin was the first in a long succession book, The Ivory Trade: Music and the of appearances and career relationships Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On telewith numerous American conductors vision, he was a featured pianist in the and orchestras. He has appeared with the San Francisco, Saint Louis, Indianapo- documentary of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. lis, Seattle and New Jersey symphonies, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the National A graduate of The Juilliard School, WilSymphony, the Florida Orchestra, and liam Wolfram resides in New York City the Grand Teton and Obispo Mozart with his wife and two daughters. festival orchestras, among many others.

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M A X M A N D E L & S T E P H E N B A L D E R S TO N Canadian violist Max Mandel is one of the most acclaimed and active chamber musicians of his generation. Comfortable in many styles and genres, Mr. Mandel’s current group affiliations include the FLUX Quartet, The Kirby String Quartet, The Silk Road Ensemble, The Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, The Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, The Smithsonian Chamber Players, The Caramoor Virtuosi, Blarvuster, ClassNotes, The Knights, and I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble.

Early formative experiences include founding the Metro String Quartet, forging his dedication to chamber music through collaboration with his colleagues and teachers, such as Lorand Fenyves at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Banff Center for the Arts.

Private studies at the University of Toronto and the Juilliard School were with Steven Dann and Samuel Rhodes.

Mr. Mandel has been Guest Principal of The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Camerata Nordica and The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. He is also a frequent guest of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.

Mr. Mandel is a fan of all kinds of music from Mozart to Feldman to Ghostface and considers himself very fortunate to have collaborated with great artists in many genres from Vera Beths to Don Byron to Kirk Hammett of Metallica. Mr. Mandel plays on a 1973 Giovanni Battista Morassi generously loaned to him

by Lesley Robertson of the St. Lawrence Quartet. He resides in Brooklyn, NY. Stephen Balderston joined the DePaul School of Music faculty as String Coordinator and Professor of Cello after twenty successful years as an orchestra and chamber musician.

Balderston was Assistant Principal Cello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for ten years after ten years 4 Frankly Music

with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He performed as soloist with both orchestras and was an artistin-residence at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Balderston began his studies on the cello with Gabor Rejto in his native southern California, and earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Lynn Harrell. Known internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and coach, Balderston regularly participates in clinics, chamber music concerts and festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad. In recent years, Balderston has performed solo works and chamber music with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Christoph Eschenbach, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Menahem Pressler, Gil Shaham, Joseph Silverstein and Pinchas Zukerman. He debuted as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2000. He has been a featured artist at the Ravinia Festival in Illinois, Bargemusic in New York City and the Affinis Music Festival in Japan.

Additionally, he has participated in the OK Mozart International Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the Santa Barbara Chamber Music Festival and the International Music Festival in Shanghai, China. Balderston’s summers have been spent performing and working with students at a variety of venues. Balderston was the cello coach for Daniel Barenboim’s “WestEastern Divan” workshops in 1999 and 2000 in Weimar, Germany, the 2001 Workshop held in Chicago, and the 2004 Workshop in Seville, Spain. In 2002 he accompanied a group of colleagues to Shanghai, China for that city’s international music festival. In August of 2004 Balderston was featured as lecturer, soloist and coach at the International String Music Festival in Taipei, Taiwan. Since 2002, he has been a teacher, coach and soloist at a number of prestigious summer venues, including the Marrowstone Music Festival, the International Festival – Institute at Round Top, the Midwest Young Artists Festival, the ARIA International Festival and the Northwestern University High School Institute.

PABST MANSION Holiday Tours $10 www.PabstMansion.com

F R A N K LY M U S I C B OA R D O F D I R E C TO R S Linda Tojek, President Jean Holmburg, Vice President Marta Haas, Secretary Calvin C. Kozlowski, Treasurer Frank Almond Dr. Russell Brooker Linda Tojek Patricia Crump Laurence Tucker Angela Johnston Judy Keyes Linda L. Saladin Wendy Slocum Barbara Wanless Frank Almond, Artistic Director Linda L. Saladin, Executive Director Jason Brame, web genius For more information please visit: http://www.franklymusic.org or email us at franklymusic@mac.com Call 414.940.8770 if you wish to be added to the mailing list.

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frankly music patrons $5,000 to $9,999 Robert and Mary Jane Denton Dr. Dale A. Newman United Performing Arts Fund $3,000 to $4,999 Patrice Bringe-Blomquist and Richard Blomquist Greater Milwaukee Foundation Judith A. Keyes Family Fund James and Linda Saladin $2,000 to $2,999 Frank Almond CAMPAC Mary Ellen Mitchanis Michael and Jeanne Schmitz $1,000 to $1,999 Dr. Frank Almond Dr. Christine Bryke and Dr. Anthony Garber James and Roberta Caraway Greg Chrisafis Doyne and Marta Haas Megan Holbrook and Eric Vogel Charles and Jean Holmburg Cal and Lynn Kozlowski Angela Johnston Christel Mildenberg In Memory of Mrs. Lotte E. Rohr $500 to $999 Phillip and Patricia Crump Rachel Finger Roger and Nancy Ritzow Dr. Thomas and Harriet Russell David Swanson Don and Kathleen Wilson Wisconsin Lutheran College * Brian Wickert

$250 to $499 Connie Almond Dave and Chris Abbott Dr. Russell and Karen Brooker James and Roberta Caraway James and Mary Connelly David and Margarete Harvey Gwen and Bill Niewoehner Charles and Terry Kearns Robert and Gail Korb Susanna and Justin Mortara Allen and Pat Rieselbach Allan and Jo Salzstein Wendy Slocum Roger and Karen Sundell Lawrence and Rise Tucker $100 to $249 Fred and Kay Austermann Farlin Caufield James Chapson Maelynn Colinco Harry Drake Dr. Howard and Eileen Dubner Robert and Susie Fono Michael Gonzalez Katherine Grogan David and Margarete Harvey Patrick and Kris Heerey Barbara Holland David and Carol Jones Gordon and Dorothy Kenngott Paul Kojis Norman and Judith Lasca Mr. and Ms. Arthur Laskin John and Martha Lubing Sanford and Katherine Mallin Dr. Catherine Malloy Cindy H. Molloy James and Patricia McGavock Metavante** Duane and Karen Nadolski

Andy Nunemaker Walter Oestreich RBC Foundation** Charles and Patricia Roy Kathleen Ryan Larry and Kathy Schnuck Elaine Schueler Joseph and Jenifer Tate Nancy Tawney Jim and Joan Urdan Dr. Otto and Reinhilde Wiegmann Norm and Prati Wojtal $99 and under Audrey Baird Aija Burgelis Edith Christian Calvin and Doris Cummins Scott Downey Carol Goldstein Rich Harter David Jones Susan Kane Stefan Kartman and Jeannie Yu Narleene Klug Donald and JoAnne Krause Marty and Alice Krebs Ann Leys David and Maria Luce Mae-Carol Matousek Diane Neicheril Karen Peters David Rasmussen Darlene Roberts David Rosenzweig Judith Ruland David and Dorothy Schlueter Carol Schmitt Sabina Silver G.D. Simonds Mr. and Mrs. Robert Streicher Joy Towell Thomas Varney Wisconsin Energy Foundation** *in-kind donations **matching gift

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Please join us for our next concert!

January 31, 2011, 7pm Schwan Hall, Wisconsin Lutheran College An Evening of Tango Stas Venglevski, bayan Frank Almond, violin Nell Buchmann, piano Roza Borizova, cello

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