UConn SFA Faculty Showcase: Sophie Shao, cello I Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts

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IMPORTANT UPDATE:

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Healthy is worth a standing ovation.

We’re proud to support so many award-winning performers. And while it may not be a Tony or Grammy, we’re also proud of own our cast for earning the highest honors in Patient Safety at Manchester Memorial Hospital and 4-Star Quality Care for Medicare and Medicaid patients. From one group of dedicated performers to another, good luck and good health!

Manchester Memorial Hospital Rockville General Hospital John A. DeQuattro Cancer Center ECHN Medical Group

Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 7:30 pm

University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Alain Frogley, Interim Dean Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts Rodney Rock, Director presents

The Lenard Chamber Music Series

UConn School of Fine Arts Faculty Showcase

Sophie

cello with John Blacklow, piano

Shao,

Media Sponsors

Sophie Shao sshao@sophieshao.com

PROGRAM

Sonata for Cello and Piano

George Walker (1922-2018)

I. Allegro passionato

II. Sostenuto

III. Allegro

3 Pieces for Cello and Piano

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)

I. Modéré

II. Sans vitesse et a l’aise

III. Vite et nerveusement rythmé

Cello Sonata No. 2 Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)

I. Senza tempo

II. Allegro III. Largo IV. Allegro V. Lento

Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

I. Allegro vivace

II. Adagio affettuoso

III. Allegro passionato

IV. Allegro molto

SOPHIE SHAO

Cellist Sophie Shao, winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, is a versatile and passionate artist whose performances The New York Times has noted as “eloquent, powerful” and The Washington Post called “deeply satisfying.”

Shao has appeared as soloist to critical acclaim throughout the United States: the Smith Center in Las Vegas, Lied Center in Lincoln, Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa, California, the Palladium in Carmel, Indiana, and the Bard Music Festival. She has premiered Howard Shore’s cello concerto Mythic Gardens with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony

Orchestra, the UK premiere with Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and European premiere with Ludwig Wicki and the 21st Century Orchestra at the KKL in Lucerne. Other past concerto performances include Haydn and Elgar Concerti with Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony, and the premiere of Richard Wilson’s The Cello Has Many Secrets with the American Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Shao has given recitals in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Middlebury College, Phillips Collection, Walter Reade Theater and Rose Studio in Lincoln Center, the complete Bach Suites at Union College and in New York City. Her dedication to music of our time leads her to promote the music of Adolphus Hailstork, Tan Dun, Shih-Hui Chen, Lera Auerbach, Reena Esmail, Thomas Ades, and she performs with her “Sophie Shao and Friends” chamber groups which have toured from Brattleboro, VT to Sedona, AZ, while other exciting collaborations include Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera with Cho-Liang Lin, performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, Festival Napa Valley, Festival Mosaic, among many other presenters across the country. She has been a frequent guest at many leading festivals around the country including Caramoor, Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, the Bard Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and was a member of Chamber Music Society Two/Bowers Program, a young artist residency of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Ms. Shao’s recordings include the Complete Bach Suites, Andre Previn’s Reflections for Cello and English Horn and Orchestra on EMI Classics, Richard Wilson’s Diablerie and Brash Attacks and Barbara White’s My Barn Having Burned to the Ground, I Can Now See the Moon on Albany Records, Howard Shore’s original score for the movie The Betrayal on Howe Records, Marlboro Music Festival’s 50th Anniversary on Bridge Records, and Howard Shore’s Mythic Gardens on Sony Classical.

A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six, and was a student of Shirley Trepel, the former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer and chamber music with Felix Galimir. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale

School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. She is on the faculty of University of Connecticut and is playing a Hieronymus Amati cello c.1700 on a generous loan.

JOHN BLACKLOW

Hailed for his "powerful and eloquent" playing (The New York Times), as “a gifted musical presence with a high sense of pianistic fantasy” (Salzburger Nachrichten) and “capable of the utmost in virtuosity” (Fanfare Magazine), pianist John Blacklow has toured the U.S. Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician.

Blacklow has been presented in venues such as Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein in Vienna, the Louvre in Paris, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Alice Tully Hall, Zankel Hall, Merkin Hall, and the Morgan Library in New York City, the Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, UCLA Live, among many others. Blacklow was selected with violinist Jennifer Frautschi by Carnegie Hall and the European Concert Hall Organization for their “Rising Stars” program, and the duo was received with high acclaim at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, and the Megaron in Athens Greece, as well as on Carnegie’s own “Distinctive Debuts” series. In 2014, Albany Records released a recording of the Three Sonatas for Violin and Piano of Robert Schumann.

Blacklow is an enthusiastic interpreter of new music, premiering works by composers such as Louis Andriessen, Steve Mackey and Magnus Lindberg.

In 2015, Albany Records released American Duos, with Blacklow in collaboration with violinist Jennifer Frautschi. The CD features five works by American contemporary composers Dan Coleman, Stephen Hartke, Steve Mackey, Elena Ruehr, and Barbara White. He has also recorded for Universal Music Ltd., Deutsche Grammophon iTunes, and EDI, and has performed for many live radio broadcasts around the globe.

Blacklow has performed in several capacities with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As keyboardist, he has worked under conductors including

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, Leonard Slatkin, Rafael Payare, John Adams, and Marin Alsop, and performed in the world premiere of Soundings by John Williams at the gala opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Blacklow has also participated on numerous occasions with the LA Philharmonic's Chamber Music Society, on the Green Umbrella New Music Series, and has joined the orchestra on several US tours. Blacklow has also appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Princeton Sound Kitchen, Quartetto Prometeo, Atlantic Brass, and many prominent recitalists.

A Steinway Artist, Blacklow was a student of Tatiana Yampolsky, graduating from both Harvard University and The Juilliard School; he also studied under John Browning, Bella Davidovich, and Leonard Shure. He serves on the piano faculty of the University of Notre Dame, and has been invited to present masterclasses around the world, including at Tanglewood, Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and Taipei National University. ---

Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 7:30 pm

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts

The Lenard Chamber Music Series

Sophie Shao, cello with John Blacklow, piano

PROGRAM NOTES

Sonata for Cello and Piano George Walker

(Born June 27, 1922, in Washington, D.C.; died August 23, 2018 in Montclair, New Jersey)

The pianist and composer, George Walker, came from a family who loved music. His father was a physician and a self-taught pianist. His mother oversaw his first piano lessons when he was only five years old and his sister, Frances, was a concert pianist. He attended the preparatory division of Howard University’s music department and graduated at the age of eighteen from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1941. He continued his piano studies at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Rudolf Serkin as his teacher, simultaneously studying orchestration there with Gian-Carlo Menotti. Walker made his debut at Town Hall in New York in 1943, and then toured the United States and Europe, before returning to study, this time at the American Academy at Fontainebleau, France with Robert Casadesus. Returning to the U.S., he received his Ph.D. from Eastman School of Music in 1957 and was awarded both a Fulbright Fellowship and a John Hay Whitney Fellowship in 1957. He was the first composer to receive the Whitney award. Walker spent two years in Paris, where he had composition lessons with the illustrious Nadia Boulanger. In 1959, he embarked upon a second European tour, playing concerts in France, Holland, and Italy. After a recital in London in Wigmore Hall in 1963 that was sponsored by Mrs. Efrem Zimbalist, he received an honorary membership in the Frederic Chopin Society there. In 1996, Walker became the first black composer to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music for his work, Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, commissioned and premiered by the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting.

Walker taught at the Universities of Colorado and Delaware, became chairman of the music department at Rutgers University and was on the faculty at Smith College and at the Peabody Conservatory. Among the many grants he received are those from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Bok Foundations.

Walker published over ninety works and received commissions from many important orchestras and institutions in the United States and England. His famous Lyric for Strings is one of his earliest works, written in 1946, as a lament on the death of his grandmother. Walker achieved a lot of "firsts" as an African-American composer (first Ph.D., first Pulitzer Prize winner, etc.) but, his main goal was to get his music heard in the United States. More of his work is being performed now than ever before, but, this challenging sonata is still rarely heard.

The Sonata for Cello and Piano is an early work written in 1957, when the composer was 34. An important work of the cello repertoire, it was completed just two years after Walker received his doctorate. It was not published until 1972. Full of rhapsodic writing, technical challenges, and playful interaction between the cello and piano, this work demonstrates Walker’s compositional skill and understanding of idiomatic writing for the cello.

A sense of inner pulse and groove are very important in the first movement, Allegro passionato. In sonata form, its subject grows from an ostinato figure in the piano accompaniment. The second theme is lyrical and is introduced by cello in double stops.

The slow second movement, Sostenuto, has three sections. The second part contains a canonic dialogue between the piano and the cello and echoes of blues sonorities. A soaring melodic line overtakes the piano part at its apex.

The very personal third movement, Allegro, is both fiery and playful. Angular in shape, it has an unrelenting drive coupled with quick meter changes. First, there is a fugal exposition that soon yields to a jazz-like section that features syncopated figures over a blues inspired ostinato walking bass in the piano. The final statement of the fugal subject consists of note values only half of those used in earlier statements. The work ends with a brief but exciting coda.

Three Pieces for Cello and Piano

Nadia Boulanger (Born Sept.

16, 1887 in Paris; died there October 22, 1979)

Nadia Boulanger is known as the most important teacher of composition in the 20th century. During the course of her long and distinguished career, she was sought out by many talented young composers who traveled to her for instruction, including many American composers: Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Elliott Carter, Walter Piston, Virgil Thomson, David Diamond, and Leonard Bernstein, yet as a composer, Boulanger was and still today is not known.

Like many female composers, Nadia Boulanger was born into an intensely musical family: her father was a composer and singing teacher, her mother was a singer, and her sister Lili (1893-1918) became a celebrated composer. Although Nadia attested that she hated music when she was a very young child, she, nevertheless, began studies at the Paris Conservatoire when she was only seven, and officially entered the Conservatoire at the age of nine. She studied organ with Louis Vierne and composition with Gabriel Fauré. She began her career as a conductor, but soon also became known as a teacher. She was instrumental in promoting the music of her younger sister, Lili, whom she had helped to teach. Nadia Boulanger composed most of what are today her extant works in the early years of the 20th century.

Boulanger’s music is often somewhat dissonant. Sometimes only the barest outlines of functional harmony are apparent; her work seems to anticipate later techniques such as tone clusters and polytonality. She was fond of quotation and allusion in her works. The early death of her sister, whom she had always felt to be the better composer, was a major loss to her. She gave up composition in the 1920s, attesting that she only wrote ‘useless’ music.

Her Three Pieces for Cello and Piano are short, stand-alone pieces, frequently described as ‘post-impressionist’. Originally written for organ in 1911, Boulanger transcribed the three for cello in 1914. They were published in 1915.

The first piece, Modéré (Moderato), is mysterious sounding yet delicate, dreamy, and contemplative overall; it begins with the piano alone

before the cello, muted, enters. The cello theme is lovely and poignant, played against the rocking piano accompaniment. The mid-section of the piece is more intense and passionate, but returns to the mood of the beginning before it seems to float away. Syncopated sections involving the two instruments show the influence of both Debussy and Fauré on the young composer.

The second piece is a peaceful lament, Sans vitesse et a l’aise (without speed and at ease). As such, it projects a feeling of gentle hopefulness with its unpretentious melody. The cello articulates its theme in the middle range, producing warm timbres. The piece ends quietly. Overall, it has the simplicity of a folk song, a feeling somewhat caused by its being written in the Aeolian mode.

The spirited third piece, Vite et nerveusement (swift and nervously), is the most lively and energetic of the three pieces. It is edgy in nature. The piano begins with a descending four-note figure that becomes a motif from which much of the rest of the piece’s material grows. Boulanger features the cello playing large intervallic leaps as the piano supports it with a mostly chordal accompaniment that, in turn, supports the cello’s long, expressive lines and serves to create waves of sound. In a ternary structure, the contrasting more lyrical central section emphasizes the cello’s timbre, encompassing all of its range. The vigorous first part returns to round out the work and conclude the piece with an epic flourish.

Cello Sonata No. 2 Alfred Schnittke (Born November 24, 1934 in Engels, Russia; died August 3, 1998 in Hamburg, Germany)

When Dimitri Shostakovich died, in 1975, musicians around the world wondered who would emerge as the leading figure of the next generation of Soviet composers. Alfred Harriyevich Schnittke became the most prominent member of that new generation. His music today, by some accounts, is the most frequently performed of any composer in Europe.

Schnittke, who was born to a family of German origin, began his musical education in Vienna when his father was the correspondent there for a German-language Soviet newspaper, and he completed his

studies at the Moscow Conservatory. His mother was a school-teacher from a German family that had long settled on the Volga. His father, a Jewish journalist of Russian origin, was born in Frankfurt am Main. Of his cosmopolitan origins, Schnittke has said, "I feel that I am a German, a Russian, and a Jew. I can understand my faith as Catholic, Jewish, or Orthodox."

Schnittke’s family was not musical, thus young Alfred's interest in music did not begin until 1946 in Vienna when he was given an accordion. Soon after came piano lessons and his very first compositions. By 1948, he was back in Moscow, training as a choir director. By 1953, he began five years of study at the Moscow Conservatory, studying composition and counterpoint under Golubyev and instrumentation under Rakov. In 1962, Schnittke began ten years of teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, finally leaving to begin his freelance career. In 1989, he moved to Hamburg to teach composition at the Institute for Music and Theater.

The composer's early compositions show a high order of skill within the stylistic limits that were then imposed by official policy. As government control of the arts loosened somewhat, he became the boldest of experimenters, introducing to the then Soviet Union many of the most advanced musical ideas from the West as well as many of his own invention.

Schnittke successfully intertwined jazz, historical, and even Romantic sonic elements of various origins. He cast them into constructions based not only on contrast and discontinuity, but also on transition, juxtaposition, and superimposition. On these bases he introduced his own rich and turbulent musical spirit to the tradition of the nonpurist "experimental" composer that had been begun by Mahler, Ives, Stravinsky, and Berg.

His Cello Sonata No. 2, composed in 1993/94, is representative of the style in which Schnittke wrote between the time that he resumed work following his second stroke, in the fall of 1991, and his third stroke, in 1994. He had Mstislav Rostropovich in mind for Cello Sonata No. 2, with its long, slowly wavering lines and mid-to-low register range.

The cellist Alexander Ivashkin, who recorded the work, commented in his notes to the recording that "the number of notes is small, but the

meaning, the specific gravity of each of them, is enormous." This late work is stark and implacable, but it is a richly coded work containing abundant signs, references, allusions, and at least one prominent quotation within its difficult kernels of expression. Overall, Schnittke's musical language disguises references to Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach, Schubert, Liszt, Mahler, Strauss, and Lutosławski as well as to many of his own works (including the contemporaneously-written Eighth Symphony and Fünf Fragmente zu Bildern von Hieronymus Bosch). The presence of multiple references suggests a narrative of struggle.

The first movement, senza tempo, is a remarkably simple opening featuring a cello recitative, in which the piano basically plays singlenote drone at the bottom of its low register.

The second-movement, Allegro, begins with an extraordinary jolt as we enter a new visionary world, contrasting the cello's dervish-like passage through octaves over its entire range. The music seems to veer out of control, and the cello must struggle to stay above the destabilization of a chromatic vortex.

The third movement, Largo, matches and balances the tempo of the first movement. A large and brutal perpetual motion structure, it is most demanding for the cello. It begins with a long cello chromatic line repeated eight times, gaining dynamic weight with each iteration. Beginning very, very soft (pianississimo) and finally heard very, very loudly (fortississimo), the movement concludes with the piano at its loudest (fortissississimo) reinforcing the sequence of pitches. It is characteristically confessional, revealing that omnipresent motto of Schnittke’s late music, a chain made up of the interval of fourths.

The penultimate movement, Allegro, projects the feeling of a bitter, tragic sinking.

The final movement, again very slow, Lento, has a supernatural affect, and has been said to be an essay in “tone-transmutation” with “the interior intensity of a séance, still seeking the ghost as its last note expires.”

Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99

Johannes Brahms (Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany; died April 3, 1897, in Vienna, Austria)

During his long productive life, Brahms published two dozen works of chamber music from duo-sonatas to sextets, but it is likely that he may have written and destroyed two or three times as many. Musical ideas from those lost works probably found their way into the other compositions that he assembled, disassembled, and reassembled through the years, but no critic of Brahms’ published music was half as severe as he was on himself. This sonata for cello and piano was published in 1866 in a radically changed form from the original structure it had when he began it in 1862.

Brahms’s original intention was to write a four-movement cello sonata with a central slow movement and scherzo, but he stopped after the second movement. He was dissatisfied with the direction in which he was taking the music. He hesitated to show it even to such close friends as Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann’s widow, and Josef Gänsbacher, a singing teacher at the Vienna Conservatory who also played the cello and who had helped Brahms get his job as a conductor of a choral society there. In 1865, he took up the sonata again and converted it into a three-movement work by rewriting the first, discarding the second, and adding two new movements. He dedicated it to Gänsbacher.

Brahms’ Second Cello Sonata, Op. 99 written when he was fifty-three, completed on November 24, 1886 during his first summer at the Swiss resort of Hofstetten near Thun, has a mature kind of exuberance he never seemed to project in his youthful work. This relatively expansive and extroverted sonata was written for Robert Hausmann, Brahms’ friend, and was first played by him in concert. Presumably, Brahms was writing for the unique features of Hausmann’s cello playing, specifically his tone which was so big and luminous it could rise over the piano’s louder passages. Brahms’ biographer, Jan Swafford, says that Hausmann’s influence on this sonata is evident in Brahms’s “feeling for the cello as cello, a creative involvement with timbre and technique.” It has a highly dramatic four-movement design and is a tremendously difficult work to play, pushing the instrumentalists, who are equal partners throughout, to their limits.

The opening Allegro vivace movement is dramatic and feels compressed; it features a bold leaping passionate first theme in the cello part over explosions of tremolando in the piano. The first theme has an asymmetry; it metrically seems to wander with its use of syncopation in a mixture of major and minor tonality. The second subject is even more aggressive than the first. Brahms is increasingly reliant on the cello’s high registers and the use of pizzicati and tremolando to produce his desired effect, making it stand in real contrast to the E minor sonata written twenty years before. The cello is given the tremolando at the end of the exposition; then, in the terse development, the piano develops the harmony of the tremolando in a rhythmical form. The darkly serious and mysterious development, has a ghostly passage just before the recapitulation, recalling similar passages in Brahms’ symphonies (all of which were composed between the two cello sonatas), and a surprisingly extended first subject in the recapitulation with the confidence of the opening. The cello plays the tremolando again in the recapitulation while in the long coda both instruments articulate tremolandos and unite all the strains and moods of the movement in a grand climax. In the words of Malcolm McDonald, the end of the movement has a “sense of suspended time and rhythm that looks forward thirty years to Debussy’s Violin Sonata.”

The slow movement, both soft and melodious, Adagio affetuoso, with the key of F minor dominant, opens with the pizzicato cello accompanying the piano before it plays the noble melody. An impassioned middle section finds both instruments searching harmonies as if they were trying to find each other. This movement is unified by the pizzicato ostinato for both instruments.

The solo piano plays the opening strain of the F minor sonorous, galloping Scherzo, Allegro passionato, so that the cello’s brusque and agitated entry can have full dramatic effect. The turbulence subsides for the noble and expansive chorale-like trio, which is quite serene. The main theme of the final rondo, Allegro molto, is supple, cheerful and dignified; the movement introduces many moods from the serious to the agitated to the frolicsome before it comes to its contented and optimistic conclusion.

Program Notes by Susan Halpern, 2022.

C oSt rs★

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts

2022 - 2023 Co-Chairs: Lin Klein & Jane Moskowitz $500 per person, $1,000 per couple

Elena Sevilla & Paul Aho Mona & Greg Anderson Marianne Barton Deborah Walsh Bellingham

In Memory of Dr. Bruce A. Bellingham Honey & Harry Birkenruth Ruth Buczynski Carol Colombo

In Memory of Paul Colombo Anne D’Alleva

Madison & Bob Day Susan & John DeWolf Stan & Sandy Hale Judy & Peter Halvorson

Patricia Hempel

Shareen Hertel & Donald Swinton

Jan Huber

Tina & Bryan Huey Blair T. Johnson & Blanche Serban

Lynn & Harry Johnson Janet & George Jones Lin & Waldo Klein

James Knox Ann Kouatly Becky & Scott Lehmann

Jean & John Lenard Gene Likens & Leola Spilbor Margarethe & Matthew Mashikian Antonia Moran

Jane & Robert Moskowitz Constance & Rodney Rock Nancy & John Silander Beverly Sims & William Okeson Anne & Winthrop Smith Maurice Thompson Karen Zimmer Susan Zito

Join the CoStars, Jorgensen’s Active Volunteers!

The CoStars is a special group of volunteers who generously donate not only $500 per person, but also their talent and time. The invaluable CoStars support Jorgensen through community advocacy by creative fund-raising activities, and by hosting pre- and post-concert receptions that often feature world-class luminaries. The CoStars have been instrumental in the purchase of the new portable chamber stage and acoustical shell, a new Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano, funding the JOY! Conservatory Program, the installation of the exterior Jorgensen message center, the renovation of the Jorgensen Gallery, and continued support of Jorgensen programming. By becoming a CoStar, you’ll join with other vibrant, thoughtful and devoted arts lovers who have made Jorgensen’s success a priority.

CoStars receive an honorary membership in the Jorgensen Circle of Friends at the Producers Circle level. Benefits include early ticket ordering privileges for one full year from the date of enrollment; reserved lower-level parking in the North Garage, providing a speedier exit after each Jorgensen event; and recognition in the Jorgensen playbill.

As a Special Thank You... An Invitation to the CoStars

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gratefully acknowledges the support of its Friends.

Producers Circle $500/person $1,000 & above/ couple Elena Sevilla & Paul Aho* Mona & Greg Anderson* Marianne Barton* Deborah Walsh jjBellingham* In Memory of Dr. Bruce A. jjjjjjjjjjjBellingham* Honey & Harry Birkenruth* Ruth Buczynski* Carol Colombo* In Memory of Paul Colombo* Anne D’Alleva* Madison & Bob Day* Susan & John DeWolf* Ms. Joan N. jjjjjjjjjjjjjGionfriddo

In Memory of Elaine D. jjNeiswanger, jjRobert jjjjjjNeiswanger, jj& Thomas jjNeiswanger Stan & Sandy Hale* Judy & Peter Halvorson* Patricia Hempel* Shareen Hertel & jjDonald Swinton* Jan Huber* Tina & Bryan Huey* Blair T. Johnson & jjBlanche Serban* Lynn & Harry Johnson* Janet & George Jones* Lin & Waldo Klein* James Knox* Ann Kouatly* Becky & Scott Lehmann*

Jean & John Lenard* Gene Likens & Leola Spilbor* Margarethe & Matthew Mashikian* Antonia Moran* Jane & Robert Moskowitz* Craig & Karen Nass Barbara Rhein & Stan Shaw Constance & Rodney Rock* Nancy & John Silander* Beverly Sims & William Okeson* Anne & Winthrop Smith* Maurice Thompson* Karen Zimmer* Susan Zito* * Members of the Jorgensen CoStars

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$25/person, $50/couple Anonymous

Mrs. Audrey Gough

Dr. & Mrs. Ed & Susan Grace John H. Mayer & Irwin M. Krieger Linda Pelletier Mr. & Mrs. Ettore & jjLaura Raccagni Sari & jjJames Rosokoff Dr. Jay S. Shivers

Director’s Fund

Diane & Joseph Briody Carol Colombo David & Marilyn Foster Jennifer Person Mr. Allen Schmied & Ms. Tina Polttila-Schmied Nancy & John Silander Ms. Joanne Sousa In Memory of John P. Sousa

Endowed Sponsorship Program

The Endowed Sponsorship Program provides individuals and families with the opportunity to support Jorgensen by sponsoring any concert or other program. Benefits to Endowed Sponsors will include name recognition in the Jorgensen playbill, additional recognition in the community through press releases provided by the University, and an opportunity to visit with the guest artist.

Sponsorship could be a means of celebrating a special holiday or anniversary, or of dedicating an event to a loved one. Most importantly, by contributing to the cost of current programs, sponsors would help ensure that the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts will continue to present wonderful music and other programs in the future. Your gift would benefit not only Jorgensen, but also the community at large.

Patrons interested in sponsoring an event should contact Rodney Rock at 860-486-1983 or rodney.rock@uconn.edu for further information.

Jorgensen Outreach for Youth

Funded through private contributions as well as corporate support, JOY! provides school-age children, many from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, with access to live performances and special enrichment programs. Now in its 15th season, the JOY! Conservatory program offers instrumental and vocal students in grades 9-12 the opportunity for a rigorous course of study including private lessons, ensemble rehearsals and coaching, and basic musicianship courses. For more information, contact Jorgensen director Rodney Rock at 860-486-1983.

Corporate / Foundation Sponsors

SBM Charitable Foundation

Diamond / $1000+

Carol Colombo Nancy & John Silander

Ruby / $300+

Becky & Scott Lehmann

The University of Connecticut League, Inc.

Sapphire / $100+

Carol & David Jordan James Knox

Pearl / up to $99

Irwin Krieger & John Mayer

Pamela Paine

Peter Polomski

Bonnie Ryan Marti & Tom Smith

Dale Swett

Joanne Todd

Lenard Chamber Music Endowment Fund

The Lenard Chamber Series is made possible through the generosity of longtime patrons Jean and John Lenard and the Lenard Chamber Music Endowment.

Thanks to the generous philanthropy of patrons Jean and John Lenard, chamber music, one of the hallmarks and most dearly loved elements of the programming at Jorgensen, is secure well into the future. Also thanks to the Lenard Endowment, UConn students, non-UConn students, and area youth are invited to attend all chamber music events for free.

Please join this giving community and make your contribution today. To make a gift, contact Jorgensen Director Rodney Rock at rodney.rock@uconn.edu or 860-486-1983,

Jean & John Lenard

Elena Sevilla & Paul Aho

Greg & Mona Anderson

Deborah Walsh Bellingham

Ruth Buczynski

Carol Colombo Anne D’Alleva

Kenneth Doeg

Judy & Peter Halvorson

Patricia Hempel

George & Janet Jones

Carol & David Jordan

Lin & Waldo Klein

James Knox

June & Henry Krisch

Becky & Scott Lehmann

Shoshana Levinson & Chris Crossgrove Julia J. & Carl W. Lindquist, MD

Joan & Austin McGuigan

Jane & Robert Moskowitz

Lauren & Eric Prause

Donald Shankweiler & Ruth Garrett Millikan

John & Nancy Silander Beverly Sims & William Okeson

Marilyn & Arthur Wright

Samara Joy CABARET

by the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center & the UConn Women’s Center

“The close precision and frothy power of her voice stand out immediately … so does the depth of her comfort within the jazz tradition” – The New York Times

Hello,

Dine With Us

Coyote Flaco

50 Higgins Highway, Mansfield • 860.423.4414

Coyote Flaco is a family owned & operated restaurant. We invite you to try some of our favorite dishes such as our churrasco or one of our home-made tamales. Please try our many “Fresh-Lime Juice” margaritas, our full menu can be found at www.coyoteflacoct.comcoyoteflacomansfield.com

Dog Lane Cafe

One Dog Lane, Storrs • 860.429.4900

Northeastern Connecticut’s European/American cafe, offering something for everyone from early morning to late at night. Our menu and our daily specials emphasize seasonal, local and freshly-pre pared food, all made to order. Offering a wide variety of sandwiches, grilled items and freshly tossed salads or help yourself to coffee at our self-service coffee bar. Offering indoor and outdoor seating. Whether you are in a hurry or want to take some time and relax with friends, our style of service lets you set your own pace. Serving beer & wine. doglanecafe.com

Fresh Fork

Rte 195, Storrs Center • 860.477.0200

“The Fresh Fork Café is a fast casual restaurant owned by a University of Connecticut Alum. Their menu includes many Vegan and Gluten Free items alongside traditional café fare. All fruit smoothies, coffee, tea, beer, wine, and craft cocktails accompany the eclectic and inclusive menu. Breakfast served all day and a late night menu available on weekends. Catering available www.freshforkcafe.com

Hilltop

39 Adamec Rd., Willington• 860.477.1054

Come and visit Hilltop Restaurant, Bar & Banquet to experience a delicious meal, live entertainment, full bar with flat screen TVs, and more, stop in today. If you’re looking for a place to hold a party or event, call and talk to us about our banquet rooms, Make sure that you call ahead to find out what our Chef’s Specials are. They change daily. hilltopct.net

Hops 44

625 Middle Tpke., Storrs • 860.477.1174

Local Gastropub less than 1 mile from campus featuring local craft beer, cocktails and a full bar. Smoked BBQ, Burgers, Award Winning Wings, Salad and Lighter American Fare. Open Wed-Thurs 3-9, Fri 3-10, Sat 1-10, Sun 1-7. Enter as a stranger and leave as a friend, there is something for everyone. Indoor and Outdoor seating, dogs are welcome on the patio.

WWW.Hops44.com 10 % off the day of performance with ticket

Willimantic Brewing Co. Main Street Café

967 Main Street, Willimantic • 860.423.6777

The Willimantic Brewing Co./Main Street Café is a living landmark restaurant & pub brewery located in Willimantic, in the heart of rural northeastern Connecticut. We offer an extensive menu from fun appetizers, daily specials, gluten free, vegetarian and so much more. Fresh craft beers brewed on site, ciders, cocktails, and guest beers we have some thing to please everyone. Visit us at www.willibrew.com for more information.

Willington Pizza

Rte 32, Willington Center • 860.429.7433

Italian Cuisine served in a 200-year-old home with lovely antique decor. Seating for 200. National award-winning pizza featured on CBS This Morning and ABC Good Morning America. Desserts. Open Mon-Thurs 11am–11pm; Fri & Sat 11am–12am; Sun 11am–10pm. Casual attire. Entrées $6–$13. No reservations. (MC, V, D, AE) Best Pizza, Tolland County by Connecticut Magazine.

Box Office: 860.486.2113 802 Bolton Road, Unit 1127 Storrs, CT 06269-1127 crt.uconn.edu

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SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS

Alain Frogley

CRT ADMINISTRATION

Megan Monaghan Rivas

Interim Dean

Artistic Director & Head, Department of Dramatic Arts

Michelle S. Polgar Managing Director

Vince Tycer Associate Artistic Director

Panagiota Capaldi Box Office Manager Alana Conti Company/House Manager

CRT PRODUCTION

Robert Copley Production Manager

Tom Kosis Production Stage Manager

Michael Beschta Technical Director

John Parmelee Associate Technical Director

Daniela Weiser

Scenic Charge Artist

Susan Tolis Costume Shop Supervisor

Michael Demers Production Master Electrician

Paul Spirito Puppet Arts Technical Supervisor

Jake Neighbors Sound Supervisor

Gino Costabile Interim Properties Manager