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THE CONRAD

© Sonja Mueller

Calendar of Events

MARCH

THE BAD PLUS* WITH CHRIS POTTER AND CRAIG TABORN

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2026 • 5:30 PM & 8 PM

Concerts @ The JAI

LE CONSORT: A TRIO SONATA SOIRÉE*

FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2026 • 7:30 PM

Revelle Chamber Music Series

AUGUSTIN HADELICH, violin

FRANCESCO PIEMONTESI*, piano

SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2026 • 8 PM

Recital Series

Doodle POP*

SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2026 • 3 PM

The ConRAD Kids Series

LANG LANG, piano

THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2026 • 7:30 PM

Special Event · Jacobs Music Center

RAVI SHANKAR ENSEMBLE*

SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2026 • 7 PM

Global Roots Series

APRIL

J AZZ Mini FESTIVAL

APRIL 6−11

EMMET COHEN PRESENTS:

MILES AND COLTRANE AT 100 4 Performances

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2026 • 5:30 PM & 8 PM

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2026 • 5:30 PM & 8 PM

Concerts @ The JAI: Jazz Mini-Festival

TERENCE BLANCHARD & RAVI COLTRANE*

MILES DAVIS & JOHN COLTRANE AT 100

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2026 • 7:30 PM

Jazz Series: Jazz Mini-Festival Balboa Theatre

COLTRANE 100:

BOTH DIRECTIONS AT ONCE

SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2026 • 7:30 PM

Jazz Series: Jazz Mini-Festival

DANISH STRING QUARTET

DANISH NATIONAL GIRLS’ CHOIR*

SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2026 • 3 PM Revelle Chamber Music Series

GAUTIER CAPUÇON, cello

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET, piano

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2026 • 7:30 PM Recital Series

BENNY BENACK III*: THE MAGIC OF MANHATTAN

SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2026 • 5:30 PM & 8 PM Concerts @ The JAI

ARISTO SHAM*, piano

VAN CLIBURN GOLD MEDAL WINNER

SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2026 • 3 PM Discovery Series

AARON DIEHL TRIO

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2026 • 5:30 PM & 8 PM Concerts @ The JAI

ART OF ELAN: DANCING ON TIPTOES

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2026 • 10 AM & 11:30 AM

The ConRAD Kids Series • The JAI

ALEXANDRE KANTOROW*, piano

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2026 • 7:30 PM Piano Series

DAVID McLAIN*: BLUE ZONES UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF LONGEVITY

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2026 • 7:30 PM Speaker Series MAY LUCÍA*

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2026 • 5:30 PM & 8 PM Concerts @ The JAI

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO*

SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2026 • 7 PM Global Roots Series

HAYATO SUMINO*, piano

SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2026 • 7:30 PM

ProtoStar Innovative Series

TRACY DRAIN*: COSMIC ADVENTURES

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2026 • 7:30 PM

Speaker Series

SHENEL JOHNS*

SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2026 · 5:30 PM & 8 PM

Concerts @ The JAI

STELLA CHEN*, violin

GILLES VONSATTEL, piano

SUNDAY, MAY 31, 2026 • 3 PM

Discovery Series

JUNE

JIHYE LEE ORCHESTRA*

SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 2026 • 5:30 PM & 8 PM

Concerts @ The JAI

CHUCHO VALDÉS & ARTURO SANDOVAL

LEGACY QUINTET

2 Performances

TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2026 · 5:30 & 8 PM Jazz Series

*LJMS debut

Angélique Kidjo

Locally sourced, regional cuisine with breathtaking views of the Torrey Pines Golf Course and stunning sunsets over the Pacific Ocean.

UP NEXT: APRIL 15 —JUNE 2026

GAUTIER CAPUÇON, cello

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET, piano

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 • 7:30 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall

Recital Series

ARISTO SHAM, piano

SUNDAY, APRIL 19 • 3 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall Discovery Series

Van Cliburn Gold Medal winner

DANCING ON TIPTOES:

A Musical Exploration of Melody, Movement, and Mood

SATURDAY, APRIL 25

10 AM & 11:30 AM

The JAI

The ConRAD Kids Series

BENNY BENACK III: The Magic of Manhattan

SATURDAY, APRIL 18

5:30 PM & 8 PM

Concerts @ The JAI

“

Overloaded with talent, charm, and star quality”

— Broadway World

AARON DIEHL TRIO

FRIDAY, APRIL 24

5:30 PM & 8 PM

Concerts @ The JAI

“

Melodic precision, harmonic erudition, and elegant restraint”

— The New York Times

DAVID McLAIN

Blue Zones: Unlocking The Secrets of Longevity

THURSDAY, APRIL 30 • 7:30 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall

Speaker Series

ALEXANDRE KANTOROW

SATURDAY, APRIL 25 • 7:30 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall Piano Series

LUCÍA

FRIDAY, MAY 1

5:30 PM & 8 PM

Concerts @ The JAI

“

Lucía’s voice is enriched by the confluence of jazz and sophisticated rhythms from Mexico’s Gulf Coast.”

— San Jose Jazz

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO

SUNDAY, MAY 3 • 7 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall Global Roots Series

“

Africa’s premier diva” — TIME Magazine

TRACY DRAIN: Cosmic Adventures

THURSDAY, MAY 14 • 7:30 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall Speaker Series

HAYATO SUMINO, piano

SATURDAY, MAY 9 • 7:30 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall ProtoStar Innovative Series

“

Whenever he is on stage, something very special takes place.” — ClassicFM

STELLA CHEN, violin & GILLES VONSATTEL, piano

SUNDAY, MAY 31 • 3 PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall Discovery Series

CHUCHO

SHENEL JOHNS

SATURDAY, MAY 16

5:30 PM & 8 PM Concerts @ The JAI

“

History in the making” — The Boston Globe

VALDÉS & ARTURO SANDOVAL

LEGACY QUINTET

TUESDAY, JUNE 9

5:30 PM & 8PM

The Baker-Baum Concert Hall Jazz Series

JIHYE LEE ORCHESTRA

SATURDAY, JUNE 6

5:30 PM & 8 PM Concerts @ The JAI

“

One of the freshest and most distinctive composers on the New York scene” — Jazz Times

Monique Mead

Violinist and Artistic Director of Broadway Week

Adam Kantor

Broadway Star of Rent, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Band’s Visit

Stephen Neely

Carnegie Mellon Professor and Celebrated Vocal Coach

Michele de la Reza

Award-Winning Choreographer and Co-Founder of Attack Theatre

Van Kaplan Veteran Theatre Director and Producer

Nick Adams Award-Winning Star of Broadway, Film, and Television

Eden Espinosa

Tony-Nominated Star of Wicked, Rent, and Lempicka

TRANSFORMATIVE SUPPORT

Our gratitude to these Medallion Society Pillars founding members who have made significant four-year commitments that will help us better serve all of the San Diego region. The Conrad can be a catalyst to bring thousands of adults and children together through a common appreciation of the performing arts, which enhance the artistic fabric of our community.

$1 MILLION and above

Brenda Baker and Steve Baum

$1 MILLION and above

Irwin and Joan* Jacobs

$1 MILLION and above

Dorothea Laub

$500,000 and above

Karen and Kit Sickels

$400,000 and above

Mary Ellen Clark

$400,000 and above

Raffaella and John* Belanich

$400,000 and above

Eleanor and Ric* Charlton

$400,000 and above

Jacqueline and Jean-Luc Robert

$400,000 and above

Debbie Turner

$400,000 and above

Marco Londei and Liqun Wang

$200,000 and above

Keith and Helen Kim

$200,000 and above

Julie and Bert Cornelison

$200,000 and above

Angel and Fred Kleinbub

$200,000 and above

Herbert Solomon and Elaine Galinson

$200,000 and above

Vivian Lim and Joseph Wong

$200,000 and above

Haeyoung Kong Tang

Thank you to these Pillars in the community.

$200,000 and above

Sue and Peter Wagener

For information about supporting La Jolla Music Society through membership in the Pillars program, please contact Ferdinand Gasang at 858.526.3426 or FGasang@TheConrad.org.

THE CONRAD

Home of La Jolla Music Society

Vision Statement

To transform lives through the performing arts, serving as a beacon of world-class artistic excellence, innovation, and inclusivity.

Mission Statement

The 2025−26 Season

From classical, jazz, and dance to global music, exciting speakers, and family concerts, each season

Artistic Director Leah Rosenthal brings the best artists in the world to the San Diego community. This season will feature more than 70 artists, including superstars like Lang Lang, Angélique Kidjo, MOMIX, Daniil Trifonov, Juan Diego Flórez, and many more. Join us at The Conrad as well as the Civic Theatre, Balboa Theatre, and Jacobs Music Center to see the best the world has to offer.

SummerFest

La Jolla Music Society’s acclaimed chamber music festival, curated by award-winning pianist and festival Music Director Inon Barnatan, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2026. SummerFest engages more than 80 of the world’s finest musicians to perform at The Conrad throughout the month of August. In addition to remarkable mainstage performances, SummerFest offers over 50 free and open-to-the-public educational activities. To learn more, visit TheConrad.org/SummerFest.

To enrich the evolving cultural landscape of San Diego by curating a dynamic array of world-class performing arts programming, create meaningful learning opportunities, and build connections between artists and audiences. Follow Us

Angélique Kidjo

Noah Bendix-Balgley, Stefan Jackiw, Inon Barnatan, Alisa Weilerstein, Teng Li

The Conrad

The Conrad opened in 2019 and serves as a gathering place for cultural, arts education, and community activity. As the permanent home of La Jolla Music Society, The Conrad hosts world-class performances presented by La Jolla Music Society and other local arts organizations in its four outstanding performance and activity spaces, The Baker-Baum Concert Hall, The JAI, The Atkinson Room, and the picturesque Wu Tsai QRT.yrd.

Learning & Engagement

La Jolla Music Society’s award-winning Learning & Engagement Programming provides unmatched access and learning opportunities to more than 15,000 students and community members throughout San Diego County annually. With learning and engagement at the heart of our mission, we work closely with each visiting artist and ensemble to create outreach activities that highlight their unique talents and expertise at both The Conrad and in the community. With our state-of the-art video and streaming capabilities at The Conrad, we are able to provide live streaming for events such as our annual SummerFest and education events for free in our Digital Concert Hall.

Land Acknowledgment

The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center acknowledges the ancestral, unceded territory of the Kumeyaay people, on which The Conrad was built. We hold great respect for the land and the original people of the area where our performing arts center is located. The Kumeyaay continue to maintain their political sovereignty and cultural traditions as vital members of the San Diego community.

Balourdet Quartet

Allison Boles, Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes, Inon Barnatan

Canadian Brass

Mireya Ramos

Lori Bell Quartet

BOARD OF DIRECTORS · 2025–26

Vivian Lim – Chair

Bert Cornelison – Vice Chair

Mary Ellen Clark - Treasurer

Stacy Kellner Rosenberg - Secretary

Stephen L. Baum

David Belanich

Marla Bingham

Eleanor Charlton

Sharon Cohen

Ellise Coit

Peter Cooper

Ann Parode Dynes

Jennifer Eve

Debby Fishburn

Stephen Gamp

Lehn Goetz

John Hesselink

LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY STAFF

Todd R. Schultz

President & CEO

Leah Rosenthal

Artistic Director

Inon Barnatan

SummerFest Music Director

ADMINISTRATION

Casey McEnelly

Director of Finance

Brady Stender

Controller

Breanne Self

Human Resources & Finance Manager

ARTISTIC

Grace Smith

Artistic Planning & Operations Director

Anne-Marie Dicce

Artistic Planning Manager

George Pritzker

Artistic Operations Coordinator

Juliet Zimmer

Artistic Rentals & Partnerships Director

Braulio Fernandez-Flores

Artistic Rentals Coordinator/

Assistant Front of House Manager

John Tessmer

Lead Artist Liaison

Maggie de Lorimier

Artist Liaison

Isaac Pastrana

Artist Liaison

Dana Rossi

Artist Liaison

Eric Bromberger

Program Annotator

Teresa Hixson

David Kabakoff

Nancy Linke Patton

Diana Lombrozo

Sue Major

Richard A. Norling

Kazeem Omidiji

Arman Oruc

Tom Rasmussen

Sylvia Ré

Sheryl Scarano

Neal Schmale

Jeanette Stevens

Stephanie Stone

Peter Wagener

Liqun Wang

Lise Wilson

PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS

Jamie Coyne

Director of Production & Operations

Tyler Merrihew

Associate Technical Director

Dominic La Frantz

Technical Coordinator – Lighting Lead

Caren Heintzelman

Assistant Production Manager

Lauren Cernik-Price

Production Coordinator & Stage Manager

Sam Bedford

Technical Coordinator/Stage Manager

Jonnel Domilos

Piano Technician

FACILITIES

Jason Martin Director of Facilities

Colin Dickson

Facilities Manager

Evan Calderon

Associate Facilities Engineer

Kim Chevallier

Security Guard

LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT

Allison Boles

Director of Learning & Engagement

Jade Lewenhaupt

Learning & Engagement Coordinator

Frida Ibarra

Music Education Programs Assistant

Max Weinzimer

Learning & Engagement Intern

HONORARY DIRECTORS

Brenda Baker

Stephen L. Baum

Raffaella Belanich

Joy Frieman, Ph.D.

Irwin M. Jacobs

Joan Jacobs (1933—2024)

Lois Kohn (1924—2010)

Helene K. Kruger (1916—2019)

Conrad Prebys (1933—2016)

Peggy Preuss

Ellen Revelle (1910—2009)

Leigh P. Ryan, Esq.

Dolly Woo

Serafin Paredes

Community Music Center Director

Aimee Alvarado

Community Music Center

Administrative Assistant

Community Music Center Instructors:

Mariana Flores Bucio, Marcus Cortez, David Garcia, Saul Garcia, Ian Lawrence, Sofia Magallenes, Marko Paul, Eduardo

Ruiz, Juan Sanchez, Miguel Zazueta

DEVELOPMENT

Ferdinand Gasang Director of Development

Annie Stender

Individual Giving & Development Operations Director

Wadeaa Jubran

Donor Programs Manager

Wil Owen

Donor Services & Stewardship Coordinator

Nicole Slavik

Special Events & Catering Director

Vivian Vu

Special Events Coordinator

Sarah Wood Torrey

Institutional Giving Consultant

MARKETING & GUEST SERVICES

Mary Cook

Director of Communications, Marketing & Guest Services

Stephanie Saad

Communications & Public Relations Director

David Silva

Marketing Manager & Sales Director

Cristal Salow

Database & Analytics Manager

Katherine Jenswold

Digital Marketing Associate

Mariel Pillado

Graphic Designer

Marsi Bennion

Box Office & Guest Services Director

Patrick Mayuyu

Box Office & Guest Services Manager

Sam Crowley

Box Office & Guest Services Lead

Mitch Maker

Box Office Representative & Development Liaison

Veronica Eddings

Box Office & Guest Services Associate

Shaun Davis House Manager

La Jolla Music Society’s 57

Dear Friends,

Season

What a joy it is to look out from the stage and see our halls filled with such energy. Thanks to your support, audiences are growing, our visibility is rising, and the enthusiasm we hear from you every day affirms the impact of our work.

As we celebrate this momentum, we also look ahead. Studies consistently show that the most powerful driver of growth in the performing arts isn’t advertising—it’s you.

Our most devoted attendees are our greatest ambassadors. When you invite a friend, neighbor, or colleague to a concert, you provide a personal introduction that can lead to a lasting connection with the arts.

My request is simple: invite someone new to a performance.

A quick “you have to hear this” can make all the difference. Over time, these individual invitations create profound, collective impact. A larger, more engaged audience enables us to expand education programs, support emerging artists, and take bolder artistic risks. The more people who attend and give, the more we can do for the larger San Diego community.

Thank you for being part of our story and for helping us share the transformative power of live performance. I look forward to seeing you—and a new friend—at our next concert.

With gratitude,

Todd Schultz President & CEO, La Jolla Music Society

PRELUDE 6:30 PM

Lecture By Michael Gerdes

LE CONSORT TRIO SONATA SOIRÉE

FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2026 · 7:30 PM

THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL DE MONTÉCLAIR Plainte en Dialogue from Concert for Two Flutes No. 2 in E Minor (arr. for two violins) (1667–1737)

DANDRIEU Trio Sonata Opus 1, No. 4 in A Major (1682–1738)

Adagio

Allegro

Vivace

Largo

Vivace

ALBINONI Sonata in D Minor, Opus 1, No. 1 (1671–1751) Grave

Allegro

Largo

Allegro

TELEMANN Duet for Two Violins, “Lilliputsche Chaconne” (1681–1767)

Selections from Trietti Methodici, TWV 42: D2 Allegro from Trietto Terzo

Andante and Vivace from Trietto Secondo

VIVALDI Adagio and Allegro from Sonata Opus 1, No. 9 (1678–1741)

MARINI Sinfonia grave (a 3), Opus 1, No. 6, “La Zorzi” (1594–1663)

MERULA Ciaconna from Ballo detto Politico Opus 12, No. 24 (1595–1665)

REALI La Folia Opus 1, No. 12 (1681–1751)

INTERMISSION

BIBER Passacaglia for Solo Violin (1644–1704)

J.S. BACH

Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 (1685–1750)

Trio Sonata in G Major, BWV 1039

Adagio

Allegro ma non presto

La Jolla Music Society’s 2025–26 Season is supported by The City of San Diego Cultural Affairs, California Arts Council, County of San Diego, Prebys Foundation, Farfy Foundation, The Lodge at Torrey Pines, ProtoStar Foundation, Vail Memorial Fund, Rancho La Puerta, Banc of California, ResMed Foundation, San Diego Theatres Foundation, Bright Events Rentals, Cafe Coyote, Rancho Coyote, GRNFC Hospitality Group, Ace Parking, Brenda Baker and Steve Baum, Raffaella Belanich, Gordon Brodfuehrer, Eleanor and Ric Charlton, Mary Ellen Clark, Bert and Julie Cornelison, Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon, Irwin Jacobs, Helen and Keith Kim, Angelina and Fred Kleinbub, Dorothea Laub, Vivian Lim and Joseph Wong, Jaqueline and Jean-Luc Robert, Marge and Neal Schmale, Karen and Kit Sickels, Jeanette Stevens, Haeyoung Kong Tang, Debra Turner, Sue and Peter Wagener, Liqun Wang and Marco Londei, Anna and Edward Yeung, Bebe and Marvin Zigman.

Le Consort appears by arrangement with David Rowe Artists www.davidroweartists.com www.leconsort.com

Adagio e piano

Presto

Larghetto from Concerto in D Major, BWV 972

VIVALDI Trio Sonata in D Minor, Opus 1, No. 12, “Follia” RV 63

Thème

Variation 1 Andante

Variations 2–6 Allegro

Variation 7

Variation 8 Adagio

Variation 9 Vivace

Variation 10 Allegro

Variation 11 Larghetto

Variations 12 & 13 Allegro

Variation 14 Adagio

Variations 15–19 Allegro

Le Consort

Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Sophie de Bardonnèche, violins; Hanna Salzenstein, cello; Justin Taylor, harpsichord

Théotime Langlois de Swarte and Hanna Salzenstein last performed for La Jolla Music Society in the Recital Series on March 22, 2025. This performance marks Sophie de Bardonnèche’s and Justin Taylor’s La Jolla Music Society debuts.

Program Notes

This program will begin with a Plainte for two violins by Montéclair in the tone of D minor, very intimate. Then we’ll interpret a Trio Sonata in A Major by Dandrieu that we particularly love. The sonatas of Dandrieu were featured on our very first recording. Dandrieu is known by scholars for his treatise on the basso continuo, but his trio sonatas for us really do deserve a place in the very front rank of the chamber music of the period. They show a mastery of style as well of a variety of astonishing character types. They are dances overflowing with energy, a playful spirited counterpoint between the three voices, phrasing, rhythm, sweetness, passion—full of life!

Then we will travel to Venice, with a Sonata Prima by Albinoni. The name of this composer is associated with a very famous piece, “Abinoni’s Adagio,” which was in fact composed and published in 1958 by an Italian musicologist! As for us, we will play a sonata by the genuine Tomaso Albinoni, not famous today but a not-to-miss Venetian composer. Telemann is the next composer of the programme. First, a short duet for two violins with a funny name: “Lilliputsche Chaconne,” and then four movements from his Trietti Methodici. These pieces are made remarkable by the fact that Telemann wrote all the ornaments in the scores. In this period, ornamenting the line would have been something quite typical, but would not have been written on the score; it would have been left to the interpreter’s decision. So, to have such ornaments by the composer is unique and precious. Influenced by the Italian style (even the title trietti is in Italian!), these movements are also very virtuosic.

Back to Venice with an Adagio and an Allegro by the famous Antonio Vivaldi. Then La Zorzi by Marini, a composer from Brescia who worked with Monteverdi, and two pieces by Merula: Ballo Pollicio and Ciaconna. These two compositions are full of rhythms, and the Ciaconna is a treasure of inventiveness and joyful writing. Then we will finish the first part of this concert by the Folia of Reali. Reali was an exact contemporary of Vivaldi in Venice, but definitively not with the same destiny. His life has remained shrouded in mystery. In his Folia, Reali adds an extra violoncello part to the two violins and continuo to enrich the mellifluous dialogue between the violins. He also introduces an extremely novel feature by altering the meter, changing the triple time of the Folia to double time for the last two variations. The effect is quite dramatic, making the performer increase the pace (well before the term accelerando had appeared in any score)!

The Passacaglia from Heinrich Biber is composed on a ground bass of four descending notes in the key of G minor, giving the piece a somber bearing. Through changes in pace, texture, and mood, Biber takes us on an emotional journey; the imagination is opened up to a panoply of different scenes, each of which evokes a different sensation in the listener.

The Prelude from the first Suite for cello solo by Bach is a masterpiece that needs no introduction. Then we’ll play the Trio Sonata in G Major BWV 1039 by the same composer. In four movements, Bach develops his extraordinary capacity for creating beautiful lines with incredible harmonies, vibrant and unique characterization of each movement: an intense moment of music.

The Larghetto BWV 972 by Bach was originally written by Vivaldi for violin in his opus called “L’estro Armonico.” Bach discovered the score and decided to transcribe it for his own instrument, the harpsichord. The Sonata No. 12, La Follia, by Vivaldi, is a masterpiece of the trio sonata repertoire, irresistible in its sheer momentum. The variations are built up impressively: by turns slow and fast, introspective and passionately fiery, they unfold organically with stylistic mastery, taking performers and listeners alike on a journey from intimacy to virtuosity.

— Sophie de Bardonnèche

PRELUDE 7 PM

Lecture By Michael Gerdes

AUGUSTIN HADELICH, violin & FRANCESCO PIEMONTESI, piano

SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2026 · 8 PM

THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL

DE GRIGNY Recit du Chant de l’hymne précédent (arr. Piemontesi) (1672–1703)

DEBUSSY

Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Minor (1862–1918)

Allegro vivo

Intermède: Fantasque et léger

Finale: Très animé

RAMEAU La Boucon (arr. Piemontesi) (1683–1764)

POULENC

Sonata for Violin and Piano (1899–1963)

Allegro con fuoco

Intermezzo

Presto tragico

INTERMISSION

GYÖRGY KURTÁG Tre Pezzi, Opus 14e (b. 1926)

Öd und traurig

Vivo

Opus 3 Artists

FRANCK

Aus der Ferne; Sehr leise; Äusserst langsam

Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano (1822–1890)

Allegretto ben moderato

Allegro

Recitativo–Fantasia

Allegretto poco mosso

Augustin Hadelich, violin; Francesco Piemontesi, piano

Augustin Hadelich last performed for La Jolla Music Society at SummerFest on July 28, 2024. Francesco Piemontesi last performed for La Jolla Music Society at SummerFest on August 7, 2022.

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Recit du Chant de l’hymne précédent NICOLAS DE GRIGNY

Baptized September 8, 1672, Reims, France

Died November 30, 1703, Reims, France

Composed: 1699

Approximate Duration: 3 minutes

Born into a family of organists, Nicolaus de Grigny trained in Reims, worked briefly as an organist in Paris while in his early twenties, then returned to his native city, where he served as organist at the Notre-Dame de Reims. In 1699, when he was 27, de Grigny published his only work, Premier livre d’orgue, a collection of liturgical settings with organ accompaniment. De Grigny died at the age of only 31, and in 1711 his widow published a second edition, which proved extremely influential: J.S. Bach so admired it that he copied the entire book by hand.

The title Recit du Chant de l’hymne précédent translates “Recitative on the melody of the preceding hymn,” which in this case was the Pange, lingua, a thirteenth-century hymn attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas (that title is sometimes translated “Sing, tongue, the Savior’s Glory”). De Grigny’s piece, essentially an organ interlude based on that hymn, consists of two melodic lines—played by the two hands—above a steady bass accompaniment played by the feet. The present arrangement for violin and piano was made by Francesco Piemontesi, the pianist at this recital.

Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Minor CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Born August 22, 1862, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France Died March 25, 1918, Paris

Composed: 1917

Approximate Duration: 15 minutes

Debussy’s final years were wretched. He developed colon cancer in 1909 and underwent a painful operation, radiation therapy, and drug treatment. It was all to no avail, and the disease took its steady course. The onslaught of World War I in 1914 further depressed him, but it also sparked a wave of nationalistic fervor, and he set about writing a set of six sonatas for different combinations of instruments. It may seem strange that the iconoclastic Debussy would return in his final years to as structured a form as the sonata, but he specified that his model was the French sonata of the eighteenth century and not the classical German sonata. To make his point—and his nationalistic sympathies—even more clear, Debussy signed the scores of these works “Claude Debussy, musicien français.”

Debussy lived to complete only three of the projected six sonatas: a Cello Sonata (1915); a Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp (1916); and the Violin Sonata, completed in April 1917. It was to be his final work, and it gave him a great deal of difficulty From the depths of his gloom, he wrote to a friend: “This sonata will be interesting from a documentary viewpoint and as an example of what may be produced by a sick man in time of war.” Debussy played the piano at the première on May 5, 1917, and

performed it again in September at what proved to be his final public appearance. His deteriorating health confined him to his room thereafter, and he died the following March.

For all Debussy’s dark comments, the Violin Sonata is a brilliant work, alternating fantastic and exotic outbursts with more somber and reflective moments. In three concise movements, the sonata lasts only about thirteen minutes. Debussy deliberately obscures both meter and key over the first few measures of the Allegro vivo, and only gradually does the music settle into G minor. The haunting beginning of the movement feels subdued, almost ascetic, but the dancing middle section in E major is more animated. Debussy brings back the opening material and rounds off the movement with a con fuoco coda.

The second movement brings a sharp change of mood after the brutal close of the first. Debussy marks it fantasque et léger (“fantastic [or fanciful] and light”), and the violin opens with a series of leaps, swirls, and trills before settling into the nearhypnotic main idea. The second subject, marked “sweet and expressive,” slides languorously on glissandos and arpeggios, and the movement comes to a quiet close. Over rippling chords, the finale offers a quick reminiscence of the very opening of the sonata, and then this theme disappears for good and the finale’s real theme leaps to life. It is a shower of triplet sixteenths that rockets upward and comes swirling back down: the composer described it as “a theme turning back on itself like a serpent biting its own tail.” There are some sultry interludes along the way, full of glissandos, broken chords, rubato, and trills, but finally the swirling energy of the main theme drives the music to its animated close.

Debussy may have been unhappy about this music while working on it, but once done he felt more comfortable with it, writing to a friend: “In keeping with the contradictory spirit of human nature, it is full of joyous tumult . . . Beware in the future of works which appear to inhabit the skies; often they are the product of a dark, morose mind.”

La Boucon

JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU

Baptized September 25, 1683, Dijon, France

Died September 12, 1764, Paris

Composed: 1727

Approximate Duration: 5 minutes

Jean-Philippe Rameau wished above all else to succeed as a composer of opera, though Rameau’s modern reputation rests largely on his harpsichord music. Rameau did not write in as disciplined a form as the keyboard sonata, but instead specialized in descriptive pieces, many with evocative titles. These pieces— short, lively, and beautifully written for the instrument—are often in dance forms, but Rameau also wrote a number of pieces to describe or evoke specific subjects. Some of the latter are descriptive music (he wrote pieces about knitters, a whirlwind, a person with a limp, chickens, Indians, and so on), and some suggest specific moods (triumph, indifference).

The present work sprang from a different inspiration entirely. One of Rameau’s harpsichord students was a young woman named Anne-Jeanne Boucon (1708–80); she was a superb musician who later married the French composer JeanJoseph Cassanéa de Mondonville. Rameau was not the only composer who admired the young woman, and several other composers wrote works dedicated to her. Rameau composed La Boucon about 1727, when Anne-Jeanne Boucon was 19, and he later included it in his Pièces de clavecin en concert, published in 1741. This affectionate portrait, which Rameau subtitled “Air gracieux” and which could be performed by various combinations of instruments, is heard at this concert in Francesco Piemontesi’s arrangement for violin and piano.

Sonata for Violin and Piano FRANCIS POULENC

Born January 7, 1899, Paris

Died January 30, 1963, Paris

Composed: 1943

Approximate Duration: 19 minutes

Poulenc loved the sound of wind instruments. When he composed his Sextet for Piano and Woodwind Quintet, he referred to it as “an homage to the wind instruments I have loved from the moment I began composing,” and he wrote wonderfully for winds throughout his life. About stringed instruments, however, Poulenc was much less sure. In particular, the combination of a stringed instrument with piano—a combination that had seemed very natural to Beethoven and Brahms—gave Poulenc trouble. He noted that he did not like the sound of “the violin in the singular,” and he wrote only two string sonatas, the present violin sonata and one for cello. Yet both of these are impressive works.

A dark atmosphere hangs over the Violin Sonata. Poulenc composed it in Paris in 1942–43, during the German occupation, and dedicated it to the memory of the Spanish poet Frederico García Lorca, who had been murdered by the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. Poulenc was the pianist at the première of the Violin Sonata, and the violinist on that occasion was the young French violinist Ginette Neveu. When she was killed in an air crash in 1949, Poulenc went back and revised the last movement of this sonata, which is pointedly marked Presto tragico

One should not approach this sonata thinking that it is all darkness and gloom, for it is not. The sonata is in the expected three movements, and Poulenc treats the piano and violin as equals. The aptly marked Allegro con fuoco is indeed full of fire. Poulenc marks the violin’s opening theme Très violent, and that marking will recur repeatedly throughout this sonata. The agitated beginning rides along a spiky energy that gives way to a more relaxed central episode, full of an unexpected sweetness; the opening material returns to drive the movement to a violent close. Poulenc attached a fragment of a quotation from Lorca to the slow movement—“The guitar makes dreams weep”— and we may hear something of the guitar, an instrument Lorca

played, in the violin’s pizzicato strokes here. This music has an exotic character, its long lyric lines full of dark swirls. The concluding Presto tragico returns to the manner of the opening movement, with a bristling energy and brilliant violin passages, including some for left-handed pizzicato. The ending is striking, and perhaps this is the section Poulenc refashioned after Neveu’s death: the energy dissipates on a cadenza-like flourish for violin, and the sonata vanishes on sharp strokes of sound.

Tre Pezzi, Opus 14e GYÖRGY KURTÁG

Born February 19, 1926, Lugoj, Romania

Composed: 1979

Approximate Duration: 13 minutes

György Kurtág, whose hundredth birthday took place last month, has composed with extraordinary economy and concentration. Most of his works are miniatures, complete compositions that sometimes pass by in a matter of seconds— one of his works consists of a total of seven notes. Kurtág also works very slowly: in The New Grove Dictionary, György Kröo notes that in the fourteen-year span 1959 to 1973, Kurtág wrote a total of ninety minutes of music.

In 1978 Kurtág, then 52 years old and teaching at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, traveled to Witten-Herdecke in western Germany for the première of one of his works. There he visited a Waldorf school and was impressed by their teaching methods, performances, and instruments. In response, Kurtág wrote a piece consisting of fifteen very brief movements that he titled Herdecker Eurythmie, Opus 14b. He scored it for the instruments on hand at the school—flute, violin, recitation, and lyre (or cimbalon)—and used those in various combinations across the span of the larger work.

The following year, in 1979, Kurtág pulled three movements scored for violin and piano (Nos. 7-8-9) out of the Herdecker Eurythmie and published them as his Tre Pezzi, Opus 14e. The three pieces are in a slow-fast-slow sequence and span about six minutes. The opening Öd und traurig (“desolate and sad”) features the violin playing doublestops without vibrato over quietly arpeggiated piano accompaniment. The static quality of this movement is underlined by the dynamic marking of triple piano and the instruction to both instruments to play with mute. The central Vivo is the shortest of the movements, lasting just over a minute. The violin’s pointillistic harmonic E’s give this music a spiky quality that suddenly turns violent. The Tre Pezzi conclude with a movement marked Aus der Ferne (“from the distance”). This music, spectral and disembodied, grows gradually slower as it proceeds and finally fades into silence.

Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano

CÉSAR FRANCK

Born December 10, 1822, Liège, Belgium

Died November 8, 1890, Paris

Composed: 1886

Approximate Duration: 28 minutes

Composed in 1886, the Sonata in A Major is one of the finest examples of Franck’s use of cyclic form, a technique he had adapted from his friend Franz Liszt, in which themes from one movement are transformed and used over subsequent movements. The Violin Sonata is a particularly ingenious instance of this technique: virtually the entire sonata is derived from the quiet and unassuming opening of the first movement, which then evolves endlessly across the sonata. Even when a new theme seems to arrive, it will gradually be revealed as a subtle variant of one already heard.

The piano’s quiet fragmented chords at the beginning of the Allegretto ben moderato suggest a theme-shape that the violin takes over as it enters: this will be the thematic cell of the entire sonata. The piano has a more animated second subject (it takes on the shape of the germinal theme as its proceeds), but the gently rocking violin figure from the opening dominates this movement, and Franck reminds the performers constantly to play molto dolce, sempre dolce, dolcissimo

The mood changes completely at the fiery second movement, marked passionato, and some critics have gone so far as to claim that this Allegro is the true first movement and that the opening Allegretto should be regarded as an introduction to this movement. In any case, this movement contrasts its blazing opening with more lyric episodes, and listeners will detect the original theme-shape flowing through some of these.

The Recitativo–Fantasia is the most original movement in the sonata. The piano’s quiet introduction seems at first a revisiting of the germinal theme, though it is—ingeniously—a variant of the passionato opening of the second movement. The violin makes its entrance with an improvisation-like passage (this is the fantasia of the title), and the entire movement is quite free in both structure and expression: moments of whimsy alternate with passionate outbursts.

After the expressive freedom of the third movement, the finale restores order with pristine clarity: it is a canon in octaves, with one voice following the other at the interval of a measure. The stately canon theme, marked dolce cantabile, is a direct descendant of the sonata’s opening theme, and as this movement proceeds it recalls thematic material from earlier movements. Gradually, the music takes on unexpected power and drives to a massive coda and a thunderous close.

LANG LANG, piano

THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2026 · 7:30 PM

JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

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MOZART Rondo in D Major, K.485 (1756–1791)

BEETHOVEN

Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Opus 13 “Pathetique” (1770–1827) Grave; Allegro molto e con brio

Adagio cantabile

Rondo: Allegro

Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Opus 110

Moderato cantabile molto espressivo

Allegro molto

Adagio ma non troppo; Fugue: Allegro, ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

ALBÉNIZ

Selections from Suite española, Opus 47 (1860–1909) Granada

Cataluña

Sevilla

Cádiz

Asturias

Cuba

GRANADOS Quejas, o La Maja y El Ruiseñor from Goyescas, Opus 11 (1867–1916)

LISZT Consolation S.172, No. 2 in E Major (1811-1886) Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli, S.162, No. 3

Lang Lang, piano

Lang Lang last performed for La Jolla Music Society in the Piano Series on March 18, 2022.

© Sonja Mueller

Program notes by Eric Bromberger

Rondo in D Major, K.485 WOLFGANG AMADEUS

MOZART

Born January 27, 1756, Salzburg

Died December 5, 1791, Vienna

Composed: 1786

Approximate Duration: 6 minutes

Mozart completed the Rondo in D Major on January 10, 1786, at a time when he was deeply involved with two operas: The Impresario, completed a few weeks later, and The Marriage of Figaro, which he would complete later that spring. The Rondo is remarkable for being based on a theme not by Mozart—he took the main idea from the first movement of the Quintet in D Major, Opus 6, No. 11 by Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. As a boy of eight, Mozart had met the youngest Bach in London in 1764 and played duets while sitting in his lap. The music of Johann Christian remained a strong influence on Mozart, and it may well be that he intended the use of this theme as a tribute to the older composer, who died in 1782.

The form of Mozart’s brief piece has touched off a good deal of critical debate, for this does not seem to be a true rondo. It opens with an exposition complete with repeat, utterly atypical of rondo form, and several critics believe this music should more accurately be classified as a sonata-form movement that uses the same subject for both its principal and secondary themes; other critics describe it as a fusion of rondo and sonata forms. Whatever its form, this music takes its graceful main theme through a particularly gentle series of repetitions, bringing it back in different registers and harmonies. Of special interest are a connecting passage that looks ahead to a similar phrase in Eine kleine Nachtmusik (composed the next year) and the very end, which takes the main theme into unusually low registers.

Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Opus 13 “Pathetique” LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Born December 17, 1770, Bonn, Germany

Died March 26, 1827, Vienna

Composed: 1799

Approximate Duration: 20 minutes

Quite unusually, it was Beethoven himself who contributed the famous nickname of this sonata: when it was published in Vienna on December 18, 1799 (two days after his 29th birthday) he called it Grande sonate pathétique. Beethoven understood Pathétique to mean intense or emotional, and those qualities saturate this powerful music, sometimes in quite different ways. Beethoven’s choice of key for this music is crucial: C minor was the key he turned to for his darkest and most dramatic music, and it would later be the key of the Fifth Symphony, Coriolan Overture, and the Funeral March of the Eroica. By 1799, Beethoven had already composed a piano trio, piano sonata, string trio, and string quartet in C minor, and while those are all firm-ribbed works, none of them approaches the stark power of Patheéique Sonata, the earliest great manifestation of Beethoven’s “C-minor mood.”

Beyond its emotional power, this music is remarkable for the young composer’s experiments with form. The Pathétique opens with a slow introduction (his first in a piano sonata) marked Grave, an indication of solemn import as well as slow speed. The powerful chordal writing leads to a sudden plummet down a run of 128th-notes into the main body of the movement, marked Molto allegro e con brio. The materials here are simple—the opening theme is essentially a run up the C-minor scale and Beethoven sets the music at a quiet dynamic—but into these simple elements Beethoven fuses vast power, and soon this music is rushing forward with a furious energy. The second subject, fleet and singing, is decorated with mordents, and all might seem set for what would be simply an unusually powerful opening movement, but Beethoven continues to spring surprises. At just the point the development should begin, the music comes to a stop, and back—in all their dark strength—come the imposing chords of the Grave introduction. Only then does Beethoven allow the development to proceed; this is climaxed by some remarkable harmonic progressions, and Beethoven brings back a reminiscence of the Grave introduction before the twelve-measure coda hurls the movement to its close.

The Adagio cantabile is built on a gorgeous melody—it has become almost too popular—and Beethoven sets this movement in rondo form: this opening melody is twice interrupted by brief episodes, and at the end Beethoven combines the triplet accompaniment of the second of these with his main theme in a graceful fusion of material. The key of this movement—Aflat major—sounds particularly warm and comforting after the C-minor furies of the opening movement, and it is to C minor that Beethoven returns for his rondo-finale, marked simply Allegro. That key, however, does not sound nearly so dark or violent in this finale. There is almost a delicacy to this rondo theme, which may be explained by the fact that Beethoven had originally intended to use it in a violin sonata. One of the unusual features of this finale is its brevity. In fact, the movements grow steadily shorter as this sonata proceeds: the Pathétique moves from a powerful nine-minute opening movement to a six-minute slow movement and concludes with a final rondo lasting barely four minutes. As a result, it feels heavily balanced to the front, and Beethoven was aware of this: when he wrote the Moonlight Sonata two years later, he set out to move the dramatic weight from the first movement to the finale.

The Pathétique is one of Beethoven’s most popular works, and this was true even in his own time. The pianist Ignaz Moscheles has left a wonderful account of the sonata’s effect on young musicians of the era (Moscheles was 10 when the incident he describes here took place): “It was about this time that I learnt from some school-fellows that a young composer had appeared at Vienna, who wrote the oddest stuff possible—such as no one could either play or understand; crazy music, in opposition to all rule; and that this composer’s name was Beethoven. On repairing to the library to satisfy my curiosity as to this so-called genius, I found there Beethoven’s Sonata pathétique. This was in the year 1804. My pocket-money would not suffice for the purchase of it, so I secretly copied it. The novelty of its style was so attractive to me, and I became so enthusiastic in my admiration of it, that I forgot

myself so far as to mention my new acquisition to my master, who reminded me of his injunction, and warned me not to play or study any eccentric production until I had based my style upon more solid models. Without, however, minding his injunctions, I seized upon the pianoforte works of Beethoven as they successively appeared, and in them found a solace and a delight such as no other composer afforded me.”

Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Opus 110 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Composed: 1821

Approximate Duration: 19 minutes

The years 1813 through 1820 were exceptionally difficult for Beethoven, who virtually stopped composing in these years. There were several reasons for this: his deafness was now nearly complete, he suffered periods of poor health, and much of his energy was consumed with his struggle for legal custody of his nephew Karl And—perhaps most important—he had reached a creative impasse brought on by the exhaustion of his Heroic Style. Where the previous two decades had seen a great outpouring of music, now his creative powers flickered and were nearly extinguished. Not until 1820 was he able to put his troubles, both personal and creative, behind him and marshal his energy as a composer. At the end of May 1820 he committed himself to writing three piano sonatas for the Berlin publisher Adolph Martin Schlesinger; these would be Beethoven’s final sonatas. Although he claimed he wrote them “in one breath,” their composition was actually spread out over a longer period than he expected when he agreed to write them.

The Sonata in A-flat Major, completed in December 1821, shows some of the most original touches in a group of sonatas that are all distinguished for their originality. The first movement, Moderato cantabile molto espressivo, is remarkable for its lovely and continuous lyricism. Beethoven notes that the opening is to be played con amabilita, and that spirit hovers over the entire movement. The essentially lyric quality of this movement is underlined by the fact that the second theme grows immediately out of the first: the opening idea has barely been stated when the second seems to rise directly out of it. By contrast, the bluff Allegro molto is rough and ready: it is a scherzo with a brief trio section full of energy and rhythmic surprises.

The long final movement is of complex structure: it performs the function of both adagio and finale, yet even these elements are intermixed with great originality. The main theme of the Adagio, marked Arioso dolente, arches painfully over a steady chordal accompaniment before Beethoven introduces a fugue marked Allegro, ma non troppo. After a brief working out, the fugue comes to a halt and the Arioso theme returns. This time, however, Beethoven has marked it Ermattet, klagend (exhausted, grieving), and here the music seems almost choked and struggling to move. Yet gradually the music gathers strength and the fugue returns, but this time Beethoven has inverted the theme and builds the fugue on this inversion. The sonata ends with a great rush upward across five octaves to the triumphant final chord.

Selections from Suite española, Opus 47 ISAAC ALBÉNIZ

Born May 29, 1860, Camprodón, Lérida, Spain

Died May 18, 1909, Campô-les-Bains, France

Composed: 1886–89

Approximate Duration: 28 minutes

Isaac Albéniz found himself as a composer when he moved away from writing “conventional” virtuoso pieces and began to make use of Spanish material in his own music. He composed four of the eight movements that make up the Suite española in 1886, then completed the others over the following several years. Each of the eight movements depicts or was inspired by a particular place in Spain. Though Albéniz published these eight movements as a set, individual movements have become famous on their own and are often played separately. Many of Albéniz’ pieces for piano work particularly well as guitar music, and listeners will discover that they may know these movements in their arrangements for guitar. This recital offers six of the eight movements of Suite española. Granada was inspired by the city in southern Spain that flourished under both Moorish and Christian rule. Site of the Alhambra and the Generalife, Granada is also the final resting place of the monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. The city inspired Albéniz not to some heroic depiction but instead a beautifully lyric piece that alternates two themes, the second an elaborate melody projected over supple rhythms. Composed for pianists, this piece has become a favorite of guitarists.

Cataluña is the Spanish name for Catalonia. Marked Allegro, the piece begins quietly, but slowly the basic 6/8 meter emerges, and the music dances along a dotted form of that meter. Rhythms are supple here, with the music sometimes holding back, then rushing ahead; after the gentleness of much of this music, its vigorous ending comes as a surprise. Albéniz dedicated this piece “To my beloved mother.”

Sevilla takes the form of a sevillana, a variant from Seville on the ancient seguidilla, a triple-time dance that had originated in Andalusia.

Cadiz is an ancient city, said to have been founded by the Phoenicians in 1100 B.C. Lying at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, it was the entry point into Spain for the treasures taken from the New World. Albéniz gives his Cadiz the subtitle “Canción”— this genial, pleasing music is marked Allegretto ma non troppo Asturias is a province on the northern coast of Spain. Albéniz’ Asturias, which he subtitled Leyenda (“legend”), is in its outer sections a perpetual motion, with the theme pivoting around repeating D’s, all of this set off by great chords that make slashing attacks across the busy progress of the piece. All this energy gives way to a slow interlude, the opening material returns, and the music fades into silence.

The concluding movement, Cuba, is the one movement without a specifically Spanish inspiration. It has been called a nocturne, though Albéniz himself described it as a “Capricho.” The poised opening section is built on a characteristic 3+2 rhythm, while the subdued middle section flows along gracefully. A return of the opening section leads to a conclusion on two barely audible chords.

Quejas, o La Maja y El Ruiseñor from Goyescas, Opus 11

ENRIQUE

GRANADOS

Born July 27, 1867, Lérida, Spain

Died March 24, 1916, English Channel

Composed: 1909–14

Approximate Duration: 14 minutes

Like many other young Spanish composers at the turn of last century, Enrique Granados was drawn to specifically Spanish topics, and in the years 1909–14 he composed a suite of six piano pieces inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, which he called Goyescas (“Goya-like”). While writing this music, Granados spoke of the charm of Goya’s paintings for him: “I fell in love with the psychology of Goya and his palette . . . that rosy-whiteness of the cheeks contrasted with lace and jet-black velvet, those jasmine-white hands, the color of mother-of-pearl have dazzled me.” Goyescas was an immediate success, and that success brought an unexpected result: the American pianist Ernest Schelling encouraged Granados to transform these piano pieces into an opera, and—with a libretto prepared by Fernando Periquet—Granados did just that. The one-hour opera, also called Goyescas, tells of the deadly collision of two couples: the noblewoman Rosario and her lover Fernando and the bullfighter Paquiro and his fiancée Pepa. The opera culminates in a duel in which Paquiro kills Fernando.

This recital offers two movements from Goyescas Queja o la maja y el ruiseñor (“Laments or The Maya and the Nightingale”) takes the (general) form of a series of variations on an old folk tune from Valencia, but more specifically it is an evocative nocturne that casts a seductive spell. Marked Andante malincolico and for the most part fairly restrained, this is nonetheless extraordinarily difficult music for the pianist, who must master its many changes of tempo and mood, as well as the complexity of the writing (parts of it are written on three staves)

The title El fandango de cantil translates as “The Candlelit Fandango.” A fandango is an old dance in triple time, perhaps of South American origin, and in the score Granados specifies that this is also a Gallardo, another lively dance in triple time. This is music of tremendous rhythmic spring, and the pulsing triplet heard in the first measure will continue almost throughout as this music builds through sultry interludes to its powerful conclusion.

Consolation S.172, No. 2 in E Major FRANZ LISZT

Born October 22, 1811, Raiding, Hungary

Died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth

Composed: 1850

Approximate Duration: 3 minutes

In 1848, shortly after being named music director for the court at Weimar, Liszt began to compose a series of six brief piano pieces that he called Consolations; these were published in 1850. He took that title from a collection of poems published in 1830 by his lifelong friend, the French poet, novelist, and critic Augustin Saint-Beuve. A consolation is not a musical form, and Liszt chose that title simply to indicate the mood of this music: these six miniatures are all so quiet and subdued that Liszt might easily have called them nocturnes.

The Consolation No. 2 in E Major is a very gentle piece. Liszt marks the beginning cantando espressivo, and that mood will continue throughout. The opening flows along smoothly (Liszt rolls the chord on the downbeat of each measure), and while a second idea enters briefly, Liszt quickly returns to his opening melody. This rises to a climax marked appassionato (albeit a very gentle appassionato), then falls away to the quiet concluding chords.

Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli, S.162, No. 3 FRANZ LISZT

Born October 22, 1811, Raiding, Hungary

Died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth

Composed: 1840/1861

Approximate Duration: 9 minutes

About 1840 Liszt wrote a collection of four pieces for solo piano that he called Venezia e Napoli (“Venice and Naples”). These were musical impressions inspired by Italy, and Liszt based them in part on themes by Italian composers. Venezia e Napoli was set up for publication in Vienna in 1840 but apparently never went to press. During the next decade, Liszt went on to write some of his finest piano pieces, and these were gathered as three books he published under the title Années de Pèlerinage (“Years of Pilgrimage”). Each was a collection of short pieces designed to evoke a particular country or atmosphere. Book II of Années de Pèlerinage was inspired by Italian works of art, and now Liszt went back and completely revised Venezia e Napoli, reducing the number of movements to three and publishing this as a supplement to Book II of Années de Pèlerinage in 1861.

The third piece of Venezia e Napoli is titled simply Tarantella Liszt based it on a theme that he had found in a collection of Neapolitan folk songs gathered by the composer Guillaume Louis Cottrau, a theme that Liszt knew under the title tarantelle napolitaine. But that theme is merely the starting point for Liszt, who turns it into a virtuosic tour de force—it is no surprise that the Tarantella has always been an audience favorite

The Tarantella begins with deep rumblings, and quickly leaps to life, dancing along its 6/8 meter and requiring some tricky fingering from the pianist. This gives way to a broadly singing Canzona Napolitano that Liszt marks cantando, and from there he simply alternates these two themes. But what makes this piece so brilliant—and so much fun—is what Liszt does with them: he decorates them with swirls and rhythmic sprays, sends them to the extreme ranges of the keyboard, and transforms them into music of incredible difficulties for the pianist, pausing along the way to offer two brief cadenzas in addition to all these difficulties. A Prestissimo coda drives the Tarantella to its grand close on massive torrents of sound.

PRELUDE 6 PM

Hosted by Meghan Hynson

RAVI SHANKAR ENSEMBLE

SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2026 · 7 PM

THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL

SHANKAR Gurur Bramha (1920-2012)

ABOUT

Guru Vandana

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Spring

Joutshwari

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Fire Night

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Ravi Shankar Ensemble

Shubhendra Rao, sitar; Ravichandra Kulur, flute; B C Manjanuth, mridangam; Anubrata Chatterjee, tabla; Padma Shankar, violin & vocals; Aayush Mohan, sarod & vocals

THIS CONCERT HAS NO INTERMISSION AND IS APPROXIMATELY 90 MINUTES.

The Ravi Shankar Ensemble is a multi-generational collective of world class musicians dedicated to the masterful compositions and enduring legacy of the uniquely legendary musician, Ravi Shankar. In their debut tour, the ensemble presents a special program curated by Sukanya and Anoushka Shankar, featuring visual elements from the Ravi Shankar archives alongside a dynamic selection of Shankar’s soul-stirring music.

This performance marks Ravi Shankar Ensemble’s La Jolla Music Society debut.

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Sukanya Shankar

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SPECIAL THANKS

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PHOTOS AND VIDEOS COURTESY OF THE RAVI SHANKAR ARCHIVES

The Ravi Shankar Ensemble is curated by Sukanya Shankar and Anoushka Shankar and produced by Schirmer Theatrical, part of Wise Music Group.

The Ravi Shankar Ensemble is traveling across America. Visit theravishankarensemble.com for upcoming dates!

PRELUDE 6:30 PM

Interview hosted by Robert John Hughes

The Jazz Mini-Festival is sponsored by:

Vail Memorial Fund

Support for our jazz programs is provided by:

Dorothea Laub

TERENCE BLANCHARD & RAVI COLTRANE

MILES DAVIS & JOHN COLTRANE AT 100

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2026 · 7:30 PM

BALBOA THEATRE

Terence Blanchard, trumpet

Ravi Coltrane, saxophone

Charles Altura, guitar

Eden Ladin, piano/keyboard

David Ginyard Jr., bass

Oscar Seaton, drums

PROGRAM

Works to be announced from stage

THIS PERFORMANCE HAS NO INTERMISSION AND IS APPROXIMATELY 90 MINUTES

ABOUT

In a once-in-a-generation collaboration, saxophonist and composer Ravi Coltrane and trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard will perform the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane in a very limited number of live appearances. The tour is as much about the current legacy of jazz and its future over the next 100 years as it is a tribute to the past century of this art form, with reimagined tunes by both Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Terence Blanchard last performed with La Jolla Music Society in the Protostar Innovative Series on January 19, 2025. This performance marks Ravi Coltrane’s La Jolla Music Society debut.

PRELUDE 6:30

Interview hosted by Robert John Hughes

COLTRANE 100 featuring Lovano, Aldana, Makhathini, Oh and Watts

SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2026 · 7:30 PM

THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL

Joe Lovano, saxophone

Melissa Aldana, saxophone Nduduzo Makhathini, piano

The Jazz Mini-Festival is sponsored by:

Vail Memorial Fund

Support for our jazz programs is provided by:

Dorothea Laub

ABOUT

Linda May Han Oh, bass

Jeff “Tain” Watts, drums

PROGRAM

Works to be announced from stage

THIS PERFORMANCE HAS NO INTERMISSION AND IS APPROXIMATELY 90 MINUTES

2026 marks the centennial of the birth of iconic saxophonist John Coltrane. Coltrane 100 brings together saxophonists Joe Lovano and Melissa Aldana, pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts for a collective tribute reflecting Coltrane’s enduring influence across generations, geographies, and musical traditions.

The Coltrane 100 tour is produced with the approval of Jowcol Music LLC o/b/o Estate of John Coltrane

Joe Lovano last performed for La Jolla Music Society in the Jazz Series on April 11, 2025. This performance marks Melissa Aldana’s, Nduduzo Makhathini’s, Linda May Han Oh’s, and Jeff “Tain” Watts’ La Jolla Music Society debut.

PRELUDE

2 PM

Lecture by Michael Gerdes

DANISH STRING QUARTET

DANISH NATIONAL GIRLS’ CHOIR

Charlotte Rowan, choir conductor

SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2026 · 3 PM

THE BAKER-BAUM CONCERT HALL

CAROLINE SHAW

Allemande from Partita for 8 Voices (b. 1982)

Danish National Girls’ Choir

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI Pige (Girl) (b. 1970)

Danish String Quartet

SCHUBERT

Andante con moto (theme) from String Quartet No. 14 (1797–1828) in D Minor, D 810 “Death and the Maiden”

Danish String Quartet

ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR

Þann heilaga kross (On the holy cross) (arr. Bryla) (b. 1977)

SWEDISH TRADITIONAL

DANISH TRADITIONAL

Danish National Girls’ Choir

Kisti du kom (Kisti you come) (arr. Sørensen)

Dronning Dagmar ligger udi Ribe syg (Queen Dagmar lies in Ribe, sorely ill) (arr. Sørensen)

RUNE TONSGAARD SØRENSEN Once a Shoemaker (b. 1983)

Danish National Girls’ Choir; Danish String Quartet

The Danish String Quartet appears by arrangement with Kirshbaum Associates Inc. 307 Seventh Avenue Suite 506 New York, NY 10001 www.kirshbaumassociates.com

The Danish String Quartet is currently exclusive with ECM Records and has previously recorded for DaCapo and Cavi-Music/BR Klassik

Danish National Girls’ Choir (DR Pigekoret) is part of Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) and under the patronage of H.M. Queen Mary of Denmark.

ASTRID SONNE

How far (b. 1994)

CAROLINE SHAW

O’ CAROLAN

Danish National Girls’ Choir

And So (arr. Rowan)

Danish National Girls’ Choir; Danish String Quartet

Captain O’Kane (arr. Sjölin) (1670-1738)

Danish String Quartet

DANISH TRADITIONAL, Tit er jeg glad og et brudestykke

NIELSEN/INGEMANN (Oft I am glad, and yet I long to weep) (arr. Sørensen) (1865–1931) (1789−1862)

Danish National Girls’ Choir; Danish String Quartet

INTERMISSION

DAVID LANG in wildness (2026) (b. 1957)

Introduction to wildness

We wish to speak

No wealth can buy

We will talk

Nowadays

Old tree

The preservation of the world

We took a walk

Commissioned by the Danish National Girls’ Choir, with Co-Commissioning from UCSB Arts & Lectures, Stanford Live, La Jolla Music Society, Washington Performing Arts, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, and Carnegie Hall

Danish String Quartet

Frederik Øland, violin; Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello;

Danish National Girls’ Choir; Charlotte Rowan, choir conductor

Danish String Quartet last appeared with La Jolla Music Society in the Revelle Chamber Music Series on November 23, 2019. This presentation marks the Danish National Girls’ Choir’s La Jolla Music Society debut.

Program statement

Over the past decade, our two ensembles have built a musical friendship that has opened new perspectives. Throughout our collaboration, we have been driven by curiosity—about the distinct qualities of our ensembles, about the musical expression that arises between us, and about what happens when 1,000 years of music history, 50 young voices, and a string quartet merge into one.

On paper, a girls’ choir and a string quartet may seem refined, even traditional. But we have never been interested in refinement for its own sake. We have pursued a tangible and raw power, insisting on presenting the fragile and uncompromising side by side—as well as the intimate and the fierce.

This concert has evolved from this shared curiosity, harnessing the power of a string quartet and a girls’ choir—and the collective force that emerges when multiple voices meet— creating movement and transformation.

In the first half, you will encounter strong female voices through Nordic folk melodies and new music by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Finnish Lotta Wennäkoski, American Caroline Shaw, and Danish electronical composer Astrid Sonne. Different musical languages, different sonic landscapes— yet united by the same impulse: to open a space and allow something new to unfold. You will also meet an early Danish power lady, Queen Dagmar from the 12th century, and hear the cracking voice of Marie Tang Kristensen, a Danish housewife whose songs were captured on wax cylinders in 1907.

In the second half, we present in wildness by Pulitzer Prizewinning composer David Lang. The piece is written especially for our two ensembles, and it is an extraordinary honor to present new music by one of the most significant composers of our time. in wildness draws inspiration from the writings of Henry David Thoreau and Hans Christian Andersen—two poets who, each in their own way and language, describe a movement away from established society and into nature, into the unknown. Not as an escape, but as a possibility. As a way of imagining a different world, and a different future.

in wildness is a co-commission between the Danish National Girls’ Choir, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Carnegie Hall, La Jolla Music Society, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Stanford Live, and Washington Performing Arts.

To present this today feels like an invitation: to listen. To stay curious. To believe that new beginnings can emerge when we dare to step into the wild—together.

The journey begins tonight—with you. Thank you for stepping into the wild with us.

— Danish National Girls’ Choir —Danish String Quartet

in wildness

DAVID LANG

Born: January 8, 1957

Composed: 2026

Approximate Duration: 30 minutes

“In Wildness is the preservation of the World”

This quotation is from the 1851 essay Walking by the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. I read this essay in high school and it has stayed with me ever since. It is a rambling, mostly sunny but sometimes prickly text about the lessons we can learn, about society and ourselves, by walking through the natural world. In some places, the essay is more about what we should be walking away from than what we should be walking Towards.

A large part of this essay is about walking West, towards the setting sun, which in 1851 was still a less-tamed section of the United States. When Thoreau walks westward he is turning his back on “civilized” Massachusetts, with its cities and laws and politics and decorum, and walking towards the wilderness. Although his descriptions of walking are light and joyful they are given in the same spirit of rejection of the rules of society as found in his book Walden, or in his essay Civil Disobedience

Thoreau’s text has been heavily amended and reworked by me, and I apologize for the variances between my text and the original. I took out the historical examples, the digressions, and the archaic references to various nations and peoples that we now might find embarrassing or dated or offensive. Most of all, I took out the direct references to American exceptionalism. The society Thoreau is walking away from is, of course, American society, and the world he is walking towards is his imagined, potentially golden American future. One has to admire his optimism. As an ardent abolitionist, Thoreau was well aware that the wilderness he was so passionate about might soon be fought over, as politicians argued about how to divide the wilderness into free states and slave states. The “wildness” that Thoreau writes about in Walking is as much a political wildness as it is a personal or metaphoric one.

Thoreau’s essay is often interrupted by lyrics to old songs and poems. I took this as an invitation to interrupt my text with two poems by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, written roughly at the same time as Thoreau’s essay. Both of these poems are about walking in the woods, but I rewrote both significantly, in order to keep the woods front and center. I apologize for the variances between my text and the originals here too.

The biggest change I made to these texts is in who the narrators are, and how they speak to us. The original texts are messages to us from two notoriously cranky men from the 19th century. I hoped that converting these texts into a hopeful, direct address, from a group of modern, committed young women, might make these messages easier for us to hear, to pay attention to, and to believe.

—David Lang

Caroline

Shaw

Allemande from Partita for

8 Voices

Partita is a simple piece. Born of a love of surface and structure, of the human voice, of dancing and tired ligaments, of music, and of our basic desire to draw a line from one point to another.

Most of Partita is wordless.

Anne Thorvaldsdottir (arr. Thomas Bryla)

Þann heilaga kross

Þann heilaga kross vor herra bar, á holdi hans voru dauðleg sár. Fyrir oss alla hann fullnað gjörði, vér urðum ei keyptir með öðru verði.

Því hlýðið, kæru kristnir menn, hvað kennir oss öllum skriftin senn.

Þeir sem vist á himnum hljóta, herrans pínu þeir verða að njóta.

Einasta Guði sé æra og dýrð, er sinn son sendi hingað á jörð. Hann stýri og stjórni oss öllum saman, svo vér hann óttumst og elskum.

Amen.

On the Holy Cross

On the holy cross our Lord, on his flesh were mortal wounds. For all of us he accomplished this, we were not redeemed for a lesser price.

Therefore, dear Christians, this we all teach of his scripture. Those who receive heavenly glory, the love of the Lord they must enjoy.

One God is glory everlasting, his song is sent here on earth. He leads and guides us together, we serve him with reverence and love.

Amen.

Swedish Traditional (arr. Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen)

Kisti du kom

Kisti du kom du nog vill du väl svänga

Ser jag rätt på dig så har du nog lust

Kisti du kom du nog vil du väl svänga

Ser jag rätt på dig så har du nog lust

Jam da di dej då da di di la di dej ja

Jam da dy dej da di di del la di då

Kisti du kom du nog vil du väl svänga

Ser jag rätt på dig så har du nog lust

Kisti du kom du nog vil du väl svänga

Ser jag rätt på dig så har du nog lust

Jam da di dej då da di di la di dej ja

Jam da dy dej da di di del la di då

Kisti du kom – ahhh

Uti vår hage där växa blå bär

Kom hjärtans fröjd

Vill du mig något så träffas vi där. Kom liljor och akvileja, kom rosor och salivia Kom ljuva krusmynta, kom hjärtans fröjd!

Kisti du kom du nog vil du väl svänga

Ser jeg rätt på dig så har du nog lust

Jam da di dej då da di di la di dej ja

Jam da dy dej da di di del la di då

Kisti, you come

Kisti, you come, you probably want to dance

If I read you right, you surely want to Kisti, you come, you probably want to dance

If I read you right, you surely want to

Jam da di dej då da di di la di dej ja

Jam da dy dej da di di del la di då

Kisti, you come, you probably want to dance

If I read you right, you surely want to Kisti, you come, you probably want to dance

If I read you right, you surely want to

Jam da di dej då da di di la di dej ja

Jam da dy dej da di di del la di då

Kisti, you came – ahhh

Out in our meadow where blueberries grow Come, heart’s delight

If you want to reach me, we’ll meet there. Come lilies and columbine, come roses and salvia Come sweet curly mint, come, heart’s delight!

Kisti, you come, you probably want to dance

If I read you right, you surely want to

Jam da di dej då da di di la di dej ja

Jam da dy dej da di di del la di då

Danish Traditional

Dronning Dagmar ligger udi Ribe syg (arr. Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen)

Dronning Dagmar ligger udi Ribe syg, til Ringsted lader hun sig vente; alle de fruer, i Danmark er, dem lader hun til sig hente. Udi Ringsted hviles dronning Dagmar.

De ledte hende ud, de ledte hende ind, det blev jo længer og værre: “Imedens det kan ej bedre vorde, I sender bud efter min herre!”

Dankongen slog det tavlbord sammen, at alle de terninger sjunge. “Forbyde det Gud i Himmerig, at Dagmar skulle dø så unge!”

Dronning Dagmar rejser sig af båren op, hendes øjne var blodige røde: “O ve, o ve, min ædelig herre! hvi gjorde I mig den møde?

Den første bøn, jeg eder beder, den vider I mig så gerne: alle fredløse mænd, dem giver I fred og alle fanger er jerne!

Den tredje bøn, jeg eder beder, den vider I mig så gerne: lader I Knud, min yngste søn, konning i Danmark være!

Nu er det tid, jeg farer herfra, jeg må ikke længer lide, nu ganger Himmerigs klokker for mig, Guds engle efter mig bide. Udi Ringsted hviles dronning Dagmar.

Queen Dagmar lies in Ribe, sorely ill

Queen Dagmar lies in Ribe, sorely ill, To Ringsted she is borne in pain; All noblewomen throughout the land She bids be brought to her again. In Ringsted now rests Queen Dagmar. They led her out and led her in, Her suffering grew deeper and graver: “Since no relief is granted me, Send word at once for my dear lord!”

The Danish King struck hard the board, Till all the dice rang clear and strong: “God in His heaven forbid this fate— That Dagmar die so young, so wrong!”

Queen Dagmar rose upon her bier, Her eyes were crimson, red with pain: “Alas, alas, my noble lord, Why have you brought me sorrow so great?

The first request I ask of thee, Grant it freely, grant it well: Give peace to all the outlawed men, And loose each captive from his cell.

The third request I ask of thee, Grant it freely, grant it well: Let Knud, my youngest, wear the crown, I pray, the King of Denmark be!”*

Now is the hour that I must go, here, I may endure no longer; The bells of heaven ring for me, God’s angels draw my soul ever nearer. In Ringsted now rests Queen Dagmar.

Caroline Shaw (arr. Charlotte Rowan) And So

Note from Caroline Shaw:

The lyrics for “And So” are in conversation with Robert Burns’ “Red, Red Rose,” with the history of roses in poetry, and, in a way, with Gertrude Stein, Billy Joel, Shakespeare, and existentialism. I don’t want to explain the meaning of the song too much, since I’m still finding different corners in it and I like the ambiguity of certain lines and harmonies. It may be a song about love, or it may be about loss, or it may simply be about the act of writing and listening to music. The orchestral writing for “And So” is spare and quiet, almost like the sound of someone writing a simple song at the piano.

Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen

Once a Shoemaker

Wordless

Astrid Sonne

How far

Wordless

would a song by another name sound as sweet and true would all the reds be just the same or violets as blue if you were gone would words still flow and would they rhyme with you if you were gone would i still know how to love and how to grow and how the vowel threads through. and so they say the saying goes a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a tired rhyme but in the verse there’s always time. would scansion cease to mark the beats if i went away would a syllable interrupt the feet of tetrametric iambs when i am gone and it is calm listen and i will sing a tune of love and life and of the ocean’s prose and the poetry of a red, red, rose, that’s newly sprung in june. and so you say the saying goes a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is how I’m keeping track of time. when a’ the seas rise high, my dear and the rocks melt with the sun will the memory of us still rhyme with anyone will we still tune our violins will we still sing of roses will we exist at all, my love, or will we fade to stanzas of the dust that i suppose is all we were and all we’ll be. and so the saying “so it goes” depends a lot on if a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a thing sublime and so we stay, on borrowed time

Carl Nielsen/B.S. Ingemann, Danish traditional (arr. Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen)

Tit er jeg glad og et brudestykke

Tit er jeg glad og vil dog gerne græde, thi intet hjerte deler helt min glæde.

Tit er jeg sorrigfuld og må dog le, at ingen skal den bange tåre se.

Tit elsker jeg, og vil dog gerne sukke; tit hjertet må sig tavst og strengt tillukke. Tit harmes jeg, og dog jeg smile må, thi det er dårer, som jeg harmes på.

Tit er jeg varm, og isner i min varme; thi verden favner mig med frosne arme.

Tit er jeg kold - og rødmer dog derved; thi verden slukker ej min kærlighed.

O du, som ene dele kan min glæde! du ved hvis barm jeg turde frit udgræde!

O, hvis du kendte, hvis du elsked mig, jeg kunne være, som jeg er - hos dig.

Tit er jeg varm, og isner i min varme; thi verden favner mig med frosne arme.

Tit er jeg kold - og rødmer dog derved; thi verden slukker ej min kærlighed.

David Lang in wildness

Oft I am glad, and yet I long to weep

Oft I am glad, and yet I long to weep, For no one shares my joy in fullness deep.

Oft I am sorrowful, yet still must smile, Lest any see my fearful tear awhile.

Oft do I love, and yet I softly sigh;

Oft must my heart in silence close and lie.

Oft I grow angry, yet I smile instead, For it is fools on whom my anger’s shed.

Oft I am warm, yet tremble in my fire, For frozen arms the world around me wire.

Oft I am cold—and blush in spite of this, For still the world cannot my love dismiss.

O you alone who share my joy’s true part, You know the breast where I could bare my heart.

O if you knew me, loved me as I am,

With you I could be wholly, simply, I.

Oft I am warm, yet tremble in my fire, For frozen arms the world around me wire.

Oft I am cold—and blush in spite of this, For still the world cannot my love dismiss.

(after texts by Henry David Thoreau and Hans Christian Andersen) introduction to wildness (instrumental)

we wish to speak we wish to speak a word for nature for absolute freedom and wildness we wish to be inhabitants a part of nature rather than members of society we wish to make an extreme statement an emphatic one for there are enough champions of civilization every one of you will take care of that we have met with few people in the course of our lives who understood the art of walking that is, of taking walks these days, most expeditions are but tours and come round again at evening to the place from which we set out half the walk is but retracing our steps we should go forth on even the shortest walk in the spirit of undying adventure never to return

if you are ready to leave your father and mother your brother and sister your husband your wife your son your daughter your friends and never see them again if you have paid your debts and made your will and settled all your affairs and are free then you are ready for a walk

no wealth can buy no wealth can buy the freedom which is the capital in this profession it comes only by the grace of god it requires a direct dispensation from heaven to become a walker

some people, it is true can remember some walks they took ten years ago in which they were so blessed to lose themselves for half an hour in the woods but we know very well they have confined themselves to the highway ever since

no doubt temperament and age have a good deal to do with it as we grow older our ability to sit still increases

we grow vespertinal in our habits as the evening of life approaches till at last we come forth only just before sundown and get all the walk that we require in half an hour the walking of which we speak has nothing in it akin to exercise but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day if you would get exercise go in search of the springs of life those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought

we will walk our love, our life come with us it is so still it is so clear come with us we will walk in the forest among the fallen flowers the fresh smell of the forest the nightingale everything we want is here the forest is inside us the nightingale is inside us the stillness is inside us in the forest among the fallen flowers our love, our life come with us we are so still we are so clear come with us

in wildness (cont.) nowadays nowadays almost all the improvements so called the building of houses the cutting down of the forest deform the landscape and make it more tame more cheap

people and their affairs church and state and school trade and commerce manufactures and agriculture even politics

the most alarming of them all we are pleased to see how little space they occupy in the landscape politics is but a narrow field we pass from it as from a field into the forest and it is forgotten at present the best part of the land is not private property the landscape is not owned possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off and walking shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s grounds to enjoy a thing exclusively is to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it let us improve our opportunities, then before the evil days come

old tree

old tree let it stand until it dies of its old age it has seen so many things it could tell us we have seen it full of flowers old tree let it stand we are walking we know, we feel, we sense we know this walk will lead us home when this tree is full of flowers we will know that we are home old tree let it stand let no one cut it down

the preservation of the world in wildness is the preservation of the world every tree sends its roots forth in search of the wild

cities import it at any price we plow and sail for it from the forest and the wilderness come the tonics and the barks which brace us all we believe in the forest we believe in the meadow we believe in the night in which the corn grows give us a wildness whose glance no civilization can endure wild lands where none have settled we are ready all good things are wild and free there is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey those of us who take the liberty to live are superior to all the laws

we took a walk

we took a walk the other afternoon we saw the setting sun such a light as we could not have imagined the air was so warm the air was so serene this was not a solitary phenomenon never to happen again it will happen forever and ever an infinite number of evenings and it will cheer and reassure the latest child that walks there we walked in so pure and bright a light gilding the withered grass and leaves so softly and serenely bright we thought we had never bathed in such a golden flood so we walk till one day the sun will shine more brightly than ever it has done till one day the sun will shine into our minds and hearts till one day the sun will light up our whole lives with a great awakening light as warm and serene and golden as on a river bank in autumn

ARTIST PROFILES

Melissa Aldana, saxophone

Saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana was born in Santiago, Chile. Both her father and grandfather were saxophonists and she took up the instrument at age six under her father Marcos’ tutelage. She performed in Santiago jazz clubs in her early teens and was invited by pianist Danilo Pérez to play at the Panama Jazz Festival in 2005. Aldana moved to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College of Music, and the year after graduating she released her first album, Free Fall, on Greg Osby’s Inner Circle label in 2010. In 2013, at 24, she became the first female instrumentalist and the first South American musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, in which her father had been a semi-finalist in 1991. Aldana’s 2019 album, Visions, earned the saxophonist her first-ever GRAMMY nomination, for Best Improvised Jazz Solo. Aldana was one of the founding members of ARTEMIS, the all-star collective that released their debut album, ARTEMIS, on Blue Note in 2020. Aldana began releasing her own leader albums on Blue Note in 2022. Her latest, 2026’s Filin, is a ballads album of songs drawn from Cuba’s Filin music tradition.

Terence Blanchard, trumpet

Born in New Orleans in 1962, Terence Blanchard is a musical polymath who launched his solo career as a bandleader in the 1990s. Since then, he has released 20 solo albums, garnered 15 GRAMMY® nominations, composed for the stage and for more than 60 films, and received 10 major commissions. He has been named an official 2024 NEA Jazz Master as well as a member of the 2024 class of awardees for the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Letters. An eight-time GRAMMY® winner and twice Oscar-nominated film composer, Blanchard became only the second AfricanAmerican composer to be nominated twice in the original score category at the 2022 Academy Awards. The Metropolitan Opera premièred Fire Shut Up in My Bones in 2021 to open its 2021–22 season, making it the first opera composed by an African American composer to première at the Met in its 138-year history. The recording of those performances received a GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording. Fire returned to the Met for a second run in April 2024. Blanchard frequently performs with his band, E-Collective.

Anubrata Chatterjee, tabla

his music includes the traditional Farrukhabad Gharana and Lucknow styles of tabla as well as a modern touch in the presentation of his art with concepts like Beats & Pieces, The T20 of Classical Music. From Carnegie Hall to the Barbican in London, from Wigmore Hall in London, to the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore, Anubrata has performed at many prestigious venues and music festivals and has shared the stage with well-known artists globally, including Japanese Koto star Yumi Kurosawa, Wynton Marsalis, Amjad Ali Khan, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Birju Maharaj, Ranjit Barot, and Shankar Mahadeyan. Anubrata has won several awards and accolades, among the most significant the President’s Gold Medal (2001), awarded by All India Radio; Pandit Nikhil Ghosh Memorial Award (2002); Pandit Basavaraj Rajguru Memorial National Award by Karnataka Government (2014), and Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (2016).

Ravi Coltrane, saxophone

Ravi Coltrane is a critically acclaimed GRAMMYnominated saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. In the course of a twenty-plus-year career, Coltrane has worked as a sideman to many, and recorded noteworthy albums for himself and others. Coltrane has released six albums as a bandleader: Moving Pictures, From the Round Box, Mad 6, In Flux, Blending Times, and Spirit Fiction. He also has collaborated on various albums, including Seraphic Light with Joe Lovano and David Liebman, In Movement with Jack DeJohnette and Matthew Garrison, and Blue Note’s 70th Anniversary recording, Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Additional credits include performances as well as recordings with Elvin Jones, Terence Blanchard, Kenny Baron, Steve Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, Matt Garrison, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Geri Allen, Joanne Brackeem, and The Blue Note 7, among others. Born in Long Island, the second son of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane, Ravi was named after Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar. Coltrane lives in Brooklyn, NY, and maintains a fast-paced touring, recording, composing, and performance schedule, and presides over important reissues of his parents’ recordings.

Danish National Girls’ Choir

Since its founding in 1938, the Danish National Girls’ Choir has been synonymous with Danish song and the pure Nordic sound.

sound of young girls’ voices. Through a strong focus on educating children and youth in the choir tradition, this elite ensemble covers a broad repertoire encompassing Grundtvig’s hymns, modern compositions, and pop songs without losing its musical spark and infectious enthusiasm. The Danish National Girls’ Choir has also been on several tours to among other countries France, England, Russia, China, and Australia.

Danish String Quartet

Frederik Øland, violin; Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello

The GRAMMYnominated Danish String Quartet is recognized for its vitality and programming, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024. The quartet has received prestigious honors including Denmark’s Carl Nielsen Prize, Musical America’s 2020 Ensemble of the Year, and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. Their recordings include the PRISM series and folk albums like Last Leaf, which The New York Times and NPR named a top album. Their 2024 release, Keel Road, continues their focus on Scandinavian folk traditions. The quartet performs globally at venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Library of Congress. Their DOPPELGÄNGER initiative commissions new works from composers like Thomas Adès and Bent Sørensen, paired with Schubert pieces. They engage new audiences via their DSQ Festival and the “Series of Four” in Copenhagen, and were named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and members of the Bowers Program.

Augustin Hadelich, violin

Anubrata Chatterjee is one of the leading tabla artists of his generation. He is the son and disciple of the world-renowned tabla maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. Anubrata’s creative approach toward

Every year the choir sings more than 60 concerts in Denmark and is always met with great interest in full churches and concert halls. The choir tradition in Denmark is very strong, going back several centuries. This choir, which is considered one of the best girls’ choirs in the world, combines old song traditions with new music, always working to develop the choir tradition exploring the special

Augustin Hadelich recently gave concerts at the BBC Proms, in Aspen, La Jolla, Verbier, Tsinandali, Bucharest, and Salzburg and was soloist at the season opening concerts of the Orchestre National de France and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He recently made debuts at Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the NDR Radiophilharmonie and solo recitals in Italy, Germany, and the USA. In 2016, Hadelich received a GRAMMY®Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his recording of Dutilleux’s violin concerto “L’Arbre des songes.” Hadelich was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009, and a BorlettiBuitoni Trust Fellowship in 2011. He was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America in 2018. In 2021 he was appointed to the faculty of the Yale School of Music. He plays a 1744 violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, known as “Leduc, ex Szeryng,” on loan from the Tarisio Trust.

Ravichandra Kulur, flute

Ravichandra Kulur is an internationally acclaimed flute virtuoso. He began his training under his father Sri K. Raghavendra Rao and was later hailed as flute maestro by legend Pandit Ravi Shankar, who invited to join him for the 2005–06 concerts titled “Festival of India III.” He has performed over 1,200 concerts in 34 countries, gracing stages like Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Festival Hall, and Sydney Opera House, not to mention festivals including WOMAD, Roskilde, SF, Helsinki Festival, Bangalore Habba, and many more. Ravi’s music blends Carnatic classical, world music, and fusion jazz. In addition to Ravi Shankar, he has collaborated with Anoushka Shankar and AR Rahman.

Lang Lang, piano

Lang Lang is a leading figure in classical music today. As a pianist, educator, and philanthropist he has become one of the world’s most influential and committed ambassadors for the arts in the 21st century. Equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing or just for a few hundred children in the public schools, he is a master of communicating through music. Lang Lang’s boundless drive to attract new audiences to classical music has brought him tremendous recognition: he was presented with the 2010 Crystal Award in Davos and was picked as one of the 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. In December 2011 he was honored with the highest prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and received the highest civilian honors in Germany (Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) and France (Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters).

Le Consort

Théotime Langlois de Swarte, violin; Sophie de Bardonnèche, violin; Hanna Salzenstein, cello; Justin Taylor, harpsichord Le Consort, formed in Paris in 2015, is dedicated to Baroque music, and more specifically to the trio sonata genre. Since its beginnings, this repertoire is one the group has intensively worked on, performed, recorded, and interpreted with enthusiasm, sincerity, and modernity. As the quintessence of chamber music during the Baroque era, its members strive to bring a personal, dynamic, and colorful interpretation to this genre. Le Consort has already developed numerous projects and collaborations and is considered “one of the major players on the French Baroque scene” (Diapason, October 2019). In June 2017, Le Consort won First Prize and the Audience Award at the Val

de Loire International Competition, chaired by William Christie. Since then, they have performed in numerous venues in France and Europe (Auditorium de Radio France, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Auditori de Barcelona, La Roque d’Anthéron Festival, etc.). The Consort is in residence at the Royaumont Foundation, the Banque de France, and the Singer-Polignac Foundation.

Joe Lovano, saxophone

GRAMMY-winning saxophonist, composer and producer Joe Lovano won a GRAMMY for his album 52nd Street Themes and has received 14 other nominations. He has

won DownBeat Magazine’s Critics and Readers Polls countless times as Tenor Saxophonist, Musician of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year and Triple Crowns from DownBeat. He has also received numerous awards from Jazz Times and the Jazz Journalists Association for Tenor Saxophone, Album of the Year, and Musician of the Year. Lovano has performed and recorded with a long list of jazz greats including Woody Herman, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Mel Lewis, Bob Brookmeyer, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tony Bennett, Abbey Lincoln, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Gunther Schuller, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Ed Blackwell, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Hank Jones, Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Judi Silvano, Ravi Coltrane, Chucho Valdés, Ornette Coleman, Diana Krall, and many others. He has created an extensive body of work for his own ensembles including strings, woodwinds, his horn-rich Nonet, the Classic Quartet, Trio Tapestry, and more.

Nduduzo Makhathini, piano

Nduduzo Makhathini is an award-winning pianist, improvisor, healer, and scholar from KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. He is a recipient of prestigious awards such as the Standard Bank Young Artist Award, South African Music Award (SAMA), and AFRIMA, among others, that have made him an influential figure. Makhathini has nine albums under his belt, with his last album, Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds on Blue Note Records, and many as a sideman. He has performed and collaborated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Moreover, he has performed with Busi Mhlongo, Zim Ngqawana, Azar Lawrence, Billy Harper, Nasheet Waits, and Logan Richardson, among many other greats. Makhathini has also performed at prestigious venues such as the Blue Note and Jazz at Lincoln Centre in New York. He was also in the line-up for this year’s Winter Jazz Fest. As an academic, Makhathini heads a music department at the historic University of Fort Hare while completing his PhD at Stellenbosch University. Makhathini’s work moves between jazz and improvisation while making connections to African cosmological aspects, with a strong focus on ritual.

ARTIST PROFILES

B C Manjunath, mridangam

B C Manjunath is a dynamic artist who revealed an innate musical talent and interest in percussion from a young age, encouraged by his father, legendary mridangam player Vidwan B K Chandramouli. Later he enlarged this musical perspective by training in Mridanga under Karnataka Kalashree K N Krishna Murthy and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri T.K. Murthy. Manjunath’s creative impulses have flowered in various forms, from classical to fusion and in solo and ensemble performances, accompanying many great artists from India and abroad, including Sangeetha Kalaratna, Sri R R Keshavamurthy, Sangeetha Kalaratna Sri H P Ramachar, Mysore M Nagaraj and Dr. Mysore M Manjunath (aka Mysore Brothers), Dr. Suma Sudhindra, and Chitraveena N Ravikiran. He has also shared the stage with international legends like Turkish Sufi singer Kani Karaca and trombonist Robin Eubanks. He has worked with composers Rafael Reina, Riccardo Nova, members of Bhedam and with Conservatorium of Amsterdam, The Karnatic Lab Festival, Zagreb Music Biennale, Fabrica Italy, Santander Percussion Festival (Spain), Perth International Festival, Roma Europe Festival, Milano Musica/John Cage Festival, Ictus Ensemble (Belgium), Quintetto Bibiena (Italy) and Het Nederlands Fluit Orkest. He has designed extensive online courses on Konnakol and Mridangam for rhythm enthusiasts on platforms like Livdemy and Shaale.

Aayush Mohan, sarod

Aayush Mohan is one of the most acclaimed sarod players on the global stage. Known for his distinguished musicality and mastery of the Indian tradition, Mohan is a proud grand-disciple of Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar. His training belongs to the revered Senia-Maihar Gharana, having learnt from Balwant Rai Verma, Sharan Rani, and Tejendra Majumdar. Apart from his sarod recitals, he often performs alongside his brother, sitarist Lakshay Mohan, the duo being known as the Mohan Brothers. Together, they performed at the prestigious GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles at the opening of the exhibition, “Ravi Shankar: A Life in Music.” The duo received a historic endorsement when the Pandit Ravi Shankar, upon hearing them in 2012, launched them on their debut U.S. tour under his foundation. Mohan has performed at some of the most respected venues across the world, including Symphony Space in New York City, Berklee College of Music, Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the India Fine Arts Academy in San Diego, and Gasteig in Munich. A five-time TEDx speaker, Mohan has also presented lecture-demonstrations at esteemed institutions such as Wien State University in Detroit and University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

ARTIST PROFILES

Linda May Han Oh, bass

Based in New York City, GRAMMY Awardwinning Linda May Han Oh is a bassist/composer who has performed and recorded with artists such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Steve Wilson, Geri Allen, and Vijay Iyer. Born in Malaysia and raised in Perth, Western Australia, she has received many awards, including a 2022 Deutscher Jazz Preis, and was voted Bassist of the Year for 2018–21 and 2023–25 by the Jazz Journalists’ Association, as well as 2022 Bassist of the Year in Jazztimes. In 2023 she received the prestigious Herb Alpert Award for music and received an Honorary Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music in 2024. Oh has released five albums as a bandleader to critical acclaim. Her latest is a quintet album, The Glass Hours, on Biophilia Records. Oh has written for large and small ensembles and for film, participating in the Sundance Labs at Skywalker Ranch. She was featured on bass in the 2020 Pixar movie Soul under the musical direction of Jon Batiste (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), and was the model for the character in the film, bassist “Miho.”

Francesco Piemontesi, piano

Swiss-Italian pianist Francesco Piemontesi, a native of Locarno, has established himself as a leading interpreter of German classical and romantic repertoire.

Renowned for his subtle, mesmerizing interpretations of Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Liszt, his expansive repertoire also includes works by Bach, Handel, Debussy, Ravel, and contemporary composers like Unsuk Chin. Piemontesi frequently performs with prestigious ensembles including the Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the London Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with distinguished conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Gianandrea Noseda. His artistic excellence is documented through award-winning recordings of Schubert, Debussy, and Mozart. Career highlights include residencies with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Dresden Philharmonic, alongside long-standing ties to the Schubertiade and Wigmore Hall, where he will perform Beethoven’s sonatas starting in 2025. A versatile chamber musician, he partners with artists like Renaud Capuçon and Janine Jansen. From Carnegie Hall to the Salzburg Festival, Piemontesi’s international presence is solidified by acclaimed appearances at the world’s most celebrated venues and festivals, confirming his status as a premier global soloist.

Charlotte Rowan, conductor

The founding conductor of the Danish National Girls’ Choir was Mrs. Lis Jacobsen. She headed the ensemble from 1938 right up to 1961. As of August 2023, English choral conductor Charlotte Rowan took over the baton as conductor for DR Pigekoret, becoming the eighth conductor in the choir’s history. Born and raised in Liverpool, Rowan grew up singing in the choir of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, where she later became Organ Scholar (2012–14). During this time, Rowan also studied as a singer and conductor at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where her passion for conducting blossomed. She went on to study music at the University of Cambridge (MA Hons), where she continued her training as a Choral Scholar with The Chapel Choir of Sidney Sussex College (2014–17). Since 2018, Rowan has lived in Denmark, where she has furthered her education as a choral conductor at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus (2018–20) and held the position as Director of Music of Herning Boys’ Choir for three years (2020–23) before becoming the conductor of DR Pigekoret.

Padma Shankar, violin/vocals

Padma Shankar is an acclaimed performer, composer, and educator, known for her evocative artistry and deep-rooted training in the South Indian classical tradition. A senior disciple of the legendary violin maestro Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman, Shankar carries forward his legacy with a nuanced blend of melody, rhythm, and emotional depth. With over three decades of professional experience, Shankar has performed extensively across India and internationally, both as a soloist and in major collaborative projects. Her work bridges classical, contemporary, and global genres, making her a sought-after voice in both experimental and cross-cultural music settings. Shankar has been honored with the prestigious Kalaimamani Award— the highest state recognition for excellence in the arts in Tamil Nadu—along with numerous other accolades for her contributions to Indian classical music. A dedicated educator, Shankar has guided a significant number of students worldwide and recently launched Swaraved, a platform offering selfpaced violin and vocal courses designed to empower independent learning.

Pandit Shubhendra Rao, sitar

Pandit Shubhendra Rao is an internationally acclaimed performer, composer, cultural entrepreneur and music educator. A protégé of Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar, Shubhendra Rao’s relentless service in promoting Indian music

has made him a highly respected figure in the field of music and education across the world. As a composer, he pushes the boundaries of classical music across cultures, composing and collaborating with Chinese Pipa maestro Gao Hong, American Jazz Guitarist Freddie Bryant, Japanese legendary singer Ryoko Moriyama, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, and the Chinese National Orchestra, amongst others. He is also the Founding Director of Musikul Education Pvt Ltd and co-founder of the Shubhendra and Saskia Rao Foundation, together with his wife, Dutch cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas, transforming the way music is taught in schools in India. Together, they created Sangeet4All, India’s first early childhood music education curriculum, reaching over 80,000 children to date. As the Indian delegate of the Creative Youth Development Conference hosted by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, he collaborates with an international team of experts on creating effective international policies on Child & Youth Arts Education. Shubhendra Rao is the first recipient of the Atal Behari Vajpayee National Award for his contribution to Art and Culture and the 2019 recipient of the prestigious Art Karat Award for Excellence for his contribution in the field of Arts.

Jeff “Tain” Watts, drums

Jeff “Tain” Watts is one of the most in-demand jazz drummers in the world today. Watts majored in classical percussion at Duquesne University, followed by enrollment at the Berklee School of Music, where he pursued jazz studies alongside such talented players as Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Greg Osby, Aimee Mann, Steve Vai, and Marvin “Smitty” Smith. Watts joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and proceeded to win three GRAMMY Awards with the ensemble. Watts left Wynton Marsalis in 1988, and after working with George Benson, Harry Connick, Jr., and McCoy Tyner, he joined the Branford Marsalis Quartet in 1989. Watts has worked in the film and television industry as both a musician on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and as an actor, in the role of Rhythm Jones in Spike Lee’s Mo Better Blues. Watts joined Kenny Garrett’s band upon returning to New York in 1995 and also continued to record and tour with Branford Marsalis as well as Danilo Perez, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Kenny Kirkland, Courtney Pine, Geri Allen, Alice Coltrane, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Ravi Coltrane. Watts has an extensive discography as a sideman, as well as six albums as a bandleader. He was voted best drummer by Modern Drummer Magazine in 1988 and 1993 and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Music Composition in 2017.

Season 2025–26 Prelude Lecturers, Interviewers,

and Performers

Kristi Brown-Montesano, Piano Series lecturer

As a faculty member at the Colburn School Conservatory of Music from 2003–22, Dr. Kristi BrownMontesano served as Chair of Music History and helped shape the degree programs of the institution. Today, she is a Lecturer in Musicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She also collaborates with many of Southern California’s most distinguished musical organizations, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, La Jolla Music Society, and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. For more information, please visit kristibrownmontesano.com.

Michael Gerdes, Revelle Chamber Music and Recital Series lecturer

Michael Gerdes is Director of Orchestras at San Diego State University, where he conducts the San Diego State Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Opera Orchestra. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Selected by the San Diego Union-Tribune as one of three “Faces to Watch in Classical Music” during his first year as Director of Orchestras, Gerdes is focused on creating a thriving orchestral community at San Diego State University.

Robert John Hughes, Jazz Series interviewer

Journalist, broadcaster, musician, author, and record producer Robert John Hughes has interviewed hundreds of musical artists in classical, jazz, pop, rock, R&B, and blues, including Sting, Wynton Marsalis, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, B.B. King, Adele, and Peter Gabriel. As a record producer and member of the GRAMMY® Academy, Hughes has released

five albums of live performances by artists heard on San Diego FM station 102.1 KPRi. Hughes has hosted La Jolla Music Society Preludes since 2018.

Tiffany Kuo, Piano Series

lecturer

Professor Tiffany Kuo is a conservatory-trained pianist (Juilliard), and a liberal-arts educated musicologist (Stanford and NYU). Her interdisciplinary research and teaching integrate labor relations, economic inequality, and philanthropic patronage with musicological inquiry to offer culturally relevant perspectives on contemporary music-making. Currently, she holds faculty positions at Mt. San Antonio College, where she has taught since 2011, and the Colburn Conservatory, which she joined in 2019. As an affiliate scholar at the Los Angeles Opera and researcher, Kuo has contributed to scholarly publications, including Critical Historiographies of the Post-War AvantGarde, Dramaturgie Musicale Contemporaine en Europe, and Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung. Her work at Mt. San Antonio College includes leading grant-funded initiatives supported by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the U.S. Department of Education.

Molly Puryear, Dance Series interviewer

Molly Puryear brings passion for dance and nonprofit administration to her position as Executive Director of Malashock Dance. Puryear has worked with Malashock Dance since 2006, and previously served in the role of Education Director. She strategically aligns artistic and educational efforts to create a dynamic relationship between programs, the communities they serve, and the organization’s valuable funders. Puryear is committed to serving the San Diego community through the development and administration of vibrant dance programs. She believes that dance is an avenue for personal expression that engages people from all walks of life.

The Colburn School, Discovery Series Musical

Preludes

A performing arts institution located in the heart of Los Angeles, the Colburn School trains students from beginners to those about to embark on professional careers. The academic units of the school provide a complete spectrum of music and dance education united by a single philosophy: that all who desire to study music or dance should have access to top-level instruction. Each year, nearly 2,000 students from around the world come to Colburn to benefit from the renowned faculty, exceptional facilities, and focus on excellence that unites the community. colburnschool.edu

Meghan Hynson, Global Roots lecturer

Meghan Hynson, PhD, is an ethnomusicologist, music educator, performer, and sound healing enthusiast. She has spent over a decade living and studying music in Indonesia, particularly the performing arts of Bali and West Java. Before joining the University of San Diego, Dr. Hynson worked at Duquesne University, The University of Pittsburgh, and Monmouth University, where she taught Western art music history, directed gamelan ensembles, and offered globally oriented courses such as Musical Cultures of the World, Global Popular Music, Music and World Religions, and Music, Gender and Sexuality. Throughout her career, she has developed world music curricula and outreach programs for K-12 schools and worked with major museums and international world music festivals. She is an elected member on the council for the Society for Ethnomusicology and reviews submissions for the International Council for Traditional Music and the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings project on Global Learning Pathways.

MUSICAL GLOSSARY

Adagio · Italian: leisurely. “Adagio” designates a slow tempo.

Agitato · Italian: agitated, restless. In an agitated manner.

Allegro · Italian: merry, lively. “Allegro” designates a fast tempo. (“Allegretto,” a diminutive of “allegro,” is used to indicate a tempo slightly slower than “allegro.”)

Andante · Italian: at a walking pace. “Andante” designates a moderate tempo. (“Andantino,” a diminutive of “andante,” is used to indicate a tempo slightly quicker than “andante.”)

Appassionato · Italian: impassioned, passionate. A performance direction indicating an impassioned style.

Accelerando · Italian: a tempo that is gradually increasing in speed.In music.

Arpeggio (arpeggiated, arpeggiation) · Italian: the sounding of individual notes of a chord in succession rather than all at once.

Basso continuo · Italian: a crucial system of musical accompaniment from the Baroque era (c. 1600–1750) where a bass line is performed by a low instrument (cello, bassoon, viola da gamba) while a keyboard or plucked instrument (harpsichord, organ, lute) improvises chords over it.

Cadenza · Italian: a virtuosic passage at the end of a concerto or aria that is either improvised by the performer or written out by the composer.

Canon · A musical passage in which several instruments or voices state the same melody in succession.

Cantabile · Italian: songlike, singable.

Chaconne · a dance, built on a short phrase in the bass, that was often used by composers of the 17th and 18th centuries to end an opera in a festive mood.

Coda · Italian: tail; new musical material added to the end of a standard musical structure.

Con brio · Italian: with vivacity.

Con fuoco · Italian: with fire.

Concerto · Italian: an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble.

Continuo (basso continuo) · Italian: continuous bass. Usually played by a keyboard and bass instrument (e.g., cello), it is used to accompany soloists or an ensemble.

Dolce · Italian: sweetly.

Fandango · Spanish: a lively Spanish partner dance and musical form, typically in 3/4 or 6/8 time, that originated in the 18th century and is characterized by a gradual increase in tempo.

Fantasia (Fantasy, Fantaisie) · A term used to describe a work whose form derives “solely from the fantasy and skill of an author who created it” (Luis de Milán, 1536).

Folia · Portuguese: one of the oldest, most enduring European musical themes, originating in the late 15th century as a fast, noisy Portuguese dance. By the Baroque era, it evolved into a stately, slow 3/4 time signature theme (usually in D minor) often used for variations.

Glissando · Italian: A sliding movement from one note to another.

Grave · French: serious, solemn. A tempo indication which in the seventeenth century meant very slow but which by the eighteenth came to mean the same as “Andante.”

Intermezzo · Italian: Originally, a musical interlude such as an entr’acte in a dramatic work. Since the nineteenth century, “intermezzo” has been used as a designation for independent works or individual movements within multimovement works. (French: intermède.)

Key · the tonal center for a song, defined by a specific scale (like C major or A minor) that provides the main group of notes and chords used, creating a sense of stability and resolution around a central “tonic” note.

Larghetto · Italian: a tempo marking meaning “rather slow” or “a little slow,” slower than andante but faster than largo.

Largo · Italian: a very slow, stately tempo, often with a sense of gravity, solemnity, and grandeur.

Meter · The rhythmic organization of a piece of music (e.g., 4/4 meter: ONE-two-three-four, ONE-two-threefour).

Mordent · a rapid musical ornament that “bites” into a melody by alternating a principal note with its upper or lower neighbor, adding rhythmic energy and flair.

Passacaglia · Italian: a Baroque musical form featuring continuous, often somber variations over a repeating bassline (basso ostinato) in triple meter.

Passionato · Italian: passionately.

Pizzicato · Italian: Played by plucking the strings of a stringed instrument.

Plainte · French: a 17th- and 18th-century musical term for a slow, mournful composition, often featuring minor modes, chromaticism, and a wailing, expressive character. It is frequently used for keyboard or instrumental pieces that lament a death or unhappy occurrence.

Prelude · A piece preceding other music; its function is to introduce the mode or key.

Presto · Italian: ready, prompt. “Presto” designates a fast tempo. (Prestissimo: very fast.)

Recitative · A style of writing, typically employed in opera and other vocal music, designed to imitate dramatic speech.

Rondo (rondeau) · A musical structure, commonly used throughout the Classical and Romantic eras, in which a main passage, called the refrain, alternates with episodes, which depart from the movement’s central musical material.

Rubato · Italian: literally “stolen,” a musical technique involving subtle, expressive rhythmic flexibility, where the performer slightly speeds up and slows down the tempo without altering the overall pace.

Scherzo · Italian: joke. A fast movement that came to replace the minuet around the turn of the nineteenth century. (Scherzando/scherzoso: playfully.)

Seguidilla · Spanish: an old Castilian folksong and dance form in quick triple time for two people with many regional variations.

Sinfonia · Italian: symphony.

Sonata · the most standard musical structure throughout the Classical and Romantic eras for first, and often final, movements of multimovement pieces composed for solo, chamber, or orchestral forces. In sonata form, musical ideas are organized into three sections: the exposition, in which the main themes are introduced; the development, in which the themes are transformed; and the recapitulation, in which the music restates each theme in the home key.

Tempo · Italian: the speed or pace of a composition, typically measured in beats per minute (BPM) or indicated by Italian terms like Allegro (fast) or Andante (walking pace).

Theme · the primary, recurring melodic idea or subject of a composition that serves as its structural foundation.

Variation · a standard musical form in which a main theme is followed by a succession of variations on that theme.

MUSICAL GLOSSARY

Vibrato · Italian: a natural, rapid, and slight oscillation in pitch (typically 5-7 times per second) that adds warmth and richness to singing and instrumental music.

Vivace · Italian: lively.

The Musical Glossary is based on a file provided by Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and Institute.

PG.2:

Benack & Co. © Eric Morgensen, A. Sham courtesy of The Cliburn, A. Diehl © Evelyn Freja, Art of Elan © Gary Payne, A. Kantorow © Sasha Gusov, D. McLain courtesy of presenter, Lucía © Shervin Lainez, A. Kidjo © Erwan Blaska, H. Sumino © Dario Acosta, T. Drain courtesy of National Geographic, S. Johns © Yunie Mo, S. Chen © Fay Fox, J. Lee Orchestra © Hoyeon Choi, C. Valdés & A. Sandoval © Martin Espino; PG.13: B. Pouliot, S. Porter, P. Wiancko, M. Rostad © Madi Nguyen; PG.14−15: The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center © Bradley Joslin, A. Kidjo © Michael Tubes, N. Bendix-Balgley, S. Jackiw, I. Barnatan, A. Weilerstein, T. Li © Ken Jacques, Canadian Brass © Ken Jacques, M. Ramos © Ken Jacques, Lori Bell Quartet courtesy of The Conrad, Balourdet Quartet courtesy of The Conrad, A. Boles, E. Dusinberre, H. Rhodes, I. Barnatan © Ken Jacques; PG. 17: T. Schultz © Jamie Dixx Photography; PG.18: Le Consort © Julien Benhamou; PG.20: A. Hadelich © Suxiao Yang, F. Piemontesi © Camille Blake; PG.24: L. Lang © Sonja Mueller; PG.28: P. S. Rao © Sanjit Debroy, A. Mohan courtesy of artist, R. Kulur courtesy of artist, P. Shankar courtesy of artist, A. Chatterjee courtesy of artist, B C Manjauth courtesy of artist; PG.30: T. Blanchard © Cedric Angeles, R. Coltrane © Erin O’ Brian; PG.31: Coltrane 100 Artwork courtesy of artists; PG.32: Danish String Quartet & Danish National Grils’ Choir © Caroline Bittencourt; PG.38: M. Aldana courtesy of artist, T. Blanchard © Cedric Angeles, R. Coltrane courtesy of artist, Danish National Girls’ Choir courtesy of artists, Danish String Quartet ©Caroline Bittencourt, A. Hadelich © Suxiao Yang, L. Lang © Sonja Mueller, Le Consort © Julien Benhamou, J. Lovano © Aquapio Films, N. Makathini © Anemone Taake, L. May Han Oh courtesy of artist, F. Piemontesi © Marco Borggreve, C. Rowan © Caroline Bittencourt, J. T. Watts © Vincent Lebrun

Photo Credits: COVER: L. Lang © Sonja Mueller;

A. Kidjo © Taylor Hill; PG.4−5: G. Capuçon © Bort Warner, B.

Danish String Quartet & Danish National Girls’ Choir

Angélique Kidjo

Aristo Sham

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($100,000 - $249,999)

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Ron Wakefield Estate

Anna and Edward Yeung

Karen and Kit Sickels

Debra Turner

Liqun Wang and Marco Londei

Clara Wu Tsai and Joseph Tsai

Vivian Lim and Joseph Wong

Sheryl and Bob Scarano

Marge and Neal Schmale

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft Revocable Trust

Haeyoung Kong Tang

Vail Memorial Fund

Sue and Peter Wagener

Bebe and Marvin Zigman

The Lodge at Torrey Pines

Diana and Eli Lombrozo

Viviana and Enrique Lombrozo

Sue and John Major

Arlene and Lou Navias

Jeanne and Rick Norling

ProtoStar Foundation

Thomas Rasmussen and Clayton Lewis

Sylvia and Steve Ré

Mao and Doctor Bob Shillman

Jeanette Stevens

Lise Wilson and Steven Strauss

ANNUAL SUPPORT

SUSTAINER ($15,000 - $24,999)

Judith Bachner and Dr. Eric L. Lasley

Banc of California | Stephen Gamp

Jeffrey Barnouw

Jasna and David Belanich

Jim Beyster

Café Coyote and Rancho Coyote Wines

California Arts Council

Sharon L. Cohen

Ellise and Michael Coit

Cushman Foundation

Jendy Dennis Endowment Fund

Martha and Edward Dennis

Ann Parode Dynes and Robert Dynes*

Pamela Farr and Buford Alexander

Debby and Wain Fishburn

Dr. Seuss Foundation

Ingrid and Theodore Friedmann

Hal and Pam Fuson

Teresa and Harry Hixson

Susan and David Kabakoff

Jo Kiernan

Elaine Lipinsky Family Foundation

Kathleen and Ken Lundgren

Jacqueline Mars

Miguel R. Mata MD

Gini and Dave Meyers

Kazeem Omidiji

Leigh P. Ryan

Maureen and Thomas* Shiftan

Robert Singer

Dagmar Smek and Arman Oruc

Reesey and David Shaw

Susan Shirk and Sam Popkin

Stephanie and Nick Stone

Greta and Steve Treadgold

SUPPORTER ($10,000 - $14,999)

Anonymous

Celeste and Timothy Bailey

Carolyn and Giovanni Bertussi

Abdul Bitar

The Blades Foundation

Robyn Bottomley and Glenn Gutridge

Raymond Chinn

Amy Corton and Carl Eibl

County of San Diego Community Enhancement Fund

Una Davis

Nina Doede

Dr. Seuss Foundation

Beverly Fredrick

Joy Frieman

Wendy Frieman

Sarah and Mike Garrison

Buzz and Peg Gitelson

Brenda and Michael Goldbaum

Margaret and Michael Grossman

Ingrid Hibben

Angela and Cory Homnick

Marilee and Peter Kovacs

Elaine and Doug Muchmore

ResMed Foundation

Mariko Sawa and Ulf Sundberg

Gloria and Joseph Shurman

Diane and DJ Smith

Annie So

Mary Sophos and William Pitts

Barbara and Sam Takahashi

Gwynn and Brian Thomas

Susan and Richard Ulevitch

Abby and Ray Weiss

Armi and Al Williams

Dolly and Victor Woo

AMBASSADOR

Anonymous (2)

Judith Adler

Jadwiga Alexiewicz

($5,000 - $9,999)

Dr. Fred and Donna Berger

Emily and Barry Berkov

Deanna Bittker

Berenice and Jerry Blake

Karen and Jim Brailean

Benjamin Brand and Shara Williams 

Isabel and Stuart Brown

Carol Carlisle

Lisa and David Casey

Michael and Cathy Casteel

Rachel and PJ Chryssostomides

Karen and Don* Cohn

Carolyn and Clifford Colwell

Lori and Aaron Contorer

Elaine Darwin

Stephen Davalos

The Hon. Diana Lady Dougan

George and Tallie Dennis

Sheryl and Michael Durkin

Jill Esterbrooks and James Robbins

Sue and Chris Fan

Diane and Elliot Feuerstein

Cheryl Hintzen-Gaines and Ira Gaines

Barbara and Joseph Giammona

Lisa Braun Glazer and Jeff Glazer

Deborah and Ronald Greenspan

Barbara and Paul Hirshman

Nancy and Stephen Howard

Elisa and Rick Jaime

Theresa Jarvis

Barbara Kjos

Bill and Sallie Larsen

Kate Leonard and Richard Forsyth

Ann and Gerald* Lipschitz

Sylvia Liwerant

Christine and Charles Lo

Barbara Loonin

Jain Malkin

Janine Marcus

Dennis A. McConnell

M. Margaret McKeown and Peter Cowhey

Andrea Migdal and Mike Tierney

Gail and Edward Miller

Tom and Nicola Miller

Betsy Mitchell

Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation

Joyce and Ron Nelson

Robin and Hank Nordhoff

Marina and Rafael Pastor

Linda Platt

Ursula Pfeffer

Debbe and Jack Powell

Peggy and Peter Preuss

Carol Randolph and Robert Caplan

Vivien Ressler

Eva and Doug Richman

Catherine Rivier

Carole and Howard Robin

Colette Carson Royston and Ivor Royston

San Diego Theatres

Clifford Schireson and John Venekamp

Todd R. Schultz

Marivi and Ruey Shivers

Gerald and Susan Slavet

Iris Strauss

Gloria and Rod Stone

Shelby and Bill Strong

Gayle and Philip Tauber

Mary Ann Tilotta

Ayse Underhill

Mary L. Walshok

Susan Ward and Lawrence Gartner

Lynne and David Weinberg

Mary and Joseph Witztum

Sheryl and Harvey* White

Katrina Wu

Carol Young and Leonard Korneich

Jeanette and Jack Young

AFICIONADO

($2,500 - $4,999)

Anonymous

Arleene Antin and Leonard Ozerkis

Laura Applegate

Carson Barnett and Tom Dubensky

William Boggs

Aeria Chang and Scott Eisenberg

June Chocholes

Phyllis and Dan Epstein

Marilyn Colby

Melanie Cruz

Craig Dorval and Cynthia Webb

Marilyn and Ernie Dronenburg

Mary Duncan

Sharon Dunn

Virginia Graham

Cynthia and Tom Goodman

Cynthia King and John Graul

Tracie and Terence Hart

Linda Howard

Lulu Hsu

Marilyn K. James and Rick Phetteplace

Sheri Jamieson

Karen and Warren Kessler

Jeeyoon Kim

Wally Klein

Chantelle and Kenneth Labowe

Carol Lam and Mark Burnett

Mark Machina

Barbara Maggio

Eileen A. Mason

Douglas and Susan McLeod

Elinor Merl and Mark Brodie

Sandra Miner

Muchnic Foundation

Garna Muller

Virginia Oliver

Robert and Allison Price

Christine Purcell

Rancho La Puerta

Cynthia Rosenthal

Cristina and Victor Saldivar

Adriana and Brian Scott

Anne and Ronald Simon

Jean Sullivan and David Nassif

Yvonne E. Vaucher

Jo Weiner

ANNUAL SUPPORT

Lisa Widmier

David A. Wood

Howard and Christy Zatkin

Bart Zeigler

ASSOCIATE ($1,000 - $2,499)

Anonymous (3)

K Andrew Achterkirchen

Albertsons-Safeway Foundation

Axel’s Gift

Christopher Beach and Wesley Fata

David Bennett

Nicholas and Samantha Binkley

Molly and Charles Brazell

Diane M. Brockington

James Carter

Carol and Jeff Chang

Guangli Chen

June Chocheles

Anthony Chong and Annette Nguyen 

Linda Christensen and Gonzalo Ballon-Landa

Ann Craig

D’Addario Foundation

Carol Danks

Caroline DeMar

Marilou and Marty Dense

Gail Donahue

Karen Dow

Susan Dramm

Renee and James Dunford

Marianne and Robert Engle

Irene and Eduardo Feller

Nancy Forcier

Stephanie and Roman Friedrich III

Sally and Einar Gall

Girard Foundation|Debe and Mike Alpert

Kimberly and Jeffrey Goldman

John Gordon and Jane Burns

The Granada Fund

Marcia Green

Carrie Greenstein

Lee Ann and Jud Groshong

Jill Hall

Pamela Hamilton Lester

Nellie High-Iredale

Carol Harter and William Smith

Ted Hoehn and Matt Clermont

Ann Holt

Nancy Hong

and Dr. Ardem S. Patapoutian

Patricia and Kenneth C. Janda

Zella Kahn-Jetter and Gary Jetter

Dwight Kellogg

ANNUAL SUPPORT

Stephanie Kogan and Lawrence Fritz

Dr. Haig and Susan Koshkarian

Kathleen Kovacs

Eliza Lee

Greg Lemke

Jenna Liu

Robin Luby

Stacey J. Lucchino

Ted McKinney

Maggie and Paul Meyer

Norman Needel

David and Judie Nielsen

Barbara and Donald Nieman

Charles Perrin

Dana and Stella Pizzuti

Barbara Rabiner

Jay Rosen

Barry Rosenbush

Arlene and Peter Sacks

Hermeen Scharaga

Doreen and Myron Schonbrun

David and Phyllis Snyder

Dale and Mark Steele

Lester and Elizabeth Stiel

Lee Talner

John Tauscher

Jennifer Tillman

N.B. Varlotta

Muffy Walker and John Reed

Karen M. Walter

Suzanne and Edward Weissman

Joyce Williams

Symphorosa Williams, MD

Lisa and Michael Witz

David A. Wood

Natasha Wong and Kevin Chen

Susan and Gavin Zau

Barbara and Michael Zelnick

Phyllis and Phil Ziring

FRIEND

($500 - $999)

Anonymous (3)

Robin Allgren

Paddi and Nicholas Arthur

Balloon Man Dan

Thomas H Bauer

Stephanie Bergsma and Dwight Hare

Carol and Bruce Boles

Margie Carroll

Alain J.-J. Cohen

Ana de Vedia

Linda and Rick Dicker

Kim Doren

Stanley Drosch

Z.E. Dziewanowsky, M.D. Ph.D.

Jeane Erley

Stephen Feldman

Melissa Foo

Foundation for the Children of the Californias

Beverly Fremont

Catherine Friedman

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang 

Robert Gleason and Marc Matys

Beth Goodman

Lynn Gorguze and The Hon. Scott Peters

Andrea Harris

Nicole Holland

Gregory A. Jackson

Thesa Jolly

Nancy and Michael Kaehr

Carol Lynne Krumhansl and Jeffrey Roberts

Gabrielle and Jay Kunin

Laura Kyle

C.A. La Pierre

Lewis Leicher and Helen M. Shafir

Jennifer Luce

Peter and Susan Mallory

Linda and Michael Mann

Susan and Craig McClellan

Nita Mehta

Steve and Ellen Mitgang

Patricia Moises

Francie Murphy and Rick Mitchell

Joani Nelson*

Kyomi O’Connor

Sigrid Pate

John David and Mary Peters

Sharon Rearwin and Thomas Delman

Jodyne Roseman

Barbara Rosen and Robert Fahey

Gabriele and Nathan Rosenblatt

Marc Sacks

Tracy and Tim Sanford-Wachtel

Hannah Schlachet

Denise Selati

Alfred T. Smith

Annemarie and Leland Sprinkle

Anne Turhollow

Karen L. Valentino

Victor A. Van Lint

Jennifer J. Werner

Carol West

Suhaila White

Olivia and Martin Winkler

Tanya Young and Michael McManus

ENTHUSIAST ($250+)

Sue Andreasen

Yulia Atoyan and Alexander Mirolyan

Sharon Bendall

Colleen Bingham

Joyce and Robert Blumberg

Sandra Boddy and Robert C. Smith

Chuck and Katie Boyer

Sed and Gloria Browne

Ron Campnell

Linda and Edgar Canada

Barbara Carey

Michael Casey

Kathy Chambery

Lana Cheng Lewin

Marjorie Coburn

Karen and Harris Cohen

Susan Crutchfield

Hugh Davies

Lesley and Roy Davis

Bernadette Dobbs

Barbara Edgington

Pamel and L. Michael Foley

Kathleen L. Fredman

Yoshiro Fukuoka

Margareta and Bruce Galanter

Renée and Tony Gild

Martha and Bill Gilmer

Diana and Tom Gingell

Patt and Jeff Hall

Mary and Rodger Heglar

Walter Hickey

Vivian and Greg Hook

Marilyn Powell Hulquist

David K. Jordan

Sofia and Leon Kassel

Kelley Keatly

Nancy Kennedy

Alexander Kirschner

Paul and Meg Krueger

Anne Ladu

Hugh Lawrence

Linda Low-Kalkstein

and Allen Kalkstein

Patricia Manners

John B. Marshall

Brigitte and Richard Obetz

Timothy O’Connor

Leah Ollman

Adam A. Padua

Grace Y. Park

Irina and Mikhail Prishchepa

Bill Purves and Don Schmidt

Hanna Reisler

Jessica and Eberhard Rohm

Patricia Rosenberg

Anne Rudolph

Carolyn Rynard

James F. Sallis

Nora and Fritz Sargent

Judith Springer

Alice and Brad Saunders

Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz

Debra J. Shannon

Julie Singletary

Esther Sluzky

Kinga S. Soni

Marie Tartar and Steve Eilenberg

Jordan Toellner

Richard Vasquez

Gonul Velicelebi

Jen-Yi Wang

Suzanne Weiner

Drs. Er-Kai Gao and Bien Zhang

Kevin Zheng

Carole Wilson

Jay Zybelman

 monthly Ostinato donor

* in memoriam

This list is current as of February 1, 2026. We regret any errors. Please contact Wil Owen at WOwen@TheConrad.org or 858.526.3447 to make a correction.

DANCE SOCIETY GIFTS IN HONOR/MEMORY

GRANDE JETÉ

Dorothea Laub

Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

Bebe and Marvin Zigman

JETÉ

Amy Corton and Carl Eibl

Annie So

ARABESQUE

Ellise and Michael Coit

Jeanette Stevens POINTE

Anonymous

Carolyn and Giovanni Bertussi

We are grateful for each member for their passion and support of our dance programs.

Tharpe Dance Company

In Memory of John Belanich:

Martha and Ed Dennis

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang

Sylvia and Steve Ré

Todd Schultz

In Memory of Ric Charlton:

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang

Sylvia and Steve Ré

Stacy and Don Rosenberg

Abby and Ray Weiss

In Honor of Maureen Clancy:

Lester and Elizabeth Stiel

In Honor of Bill Coltellaro:

Eric Cohen

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang

Barbara and Sam Takahashi

In Memory of Silvija Devine:

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang

Sylvia and Steve Ré

In Honor of Bob Dynes:

Sylvia and Steve Ré

In Memory of

Teresa and Merle Fischlowitz :

Camden and Rob Fischlowitz

In Honor of Ferdie Gasang:

Peg and Buzz Gitelson

Maggie and Paul Meyer

Mao and Doctor Bob Shillman

In Memory of Joan Jacobs:

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang

Sylvia and Steve Ré

Todd Schultz

John Venekamp and Clifford Schireson

In Honor of Wadeaa Jubran : Hermeen Scharaga

In Memory of Bob Kyle :

Laura Kyle

In Memory of Harlan Ochs :

Barbara Carey

In Honor of Marilyn Perrin: Charles Perrin

In Honor of Leah Rosenthal: Bart Ziegler

In Honor of Sheryl and Bob Scarano:

Susan and Craig McCLellan

In Honor of Todd Schultz:

Anonymous

Pam and Hal Fuson

Marilyn James and Rick Phetteplace

Hermeen Scharaga

In Honor of Maureen and Thomas Shiftan: Nicole Holland

In Memory of Thomas Shiftan:

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang

Susan and Richard Ulevitch

Sylvia and Steve Ré

Abby and Ray Weiss

In Memory of Joanne Snider:

Ferdinand Marcus Gasang

Jud, LeeAnn, and Tyler Groshong

Glenn Mosier

Kevin Pearson and Stephen Murphy

Renee Roth

Reissa Schrager-Cole and Hilary Cole

Kerry Symonds

Dolly and Victor Woo

In Memory of Ford Stone : Barbara Carey

In Memory of Dr. Steve Thomas : Barbara Carey

Twyla

60 x 60 ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN

Securing the Future of La Jolla Music Society and The Conrad

La Jolla Music Society stands at a pivotal moment in its history. As we look ahead to our 60th Anniversary Season in 2028—29, we have embarked on an ambitious $60 million endowment campaign to ensure a bold, sustainable, and artistically vibrant future.

This campaign is more than a commitment to stability—it’s about unlocking possibility to:

Present the world’s leading artists with creativity, boldness, and confidence

Deepen and expand our community impact far beyond the stage

Inspire lifelong learning through dynamic education and engagement programs

Advance San Diego’s future by building our national reputation as a beacon of excellence and opportunity

Sustain and enhance our state-of-the-art facilities

Endowment support is a powerful way to ensure that La Jolla Music Society continues to thrive—artistically, educationally, and culturally—for generations to come. Critically, it provides the stability to dream boldly, take creative risks, and welcome more people of all ages into the magic of live performance. With your support, we can ensure that every performance at The Conrad continues to astonish, inspire, and connect—now and far into the future.

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Chiara Capobianco

Jaemin Han

We are deeply grateful to the individuals listed below whose vision and dedication ensure that artistic excellence, educational impact, and cultural vibrancy will continue to thrive.

VISIONARIES

Judith Bachner and Eric Lasley

Steve Baum

Christopher Beach and Wesley Fata

Raffaella Belanich

Eleanor and Ric Charlton

Julie and Bert Cornelison

Elaine Galinson

Pati Heestand

Helen and Keith Kim

Vivian Lim and Joseph Wong

Nancy Linke Patton and Rip Patton

Sylvia and Steven Ré

Stacy Kellner Rosenberg and Don Rosenberg

Leigh P. Ryan

Sheryl and Bob Scarano

Marge and Neal Schmale

Todd R. Schultz

Reesey and David Shaw

Jeanette Stevens

Haeyoung Kong Tang

Debbie Turner

Sue and Peter Wagener

Bebe and Marvin Zigman

LEGACY SOCIETY

GIFTS RECEIVED

The following have made gifts or pledges to the endowment that have been fully or partially received.

$10 million or higher

Steve Baum

The Conrad Prebys Foundation

$1 million to $999,999

Wendy Brody*

Nancy Linke Patton and Rip Patton 

Stacy Kellner Rosenberg and Don Rosenberg 

Haeyoung Kong Tang

Sue and Peter Wagener

Bebe and Marvin Zigman

$999,999 and under

Jendy Dennis*

Teresa and Merle Fischlowitz*

Lynda Fox*

Ted and Ingrid Friedmann

Maxwell H. and Muriel S. Gluck*

Trude Hollander*

Helen and Keith Kim 

Theodora Lewis*

Joani Nelson*

Jay W. Richen*

Leigh P. Ryan 

Jack and Joan Salb*

Sheryl and Bob Scarano 

Karen and Christopher Sickels

Ronald Wakefield*

FORMAL LEGACY COMMITMENTS

The following have provided signed commitments of gifts in their estate plans that have not yet been received.

Judith Bachner and Eric Lasley

Christopher Beach and Wesley Fata

Raffaella Belanich

Eleanor and Ric* Charlton

Julie and Bert Cornelison

Elaine Galinson

Vivian Lim and Joseph Wong

PLANNED GIFTS

Jaime z”l and Sylvia Liwerant

Sylvia and Steven Ré

Marge and Neal Schmale

Todd Schultz

Reesey and David Shaw

Jeanette Stevens

The following have indicated that La Jolla Music Society is in their estate plans.

Anonymous (2)

Brenda Baker

June L. Bengston*

Donna and Dr. Fred Berger

Joan Jordan Bernstein

Bjorn Bjerede* and Jo Kiernan

James C. and Karen A. Brailean

Gordon Brodfuehrer

Barbara Buskin*

Trevor Callan

Geoff and Shem Clow

George and Cari Damoose*

Sue Dramm

Joy and Ed* Frieman

Sally Fuller

Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

Maria and Dr. Philippe Prokocimer

Bill Purves

Darren and Bree Reinig

Johanna Schiavoni

Pat Shank

Joseph and Gloria Shurman

Marge and Neal Schmale

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft

Norma Jo Thomas

Yvonne E. Vaucher

Lucy and Ruprecht von Buttlar

John B. and Cathy Weil

Karl and Joan Zeisler

Josephine Zolin

* in memoriam  indicates donors who have made both planned gifts and endowment cash commitments.

If you have included LJMS in your estate plans, please let us know so we may recognize you.

Please contact Ferdinand Gasang at FGasang@TheConrad.org or (858) 526-3426.

MEDALLION SOCIETY

CROWN JEWEL

Brenda Baker and Steve Baum

Joan* and Irwin Jacobs

Dorothea Laub

DIAMOND

Raffaella and John* Belanich

Eleanor and Ric* Charlton

Mary Ellen Clark

Jaqueline and Jean-Luc Robert

Karen and Kit Sickels

Debra Turner

Liqun Wang and Marco Londei

RUBY

Julie and Bert Cornelison

Silvija* and Brian Devine

Elaine Galinson and Herbert Solomon

Helen and Keith Kim

Angelina and Fred Kleinbub

Vivian Lim and Joseph Wong

Neal and Marge Schmale

Haeyoung Kong Tang

Sue and Peter Wagener

Anna and Edward Yeung

EMERALD

Barbara Enberg

Arlene and Louis Navias

GARNET

Pam and Hal Fuson

SAPPHIRE

Virginia* and Robert Black

Raymond Chinn

John Hesselink

Kathleen and Ken Lundgren

Elaine and Doug Muchmore

Annie So

Elizabeth and Joseph* Taft

Bebe and Marvin Zigman

TOPAZ

Anonymous

Jeff Barnouw

Mary Ann Beyster

Abdul Bitar

James C. and Karen A. Brailean

Benjamin Brand and Shara Williams

Buzz and Peg Gitelson

Lisa Braun-Glazer and Jeff Glazer

Brenda and Michael Goldbaum

Margaret Stevens Grossman and Michael Grossman

Theresa Jarvis

Christine and Charles Lo

Barbara Loonin

Peggy and Peter Preuss

Don and Stacy Rosenberg

Leigh P. Ryan

Sheryl and Bob Scarano

Gloria and Joseph Shurman

Susan and Gerald Slavet

Diane and DJ Smith

Jeanette Stevens

Gloria and Rodney Stone

Susan and Richard Ulevitch

Dolly and Victor Woo

*in memoriam

We are honored to have this extraordinary group of friends who have made multi-year commitments to La Jolla Music Society, ensuring that the artistic quality and vision we bring to the community continues to grow.

Abel Selaocoe

FOUNDATION, INSTITUTIONAL & CORPORATE SUPPORT

VAIL MEMORIAL FUND

JOE LACAVA

Board of Trustees

Edward A. Dennis, PhD Chairman

Mary F. Berglund, PhD Treasurer

Peter C. Farrell, PhD, DSc Secretary

Charles G. Cochrane, MD

Michael P. Coppola, MD

Anthony DeMaria, MD

Sir Neil Douglas, MD, DSc, FRCPE

Klaus Schindhelm, BE PhD

Jonathan Schwartz, MD

Kristi Burlingame Executive Director

"Candor is La Jolla's hidden gem!"

Brian L. — Tripadvisor

SummerFest Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary July 31 - August 29

Making History

Over 100 musicians from across the globe converge at The Conrad for four exciting weeks of performances led by Music Director Inon Barnatan. This landmark festival will feature acclaimed artists Karen Gomyo, George Li, Alisa Weilerstein, Jonathan Biss, Randall Goosby, James Ehnes, Tessa Lark, Chris Thile, Chris Mehldau, Imani Winds, and more. Over 50 free learning and engagement events will expand your musical horizons. Mark your calendar now for this thrilling 40th anniversary festival, one of Southern California’s biggest musical events!

Subscriptions on sale Sunday, March 29!