Philadelphia International Music Festival
Faculty Recital
featuring
Elizabeth Masoudnia
English Horn
Mitchell Newman
Violin
The Philadelphia Orchestra Los Angeles Philharmonic
Marvin Moon
Gloria dePasquale
Viola Cello
The Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Sunday, June 22nd, 2025 | 6:30 pm
Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurion Valley Forge Military Academy & College
ABOUT THE FACULTY
Elizabeth Starr Masoudnia, solo English horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995, has toured the globe with the Orchestra to wide critical acclaim with many of the world’s finest conductors. A passionate advocate for the English horn, she has premiered many pieces written expressly for her, including concerti by Behzad Ranjbaran and Nicholas Maw and chamber music by David Ludwig and Stephen Cohn. She recently released a solo album, English Horn Expressions, which features several new commissions.
A Philadelphia native, Ms. Masoudnia graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with John de Lancie, former principal oboe of The Philadelphia Orchestra and former president of Curtis. Prior to that, she studied with the acclaimed oboist and English hornist Louis Rosenblatt, her predecessor in The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Ms. Masoudnia was a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and played oboe concertos with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia (now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. In addition, she was the solo English hornist of the Minnesota Orchestra for seven years and is a featured artist on an album of Beethoven and Triebensee trios along with her Curtis oboe colleagues Marilyn Zupnick and Kathryn Greenbank.
Ms. Masoudnia is on the faculty of Temple University and the Philadelphia International Music Festival, where she teaches oboe and English horn and coaches chamber music. In addition, she has given English horn master classes and private English horn lessons at the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory.
Violinist Mitchell Newman retired from the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2020. During his 34-year career, he worked with many of the world’s great conductors including music directors Andre Previn, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel and guest conductors Simon Rattle, Kurt Sanderling, Herbert Blomstedt, Thomas Wilkins, Eric Leinsdorf, Zubin Mehta, Emmanuelle Haim, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Simone Young and Valery Gergiev.
A passionate advocate for bringing music to underserved communities, Newman founded “Harmony: Music for Mental Health,” a chamber music/fundraising concert for Mental Health America Long Beach. In 2010 he was named a mental health hero by the California State Senate. In 2015 he started “Coming Home to Music” which brings concerts of classical chamber music and jazz concerts to people who were experiencing homelessness, now living in apartment complexes built by People
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.
ABOUT THE FACULTY
Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Through his close friendship with MacArthur Grant Awardee and Street Symphony founder Vijay Gupta, Newman has played many concerts for people living in Los Angeles’ Skid Row and those in incarcerated communities.
Also a dedicated teacher, Newman was deeply involved in the LA Phil’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program providing its students with private lessons, master classes, and conducting string sectionals. For more than a decade he planned, curated, conducted, and hosted, in English and Spanish, an annual concert featuring YOLA students and LA Philharmonic members playing side-byside. Newman occasionally travels to Mexico to give master classes and perform fundraising concerts for the Benning Academy. The Academy builds outstanding music conservatories and provides free lessons and instruments to Mexico’s most needy children in their neighborhoods. Newman has also taught at the Colburn School and conducted the string ensemble at the Pascale Music Institute, leading the ensemble in a concert at Carnegie Hall in 2017.
Newman is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, studying violin with Aaron Rosand, David Cerone and Yumi Ninomiya. He studied chamber music with Karen Tuttle, Felix Galamir and Mischa Schneider. At the Meadowmount School for Strings, he studied violin with Ivan Galamian and chamber music with Josef Gingold.
Currently, Newman resides in Philadelphia. He teaches an orchestra repertoire class for violinists at the Curtis Institute of Music, directs the Center for Gifted Young Musicians Chamber Players Orchestra at Temple Music Prep, and is working for Play On Philly and the Settlement Music School. He looks forward to playing chamber music and teaching in the diverse communities of the city.
A native of Philadelphia, violist Marvin Moon came to The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2007 from the Boston Symphony, which he joined at the start of the 2005-06 season. Mr. Moon previously performed for several years as a substitute player with The Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. From 2000 to 2003 he was principal viola of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He was also previously a member of the Haddonfield Symphony (now Symphony in C), the New York String Seminar Chamber Orchestra, and the Curtis Symphony, serving as principal viola in 2000.
As a chamber musician Mr. Moon has been a member of the Koryo String Quartet since 2001. He has participated in such festivals as Music from Angel Fire (NM), Summerfest at La Jolla (CA), the Fourth International Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival (ME), and the Sarasota Chamber Music Festival.
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.
ABOUT THE FACULTY
As a soloist Mr. Moon gave the world premiere of James Ra’s Concertino with the Curtis Chamber Ensemble, played Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the Temple University Symphony, and was viola soloist in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola with both the New Jersey Symphony, under Vladimir Spivakov, and the Kennett Square (PA) Symphony.
Mr. Moon attended the Temple University Music Preparatory Division and the Curtis Institute of Music. He studied with Joseph dePasquale, former principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and with Choong-Jin Chang, currently principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Cellist, Gloria dePasquale enjoyed a 45-year tenure as a member of the illustrious Philadelphia Orchestra from 1977-2022. Throughout her career, Mrs. dePasquale has always been involved in music educational activities, as well as chamber music and solo performance opportunities.
The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra Music Institute (PYOMI) is an organization that Mrs. dePasquale has helped to grow and flourish over the past two decades of her involvement. Prysm Strings, the string division of PYOMI, as well as the PYOMI masterclass and sectional program, and frequent side-by-side orchestral experiences with The Philadelphia Orchestra were instituted by Mrs. dePasquale along with her late husband, William dePasquale (former Co-Concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchesrta) and Louis Scaglione (President and CEO of PYOMI).
Mrs. dePasquale’ s College/Conservatory Audition Preparation Program, now also offered at PIMF, was instituted at PYOMI in 2012 and has been a resource for hundreds of students each year in their search for enriching summer musical experiences as well as in their journey towards college/conservatory admission and awareness of career paths in music. Mrs. dePasquale maintains a large and diverse private studio of aspiring cellists and chamber groups, many of which are local and national competition winners and are admitted annually to high level summer programs, conservatories, colleges, and universities. Along with several decades of professional string quartet membership The New Philadelphia Quartet and The dePasquale String Quartet Mrs. dePasquale has appeared as a soloist with numerous area orchestras as well as on several occasions with the PYO as concerto soloist in Marion Anderson Hall at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
Mrs. dePasquale’s current chamber passion is centered around exploring newly composed chamber repertoire for English Horn and Strings along with her colleagues Elizabeth Masoudnia (solo English Horn, The Philadelphia Orchestra), Mitchell Newman (retired violinist, the LA Philharmonic) and Marvin Moon (violist, The Philadelphia Orchestra), made possible by commissioning patron, Kenneth Hutchins. Mrs. dePasquale is looking forward to performing several world premieres of music for English Horn and Strings this summer at PIMF with her colleagues.
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Philip Maneval has been composing actively throughout his life. He has completed nearly 60 solo, chamber music, vocal and orchestral works. In 2012, his Violin Concerto was premiered in Bucharest, Romania, by Lenuta Ciulei and the George Enescu Philharmonic. Later that season, his Violin Sonata No. 2 and Interconnections: Sonata in the Classical Style were premiered at the Curtis Institute of Music by violinist Diane Monroe, and pianists Mikhail Yanovitsky and Michal Schmidt. In April, 2013, at a concert honoring Richard Wernick at the Settlement Music School, Mr. Maneval’s Piano Quartet in C Sharp receives its world premiere by the Trio Cavatina and violist Burchard Tang.
Other works by Mr. Maneval have been played by leading artists including pianists Cynthia Raim, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Marcantonio Barone, Charles Abramovic and Tom Sauer; members of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Mendelssohn and Orion Quartets; violinists Joe Lin, Hiroko Yajima, and the late Felix Galimir, who commissioned Mr. Maneval’s Sextet for Strings; cellists Marcy Rosen, Peter Wiley, Christopher Costanza and the late Siegfried Palm; and ensembles including the Chicago and Miami Quartets, the Mannes and Saguaro Piano Trios, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Network for New Music, Filarmonica De Stat Sibiu, Orchestra 2001, and Chamber Music Now.
Mr. Maneval is active also as an arts administrator. He is Manager of Marlboro Music, the international chamber music center in Vermont. In 1986, Mr. Maneval assisted Anthony Checchia in founding the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (PCMS), of which he is the Executive Director. PCMS, a Resident Company of the Kimmel Center, presents an annual season of some 60 concerts and 50 education programs, and promotes broad access to the performing arts. Mr. Maneval has served on the boards of the Musical Fund Society, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Network for New Music, and The Lyra Society. He has been a panelist, advisor and lecturer for various cultural and educational organizations, including Chamber Music America.
Mr. Maneval was born in 1956 and raised in the New York suburb of Leonia, in northern New Jersey. He received an M.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with Richard Wernick, George Crumb and George Rochberg; and a B.Mus degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying composition with Walter Aschaffenburg, conducting and french horn; and philosophy and liberal arts at Oberlin College.
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Acclaimed a “marvelous violinist” by the Washington Post, violinist, composer, and arranger Domenic Salerni is a member of the two-time Grammy Award-winning Attacca Quartet. Attacca was featured on Billie Eilish’s most recent album “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” and can be heard on the soundtrack to Alfonso Cuarón’s seven-part film series on Apple TV+ “Disclaimer,” playing the music of Finneas. They are also featured, alongside Sō Percussion and Roomful of Teeth, in Caroline Shaw’s film score to Ken Burns’ newest PBS documentary, “Leonardo da Vinci.” Attacca released Maurice Ravel’s “String Quartet” in March on Platoon in honor of his 150th birthday.
Domenic arranged 60s Civil Rights era protest songs for the Palaver Strings’ album “a change is gonna come,” featuring tenor Nicholas Phan and jazz vocalist Farayi Malek, released on Azica Records, which was nominated for a Grammy Award this year. The Belvedere Series, Richmond, Virginia’s new salon series, commissioned Salerni’s “Seven Meditations” for piano trio last season thanks to a grant from the Allan and Margot Blank Foundation.
In 2022, Attacca created and recorded original music for the podcast “The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome,” which was featured in the New York Times’ Best Podcasts of 2023. Domenic’s first string quartet commission, “Trilobites: a Musical Excavation,” was made possible by the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival, founded in 2021 by cellist Katie Terrell, and is featured on West Virginia Public Television.
A graduate of the Yale School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Domenic regularly performs with the Chiarina Chamber Players in Capitol Hill, DC. Recipient of the 2020 CMA Commissioning Grant, Chiarina looks forward to its debut album in its 10th season of the music of Carlos Simon, including the commissioned work, “The Best Cuisine,” featuring co-artistic directors Efi Hackmey and Carrie Bean Stute and bass-baritone Carl DuPont.
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.
TONIGHT’S PROGRAM
Quartet for English Horn and Strings
Philip Maneval
Andante con brio (b. 1956)
Adagio cantabile
Allegro con brio
Trio in B-flat Major, D.471
Franz Schubert
Allegro (1797–1828)
Andante sostenuto
Quartet for English Horn and Strings
Domenic Salerni World Premier (b. 1987)
Chorale perdu
Quasi barzelletta
Pucele carolent et dancent, Trestuit de joie feire tangent
Intermezzo
Episodes / Antipodes
Elizabeth Masoudnia, English horn
Mitchell Newman, violin
Marvin Moon, viola
Gloria dePasquale, cello
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.
PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL ITALY
July 28 - August 7, 2025 | Cremona, Italy
FACULTY
Kimberly Fisher
Principal Second Violin
The Philadelphia Orchestra
John Koen Cello
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Mark Livshits
Faculty Pianist
Curtis Institute of Music
The Philadelphia International Music Festival – Italy (July 28 – August 7, 2025) is designedforstring musicians and pianists 13-19 years of age preparing for upcoming solo performances and competitions. This exciting new program will include: three private lessons, daily 30-minute workout sessions with an assigned faculty accompanist, daily hour-long solo performance classes, five hours of required daily private practice, and a week-ending Grand Finale Recital in one of the stunning performance halls in Cremona.
Students and families will both reside in Cremona, Italy, enjoying authentic Italian-style meals throughout the week-long program. While students are in training, guests attending the “Family & Friends” program will tour the surrounding towns via Luxury Motorcoach. Destinations include Venice, Milan, Verona, Lake Garda, Bologna and Parma! Students will join the traveling adventures at the conclusion of the Grand Finale performance on August 4th, 2025.
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.
Venice
Modena Milan
Lake Garda
Verona
Bologna
PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
is sponsored by:
New and pre-owned pianos, digital keyboards and organs from Philadelphia’s oldest and most respected piano company since 1891.
Featuring Yamaha, Bösendorfer, Estonia, Mason & Hamlin, the Matchless Cunningham, and vintage Steinways.
All Cunningham Pianos used at PIMF 2025 will be sold at discounted prices!
Call (610)585-7777to set up an appointment
Reminder:Please silence cell phones and other electronic devices for all performances. PIMF is a program of Sandy Marcucci International Camps, Inc.