2019 Program Book by Skaneateles Festival

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From the President The Skaneateles Festival provides the perfect opportunity to discover something new every season. In a world where you can listen to your favorites on every mobile and digital device you own, live music remains supreme. Your connection is much more complete when you see it, hear it, and feel surrounded by it as the music resonates within you. The Festival experience is enhanced by the intimate settings, the accessibility of the musicians, the beauty of the lake and surrounding landscape. The musicians feel this too. Robert Weirich often wrote that the key ingredient to the Festival experience is love. Our willingness to treat musicians as part of the family provides them a “heightened sense of freedom and affection.” They in turn share their talents and gifts through inspired performances. For each of the past 40 years we have looked for ways to continually improve and deliver excellence. Our success has been and will be dependent upon innovative Artistic Directors, dedicated Board, staff and legions of volunteers to provide the best possible experience year after year. It is the enthusiasm of the musicians, our sponsors and our concert-goers that sustains us. We have experienced 40 years of growth, but what does the future look like for the Skaneateles Festival? How will we continue to provide “world-class music by the lake”? We will remain true to these principles: – Offer the highest caliber talent and diverse programming. – Appreciate our volunteers’ gifts, time and talents. – Celebrate our generous financial supporters. As you listen to tonight’s selections, I encourage you to share the love. Go up to a musician, introduce yourself, thank them for an extraordinary performance, and wish them well as they travel on to their next gig. Show them why it was worth it to come all the way to our corner of the world. And finally, take a moment to say “thank you” to our tremendous volunteers and sponsors who have worked so graciously to make these 40 years a success – and who will carry us into the next 40. On behalf of the Skaneateles Festival, thank you for being part of this extraordinary experience… tonight, in years past, and in years to come.

Doug Whitehouse President, Board of Directors Skaneateles Festival

Board of Directors Doug Whitehouse, President Dave Birchenough, Vice President Edward Conan, Treasurer Koko Fuller and Ginny Marty, Co-Secretaries

Members Miki Bangs Judith Bryant Colin Carroll Susan Charlton Somak Chattopadhyay Joan Christy Sal D’Amelio Kim Driscoll Alison Ferretti Dana Hall John King Brendan McGinn Nancy Ranieri Judy Robertson Andrew Russo Jean Shook Edie Williams

Advisory Council Thomas Bersani Ellen Bifano Barb Connor Mary Cotter William Davis John DeFrancisco Michael P. Falcone Lindsay Groves Claire Howard Andy Latchem Sharon Magee Andrew Ramsgard Doug Sutherland

In grateful memory of

Faye Panasci Festival founders Claire Howard, David and Louise Robinson, Beth Boudreau, and Lindsay Groves with Elinor Freer, David Ying, and Susan Mark As Louise wrote, back in 2009, David and I, and indeed our whole family, have gotten to know so many very wonderful musicians over the years. It has been an inspiration and a pleasure for us to be with such talented, good people and count them as our friends.

who generously supported the Skaneateles Festival’s children’s concerts for decades.

Over 100 people from this community have served over the years as board members. And many others have hosted musicians, helped with meals, given financial support, and of course enjoyed the concerts. It takes a community to raise a Festival! We were heartbroken to lose Louise late last year, on the eve of this milestone season. She and her late husband David will always be the heart and soul of the Skaneateles Festival. Because of them, the “spirit of the Festival” is alive in all of us, and always will be. Our 40th anniversary is filled with wonderful memories of the Festival’s rich history. Yet, the most remarkable part of the Robinsons’ gift to our community was their vision for the future as they planned for what would come next when Brook Farm was no longer available. New memories are already being made at the Robinson Pavilion, from the capacity crowd for the pavilion’s 2016 opening concert with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to the musical perfection of last year’s Candide. (Remember the impromptu song from the cast asking us all to be patient with the muddy parking area?) Thank you for joining us this year as we celebrate Louise’s life and the Festival’s 40th. Please enjoy our special issue program book, filled with memories, tributes, fun facts, and lots of pictures – and most of all, enjoy the music! – Susan Mark, Executive Director 4

REFRESHMENTS Proceeds from the refreshments sold at the Thursday and Friday evening concerts will benefit the Skaneateles Education Foundation. We thank our local students for volunteering their time and providing this service!

SEF strives to be an effective steward of donor contributions, driving resources to our classrooms that provide exceptional opportunities for all our students in ways that inspire creativity, stimulate engaged learning, and create a climate of possibility.

To learn more, visit

skanedfoundation.org

In Loving Memory

Louise Robinson May 18, 1924 – October 22, 2018 “May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.” – Apache Blessing

If it were possible, in one chord, under one starry sky, to understand the story of the Skaneateles Festival, it might all begin with Louise Robinson.

Along with her husband, David, Louise raised the Skaneateles Festival – infusing it with unparalleled hospitality, grace and friendliness. Louise and David shared their magical Brook Farm for 30 years, beginning in 1980. She carried on there without him for five years after he died. With Louise’s quiet wisdom and welcoming spirit, the growth of the festival was organic, natural. A devoted mother to her own family, Louise became a “mother” to many Festival friends.

What makes this festival unique in all the world is that it was shaped by a family that was shaped by the land – allowing the most perfect cross-pollination of nature, music, and love.

David and Louise tapped the maple trees, harvested the garden, and chopped the wood for the kitchen stove (which provided meals for hundreds). They painted the balustrades on the porch that served as a natural stage and a perfect amphitheater. Together with friends, Louise and David fed the festival with food straight from the garden, served with a strong sense of what matters most.

They welcomed thousands of people over decades to travel down the long tree-lined driveway to hear music as it spilled into the night air. Behind the scenes, Louise shone a bright light on those who helped create the festival, as well as on all those who came to live, rehearse and perform at Brook Farm. The unspoken message: You matter. The elements that pulled world class musicians to Louise's kitchen and porch are the ones that now draw people to the church pews in the village and on to blankets at Anyela's Vineyards.

Louise would be the first to say that the story of the Festival isn’t about Louise. And that humble attitude is what propelled the festival to be so much bigger than one person; bigger than the love of two people, bigger than the love of family and extended family. It infused the legions of board members, music directors, staff, cooks and volunteers who became Robinson family. And it reached out and spread until what the Robinsons created was so much bigger than themselves … bigger than the one lush piece of land they shared … bigger than the span of one life or one generation … So that the spirit of Louise, of David and Louise, of the Robinsons, and the musicians whose notes mingled over all the years with the night swallows, can be found now: In this night In this concert In this song In you. Thoughts from Festival Family members Collected and composed by Lori Ruhlman 5

From the Artistic Directors Welcome to the 40th Season of the Skaneateles Festival! If you are reading this, it could be your first year attending the festival, or your fortieth – and the person sitting next to you might be having the opposite experience. This extraordinary range of 40 years is worth celebrating. While hosting 500+ performances and 1,000+ performers in Skaneateles over 40 years is certainly an achievement, the festival’s greatest treasure is you – a vibrant community of listeners in the audience, ever growing. This season, our goal is to bring you an extraordinary range of music to match this extraordinary range of experience. The 40th season is both a chance to celebrate Skaneateles Festival traditions and to open up new windows to the future. Hear favorite performers from years past (Hilary Hahn, David Zinman, Gail Williams, Wynton Marsalis); all former artistic directors; and new performers, like Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, the Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet, and many others. New outreach events take us into surrounding communities, with performances for kids and music education programs for adults. And with premieres by Lera Auerbach and Pierre Jalbert, the festival launches a new, long-term initiative to welcome composers to Skaneateles, bringing the listeners into the creative process as they compose new works to be premiered here. If you are newer to the festival, take an opportunity to chat with those around you who have been coming for many years. You might hear about a performer or performance that moved them in a way they will always remember. You might hear stories about braving the heat upstairs at the old library, a concert by candlelight due to the northeast blackout, and over 1,000 people showing up at Brook Farm to hear violinist Hilary Hahn play on the back porch. For forty years, nothing could stop the music. Skaneateles Festival, play on!

Aaron Wunsch & Julia Bruskin Artistic Directors

pg. 14

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn – pg. 24

Hilary Hahn – pg. 28

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis – pg. 60

Dorian Wind Quintet – pg. 62

David Zinman – pg. 74

Skaneateles Festival FAQs

Administration

Satuday Concert Location Please note: Anyela’s Vineyards has a NO SMOKING policy and there are no pets allowed on the property with the exception of certified service dogs. Anyela’s offers a variety of wines, beers and snacks for purchase; visit www.anyelasvineyards.com to read about their wine selections. Outside alcohol is not permitted. Due to frequently selling out, seating may be crowded. Keep this in mind if you’re reserving seats for friends and family, please do not hold more seats than you’ll need.

Susan Mark, Executive Director Julia Bruskin & Aaron Wunsch, Artistic Directors Steve Frackenpohl, Operations Manager Jessica Boyce, Marketing and Event Manager Kathleen Barnes, Mallory Blais, Eric Boyce, Daniel Kringer, Francesca Rescigno, Office Interns

Ticket Refunds Tickets can be exchanged by calling our office up to 24 hours prior to the performance to be used for another day during the current season. Unused tickets can be acknowledged as a contribution to the Skaneateles Festival. Photography and Cell Phones We would love for you to take lots of photos before and after the concerts and tag us on social media! We ask that you be considerate during the concert by silencing your phones and being aware of how your photography may be affecting your neighbors’ experience; we want everyone to enjoy the music in the moment. Please do not use flash during the concert. Eating and Lodging in Skaneateles Skaneateles offers many restaurants ranging from Fish Fry to gourmet French cuisine, and a variety of lodgings for each financial level. Visit skanfest.org/tourism to get more information. Skaneateles Festival 97 East Genesee Street Skaneateles, NY 13162 (315) 685-7418 www.skanfest.org

2019

Programs and artists subject to change. © The Skaneateles Festival 2019

Corey Riley, Technical Assistant Sarah Moth, Musician Liaison Josh Pickup, Stage Assistant Julia Weinstock, Sound intern Brian Nolan, Kevin Nolan, Crew Outside the Box Business Solutions, Bookkeeping Nancy Boyce, Graphic Designer

A special thank you to our 2018 volunteers – including board members for their help each Saturday Diane Aberi Roland and Tacie Anderson Bernard and Lilian Asher George Bain Miki and Dan Bangs Dave Birchenough and Carrie Lazarus Mark Bostick Nancy and Lee Boyce Mary Bradly Patience Brewster and Holly Gregg Lynn and David Brown Judy Bryant Corinne and Bill Buterbaugh Patti Carey Heather Carroll Maryellen Casey and Bruce Keplinger Gary and Susan Charlton Joan Christy Jackson Cohlan Barb Connor and Doug Wood Bobbi and Bill Dean Alison and Brendan Ferretti First Presbyterian Church Hamilton and Fran Fish Paul and Erika Fiutak

Steve and Sandi Frackenpohl Pam Freeman Koko Fuller Jon Gelston Judy and Sandy Gelston Sarah and Kevin Goode David Graham Dana and Susan Hall Tom Higgins Don Hughes Tom and Gretchen Jeffers Val Jerabeck Amanda Jock Mary Knepper Kay Kraatz Kimball and Jim Kraus Don and Christy Lemp Danielle Levinson Sandra Lombardo Bill Lynn, Johnny Angels Sharon and Marshall Magee Bill Mahood Brendan McGinn and Rebecca Cohen Jeff and Madonna Meyer Jillian Millard Jessica and Toby Millman James and Nancy Mion

Peter Moller Richard Naughton Bob and Sally Neumann Jim and Patti Nocek, Anyela’s Vineyards Bob and Christine Pierce Nancy Ranieri Judy Robertson Rosalind Schwartz Marianne Sherman Bill Eberhardt, Sherwood Inn Sharon Slater Lynn and Corinne Smith Anita Sterns Don and Chacea Sundman Peggy Surdam Doug Sutherland and Nancy Kramer Jennifer Sutherland Margaret Thomsen Glenys and Jack Tobin Connie Walters Bob and Marge White Doug and Peg Whitehouse Susan Wolstenholme Sheryl Woodmansee Maureen Wopperer

Acknowledgements Artist Pianos – Steinway pianos Maryellen Casey and Bruce Keplinger, “Cybersolvers” – Webmaster Miki & Dan Bangs, Patti Carey, Barb Connor & Doug Wood, Koko Fuller, Brendan McGinn & Rebecca Cohen, Judy Robertson, Don & Chacea Sundman – Musician dinners Joan Christy – Musician dinners and Guarantor Reception First Presbyterian Church and Anyela’s Vineyards – Concert Locations Koko Fuller – Ticket sales

Doug Whitehouse – Season’s concepting and design Skaneateles High School – Music stands & percussion Arthur Nick Smith – Piano tuning Pete and Danette Davis – Photography Many thanks to the generous Skaneateles residents who open their homes to the Festival’s visiting musicians.

Support YOUR Skaneateles Festival DONATE for Music Today

ENDOWMENT for the Future

Donate today and support the 2019 season. Your gift will be recognized in next year’s program.

Your gift can provide beautiful music forever… when you donate to the Festival Legacy Fund.

SPONSORSHIP for 2020

PLANNED GIVING Forever...

Sponsor a concert or musician for the 2020 season. Your gift of $1,500 or more can sponsor a musician or an entire concert in 2020. Your gift will be recognized in next year’s program and you will be invited to meet the musicians.

Your planned gift can demonstrate your love of music and your continued commitment to the community that is the Skaneateles Festival.

Yes, I want to support the Skaneateles Festival.

o Donate for music today o Sponsorship for 2020 Please contact me to discuss my gift options. o Name_______________________________________ Address_____________________________________ City________________________________________ State_____________________ Zip_______________

I would like to make a tax-deductible gift to the Skaneateles Festival at the following level: o Platinum Guarantor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000+ o Gold Guarantor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 o Guarantor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,000 o Benefactor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,000 o Gold Patron. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $500 o Patron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $200 o Contributor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100 o Member. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50

o Check enclosed. .Make checks payable to: Skaneateles Festival o Charge my: o Visa o Mastercard o Discover o Amex

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Mail to: Skaneateles Festival, 97 E. Genesee Street, Skaneateles, NY 13152 For more information call 315-685-7418 Donate online at: www.SkanFest.org

VOLUNTEER The Festival is made possible by volunteers... like you! We are always looking for help with concerts • food for musician dinners musician housing • and more

If you are interested in helping, please visit the “Get Involved” section of our website www.SkanFest.org

Thank you to all the Skaneateles Festival Donors! Gifts received as of July 20, 2019

Platinum Guarantor Dave Birchenough and Carrie Lazarus The estate of Clyde Thomas Breckons Colin and Corrie Carroll Central New York Community Foundation: from the Flora Mather Hosmer, Mary Louise Dunn, and Lettie H. Rohrig Funds

Somak Chattopadhyay and Pia Sawhney Michael and Noreen Falcone Dan and Colleen Fisher Kevin and Sarah Goode David Graham The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts Bob and Sally Neumann New York State Council on the Arts Onondaga County and CNY Arts In memory of Faye Panasci

Andrew and Natalia Russo Carl Schramm and Ellyn Brown Peter and Elsa Soderberg Doug Sutherland and Nancy Kramer Sieglinde Wikstrom Wilmington Trust

Artist Pianos Henry and Helga Beck

Columbian Foundation

Grossman St. Amour, CPA, PLLC

Ed and Paula Conan Barb Connor and Doug Wood Mary Cotter The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University The Fletcher Foundation Franklin Properties, LLC Koko Fuller

Holly Gregg and Patience Brewster Dana and Susan Hall Andrea Latchem Fred and Ginny Marty Peter and Betsy McKinnell Jim and Julie Moore Judy Robertson The Robinson Family

Ron Sampson Juliette Klein Sharpe Fund, Central New York Community Foundation Donald and Chacea Sundman Jennifer Sutherland Sutton Real Estate Company, LLC James and Salli Tuozzolo Doug and Peg Whitehouse

Guy and Nancy Easter Alison and Brendan Ferretti Tom and Gretchen Jeffers Joyce and Robin Jowaisas John and Maren King Paul and Elizabeth Koenig

Patricia Lynn-Ford and Steven Ford John MacAllister and Laurel Moranz Marshall and Sharon Magee Susan Mark and Mary Knepper Brendan McGinn and Rebecca Cohen

Madonna and Jeffrey Meyer Jane and Robert Morse Sean and Laura O’Keefe Dan and Linda Roche Dr. Frank C. Smith David and Deirdre Stam Judy Varney

Gold Guarantor Ivan and Mimi Ace Bill and Penny Allyn

Guarantor George S. Bain Barclay Damon, LLP Gwen Birchenough The Bonadio Group Sam and Debby Bruskin Rick and Ann Capozza Maryellen Casey and Bruce Keplinger Joan Christy

Benefactor Craig and Kathleen Byrum Lynn Cleary and David Duggan Susan T. Dailey Bill and Donna Davis Disciplined Capital Managment

Gold Patron

Miki and Dan Bangs Bentley-Hall, Inc. Patti Carey Paul and Linda Cohen Charley and Kim Driscoll Hamilton and Fran Fish Frank and Frances Revoir Foundation Georgina Gregory Scott Heinekamp Wendy and John Kopley Joan and Ted Kuck David and Norma McCarthy

David Pida Al and Vicky Sabin Sieglinde Schwinge, in memory of Horst Schwinge Marilyn and James Seago Jean Shook and Chris Johnson Skaneateles Area Arts Council Syracuse Sounds of Music Association Paul and Mary Torrisi Margaret H. Tauxe Trust Jaime Tuozzolo John and Jean Vincent

Thank you to everyone who joined the “40 for 40” campaign with an increased donation.

Patron Ed and Sharon Barno Richard and Lynne Bennett Mark and Lou Bitz Mary Bradly David and Lynn Brown Judith Bryant Elet and John Callahan Curt and Joyce Carlson Edward Castilano Alan and Joan Coates Nancy Collins Robert and Jane Corcoran Tim and Margie Creamer Jim and Cecilia Curley Bobbi & Bill Dean Bob and Terry Dewitt Alan and Linda Dolmatch Barbara Egtvedt Peter and Linda Emerson

Bob and Kay Fagliarone Paul and Erika Fiutak Diane Forney David Foster and Kathleen Jacques Steven and Sandi Frackenpohl Craig and Barbara Froelich Dane and Debbie Gist Melvin and Dorothee Goldman Agnes E. Griffith, Ph.D William and Ann Griffith Dorothy Hauk Joseph and Mary Ellen Hennigan Sally Holben Dr. and Mrs. Peter Huntington Anne Jamison and Peter Vanable

Jackie Keady Jeffrey Kirshner Barbara Kotula Roger and Anna Krieger Carol Krumhansl and Jeffrey Roberts Daniel and Grace Labeille David and Stacia Landsberg Marilyn Lerman, in memory of Fred Lerman Edward and Carol Lipson William and Anne Lynn James MacKillop Bill and Miki Mahood John and Candace Marsellus Susan Martineau Zsuzsa Szombathyne Meszaros Modern Kitchens of Syracuse

Dr. and Mrs. R. William Nichols Jr. Nancy Ranieri Patrick and Kuni Riccardi Judith Stoikov and Richard Miller Carol and Bill Stokes-Cawley Dan and Peggy Surdam Frank and Rose Swiskey Cynthia Tracy Jaime Tuozzolo Margaret Usdansky and Gustav Niebuhr Ben and Eleanor Ware Richard and Ann Wasiewicz Charles and Nancy Williams Carol Wixson Susan Wolstenholme David Ying and Elinor Freer

Bob Eggleston Thomas Eldred Frederick and Janet Fagal, in memory of Jean Graham Paul and Patricia Fallon Pamela Frame John V. Frank Naomi Frost Gary and Maureen Germain Michael and Helen Glowacki William and Karen Havens Will Headlee Bob and Peggy Hegel Jim and Patty Hertz Rich and Debbie Hole Don Hughes John and Linda Isaac Serge Karpow

Alfred Kelly and Sharon Burke Ted and Kathy Kinder Bernard and Peggy King Stephen and Theresa Kline Rev. Frank Lioi Gard Lorey, DDS and Sean Smith, DDS, PC Norma H Martin Loretta and Richard Marx Jean and Jack McGlynn Richard Naughton Bruce and Margaret Osborne Judy and Arnie Poltenson Susan Poniatowski Dick and Kim Poppa Joel Potash and Sandra Hurd Greg and Debbie Quick Anne Roth

Kelly and Tony Scalzo Carrie and Chris Scholz Susan and Steven Shaw Sharon Slater Eugene and Joan Tarolli Joan Thomsen James Traver and Marguerite Conan David and Patricia Urban Mark Watkins and Brenda Silverman The Wettlaufer Family Ellen Baker Wikstrom Edie and Jay Williams Joyce Zadzilka Warren Zwicky

Contributor Carol and Ron Ackles Carol Aroesty William and Dessa Bergen Ann Marie Bergold Jane and Donald Blake Cynthia Blume David Brittain Hal and Peggy Brown Stephen and Patti Buechner Jane Burkhead and Robert Sarason Elaine and Greg Ceresko Jim and Sharon Cirincione Kip and Becky Coerper Paul and Gail Cowley Rebecca Culbertson Peter and Danette Davis Anna and Ed Egert

Gifts in Memory of Louise Robinson Carol Bryant Jack and Nancy Capron Patti Carey Maryellen Casey and Bruce Keplinger Alan and Joan Coates Ed and Paula Conan Barb Connor and Doug Wood Salvatore and Sidnie D’Amelio Salvatore D’Amelio Francine Devitt Jill Doscher and Gary Trento Guy and Nancy Easter Frederick and Janet Fagal

Anne Fairbanks Pamela Frame John V. Frank William and Karen Havens Jackie Keady Dorothy Krause Daniel and Grace Labeille Andrea Latchem Betty and Bob Liegel Andy and Ginny Longacre Susanne Guske and Lee Klosowski Martha Maier Susan Mark and Mary Knepper

Fred and Ginny Marty Al and Vicky Sabin Jean Shook and Chris Johnson Jan Sterling Carol and William Stokes-Cawley Martha Sutter and David Ross Margaret H. Tauxe Trust Linda Vicks Debby Webster George and Nancy Wettlaufer David Ying and Elinor Freer

C A M P A I G N Help ensure the Skaneateles Festival’s next 40 years today! We are currently seeking $40,000 units of support from 40 groups or 100-0585 D65 40for40.ai individuals. Below are the four proposed levels of participation: D65 05.07.19 dpw SCALE: 100% (sizes not final)

$40K SOLO

THE 400 CLUB

This level is for the individuals or institutions who wish to provide $40,000 of support through a one-time gift or a structured gift (up to four years).

This is a group of individuals or institutions who wish to commit an annual gift of $5,000 for each of the next four years ($20,000 structured gift). We have a lead gift for this, and are seeking additional 400 CLUB members.

$40K ENSEMBLE This level is for a group of friends and family who wish to team up in providing $40,000 of support through a onetime gift or a structured gift (up to four years).

$40K SOLO Carl Schramm and Ellyn Brown Kevin and Sarah Goode In memory of Faye Panasci

THE 400 CLUB Dave Birchenough and Carrie Lazarus Somak Chattopadhyay and Pia Sawhney Colin and Corrie Carroll Andrew and Natalia Russo

THE FINAL 40 Carol and Ron Ackles Miki and Dan Bangs Nicolina Bisson Carol Bryant Elet and John Callahan Curt and Joyce Carlson Edward Castilano Mary Cotter Tim and Margie Creamer Susan T. Dailey Marilyn DeLorenzo Bob and Terry Dewitt Alan and Linda Dolmatch Frederick and Janet Fagal

THE FINAL 40 This level is for individuals or institutions who wish to support the Skaneateles Festival’s future outside of the three levels proposed above. We encourage participants at this level to be guided by the number 40, and are seeking gifts of $40, $400 and $4,000.

Bob and Kay Fagliarone Hamilton and Fran Fish Dan and Colleen Fisher Fund Paul and Erika Fiutak Koko Fuller Patricia Gillman William and Ann Griffith Jim and Patty Hertz Clark and Mary Horan Dr. and Mrs. Peter Huntington Stephen and Theresa Kline Barbara Kotula Roger and Anna Krieger Carol Krumhansl and Jeffrey Roberts David and Stacia Landsberg Andrea Latchem Karen Lawitts James MacKillop Martha Maier Susan Mark and Mary Knepper Gardner and Lynn McLean David and Janet Muir William and Anna Murphy Richard Naughton Dr. and Mrs. R. William Nichols Jr. Mary O’Neill John and Sharon Paddock

David Pida Susan Poniatowski Joel Potash and Sandra Hurd Greg and Debbie Quick Nancy Ranieri Patrick and Kuni Riccardi Gretchen and Buzz Roberts Jean Shook and Chris Johnson Sharon Slater Dr. Frank C. Smith Carol and William Stokes-Cawley Dan and Peggy Surdam Doug Sutherland and Nancy Kramer Frank and Rose Swiskey Eugene and Joan Tarolli Joan Thomsen David and Patricia Urban Margaret Usdansky and Gustav Niebuhr Vicki and James Viccaro John and Jean Vincent Richard and Ann Wasiewicz Mark Watkins and Brenda Silverman Ellen Baker Wikstrom Charles and Nancy Williams Carol Wixson Duane and Ann Wunsch Joyce Zadzilka

For more information, please contact the Chair of the 40 for 40 Campaign, Andrew Russo at 315-269-2828 or andrewrusso@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE

SkanFest U is sponsored by

The Julie Sharpe Fund

Music and the Visual Arts This year’s educational course explores the intersections between music and the visual arts. Learn how paintings inspired composers in their music, from the literally depictive (Debussy) to emotional responses (Rachmaninoff) to similarities in technique (Liszt). In many cases, the visual arts opened doors to new means of musical expression – and they continue to do so today, as in Lera Auerbach’s new Festival-commissioned work for Hilary Hahn. Study and discuss art by Michelangelo, Raphael, Delacroix, Monet, Rauschenberg, and others, and hear exclusive live performances of music by Liszt, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, and Debussy.

Weekly Sessions – Tuesdays, July 30, August 6, 13, and 20 3:00 – 4:00 PM • First Presbyterian Church Four weekly sessions are led by Co-Artistic Director Aaron Wunsch, who teaches seminars at the Juilliard School. The Skaneateles Festival’s educational sessions are open to all. Registration is required. Registration fee: $40 for all 4 classes (free for Season Pass holders). For more information: 315-685-7418 or www.skanfest.org

“ This fund will serve as a vehicle that reflects my deep appreciation for what the people of this area have meant in my life.” – Juliette Klein Sharpe

Longtime Skaneateles resident Julie Sharpe felt blessed by her friends and community and enriched by several local nonprofits. Before her passing in 2014, Julie designated a provision in her will to establish a fund at the Central New York Community Foundation. The Skaneateles Festival will benefit in perpetuity from Julie’s thoughtful legacy of generosity. SkanFest U is performed in grateful memory of Julie and all that she did as a Festival volunteer and supporter. Photo provided by the Central New York Community Foundation

FUN at the Festival

KidsFest is presented in memory of

Concerts for all ages!

Faye Panasci with additional support from

The Fletcher Foundation

Hilary Hahn: BYO(Baby) Friday, August 9 Bring your own baby! Hilary performs one of her acclaimed educational programs for parents who have a very little one at home. No need to shush! Only for parents with children not yet walking. Free event; Pre-registration required For more information or registration: 315-685-7418 or www.skanfest.org

Susan Reed: Listen to the Water Wednesday, August 14 • 11:00 AM Mandana Barn • 1274 Lacy Road, Skaneateles The ever-popular Parent’s Choice winner Susan Reed returns to the Festival! Her new program is Listen to the Water: Songs and Stories for our Planet – she both educates and captivates kids with the joy of music, blending classical, bluegrass, and her own original songs on violin, guitar, banjo, and mountain dulcimer.

Kids are FREE, Adults pay $5 at the door

artist sponsorships

Hilary Hahn is sponsored by The Graham Family

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

week 1

Koko Fuller

Thursday, August 1 8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

The Skaneateles Festival dedicates opening night in memory of

Beth Boudreau

Opening Night HAYDN

String Quartet in B minor, Op. 64, No. 2 Allegro spiritoso Adagio ma non troppo Menuetto: Allegretto Finale: Presto

CAROLINE SHAW

Blueprint

GABRIELLA SMITH

Carrot Revolution

Aizuri Quartet Gabriela Diaz, violin Miho Saegusa, violin Ayane Kozasa, viola Karen Ouzounian, cello

Aizuri Quartet

intermission

BRAHMS

Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 Allegro non troppo Andante un poco adagio Scherzo: Allegro Finale: Poco sostenuto; Allegro non troppo; Presto non troppo

tonight’s artist sponsorships

Aizuri Quartet is sponsored by Henry and Helga Beck Aaron Wunsch is sponsored by The Skaneateles Consortium: George Bain, Sam & Debby Bruskin, Dana & Susan Hall, and Ron Sampson

Aizuri Quartet is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and is represented by Concert Artists Guild, 850 Seventh Ave, PH-A, New York, NY 10019 (www.concertartists.org)

Aizuri Quartet Aaron Wunsch, piano

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible with funds from the General Operating Support program, a regrant program of the County of Onondaga with the support of County Executive, J. Ryan McMahon II, and the Onondaga County Legislature, administered by CNY Arts.

In Memory of Lindsay Groves and Beth Boudreau

Beth Boudreau May 19, 1928 – July 13, 2019

Beth Boudreau, the Skaneateles Festival’s first joyful enthusiast, passed away a few weeks ago on July 13. I met her on a Sunday afternoon in 1979, after a Syracuse Symphony String Quartet concert in the Skaneateles Library, and commented that a beautiful town like this might be a great place for a summer chamber music festival, she responded, instantly and memorably, “Yes! I’ve been thinking the same thing!” She was not just making conversation, and phoned the Syracuse Symphony’s management to ask about the subject a few weeks later, causing the message to be passed along to me. I found her later that year after an SSO orchestra concert at Skaneateles High School, and we began planning for the next summer right away. Beth introduced me to Dave and Louise Robinson, and they together assembled the first Festival Board of Directors. As its first president, Beth’s support and encouragement included introductions to

Program Notes

Bill Eberhardt, our first sponsor, and many other resourceful and creative Skaneateles friends. Beth and her husband Bob opened their house to musicians from near and far, and as the years went on, she and Louise Robinson found gracious and compatible hosts for many musicians. Their hospitality included providing rescue from watercraft miscalculations, help and advice after traffic accidents, and postfestival babysitting on European symphony tours. They filled needs for occasional medical advice and patch-ups, emergency practice and rehearsal facilities, extra lodgings for late-arriving musician family and friends, and essential calming chats when things got complicated. Beth and Bob’s talents for surrounding everyone with optimism and color in and around their house, great food (such as their annual corn roast), and heartwarming congratulations after performances, meant that everyone returned to Skaneateles as often as they could. Beth’s quiet humor, insightfulness, and sophisticated appreciation for the arts engendered many a Skaneateles summer’s unique musical, culinary, and social adventures, collaborations, and friendships. I will miss her. –Lindsay Groves

pening Night welcomes Grammy nominee, the “genuinely exciting” Aizuri Quartet (New York Times); their program brings together classics by Haydn and Brahms (Piano Quintet) with fresh new music from their Grammy-nominated album, Gabriella Smith’s thrilling and whimsical Carrot Revolution (inspired by both Bach and Simon & Garfunkel) and Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw’s Blueprint, based on a quartet by Beethoven.

perhaps we ought to counteract the old stereotype; remember Happy Days’ “The Fonz?” Meet “The Franz.”

String Quartet in B minor, Op. 64, No. 2 (1790)

“Here I sit in my wilderness – forsaken – like a poor waif – almost without human society – sad – full of the memories of past glorious days – yes! past, alas! – and who knows if those days will return again? Those wonderful parties? – where the whole circle is one heart, one soul – all the beautiful musical evenings? … Nothing could console me….”

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809) Every well-known composer suffers from a stereotype, but Haydn fares worse than most. In Beethoven, we see an obstinate genius; in Mozart, a prodigiously gifted child; in Haydn, we see… our amiable, old-fashioned grand uncle. Haydn’s main fault, in this regard, was living past the age of 60. His earliest biographers knew him as an older man, by which time he had garnered the not-so-enviable nickname, “Papa Haydn.” Yet even at an advanced age, a friend called him “forcefully jovial” – and what we know of his youth suggests a swaggering practical jokester, who had little fear of taking risks. Indeed, his breakout hit was a carnival entertainment called The Crooked Devil. So

By the time The Franz composed his String Quartet in B minor at the age of 58, however, his daily life had taken on a decidedly conservative regularity. Haydn neared his 30th year as court composer for the Esterházy family. Caught in a loveless marriage and working at a country estate far from Vienna, he imagined a life other than his own; as he wrote to the talented pianist, Maria Anna von Genzinger, shortly before beginning the Quartet:

Nothing, that is, except music. Whatever spontaneity, risk, and joviality Haydn lacked in his daily life can surely be found in his string quartets. Haydn’s B minor Quartet opens with a joke at the first violinist’s expense: after she skips alone to a carefree tune in D Major, the rest of the quartet rains on her parade with a brusque B minor cadence. Eventually she convinces the

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rest of the quartet to join her in D Major, but surprises lurk around every corner. The biggest prank of all is a musical version of “Actually, I’m not kidding” – the movement becomes increasingly chromatic and argumentative, ending in a fiery outburst. No one is in the mood for conflict in the celestial second movement, however; here, to quote Haydn above, “the whole circle is one heart – one soul.” The pranks resume in the mock-serious Minuet, where first violin makes all kinds of trouble for the others until, in the cherubic middle section, she denies it all with fluttering eyelashes and a “Who, me?” The hot-tempered Finale has a Hungarian flair and continually makes mischief. Several times, the movement comes to a total halt, as if to say, “Don’t you wonder what will come next?” Wonder we do, until the final notes float off carefreely into the sky. Shortly after finishing the quartet, Haydn floated off as well, finally released from Esterházy service. “This little bit of freedom, how sweet it tastes!” he wrote in 1791. He took his quartet along to London, where it was performed for an adoring public. “Papa Haydn” may have been in the audience, but “The Franz” was on stage.

Blueprint (2016) CAROLINE SHAW (B. 1982) When violinist Caroline Shaw became the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 (for her Partita for Eight Voices, performed at the Festival in 2015), she famously declared she was not sure she wanted to be called a “composer.” Six years later, she doesn’t have much choice. Earlier this year, a PhD candidate at UCLA even wrote a dissertation about her compositions. Despite her growing fame (including unlikely stints composing for rapper Kanye West), the act of playing the instrument remains foremost in her mind when she composes. Her Blueprint has a close connection to the Aizuri Quartet. About it, she writes: “The Aizuri Quartet's name comes from ‘aizuri-e,’ a style of Japanese woodblock printing that primarily uses a blue ink. In the 1820s, artists in Japan began to import a particular blue pigment known as ‘Prussian blue,’ which was first synthesized by German paint producers in the early 18th century and later modified by others as an alternative to indigo. The story of aizuri-e is one of innovation, migration, transformation, craft, and beauty.

Blueprint, composed for the incredible Aizuri Quartet, takes its title from this beautiful blue woodblock printing tradition as well as from that familiar standard architectural representation of a proposed structure: the blueprint. This piece began its life as a harmonic reduction – a kind of floor plan – of Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 6. As a violinist and violist, I have played this piece many times, in performance and in joyous late-night reading sessions with musician friends. (One such memorable session included Aizuri’s marvelous cellist, Karen Ouzounian) Chamber music is ultimately about conversation without words. We talk to each other with our

dynamics and articulations, and we try to give voice to the composers whose music has inspired us to gather in the same room and play music. Blueprint is also a conversation – with Beethoven, with Haydn (his teacher and the “father” of the string quartet), and with the joys and malinconia of his Op. 18, No. 6.” – Caroline Shaw

Carrot Revolution (2015) GABRIELLA SMITH (B. 1991) San Francisco native and avid backpacker Gabriella Smith started her prolific career at age 11. She studied composition at the Curtis Institute, in urban Philadelphia, and found, as she explains, “When I left the West Coast, all my music became about nature because I missed it so much.” One of the most promising young composers of her generation, she has been promoted by fellow Bay Area composer John Adams as “the future of American music.” Her quirky quartet, Carrot Revolution, is featured on the Aizuri Quartet's 2019 Grammy-nominated debut album Blueprinting (New Amsterdam Records). About it, Smith writes: “I wrote Carrot Revolution in 2015 for my friends the Aizuri Quartet. It was commissioned by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia for their exhibition The Order of Things, in which they commissioned three visual artists and myself to respond to Dr. Barnes’ distinctive ‘ensembles,’ the unique ways in which he arranged his acquired paintings along with metal objects, furniture, and pottery, juxtaposing them in ways that bring out their similarities and differences in shape, color, and texture. While walking around the Barnes looking for inspiration for this string quartet, I suddenly remembered a Cezanne quote I’d heard years ago (though which I later learned was misattributed to him): “The day will come when a single, freshly observed carrot will start a revolution.” And I knew immediately that my piece would be called Carrot Revolution. I envisioned the piece as a celebration of that spirit of fresh observation and of new ways of looking at old things, such as the string quartet – a 200-year-old genre – as well as some of my even older musical influences (Bach, Pérotin, Gregorian chant, Georgian folk songs, and Celtic fiddle tunes). The piece is a patchwork of my wildly contrasting influences and full of strange and unexpected juxtapositions and intersecting planes of sound, inspired by the way Barnes' ensembles show old works in new contexts and draw connections between things we don’t think of as being related.” – Gabriella Smith

Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 (1865) JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) “It’s not hard to compose,” Brahms told his friend, Max Kalbeck, “but what is incredibly difficult is to let the notes you don’t need fall under the table.” In an effort to overcome this difficulty, Brahms developed his own especially slippery table – and he often found that the entire piece

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had fallen under, without a single note left on the page. He sometimes invited to the table his two closest musical confidants, Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim; occasionally they saved a work from falling, but they also helped to send a few over the edge. The Piano Quintet spent three years on this table in a process of revision that could delight English teachers and copy editors everywhere. As listeners, let’s just be glad it didn’t end up on the floor. The work began as a quintet – but not a piano quintet. A lifelong enthusiast of Schubert’s music, Brahms initially scored it after Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major, a string quartet beefed up with a second cello. Joachim was impressed by the forceful nature of the music, but he found the strings’ sound “helplessly thin for the musical thought.” With this push from Joachim, the instrumentation slipped on to the floor. Brahms reworked the material for his own instrument, the piano, but, taking Joachim’s comment to heart, he scored it for two pianos instead of one. Next, it was Clara Schumann’s turn with the red pen. After performing the 2-piano version, she felt that “many of the most beautiful ideas are lost on the piano.” She suggested he score it for orchestra, and if Brahms had done so, we might know the work as his First Symphony. Instead, he joined his two earlier versions, creating a Piano Quintet. If not quite a symphony, the Piano Quintet certainly has the scope of one. Whereas Classical chamber music (see “H” for Haydn) is most typically a witty, joyful, and effervescent conversation, here Hamlet seems to have walked into the room, brooding, skull in hand. What of the ghost? The specter of Beethoven floats throughout this music: its emotional terrain is stormy and heroic; the key (F minor) and opening melody recall his “Appassionata” Sonata; and Brahms links his melodies together through common notes (“motives”), a technique Beethoven pioneered. The rich, dark sonority, however, is all Brahms. The first movement unfolds as a tragedy but begins with a question – the musical version of “To be or not to be?” Brahms weaves these few notes into the fabric of the entire movement, whether passionate or pensive, so the question is inescapable. The amorous and intimate second movement offers a temporary respite, a backward glance at what might have been happiness. The title of the third movement, “Scherzo,” literally means “a joke,” but the only thing funny about this one is that it isn’t. Instead, it takes place on the battlefield. Ominous at first, hooves pound in the distance, approaching. Our five heroes ride bravely (cue the battle hymn), but the fighting is fierce; this is Brahms at his most physically demanding for the players. The tragedy advances in the final movement, one of Brahms’s most hair-raising. It begins in a state of tortured indecision, hesitantly, wandering through a forest of harmonies. Once the path is found, there will be no going back. As you near the edge of your seat, you might consider: Do you remember how Hamlet ends?

Gwen Birchenough & Louise Robinson

E NCORE MEMORIES O how our lives changed in the summer of 1980! Life in a small town was anything but dull; with its myriad attractions of the Lakes and endless houseguests, as well as escapes to Tanglewood, Niagara on the Lake, and Chautauqua. Thanks to a small band of dreamers of seemingly impossible dreams, the Skaneateles Festival was born! It hit Library Hall and Brook Farm like the proverbial Pied Piper of August. Well planned and well manned concerts brought many of us who didn’t know we were starving to the altar of marvelous music. We soon learned to rule out any interference for those concert evenings; while the feeding, sheltering, and nourishing of the interesting and wonderful musicians became a reciprocal experience for us all. Indeed, our whole yearly schedule was built around the Festival, and other music events were enhanced by our ever-growing appreciation of the many kinds of music to which we were exposed. Each subsequent season was pronounced “The Best Yet!” and it seemed impossible to imagine that any of it could be surpassed. Our abiding thanks to those who conceived such a grand design, and stuck with it, along with successive administrative folks who have kept it legitimate, fully-functioning, and inspired! – Bill and Gwen Birchenough, reprinted from 25th anniversary program, 2004

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

week 1

Ed and Paula Conan

Friday, August 2 8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

Aizuri Quartet: Different Trains HILDEGARD VON BINGEN

STEVE REICH

Columba aspexit (The Dove Looked In)

Aizuri Quartet Gabriela Diaz, violin Miho Saegusa, violin Ayane Kozasa, viola Karen Ouzounian, cello

Different Trains

Aizuri Quartet

America-Before the War Europe-During the War After the War

intermission

DVOŘÁK

Sextet in A Major, Op. 48 Allegro moderato Dumka: Poco allegretto Furiant: Presto Finale: Tema con variazioni

tonight’s artist sponsorships

Aizuri Quartet is sponsored by Henry and Helga Beck Aizuri Quartet is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and is represented by Concert Artists Guild, 850 Seventh Ave, PH-A, New York, NY 10019 (www.concertartists.org) 20

Aizuri Quartet Melissa Matson, viola Steven Doane, cello

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Program Notes

xperience an extraordinary musical meditation: the Aizuri Quartet performs their own arrangement of rapturous music by medieval prophetess and composer Hildegard von Bingen, followed by Steve Reich’s unforgettable masterpiece, Different Trains, a rumination on American and European pathways during World War II, accompanied by vintage recorded train sounds. The second half of the program features Dvořák’s sunny, exuberant Sextet for Strings, featuring cellist and longtime Festival favorite, Steve Doane.

Columba aspexit (The Dove Looked In) HILDEGARD VON BINGEN (1098-1179) If you are trying to do something truly unlikely, like turn the tide of the Hundred Years War as a teenage girl (Joan of Arc), or become the world’s leading poetcomposer-doctor-scientist as a nun in the Middle Ages (Hildegard of Bingen), then it helps to believe, like Dan Akroyd in The Blues Brothers, that you are “on a mission from God.” Hildegard had her first heavenly vision at the age of 5; later, while prioress in Disibodenberg, Germany, she began to record her visions as poetry set to music. Her sequence, Columba aspexit (“The dove looked in”), is a vision of Saint Maximinus (d. 520) leading mass, but she decorates the scene with such ecstatic biblical imagery as to almost render his presence secondary. It begins as a white dove (a symbol for the Holy Spirit) looks in the church windows and sees a blazing light, burning like the

sun. The subsequent cascade of imagery is equally extreme: the highest of towers; water flowing from stone; the most fragrant perfumes stretch toward “the mirror of light.” Hildegard designed her music to foster rumination on the revelatory text, and the music is as unpredictable as her poem. While her highly individual style does employ patterns, these shift subtly and frequently, like a glorious improvisation. Her music is a kind of mind-altering drug; whether sung, or played by a string quartet, it seems to suspend time. Increasingly famous for her prophecies, many a pope and emperor corresponded with Hildegard, and she waded into politics and diplomacy. She established her own financially independent abbey, unprecedented for a woman, and pioneered herbal medicine. She lived until the age of 81, also an achievement at the time, and today is revered as one of the saints of the Catholic Church. Mission accomplished.

Different Trains (1988) STEVE REICH (B. 1936) For a long time, Steve Reich’s music was counter-cultural, but eventually it lost the counter. A native New Yorker, he studied at Cornell and Juilliard before heading to San Francisco, where he experimented with a kind of audio technology now long extinct: magnetic tape. He developed a “phasing” technique where two repeated tape loops on two different tape players would gradually go out of phase with one another, creating a sonic kaleidoscope of shifting patterns. Back in New York, he adapted this technique to acoustic instruments and performed his phase works in art galleries. At this time, his music was closer to the work of Minimalist visual artists than it was to any mainstream music coming out of the institutions where he had studied. Fifty years later, however, he is one of the leading influences on the emerging generation of composers. In Different Trains, Reich combines recorded speech with live performance. About it, he writes: “Different Trains, for String Quartet and pre-recorded performance tape, begins a new way of composing that has its roots in my early tape pieces, It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966). The basic idea is that carefully chosen speech recordings generate the musical materials for musical instruments.

KidsFest at Manadana Barn.

The idea for the piece came from my childhood. When I was one year old my parents separated. My mother moved to Los Angeles and my father stayed in New York. Since they arranged divided custody, I travelled back and forth by train frequently between New York and Los Angeles from 1939 to 1942 accompanied by my governess. While the trips were exciting and romantic at the time I now look back and think that, if I had been in Europe during this period, as a Jew I would have had to ride very different trains. With this in mind I wanted to make a piece that

8/2 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

would accurately reflect the whole situation. In order to prepare the tape, I did the following: • Record my governess Virginia, then in her seventies, reminiscing about our train trips together. • Record a retired Pullman porter, Lawrence Davis, then in his eighties, who used to ride lines between New York and Los Angeles, reminiscing about his life. • Collect recordings of Holocaust survivors Rachella, Paul and Rachel, all about my age and then living in America – speaking of their experiences. • Collect recorded American and European train sounds of the ’30s and ’40s. In order to combine the taped speech with the string instruments, I selected small speech samples that are more or less clearly pitched and then notated them as accurately as possible in musical notation. The strings then literally imitate that speech melody. The speech samples as well as the train sounds were transferred to tape with the use of sampling keyboards and a computer. Three separate string quartets are also added to the pre-recorded tape and the final live quartet part is added in performance. The piece thus presents both a documentary and a musical reality and begins a new musical direction. It is a direction that

I expect will lead to a new kind of documentary music video theatre in the not too distant future.” – Steve Reich

Sextet in A Major, Op. 48 (1878) ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904) Someone wanted Antonín Dvořák to be a butcher. A certificate of apprenticeship shows 15-year-old Antonín joining his father’s profession – but in 1987, it was proven a forgery. The idea of a butcher-turned-composer has remained irresistible ever since Dvořák first gained fame; an English newspaper interview with him in 1886 already proclaimed “From Butcher to Baton,” even though he never claimed to have chopped liver. While central European composers (see Beethoven, Brahms) are expected to train rigorously in composition over many years, apparently, we’d much prefer those from elsewhere to be naïve, rural geniuses with an aptitude for folk music. Dvořák’s Sextet is Exhibit A in refutation of this stereotype: it is as much heir to the Viennese tradition of chamber music as it is filled with the sounds of Czech village life. Surely, we can de-romanticize the myth without un-romanticizing the music. First, his father was not only a butcher but also a skilled musician who played the zither (later, even professionally). His parents recognized and fostered his talent from a young age, and by age 16 had sent him to study at music school in Prague. By 18, he was

8/2 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

a professional violist in a dance band and then principal viola in the new opera orchestra. Meanwhile, he composed quietly, and diligently. His fame was sudden: after Dvořák won an Austrian state prize, Brahms took him under his wing. Shortly after the Sextet appeared, London’s Daily Telegraph wrote a glowing review about the new work from this “unaccustomed name… ‘And who,’ some may ask, ‘is Anton Dvorak?’” Composer, yes. Butcher, no. The Sextet shows how fully Dvořák absorbed Viennese traditions into his own style. The opening movement joins the soaring lyricism and intricate part-writing of Schubert to the formal clarity and rich sonority of Brahms (himself author of two sextets). Yet the movement’s sunny enthusiasm is unmistakably Dvořák’s own. Clouds roll in for the second movement, his first-ever “Dumka,” an EasternEuropean lament that became a symbol of Slavic solidarity across Eastern Europe. Proudly swaggering, it refuses to wallow in misery. The swagger continues at a much faster pace in the next movement, a vigorous furiant (literally a ‘swaggering, conceited man,’ in Czech). Dvořák casts the last movement as a theme and variations, a favorite form of both Schubert and Brahms. The dark-hued, soulful theme (played only by the lower strings) grows increasingly vigorous through its variations. This music wowed the audience at its premiere, in Berlin; as the final movement sped toward its exuberant conclusion, surely no one was thinking about Antonín Dvořák, the butcher’s son. They knew an extraordinary composer had arrived.

Skaneateles

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Skaneateles.com ~ 315.685.0552 Skaneateles Chamber Gift Certificates Good in over 400 Skaneateles Area Businesses! Photo Credit: John Francis McCarthy

Thank you First Presbyterian Church for your hospitality! 23

tonight’s concert is made possible with support from the

week 1

Bob & Sally Neumann Fund for Jazz and Innovative Programming

Saturday, August 3 8:00 PM Robinson Pavilion

at Anyela’s Vineyards Rain Location: Auburn Junior High School

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn The Festival welcomes the sensational banjo player and composer Béla Fleck and fellow banjo player and captivating singer songwriter Abigail Washburn. The Grammy-winning husband and wife duo will astonish you with its blend of musical genres, pushing “far beyond the bluegrass expectations of their chosen instrument: toward Africa, Asia, jazz… traversing a world of possibilities” (The New York Times).

Adapt. Develop. Renew.

Program of classic songs and original works to be announced from the stage.

Wishing the Skaneateles Festival a successful 33 rd season!

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn are sponsored by:

Property management, brokerage and development at its best.

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Leasing by Sutton Companies 315.424.1111

featured advertiser

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Festival Future The Skaneateles Festival extends its appreciation to

Bob and Sally Neumann Their love for great music and leadership giving are helping to secure the Festival’s future and allowing us to bring the highest caliber musicians to our lakeside community.

Summer Suite

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CONNECT WITH US 877.917.3077 bonadio.com

Assisting with College Admissions

Don’t be the last one in...

Margaret S. Tiedemann, MEd DIRECTOR OF PLACEMENT

(315) 685-8511

tiedemannec@gmail.com tiedemanneducationalconsultants.com

11 East Genesee Street, Skaneateles, NY 13152

GRAMMY WINNERS The Skaneateles Festival truly is “World Class Music by the Lake.” Musicians who have performed at the Festival have won 62 Grammy Awards – and many more have been nominated!

Béla Fleck, banjo (15 Grammys) Wynton Marsalis, trumpet (9) Eugene Drucker, violin (9) Edgar Meyer, bass (5) David Zinman, conductor (5) Hilary Hahn, violin (3) Mark O’Connor, fiddle (3) Larry Combs, clarinet (2) Turtle Island String Quartet (2) (David Balakrishnan, Evan Price, Mark Summer, Mads Tolling)

Garrick Ohlsson, piano (1) Peter Serkin, piano (1) Mark O’Connor Band (1) (Mark O’Connor, Maggie O’Connor, Kate Lee, Forrest O’Connor)

Ying Quartet (1) (David Ying, Janet Ying, Phillip Ying, Timothy Ying)

Pacifica Quartet (1) (Sibbi Bernhardsson, Simin Ganatra, Masumi Per Rostad, Brandon Vamos)

Parker Quartet (1) (Jessica Bodner, Daniel Chong, Karen Kim, Kee-Hyun Kim)

Roomful of Teeth, vocal ensemble (1) (Cameron Beauchamp, Dashon Burton, Martha Cluver, Eric Dudley, Estelí Gomez, Avery Griffin, Caroline Shaw, Virginia Warnken)

Anonymous 4, vocal ensemble (1) (Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Ruth Cunningham, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek)

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (1) (John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant) Note: The 4th Grammy-winning LAGQ member didn’t appear at the Festival 27

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

week 2

Wednesday, August 7 Thursday, August 8 8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

Peter and Elsa Soderberg hilary hahn is sponsored by:

The Graham Family

Hilary Hahn & Lera Auerbach: Dreams & Visions PROKOFIEV

Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35 Andante Lento, ma non troppo Animato, ma non allegro Andantino, un poco scherzando Andante non troppo

LERA AUERBACH

Fractured Dreams (Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano) – World Premiere Commissioned for Hilary Hahn by the Skaneateles Festival Preludium Tragico Recitativo Monologo libero Monologo tragico Nostalgico Scherzando meccanico Adagio Allegro moderato

Hilary Hahn, violin Lera Auerbach, piano

Sognando libero Nostalgico curiouso Allegro furioso Magico Tragico Solo nervosamente Adagio mortale Allegro furioso Postludium

(all movements performed attacca, without pause) intermission

MUSSORGSKY

Pictures at an Exhibition Promenade Gnomus Promenade Old Castle Promenade Tuileries: Children Quarrelling at Play Bydło (Cattle)

tonight’s artist sponsorships

Lera Auerbach is sponsored by Patricia Lynn-Ford and Steven Ford 28

Promenade A Ballet of Chicks in Their Shells Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle Limoges (The Market-Place) In the Catacombs The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga) The Bogatyr Gates (In the Capital in Kiev)

Lera Auerbach, piano

Program Notes

ilary Hahn and composer-pianist Lera Auerbach join together for “Dreams and Visions,” a program of music and visual art, including a world premiere by Auerbach for Hahn and Mussorgsky’s famous Pictures at an Exhibition (for piano), with projections of the artwork during the performance – including some of Auerbach’s own acclaimed visual art.

violinist Paul Kochanski to transcribe the songs for violin. Since the songs are vocalises, sung simply on the syllable “Ah,” they lost little in transcription for the violin – if anything, they sound far more natural on the instrument. All turned out well for Koshetz, too; she went on to play a few small roles in Hollywood movies after retiring from the stage, so she could finally enjoy California sunsets without having to sing them.

Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35 (1920/1925)

Fractured Dreams (Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano) – World Premiere

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953) When one hears music by Sergei Prokofiev, a California sunset does not usually come to mind. However, it could well have been an inspiration behind the Five Melodies, Op. 35 bis. Prokofiev left Russia for the United States in 1918, equal parts career move and flight from Russian revolutionary chaos. Once in the U.S., he found that Rachmaninoff had already cornered the market for Russian-pianist recitals; he wrote, “I could not even dream of the overwhelming success he has with his concerts.” He soon turned to other projects, including a commission from the Chicago Opera, The Love for Three Oranges. He wanted the Ukranian soprano, Nina Koshetz, to star in the opera; she arrived in 1920. Dramatic both onstage and off, Koshetz pleaded for a new set of songs, which Prokofiev wrote while on a tour to California. “I’m as ecstatic about California as it is about me,” he wrote. “I am smiling along with the California countryside.” He was particularly enamored of the ocean, “which at sunset shimmered with the most beautiful colors.” The listener might relate Prokofiev’s colorful harmonies to the California sunset even more than the melodies. A mellow, evening mood pervades the set, and all five movements end in stillness. Although Koshetz awaited her songs “like a lover for a rendezvous,” she found all but one totally unsingable. “One of them has an appealing, remarkable melody, but frankly, the harmonies frighten me,” she wrote to him. She performed only one of the five in her New York City debut, on March 27, 1921, much to Prokofiev’s disappointment. In 1925, he worked with the Inaugural season's poster, 1980.

Commissioned for Hilary Hahn by the Skaneateles Festival LERA AUERBACH (B. 1973)

Lera Auerbach is a brilliant composer, among other occupations. Unbounded by medium, she has applied her

E NCORE MEMORIES Shortly after we moved about a mile from the Robinsons, we agreed to house two Festival musicians along with their young child. The next year, Louise called to see if we would consider another family, but this time the child was the artist. Without hesitation, after our great first family experience, we agreed. What a pleasure it has been for us to welcome Hilary Hahn and her parents into our home and hearts, year after year. My final year of teaching State Street School third graders was highlighted by Hilary’s visit when a student asked her to send the class a postcard from her next venue, Paris, to enrich our Geography unit. Twenty-two postcards later, Hilary had provided us all with factual, humorous stories about her world concert tour. We celebrated her successes and generosity of card and words with summer picnics for several Augusts. From her postcard experience, she asked SONY if she could have her own website (HilaryHahn.com) to communicate with her extended world audience. – Jean Graham , reprinted from 25th Anniversary program, 2004

8/7 & 8/8 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

creativity to poetry, painting, sculpture, theater, and music – so far. “I was born to do this – to work in art,” she has said. After growing up near Siberia, she emigrated to the United States to study music and earned degrees in both piano and composition from The Juilliard School. Since then, her astonishing creativity and hard work have blossomed into over 100 works for orchestra, as well as operas, ballets, three volumes of poetry, and numerous sculptures and paintings. Her soulful music is often supercharged with emotion and yet also structured with great care. Her new work for Hilary Hahn, co-commissioned by the Skaneateles Festival and the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, draws upon her interest in the hidden meanings contained in our seemingly illogical dreams. About Fractured Dreams, she writes: “While fractured and contrasting, these dreams are tied together – similar to how images and memories wave a tapestry of hidden truths in our sleep – reflecting each person in his or her most vulnerable desires and unguarded self, a black mirror in which everything is possible yet just a fraction out of reach. It is a dream that can never be fully realized. Hopes are fears in disguise. Night wears many guises; in its fractured reflections, one may glimpse shimmers of the morrow.” – Lera Auerbach

Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) MODEST MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881) The great project of Mussorgsky’s life was to invent Russian music. In his time, concert music was still largely an import from Western Europe. There was not yet a conservatory at which to study it, nor was ‘composer’ even recognized by the Imperial government as an official profession. Needing a real job (as musicians sometimes do), Mussorgsky worked in the civil service, composing as he was able. Yet little by little, he crafted a highly individual musical style that we hear today as distinctly Russian; it is marked by darkhued and soulful melodies; modal harmonies that connect it to Russian orthodox church music; and picturesque musical depictions of Russian subjects. And there’s nothing in any country’s music more picturesque than Pictures at an Exhibition. In his cycle of piano pieces, Mussorgsky methodically undertook to immortalize the watercolors and drawings of his suddenly deceased friend, Viktor Hartmann. Thanks in part to Ravel’s sumptuous orchestration (not to mention Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s 1971 rock version), the work is widely known. Unfortunately, several of the original pictures that inspired Mussorgsky have been lost (Gnomus, Old Castle, Tuileries, Bydlo, and Limoges); in their place, others from Hartmann on similar topics have been substituted for tonight’s presentation. An admirer of Liszt, Mussorgsky follows his predecessor in that his musical ‘pictures’ are also the composer’s own

emotional responses. Mussorgsky even places himself in the listener’s consciousness by depicting his own saunter from picture to picture in the connecting promenades, as if we are in an art gallery. Yet the musical pictures also seem literally to bring the frozen images to life. Thus, Gnomus both depicts the goblin’s creeping and lurching and conveys Mussorgsky’s sense of fear, as he imagines himself in the presence of such a creature. The Old Castle conveys the plaintive song of a troubadour before an old castle, as well as the melancholy mood it inspires in the viewer. Tuileries shows children playing, quarreling, and sulking in the famous Parisian garden, with the viewer looking on in amusement. The work then veers toward the serious, and downward in pitch, to Bydlo (Cattle), which depicts a Polish wagon dragged by oxen (possibly through the mud, depending on how much pedal the pianist adds). Perhaps it also seeks to express the harsh monotony of peasant life. What follows is a most unforgettable comic relief – A Ballet of Chicks in Their Shells, after Hartmann’s costume drawings for the boys and girls in a theater school dance production. Mussorgsky’s social commentary continues with a dual portrait of Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle, the names Mussorgsky gave to Hartmann’s drawings of “A Rich Jew in a Fur Hat” and “A Poor Jew.” Both the proud Goldenberg and begging Schmuyle are caricatures, to be sure, but Mussorgsky ingeniously joins their themes together as a kind of rumination on economic and social inequality. The final four pictures take the listener into more extreme locales – which, while intimated by Hartmann’s drawings, exist fully only in Mussorgsky’s imagination. First, we find ourselves in the raucous French marketplace of Limoges, where gossip travels quickly. Mussorgsky wrote in his copy of the music: “Great news! M. de Puissangeout has just found his lost cow… Mme de Remboursac has just gotten a beautiful new set of teeth, while M. de Pantaleon’s nose, which is in his way, is as much as ever peony-colored.” Suddenly we are in the Catacombs of Paris, where Hartmann depicts a guided tour among the shadowy mass graves. As if this weren’t spooky enough, the dead begin to speak in the next promenade, subtitled “With the Dead in a Dead Language.” The spellbinding tremolos break into true terror with The Hut on Fowl’s Legs – Baba Yaga. Here the ornate picture of the witch’s hut in the shape of a clock diverges with Mussorgsky’s vivid depiction of the witch herself, who abducts and eats children as she swoops down on the clock hands to catch her victims. As Mussorgsky imagines himself running away, he finds himself in front of the final picture – Hartmann’s imaginative design for a gate at Kiev. The composer’s majestic (and virtuosic) essay on this final picture both depicts the gate, with bells ringing over a Russian Orthodox chant, but also transcends it, as the composer’s nationalist ambitions become clear. While Hartmann also painted Italy, France, and Poland in these pictures, his heart – and Mussorgsky’s – lay ever in Russia. 31

Our volunteers do so much! Board of Trustees Housing Committee Host musicians (and sometimes their families) Pre-concert meals for musicians and sponsors Food for events, receptions, parties, etc. Food for musician rehearsal breaks Airport transportation for musicians Website construction and maintenance Social media expertise Special writing projects Invite several hundred people into their home for Summer Suite Host donor receptions and other gatherings Photography Build stage at First Presbyterian Church before first concert Take down stage at First Presbyterian Church after final concert Take down chairs and put away after Saturday concerts Take down chairs and put away after final church concert Check pews after concerts for discarded programs Take down lights, equipment, etc. after Saturday concerts Parking attendants at special events Parking crew chief at Brook Farm Concert ushers Ticket takers Ticket sellers Concession table Move pianos, harpsichords, timpani, bridge lamps, marimbas, harps, music stands, and more …and any other important jobs we inadvertently omitted!

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE HUNDREDS AND WHO MAKE IT

Koko Fuller greets patrons with a smile at the ticket table. Over the years, she has also provided outstanding food for pre-concert dinners and events, and served on the Board of Trustees. Thanks, Koko!

Bruce Keplinger and Maryellen Casey have been volunteers extraordinaire since the mid-1980s, ready to help wherever needed. No job is too big or too small. Thanks, Bruce and Maryellen!

The stage in the church is set up at the beginning of the season and taken down after the final concert there. Thanks to the many volunteers with tools and muscles who help make this happen!

HUNDREDS OF FESTIVAL VOLUNTEERS ALL POSSIBLE

I have always told you that the Festival should have charged us for the wonderful experience of housing musicians. It brought such joy to both David and me and I will always look back on those special times with great fondness. – Sharon Slater Thank you to the Slaters and all the host families who have opened their homes to Festival musicians!

John Manring served as our gracious and efficient crew chief for the parking crew at Brook Farm for more than 20 years, helping concert-goers enter and exit safely. Thanks, John!

Providing food, lodging, transportation, muscle power, wisdom, ideas, gracious smiles, can-do spirit, and so much more for 40 years! Our volunteers consistently say that the best part about helping out with the Skaneateles Festival is getting to know the musicians on a personal level and making new connections in the community. If you’d like to meet new people, get to know world-class musicians, or help

Expert chef Joan Christy has fed thousands over the years, hosting and/or providing gourmet food for musician dinners, donor receptions, rehearsal breaks, Summer Suite, fundraising events, post-concert receptions, and more. Thanks, Joan!

out in any of these areas, give us a call at 315-685-7418 or visit skanfest.org.

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

week 2

Fred & Ginny Marty and Festival Supporters

Friday, August 9

7:00 PM Backstage Pass (for ticket holders only)

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

Backstage Pass 40 Years: How to Plan a Festival (In 400 Easy Steps) For the first time, the Festival’s artistic directors from all 40 seasons engage each other in conversation. Hear their hilarious and touching stories about eccentric performers, unexpected happenings, and the human interactions that have helped build 40 years of musical memories.

Concert – Piano Festival MOZART arr. CZERNY

Overture to The Marriage of Figaro

SCHUBERT

Storms of Life, D. 947

BRAHMS

Rhapsody, Op. 79, No. 2

TCHAIKOVSKY arr. EDUARD LANGER

Diane Walsh Elinor Freer Andrew Russo Diane Walsh Aaron Wunsch

Diane Walsh

Selections from The Nutcracker, Op. 71a

Robert Weirich Diane Walsh Elinor Freer Aaron Wunsch Andrew Russo

March Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Russian Dance [Trepak] Dance of the Flutes Dance of the Flowers intermission

tonight’s artist sponsorships

Elinor Freer is sponsored by Ivan & Mimi Ace Andrew Russo is sponsored by Disciplined Capital Management Diane Walsh is sponsored by Bill and Donna Davis Robert Weirich is sponsored by Bruce Keplinger and Maryellen Casey Aaron Wunsch is sponsored by The Skaneateles Consortium: George Bain, Sam & Debby Bruskin, Dana & Susan Hall, and Ron Sampson 34

featured advertiser:

Upstate University Hospital The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the s upport of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Piano Festival (continued)

MOZART

Rondo in A minor, K. 511

DVOŘÁK

Selections from Slavonic Dances, Op. 72

HOROWITZ STRAVINSKY arr. STRAVINSKY

Robert Weirich

Slavonic Dance No. 1 in B Major Slavonic Dance No. 5 in D-Flat Major Slavonic Dance No. 7 in C Major

Carmen Variations

Andrew Russo

Three movements from the ballet Petrushka Russian Dance Petrushka's Room The Shrovetide Fair

Program Notes

elebrate the Festival’s 40th anniversary with a fun and lively all-piano program featuring combinations of 1, 2 and 3 pianists performing together – current and former Artistic Directors (Robert Weirich, Elinor Freer, Diane Walsh, Aaron Wunsch), and Skaneateles’s own Andy Russo – featuring selections by Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky (from The Nutcracker), Stravinsky, and others.

Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (1786) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791), arr. CARL CZERNY (1791-1857) Music for six hands turns the piano into a clown car. In the space designed for one, three pianists crowd in, elbows everywhere, and try to keep smiling. Fortunately, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is the clown car of operas. Characters crowd on stage, hide behind a screen, and undertake all manner of sophisticated hijinks. Therefore, Carl Czerny had a stroke of genius when he decided to arrange the overture for six hands. Vienna’s hardest working piano teacher, Czerny published 861 opuses of piano works, mostly exercises now disdained by pianists. Giving 12 hours of piano lessons per day, he had innumerable young pianists waiting in the wings for whom such arrangements as this could provide delight. Whereas most overtures begin with loud, attention-getting chords, Mozart’s begins quietly, scurrying around and making mischief. Our characters emerge and retreat, up to little good, but merry as can be. Czerny’s teacher, Beethoven, found Mozart’s opera to be trivial and unworthy of Mozart’s genius, but only a genius can turn a clown car into vehicle for the sublime.

Robert Weirich Aaron Wunsch

Elinor Freer Andrew Russo

Storms of Life, D. 947 (1828) FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) Of all the standard genres of music, piano duets are perhaps the most likely to be in an amiable mood. This musical equivalent of a couple’s dance allowed two people a proper excuse to nuzzle up on the same bench, eyelids fluttering. Part of the composer’s role is to put them at ease. After all, no one goes to a funeral on a first date. Franz Schubert, however, actually wrote a funeral march for piano duet (in honor of the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I), and he never cared for couple’s dancing, anyhow. He is almost alone among composers in adapting the piano duet to the darkest, most psychologically probing emotional terrain. The great Fantasy in F minor is unrelentingly somber, and the single movement he composed immediately afterward, Lebensstürme (Storms of Life), D. 940, isn’t much happier. Don’t play this music on a date unless you want to go home early. Most likely, Schubert intended his Allegro as the first movement of a larger work. However, he died a few months later, at the age of 31. Schubert had secondary syphilis, and toward the end of his life, his thoughts became increasingly morbid. Already in 1824, he wrote to his friend, Leopold Kupelwieser: “I find myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair continually makes things worse and worse instead of better… I ask you, is he not a miserable, unhappy being? …Upon retiring to bed each night I hope that I may not wake again, and each morning only recalls yesterday's grief.” Despite this dramatic pronouncement, there is no question Schubert desperately wanted to live, and the Allegro provides supporting evidence. Fiery and

8/9 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

bold, it has tremendous forward energy, balancing life’s tragedies with moments of levity, grace, and prayer. Left with the manuscript after Schubert’s death, the publisher-composer Anton Diabelli (king of benign, amiable music) didn’t know quite how to sell it, so he invented a title, Storms of Life. It fits.

Rhapsody, Op. 79, No. 2 (1879) JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) As Brahms aged, his works became less and less rhapsodic. He started out writing gigantic piano sonatas, variations, and other large-scale works. Later in life, the increasingly hyper-critical composer preferred to write shorter movements, even if the musical ideas they contain are no less expansive in character. His later piano works all consist of a series of short movements simply identified as ‘piano pieces’ (Klavierstücke), each with a subtitle – capriccio, intermezzo, ballade, and the like. Brahms dedicated his two pieces, Op. 79, to a former piano student and love interest, Elisabet Herzogenberg, now married and one of his closest musical confidants. After the premiere and before publication, she suggested he change the title of these works from caprices to rhapsodies. They certainly are rhapsodic in character, if not in form. The Rhapsody in G Minor is probably Brahms’s single most oft-played movement for piano, and with good reason. One could say it is the most Brahmsian. By

Louise was always gracious, unflappable when the TRIBUTE TO unplanned happened, and a fount of wisdom, the latter expressed often with the right Robinson gentle question. Colleen and I felt welcomed and part of the family from the summer of 1980 when we first became involved. I know that Colleen would have agreed with me that Louise’s love will continue to inspire the Festival.

Louise

–Dan Fisher

employing a clever hand-crossing technique (watch for it) in combination with the sustain pedal, Brahms enriches the sonority to almost orchestral proportions. If there is a ‘Brahms sound,’ this is it. It is both grand yet deeply lyrical, serious yet luxurious. Perhaps this music is tragic in tone, but it’s not a tragedy – for it gives the listener too much pleasure.

Selections from The Nutcracker (1892) PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893), arr. EDUARD LANGER (1835-1905) Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is so well-known, one can forget how bizarre it is to see an object that cracks nuts fighting a mouse dressed like a king, both dancing. The story originally issued from the imagination of the German writer, E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822); he was the one who turned the original folkloric character of the Sandman from a friendly sleep-inducer into a nightmarish goblin who eats the eyes of naughty children. (Thanks, E. T. A.) Tchaikovsky preferred a tamer adaptation of The Nutcracker by Alexandre Dumas, of Three Musketeers fame. With it he composed one of the few musical masterpieces equally beloved by adults and children. Already quite famous when he composed it, Tchaikovsky tried to find time to compose the ballet amidst his busy touring schedule. He wrote some of it on the way to Berlin; later, he escaped from Paris to Rouen to find peace and quiet. However, the real challenge came with his trip to New York City to conduct for the opening of Carnegie Hall. “I shall try to work on the boat,” he wrote to his brother. That didn’t work too well, and the composer postponed the premiere, finishing it on return to Russia. The ballet has some international spirit to it as well, with dances from Spain, Arabia, China, and Russia, among others. (Alas, no ragtime from New York.) Its melodies and dances are continually charming, as five selections heard tonight show. The stately “March” begins the Christmas Eve party at the beginning of the ballet, while the remaining four take place in the Land of Sweets, during Act II. Although Tchaikovsky arranged the ballet for solo piano, the version for four dancing hands was the 37

8/9 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

handiwork of pianist Eduard Langer, one of Tchaikovsky’s fellow professors at the Moscow Conservatory.

Rondo in A minor, K. 511 (1787) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) The rondo was Mozart’s musical version of dress-toimpress. His piano concertos almost always end with a rondo, as do several piano sonatas. When he first came to Vienna, in 1782, he composed a flashy new rondo for his official concerto debut, which he sent back to his father with a note: “I am sending you my rondo… which is making such a furore in Vienna. But I beg you to guard it like a jewel and not to give it to a soul to play… I composed it specially for myself and no one else but my dear sister must play it.” By 1787, now at the height of his fame, Mozart had performed numerous rondos in Vienna; it was time to try something new with the genre. So he composed a slow rondo, psychologically probing and full of emotion. Pianists love it dearly, but they would not wear it to a party. Part of the pleasure of a rondo is listening for the theme to come back. Whereas most of Mozart’s rondo themes are earworms, this one is too long and chromatic to hum back. Instead, Mozart ornaments each return of the theme, intensifying its plaintive song. The episodes in between offer some relief, like dreams of a rosier past. Played well, the rondo casts a spell unlike many other of Mozart’s works. Whereas most of Mozart’s rondos seemed designed to encourage applause, this one seems designed to render applause completely unnecessary.

Selections from Slavonic Dances, Op. 72 (1886) ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904) Antonín Dvořák’s first real job was playing in a dance band; appropriately, therefore, his first real hit was his set of Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. However, writing these was not his idea. His loftier aspiration was to walk in the footsteps of Beethoven, Schumann, and Wagner, whose works his early compositions dutifully follow. Yet when Johannes Brahms recommended Dvořák to his own publisher, the

E NCORE MEMORIES I will always remember the first time I had dinner at Brook Farm, probably about 25 years ago or so. Louise received a phone call from a guest, who informed her that he would be bringing four more, as his family decided to come to the festival. Meanwhile, about 4 more people showed up for dinner, unexpectedly. While most people get worked up about doing a dinner for 8, these 8 changed the numbers from 16 to 24! Without a spoken word, Louise looked at Dave with her gentle smile; Dave trucked off to the garden to return with some fresh lovelies from their garden, and voila, Louise made a new dish of the most delicious pasta with fresh garden vegetables with pesto, and an additional garden salad... as in just picked from the garden... Never in my life have I witnessed two people who flowed together with such grace, sync & hospitality before. – Susie Birchenough, reprinted from 2009

work requested was a set of dances for piano, four-hands, a popular household genre guaranteed to sell at least a few copies. The dazzling dances of orchestral proportions that Dvořák produced, at once sophisticated and naïve, so far surpassed everyone’s expectations, including the composer’s own, that they became the cornerstone of his reputation and shaped the rest of his career. He quickly arranged them for full orchestra, in which version they are best known today. Eight years after the first set of dances launched him to stardom, Dvořák returned for a second round. Unlike the first set, these were guaranteed to sell copies, and he had little to prove. If not quite as immediately crowd-pleasing as the first set, they are richer and more subtle in expression. The opening number sounds like music for a town fair, jovial and bright. However, it settles down into a lullaby, which opens a dream world, magical and pure. No. 5 is technically in D-flat Major, but it spends most of its time suspended between major and minor, like a tender

8/9 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

heart obscured by a solemn face. No. 7 in C Major is a wild ride through a forest of unexpected harmonies; it finally comes out into the open plain, home free.

Carmen Variations (ca. 1925) VLADIMIR HOROWITZ (1903-1989) There are some pieces scored for six hands, like the first one on this program, and there are some pieces that just sound as if six hands are playing them, like Vladimir Horowitz’s Carmen Variations. The famed Russian virtuoso takes Carmen’s seductive, tambourine-tickling gypsy dance from Bizet’s famous opera and turns it into an armored tank. Horowitz designed it for no one but himself to drive; his legendary hair-raising sound seemed to exceed all other pianists. He never wrote the piece down, but eager young virtuosos painstakingly copied out the various versions he recorded by ear in order to perform the showpiece once thought impossible to play for anyone but Horowitz. Horowitz applied both his profound understanding of piano technique and his ability to calculate the build of sound toward a climax, here placed at the very end. For pianists, it is the very definition of a showstopper.

Three movements from the ballet Petrushka (1911) IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971), arr. STRAVINSKY For his ballet, Petrushka, Stravinsky selected a single instrument to best represent the shrill voice, primitive angularity, and uncouth antics of the title character, a puppet come to life: the piano. Never mind the years pianists spend perfecting a warm, lyrical tone and smooth legato sound in imitation of opera singers. Instead, Stravinsky asks the pianist to get in touch with her inner percussionist, reminding us that the piano is literally just a ton of hammers and metal. Petrushka was a popular hand puppet in Russian street shows of the 18th and 19th centuries, enjoyed for his provocative mischief. In Stravinsky’s story, Petrushka is cast as an allegory for modern man: his inability to blend into the changing world around him causes an emotional crisis from which he does not recover. Yet, as Debussy

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Supporters and previous board members: Sharon and Marshall Magee, Dan Labeille, Dan Fisher, and Patti Carey.

pointed out after hearing the premiere in Paris, the music brings “infinite pleasure…It's childlike and untamed. Yet the execution is extremely delicate.” The ballet was a tremendous success. In 1921, Stravinsky arranged three scenes for solo piano, which he dedicated to the virtuoso pianist Artur Rubinstein; these are the same three selections heard tonight, but in Stravinsky’s own earlier fourhand version (1912). The ballet begins at the crowded Shrovetide fair. At the puppet theater, the Magician casts a spell, causing three puppets to come to life: Petrushka, the Moor, and the Ballerina. They join in a vigorous Russian Dance. A foot suddenly kicks Petrushka into his own room, beginning the second scene. Here Petrushka grapples with his new human emotions, including his self-loathing at his appearance and uncontrollable feelings for the Ballerina. When she drops by, he expresses himself in the only way he knows how, in frenzied, angular gestures, leaping about. Of course, she runs away. In the final scene, back at the fair, gypsies, masqueraders, and a dancing bear entertain the crowd. Suddenly, the Moor (with whom the Ballerina has run off) appears, chasing Petrushka, and finally kills him with a sword. The Magician reminds the horrified crowd that, Hey, he’s just a puppet.

week 2

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

Saturday, August 10 8:00 PM Robinson Pavilion

at Anyela’s Vineyards

Sieglinde Wikstrom hilary hahn is sponsored by:

Rain Location: Auburn Junior High School

The Graham Family

Hilary Hahn: Bach Under the Stars BACH

Sinfonia, Cantata No. 29

BACH

Chorus, “Jauchzet, ihr erfreute Stimmen” (“Rejoice, you joyful voices”) from Cantata No. 120

BACH

Aria, “Schafe können sicher weiden” (“Sheep may safely graze”) from Cantata No. 208

BACH

“Wohl mir, daß ich Jesum habe” (“O how good that I have Jesus”), and Aria, “Ich will von Jesu Wundern singen” (“I will sing the wonders of Jesus”), and Chorus, “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” (“Jesu, joy of man’s desiring”) from Cantata No. 147

BACH

Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV 1042

Jeffrey Grossman, organ

Allegro Adagio Allegro assai

Hilary Hahn, violin

intermission

BACH

Chorus, “Wachet auf, ruf uns die Stimme” (“Sleepers wake, call your voice to us”), and Aria, “Mein Freund ist mein” (“My friend is mine”) from Cantata No. 140

BACH

Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

BACH

Chorus, “Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage” (“Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day”) from Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248

Allegro Andante Allegro assai

With additional concert support from Grossman St. Amour, CPA, PLLC tonight’s artist sponsorships

TENET Vocal Artists are sponsored by Jennifer Sutherland 40

Hilary Hahn, violin

featured advertiser: Parsons & Associates, Inc.

Skaneateles Festival Orchestra Daniel Hege, conductor VIOLIN Sarah Crocker Vonsattel, concertmaster Sara Mastrangelo* Jeremy Mastrangelo Peter Rovit Susan Spafford William Knuth Aika Ito Thomas Koichi Rodgers VIOLA Melissa Matson* Neil Miller Matthew Hettinga

CELLO Julia Bruskin* Lindsay Groves Rosemary Elliott BASS Edward Castilano* FLUTE Catherine Broyles* Diane Smith OBOE Peggy Pearson* Jillian Honn

TENET Vocal Artists Jolle Greenleaf, artistic director BASSOON Lisa Ann Seischab* TRUMPET Paul Shewan* Apollo Lee Jared Wallis

Jolle Greenleaf and Nola Richardson, sopranos Doug Dodson and Helen Karloski, altos Andrew Fuchs and Gene Stenger, tenors Paul Max Tipton and Jonathan Woody, basses Harpsichord courtesy of Mary Kirkpatrick, Ithaca, NY

TIMPANI Michael Cirmo* HARPSICHORD William Cowdery* ORGAN Jeffrey Grossman* *denotes principal

Program Notes

orld-renowned violinist Hilary Hahn leads a joyful program of J. S. Bach’s music, featuring two violin concertos and selections from his most beloved vocal music, including “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” “Sheep May Safely Graze,” and music from the Christmas Oratorio. The acclaimed vocal ensemble TENET (“resplendent,” New York Times) makes its Festival debut, alongside organist Jeffrey Grossman and the Skaneateles Festival Orchestra.

85 musical Bachs in Johann Sebastian’s family tree. His name essentially meant ‘musician-for-hire’ in local slang; a count once inquired “whether there was not another Bach available…we must have a Bach again.” Music was a family trade, like carpentry – work you do with your hands – and the concept of ‘genius’ was a long way off. “I was obliged to be industrious; whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well,” Bach often said. Today, his honest statement seems to us totally absurd.

Sinfonia, Cantata No. 29 (1731) Chorus, “Jauchzet, ihr erfreute Stimmen” (“Rejoice, you joyful voices”) from Cantata No. 120 (1729) Aria, “Schafe können sicher weiden” (“Sheep may safely graze”) from Cantata No. 208 (1713) “Wohl mir, daß ich Jesum habe” (“O how good that I have Jesus”), and Aria, “Ich will von Jesu Wundern singen” (“I will sing the wonders of Jesus”), and Chorus, “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” (“Jesu, joy of man’s desiring”) from Cantata No. 147 Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV 1042 (ca. 1720-30) Chorus, “Wachet auf, ruf uns die Stimme” (“Sleepers wake, call your voice to us”), and Aria, “Mein Freund ist mein” (“My friend is mine”) from Cantata No. 140 (1731) Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041 (ca. 1720-30) Chorus, “Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage” (“Shout for joy, exult, rise up, glorify the day”) from Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 (1737)

In any case, he certainly was industrious, almost beyond measure. The Bach catalogue (BWV) has over 1,100 entries, in every conceivable genre, except one: opera. Whereas Bach’s exact contemporary, George Frederic Handel, went at first opportunity to Italy to study this most glamorous and prestigious art form, Bach did not even bother to seek opera out in nearby Dresden. He disparaged the “lovely Dresden ditties” that garnered applause, and instead poured all of his knowledge, skill, and effort into the church cantata, music for which no one clapped – except, perhaps, in Heaven.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) To say that J. S. Bach came from a musical family is like saying the same of Michael Jackson; one could reveal more by telling which among them wasn’t. We know of

Bach’s first occupation was organist, which he learned in part from his older brother, his primary caregiver after his parents died at age 10. His foremost teacher, however, was always himself: he copied out music secretly by moonlight from his brother’s library and used it to teach himself to improvise, the first step toward composition. Although he soon mastered ‘the king of instruments,’ as the organ is known, life as an organist was often a royal pain. His first position, in Weimar, was as a lackey-organist – perhaps he played some music after which he shined the Duke of Weimar’s shoes. (It could be worse: sometimes, an expected part of an organist’s new job was to marry the previous organist’s daughter.) Yet Bach worked his way up quickly; a few years later, he was already the best-paid musician in Weimar, and his skills grew so impressive that in 1717 he was invited to participate in an organ duel in Dresden. Bach’s French competitor skipped town in the middle of the night before, presumably out of fear.

8/10 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

The Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29 (“Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir” [“We Thank You, God, we Thank You”]) gives us a glimpse of Bach’s brilliance at the keyboard. Instead of beginning the cantata with the traditional chorus, Bach releases a joyous flood of notes from the organ, typically only part of a cantata’s back-up band. Here, the back-up band is a brilliant ensemble of trumpets, timpani, oboes, and strings. Bach clearly wanted to make a splash with his employer, the Leipzig Town Council, for whose inauguration the cantata was given, in 1731. He took a work he had composed in his prior job, the prelude from his Partita in E Major for solo violin (twice recorded by Hilary Hahn), and amplified it, like a megaphone, as a way of saying to his employer, “See what a great job I’m doing?” Happy with the result, he performed it twice more for subsequent council inaugurations. Lest the Council think he was running out of ideas, however, Bach didn’t present Cantata No. 29 for every election; another option on hand was Cantata No. 120, “Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille” (“God, you are praised in the stillness”). Its chorus is one of Bach’s most ebullient, as it tries to live up to its title lyric: “Exult, you delighted voices, climb all the way to heaven!” A tour-de-force for choir, it catapults the singers skyward with rapid, ascending arpeggios. One wonders how his boy sopranos fared with these vocal acrobatics; when he rearranged this movement as part of his Mass in B minor, he gave the vocal parts to

the instruments and composed something less gravitydefying for the singers. Bach’s 200+ cantatas show his tremendous versatility. One of Bach’s earliest surviving cantatas was a birthday present for his Weimar employer, Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. Cantata No. 208, “The merry hunt is all I want,” translates this favorite German pastime into music. Think of it like a baseball cantata. Here, there is an all-star team of hunters, including Mickey Mantle of the woods, the goddess Diana. This cantata’s best-known movement (and one of Bach’s greatest hits) is “Sheep may safely graze,” sung by a soprano who represents Pales, the Roman goddess of flocks and livestock. Two flutes conjure up the open pasture, where she sings about her worthy successors, “the good Shepherd” (Jesus, presumably), and the Duke himself: “Where leaders are ruling well, we feel peace and happiness.” Ah, if only. Most of Bach’s cantatas were composed neither for special ceremonies nor birthdays but for regular church services. They are like mini-oratorios, where the characters are biblical figures or metaphorical personifications (i.e., the Church). Each cantata is anchored by a widely-known chorale tune, essentially a pop song for churchgoers. Martin Luther himself had “composed” some of these chorales, adapting tunes from drinking songs and other disparate sources and exchanging their original texts for church-friendly verses. Bach might incorporate the tune in various ways, subtle and obvious; in his Cantata No. 147,

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8/10 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

the chorale appears twice, decorated by dancing violin triplets. This triplet accompaniment is so catchy that it has upstaged the chorale tune; known today as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” it often accompanies brides down the aisle. This cantata marks the Virgin Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, who carries John the Baptist. The pregnant women share each other’s joy, which spills out in the bass aria, “I will sing of Jesus’s wonders.” Why would a bass express the joy of two women? Consider it foreshadowing; in Bach’s passion settings, the role of Jesus is always sung by a bass. Whereas we usually know the exact dates for which Bach’s cantatas were intended, the purposes of his instrumental compositions are often less clear. So it is with his two concertos for solo violin. These may have been composed in Cöthen, where Bach’s Calvinist employer compelled him to compose instrumental rather than sacred works, or later, in Leipzig. We do know the concertos were performed in Leipzig, where Bach was director of an instrumental ensemble, the Collegium Musicum. This was a kind of extracurricular activity to his regular church job; he organized weekly performances for this motley group of professionals and local university students at a local coffee-house. The Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV 1042, performed at Zimmermann’s coffee-house, is genial, festive, and very much in the Italian style. Bach may have learned to play the violin from his father, and he later refined his understanding of the instrument by studying the scores of the great Italian violinists, Corelli and Vivaldi. He adopts their brilliant style in the first movement, a kind of motorboat of 16th-note arpeggios, as well as their refrain-verse format and three-movement overall structure. The slow movement, however, seems to step right out of a church cantata – a profound, cantilena aria more cosmic than caffeinated. The brief third movement decorates the composer’s trademark counterpoint with Italianate flourishes. The vigorous Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, was also performed in Zimmermann’s coffee house around 1730. After the hard-driving first movement, a heavenly calm pervades the second, by far the longest of

the concerto; perhaps Bach was most at home in the profound. The final movement takes the style of a gigue (cousin of the Irish jig), an earthy dance. Despite the violinist’s hard work, there wasn’t much to gain except local respect, for the performances were unpaid. The players had to “do with a bone to gnaw on, despite the hours they had spent rehearsing,” complained the poet, Marianne von Ziegler. Many of today’s musicians can relate. The following year, 1731, Bach composed one of his best-known cantatas, No. 140 (“Wachet auf, ruf uns die Stimme”). Usually the cantata fell between the Gospel reading and the sermon, a pick-me-up somewhere near the middle of the three-hour Lutheran service. Anyone dozing off on the 27th Sunday after Trinity - a likely occurrence on this relatively unimportant church day that happens only once every 11 years – would have received an appropriate jolt, since the title of the cantata is literally “Wake Up” (“Wachet auf”). Its plot is based on the parable of the ten virgins, bridesmaids awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom (Jesus), who, for unexplained reasons, comes in the middle of the night. The procession-like opening chorus melds a medieval Meistersinger song (the chorale melody sung by the sopranos, with trumpet) with an Italianate concerto ensemble of instruments. Later in the cantata, Jesus and his allegorical bride, the Church, finally unite; their joy is expressed in a love duet, “Mein Freund ist mein” (“My Friend is Mine”). Their love is sacred, but also a little giddy. For the most important church holidays, Christmas and Holy Week, Bach went all out. For Good Friday, 1727, he composed the largest-scale work ever composed by anyone in history to that point (that we know of), the St. Matthew Passion. For Christmas, 1737, he composed the three-hour Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, a musical telling of the entire Christmas story. The opening chorus captures the celebratory spirit of Christmas Day, although to tell the truth, Bach reused the music from a secular cantata for the birthday of Maria Josepha, Queen of Poland (and Electress of Saxony, where Bach lived). This kind of musical recycling was quite common in Bach’s time and in no way diminishes his astonishing productivity. Whether one hears it as “Happy Birthday Queen Maria” or “Happy Birthday Jesus,” the music is pure joy.

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Program Notes

he Festival welcomes back pianist-composer Conrad Tao (“electrifying,” New York Times), whose career has taken off since he last performed here as a 14-year-old, in 2009. He partners with dramatic and charismatic violinist Stefan Jackiw (“brilliant,” New York Times) to lead a program of imaginative music by famous friends Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, as well as by their muse, Clara Wieck (Schumann). David Ying and Elinor Freer also perform.

Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838) ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Time has obscured just how weird the music of Robert Schumann really is. Today, for example, his Carnaval, Op. 9, is one of the most oft-performed Romantic piano works, but when it first appeared, Chopin exclaimed, “That’s not music at all.” Movements that break off suddenly, cryptic musical codes tied to letters of the alphabet, and emotional whiplash are common traits of Schumann’s early style. “I could die of laughing at this German man’s imagination,” Chopin wrote of Schumann, in 1831. Since Schumann’s death, his musical eccentricities have often been tied to the mental illness he faced at

the end of his life, as if perhaps he had been ill all along. Nothing could be further from the truth; he was bourgeois through and through, with traditional ideas of marriage, financial prudence, and a German’s sense for order and organization. For most of his life, the strangest fancies of his imagination were confined to music. His impetus to fly freely in music, however, came from literature. Schumann’s father was a bookseller in Zwickau, and he had easy access to the latest romantic literature, some of it truly capricious. When inspired by books, Schumann would compose in a frenzy, as he did after reading E. T. A. Hoffmann’s fictional account of an eccentric musician, Johannes Kreisler (in Fantasiestücke, from 1814). Schumann claimed to have drafted the whole of Kreisleriana in four days – and, presumably, four nights. And who knows what will come out after four nights without sleep? Schumann could relate to Kreisler’s sudden mood swings from depression to ecstasy, which he experienced, too. When Kreisler hears a beautiful aria, for example, he is transformed: “How the pain gnawing at my innards was transformed into wistful melancholy that poured heavenly balm into all my wounds! Everything was forgotten and I simply listened in rapture to the sounds that held me in

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8/15 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22 (1853)

their consoling embrace as though they were transmitted from another world.” Schumann’s music veers from one extreme state to the other, just as Kreisler describes.

CLARA WIECK (SCHUMANN) (1819-1896)

The piece begins in a total frenzy, bordering on chaos. It takes awhile for the listener to make sense of the seeming jumble of notes, just as it does for the reader to understand Kapellmeister Kreisler’s jumbled musings. Raving, yes. Genius? Also. From here, the music alternates from the most personal daydreams to the most hyperactive outpourings. At one point (No. 8), Schumann asks the pianist to play the right hand in strict rhythm and the left hand freely, almost as if it were the hand of a different pianist. The publisher of the first edition, Tobias Haslinger, had the right idea; in a picture on the cover, an angel guides the right arm of the pianist, while a mischievous satyr has control of the left. In the background, a woman plays a lute while a half-goat swings a violin over its shoulder like a baseball bat. Schumann dedicated Kreisleriana to Chopin, whose music he admired above all his own contemporaries. We don’t know what Chopin said about it, but we can bet it included some version of “weird.” In the hands of a creative pianist willing and able to embrace its eccentricities, this music can be weirdly wonderful.

“I always comfort myself with the thought that I am a woman, after all, and we are not born to compose,” wrote the (ahem) composer, Clara Wieck, in 1838 to her soonto-be husband, Robert Schumann. By this time, the 18-year-old Clara had penned over 20 works, including a piano concerto, songs, and a scherzo for orchestra – so her comment requires a little context. While she parrots a prevailing opinion (especially among men), the rest of her letter offers a more plausible explanation: she couldn’t find in her life the quietude composition demands. She was in Vienna, where she made a sensational debut as a pianist, and was now a celebrity there. “I should very much like to compose, but it is quite impossible here. I have to practice in the morning, and till late in the evening we have visitors; by that time my mind is quite exhausted.” Her life did not become any less busy, either; she continued to perform (at least 1,299 programs can be documented), she married Robert and bore eight children, and she championed her husband’s music and supported his needs. Almost 15 years later, she finally caught her breath. At the end of 1852, the Schumanns moved to a new apartment in Düsseldorf, where Clara had her own room in which she could play and compose without disturbing Robert. However, the notes did not come easily. “It is

HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY SKANEATELES FESTIVAL! With love and appreciation, Holland Gregg & Patience Brewster

8/15 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

very hard for me – I have paused for too long,” she wrote in her diary. She persevered to produce two major piano pieces and the Three Romances for Violin and Piano. By this time, the influence of her husband’s style on her own is palpable, but the music speaks for itself. Both heartfelt and highly sophisticated, these three lyrical movements explore intimate moments of peaceful reflection, doubt, and ardent love. After this final burst of creativity, Clara essentially gave up composing for the rest of her long life. “I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea,” she told her diary; “a woman must not desire to compose – there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?” If only one of us could go back and tell her, “Yes, you should.”

Sonatensatz for Violin and Piano, WoO 2 (1853) JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Few creative works of any kind are created by committee. Like cooks in the kitchen, we take for granted that, when it comes to a piece of music, one composer will do. Brahms’s “Sonatensatz” for violin and piano, however, was composed as part of the so-called F-A-E Sonata, purposefully joined with movements by Robert Schumann and Albert Dietrich (Schumann’s student). They composed it in 1853, which was probably the most consequential year

of Brahms’s life. He embarked upon his first concert tour (with Ede Reményi, a Hungarian violinist), his first road trip (walking along the Rhine River), and his first lifelong friendship (with the violinist, Joseph Joachim). By year’s end, Robert Schumann would declare him the savior of modern music, and afterwards – possibly as a result of Schumann’s declaration – Brahms treated composition as a serious matter. In the meantime, however, the three (German) amigos had some fun composing their Sonata for violin and piano, intended as a surprise gift for the great violinist, Joseph Joachim, soon to arrive in Düsseldorf for the premiere of Schumann's Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra. The title “F-A-E” refers to Joachim’s romantic motto, Frei, aber einsam (Free, but lonely), and all the sonata’s movements feature the musical notes F-A-E. Brahms called his movement a scherzo, but it is far from “a joke,” as its Italian name suggests. It is the most heroic movement of the sonata. At a furious and fearless gallop, it charges ahead. The music rests for a brief meditation in C Major, the theme of which returns in glory to close the short movement. Joachim performed the premiere of the F-A-E Sonata with Clara Schumann at the piano; Robert then asked him to identify each movement’s composer, which he did. There is too much of Brahms in his Scherzo for it to sound like anyone else’s. Although “Free but lonely” was Joachim’s motto, Brahms is the one who lived it out; he preferred to remain a bachelor until the day he died.

Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 (1849) ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)

The Skaneateles Festival expresses its appreciation for the generous bequest from

Clyde “Tom” Breckons to help ensure the Festival’s future.

“For some time now I’ve been very busy – it’s been my most fruitful year,” Schumann wrote to his old friend Ferdinand Hiller, on April 10, 1849, not long after completing his Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70. His productivity is especially astonishing given that the world around him was falling apart. The revolutionary uprisings across Europe in 1848-49 had already enveloped the full attention of most others, including Richard Wagner, also living in Dresden at the same time as Schumann. Wagner would face arrest for his participation, and the Schumann family would soon flee the city to escape the chaos. Schumann was far from disinterested in these events, which he followed closely via the newspaper; he sympathized with the republican movement taking hold in Germany. Yet his music showed few signs of effect. “It seems as if the outer storms compelled us to turn inward,” Schumann explained to Hiller. Indeed, the Adagio, originally entitled “Romance,” is especially inward and intimate. This is truly music both for and about only two people – and greatly enjoyed by cellist-pianist couples, I might add. However, it was not composed for the cello at all, but for horn. Schumann became enamored of the horn player in the Dresden Opera orchestra, J. R. Lewy, who had been featured by Wagner in his latest operas, The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser. Lewy played a new valve horn, on which one could play all 53

8/15 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

notes of the chromatic scale. The Allegro that follows the Adagio begins with heroic material one can expect for the horn: repeated notes, charging forward. Yet this movement, too, quickly retreats inward, toward gentle reverie. Schumann was not the composer to best capture the spirit of revolution, but here is music to sustain one while it happens.

Trio in C minor, Op. 101 (1886) JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) So, Brahms, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky walk into a bar. It sounds like it could be a joke, but in reality, it wasn’t very funny. On New Year’s Day, 1888, Brahms was rehearsing his new Trio in C minor at the Leipzig home of violinist, Adolph Brodsky, when Tchaikovsky, who was staying there, returned from a walk. Brahms, seated at the piano, invited Tchaikovsky to listen to the rehearsal. “We were ill at ease because we do not really like each other,” Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother, Modeste. Eventually, Edvard Grieg arrived for dinner, lightening the mood. Well, the Trio isn’t very funny, either. It begins on fire. The almost violent first movement is one of Brahms’s most extreme outbursts, and difficult to play. It is “wonderfully gripping,” in the words of Clara Schumann, but the heated intensity burns it to the ground quickly; it is the shortest first movement in all of Brahms’s chamber music. He refrains from calling the second movement a “Scherzo,” probably because it isn’t very funny either. Taut and tense, it requires the strings to play with mutes, increasing the feeling of unease. The sun finally comes out for the third movement, a leisurely Austrian song, complete with quasi-yodeling and folk-like strumming. This movement takes advantage of the difference in sonority between the strings and piano, setting them opposite one another. The instruments reunite for the roaring final movement. Angry at first, the movement works through its emotional issues and comes out in a truly good mood – finally. “No previous work of Johannes has so completely carried me away,” Clara Schumann wrote in her diary. Even his most critical friends were effusive about this work. Elisabet von Herzogenberg called the Trio “better than any photograph, for it shows your real self.” If we take her at her word, then Brahms suffered from real emotional tumult, even in his later years. Perhaps music was his way of working through it, as he was usually jolly and kind with others. Indeed, Brahms eventually won over Tchaikovsky, at least on a personal if not musical level. “He takes great pains to be kind to me,” Tchaikovsky wrote. “Brahms’s manner is very simple, free from vanity, his humor jovial, and the few hours spent in his society left me with a very agreeable recollection.”

1,200

Nearly professional musicians, and countless community musicians, appeared in the first 39 seasons.

FUN FACTS

FOUR MUSICIANS have each performed in more than 240 pieces at the Festival! LINDSAY GROVES, cellist, Festival founder, and first artistic director has played in a whopping 455 pieces. BOB WEIRICH, second artistic director, has performed in 277 pieces, most often as pianist, but also on celeste, synthesizer, harmonium, and harpsichord, as well as appearing as conductor.

To date, more violinists have appeared at the Festival than any other instrumentalists!

280

d ifferent violinists! In an (almost) three-way tie for second place are 108 cellists, 105 violists, and 104 pianists.

Two orchestra stalwarts round out this elite group of dedicated Festival musicians – bassist EDWARD CASTILANO (261 pieces), and bassoonist GREGORY QUICK (246 pieces).

The first string quartet to appear on the Festival’s summer series was the BRENTANO QUARTET in 1994. Among the less common instruments heard at the Festival are DIDJERIDOO (1997), ERHU (2014), PIPA (2014), MRIDANGAM (1996), THEORBO (1997), and various instruments of a BALINESE GAMELAN (1996 and 1998).

THE SINGLE BIGGEST PRODUCTION, in terms of number of performers, was Noye's Fludde (Noah’s Flood) in 1999, presented in partnership with Syracuse Opera. There were 15 principal singing roles, a chorus of 37 singers, a 40-piece orchestra, an organist, a 6-person handbell choir, and a production staff of 25! 55

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

week 3

Joan Christy and Barb Connor & Doug Wood

Friday, August 16 8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

All in Rhythm COPLAND

Sonata for Violin and Piano

Stefan Jackiw, violin Conrad Tao, piano

Andante semplice Lento Allegretto giusto

CONRAD TAO

all I had forgotten or tried to for Violin and Piano (2019) I. II.

PIAZZOLLA

Oblivion Le Grand Tango

Stefan Jackiw, violin Conrad Tao, piano

David Ying, cello Elinor Freer, piano intermission

CHOPIN arr. FRANCHOMME

Andantino from Ballade No. 2, Op. 38 Marche Funèbre from Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 Prelude, Op. 28, No. 9

GLASS arr. CELLO OCTET AMSTERDAM

Symphony for Eight

VILLA-LOBOS

Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 for 8 Cellos Introduction (Embolada) Preludio (Modinha) Fugue (Conversa)

tonight’s artist sponsorships

Julia Bruskin is sponsored by The Skaneateles Consortium: George Bain, Sam & Debby Bruskin, Dana & Susan Hall, and Ron Sampson Elinor Freer and David Ying are sponsored by Ivan & Mimi Ace Stefan Jackiw is sponsored by Don and Chacea Sundman Conrad Tao is sponsored by Patience Brewster and Holly Gregg

David Ying Julia Bruskin Lindsay Groves Steven Doane; cellos Julia Bruskin Steven Doane David Ying Lindsay Groves Rosemary Elliott Benjamin Doane Brian Gadbow Macintyre Taback, cellos Steven Doane Julia Bruskin David Ying Brian Gadbow Rosemary Elliott Benjamin Doane Lindsay Groves Macintyre Taback; cellos

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Program Notes

veryone loves the sound of the cello – can you imagine the sound of eight at once? Several illustrious cellists from Festivals past join together for cello quartets, sextets, and octets, including Brazilian composer Heitor VillaLobos’s pulsating Bachianas Brasileiras, a blend of Brazilian folk styles and the sound of Bach’s music. Pianist Conrad Tao and violinist Stefan Jackiw begin this pulsating program with a brand-new work by Tao and Copland’s winning Violin Sonata, and David Ying and Elinor Freer perform Piazzolla’s tour de force, Le Grand Tango.

Sonata for Violin and Piano (1943) AARON COPLAND (1900-1990) Like “Grand Duchess”, the title “Violin Sonata” comes with certain expectations. First, there must be a melody of great consequence, both charming in itself and capable of climbing higher, lower, and sideways through various keys, as if in a game of chutes and ladders. There must be at least three movements, virtuosic feats for the performers, and a conclusion of finality so the audience can stand up, clap, and declare “You did it, Composer X! Bravo!” Composers who defy such expectations, like Aaron Copland, do so at their own risk; the review of his Sonata’s premiere in the New York Times was not kind: “It is poor and characterless music,” wrote Olin Downes. “The melodic material, in itself, is so weak… this impresses us as paper music, not creation.” In 1943, Copland was not in a mood to fulfill yet more expectations. At the time, he was in Hollywood, composing the film score for The North Star, later Academy-Award nominated for best score. In film music, the expectations are non-negotiable. The composer works alongside the director, and the music has to relate directly to the content of each scene. As Copland waited for the studio to proceed, he spent his idle hours composing the Violin Sonata. “For whatever reasons, at that time I had little desire to compose a dissonant or virtuosic work, or

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© AARON WUNSCH, 2019 one that incorporated folk materials,” he said. In other words, he didn’t even feel like composing a work that sounded like Copland. The original term sonata, from the Italian word, sonare, was used to differentiate instrumental from vocal music; it simply means ‘to sound.’ Copland’s Violin Sonata does exactly this: it sounds, simply. The violin meditates over a series of sincere piano chords, like a series of thoughts that float through one’s mind. Copland’s ideas spin out; they are not ‘constructed,’ in the traditional composerly way. Gradually, this meditation turns into action, with both instruments gaining momentum. Yet the music stops again and again to reflect, and it ends in reverie. The theme of the second movement is truly plain, like an open field. Its heartfelt expression is almost embarrassingly direct; for that reason, however, it also has the potential to touch the listener deeply. Having released its burden, the violin begins to dance and finds a willing partner in the piano. This is not the hoedown of Copland fame, but, as the composer pointed out, “Nevertheless, certain qualities of the American folk tune had become part of my natural style of composing, and they are echoed in the Sonata.” The Sonata ends where it began, as its final moments recall the beginning of the first movement. If not an immediate hit (nor designed to be one), the Violin Sonata gradually gained admirers. Composer and critic Virgil Thomson called it “one of its author’s most satisfying pieces. It has a quality at once of calm elevation and of buoyancy that is characteristic of Copland and irresistibly touching.” The Violin Sonata may not immediately sound like Copland, or like a violin sonata, but it most certainly is.

all I had forgotten or tried to for Violin and Piano (2019) CONRAD TAO (B. 1994) The composer writes: “In the summer of 2017, I was asked if I would play a piece of mine for an encore. I didn’t have any three-minute pieces lying around, so I wrote one. The piece takes its title from a passage in Impossible Princess, a book by the New Narrative writer Kevin Killian. Impossible Princess is a collection of short stories, poetry, and erotica, and it takes its title from the 1998 Kylie Minogue album of the same name. “In 2019, after playing ‘All I had forgotten or tried to’ in violin-piano duo form with Stefan Jackiw for about a year, I wrote an additional movement to the piece for him, which takes the free single-line melodic atmosphere of the initial work and – through basic pitch multiplication – condenses that energy and refracts it. I am interested in the sonics of ‘effort’ and ‘excess’: how we might hear these as activated ideas, or as layers of lyricism. What if lyricism

TRIBUTE TO

Louise Robinson

Dear Louise, you will always be the true matriarch of the Skaneateles Festival: a mother, grandmother, friend, and confidante to so many musicians and those in the Festival family. We will never forget how you and Dave opened your house and hearts to all of us, without any reservations, prejudices, or biases. From the moment we started working for SkanFest, we were immediately encircled by this incredibly generous sense of hospitality and belonging, all of which radiated from you. Conventional wisdom says that those who make others feel comfortable can do so only because they feel completely at ease with themselves. Everyone who came in contact with you realized that you were an inspiring example of that truth. And we all gravitated towards you because you radiated such ease, contentment, and positivity, all combined with a wonderful dose of humor and a wickedly funny sense of the irreverent. You taught us by example about unselfish giving, patience, forgiveness, life, and love – and for this you will forever be in our hearts. – David Ying and Elinor Freer

8/16 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

emerged out of seeming stillness? – like looking intently at a rock face, or the reflection of light in water, or at another’s body.” – Conrad Tao

Oblivion (1982) and Le Grand Tango (1986) ÁSTOR PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992) Born in Buenos Aires, 3-year-old Ástor Piazzolla and his family moved to New York City in 1924, the year of Gershwin’s sensational success there with Rhapsody in Blue. Although his family returned to Argentina in 1937, Piazzolla would go on to bring into the traditional tango elements of classical and jazz styles, expertly mixed in a blender not so different from Gershwin’s. Like Rhapsody in Blue, Piazzolla’s “nuevo tango” offended purists. First appreciated only outside Argentina, Piazzolla’s signature blend of traditional tango, jazz, classical forms, and flavorful dissonance did not gain currency in his home country until the 1980s, when he was finally seen as a revitalizer of a dying art form.

Unlike most other tango musicians, Piazzolla considered himself to be a composer with capital C, in the traditional sense of the word. He was certainly the only one to study in France with Nadia Boulanger (friend of Stravinsky) and to compose for Mstislav Rostropovich (Le Grand Tango); he would have composed an opera, too, had he not died in 1992. In fact, it was his music’s composerly details that most offended tango purists – he injected chromatic harmony, counterpoint, and elements of jazz into an art form that was supposed to be from the streets. These details, however, facilitated his music’s leap into the arms of classical performers, for whom his style felt at once excitingly foreign and somehow familiar.

Le Grand Tango is an excellent example; it has the scope and variety of a classical work, as well as everything one hopes for in a tango: fire, passion, desperation, and catharsis. The demands it makes upon the cellist, in particular, are considerable; Piazzolla draws upon a wide variety of virtuosic techniques, from extensive double stops to glissandi, doubtless with Rostropovich in mind. His songful Oblivion (1982), on the other hand, arranged here for cello and piano by José Bragato, speaks achingly of days gone by, of love lost – hopelessly, as the title implies. In tango, there are no happy endings.

Andantino from Ballade No. 2, Op. 38 (1839) Marche Funèbre from Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 (1839) Prelude, Op. 28, No. 9 (1839) FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810-1849), arr. AUGUSTE FRANCHOMME (1808-1884) If you love the sound of Chopin’s cello music, thank Auguste Franchomme. Without him, the pianocentric Chopin might not have paid the instrument any notice; every one of his original works for that instrument (including the Cello Sonata, Op. 65) are associated with Franchomme, and some were even co-written with him. One even wonders if Franchomme’s famed playing affected the way Chopin wrote piano melodies for the pianist’s left hand, which usually fit the cello’s range. However, if you love the sound of Chopin’s piano melodies on the cello, Franchomme deserves all the credit. He arranged several of his friend’s most famous melodies for cello quartet; these have only recently come to light due to the efforts of cellist Louise Dubin, who transcribed them from manuscripts in Paris. Tonight’s is one of the first live performances since Chopin’s time.

8/16 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

All three of these arrangements by Franchomme are from music Chopin composed in 1839, an extraordinary, if a little too eventful, year for the 29-year-old composer. Chopin had recently become romantically involved with the writer, Amantine Dupin, better known by her pen name, George Sand. She often preferred to dress like a man, which allowed her to move freely at night (“Is she really a woman?” Chopin asked upon first meeting her). After her former lover (to say nothing of her husband) came after them with a pistol, the two embarked upon a long journey to the Spanish island of Mallorca, where Chopin completed his Ballade No. 2 and his Preludes. Like his life at the time, these works are full of contrasts. Franchomme arranged only the opening melody of the Ballade, probably the closest to a hymn that Chopin ever came. The Prelude, Op. 28, No. 9, has a similar procession-like quality but is in a lower register, rich and regal. The Funeral March from his Piano Sonata No. 2 is justly famous, a psychological mediation on both death and the memories of better days gone by.

Symphony for Eight (1995, arr. 1999) PHILLIP GLASS (B. 1937), arr. CELLO OCTET AMSTERDAM Having eight cellists in a room is always reason for celebration, although relatively few pieces have been written for this sonorous ensemble. Cello Octet Amsterdam has sought to remedy this situation by commissioning and arranging numerous works for their cello orchestra. They've hit on a gem with Symphony for Eight, an arrangement of the third movement from Phillip Glass' Third Symphony. Although he is often labeled a minimalist composer, Glass prefers thinking of himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures". Here he chooses the Baroque-style chaconne which finds as much variety as possible over a repeating series of chords. The piece starts with a dark, brooding ground bass, gradually adding layers until a solo voice sings out above the motoring rhythms below. Growing ever more florid and energetic, the piece ends swiftly after reaching its crest. Given the massive range this piece covers, you may feel like you've just heard a full orchestra.

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Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 for 8 Cellos (1930/1938) HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959) One of the many wonders of J. S. Bach’s music is how universal it has become, given that Bach himself was so local. The Lutheran organist never traveled outside his immediate area of Germany, and yet his music seems to defy space and time; you can play it on a tuba, or arrange it for jazz trio, and it still retains its essence. Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos expressed the feelings of many: “[I] consider [Bach’s music] a kind of universal folkloric source, rich and profound… linking all peoples.” He accomplished a new wonder with Bach’s music by making it local again, injecting its Baroque textures with Brazilian rhythms and flavor. If Bach had gone on vacation to Rio in a time warp, he might have written something like this. One focal point of inspiration for all nine Bachianas Brasileiras is Bach’s cello suites, both the foundation and the pinnacle of the solo cello repertoire. Villa-Lobos learned to play cello by his father, who may have come to regret it; instead of studying for the medical school entrance exams, as his parents intended, he played cello for cash in hotels and a movie theater. Interested in authentic Brazilian music and unable to find it in these urban locales, Villa-Lobos apparently started to look for it in the country’s rural interior, making his way even into the Amazon rainforest. While he collected and arranged well over 100 folk songs, he also felt drawn to their musical opposite, the latest musical modernism coming out of Paris. If always somewhat eclectic, Villa-Lobos’s mature style combines Brazilian folk elements and the strident vocabulary of Stravinsky and friends. Where does Bach come in? Villa-Lobos said he was inspired by the “musical ambiance of Bach,” but ambience is not so easy to define. The first movement adapts the continuous motion of the Baroque prelude to Brazilian rhythms. The second movement, however, is the one called “Prelude,” since the first movement (“Introduction”) was added eight years later. It is a Modinha, a sentimental song heard on the streets of Rio, which here bears resemblance to the soaring melodies in the slow movements of Bach’s violin concertos (heard this past Saturday, performed by Hilary Hahn). The final movement, a fugue, recalls Bach’s more jovial essays in that genre, but Villa Lobos reminds us in his subtitle (“Conversa”) that a fugue can essentially be a lively conversation, where everyone speaks in turn. Villa Lobos also brought Bach’s actual music to Brazil, organizing the first performance of Bach’s monumental B-Minor mass there, in 1935. As Superintendent for Music Education in Rio, he also adapted some principles of Bach’s music into the grade school curriculum. If Bach had showed up on his time warp vacation, he would have found himself a local celebrity, with emphasis on local.

week 3

Saturday, August 17 8:00 PM Robinson Pavilion

at Anyela’s Vineyards Rain Location: West Genesee High School, Camillus

tonight’s concert is made possible with support from the

Noreen & Michael Falcone Fund for Artistic Excellence wynton marsalis is sponsored by:

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis The Skaneateles Festival is proud to welcome back Wynton Marsalis and the full Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for an evening of jazz favorites, interspersed with Wynton’s engaging and illuminating commentary on the music. Program to be announced from the stage. FEATURING Wynton Marsalis, music director, trumpet Ryan Kisor, lead trumpet Kenny Rampton, trumpet Marcus Printup, trumpet Sam Chess, trombone Chris Crenshaw, trombone Elliot Mason, trombone Sherman Irby, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet Ted Nash, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet Victor Goines, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet Camille Thurman, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet TBD, baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet Dan Nimmer, piano Carlos Henriquez, bass Jason Marsalis, drums Brooks Brothers is the official clothier of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Visit us at jazz.org. Become our fan on Facebook: facebook.com/jazzatlincolncenter Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/jazzdotorg Watch us on YouTube: youtube.com/jazzatlincolncenter Artists subject to change.

featured advertiser:

Delmonico Insurance

Festival Future

The Skaneateles Festival extends its appreciation to

Noreen and Michael Falcone

Their love for great music and leadership giving are helping to secure the Festival’s future and allowing us to bring the highest caliber musicians to our lakeside community.

The true value of the

ARTS cannot be measured.

Wilmington Trust is honored to support the people and organizations who share their unique vision, talent, and creativity with the world, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of what inspiration is all about. We’re proud to sponsor Wynton Marsalis at the 2019 Skaneateles Festival.

Ken Williams | 315-424-4488 | kswilliams@wilmingtontrust.com RJ Nicolli | 315-424-4412 | rnicolli@wilmingtontrust.com Julia O’Donnell | 315-424-4566 | jmodonnell@wilmingtontrust.com. wilmingtontrust.com ©2019 Wilmington Trust Corporation and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

week 4

Doug & Peg Whitehouse

Thursday, August 22

7:00 PM Prelude Concert (for ticket holders only)

8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

Prelude Concert Featuring the 2019 Robinson Award winner, pianist Kaelem Michel BACH

Partita No. 5 in G Major, BWV 829

LISZT

Three Concert Études, S. 144, No. 3

RACHMANINOFF DEBUSSY

Praeambulum

Kaelem Michel, piano

Un sospiro

Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5 Petite Suite

Kaelem Michel, piano Aaron Wunsch, piano

Ballet

Concert – Bon Appétit! HOIBY

GERSHWIN BARBER

BERNSTEIN

CARTER

Diversions

Dorian Wind Quintet Gretchen Pusch, flute Gerard Reuter, oboe Benjamin Fingland, clarinet Adrian Morejon, bassoon Karl Kramer-Johansen, horn

“Summertime” from Porgy and Bess

Abigail Fischer, soprano Aaron Wunsch, piano

Summer Music, Op. 31

Dorian Wind Quintet

La bonne cuisine

Abigail Fischer, soprano Aaron Wunsch, piano

Wind Quintet

Dorian Wind Quintet

Greeting Waltz Promenade Gambol

Slow and indolent Faster Lively, still faster With motion, as before Joyous and flowing Tempo 1

Plum Pudding Queues de Boeuf (“Ox Tails”) Tavouk Guenksis (“Turkish Chicken”) Civet à Toute Vitesse (“Rabbit at Top Speed”) Allegretto Allegro giocoso intermission

(continued on page 64) 62

The Robinson Award In 1980, David and Louise Robinson opened their hearts and their home to Festival musicians, their families, and the audiences who came to hear them perform. Their lakeside home, Brook Farm, was a gathering place and rehearsal space for musicians, and the performance venue for the Festival’s outdoor Saturday evening concerts for 36 seasons. Created in 2002, The Robinson Award recognizes a young musician who exemplifies the values cherished and embodied by Festival co-founders, David and Louise. It is presented annually to a young musician whose character, musicianship, and community service reflect the Robinson’s values – enthusiasm and dedication to music of high quality. Applications for the Robinson Award are available January 15 – March 15. Visit skanfest.org for details.

David & Louise Robinson

2019 Winner Kaelem Michel Kaelem Michel, 14, resides with his family in Fayetteville, NY. Kaelem began playing piano at age 9 and has been studying with Patricia DeAngelis since 2015 and has also worked with Steven Heyman since 2018. He has won numerous local and international piano competitions, including 1st place at Steinway & Sons Junior Piano Competition in Senior Division in 2019. Kaelem is an active participant in master classes and pre-professional training in piano and chamber music. He attended an Eastman Summer Music Camp at Keuka College, NY, and the Lyra Music Festival at Smith College, MA and this summer will attend a music festival in Austria. Kaelem has given solo and clarinet-duet recitals with his younger brother at local venues and at last year’s Skaneateles Festival Summer Suite event. He also performed at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, CA and the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY. He has been composing solo pieces for piano and duets with other instruments and has recently been working with Texu Kim, teaching professor of Music Theory/Composition at Syracuse University. Kaelem also enjoys biking, painting and taking photographs.

Our thanks to those who have contributed to the Robinson Award Anonymous Brenton and Mary Bradly Barb Connor

Fletcher Foundation David and Louise Robinson Skaneateles Area Council for the Arts

Frank and Jan Smith Karl and Peggy Smith Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth Spitzer

Diane Walsh and Dick Pollak Suzanne Weitz Welch Allyn

If you would like to contribute to the Robinson Award Fund, please call 315-685-7418. 63

Bon Appétit! (continued from page 62)

HOIBY

Bon Appétit!

Abigail Fischer, soprano Dorian Wind Quintet Aaron Wunsch, piano

By arrangement of G. Schirmer, Inc. publisher and copyright owner. tonight’s artist sponsorships

The Dorian Wind Quintet is sponsored by Henry and Helga Beck Abigail Fischer is sponsored by Judy Robertson, in loving memory of Doug Robertson Aaron Wunsch is sponsored by The Skaneateles Consortium: George Bain, Sam & Debby Bruskin, Dana & Susan Hall, and Ron Sampson

Program Notes

on’t miss American composer Lee Hoiby’s hilarious staged portrait of Julia Child, Bon Appetit! The Dorian Wind Quintet (“One of chamber music’s most sparkling and eloquent ensembles,” TIME Magazine) joins soprano Abigail Fischer (“without equal in her generation,” New York Times) to enact an episode of Child’s famous cooking show, “How to Bake a Chocolate Cake” – flour and all. Fischer also sings Leonard Bernstein’s cheeky recipe song cycle, La bonne cuisine, and the Dorians perform Samuel Barber’s Summer Music in this all-American program.

Diversions (1954) LEE HOIBY (1926-2011) Is music supposed to be fun, or does it just happen to be? You’d have to ask the composer, but the title of a work may provide us with some clues. A sonata might happen to be diverting, but a divertimento has to be. Its fun is serious business. By the time Lee Hoiby composed his Diversions in 1953, however, fun had gone seriously out of fashion. That process began with Beethoven; whereas Mozart and Haydn composed numerous divertimenti, Beethoven wrote not a single one. The title probably suggested to him a servitude toward his aristocratic patrons, as if one owed them entertainment. “I’ll have none of it!” Beethoven told his friend, Karl Wegeler. In the 20th century, the effects of two world wars led composers to write fiercely independent, densely structured music; if it entertained, that was seen as a major failure. In the U.S., composers like Samuel Barber and his partner, Giancarlo Menotti, were dismissed by younger composers in part for this reason. But not by Lee Hoiby. The Wisconsin native studied with Menotti at the Curtis Institute and found he had his teacher’s gift for light music. Seriously.

The bouncy first movement of Diversions is a musical “Greeting:” the oboe welcomes one and all, and the other four take turns making the listeners glad they came. Now it’s time to dance; the gentle, mysterious “Waltz” pretends

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

to be serious for a moment but can’t resist fooling around, like five children at recess. The promenade is a one-at-atime summer parade: there goes the bassoon, clarinet, flute, oboe, horn. The “Gambol” lives up to its title, as each instrument frolics up and down. Hoiby’s music reminds us that musicians ‘play,’ by definition; shouldn’t composers be allowed to as well? Originally for four wind players, Hoiby arranged the Diversions especially for the Dorian Wind Quintet, in 1983. Play on.

“Summertime” from Porgy and Bess (1934) GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Summer “S’wonderful” (to quote another Gershwin song), but it can get hot. One certainly feels the heat in George Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess, which depicts Catfish Row, a run-down tenement that clearly does not have air conditioning. As the men prepare to gamble, Clara (Jake’s wife) tries to lull her baby to sleep with “Summertime,” a song Gershwin composed in the style of an AfricanAmerican spiritual. The lyrics, however (by Dubose Heyward, who wrote the novel and play, Porgy), are too fanciful to be a spiritual: Summertime, an’ the livin’ is easy Fish are jumpin’ an' the cotton is high. Oh, yo’ daddy’s rich and yo’ ma is good-lookin’ So hush, little baby, don’ you cry. The song returns three more times in the opera, perfectly encapsulating the combination of carefree living and suffering in the story. There’s no question, Gershwin knew how to write a good song. He dropped out of high school in 1914 to take $15 a week as a ‘song plugger’ in Tin Pan Alley. The following year, Gershwin took up the study of counterpoint and harmony with Edward Kilenyi, a Hungarian composer-violinist with a PhD from Columbia University. He hit pay dirt in 1920 with Swanee, recorded by then-superstar singer Al Jolson. Gershwin’s musical interests were wide, however, and he quickly gained

8/22 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

familiarity with the latest jazz and classical styles. “Summertime” proved remarkably versatile, finding its way out of the opera and into the mouths of jazz singers, Janis Joplin, and The Zombies. A group of “Summertime”obsessed record collectors claims to have catalogued over 75,000 recordings of the song.

Summer Music, Op. 31 (1955) SAMUEL BARBER (1910-1981) Summer music festivals often commission new works, but rarely inspire them, as was the case with Samuel Barber’s Summer Music. Barber had received a commission from the Chamber Music Society of Detroit for their 10th anniversary, but, preoccupied with his opera, Vanessa, he failed to complete it in time. Meanwhile, he visited Blue Hill, Maine, where the New York Woodwind Quintet happened to be performing at a summer music festival. Enchanted by the performance, he asked if he could sit in on a rehearsal in order to get to know their instruments better, doubtless with the overdue commission in mind. They happened to be working on some difficult exercises in order to hone their intonation technique, which apparently inspired him more than one might imagine. Barber immediately set to work, and in just a few days presented sketches for Summer Music, which he felt would suggest “a lazy summer day” like the Sunday afternoon in Maine.

The Quintet begins in a lazy mood but doesn’t stay there. Barber was keen to make the most of what each of the five instruments can do. At the beginning, the bassoon and horn create a summer haze, which he indicates should be “slow and indolent.” Eventually, all five players get a burst of energy, frolicking in the sunshine. Too hot to keep that up for long, the players settle back down before undertaking their next adventure. Barber’s natural lyricism comes to the fore; he was an accomplished baritone, and two-thirds of his compositions are songs. The overall effect is rhapsodic and free, as if the players are creating the music for themselves. The difficulty of the parts, however, can get in the way of the music if the players are not extremely skilled. “It’s supposed to be evocative of summer – summer meaning languid, not killing mosquitoes,” Barber quipped.

La bonne cuisine (1947) LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990) If you want to find the musicians at a party, follow the food. They are experienced reception-goers and know where to look for it; years of meager pay teach them to value anything both tasty and free; and after a concert, they are always hungry. Rarely, however, does the food lead back to the music, which is the case with Leonard Bernstein’s mini song cycle, La bonne cuisine. By 1947, Bernstein had been to quite a few parties and was usually the life of them. He composed the songs for a fellow musician and party-goer, an operatic mezzo-soprano. His lyricist in this case was Emile Dumont, author of La Bonne Cuisine Française: Tout ce qui a rapport à la table, manuel-guide pour la ville et la campagne (“Fine French Cooking: Everything That Has to Do with the Table, Manual Guide for City and Country”), which happened to sit on the Bernstein family’s shelf of cookbooks. As you can imagine, its recipes are not exactly poetic. Bernstein lifted the words and set them to music with Gertrude Stein-like concision. In “Plum pudding,” Bernstein measures out his ingredients precisely in staccato eighth notes. “Queues de boeuf” (“Ox-Tails”) makes a case for this humble part of the cow, which, voilà!, you can turn into a ragout. “Tavouk Gueneksis” is a Turkish chicken dish, which Bernstein flavors with vaguely middle-Eastern melodies. “Civet à Tout Vitesse,” a rabbit stew, will come in handy when your friends drop by unannounced. Quick! mash up that rabbit at top speed, follow several easy steps… and serve!

Wind Quintet (1948) ELLIOTT CARTER (1908-2012) Of all chamber ensembles, the wind quintet comes closest to sounding like an orchestra. Most composers for quintet exploit this capability, blending the instruments together to produce a grand, orchestral sound – but not Elliott Carter. He explains: “In 1948 several woodwind players asked me to write a work for woodwind quintet. On looking over some earlier quintet works, I found the composers were in the habit of 65

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8/22 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

overlooking the fact that each of these instruments has a different sound. I, on the other hand, was particularly struck by this, and so decided to write a work that would emphasize the individuality of each instrument and that made a virtue of their inability to blend completely.” If unorthodox, Carter’s approach here typifies his own emerging aesthetic. He was born in Manhattan, where he attended the New York premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, in 1924. Composer Charles Ives took the teenage Carter under his wing; he then studied Greek, philosophy, and literature at Harvard before settling in Greenwich Village, where he bought a townhouse, in 1945, for $15,000. (Don’t ask what it sold for when he passed away in 2012, at the age of 103.) Inspired by the multiplicity and diversity of life around him, he pioneered a musical style that corresponds to the overlapping conversations one might hear on the streets of New York City. Each instrument has its own character, defined by its timbre but also by its own musical notes and rhythms, distinct from the others’. Over the course of the Quintet’s generally lyrical first movement and generally playful second movement, one can listen for who is talking with whom. Surprising, audacious riffs float by, as if someone opened a nearby door to a Village jazz club; meanwhile, lovers share an intimate moment. Like when you are on the street, don’t expect to comprehend everything everyone is saying – instead, enjoy the flow.

Bon Appétit! (1987) LEE HOIBY Operas tend to be about serious people with big problems. The first one ever was about Orpheus, who lost his wife in Hell – twice. Since then, we’ve come to expect some combination of kings, queens, murder, and suicide. Therefore, Julia Child may not seem like the most natural subject for an opera. However, despite her

jovial manner, she was quite serious about cooking and certainly regal in stature. And if there is a big problem in cooking, it’s a chocolate soufflé. There are a thousand ways for it to go wrong. Floppy eggs? It won’t rise. Overbake it? Expect collapse. Underbake it? Soupy disaster. Anyone in the kitchen can smell tragedy. And yet – if anyone can make a comedy out of a tragedy, it’s Julia. In episode 228 of The French Chef, in 1971 A.D., our fearless heroine tackles Le Gâteau au Chocolat: l’Eminence Brune. “When you’re going to do a cake,” she explains, “you really have to have a battle plan.” After an inventory of ingredients, it’s time to get focused. “You don’t want to go out and play croquet in the middle, for instance!” American composer Lee Hoiby shared Julia’s gift for levity. His music is often compared to Barber’s, but don’t expect the Adagio for Strings. Every bar exudes joie de vivre. Grand flourishes, lyrical commentary, and cookware sound effects fill the score. The piano has an especially nasty turn as the eggbeaters, which face off against each other in their handheld and electric versions. (Let’s call this the ‘conflict’ of the opera.) Who will win? Julia helps soothe our anxieties. “Cooking’s just a series of the same old thing: sometimes there’s chocolate and sometimes there’s fish in it – but the principles are the same!” While we’re pondering a fish soufflé, there’s a twist! This cake is not actually a soufflé after all, but only “soufflé-like.” “It’s nicer than a soufflé, because it doesn’t fall!” Brava! Bon Appétit’s first Julia Child was sung at the Kennedy Center by Jean Stapleton, known to many as the television wife of Archie Bunker. Sitting in the audience at the westcoast premiere in 1989 was the real, 76-year-old Julia Child. What did she think of her own operatic portrait? “I only wish I could have sung it like that when I originally did it!” she bellowed. “Wasn't it just wonderful?”

MEMORIES I remember a hot summer evening when the full Skaneateles Festival Orchestra performed at the old ice rink so that families could attend in the village. It was our own children’s first Festival experience. Bob Weirich came out in a white dinner jacket and played Rhapsody in Blue. It was flawless. I wept. The performance evoked childhood memories when on similarly hot summer evenings my mother would sit down at our piano and play… Rhapsody in Blue. Thanks to Louise’s file cards* the date was August 21, 1993. Memory part deux: David Robinson scurrying around the porch at Brook Farm between selections to get the antique bridge lamps just so... sometimes even having to change a light bulb! – Peg Whitehouse * Louise Robinson kept a box of index cards from the beginning of the Festival into the 2010s, a comprehensive file of dates, pieces, performers, locations, etc. – truly a priceless artifact of Festival history! 67

tonight’s concert is sponsored by

week 4

David & Deirdre Stam and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation

Friday, August 23 8:00 PM First Presbyterian Church

in memory of Jane Taylor, the founder of the Dorian Quintet at Tanglewood in the summer of 1962

Café Music ROUSSEL

Divertissement

Dorian Wind Quintet

POULENC

“Le chemins de l’amour”

Abigail Fischer, soprano Aaron Wunsch, piano

Bordel, 1900 from Histoire du Tango

Dorian Wind Quintet

Tema de María from María de Buenos Aires

Abigail Fischer, soprano Aaron Wunsch, piano

Café, 1930 from Histoire du Tango

Dorian Wind Quintet

“I love Paris in the Springtime” from Can-Can

Abigail Fischer, soprano Aaron Wunsch, piano

PIAZZOLLA arr. ULF-GUIDO SCHÄFER PIAZZOLLA PIAZZOLLA arr. ULF-GUIDO SCHÄFER PORTER KERN/HAMMERSTEIN SCHIFRIN

“The Last Time I saw Paris” La Nouvelle Orleans

Dorian Wind Quintet

intermission

MARQUEZ WEILL

Danza del Mediodia

Dorian Wind Quintet

“Mr. Right” from Love Life

Abigail Fischer, soprano Aaron Wunsch, piano

AZNAVOUR

“For me…Formidable”

FRANCAIX

L’heure du berger

Dorian Wind Quintet

“La vie en rose” and “Non je ne regrette rien”

Abigail Fischer, soprano Dorian Wind Quintet Aaron Wunsch, piano

PIAF arr. KARL KRAMERJOHANSEN

Please join us at the John D. Barrow Art Gallery for a post-concert reception featuring Cake Pops & coffee! Special thanks to Dina Sakal of Savoir Faire Specialty Baking. tonight’s artist sponsorships

Program Notes

his diverting program of music inspired by and written for cafés is anything but background music – lively, sophisticated, and fun, the best café music will make you want to get up and dance. The Dorian Wind Quintet (“extraordinary,” New York Times) performs tangos by Piazzolla and Lalo Schifrin’s jazzy La Nouvelle Orleans; and Abigail Fischer sings café songs from around the world throughout the program.

Divertissement (1906) ALBERT ROUSSEL (1869-1937)

“Le chemins de l’amour” FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963)

Bordel, 1900 and Café, 1930 from Histoire du Tango (1986) ÁSTOR PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992), arr. ULF-GUIDO SCHÄFER

Tema de María from María de Buenos Aires (1968) ÁSTOR PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992)

“I love Paris in the Springtime” from Can-Can (1953) COLE PORTER (1891-1964)

“The Last Time I saw Paris” (1940) JEROME KERN (1885-1945) / OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II (1895-1960)

La Nouvelle Orleans (1987) LALO SCHIFRIN (B. 1932)

Danza del Mediodia (1996) ARTURO MARQUEZ (B. 1950)

Dorian Quintet, featuring Jane Taylor, circa 1962

“Mr. Right” from Love Life (1948) KURT WEILL (1900-1950)

“For me…Formidable” (1963) CHARLES AZNAVOUR (1924-2018)

L’heure du berger (1947) JEAN FRANCAIX (1912-1997)

“La vie en rose” (1945) “Non je ne regrette rien” (1956) ÉDITH PIAF (1915-1963), arr. KARL KRAMER-JOHANSEN The café is the alter ego of the concert hall. In many ways, they are also antidotes to each other, and typically visited on the same evening – by both listeners and musicians. It’s a 15-minute walk from the concert hall of the old Paris Conservatoire, where Beethoven’s symphonies were the staple repertoire, to the old Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat), in Montmartre, where a glass of absinthe awaited artists such as composer Claude Debussy, painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and poet Paul Verlaine. If weather permits, however, one might head to the Champs-Elysees. The broad boulevard allowed for large, open-air garden cafés, where singers first gathered with back-up bands for informal café-concerts, in the 1870s. The music vied for attention with conversation and alcohol, so the more surprising or risqué the lyrics, the better. As a naval officer not often in port, Albert Roussel knew a thing or two about the value of a good café. Back aboard his ship, Roussel composed his first musical works, and finally gave up the navy to study music in 1894. His astonishing progress led his teacher at the Schola Cantorum, Vincent d’Indy, to install him in 1902 as professor of counterpoint, the most academic subject for composers. His Divertissement (1906), however,

The Stams, co-sponsors of tonight’s concert, first encountered the New York based Dorian Quintet in 1962 when David, seeking a bassoon teacher, met Dorian founder and bassoonist, the talented and irrepressible Jane Taylor. Encouraged by Jane, David soon joined the New Cecilian Chamber Orchestra, which met in Greenwich Village at St. Mark’s in the Bowery, where he met bassoonist Deirdre (Corcoran) in 1962. The two were married in 1963 and soon moved, with their bassoons, to an upper west side NYC apartment where they shared an airshaft with Jane and could enjoy the sounds of the Dorian’s daily rehearsals in her apartment. David has been a member of the Dorian board of trustees, a light but pleasant duty, since sometime in the 1970s, along with some obscure musicians like Aaron Copland, Elliot Carter, and others. 69

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is anything but stuffy; its pulsating rhythms, song-like melodies, and frequent contrasts show the influence of Parisian café music, long before Stravinsky and Poulenc made it en vogue. As the café-concerts of the Champs-Elysees grew in popularity, proprietors started to create indoor spaces that could accommodate music all year round. These became known as cabarets, from the word for “small room.” The musical presentations were now planned in advance, offering steady work for musicians who wanted or needed it. One of Roussel’s counterpoint students, Erik Satie (“the laziest student at the Conservatoire,” according to his piano teacher) spent his evenings playing and directing at Le Chat Noir. This was Satie’s real music education; he would later adapt the cabaret’s provocative spirit to his own piano works, which scandalized the French music world. One of Satie’s young protégés, Francis Poulenc, dedicated his first work to Satie. Many of Poulenc’s songs capture the sentimental harmonies of the café, even if their lyrics are loftier. Poulenc’s “Le chemins de l’amour” (“The paths of love”), for example, is an inner search for a path that leads back to a lost love. Poulenc clothes the lover in lush, sentimental harmonies, as if these might help her better walk the path, but to no avail; it has been forever lost. He composed the song for Jean Anouilh’s play, Leocadia, about a prince obsessed with the memory of his love for an opera singer, now dead.

to the modern-day concert hall. Bordelo, 1900, according to Piazzolla, “paints a picture of the good-natured chatter of the French, Italian, and Spanish women who peopled those bordellos as they teased the policemen, thieves, sailors, and riffraff who came to see them.” The early tango style here is spirited, confident, and almost giddy. Café, 1930, on the other hand, depicts the moment when tango music ceased to be primarily for dancers and became music for contemplation. This tango is more romantic, languid, and melancholy. The fire is still there, but under the surface. In his opera, Maria de Buenos Aires, Piazzolla brought into the opera house a scene from the street, where extreme emotions flowed from the desperate circumstances of romance and poverty. Tema de Maria characterizes the heroine, an impoverished prostitute who dies in the middle of the opera, only to return as a ghost. As you can hear, her wordless theme already haunts while she is still alive. By the mid-20th century, Parisian café ambiance was so romanticized abroad, it seemed that every other American song had the word “Paris” in it somewhere. Kern and Hammerstein’s “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” was quickly OPTION 1 for which it won an picked up for the film Lady Be Good, Academy Award. Here, the café has become a symbol for Skaneateles Festival Ad – 5-13-19 romance and music: “I heard the laughter of her heart in every street café.” Cole Porter wrote an entire musical, Can-Can (1953), about the era of the Moulin Rouge,

The café soon became the epicenter of artistic society. It was not only a gathering place for artists, but also a place for them to try out new work, and it provided an opportunity for them to intermingle with wealthy potential patrons and curious students. The influential writer, Jean Cocteau, a friend of Pablo Picasso and Coco Chanel, declared that young composers should reject tradition and embrace the popular sounds of the café, circus, and jazz band – the sounds of everyday life. Poulenc, in particular, adopted Cocteau’s aesthetic. The café was also one of France’s great cultural exports; already in 1850, the French café made it all the way to Buenos Aires. In that year, a French immigrant founded the Café Tortoni, named after a café in Paris on the Boulevard des Italiens. If you go to its basement, however, you won’t hear Parisian chansons, but tango. Now beloved around the world, the tango was once lowly music of the streets; Ástor Piazzolla helped pave the road from the latter to the former. Inventor of the tango nuevo, which integrated elements of jazz and classical music, Piazzolla’s music became famous abroad even before it did at home. While many in Argentina saw the tango as forever the same, Piazzolla felt it should develop. In Histoire du Tango, he shows that, in fact, it already had. This work is a kind of musical history lesson, where each movement maps the tango’s evolution – from a bordello in 1900, to a café in 1930, to a nightclub in 1960,

A Historical and Cultural Gem in the Heart of Skaneateles 49 East Genesee Street (entry through the Skaneateles Library) Summer Hours: Tuesdays-Sundays, 1-4 PM Phone: 315-679-1764 Email: johndbarrow1900@gmail.com Visit our website at www.barrowgallery.org! Find us on Facebook! 71

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8/23 Program Notes (CONTINUED)

which had opened in 1893. Dancers, artists, and high society intermingle; his dreamy “I love Paris in the Springtime” is sung by the owner of the establishment where the musical takes place. In New Orleans, cafés proliferated in the French Quarter (like the Café du Monde, opened in 1862). Perhaps something of this environment found its way into Lalo Schifrin’s La Nouvelle Orleans, a raucous, unpredictable mix of Stravinsky-like dissonances, jazz, and a whiff of tango from his native Argentina. Schifrin himself played piano in Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz quintet before he turned to film music, composing what is, for better or worse, his best-known work: the theme from the TV show Mission: Impossible (1967). Further south, in Mexico City, Arturo Márquez composes works in tribute to what he calls the “wonderful world of café music.” Márquez grew up in Álamos, Mexico, and Los Angeles before attending Conservatory in Mexico City. His father was a violinist in a mariachi band, and he draws upon both classical and popular styles in his own music. His Danza de Mediodia (Midday Dance), is based on the popular danzón, which blends the European ballroom tradition with Mexican and Cuban cinquillo rhythms. The romanticizing of the café abroad eventually made it back to France. The French-Armenian singer, Charles Aznavour, often called the French Frank Sinatra, picked up on the American infatuation with Paris in his cheeky blend of English and French, “For me…Formidable” (pronounced in French, formi-DAH-bluh). The protagonist in the song lacks the vocabulary to romance a prospective English-speaking date, so he is stuck with “the language of Molière” instead of Shakespeare. She just makes fun of him. Kurt Weill’s “Mr. Right,” from his vaudeville, Love Life (1948), also imagines a stereotypical, rose-colored romance while at the same time knowing it to be unattainable. In reality, the situation in postwar Paris was anything but rosy. In her cafe songs, Édith Piaf brought the rawness of lived experience to the genre. Her own life’s trials provided her with plenty of sorrow, and yet she didn’t give

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MEMORIES The Festival is memorable most for the fascinating musicians one can meet. For me that includes George Rochberg, Andres Cardenes, all of the musical directors, the Zinmans, Bill Irwin, the list could go on and on. It would be invidious to choose memorable performances but a few come to mind. Pamela Frame’s Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata for a winter benefit at Our Lady of the Lake, Bob Weirich in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time (all that chamber music can and should be), and the night the lights went out in 2003. The audience demanded and received a noble candlelit performance of one of the Hindemith Viola Sonatas, with Andrew Russo and Kazi Patelka Steinmetz. She later told us that it was her first standing ovation, and well deserved. – David H. Stam

up on romance. Unlike the American songs, sentiment and suffering coexist, somehow in perfect balance. “La vie en rose” (“Life in Pink”) acknowledges the “troubles and sorrows of life,” but love can cause these to fade, at least for awhile. The rose-colored glasses don’t change reality, but why not put them on? “Non, je ne regrette rien” takes a similar approach with the past, filled with memories both of sorrows and pleasures. Don’t regret any of it: life begins again, today, in love. Although all the instrumental works on this program summon the spirit of the café, only one really belongs in it: Jean Francaix’s L’heure de berger was written for a Parisian establishment, ostensibly to be played while the customers dined. His description of this “brasserie music,” as he called it, might sum up the approach of all the composers on tonight’s program: “La musique sérieuse sans gravité” (“serious music without gravity”). Its attention-getting opening notes, sigh-like glissandos from the oboe and bassoon, illustrate his first café archetype, “The Old Dandies,” eager for attention. The second movement brings titillating “Pin-Up Girls,” equally eager for our attention but in a very different way. The third is childish, in the best sense; it depicts “Les petits nerveux” (nervous children). As every parent knows, the later the hour, the more hyperactive children get, until they finally collapse in a heap. This music reminds us that the café is a microcosm of society as a whole, where all walks of life intermingle. The only difference from the world outside is that here everyone can enjoy themselves. 73

week 4

tonight’s concert is sponsored by:

Saturday, August 24

Peter and Elsa Soderberg

8:00 PM Robinson Pavilion

at Anyela’s Vineyards Rain Location: West Genesee High School, Camillus

Festival Finale with David Zinman and the Festival Orchestra Presented in memory of our beloved co-founder Louise Robinson MOZART

Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major, K. 447

Gail Williams, horn

Allegro Romance: Larghetto Allegro

PIERRE JALBERT

Luminous Flux – World Premiere Skaneateles Festival commission

intermission

MENDELSSOHN

Symphony in A Major, Op. 90 (“Italian”) Allegro vivace Andante con moto Con moto moderato Presto – Finale: Saltarello

Skaneateles Festival Orchestra David Zinman, conductor VIOLIN Sarah Crocker Vonsattel, concertmaster Sara Mastrangelo* Jeremy Mastrangelo Peter Rovit Amy Christian An-Chi Lin Susan Spafford William Knuth

VIOLA Melissa Matson* Olita Povero Neil Miller CELLO Julia Bruskin* Lindsay Groves Rosemary Elliott BASS Edward Castilano*

FLUTE Anne Harrow* Elizabeth Shuhan

BASSOON Gregory Quick* Lisa Ann Seischab

OBOE Peggy Pearson* John Friedrichs

HORN Alexander Shuhan* Maura McCune Corvington

CLARINET Allan Kolsky* John Friedrichs

TRUMPET Herb Smith* Roy Smith

HARP Deette Bunn* PIANO Ryan MacEvoy McCullough* *denotes principal

tonight’s artist sponsorships

featured advertiser:

Gail Williams is sponsored by Andrea Latchem David Zinman is sponsored by The Skaneateles Consortium: George Bain, Sam & Debby Bruskin, Dana & Susan Hall, and Ron Sampson

Upstate Foundation

With additonal support from the Robinson family. luminous flux by pierre jalbert is the inaugural work of the commissioned works series made possible by

TIMPANI/ PERCUSSION Michael Cirmo* Kyle Peters

Nancy Kramer & Doug Sutherland through their Creative Endeavors Fund

The Skaneateles Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Commissioned Works Series Luminous Flux, Pierre Jalbert’s homage to the shimmering waters of Skaneateles Lake, is a new orchestral piece commissioned by the Skaneateles Festival in commemoration of its 40th Anniversary Season. Mr. Jalbert’s lovely composition inaugurates the Skaneateles Festival’s exciting new Commissioned Works Series, where talented composers from across the nation will introduce our Festival audience to the art and magic of musical composition. Thanks to generous support from Nancy Kramer and Doug Sutherland through their Creative Endeavors Fund, the Skaneateles Festival will, on a biennial basis, host a Composer-in-Residence program and, on alternating years, premiere Festival-commissioned works by those composers. If only we could invite Bach over for a coffee or take a long walk with Brahms, what might we learn? Luckily we can have these kinds of experiences with some of the most exciting composers of our generation thanks to the new Creative Endeavors Fund launched by Doug Southerland and Nancy Kramer. The two year residencies for this initiative will help the SkanFest family get to know a composer and their musical language, and allow that composer to experience the magic of Skaneateles, before they embark on composing a new piece to be premiered the following summer. Thanks to Doug and Nancy for their vision and generosity! – Julia and Aaron

Program Notes

or the Festival’s grand finale, world-famous conductor David Zinman returns to Skaneateles to lead a program with the Skaneateles Festival Orchestra in memory of Louise Robinson, featuring Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3 with Gail Williams, an exciting new commission by Pierre Jalbert, and Mendelssohn’s rollicking “Italian” Symphony.

Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major, K. 447 (1787) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Today, when a message arrives, we know it by the ubiquitous electronic ding, a source of pleasure for some and annoyance for others. In Mozart’s time, one listened for the horn. The post horn is still the symbol for the Austrian postal service today, though you won’t find many mail carriers who still play one to announce their arrival. Mozart was so enamored of the sound of this small natural horn that he composed an entire Serenade featuring it (K. 320) in 1779. When he moved from rural Salzburg to urban Vienna, he took with him his love for the horn, composing four concertos for it during the last decade of

his life. While these concertos feature the larger orchestral horn, rather than the post horn, the spirit of the outdoors pervades the music, nonetheless.

TRIBUTE TO

The Skaneateles Festival and David and Louise Robinson are one and the same. Louise was the quintessential lady Robinson who turned her home into a warm inviting place for all who came. And anyone who came once was an enthusiast for life. David and Louise are to be remembered for their dream that became a bigger than life gift to Skaneateles and the upstate community. We love and miss you both so much. Thank you for sharing your dream with all of us.

Louise

– Noreen Falcone 75

Impacting patient care, education, research, and community health and well-being through charitable giving.

That is why Dr. Frederick “Fritz” Parker and his wife Ginny have included the Upstate Foundation in their estate plans. Fritz retired from Upstate Medical University in 2001 as chair of the Department of Surgery. In his 30-year career, Fritz pioneered the cardiac surgery department, earning a reputation as the region’s preeminent cardiac surgeon.

“ We’ve been blessed. There’s no question.”

Ginny impacted the lives of countless young people through a long career in education, as co-founder and former co-director of the Kynda Montessori School.

community,” Ginny explained. “Our hope is that our gift will continue to strengthen Upstate and serve as an inspiration to others who are considering their own legacies.” Creating a legacy is easier than you think! Contact our planned giving professionals at 315-464-6490 or Hamiltol@upstate.edu.

To learn more about the Parkers, visit www.UpstateFoundation.org/legacy. 76

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The horn is often considered the most difficult instrument to play, and Mozart would not have composed these concertos without someone in mind who could actually play them. That person was Jakob Leutgeb, both a whiz on the horn and one of Mozart’s closest friends. When he suddenly inherited a cheese shop, Leutgeb moved from Salzburg to Vienna, just a few years ahead of Mozart. He probably remains the world’s one and only horn virtuoso cheesemonger. Mozart enjoyed calling Leutgeb names in the horn part (ox, ass, simpleton), and even writing in the wrong tempo, as a joke (Adagio, instead of Allegro). Perhaps reflecting their friendship, all the concertos have a jocular spirit. The Concerto in E-flat Major, K. 447, begins in a lyrical mood, which allows the horn to show its ability to sing like a tenor. The strings pulsate with energy, leading the horn into more jovial music. In the lovely “Romanze” that follows, the horn steps fully into the role of an opera character singing an amorous aria. Leutgeb was widely known for his especially pure, singing tone. The final movement takes the horn into more traditional territory, galloping across the countryside. With astonishing swiftness, the mail has arrived.

Luminous Flux (2019) – World Premiere PIERRE JALBERT (B. 1967) Commissioned by the Skaneateles Festival in celebration of the 40th Season Pierre Jalbert’s parents are from Quebec, but he was born in New Hampshire and grew up in Vermont – so the “t” at the end of his name is not silent. Since winning the prestigious Rome Prize in 2000, numerous ensembles have performed his work, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, and the Emerson String Quartet. He now lives in Texas, where he is Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University. His vivid music

often balances driving rhythms and a spiritual, unearthly calm. His String Theory was performed at the Skaneateles Festival by ECCO in 2017, and his Piano Quintet by the Jupiter String Quartet and Aaron Wunsch in 2018. In preparation for this new work, he visited Skaneateles, and the music is in part inspired by his experiences here. He writes: “The title Luminous Flux comes from my first impression of seeing the lake in Skaneateles and how the sunlight shimmers off the lake in summer. It’s also about the mysterious physical nature of light itself, as both a wave (1st movement) and a particle (2nd movement). The work is in two movements of contrasting character, the first, slow and lyrical, and the second, fast and rhythmic. The first movement is anchored by a reappearing lyrical sonority made up of seven disparate pitches: a Luminous Flux chord. This chord is heard toward the beginning and end of the movement as well as at critical moments. “The movement features shimmering harmonics in the strings and lyrical lines played by the solo cello and oboe. Bowed percussion instruments (vibraphone and crotales), along with air sounds from the winds, add to the atmosphere. Marked “Driving and dramatic”, the second movement consists of constant rhythmic motion in the strings, blending into clusters at first, then breaking out into various registers and punctuated by reverberant interruptions in the woodwinds.” – Pierre Jalbert

Symphony in A Major, Op. 90 (“Italian”) (1833) FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) Who wants to go to Italy? You might, but Germans in the year 1830 definitely did. “We are all pilgrims who seek Italy,” wrote the poet Goethe after returning from a twoyear trip there, in 1788. Italy offered Germans everything they lacked: a Mediterranean climate, art and

MEMORIES One of my favorite memories of the Festival is an early one. On a Saturday night in 1982 Lindsay Groves’ young friend, Joe Genualdi, took the center of the Brook Farm porch and performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. We lay on our blankets out on the lawn and listened to Joe play his heart out. The moon rose. Stars shone, more visible the higher up you looked above the pale blue horizon in the West beyond the house. The woods darkened and thrushes began singing night songs back to Joe’s violin. Mother and Dad walked slowly towards us, hand in hand, stopping now and then to look back and listen. They passed us, smiling, on their way around us dreamy people, and on down the lawn to the cliff above the water. The night air was cooling quickly and Mother’s white shawl made it easy to track the pair as they circled the audience. They both loved to listen together from the lake’s edge, taking in the glow from the porch and the sky, the birds singing from deep in the woods, the lush waves of music rolling down the lawn and over them to the water. They stood there for a long time holding hands, two of the happiest people in the world. – Peggy Manring, daughter of David and Louise Robinson 77

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antiquities, and really good pasta. The famous poet was still obsessed nearly 30 years later when he penned his influential, romanticized travelogue, Italian Journey. Many a German went to Italy after reading it, but Felix Mendelssohn had a different impetus: he received his own personal exhortation to visit Italy from Goethe himself. Goethe had befriended the 12-year-old Mendelssohn after hearing him improvise; the poet probably saw something of himself in this fellow genius, who not only astonished Goethe with his fingers but also with his wit, sensitivity, and literary acumen. After spending two weeks with Goethe, in 1830, Mendelssohn set out for Italy via Salzburg, Vienna, and the Brenner Pass. He absorbed the paintings of Venice and Florence before proceeding to Rome, Naples, and Milan. As he traveled, he began to turn his impressions into a symphony; “it will be the happiest piece I have ever written,” he wrote to his sister, Fanny. It exudes the “festive air” Mendelssohn said he felt everywhere in Italy. The symphony bounds immediately out into the open air, embracing a spirit of adventure. Overflowing with youthful enthusiasm, there is hardly a moment of rest in the entire movement. The Andante presents a very different scene, possibly inspired by a solemn religious procession Mendelssohn saw in Rome. If so, the music both depicts the bystander, watching the procession go by, and expresses the penitent feelings the scene engenders. A dignified minuet begins the third movement, again music of the outdoors. The middle of the movement features the horn, calling to us from across the hills. The unbridled vigor of the first movement returns in the final movement, which Mendelssohn calls a saltarello, a fast Italian folk dance in triple meter that seems designed to make the person dancing fall over. Hops are increasingly added, combined with abrupt arm motions, and onlookers are welcome to join in singing. Mendelssohn based the movement on two actual folk themes; while in a minor key throughout, the composer declared it the happiest movement of all.

E NCORE MEMORIES My first impressions of Dave and Louise were that they were, somehow, even before they met me, already dreaming of a festival. They had moved to their house, Brook Farm, in the late 1960s, taken its interior completely apart, with the help of daughters Peggy, Claire, Debbie and Eleanor and son Dana, and created a wonderful place to raise their family. When Beth Boudreau introduced me to them in 1980, their children were grown, and they seemed to be looking for fun; they had room in their lives to share their summers and house with a wider group of people. A family tradition of involvement with the classical music community in Central New York meant that they had many connections with potential audience, board of director members, hospitality providers, and performers. I had just realized that I wanted to spend my only free month, August, in Central New York, getting to know the community that had been my home for eight years, and that I wanted to be playing chamber music, with people I knew and people I didn’t know. Every new musician to arrive year after year felt taken care of somehow: medical emergencies, recreational adventures gone amok, attacks of true love, or desires for peace and quiet, were all dealt with gracefully. None of the lucky few who saw it begin and grow could imagine anyone, or any other family, giving the festival a more fertile, nurturing place to grow, or sharing their lives with more generosity. – Lindsay Groves, cellist, was one of the Festival’s founders and its music director from its inception in 1980 until 1990, reprinted from 2003

Mendelssohn left the sketches from his trip unfinished until he received a commission from the London Philharmonic Society, for whom he completed the work. He conducted the premiere himself in London, on May 13, 1833. Everyone else apparently liked the symphony more than Mendelssohn, and no one could understand why he would attempt to rewrite it; it remained unpublished until after his death. Now a cultured man of the world, perhaps he disdained the youthful enthusiasm of the Symphony, which has an air of the first-time tourist. However, thanks to him, we can once again visit Italy for the first time.

Musician Profiles Aizuri Quartet Gabriela Diaz, violin; Miho Saegusa, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Karen Ouzounian, cello Praised by The Washington Post for captivating performances that draw from its notable “meld of intellect, technique, and emotions,” the Aizuri Quartet was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, along with top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan and the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London. Its Grammy-nominated debut album, “Blueprinting,” features commissioned works by five American composers. The group has performed extensively throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Japan, Chile, Costa Rica and Abu Dhabi. Formed in 2012, the ensemble draws its name from “aizuri-e,” a style of predominantly blue Japanese woodblock printing that is noted for its vibrancy and incredible detail. Lera Auerbach, composer and piano Poet, concert pianist, visual artist, and composer Lera Auerbach has published more than 100 compositions including operas, ballets, orchestral and chamber works. Equally prolific in literature and the visual arts (especially painting and sculpture), Auerbach simultaneously expresses ideas visually, in words, and through music. She is a regular contributor to the Best American Poetry blog, has published three books of poetry and prose in Russian, and has authored several librettos. Born in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals bordering Siberia, Auerbach became one of the last artists to defect from the Soviet Union in 1991, while still in her teens. She holds degrees from the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media and The Juilliard School, where she received a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship and studied piano with Joseph Kalichstein and composition with Milton Babbitt. Catherine Broyles, flute Louisiana native Catherine Broyles is the newly appointed Principal Piccolo with the Richmond Symphony. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and the Eastman School of Music, she completed a year of graduate study at Rice University before winning the Co-Principal Flute position with the United States Coast Guard Band. Her primary instructors are Bonita Boyd, Anne Harrow, Leone Buyse and Nancy Stagnitta. Julia Bruskin, cello, co-artistic director 2015 – present Since her concerto debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 17, Julia Bruskin has established herself as one of the premiere cellists of her generation. She performed Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto with conductor Jahja Ling at Avery Fisher Hall, and has soloed with the Nashville, Utah, Virginia, and Pacific symphony orchestras, among others. She won first prize in the Schadt String Competition and was a prizewinner in the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria. As a founding member of the 80 critically acclaimed Claremont Trio, Bruskin won first prize in

She was always rock solid in life and in her dedication to the Festival. I continue to hold such fond TRIBUTE TO memories of her quiet strength, generosity and leadership during my years at Skaneateles. Robinson She was always so kind to me, and that smile of hers is something I will never forget. – Peter Bay, conductor

Louise

the 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and was awarded the first ever Kalichestein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award. Bruskin also gives frequent solo recitals with her husband, Aaron Wunsch, including tours in China. She is also a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City.

Deette Bunn, harp Deette Bunn has been an orchestra harpist since 1982. She has performed with orchestras in Los Angeles, Rochester (MN), Boise, Victoria, BC, Jacksonville and with Symphoria. In addition, she has toured with Josh Groban, John Denver, and a number of Broadway shows. Bunn received her undergraduate degree from Seattle Pacific University and her Master’s degree from the University of Washington. She is currently on the faculty at Cornell University, Syracuse University, and Le Moyne College. Edward Castilano, bass Currently a member of the bass section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Castilano was Principal Bass with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra until 2011, where he also made numerous concerto appearances. He was also Professor of Double Bass at Syracuse University from 1989 to 2018. After graduating in 1976 from the Eastman School of Music, he participated for six seasons in Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Spoleto Festival in Italy and Charleston, SC, and made several appearances with the Lincoln Center Chamber Players. He has participated annually in the Skaneateles Festival beginning with its inception in 1980. Castilano received a Master’s degree from Syracuse University in 2003. He has also played as a substitute with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Detroit, Spokane, Savannah, and Symphoria. Amy Christian, violin Amy received music performance degrees from Indiana University, Eastman School of Music, and CUNY Graduate Center. She studied under Franco Gulli, Charles Castleman, and Daniel Phillips. She enjoys both teaching and performing and serves as a Visiting Lecturer on the faculty of Cornell University. She performs as a member of Symphoria, is acting concertmaster of the Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, and

Musician Profiles is principal second violin of the Binghamton Philharmonic. When not busy on those stages, she plays solo and chamber music performances, and substitutes regularly with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. She plays on a Sgarabotto violin from 1911 that has been in her family for decades.

Michael Cirmo, percussion Michael has performed with the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra, Skaneateles Festival, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse Pit Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Catskill Symphony, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and Symphoria. He is frequently called upon as a guest conductor for music festivals throughout New York state. He holds a Master of Arts in Instrumental Performance with Honors from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education with Honors and a Performer’s Certificate from Potsdam College, Crane School of Music. In addition, he has taught music at all levels since 1985 and is currently Director of Bands at Marcellus High School. His most recent appearance at the Skaneateles Festival was last summer as part of the Festival Orchestra’s Beethoven concert. Sarah Crocker Vonsattel, violin Elbridge native Sarah Crocker Vonsattel has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City since

2008. She previously held positions in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Colorado Symphony and has appeared as concerto soloist with the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and Symphoria, among others. As a founding member of the Verklärte Quartet, Sarah was a Grand Prize Winner of the 2003 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has appeared as both performer and faculty member at festivals including the Orfeo International Music Festival (Italy), the Wellesley Composers Conference, and the Musical Friends Academy (Tunisia). She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School.

Benjamin Doane, cello A participant in the Perlman Music Program’s ‘littles’ summer course since 2017, Ben Doane previously attended the Heifetz International Music Institute and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. This year, he was accepted into the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, playing for cellists Steven Isserlis and David Waterman. As soloist, he has performed with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and other orchestras in New York state and Kansas. In 2016 he was broadcast on WXXI as winner of the David Hochstein Recital competition and last year he received the Aldrige-Tinker Scholarship and the Lowry Award from the Rochester Music Hall of Fame. From 2010 to 2016 Ben was a member of Alice Kanack’s improvising ensemble, traveling to several ASTA string conferences. He will attend Timothy Eddy’s studio at The Juilliard School in the fall. Steven Doane, cello An internationally known soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, recording artist, and pedagogue, Steven Doane appears at festivals and concert series across the globe. He received his BM from Oberlin Conservatory and his MM from SUNY Stony Brook. Doane records for the Bridge label, often with Eastman pianist Barry Snyder. Their recording of the complete music of Gabriel Fauré for cello and piano was awarded the Diapason d’Or in France. At Eastman, Doane was given the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching. In addition, the New England Conservatory awarded him the Piatigorsky Prize for his teaching. With the New Arts Trio, Doane won the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1980. He is currently a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Dorian Wind Quintet Gretchen Pusch, flute; Gerard Reuter, oboe; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Adrian Morejon, bassoon; Karl Kramer-Johansen, horn

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The Dorian Wind Quintet is known worldwide as one of chamber music’s preeminent and longest continuously active ensembles. The Quintet has concertized extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and has performed throughout the Middle East, India, Africa, and Asia. To date, the Dorian is responsible for nearly 40 commissions of 20th and 21st century

Musician Profiles wind music from composers such as Luciano Berio, Joan Tower, Lukas Foss, and Jacob Druckman, as well as George Perle’s Wind Quintet No. 4 which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1986. The Quintet partners with the Pro Musicis Foundation to bring chamber music to residents of assisted living and rehabilitation facilities, hospitals, schools, community centers and retirement communities in an effort to bring joy and inspiration to people who are in difficult situations or cannot attend regular concert venues.

Rosemary Elliott, cello A native of London, England, Rosemary Elliott is assistant professor of cello at the Eastman School of Music and principal cellist of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. She is artistic director of ‘Morning Chamber Music’ at Eastman and performs regularly on the series. She has been featured in ‘Performance Rochester,’ a program on WXXI celebrating Rochester-based performers. Elliott has also been a member of the National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, Ireland, and served on the cello staff at the Royal College of Music in London. She has performed with some of the most notable chamber orchestras in England, including the London Mozart Players, the City of London Sinfonia and the Orchestra of St. John’s Smith Square. In the summer, Elliott teaches and performs at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, and the Heifetz Academy in Virginia. Abigail Fischer, soprano “With her dramatic tumble of red hair and cello-mellow voice, Ms. Fischer sings with a passionate restraint that has no equal in her generation,” noted the New York Times. Fischer has premiered roles in many current operatic works. She created the complex character of Mrs. X.E. in Du Yun/Royce Vavrek’s Angel’s Bone, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music Composition. Missy Mazzoli’s first opera, Song from the Uproar, written for her, “made a star of Abigail Fischer,” wrote Steve Smith, New York Times/TimeOut NY. In her vibrant career as a concert soloist, she performs repertoire ranging from contemporary to Monteverdi. Originally trained as a cellist, Fischer has also worked often as a chamber musician. She premiered works of Elliot Carter and Bernard Rand at the Tanglewood Music Festival, of Nico Muhly at Lincoln Center, and numerous works by John Zorn throughout the world.

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn Crowned “the king and queen of the banjo” by Paste Magazine, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn have a musical partnership like no other. Fleck, a 15-time Grammy winner, has taken the instrument across multiple genres. Washburn, a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player, has broken new ground by combining the banjo tradition with Far Eastern culture and sounds. Fleck has the virtuosic, jazz-to-classical ingenuity of an instrumentalist and composer with bluegrass roots. From writing concertos for full symphony orchestra to exploring the banjo’s African roots to playing jazz duos with Chick Corea, Béla Fleck has become arguably the world’s premier banjo player. Meanwhile, with the earthy sophistication of a

postmodern, old-time singer-songwriter, Washburn has drawn critical acclaim for her own solo albums. She has done fascinating work with folk music diplomacy in China. By using the banjo to showcase America’s rich heritage and also bringing the noble instrument into new and unique realms, Fleck and Washburn present music that feels wildly innovative and comfortingly familiar at the same time.

Elinor Freer, piano, co-artistic director 2005-2014 Former Festival Co-Artistic Director Elinor Freer has built a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and artistic administrator. Praised for her “utmost sensitivity” (Harrisburg Patriot News) and “profound commitment and understanding” (Der General-Anzeiger, Bonn), Freer has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Mexico, and China. A prizewinner and laureate in the Joanna Hodges and American Pianists Association competitions, she has received numerous awards including fellowships at Ravinia and Tanglewood. She holds degrees with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Southern California, and the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht in the Netherlands. Committed to expanding audiences, she has been awarded multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to create residencies in rural Kansas and Montana, bringing music into schools, psychiatric hospitals, banks, grocery stores and more. Freer is currently

2019-2020 series - 48th season

SCULPTING SILENCE, 3pm Sunday, Sept. 22 at Hergenhan (SU Newhouse) – Roberto Sierra (2nd perf.), Ryan Chase, Tania Leon, Brent Michael Davids, Doug Quin in collaboration with Syracuse Symposium’s SILENCE series

The DOLL, 7pm, Oct. 3 at Palace Theater – silent film by C.J. Lubitsch, music by Diane Jones (premiere) - collaboration w/ Le Moyne College & Syr. International Film Festival

PRIZEWINNERS, 2:30pm, Nov. 17 at TBD – music by Gity Razaz, 2019 Israel/Pellman winners, Kevin Ernst, Paul Leary 2nd half of season features MINIMALISTS: Old/New/Newer (celebrating 80+ birthdays of Glass & Reich, plus Marc Mellits); January 31, OCC

VISION OF SOUND (new music w/ dance), Feb. 28, 29, March 1 at Nazareth C., HWS Colleges, Syracuse

LOVE SONGS w/ guest artist ELIOT FISK – George Rochberg Centennial, Reza Vali, Israel winners

LIBBA COTTEN opera Tune into FRESH INK Sundays at 4pm on WCNY-FM & online

HELP US MAKE MUSIC HISTORY IN CNY Details at: www.societyfornewmusic.org

Musician Profiles chair of the chamber music department at the Eastman School of Music and lives in Brighton with her husband, cellist David Ying, and their two children.

John Friedrichs, clarinet John Friedrichs currently holds the positions of bass clarinet/ assistant first chair clarinet with Symphoria and bass clarinet/ third clarinet with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA). Originally from Southern California, he performed with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Friedrichs attended the Eastman School of Music, earning a degree in Music Performance as well as a Performer’s Certificate. He also performs with Syracuse’s Society for New Music, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic and Glimmerglass Festival. He can be heard on Greg Wanamaker’s CD, “Light and Shadows, Waves and Time” performing Wanamaker’s composition for solo bass clarinet, “Out of Mind, Into Body,” available on the PARMA label. Brian Gadbow, cello Brian Gadbow was a 6-year member of the Syracuse Youth Orchestra where he performed as a winner of the 2015 Concerto Competition. He also performed with Symphoria as the 2014 Civic Morning Musicals/Symphoria Concerto Competition winner. Summer music festivals have included Crane Youth Music, Orchestral Studies at New York State

Summer School of the Arts, and Eastern Music Festival where he performed in a Master Class for renowned cellist Lynn Harrell. Gadbow was principal cellist at the 2015 BUTI Young Artists Orchestra at Tanglewood and the same year performed as the Robinson Award winner at the Skaneateles Festival. Gadbow is a student at the Eastman School of Music where he studies with David Ying and has been principal cellist of the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra.

Jeffrey Grossman, organ Jeffrey Grossman specializes in vital, engaging performances of music of the past, through processes that are intensely collaborative and historically informed. As artistic director of the acclaimed Baroque ensemble the Sebastians, he has led concerts including Bach’s St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion and Handel’s Messiah from the organ and harpsichord. He frequently performs with TENET Vocal Artists, the Green Mountain Project, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. He was musical director for the 2019 Boston Early Music Festival Young Artists Training Program, where he conducted Handel’s Orlando from the harpsichord. For 13 seasons, he toured portions of the rural U.S. with artists of the Piatigorsky Foundation. He can be heard on the Avie, Gothic, Naxos, Albany, Soundspells, Métier, and MSR Classics record labels.

Your PUBLIC Theater.. EXPANDING the Arts AUBURNPUBLICTHEATER.ORG photo: Chris Molloy, The Tubman Troupe.

Musician Profiles Lindsay Groves, cello, founder and music director 1980-1990 Lindsay Groves joined the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra/ Symphoria as assistant principal cellist after graduating from Northwestern University in Chicago, where she worked with Chicago Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellists Dudley Powers and Frank Miller. As founder and music director of the Skaneateles Festival, she programmed and often performed in approximately 140 concerts during its first 11 years. She has been a member of the North Carolina Symphony, the JFK Center Opera House Orchestra, and the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra (as principal) and performed with orchestras in Baltimore, Buffalo, Albany, Ft. Myers, Ithaca, Binghamton, Monterey, and Santa Barbara. Her other summer festival participation, as chamber musician, orchestral cellist, and soloist, has taken her to NC, AK, CO, CA, FL, ME, China, Italy, and Switzerland. Some notable collaborators have been Andre-Michel Schub, Ann Williams, Andres Cardenes, Gary Karr, Hilary Hahn, Ian Hobson, Joseph Genualdi, Laurie Smukler, Nicholas Eanet, and Schlomo Mintz. Hilary Hahn, violin Three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn has been a frequent and beloved presence at the Skaneateles Festival since she was 12 years old. Most recently, she devoted much of the 2018-19 season to a thread that has bound her entire musical career. She released a recording of Bach’s Partita No. 1 and Sonatas 1 and 2, after the two decades of anticipation from fans and critics alike that followed her first album, Hilary Hahn plays Bach, released when she was only 17. Hahn has performed solo Bach recitals in Vienna, Paris, New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Toronto, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin, London, and Munich. Bach has been a part of

her life from the beginning of her musical studies. In 2001 Hahn was named “America’s Best Young Classical Musician” by Time magazine. All of her 16 albums (Deutsche Grammophon and Sony labels) have debuted in the top ten of the Billboard classical chart. Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto, written for Hahn, won the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013 Hahn released the Grammy-winning “In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores,” the culmination of a multi-year project to renew the encore genre. Hahn commissioned short-form works from 26 composers around the world. For the 27th encore, she held an open contest that drew more than 400 entries. One of the 27 encores was dedicated to the late Jean Graham, who with her husband and family opened her home and heart to Hilary when she came to Skaneateles. Hahn was an early blogger, beginning with her “postcards from the road” sent to Graham’s third grade class. Hahn is known for her natural ability to connect with fans, from the art she collects from fans and her YouTube interview series (youtube.com/hilaryhahnvideos) to her violin case’s comments on life with a concert violinist on Twitter and Instagram (@violincase).

Anne Harrow, flute Anne Harrow is associate professor of flute and piccolo at the Eastman School of Music, where she was recently honored with the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has performed and taught in China where she was named visiting professor at Zhengzhou Normal University. Currently, Harrow is solo flute and piccolo of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, the Orchestra of the Adirondacks. She has also served as principal flute with the Florida West Coast Symphony and was a founding member of the Florida Wind Quintet. She has performed with the Chautauqua Symphony and is a

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Musician Profiles former member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Savannah Symphony. She has been a member of the artist faculty of the MasterWorks Festival in Spartanburg, SC, since 2014.

Daniel Hege, conductor Daniel Hege served for 11 seasons as music director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and was recently appointed music director of the Binghamton Philharmonic. He also holds the positions of music director of the Wichita Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Tulsa Symphony. Hege previously held positions with the Baltimore Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and Pacific Symphony, among others. Sought after as an educator and mentor by many of America’s orchestral training programs for highly talented young musicians, Hege has appeared with the Texas Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, Brevard Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Matthew Hettinga, violin Matthew Hettinga is a freelance violist and teacher in Pittsburgh, PA. He received his BFA in Viola Performance from Carnegie Mellon University under the tutelage of Cyrus Forough and David Harding. Matthew spent two seasons as a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and has played with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Erie Philharmonic.

TRIBUTE TO

Louise Robinson

She leaves behind a legacy of passion and kindness that will be embodied and celebrated at the Festival for years to come and I think that’s the best way to miss someone.

– Christine Grayton, former Festival intern

Jillian Honn, oboe Jillian Honn holds the principal chair of Syracuse's Symphoria, a position she won at just 20 years old. During her tenure with Symphoria, Honn has been a featured soloist on both Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and his Oboe Concerto in C Major, and performed Jennifer Higdon's Oboe Concerto during the 2018-2019 season. Outside of the orchestra, she has been an avid chamber musician performing as a part of the LaVeck Concert Series, Little Summer Music in Vienna, and Sunset Concerts. Honn has also performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and New World Symphony, among others. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Honn maintains a private oboe studio, teaches at Le Moyne College, and serves as the Music Librarian for Symphoria. Stefan Jackiw, violin Taking the music world by storm, Stefan Jackiw made his European debut at age 14 performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. In the 20 years since, he has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco orchestras, and throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is an active recitalist and chamber musician and has performed in numerous festivals and concert series. Fanfare hailed his Sony recording of the complete Brahms sonatas as “the recording of the Brahms sonatas to have.” Jackiw holds a BA from Harvard and an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory and is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

If you live on the lake; if you boat, swim, kayak, sail or paddle the lake; if you fish the lake; if you drink the lake water; if the lake draws customers to your business; or if you just love the lake,

Shouldn’t you be a member of the Skaneateles Lake Association? Join us today. Go to SkaneatelesLake.org Thank you!

Pierre Jalbert, composer Earning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, Pierre Jalbert has developed a musical language that is engaging and expressive. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Stoeger Award, and an Academy award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Recent orchestral performances include those by the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, the Houston Symphony, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. He has served as composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the California Symphony, and Music in the Loft in Chicago. Chamber music commissions and performances include those of the Ying, Borromeo,

Musician Profiles Maia, Enso, Chiara, Escher, Del Sol, and Emerson string quartets, and violinist Midori. Jalbert is professor of music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Wynton Marsalis, music director, trumpet Ryan Kisor, trumpet; Kenny Rampton, trumpet; Marcus Printup, trumpet; Sam Chess, trombone; Chris Crenshaw, trombone; Elliot Mason, trombone; Sherman Irby, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet; Ted Nash, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet; Victor Goines, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet; Camille Thurman, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet; TBD, baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet; Dan Nimmer, piano; Carlos Henriquez, bass; Jason Marsalis, drums Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra The JLCO has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988. Led by Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs a vast repertoire ranging from original compositions and Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works to rare historic compositions and masterworks by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and many others. Alongside symphony orchestras, ballet troupes, local students, and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists, the JLCO has toured over 300 cities across six continents. Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz at Lincoln Center is dedicated to inspiring and growing audiences for jazz, advancing a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio programs, television broadcasts, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, jazz appreciation curricula for students, music publishing, children’s concerts and classes, lectures, adult education courses, student and educator workshops, a record label, and interactive websites. Under the leadership of Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, Chairman Robert J. Appel, and Executive Director Greg Scholl, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of events each season in its home in New York City and around the world. Wynton Marsalis Wynton Marsalis, trumpet, is the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans in 1961, Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12, entered The Juilliard School at 17, and then joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He has recorded more than 60 jazz and classical recordings, which have won him nine Grammy Awards. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammys in the same year, a 86 feat he repeated in 1984. Marsalis is also an internationally

respected teacher and spokesman for music education and has written six books. In 1997 he became the first jazz artist to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, which was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 2001 he was appointed Messenger of Peace by Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations. He was instrumental in a relief concert produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center that raised more than $3 million to benefit musicians, music industry-related enterprises, and other individuals and entities from Greater New Orleans who were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Allan Kolsky, clarinet Principal clarinet of Symphoria, Allan Kolsky held positions with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the Utah Symphony before joining the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO) as principal clarinet in 2002. He has appeared as soloist with both Symphoria and the SSO in clarinet concertos by Mozart, Nielsen, Finzi and Weber. Kolsky received a Tanglewood Fellowship in 1989, and holds music performance degrees from Temple and DePaul universities. A co-host and performer at the 2001 International ClarinetFest, Kolsky currently teaches clarinet at Hamilton College. He has also performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Skaneateles Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Colorado Music Festival. An-Chi Lin, violin Born and raised in Taiwan from a family of musicians, An-Chi Lin began playing piano at the age of five and violin a year later. Currently a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, she has performed with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and Rochester Oratorio Society, and served as concertmaster with the Greater Rochester Women’s Orchestra. Lin has appeared as soloist with the Roberts Wesleyan Orchestra, the SUNY Geneseo Orchestra, and the Greater Rochester Women’s Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has performed in the RPO’s Educational String Quintet, which brings classical music to elementary school children in Rochester City Schools. Lin’s violin-guitar group, Red Creek Duo, has

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Musician Profiles performed in western New York, Illinois, and California. Lin serves on the violin faculty of Roberts Wesleyan College and SUNY Geneseo.

Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, piano American pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough has worked closely with some of today's foremost composers, and has had many works written for him, including by John Harbison, James Primosch, John Liberatore, and Dante De Silva. His growing discography of new works includes Andrew McPherson's Secrets of Antikythera for magnetic resonator piano, solo piano music of John Liberatore, the complete piano works of Nicholas, and vocal and piano works of John Harbison and James Primosch with soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon. McCullough has soloed with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony, was a New Fromm Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, and in March 2015 co-directed Environs Messiaen, a festival at Cornell University celebrating the avian passion of French composer Oliver Messiaen. Jeremy Mastrangelo, violin Jeremy has been a member of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra since 2013, and was guest principal second there for the final three years of Pinchas Zukerman's tenure. Previously, he was associate concertmaster of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra for ten years. He has been a guest concertmaster

with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Omaha Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, and the National Ballet of Canada. Prior to his work in Syracuse, Mastrangelo was co-concertmaster of the New World Symphony in Miami. With his wife Sara, who is also a violinist, Jeremy spent seven summers performing in festivals in Colorado, first at the Steamboat Springs Strings Music Festival and then with the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra.

Sara Mastrangelo, violin Sara is a first violinist with the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra in Ottawa performs regularly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. She was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami before her tenure with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2013. Mastrangelo is an active chamber musician, performing regularly in Ottawa as part of the Music and Beyond Festival, and has performed at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Banff Center for the Arts, Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany, Breckenridge Music Festival, Domaine-Forget Music Festival, and Skaneateles Festival. She has held teaching positions at Hamilton College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She now teaches privately and coaches the international touring ensemble, “Stellae Boreales,” of the Ottawa Suzuki Strings school.

Musician Profiles Melissa Matson, viola Melissa Matson is principal violist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a founding member of the Amenda Quartet, whose acclaimed “Project Ludwig” recently presented the complete string quartets of Beethoven in the Rochester area. She is a frequent performer with Chamber Music Rochester and the Skaneateles Festival. She was the founding artistic director of First Muse Chamber Music, an annual concert series in Rochester, for its 12-year existence. Before joining the RPO in 1983, Matson performed throughout the U.S. as a founding member of the Chester String Quartet, prize winners at the Munich and Portsmouth (England) international competitions. Neil Miller, viola Long Island violist Neil Miller is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Eastman School of Music. Eastman awarded him the coveted Performer’s Certificate as well as the Robert L. Oppelt Viola Prize, presented annually to an outstanding violist. Summer festivals have included the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, CO, where he performed in more than 20 concerts playing 120 orchestral works. Miller has also participated in LyricaFest in Boston as well as Charles Castleman’s Quartet Program in Boulder, CO, and Fredonia, NY. Peggy Pearson, oboe Longtime Festival favorite Peggy Pearson is a winner of the Pope Foundation Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Music. A member of the Bach Aria Group, she is solo oboist with the Emmanuel Chamber Orchestra. Peggy serves as artistic director emerita and oboist for Winsor Music, an organization she founded in 1996. She is also a founding member of La Fenice, and was a founding member of the Emmanuel Wind Quintet, winner of the 1981 Naumburg Award. She has toured internationally and recorded extensively with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as principal oboist, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Music from Marlboro. Pearson is an active exponent of contemporary music and was a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute in contemporary music. She has premiered numerous works, many of which were written specifically for her.

Kyle Peters, percussion Kyle Peters is the percussion instructor at Eastman Community Music School in Rochester, NY. He received his master of music in performance and literature, as well as the prestigious Performer’s Certificate, from the Eastman School of Music and his bachelor of music in music education from the Crane School of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam. Peters is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and an active performer/clinician giving classes at both the college and pre-college level. During the summer he is director of Percussion at the Crane School of Music – Crane

Many years ago when I was on the Festival board, my husband TRIBUTE TO Jeff and I ran down to Brook Farm to drop something off. I was sitting in the kitchen Robinson chatting with Louise, when she gets a very sober look on her face and says, “I’m going to ask you a question, and I want an honest answer!” At the time the Festival board was discussing some idea or problem, and I did not know at all what I thought about it. So when she spoke to me so sharply I thought, Oh, no! She wants me to talk about this Festival thing! Shyly I replied, “Yes?” and she said, “Have your kids had supper yet?” To me this story is so Louise.

Louise

– Chris Lego Youth Music program, and instructor of percussion at the Eastman Summer Classical Studies.

Anna Petersen, oboe Anna Petersen joined Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra as second oboe and English horn in 2013. She previously held positions as principal oboe of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and as B-contract second oboe of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She has enjoyed guest appearances as principal oboe with the Pittsburgh and Detroit symphony orchestras, The Florida Orchestra, the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013. Petersen performed as a finalist in the 2006 and 2007 Coleman Chamber Music Competitions in Pasadena. She has been a fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, a participant at the Master Class Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and a performer at the Skaneateles and Bravo! Vail Valley Music festivals. She has coached at the Bennington (VT) Chamber Music Conference. Olita Povero, viola Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra violist Olita Povero previously served as principal viola with the Dallas Opera and was a member of the Dallas Ballet Orchestra and Dallas Chamber Orchestra. She currently plays with Finger Lakes Opera and Rochester Chamber Orchestra. She is also a faculty member at The Hochstein School of Music and Dance and mentors violists in both the RPO and Hochstein Youth Orchestras. Povero is happy to be returning to the Skaneateles Festival, where she has performed in many concerts over the years. Gregory Quick, bassoon An honors graduate from the University of Michigan, Gregory Quick joined the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra as principal

Musician Profiles bassoonist in 1977. He gave several concerto performances with the SSO, including John Williams Five Sacred Trees, and additionally served as the orchestra’s personnel manager from 1995 to 2006. He currently performs with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta and Michigan Opera Theatre. He has also performed with the Skaneateles Festival, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Summer Music Festival of Arkansas, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, New Hampshire Music Festival, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, and the Toledo Zoo Band.

Susan Reed, violin and vocalist Contemporary violinist, vocalist, storyteller, recording artist, author and educator Susan Reed hails from the Boston area. From classical to fiddle, Klezmer to jazz, Reed interprets the world through sound. She combines her musical artistry with storytelling, crafting original shows that celebrate our humanity. Her palette of strings includes guitar, banjo, and dulcimer. She has composed and recorded numerous CDs as well as books, and has been recognized by Parents’ Choice, Mom’s Choice, Creative Child Magazine, Tillywig, and National Parenting Product Awards (NAPPA). Her daughters perform with her in their family string band, Tatu Mianzi. Reed also trains new teachers in her workshop, Teach Smart. She holds both the BM and MM in violin performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Peter Rovit, violin Currently concertmaster of Symphoria, Rovit was among the last students of the legendary Josef Gingold at Indiana University. Rovit has performed throughout the U.S. and at music festivals such as Aspen, Taos, Yellow Barn, Hot Springs, Skaneateles, and Musical Spring in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was a recipient of the prestigious Montgomery Symphony Violin Fellowship and was a member of Quartet Oklahoma. He served as Associate Concertmaster of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and as Concertmaster of the Tuscaloosa Symphony. He has been on the string faculties of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Alabama. His students have gone on to study at schools such as Juilliard and Rice, and have won positions in professional orchestras. Andrew Russo, piano Syracuse native Andrew Russo is known for the diversity of his interests and experiences in music, business, and politics. He graduated from The Juilliard School and pursued postgraduate studies in Leipzig and Paris, then spent his early career as an advocate of American composers and American music. As a finalist in the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, he was the first competitor to perform a significant work using techniques requiring the inside and frame of the piano as well as the keys. His Black Box Records release of music by John Corigliano received a 2007 Grammy

E NCORE MEMORIES At outdoor performances at Brook Farm the weather would often provide some anxiety, and, even worse, an occasional thunderstorm. I recall one performance from the 1980s (Joe Genualdi was the soloist that night) where it appeared as if the second half might succumb to one thunderstorm that seemed to be headed directly at Brook Farm. During the first half of the performance, Louise was standing in the driveway watching and looking westward at the storm as it approached. Somehow this storm seemed to split apart just as it neared Brook Farm. Both Mandana and the village of Skaneateles got very wet, and the concert was enjoyed without a sprinkle. All of us performing and listening that evening smiled at Louise afterwards as we thanked her again for the hospitality. The food was good, too. – Gregory Quick was the first bassoonist to perform with the Festival, in 1981, and served on its board of directors. Reprinted from 2003.

nomination. He has performed in many of the world’s cultural capitals – Paris, London, Moscow, Rome, Brussels, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Buenos Aires, and more. Currently, Russo is a financial consultant and an adjunct instructor of finance at Le Moyne College while continuing to perform as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician.

Lisa Ann Seischab, bassoon Lisa Ann Seischab is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and former member of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. As an arts administrator and fundraising professional, she has held development positions with the Eastman School of Music, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She is currently the George Eastman Museum’s vice president of development in Rochester and serves on the Advisory Board of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, an organization dedicated to the study and performance of art song and vocal chamber music repertoire. Paul Shewan, trumpet A member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s trumpet section since 1998, Paul Shewan is also a frequent guest conductor with the RPO, including its inaugural side-by-side concert with community members in 2014. He holds degrees from Roberts Wesleyan College and the Eastman School of Music. He completed the doctoral degree in conducting from the Eastman School in 2004 where he has returned as a visiting associate professor of conducting and ensembles. Now on the faculty at Roberts Wesleyan College, he conducts

Musician Profiles the orchestra and wind ensemble, and teaches trumpet and instrumental conducting. Shewan has performed frequently with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Solo appearances have included performances of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto with the Equinox Symphony, J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 with members of the RPO and live broadcasts on WXXI Classical 91.5 FM radio’s Noontime at Hochstein (trumpet and conducting).

Alexander Shuhan, horn Professor of horn at Ithaca College, Alexander Shuhan is principal horn of the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra (AR), and was principal horn of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra from 2000 to 2010. His ensemble, the Shuhan-Luk Trio of flute, horn and piano, has performed across the U.S. and has been featured at International Horn Symposium and National Flute Association conventions. He has taught on the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, the Ithaca College Summer Music Academy, and served as Valade Instructor of Horn at the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. Shuhan performs frequently with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and has played with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and the Skaneateles Festival. As a founding member, hornist, pianist and composer of Rhythm & Brass, he has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, and the Middle East. Elizabeth Shuhan, flute Elizabeth Shuhan is principal flutist of the Fort Smith Symphony (AR) and has recorded four CDs on the Naxos label with that orchestra. She is a visiting lecturer of flute at Cornell University and is on the flute faculty as well as director of education and community engagement at Opus Ithaca School of Music. She performs regularly with the

2433 West Lake Rd. Skaneateles, NY 13152 315.685.3797 anyelasvineyards.com 90

Shuhan-Luk Trio, the Cornell Wind Quintet and the Ithaca Flute Duo, and this summer was a faculty artist at Luzerne Music Center in Luzerne, NY. An advocate for new music, she is a resident ensemble member of the Ithaca New Music Collective. Shuhan performs regularly with the Skaneateles Festival Orchestra, Finger Lakes Opera and Opera Ithaca and has performed with the Binghamton Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and Rochester Chamber Orchestra.

Diane Smith, flute Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra member Diane Smith is a founding member of Antara Winds, a woodwind quintet that performs extensively in the Rochester area including on Public Radio’s Live from Hochstein series. She has also performed with Rochester Oratorio Society, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Broadway Theatre League, Mercury Opera, Lyric Opera, the Skaneateles Festival, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic and Erie Ballet. Smith teaches flute and chamber music at The Hochstein School and Roberts Wesleyan College. At Hochstein, she also serves as coordinator of ensembles and co-chairperson of the Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion Department. Ms. Smith received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Performance from the Eastman School of Music. Herb Smith, trumpet Leader of his own jazz group The Freedom Trio, Herb Smith is also third trumpet in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and director of Jazz Ensembles at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has a trumpet studio at the Eastman Community Music School and is a certified instructor for the Jerome Callet method, Master Super Chops. Smith also delves into the conducting world, leading the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra through his original educational

Musician Profiles programs. He has composed music for silent films, was music director on the CD “Just A Little Sly” for his former band Thornwood, and in 2006 he performed a joint recital with Eastman baritone Derek Smith in Carnegie Hall.

Roy Smith, trumpet Symphoria second trumpeter Roy Smith attended Northwestern University and Roberts Wesleyan College. He has performed with the Rochester and Buffalo philharmonic orchestras, Greensboro Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, and New World Symphony. He currently serves as adjunct lecturer of trumpet at SUNY Geneseo and has taught at SUNY Fredonia, Houghton College, The Hochstein School of Music and Dance, Lima Christian School, and the Csehy Summer School of Music. Susan Spafford, violin Violinist Susan Spafford is a member of the Richmond Symphony, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and Lancaster Festival Orchestra in Ohio. She has played regularly with the orchestras in Allentown and Harrisburg, PA, as well as Albany, Binghamton, and the Skaneateles Festival. Solo engagements include the Erie Chamber Orchestra and recitals at Mansfield University, Library of Congress, throughout the U.S. and in South Korea. Spafford has been a Faculty Guest Artist for the String Institute at Ithaca College and presented

hundreds of educational workshops throughout the country. She has been featured in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Family Series and at Music Educators Association conferences. She is an adjudicator for NYSSMA, completed Suzuki teacher training courses, and graduated from the LAO Essentials of Orchestra Management course.

Macintyre Taback, cello Born in New York City, Macintyre Taback began his cello studies at the age of 11. At 14, he started at the Juilliard Pre-College program with Caroline Stinson. Taback has recently performed at the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Caroga Lake festivals, where he has worked with cellists such as Desmond Hoebig, Timothy Eddy, Darrett Adkins, and Paul Katz. He has been featured on NPR’s From the Top in a radio broadcast and house concert, and was a Young Guest Artist with the New York Piano Society. Now midway through his undergraduate studies with Steven Doane and Rosemary Elliott at the Eastman School of Music, Taback previously studied at Yale College. Conrad Tao, composer and piano A former prodigy, Conrad Tao has emerged as a mature, thoughtful and thought-provoking artist with both a singular vision and the talent to realize it. He has been dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by

S Y R A C U S E

OP E RA Candide

Così fan tutte

Mozart's

Bernstein's

Hear it. See it. Feel it.

Feb 7 at 8pm • Feb 9 at 2pm

October 18 at 8pm October 20 at 2pm Conductor Christian Capocaccia • Crouse Hinds Theater at the Oncenter • Box Office 315-435-2121 • syracuseopera.org

Conductor Christian Capocaccia • Crouse Hinds Theater at the Oncenter • Box Office 315-435-2121 • syracuseopera.org

2019-2020 Season | Conductor Christian Capocaccia

Crouse-Hinds Theater at the John H. Mulroy Civic Center For tickets, Visit SyracuseOpera.org SyracuseOpera-7.25x4.75.indd 1

91 7/9/19 7:18 PM

2019/2020 OUR 70th SEASON

Musician Profiles

SYRACUSE FRIENDS OF

the New York Times and a “thoughtful and mature composer” by NPR. His commitment to new music extends far beyond his own compositions – he dedicates significant time and resources to performing, commissioning, and curating many other bright new voices. His ceaseless exploration also lends a new, contemporary vitality to his much-lauded performances of the core repertoire. Accolades and awards include being named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a YoungArts gold medal-winner in music, a Gilmore Young Artist, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Tao’s career as a composer has garnered eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and the Carlos Curinach Prize from BMI.

2019/2020 OUR 70th SEASON

O U R 7 0 T H A N N I V E RSA R Y !

Come Celebrate With Us.

TENET Vocal Artists Jolle Greenleaf, artistic director Jolle Greenleaf and Nola Richardson, sopranos; Doug Dodson and Helen Karloski, altos; Andrew Fuchs and Gene Stenger, tenors; Paul Max Tipton and Jonathan Woody, basses Preeminent New York City-based early music ensemble TENET Vocal Artists has won acclaim for its virtuosic singing and innovative programming that spans the Middle Ages to the present day. Renowned for its interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, TENET Vocal Artists has been praised for its pristine one-voice-to-a-part singing “to an uncanny degree of precision” (The Boston Globe). The ensemble performs regularly at venues throughout the U.S. including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Caramoor, Columbia University, and Yale University. Further afield, TENET Vocal Artists has performed at the Festival Casals de Puerto Rico, Berkshire Bach Festival, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Costa Rica International Music Festival, and many other festivals throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe.

Seven concerts by world-renowned ensembles October through May H.W. SMITH AUDITORIUM, SALT SPRINGS ROAD. syrFCM.org | sfcm00@gmail.com | 315-682-7720

Diane Walsh, piano, artistic director 2000-2004 Since making her New York recital debut on the Young Concert Artists Series, American pianist Diane Walsh has toured the globe, with performances in 46 states and in 21 countries. She has soloed with many U.S. orchestras and toured with the Orchestra of St. Luke. In Europe, she toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She was onstage pianist for 113 performances of Moisés Kaufman’s play “33 Variations” on Broadway with Jane Fonda. Honors include prizes at seven international competitions. Walsh performs at many summer chamber music festivals and was artistic director of the Skaneateles Festival for five years. She is a member of the quintet La Fenice and the Walsh-Drucker-Cooper Trio. She has released 18 recordings of diverse repertoire on the Bridge, Newport, Sony, Nonesuch, Koch, Stereophile, CRI, Jonathan Digital, and Naxos labels.

CLAUDIO PAPAPIETRO

Juilliard Quartet | October 5

Robert Weirich, piano, music director 1991-1999 During Robert Weirich’s tenure as director of the Skaneateles Festival from 1991 to 1999, the Festival won three Adventurous Programming Awards from Chamber Music America/ASCAP. He introduced thematic programming in his first season with “The Year of the Composer.” In a wide-ranging career that has spanned a performance at the White House (1976) and mentoring the Gold Medal winner of the Van Cliburn competition (2001), he is most

Musician Profiles proud of his time as Festival music director. In his retirement from university teaching, he performs and gives master classes (recently in Maine, Michigan, Indiana, Colorado, and Washington), teaches privately, and writes both music and prose. He is eternally grateful to the people of Central New York for their support of his efforts 20 years ago, and their continued openness to the music offered by this unique Skaneateles Festival.

Gail Williams, horn Internationally recognized hornist and brass pedagogue Gail Williams has presented concerts, master classes, recitals, and lectures throughout North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. She was a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1978 until she retired in 1998 as associate principal horn. Dedicated to performing and promoting chamber music, she has performed with and for the Vermeer Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Skaneateles, Santa Fe, and Olympic Peninsula chamber music festivals. She is a founding member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, a critically acclaimed ensemble that commissions new works for its concert series. She has also been instrumental in the development and performance of solo works for the horn. As a member of Summit Brass, she has coached young brass musicians since 1986. She has been on the

faculty of Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music since 1989.

Aaron Wunsch, piano, co-artistic director 2015 – present Currently co-artistic director of the Skaneateles Festival with his wife, cellist Julia Bruskin, Aaron Wunsch enjoys a multifaceted career as an artist, presenter, and educator. Especially regarded for his chamber music performances, he has appeared at the Norfolk, Bowdoin, Sarasota, Great Lakes, and Yellow Barn chamber music festivals. Wunsch is a full-time faculty member at Juilliard, where he teaches graduate studies, chamber music, music history, and keyboard studies, and directs Juilliard PianoScope, the Piano Department’s performance series. He teaches piano master classes and lectures at conservatories and universities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. His awards for written work in musicology include the Henry Hart Rice and the Richard F. French prizes. Wunsch is also artistic director of the Music Mondays concert series in New York City. David Ying, cello, co-artistic director 2005-2014 David Ying is well known to concert audiences as the cellist of the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet. With the Quartet he has performed worldwide from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. The Quartet is known for its enterprising view of concert performance, which has led to visits to the White House as well as correctional facilities, and to business schools as well as hospitals. In its collaborations, the foursome has performed with chamber music greats as well as folk musician Mike Seeger, the Turtle Island Quartet, and even actors, dancers, chefs, and magicians. Ying first pursued chamber music with his piano trio as a student at the Eastman School of Music. That group was awarded first prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. Later he won the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award with the Ying Quartet. Also highly regarded as an individual artist, he has won prizes in the Naumburg Cello Competition and the Washington International Competition. He often performs with his wife, pianist Elinor Freer, and together they directed the Skaneateles Festival for ten years. David Zinman, conductor Appearing at the Skaneateles Festival numerous times since the 1980s, David Zinman is one of the world’s leading and most respected conductors. Zinman has worked with all of the world’s leading orchestras and was music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Baltimore Symphony orchestras. Now conductor emeritus of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, he was its conductor and music director for nearly 20 years, raising the standard of the orchestra to an international level. With a discography of more than 100 recordings, Zinman has won five Grammy Awards, two Grand Prix du Disque, two Edison Prizes, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and a Gramophone Award. He was also principal conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of the Aspen Music Festival, where he created the International Conducting Academy.

Directory Thank you for supporting those that support the Festival. Arts & Entertainment

Auburn Public Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 The John D. Barrow Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 LakeSide Performing Arts Series at St. James . . . . . . . 19 Skaneateles Artisans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Skaneateles Historical Society Museum . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Society for New Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Syracuse Arts.net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Syracuse Opera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Syracuse Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Syracuse Vocal Ensemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Equestrian

* Sundman Stables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Event Venue

* Mandana Barn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Consultants

* The Bonadio Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Bond Schoeneck & King, PLLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Educational Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Geddes Federal Savings & Loan Association . . . . . . . . 78 * Grossman St. Amour, CPA, PLLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Mackenzie Hughes LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 LNB Banking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Pushkin Advisory Group, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Port & Co. CPAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 SPACE Architectural Studio, PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Stifel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . back cover Douglas P. Whitehouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 * Wilmington Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Foundations/Associations

Central New York Community Foundation . . . . . . . . . . 6 Finger Lakes Land Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Skaneateles Education Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Skaneateles Lake Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Upstate Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Health

Crouse Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Eye Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons of Central New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Hematology Oncology Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Hospice of the Finger Lakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Infusacare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Upstate University Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Insurance

Delmonico Insurance Agency . . . . . . . . . inside front cover Parsons & Associates, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . inside back cover Preservation/Conservation

Westlake Conservators, Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Real Estate

* Franklin Properties, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 * Sutton Real Estate Company, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Retail

Artist Pianos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Dickman Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 * Folls Flower Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Robert Oddy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 * Patience Brewster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Upstate Printing, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 White & White Antiques, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 * Wood, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Restaurant/Food * 1911 Spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Anyela’s Vineyards, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 * Gilda’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 * Joelle’s French Bistro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 * Johnny Angel’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 * LakeHouse Pub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 * Mirbeau Inn & Spa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44, 54 * Moro’s Kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 * Pascales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 * Pâtisserie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 * Phoebe’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 * Sherwood Inn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 47 Wegmans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Tourism

Skaneateles Chamber of Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 * Sponsor

Classical Music – Words To Know Orchestra – A large group of instruments.

Movement – Individual section of a piece of music.

Conductor – A leader who provides direction for an orchestra.

Concerto – A piece of music that features a soloist, with an orchestra. Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3 Festival Finale, August 24th

Chamber Ensemble – A small group of instruments without a conductor. Takes the form of a quartet (4), quintet (5), sextet (6), or more depending on the number of members. String Instruments – Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass Brass Instruments – Trumpet, Trombone, French Horn, Tuba

Sonata – A piece of music in three or four movements, alternating in speed from one to the next. Copland’s Sonata for Violin All In Rhythm, August 16th Cantata – A multi-section work for soloists, choir, and orchestra. Bach’s Cantata No. 147 Bach Under the Stars, August 10th

Woodwind Instruments – Piccolo, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Saxophone Choir – Group of singers. Vocal Range – A singer’s vocal type, determined by the range of notes that the singing voice can reach. Soprano – Female singing in a high range. Abigail Fischer Bon Appetit, August 22nd Cafe Music, August 23rd

Symphony – An extended composition for a large orchestra. Mendelssohn’s Symphony in A Major Festival Finale, August 24th Song Cycle – A group of songs that share a common theme or central idea. Bernstein’s La bonne cuisine Bon Appetit!, August 22nd

Alto – Female singing in a low range. Tenor – Male singing in a high range.

Dulcimer – A small string instrument, played by striking with a hammer. Listen to the Water KidsFest with Susan Reed, August 14th

Bass – Male singing in a low range. Composition – An original musical creation for instruments and/or a singer.

Music is your passion.

Consider making it your legacy.

A special THANK YOU to the people listed here who let us know that they have made provision for the future of the Skaneateles Festival in their estate and financial plans. Anonymous George Bain

Gwen and Bill Birchenough

Carol Bryant Judith Bryant

Andrea Latchem Louise Robinson

If you have also provided for the Festival in this way, please let us know so that we can thank you as well. If you would like information on how to do so, please contact Susan Mark at music@skanfest.org or 315-685-7418.

SAVE THE DATE |

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Hosted by

Presented by the

The Falcone Family

Skaneateles Festival

A collection of Christmas Stories and Music, along with cocktails and dinner. Reservations start November 1 Thank you to the 2018 Contributors

The Falcone Family GUARANTORS

PATRONS

SUPPORTERS

Barclay Damon / Rick and Ann Capozza Don and Chacea Sundman

Beak & Skiff, 1911 Joan Christy Inns of Aurora Elizabeth Koenig, 1840 Dulles Inn, Auburn NY Bob and Sally Neumann Sherwood Inns & Appetites

Henry and Helga Beck Somak Chattopadhyay and Pia Sawhney Barb Connor and Doug Wood Dana and Susan Hall

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