ABOUT THE ARTISTS Adan Aaron Caldera Quintero, cello Born in Venezuela, Adan started his musical journey at the Colegio Emil Friedman. Based in Panama with his family, he spent his teenage years in multiple musical organizations like FUNSINCOPA. He recently graduated from Oberlin Conservatory where he studied with Dmitry Kouzov, and is pursuing a Master’s degree at West Chester University studying with Ovidiu Marinescu and Ari Isaacman-Beck. A prizewinner at the Concurso de Solistas Alfredo de Saint Malo 2019 in Panama, Adan has performed as a soloist with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Camerata Essy Casal. He has appeared in concerts for the Musikos Collective (OH), Taconic Music (VT), and the Hidden Valley Seminars (CA), and participated in various summer programs. His previous teachers include Sébastien Hurtaud, Isaac Casal, Mauricio López and Elisabeta Grosz with additional mentorship from Rebecca Landell and Paul Kushious. Alyssa Gabrilovich, piano Alyssa Gabrilovich made her stage debut at the age of 9 as a soloist with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra. Since then she performed with orchestras in Philadelphia area and New Orleans Civic Symphony. She performed in Weill Recital Hall, Kimmel Center, Merkin Hall, and Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU. Alyssa received awards in over 40 youth competitions including Chicago International Music Competition, Kaufman Music Center International Youth Piano Competition, New Orleans Piano Institute Competitions, WCUPA National Piano Competition. Alyssa was a winner of Pennsylvania State MTNA Competitions for many years and Eastern Division MTNA in 2020. She was a finalist in the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition (2020, finals were canceled due to COVID-19) and Yamaha USASU Young Artists International Senior Piano Competition (2023) and a quarterfinalist in the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition (2023). She was a recipient of the Chopin Foundation of the US scholarship in 2020-2022 and YoungArts winner in 2023. Alyssa performed twice live at the WRTI 90.1FM studio and was featured in NPR’s From the Top program in 2020 and 2023.
PROGRAM NOTES BACH, CELLO SUITE NO. 4 IN E-FLAT MAJOR BWV 1010 At Age 12, Pablo Casals found the music for J.S. Bach’s 6 suites for violoncello solo senza basso (without bass) and changed our repertoire forever. These works stem from Bach’s work as Kapellmeister in Cöthen, Germany back in the 18th Century. The suites all present a prelude followed by 5 movements inspired by baroque dances, all in the same key and channeling a particular emotion, traditionally called affect, throughout the piece. Bach’s cello suites are not only one of the most popular pieces performed today, but they are a mysterious gift to all cellists. There is no manuscript by Bach himself that serves as source material for the music we play today, and modern editions are based off several different sources, including one by Anna Magdalena, his wife. This suite, in E-Flat Major, releases stately, noble shapes within an intimate harmonic plot which, in my opinion, dramatizes the labor of love.
DVOŘÁK, CELLO CONCERTO IN B MINOR OP. 104 Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony “From the New World” and the “American” Quartet, published right after this concerto, is representative of a special chapter in the composer’s life and the history of Western Art Music in North America alike. Dvořák was brought to the United States to direct the National Conservatory of Music in New York and to lead a scholarly movement of “American” composition. After hearing Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in E Minor, He decided to write a cello concerto between 1894 and 1895 for cellist Hanuš Wihan. In the process of writing it, he heard about his sister-in-law, Josefina Kaunitzová, becoming seriously ill and eventually passing. This prompted him to include material from the song “Leave me Alone” from his Four Songs, Op 82, and one of Josefina’s favorites, into the second and third movements. Dvořák’s Cello Concerto has left a great impression on all music lovers, including Johannes Brahms, who wished he had written one himself after hearing this piece. It is a great joy for me to play this piece for you today, which is something I have been looking forward to for as long as I’ve been in school.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to everyone involved in my artistic growth during my time at WCU: Dr. Marinescu, Professors IsaacmanBeck, Rubio, Linares and Morales from the Dali Quartet, Maestro Paul Bryan, Dr. Adams, Dr. Rimple, Dr. Onderdonk, as well as my quartet mates Stefania, Fabian, Kira, Ricardo and Geovany. Thank you to all my friends, without whom I would not have the emotional endurance to prepare for my performances. Thank you to my parents, Adan and Viviana, and my sister Abril. You fill my life with meaning.