Wendy Sharp, violin, & friends

FACULTY ARTIST SERIES

WENDY SHARP VIOLIN + MARKA GUSTAVSSON VIOLA MIMI HWANG CELLO MELVIN CHEN PIANO JANUARY 30, 2011 Sprague Memorial Hall Sunday at 4 pm

MUSIC BY Brahms Debussy Halle Handel-Halvorssen

Robert Blocker, Dean

WENDY SHARP VIOLIN January 30, 2011 · Sprague Memorial Hall

JOHAN HALVORSSEN

Passagalia for Violin and Cello

1864–1935 after George Frideric Handel 1685-1759

Wendy Sharp, violin Mimi Hwang, cello

JOHN HALLE

Many Returns (world première)

b. 1959

Wendy Sharp, violin Marka Gustavsson, viola

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Suite bergamasque

1862–1918

Prélude Menuet Clair de lune Passepied Melvin Chen, piano Intermission

JOHANNES BRAHMS

Quartet for Piano and Strings in A major, Op. 26

1833–1897

Allegro non troppo Poco adagio Scherzo: Poco allegro Finale: Allegro Wendy Sharp, violin Marka Gustavsson, viola Mimi Hwang, cello Melvin Chen, piano As a courtesy to others, please silence all phones and devices.

Photography of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.

ARTIST PROFILES

WENDY SHARP violin Wendy Sharp, award-winning violinist, performs frequently as a recitalist and a chamber musician. In demand as a teacher and chamber music coach, she is on the faculties of the Yale School of Music and California Summer Music, and maintains a private studio. For nearly a decade, Ms. Sharp was the first violinist and a founding member of the highly-acclaimed Franciscan String Quartet. As a member of the quartet she toured the USA, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and was honored with many awards including first prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Press and City of Evian prizes at the Evian International String Quartet Competition. A native of the San Francisco Bay area, she attended Yale University, graduating summa cum laude with Distinction in Music, and received her Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Ms. Sharp has served on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Dartmouth College, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Choate Rosemary Hall, and has participated in the Aspen, Tanglewood, Chamber Music West, Norfolk, Britten-Pears, and Music Academy of the West festivals. Ms. Sharp is currently the director of chamber music at the Yale School of Music, where she has also served on the violin faculty since 1997. She lives with her husband and their two children in North Haven, Connecticut.

MARKA GUSTAVSSON

MIMI HWANG

viola

cello

Marka Gustavsson grew up in Indiana, where she studied first with Mimi Zweig and then with the legendary Joseph Gingold. A dedicated chamber musician, she has performed in major halls across Europe, Canada, and the U.S., as well as Japan and Israel. Marka has been invited as collaborator and teacher to festivals including Bard, Mostly Mozart, Skaneateles, Portland, Bennington, and Newport. She has played concerts and given master classes at such schools as Yale, Eastman, Indiana University, Northwestern, Banff Centre, and Cleveland Institute. She has appeared as a guest of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, on WQXR’s Showcase, and with the Symphony Space All-Stars. Marka has worked closely with composers including John Halle, Joan Tower, Kyle Gann, George Tsontakis, Yinam Leef, Katherine Hoover, Martin Bresnick, and Tan Dun. In 2000, Marka found her dream job in the Colorado Quartet, an active touring ensemble offering traditional and new repertoire. Recent seasons have featured premieres of quartets by Keith Fitch, Laura Kaminsky, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, and Rob Maggio, as well as recordings of Irving Fine, Henry Cowell, Richard Wernick, and Katherine Hoover. The quartet recently released the complete Beethoven Quartets on Parnassus Records. Ms. Gustavsson holds a teaching position at Bard College, and with the Colorado Quartet, serves as faculty and co-artistic director at Soundfest Chamber Music Festival and Quartet Institute.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, cellist Mimi Hwang was born and raised in Los Angeles. She is currently an assistant professor of chamber music at the Eastman School of Music, lecturer of music at Nazareth College, and a founding member of the Amenda Quartet.

She is also co-artistic director of the Young Artists Program at the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival. Ms. Hwang was the cellist and a founding member of the Franciscan String Quartet, which won first prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition. The quartet performed in concert halls throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, held the position of Wardwell Fellows at the Yale School of Music, and was Quartet-in-Residence at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, where Ms. Hwang was on the faculty of the Department of Music. As a soloist, Ms Hwang has performed with the Beijing Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.

ARTIST PROFILES

MELVIN CHEN piano A native of Tennessee, pianist Melvin Chen is recognized as an important young artist.

As a soloist and chamber musician Mr. Chen has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Jordan Hall, in addition to other appearances throughout the U.S., Canada, and Asia.

Recent seasons’ highlights include two solo recitals at Weill Recital Hall and concerto appearances with the American Symphony Orchestra and Marin Symphony, among others. Mr. Chen’s recordings include Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations on the Bridge label, praised as “a classic” by the American Record Guide, and Joan Tower’s piano music on Naxos. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Mr. Chen has collaborated with such artists as Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, Pamela Frank, and Peter Wiley, and with the Shanghai, Tokyo, Miami, and Miró quartets. He has performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Music Mountain, Bard Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, among others. Mr. Chen completed a doctorate in chemistry at Harvard and holds a double master’s degree from Juilliard in piano and violin. Previously, he attended Yale University, where he studied with Boris Berman, Paul Kantor, and Ida Kavafian. Mr. Chen is on the piano faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, where he is associate director, and has previously been on the piano faculty of the Yale School of Music. He is also the artistic director of the chamber music program at the Hotchkiss Summer Portals.

Doris Yarick Cross, Artistic Director presents

MusiC bY W.A. MozArt, K.V. 527

Giuseppe GrAzioli, ConDuCtor | sAM HelfriCH, stAGe DireCtor WitH tHe pHilHArMoniA orCHestrA of YAle

shubert theater 247 College street, new Haven

tickets $19–$41 robert blocker, Dean | music.yale.edu

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february 11, 12, 2011 | 8 p.m. february 13, 2011 | 2 p.m.

800-228-6622 | www.shubert.com media sponsor

12/3/10 9:16 AM

COMING UP Yale School of Music 203 432-4158 concerts@yale.edu music.yale.edu/media

Elizabeth Parisot and Ole Akahoshi January 31 | 8 pm | Mon | Sprague The Faculty Artist Series presents Ole Akahoshi, cello, and Elizabeth Parisot, piano; with David Shifrin, clarinet. Beethoven: Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 69; Schubert: Cello Sonata in A minor, D. 821; and Brahms: Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano in A minor, Op. 114. Please note: this concert was originally scheduled for February 7.

Free admission.

Peter Frankl, piano February 2 | 8 pm | Wed | Sprague Peter Frankl continues his 75th birthday celebration. Bartók: Allegro barbaro; Three Burlesques; Three Rondos. Beethoven: Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, “Quasi una Fantasia,” Op. 27, no. 1; Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, no. 2, “Moonlight”; Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111.

Tickets $12-22, Students $6

peter frankl

Celebrating 75 Years february 2

Music for Two Tenors February 4 | 8 pm | Fri | Sprague A doi tenori: music for two tenors by Monteverdi and his contemporaries, including Heinrich Schütz, Christoph Bernhard, Dario Castello, Johann Kaspar Kerll, and Johann Krieger. James Taylor and Thomas Cooley, tenors; Robert Mealy, violin; and Avi Stein, continuo.

Free admission.