yale baroque ensemble Jacob Ashworth, Hye Jin Koh & Isabelle Seula Lee, baroque violin Christopher Hwang, baroque cello Stephen Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord
Robert Mealy, Director May 4, 2015 • Morse Recital Hall
Robert Blocker, Dean
Yale School of Music
yale baroque ensemble Monday, May 4, 2015 • 7:30 pm • Morse Recital Hall Yale Baroque Ensemble • Robert Mealy, Director Jacob Ashworth, Hye Jin Koh, and Isabelle Seula Lee, baroque violin Christopher Hwang, baroque cello • Stephen Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord
Jean-Marie Leclair 1697–1764
Sonata in D major, Op. 9, No. 6 I. Allegro IV. Giga prestissimo Isabelle Seula Lee, baroque violin Stephen Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord
François Couperin 1668–1733
L’Impériale from Les Nations (Paris, 1726) I. Sonade (Gravement — Vivement — Gravement et marqué — Rondeau légèrement — Rondement — Vivement) II. Allemande (sans lenteur) III. Courante IV. Seconde Courante (plus marquée) V. Sarabande (tendrement) VI. Bourée (gayement) VII. Gigue (d’une légèrete modérée) VIII. Rondeau (gayement) IX. Chaconne X. Menuet Jacob Ashworth, Hye Jin Koh, baroque violin Christopher Hwang, baroque cello Stephen Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord intermission
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750
Harpsichord Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Andante assai Stephen Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord Jacob Ashworth, baroque violin Robert Mealy, baroque viola Christopher Hwang, baroque cello
Bach
Concerto for Three Violins in D major, BWV 1064R Jacob Ashworth, Hye Jin Koh, Isabelle Seula Lee, baroque violin Robert Mealy, baroque viola Christopher Hwang, baroque cello Stephen Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord
As a courtesy to the performers and audience, silence all electronic devices. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.
Artist Profiles
The Yale Baroque Ensemble
Jacob Ashworth, violin
The Yale Baroque Ensemble, directed by distinguished baroque violinist Robert Mealy, is a postgraduate ensemble at the Yale School of Music dedicated to an intensive study of Baroque repertoire and performance practices. Using the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments’ set of replica baroque instruments, members of the Ensemble pursue an intensive one-year program of study, immersing themselves in the chamber and solo repertoire from 1600 to 1785 to prepare idiomatic and virtuosic performances of this music. The Yale Baroque Ensemble is presented publically in a series of concerts each year. In past seasons the ensemble has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Hall as part of the Yale in New York series and participated in international tours with the Yale Schola Cantorum. As resident ensemble at the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, the Yale Baroque Ensemble appears in concert each term at 15 Hillhouse Avenue.
As violinist, conductor, and artistic director of the vocal and instrumental chamber ensemble Cantata Profana, and as co-music director of New York’s newest opera company Heartbeat Opera, Jacob Ashworth brings his passion for collaboration to every style of classical music. Praised as a baroque violinist by the New York Times for his “diligent attention to period style” and hailed by the Boston Globe for his “exacting and sensitive” interpretations of modern works, Jacob enjoys a richly varied performing life, from recitals of the complete Brahms sonatas to staged productions of Kurtag’s KafkaFragments and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, conducting baroque and modern operas, and performing classics and commissions as a duo with pianist Lee Dionne.
Artist Profiles
Hye Jin Koh, violin
Isabelle Seula Lee, violin
Korean violinist Hye Jin Koh most recently finished her training at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Syoko Aki, receiving her Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma. As a former student of Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, and Nick Eanet, she received her undergraduate degree at The Juilliard School. Koh has held prestigious positions in orchestras such as the National Repertory Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. In 2012, Koh was awarded the Horatio Parker Memorial Prize at the Yale School of Music.
Isabelle began her violin training at age four. After two years of study, she was accepted into the Special Music School of the RimskyKorsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2006 she moved to the U.S., where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree under Elmar Oliveira at the Lynn Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School under Hyo Kang and Naoko Tanaka, and an Artist Diploma from Yale University under Hyo Kang. While in school, Isabelle embarked on an active solo and chamber performing career and has won numerous prizes including first prize at the International Competition of Young Musicians Tallinn (Estonia), and second prizes in Austria’s Schloss Zell an der Pram International Violin Competition, the Donald Portnoy International Violin Competition, and the Artist Series of Sarasota String Competition. She has been a featured soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of Tele-Radio of St. Petersburg, Chamber Orchestra of Estonia, St. Petersburg Conservatory Symphony, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Olympia Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Lynn Philharmonia Orchestra. She is currently a member of the Yale Baroque Ensemble.
A dedicated musician off the stage, she is part of a young production company based in Montréal named BOP (Ballet-OpéraPantomime), of which she is the operations director. Currently, Koh is a member of the Yale Baroque Ensemble, a postgraduate fellowship dedicated to intensive study of the baroque repertoire under the guidance of Robert Mealy.
Artist Profiles
Christopher Hwang, cello
Stephen Gamboa-Diaz, harpsichord
Canadian cellist Christopher Hwang expresses his passion for music as a devoted soloist, chamber musician, and collaborator. He began his music studies at the age of six and has won numerous first prize awards in Canada, including the Canadian Music Competition, Kiwanis Music Festival, and the National Music Festival. Mr. Hwang made his solo debut with the KitchenerWaterloo Youth Orchestra at the Centre of Squares in 2004 and has performed with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the MacMillan Theatre in Toronto. Mr. Hwang has attended many music festivals across North America and has performed in master classes with artists including Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Raphael Wallfisch, and many more. Mr. Hwang received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Shauna Rolston. He received his Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Aldo Parisot.
Stephen Gamboa-Diaz was born in Oxnard, California in 1986. After undergraduate studies in harpsichord at U.C. Berkeley with Charlene Brendler and Davitt Moroney, Stephen headed to Stony Brook University, where he completed his doctoral studies under Arthur Haas. Stephen also holds a master’s degree in music history and theory from Stony Brook. He was a laureate of the 2012 Westfield International Harpsichord Competition, and his harpsichord duo Zweikampf were finalists in Early Music America’s inaugural Baroque Performance Competition. Currently based in New Haven, Stephen is pursuing an Artist Diploma in harpsichord at the Yale School of Music under Arthur Haas. He is Director of Music Ministry at United Methodist Church of Hartford.
Artist Profiles
Robert Mealy, director Robert Mealy is one of America’s most prominent Baroque violinists. He has been praised for his “imagination, taste, subtlety, and daring” (Boston Globe); the New Yorker described him as “New York’s world-class early music violinist.” Mr. Mealy began exploring early music in high school, first with the Collegium of UC Berkeley and then at the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied harpsichord and Baroque violin. While still an undergraduate at Harvard College, he was asked to join the distinguished Canadian Baroque orchestra Tafelmusik. Since then, he has recorded over 80 CDs of early music on most major labels, ranging from Hildegard of Bingen with Sequentia, to Renaissance consorts with the Boston Camerata, to Rameau operas with Les Arts Florissants. He has led Baroque ensembles for the Mark Morris Dance Company, including a tour to Moscow, and accompanied Renée Fleming on the David Letterman Show. In 2011, he
was appointed Orchestra Director for the Boston Early Music Festival, where he has led the orchestra in festival productions and Grammy-nominated recordings for nearly a decade. A devoted chamber musician, he co-directs the seventeenth-century ensemble Quicksilver, whose début recording was hailed as “breakthrough CD of the year” by the Huffington Post. A keen scholar as well as a performer, Mr. Mealy is Director of the distinguished Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School. He is also a professor at the Yale School of Music, where he directs the postgraduate Yale Baroque Ensemble, and teaches at the summer American Bach Soloists Academy in San Francisco. He taught at Harvard for over a decade, where he founded the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra. In 2004, he received Early Music America’s Binkley Award for outstanding teaching and scholarship.
Upcoming Events
Competition Winners
Brentano String Quartet
may 5 Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 7:30 pm Oneppo Chamber Music Series The winners of the School’s annual chamber music competition perform music by Mozart, Poulenc, Britten, and Dutilleux Tickets start at $10 • Students $5
may 13 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm Oneppo Chamber Music Series Music by Haydn, MacMillan and Brahms Tickets start at $26 • Students $13
Lunchtime Chamber Music may 6 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 12:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Music for a variety of chamber ensembles Wendy Sharp, director Free Admission
Commencement Concert may 17 Morse Recital Hall | Sunday | 4:00 pm YSM Student Ensembles Featuring student performers selected from the Yale School of Music’s class of 2015 Free Admission
Guitar Chamber Music may 6 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 7:30 pm YSM Student Ensembles Chamber music featuring the guitar by Tedesco, Eespere, de Falla, Tower, and more Benjamin Verdery, director Free Admission Concert Programs & Box Office: Krista Johnson, Donna Yoo Communications: Dana Astmann, Monica Ong Reed, Austin Kase Operations: Tara Deming, Chris Melillo Piano Curators: Brian Daley, William Harold Recording Studio: Eugene Kimball wshu 91.1 fm is the media sponsor of the Yale School of Music. connect with us:
facebook.com/yalemusic
P.O. Box 208246, New Haven, CT · 203 432-4158
@yalemusic on Twitter
music.yale.edu
If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors.
Robert Blocker, Dean