First concert in the BMC's 2010-11 Chamber Music Series.
Sophie Shao & Friends
Saturday, October 30, 7:30 pm
Centre Congregational Church, Brattleboro, VT
On Saturday, the Brattleboro Music Center presents Sophie Shao, one of the leading cellists of her generation, and an ensemble of tremendous virtuosic talent.
Sophie Shao & Friends, including Daniel Phillips, violin, Arnaud Sussmann, violin, Eric Nowlin, viola, Sophie Shao, cello, and Pei-Yao Wang, piano, will perform the first concert in the BMC’s 2010-11 Chamber Music Series. The program includes Ravel’s Sonata for violin and cello, Elgar’s quintet in a minor for piano and string quartet, op. 84, and Schumann’s piano quintet in E-flat major, op. 44.
The Sophie Shao & Friends concert is the first concert in the Brattleboro Music Center's 2010-11 Chamber Music Series which also includes: Johannes String Quartet, Friday, November 5, 7:30 pm; Cellist Peter Wiley & Pianist Anna Polonsky, Saturday, February 19, 7:30 pm; The Lydian String Quartet, Saturday, April 9, 7:30; Jaime Laredo & Sharon Robinson, Cathy Meng & Keith Robinson, Ida Kavafian & Steve Tenenborn, Friday, May 6, 7:30 pm. All chamber series concerts are held at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont.
The BMC offers a 5-concert chamber series subscription ticket, which allows holders to attend 5 concerts for the price of 4 and guarantees their seat at each performance. Series subscription tickets are only available prior to the Sophie Shao & Friends concert on October 30.
TICKETS: $30, $20, $10
5-Concert Series: $120, $80, $40 (Pay for 4 concerts attend all 5)
Purchase tickets by calling the BMC at: 802-257-4523
Or Purchase On-line:
5-Concert Series Ticket
Sophie Shao & Friends Ticket (single concert)
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Ravel’s duo, which opens the program, was written in 1920-21, while he was getting settled in a new house near but isolated from the bustle of Paris. “I believe that this sonata marks a turning point in my career,” Ravel said. “Bareness is driven to the extreme; restraint from harmonic charm; more and more an emphatic reversion to the spirit of melody.” This moment in history also marked the debut of Les Six, the new ascendant composers led by Satie who were seeking differentiation from the style represented by Ravel. Some critics of the time thought this Sonata for Violin and Cello was his answer to them, though finishing it gave him some difficulty. In a letter he wrote at the time, he quipped that in the time it took him to write the Duo, Milhaud “would have found a way to compose 4 symphonies, 5 quarters, and several settings of lyric poems by Paul Claudel.” Ravel was fascinated by mechanical movement, perhaps a legacy of his engineer father. He referred to this sonata as a “machine for two instruments,” and indeed, his constant use of ostinati and other effects, including a plethora of whirring, tapping, pizzicato, left hand pizzicati, high register trills, glissandi, thrumming triple and quadruple stops. Not only does it employ mechanistic formal devices, but the work feels like it echoes the sounds of the mechanical.
Edward Elgar was inspired by the surroundings of his country cottage in Sussex when he wrote the Piano Quintet. The first movement, in particular, with its ghostly mood, was thought to have been related to a group of trees nearby, as his wife, Lady Elgar noted in her diary that the first movement represented a group of trees in Flexham Park near Brinkwells. According to legend, these trees comprised the remains of Spanish monks who had engaged in sacrilegious ceremonies in the park and were struck by lightning: “sad ‘dispossessed’ trees and their dance and unstilled regret for their evil fate”, as she speculated. The second movement is an emotional highlight, ushered in by a beautiful viola melody, interrupted by cello recitatives. This work is one of Elgar’s largest and finest. He wrote to a friend that this quintet “runs gigantically and in a large mood.”
The beloved Schumann Piano Quintet was written in 1842, a year that saw three string quartets, a piano quartet, and a piano trio emerge from Schumann’s pen, so dubbed the “Chamber Music Year.” It is said that the quintet was sketched out in only five days. Though Schumann dedicated this work to his wife, Clara Schumann, the virtuoso pianist of the time, when it came time to perform the work, it is said that she was taken ill, and Felix Mendelssohn was called upon to sit in (and sight-read the piano part!). Mendelssohn was Schumann’s idol at the time, so no doubt this was a joyful occasion for him.
At the age of nineteen, cellist Sophie Shao received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and has since performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Winner of top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky Competitions, the New York Times has applauded her “eloquent, powerful” interpretations of repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Crumb. A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six, and was a student of Shirley Trepel, former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer and chamber music with Felix Galimir. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Sophie Shao is on the faculty of Vassar College and the Bard Conservatory of Music.
Violinist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist and teacher. Born into a musical family, he began violin studies at age four with his father Eugene Phillips, a composer and former violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. He continued his training at the Juilliard School. His major teachers are Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Sandor Vegh and George Neikrug. He was a winner of the prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1976, and has performed as soloist with many American Symphonies. Daniel Phillips is a founding member of the 23-year-old Orion String Quartet, which tours internationally. This past season, they toured extensively in collaboration with pianist Peter Serkin.
Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, twenty-five year old violinist Arnaud Sussmann has performed as a soloist all over the world, with many of today’s leading artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Joseph Kalichstein, Miriam Fried, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry, and Gary Hoffman. Mr. Sussmann is a winner of several International Competitions and awards including the David Gritz Violin Award by the Tanglewood Music Center for his extraordinary commitment of talent and energy. Mr. Sussmann holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Itzhak Perlman.
Second-prize winner of the 2006 Walter W. Naumburg competition, violist Eric Nowlin has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as abroad. Mr. Nowlin is an active chamber musician, participating in festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia. He is a regular member of the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City, and also tours with Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute. Mr. Nowlin was chosen as the recipient of a Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation Grant in 2004, an award intended for the advancement of young artist’s performance careers. Mr. Nowlin received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, as a scholarship student of Samuel Rhodes. He plays on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola on generous loan from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation.
Pianist Pei-Yao Wang made her official orchestral debut with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra at age 8 and has since performed as soloist with the Stamford Symphony, Orlando Symphony, and Taipei Philharmonic. As a chamber Musician, Pei-Yao has collaborated with members of the Guarneri , Orion, Chicago, Mendelssohn and Miro quartets; and has performed with other distinguished artists such as Claude Frank, Hilary Hahn, Nicola Benedetti, and Mitsuko Uchida. At age 12, Ms. Wang was invited to study at The Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked with Seymour Lipkin and Institute Director Gary Graffman. She then studied with Claude Frank at Yale University, where she received the Master of Music degree, and also pursued a concentration in architecture. She currently resides in New York City, where for several years she was under the tutelage of celebrated pianist Richard Goode.
The Sophie Shao & Friends concert is the first concert in the Brattleboro Music Center's 2010-11 Chamber Music Series which also includes: Johannes String Quartet, Friday, November 5, 7:30 pm; Cellist Peter Wiley & Pianist Anna Polonsky, Saturday, February 19, 7:30 pm; The Lydian String Quartet, Saturday, April 9, 7:30; Jaime Laredo & Sharon Robinson, Cathy Meng & Keith Robinson, Ida Kavafian & Steve Tenenborn, Friday, May 6, 7:30 pm. All chamber series concerts are held at Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont.
The BMC offers a 5-concert chamber series subscription ticket, which allows holders to attend 5 concerts for the price of 4 and guarantees their seat at each performance. Series subscription tickets are only available prior to the Sophie Shao & Friends concert on October 30.
TICKETS: $30, $20, $10
5-Concert Series: $120, $80, $40 (Pay for 4 concerts attend all 5)
Purchase tickets by calling the BMC at: 802-257-4523
Or Purchase On-line:
5-Concert Series Ticket
Sophie Shao & Friends Ticket (single concert)
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