UMS Concert Program, Sunday, September 23, 2001: Michigan Chamber Players --

University Of Michigan

UMS
presents
Michigan Chamber Players
Faculty Artists of the University of Michigan School of Music
Lynne Aspnes, Harp Erling BlondalBengtsson, Cello IChun Chiang, Viola Katherine Collier, Piano Anthony Elliott, Cello Diana Gannett, Bass
Soren Hermansson, Horn Andrew Jennings, Violin Paul Kantor, Violin Carmen Pelton, Soprano Yizhak Schotten, Viola
Program Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 4:00pm
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quintet for Horn and Strings in Eflat Major, K. 407
Allegro Andante Rondo: Allegro
Chiang, Elliott, Hermansson, Jennings, Schotten
Benjamin Britten Folksong Arrangements for Soprano and Harp
from Volumes I and IV
Dear Harp of my Country!, Vol. 4, No. 7
The Minstrel Boy, Vol. 4, No. 4
O can ye sew cushions, Vol. 1, No. 4
The Ash Grove, Vol. 1, No. 6
The trees they grow so high, Vol. 1, No. 5
The last rose of summer, Vol. 4, No. 9
Aspnes, Pelton
INTERMISSION
Franz Schubert Quintet in A Major for Piano and Strings,
Op. posth. 114 (D. 667)
Allegro vivace
Andante
Scherzo--Trio: Presto
Tema con variazione: Andantino
Finale: Allegro giusto
BlondahlBengtsson, Collier, Gannett, Kantor,Schotten
First Performance Thanks to all of the UM School of Music Faculty Artists for their ongoing
of the 123rd Season commitment of time and energy to this special UMS performance.
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording is prohibited.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Quintet for Horn and Strings in Eflat Major, K. 407
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria
Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna
All of Mozart's solo horn works--the Quintet for Horn and Strings and the four horn concerti--were written for a family friend the Mozarts had known for quite some time, Josef Ignaz Leutgeb. From as early as 1763, Leopold Mozart had come to know Leutgeb as a horn player in the Salzburg court orchestra, and the relation?ship grew even closer when the younger Mozart also worked in the Salzburg court. In 1777, Mozart left his court post to tour Mannheim and Paris, and Leutgeb moved to Vienna where he freelanced as a musician and ran a retail cheese store (with financial assistance from the Mozarts). When Wolfgang Mozart moved to Vienna several years later, he renewed his friendship with Leutgeb, their friendship eventually leading to the composition of four horn concerti and the Quintet for Horn and Strings between 1782 and 1786. Mozart's fondness for Leutgeb was evident in the jokes and jibes he leveled at his friend, such as the dedication for the Horn Concerto, K. 417, which reads: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart takes pity on Leutgeb, donkey, ox, and fool...."
The instrumentation for the Quintet for Horn and Strings, K. 407 (composed in late 1782) is a little unusual: horn, violin, two violas, and cello. The addition of another viola instead of a second violin enriches the middle registers of the ensemble, allowing for a greater versatility and interplay for the horn. But it also recalls some of the marches Mozart had written to introduce serenades and divertimenti, for which the instrumen?tation was a string quartet, with double bass instead of cello, and two added horns. These marches were meant as outdoor entertain
ments, reminding the audience of the instrument's original hunting role. Even by the late eighteenth century, the horn was still a relative newcomer in the concert hall; many still felt its sound was too crude and blustery for serious music (thus providing Mozart with plenty of ammunition for the humorous asides he scribbled on the scores for Leutgeb!).
Rather than being chamber music in the pure sense, this quintet is more like a smallscale concerto, as the horn dominates throughout. The only other instrument to have any significant melodic role is the vio?lin, and even then it is usually in some kind of duetdialog with the horn. The other instruments act as a "chamberized" string accompaniment. The threemovement for?mat also suggests a miniconcerto, though the first movement does not employ the doubleexposition form most often found in Classical concerti. Within a standard sonataallegro framework for the first movement, the horn and violin exchange phrases, echo each other, finish each other's thoughts in what could be described as a conversation between two old but very different friends, perhaps even analogous to Mozart and Leutgeb directly. The variety in this move?ment comes through alternating contrasts in timbre, instrumentation, and dynamics.
The "Andante" introduces a cantabile melody in the strings that is picked up by the horn on the repeat. A touching and inti?mate duet ensues for the remainder of the movement, all the more remarkable for the disparity between the instruments. Mozart recognized the horn's ability to sustain lyri?cal melodies, and demonstrates here that the horn's outdoor origins do not efface its suit?ability for music of remarkable delicacy and sweetness.
The finale abounds with musical jokes and sly humor from the very opening, which doesn't seem sure if it's on a down?beat or an upbeat. Eventually it becomes
clear that the first note was an upbeat, but by then the listener may not have noticed that the first theme is actually a rhythmic reinterpretation of the melody from the sec?ond movement. This finale is even more concertolike than the other movements, with much use of rollicking, arpeggiated horn calls more usually associated with the instrument. But as is so often the case with Mozart, the humor also requires incredible technique; Melvin Berger notes in this regard, "As one enjoys the wholesome good spirits of this rondoform movement, it is easy to lose sight of Mozart's wickedly diffi?cult horn part."
Folksong Arrangements for Soprano and Harp from Volumes I and IV
Benjamin Britten
Born November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft,
Suffolk, England Died December 4, 1976 in Aldeburgh
The English composer Constant Lambert once remarked that there is nothing you can do with a folk tune once you have played it except to play it again louder. Vaughan Williams thought differently: "the essence of a good folk tune is that it does not show its full quality untill it has been repeated sever?al times." In some respects, Benjamin Britten inherited both of these attitudes to folksong: at times he was dismissive, claim?ing that most English folk tunes were banal, yet he produced numerous volumes of folk?song arrangements that are as sensitively and carefully crafted as any in the reper?toire.
Like his continental contemporary Zoltan Kodaly, Britten knew that simply dressing up rural folk songs in urban cloth?ing was inappropriate. There had to be some kind of adaptation that respected the spirit of folksong while acknowledging that the
contexts for its performance and dissemina?tion had drastically changed. In his folksong arrangements, Britten grappled with the uneasy relationship between innocence and experience, between the rustic nostalgia of the original song and the modernity, urban?ization, and conflict that so characterized the middle of the twentieth century.
Part of the reason for Britten's turn to folksong in the early 1940s was directly autobiographical. He had moved to the US with his partner and collaborator Peter Pears in June 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, and was enjoying much success abroad. But he was also criticized in England for abandoning his homeland in a time of great need, and for failing to sup?port the war effort. There was even a slim suggestion that their British citizenship might be revoked. Despite his American successes, Britten's extended absence was beginning to affect his creativity as well as his reputation. He recalled, "I suddenly real?ized where I belonged and what I had lacked...I had become without roots." In 1942, he and Pears began making arrange?ments to return to England, and it was pre?cisely at this time that he started work on the first volume of folksong arrangements based on British melodies.
Eric Roseberry observes that Britten's arrangements are a far cry from the Edwardian and Victorian folklorists who paint a picture of rustic life full of green meadows and happy frolicking. Britten's approach was "sharper, less complacent, more quizzical". Britten was himself an avid fan of Percy Grainger's folksong settings, and seems to have used them as a model for his earlier forays in arranging, rather than the more innocuous settings of composers such as Cecil Sharp, Frederick Delius, and Henry Balfour Gardiner. Vaughan Williams recognized the value of this new voice in folksong, and wrote in a review of Britten's first volume (published in 1943), "Are we
old fogeys of the folksong movement getting into a rut If so, it is very good for us to be pulled out of it by such fiery young steeds as Benjamin Britten."
In Britten's first volume of folksong arrangements, songs about death and lost innocence prevail. In the justly famous "Ash Grove," the piano countermelody produces a modalbitonal effect to highlight the sor?row of the text, in which the blackbird's song is a reminiscence of the deceased lover. The restful opening, in parallel thirds, returns at the end, where it represents the ironic repose of death. "The trees they grow so high" counts as one of Britten's finest narrative or "ballad" songs, based on a Somerset song that had also been rewritten by Burns as "Lady Mary Ann." Like "Ash Grove," it is an ambitious, throughcom?posed setting, gradually adding textural lay?ers from an unaccompanied opening to a richlyaccompanied climax, and then back to complete the archform the composer favored so much.
Scottish folksongs are among the best of Britten's arrangements. He recalled Scottish highlander fishergirls visiting his home town, singing their "lovely, lilting Highland tunes," and it is easy to hear some of that reminiscence in "O can ye sew cushions," the cradlesong of a poor mother. Britten later made an orchestral arrangement of this song, one of the few in Volume I that is nei?ther melancholic nor lamenting.
Volume IV of Britten's folksongs arrangements--ten settings from Moore's Irish Melodies (originally published in the early nineteenth century)--appeared in 1960, while the composer was working on A Midsummer Night's Dream and the War Requiem. It had been thirteen years since Britten had published any new folksong arrangements, but in the meantime he and Peter Pears had regularly included many of the earlier settings in their recital programs.
A harp motif runs through this particu
lar collection, so much so that the accompa?niments in Volume IV are often arpeggiated to imitate the harp. Britten later published a separate volume of folksong arrangements specifically with harp accompaniment, drawing on previous collaborations with his friend and harpist Ossian Ellis.
"Dear Harp of my Country!" speaks to the intimate connection between Irish song, the Irish harp as the national musical instrument, and Ireland's struggles for free?dom and prosperity. The gently murmuring accompaniment quickens quietly into triplets for the second stanza, as the lyrics take a more melancholic turn. "The Minstrel Boy" also focuses on the Irish harp as a national symbol. In this ballad, here turned into a march with menacingly displaced drumbeats, the young musician destroys his instrument so that the enemy cannot make music with it. "The last rose of summer," one of the most well known of Moore's Irish melodies, is in the form of a nostalgic aria, also with strummed harplike accompani?ment.
Quintet in A Major for Piano and Strings, Op. posth. 114 (D. 667)
Franz Schubert
Born January 31, 1797 in Himmelpfortgrund
(Vienna), Austria Died November 19, 1828 in Vienna
Franz Schubert spent his summer vacation in 1819 in the town of Steyr in Upper Austria, with his friends Albert Stadler and Johann Michael Vogl (both of whom were originally from that region). Before long, Stadler and Vogl had introduced the young composer to Sylvester Paumgartner, a local businessman and amateur cellist whose salon was one of the town's principal centers of musical activity. Paumgartner suggested to the young composer that he write a piano
quintet, one that might include a set of vari?ations on Schubert's song "Die Forelle" (The Trout), and that would be modeled on Hummel's Septet in dminor (or more cor?rectly, on Artaria's pianoquintet arrange?ment of the Hummel score). Schubert began work on the quintet while still in Steyr, and finished it later that fall in Vienna.
This quintet is an amiable composition, redolent with all the delights--natural, social, and musical--that Schubert enjoyed on his vacation. Clive Brown writes that it reveals Schubert in his genial mood: "He certainly did not intend to impress listeners with subtleties of compositional technique, but he succeeded magnificently in charming and captivating them. Despite occasional deeper moments, four of the five move?ments seem primarily to reflect the carefree atmosphere of his holiday in Upper Austria; only the second movement sustains a more introspective mood."
Although the score was not published until after the composer's death (any perfor?mances necessarily being prepared from the manuscript), the publication announcement included the observation that connoisseurs had already declared it a masterpiece. Since its publication it has become one of Schubert's most famous compositions, exceeded perhaps only by a handful of songs and the "Unfinished" Symphony. It is cer?tainly one of his most refreshing and delightful scores.
The inspiration for the commission of this work may have been Hummel's Septet, but the nearest model is perhaps Beethoven's popular Septet, which also has five movements. This structure aligns the Beethoven and Schubert works with the "serenade" tradition, which relied more often on unusual combinations of available instruments (Schubert's Quintet includes a double bass) and a friendlier outlook than most "serious" chamber compositions.
The tonic pedal with piano triplets that
opens the first movement is a call to atten?tion, and precedes the actual first theme. The theme itself doesn't call for elaboration, and much of the exposition consists of vari?ations on the motifs, but the triplet figure persists through the movement, functioning as a unifying device.
The quintet as a whole is based on the notion of songderived instrumentality, and doesn't feel confined to classical notions of form or development. This becomes espe?cially clear when Schubert begins the firstmovement recapitulation in the subdomi?nant rather than the expected tonic. By transposing the entire exposition down a fifth for the recapitulation, the second theme then reappears in the tonic without need for any recomposition. Occasionally criticized by pedants as a "lazy" approach to sonata form--or the possible result of com?posing in haste--the movement is so abun?dantly cheerful that this transgression of traditional classical procedure succeeds merely in reinforcing its easygoing and carefree demeanor.
The second movement, like the first, states and varies the melodic materials with little "working out" of motifs. It is in a bina?ry form that roughly approximates a sonataallegro form without development section (sometimes referred to as "slowmovement sonata form"). Melodies emerge gently from the violin, cello, and piano, with the cello's countermelodies prefiguring some of Schubert's ravishing string duets in the late chamber works. The frequency of unexpect?ed harmonic shifts suggest that Schubert used harmony and modulation coloristically rather than functionally, such as the breathcatching move from F Major to fsharp minor near the start of the movement. Schubert uses the same "lazy" sonata princi?ple here to bring back the second theme in tonic near the end.
The "Scherzo" and "Trio" are much more developmentally wrought. The driving
and abrupt "Scherzo" hints that something stormier may be lurking nearby, and an unexpectedly dark modulation to the flat?tened mediant confirms the impression. But the "Trio" dispels those moods with much use of the Austrian folk rhythms that seemed to come so naturally to Schubert.
The first stanza of Schubert's song "Die Forelle" (first written in 1817, but subse?quently revised several times) provides the theme for the variation's fourth movement. The song itself was replete with drama, as the tranquil scene established in the opening stanzas is disturbed by the fisherman's suc?cessful deception and capture of the trout. But Schubert focuses on the simple harmo?nization of the song's opening melody (repeating the first line to create a simple binary form), making it the basis for five variations of increasing elaborateness and exploratory verve. The first three variations move the melody into inner voices, while the fourth and fifth explore distant and dra?matic harmonic realms. At the end, a return to the opening melody also signals for the first time a recollection of the piano accom?paniment from the song, with its character?istic rippling, watery figures.
The finale is simple and lighthearted, with abundant "Magyar" rhythms and dancelike syncopations. Again, Schubert effects a wholesale transposition of materi?als so that the secondary themes come back in tonic at the conclusion. Exotic figures dominate much of the movement, until the bubbling triplets that had announced the opening of the first movement come back to unify and frame the entire quintet.
Program notes by Luke Howard.
i Folksong Arrangements for Soprano
I and Harp from Volume I, Folksong
Arrangements from the British Isles
I and Volume IV, Moore's Irish Melodies
Benjamin Britten
I Dear Harp of my Country!, Vol. 4, No. 7 Kate Tyrrel
Dear Harp of my Country! in darkness
I found thee, The cold chain of silence had hung o'er
thee long; When proudly, my own Island Harp!
I unbound thee, And gave all thy chords to light, freedom,
and song! The warm lay of love and the light tone
of gladness Have waken'd thy fondest, they liveliest
thrill; But so oft hast thou echo'd the deep sigh
of sadness, That e'en in thy mirth it will steal from
thee still.
Dear Harp of my Country! farewell to thy
numbers, This sweet wreath of song is the last we
shall twine; Go, sleep with the sunshine of Fame on
thy slumbers, Till touch'd by some hand less unworthy
than mine.
If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover, Have throbbed at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone; I was but as the wind, passing heedlessly over, And all the wild sweetness I waked was
thy own.
The Minstrel Boy, Vol. 4, No. 4
The Moreen
The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone In ranks of death you'll find him; His father's sword he has girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him. "Land of Song," said the warrior bard, "Tho' all the world betrays thee, One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard One faithful harp shall praise thee."
The Minstrel fell! but the foeman's chain Could not bring that proud soul under, The harp he loved ne'er spoke again, For he tore its chords asunder; And said, "No chain shall sully thee, Thou soul of love and brav'ry! Thy songs were made for the pure and free, They shall never sound in slav'ry."
O can ye sew cushions, Vol. 1, No. 4
Scottish Tune
O can ye sew cushions and can ye sew sheets And can ye sing ballulow when the bairn
greets And hie and baw, birdie, and hie and baw
lamb And hee and baw birdie, my bonnie wee lamb.
(Refrain)
Hieo wieo what will I do wi' ye Black's the life that I lead wi' ye Many o you, little for to gi' ye, Hieo wieo what will I do wi' ye
I've placed my cradle on yon hilly top
And aye as the wind blew my cradle did rock.
O hushaby, babie, O baw lily loo,
And hee and baw birdie, my bonnie wee doo.
(Refrain)
Hieo wieo what will I do wi' ye...
The Ash Grove, VoL 1, No. 6
Welsh Tune
Down yonder green valley where streamlets
meander,
When twilight is fading, I pensively rove, Or at the bright noontide in solitude wander Amid the dark shades of the lonely Ash grove. 'Twas there while the blackbird was joyfully
singing,
I first met my dear one, the joy of my heart; Around us for gladness the bluebells were
ringing. Ah! then little thought I how soon we
should part.
Still glows the bright sunshine o'er valley
and mountain, Still warbles the blackbird his note from the
tree; Still trembles the moonbeam on streamlet
and fountain,
But what are the beauties of nature to me With sorrow, deep sorrow, my bosom is laden All day I go mourning in search of my love. Ye echoes, O tell me, where is the sweet
maiden She sleeps 'neath the green turf down by
the Ash grove
The trees they grow so high, Vol. 1, No. 5
Somerset Folk Song
The trees they grow so high and the leaves
they do grow green, And many cold winter's night my love and I
have seen. Of a cold winter's night, my love, you and I
alone have been, Whilst my bonny boy is young, he's agrow
ing. Growing, growing... Whilst my bonny boy is young, he's agrowing.
O father, dearest father, you've done to me
great wrong, You've tied me to a boy when you know he
is too young.
0 daughter, dearest daughter, if you wait a little while,
A lady you shall be while he's growing.
Growing, growing... A lady you shall be while he's growing.
I'll send your love to college all for a year
or two
And then in the meantime he will do for you; I'll buy him white ribbons, tie them round
his bonny waist To let the ladies know that he's married.
Married, married... To let the ladies know that he's married.
1 went up to the college and I looked over
the wall, Saw four and twenty gentlemen playing at
bat and ball. I called for my true love, but they would not
let him come, All because he was a young boy and growing.
Growing, growing... All because he was a young boy and growing.
At the age of sixteen, he was a married man And at the age of seventeen he was father to
a son And at the age of eighteen the grass grew
over him, Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.
Growing, growing... Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.
And now my love is dead and in his grave
doth lie. The green grass grows o'er him so very, very
high. I'll sit and I'll mourn his fate until the day
I die, And I'll watch all o'er his child while he's
growing. Growing, growing... And I'll watch all o'er his child while he's
growing.
The last rose of summer, Vol. 4, No. 9
Groves of Blarney
Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming
alone;
All her lovely companions are faded and gone; No flow'r of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh To reflect back her blushes, or give sigh for sigh.
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on
the stem; Since the lovely are sleeping, go, sleep thou
with them;
Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er the bed Where thy mates of the garden lie senseless
and dead.
So soon may I follow, when friendships
decay, And from love's shining circle the gems
drop away! When true hearts lie wither'd, and fond
ones are flown, Oh! who would inhabit this bleak world
alone
Lynne Aspnes, DMA, maintains an active schedule as performer. With the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota, she has recorded on the CRI, ProArte, RCA Red Seal and Virgin Classics labels. With organist John Walker and the choir of Riverside Church in New York City, Ms. Aspnes has recorded for the Pro Organo label. She has also made recordings for NPR and PBS. Active in the American Harp Society, she was a director of its Concert Artist Program, has served on its Executive Committee and Board of Directors, was National Conference Chairman three times, and is a frequent contributor to The American Harp Journal. She studied at the University of Minnesota, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music, and
currently serves as Associate Dean (for acad?emic affairs) at the University of Michigan School of Music.
This afternoon's performance marks Lynne Aspnes'fourth appearance under UMS auspices.
Erling BlondalBengtsson came to Michigan following a distinguished teaching and performing career in Europe. He began cello studies at age three with his father in Copenhagen and subsequently became a student of Gregor Piatigorsky at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he joined the fac?ulty immediately upon graduation. He later returned to his native Denmark as professor at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music, serving for thirtyseven years. Mr. Bengtsson made his first concert appearance at age four and debuted as orchestral soloist at ten years of age. Since then he has enjoyed a busy schedule as recitalist and soloist with ensembles including the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC, English Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon) and Czech Philharmonic, and the orchestras of BadenBaden, Brussels, Cologne, and Copenhagen. He has made more than fifty recordings, including highly praised performances of the complete Bach Cello Suites, and the Beethoven and Brahms Sonatas. In 1998, his recording of the Koddly solo Sonata was chosen by the Guinness Classical 1000 as among the top thousand recordings of all time. In 1993, in recognition of his universal contributions to the art and teaching of cello playing, he was awarded the title of Chevalier du Violoncelle by the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center of the School of Music of Indiana University.
This afternoon's performance marks Erling BlondalBengtsson's eleventh appearance under UMS auspices.
IChun Chiang is pursuing her Master's degree in Viola Performance at the University of Michigan. Born in Taiwan, she received her Bachelor degree at the National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei (NTNU). While at NTNU, she won the prestigious concerto competition and performed Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with NTNU's orchestra. Ms. Chiang has been invited to perform in festivals with the Asian Youth Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Semerring Music Festival (Vienna), Morcone Music Festival (Italy), and Tanglewood Music Center.
This afternoon's performance marks IChun Chiang's UMS debut.
Katherine Collier has had a distinguished and versatile career as a soloist, chamber music artist, and accompanist. After her early training in Texas, she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music where she studied piano with Cecile Genhart and accompany?ing with Brooks Smith. Her graduating year at Eastman, she was unanimously awarded the Performer's Certificate and was chosen to be the soloist of the opening Gala concert of the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of the Eastman School. Ms. Collier was the firstprize winner of the National Young Artist's Competition and the Cliburn Scholarship Competition, and was the recipient of a Rockefeller Award. She won a Kemper Educational Grant to study at the Royal College of Music in London, England, where she completed postgraduate work. Ms. Collier is an active collaborator with many renowned musicians in this country and abroad and has worked with such artists as Joshua Bell, Ani Kavafian, ChoLiang Lin, Andres Cardenes, Leslie Parnas, Erling Bengtsson, Steven Kates, Steven Doane, Donald Mclnnes, Edgar Meyer, David Shifrin, Eddie Daniels, Julius Baker,
Hermann Baumann, and members of the Tokyo, Emerson, Cleveland, Orion, Ying, and Vermeer Quartets. Katherine Collier tours extensively with her husband, violist Yizhak Schotten, and they are founders and music directors of the Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii, where they perform each summer. They are also music directors of Strings in the Mountains Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Their duo recording on CRI Records was selected as "Critics' Choice" by High Fidelity Magazine.
This afternoon's performance marks Katherine Collier's seventh appearance under UMS auspices.
Anthony Elliott, a prote'ge' of Janos Starker and of Frank Miller, won the Feuermann International Cello Solo Competition, which was followed by a highly successful New York recital. Mr. Elliott has given mas?ter classes at most leading American conser?vatories. He is a frequent soloist with major orchestras, including those of Detroit, Minnesota, Vancouver, CBC Toronto, and the New York Philharmonic. His compact disc of Kabalevsky, Martinii, and Shostakovich sonatas received a rave review from Strad Magazine of London and was named a "Best Buy of 1991" by the Houston Post. In demand as a chamber musician, Mr. Elliott has been a guest artist at the Sitka (Alaska) Summer Music Festival, the Seattle and Texas chamber music festivals, New York's Blossom Music Festival, Houston's Da Camera Series and the Victoria International Festival. He has per?formed as a member of Quartet Canada and as a guest artist with the Brunswick, Lyric Art, and Concord string quartets. He devotes his summers to teaching and per?forming at the Aspen Music Festival and
School. Mr. Elliott joined the University of Michigan School of Music faculty in 1994.
This afternoon's performance marks Anthony Elliott's eleventh appearance under UMS auspices.
Diana Gannett joins the School of Music faculty in fall 2001 as a Professor of Music in the Strings Department, specializing in string bass. She has spent most of her pro?fessional life on the east coast as teacher and performer. As a chamber musician she has performed with the artists of the Guarneri, Emerson, Laurentian and Stanford Quartets and the Borodin Trio, as well as with the Iowa Center for New Music, American Chamber Players, New Band, and the Oberlin Dance Collective. Previous appoint?ments include the faculties of Yale University School of Music and Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, Oberlin College Conservatory in Ohio, University of Iowa School of Music and the University of South Florida. Professor Gannett is Past President of the International Society of Bassists and hosted the 1999 convention at the University of Iowa.
37ns afternoon's performance marks Diana Gannett's UMS debut.
Soren Hermansson is internationally known as a performer and recording artist. He has been highly active as an ensemble performer, first as a member of the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra and then as a member of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Neeme Jarvi, conductor). Since 1988, Mr. Hermansson has devoted his time to his solo career and teaching. As a cham?ber musician, he has performed in France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands,
Scandinavia, US and Brazil. He has commis?sioned and premiered considerable new repertory for horn, much of which is included on significant recordings that he has made to wide critical acclaim. Before joining the Michigan faculty in 1999, Mr. Hermansson was a faculty member at the Ingesund College of Music, and at the School of Music, Gothenburg University in Sweden.
This afternoon's performance marks Soren Hermansson's third appearance under UMS auspices.
Andrew Jennings graduated from The Juilliard School. His principal teachers were Ivan Galamian, Alexander Schneider, and Raphael Druian. He was a founding mem?ber of the Concord String Quartet, a new ensemble that quickly gained international recognition by winning the Naumberg Chamber Music Award in 1972 and which performed more than 1,200 concerts throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Specializing in the performance of new works (with an emphasis on American com?posers), this Quartet gave more than fifty premieres and commissions; it also per?formed the standard repertory and thirtytwo cycles of the complete Beethoven quar?tets and made numerous recordings, three of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. Mr. Jennings maintained his associ?ation with this Quartet until it disbanded in 1987. The Concord Trio, which Mr. Jennings subsequently formed with Norman Fischer and Jeanne Kierman, debuted in 1993. Mr. Jennings' teaching career began at Dartmouth College, where members of the Concord Quartet were engaged as artistsinresidence from 1974 to 1987. Later he served on the faculties of the University of Akron and of Oberlin College. He currently
devotes his summers to chamber music instruction at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts.
This afternoon's performance marks Andrew Jennings' fourteenth appearance under UMS auspices.
Paul Kantor is the Chair of the UM School of Music String Department, and has appeared as a concerto soloist with a dozen symphony orchestras; has served as concertmaster of several orchestral ensembles including the New Haven Symphony, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and Great Lakes Festival Orchestra; and has been guest concertmaster of the New Japan Philharmonic and of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. He has been especially active as a chamber musician with such groups as the New York String Quartet, the Berkshire Chamber Players, the Lenox Quartet and the National Musical Arts Chamber Ensemble. His performances of the music of Bart6k, Pearle, and Zwilich may be heard on the CRI, Delos, and Mark Records labels. Mr. Kantor held concurrent appointments at Yale University (198188), the New England Conservatory (198488) and Juilliard (198588). Since 1980 he has spent summers as a member of the artistfaculty at Aspen, where he was concertmaster of both the Chamber Symphony and the Festival Orchestra. Mr. Kantor attended The Juilliard School, where he earned both bach?elor and master of music degrees and stud?ied during the summers at both Aspen and Meadowmount. His principal teachers are Margaret Graves, Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann.
This afternoon's performance marks Paul Kantor's twelfth appearance under UMS auspices.
Carmen Pelton joins the School of Music faculty in fall 2001 as Associate Professor of Music. Ms. Pelton received her Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and her BM from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She has been on the faculties of the University of Washington, the Eastman School, and Lehigh University. Her performance and recording careers have been equally illustrious. Ms. Pelton came to international attention when she made her debut as Fiodiligi in Cost fan tutte at the Aldeburgh Festival. The outstanding London reviews led immediately to her engagement as Konstanze in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail with the Scottish Opera. She has since performed many of Mozart's hero?ines, including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Giunia in Lucio Silla, and Tamiri in Re Pastore. She has sung with Glimmerglass Opera, Long Beach Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Omaha, and New Jersey June Opera, and has performed as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Nashville Symphony, as well as in a performance for the President of the United States at the Kennedy Center Honors televised program.
This afternoon's performance marks Carmen Pelton's UMS debut.
Violist Yizhak Schotten was brought to the US by the renowned violist William Primrose, with whom he studied at Indiana University and the University of Southern California. Other studies were with Lillian Fuchs at the Manhattan School of Music. His solo appearances with orchestras in this country and abroad have included perfor?mances with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Thomas Schippers, Sergiu Commissiona, Joseph Swensen, and Arthur Fiedle. He has concertized in Israel, Japan, Taiwan,
Malaysia, Holland, Austria, Mexico, England, Canada and throughout the US. His solo recitals have included Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York, Boston's Jordan Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Mr. Schotten has also had numerous broadcasts on National Public Radio. Formerly a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he subse?quently became Principal Violist of the Cincinnati and Houston symphony orches?tras. In the summers he has also been on the faculties and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Banff, Meadowmount, Interlochen, and appeared in the Tanglewood, Chamber Music Northwest, Montreal Skaneateles, and the Juneau Festivals. Abroad he has per?formed at the Taipei Philharmonic Festival in Taiwan, the Festival Internacional de Musica Clasica in Mexico, the Festival de Musique de Chambre de Montreal, and the Amsterdam Kamermuzik Festival in Holland. He is Music Director of the Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii, Strings in the Mountains Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and SpringFest in Ann Arbor. His CRI recording of the Hindemith Sonata No. 4, Op. 25 (worldpremiere recording) was chosen as "Critics' Choice" for three months in High Fidelity Magazine. Pearl Records recently included his playing on its anthology, History of the Recording of the World's Finest Violists. He joined the Michigan faculty in 1985 after having taught at Rice University and the University of Washington.
This afternoon's performance marks Yizhak Schotten's seventeenth appearance under UMS auspices.