UMS Concert Program, March 9, 2008: Michigan Chamber Players --

Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor

ums _____
presents Michigan Chamber Players Faculty Artists of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Richard Aaron, Cello Yehonatan Berick, Violin Grace Browning, Harp Timothy Cheek, Piano John Ellis, Piano Caroline Helton, Soprano Martin Katz, Piano Carmen Pelton, Soprano Rico Serbo, Tenor
Program Sunday Afternoon, March 9, 2008 at 4:00 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor
Sylvie Bodorova" Sadaj, sinko, sadaj (Set, Sun, Set) 1. ao sa stalo nove II. Dala som mu pierko III. Sadaj, slnko, sadaj IV. Neorem, nesejem V. Zavej, le vetriaok VI. Preao le ma VII. Op'taj sa Balala
Ms. Pelton, Mr. Serbo, Ms. Browning, Mr. Cheek
Robert Kahn Sieben Lieder aus "Jungbrunnen", for Voice & Piano Trio, Op. 46
Ms. Helton, Mr. Berick, Mr. Aaron, Mr. Katz
INTERMISSION
Johannes Brahms Trio in c minor. No. 3, Op. 101 Allegro energico Presto non assai Andante grazioso Allegro molto
Mr. Aaron, Mr. Berick, Mr. Ellis

43rd Performance of the 129th Annual Season
The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Thanks to all of the UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance Faculty Artists for their ongoing commitment of time and energy to this special UMS performance.
Sadaj, sinko, sadaj (Set, Sun, Set)
Sylvie Bodorova Born 1954
Sylvie Bodorova is one of the leading CzechSlovak composers of today. Her most notable works to date include the Terezin Ghetto Requiem (1998) for baritone and string quartet and her fourth string quartet. Her largest composition is the oratorio Judas Maccabeus (2002), and she is currently at work on another oratorio, Moses, to be pre?miered in July. Since the 1990s, Bodorova has been a regular visiting faculty member at the Cincinnati Conservatory. The work heard this evening was written in 2005 for famed Slovak soprano Gabriela Beftaf kova and tenor Stefan Margita.
I. ao sa stalo nove
What just happened in the Trenain castle Ah, Janek's watching over his horses in the nice marjoram.
He's watching over them, he's watching,
until he trembles all over, ah, because his girl is bringing him bad news.
Don't bring it to me, don't bring it,
for God's sake, ah, tell it, my dear, tell it to someone else!
I'll tell someone else that he's not guilty, ah, for you, my dear, we'll go to jail!
II. Dala som mu pierko
I gave him a feather with all sorts of colors, I thought he was a handsome guy. I gave him a feather, I did, I did.
She gave me that feather with all sorts of colors, so really she thought I'm a handsome guy. She gave me that feather, she did, she did!
And you can't see straight, and you find that feather from me disagree?able, disagreeable, disagreeable.
I really can't see straight,
and I already find that feather from her disagreeable.
and you find that feather from me disagree?able, disagreeable, disagreeable!!!
And I find that feather from you disagree?able, disagreeable, disagreeable!!!
III. Sadaj, slnko, sadaj
Set, sun, set behind the high mountain, if you won't set, I'll pull you down by your legs. If the sun knew how difficult it is to work, it would hurry up and go behind the mountain.
IV. Neorem, nesejem
I'm not plowing, I'm not sowing, yet my rye
is growing, I have such a pretty girl, and she alone is
dating me.
I didn't go with her, she alone came to me, like that lamb goes to green grass.
I alone am going with him! I alone am going
with him! She alone is going with me! She alone is
going with me!
V. Zavej, le vetriaok
Blow, breeze, along our side of the hill, until you dry the tears from my eyes.
Blow, breeze, along the green slope, until you bring a cure for the wound in my heart.
Blow, breeze, blow along the green mountain, carry my sweetheart to me in a green shirt!
VI. Preao le ma
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Why is my shep?herd boss swearing at me Because I didn't spend the night by him.
I spent the night next to my sweetheart, last night.
VII. Op' taj sa Bala'l'a
Ask Balal, from where does the water spring From small cliff to large, greet my pretty girl!
Ask the owl, where is Janik sleeping
At the neighbor's under the pear tree, next
to that cute Aniaka! Ask Balal, from where does the water
springAskBala'll!l
Translations by Timothy Cheek.
Lieder aus "Jungbrunnen", for Voice & Piano Trio. Op. 46
Robert Kahn
Born July 21, 1865 in Mannheim
Died May 29, 1951 in Biddenden, Kent
Robert Kahn was a successful composer, teacher, conductor, and collaborative pianist, whose compositions are dominated by cham?ber music, piano compositions, songs, and choral works. He came from a welltodo Jewish family in Mannheim, and as a young man Kahn was able to meet and impress Johannes Brahms. The two composers spent a few years in close contact toward the end of Brahms's life, developing a friendship that was pivotal for the younger composer. Kahn went on to serve on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Berlin and was also appointed to the Prussian Academy of the Arts, but in 1934, despite his wellrespected position and success as composer and per?former, he was forced by the Nazis to resign his post and was forbidden to perform in public or to publish his compositions. In early
1939, at the age of 73, he and his wife were able to emigrate to England, where he con?tinued to compose prolifically until his death in 1951.
Kahn wrote over 200 songs which were performed enthusiastically by singers of his day, often accompanied by the composer at the piano. The Liederaus "Jungbrunnen," for Voice & Piano Trio, Op. 46, are typical of Kahn's other song output in his choice of tra?ditional German lyric poetry and his conserva?tive yet expressive settings in the Romantic style. The highly idiomatic piano and string writing shows his gift for chamber music, and the vocal line unfolds in beautiful, symmetri?cal phrases, in which Kahn demonstrates little interest in the intense word painting or vocal virtuosity of contemporaries such as Hugo Wolf or Richard Strauss. They are little gems from the golden age of German song, which unfortunately were buried first by Nazi sup?pression and then through the obscurity borne of chaos in postwar Germany.
I
Nun stehn die Rosen in Blute, Ein Netz wird bald gewoben sein. Mein Flatterhaft Gemute, Dich fangen sie nicht ein!
Und blieb ich Armster hangen In dieser jungen Rosenzeit An schbnsten Rosenwangen, Meine Jugend tate mir leid.
Ich mag nur lachen und singen,
Durch bluhnde Walder schweift mein Lauf;
Mein Herz will sich erschwingen
Bis in die Wipfel hinauf!
Mein Herzblut geht in Sprungen, Mein Rdsslein geht im Trab: Hurrah, welch lustig Reiten, Wildfremdes Land zur Seiten; Muss alles mir bezwingen, Was sich nicht selbst ergab.
Now the roses are in bloom, And a net is being woven, My fickle emotions, They won't catch you!
And if I, poor me, were to be trapped In this youthful time of roses By the most beautiful rosy cheeks, My youth would make me sorry.
I only like to laugh and sing,
Through blooming forests sweeps my path;
My heart wants to swing
Up to the very treetops!
My heart's blood is jumping. My little horse is trotting: Hurray! What joyous riding, Wild country on either side: I must conquer everything That doesn't yield itself to me.
Die Fahn' im Windeszuge, Sie flattert auf und ab, So reiten wir durch's Leben, Bis Herz und Glieder beben, Bergauf, da geht's im Fluge, Und sachte, sacht bergab.
Ill
Waldesnacht, du wunderkiihle, Die ich tausend Male gruss', Nach dem lautenWeltgewuhle, 0 wie ist dein Rauschen suss.
Traumerisch die rnuden Glieder Berg ich weich in Moos, Und mir ist, als wurd' ich wieder All der irren Qualen los.
In den heimlich engen Kreisen Wird dir wohl, du wildes Herz, Und ein Friede schwebt mit leisem Flugelschlagen niederwarts.
Singet, holde Vogellieder Mich in Schlummer sachtl Irre Qualen, lost euch wieder, Wildes Herz, nun gute Nacht!
IV
Wie bin ich nun in kuhler Nacht Im Wald herum gestrichen! Die Baume, noch von Regen schwer, Sie wogten tropfend hin und her; Hatt' nicht mein Herz gebrannt so sehr, Nach Haus war ich gewichen.
Die lone Glut kein Regen mag, Kein Thau zu kuhlen taugen, Der rothe Blitz entflammt sie nicht, Der jah die schwarzen Eichen bricht, Das that der Liebsten Angesicht Mit den zwei lichten Augen.
Wie trag ich doch im Sinne So wunderfrohen Muthl Das kommt von susser Minne, Die heimlich brennen thut.
The flags in the breeze,
They flap up and down,
So we ride through life,
Until our hearts and limbs tremble,
Going so quickly uphill,
And softly, softly downhill.
Forest night, your miraculous coolness, That I greet a thousand times, After the world's loud torments, 0, how sweet is your rustling.
Dreamily I bury my tired limbs Softly in the moss, And it seems to me, as if I were Again free of all my confusing anguish.
In its secret, close company You will be well, you wild heart, And with softly beating wings Peace floats down to you.
Sing me softly to sleep,
Dear birdsongs!
Confusing fears, loose yourselves again,
Wild heart, now goodnight!
How am I now in the cool night Wandering about in the forest! The trees, still heavy with rain, They swayed dripping here and there; Had my heart not burned so much I would have slunk back home.
The glowing fire cannot be cooled, Neither by rain nor by dew, The red lightning that suddenly breaks The black oaks doesn't set the fire, My beloved's face has done that With her two bright eyes.
How I feel within myself Such wondrous courage! That comes from sweet love, That secretly bums.
Im Walde lacht der Maie, Nun geht's an's Wandern frei, Und bot man tausend Kronen mir, Ich war nicht mit dabei.
Mein Schatz hat lichte Haare, Hat Wanglein weiss und roth, Von ihr will ich nicht fahren, Es scheid' uns denn der Tod.
In aller weiten Welt
Mir nichts so wohl gefallt;
Seit ich mein'n Schatz zuerst erschaut,
Ist's Wandern mir vergallt.
Drei Wochen nach Michele, Da giebt's ein lustig Frei'n, So froh mag kein Seele Auf dieser Erde sein.
Ein eigen Haus und Herd
Sind Kaiserkronen werth,
Und kommt mir je das Wandern an,
Ich mach schon zeitig Kehrt.
VI
In der Mondnacht, in der
Fruhlingsmondnacht Gehen Engel um auf leisen Sohlen; Blonde Engel, innig und verstohlen Kiissen sie die schonsten Menschenblumen.
Tausendschonchen, allerliebste Blume, Weiss es wohl, woher der Schimmer stammet. Der dir heut das Antlitz uberflammet: Bist noch in dem Traum der Nacht verloren,
Denkst der Engel, die durch's kleine Fenster Sich auf Mondesstrahlen zu dir schwangen, Leise dir zu kiissen Mund und Wangen In der Mondnacht, in der Fruhlingsmondnacht.
VII
Es geht ein Wehen durch den Wald, Die Windsbraut hor'ich singen, Sie singt von einem Buhlen gut, Und bist sie dem im Arme ruht, Muss sie noch lang in bangem Mut Sich durch die Lande schwingen.
The month of May laughs in the forest, Now is when one is free to travel, And if someone offered me a thousand Kronen, I wouldn't go with him.
My darling has light hair, Her cheeks are rosy and fair, I don't want to leave her, Because only death will part us.
In the whole wide world Nothing pleases me as much; Since the first time I saw my darling, Traveling has lost its allure.
Three weeks after Michaelmas, There will be a joyous celebration, No one in the whole world Could be happier.
One's own home and hearth Are worth the riches of an emperor, And if I ever have an urge to travel, I'll make an early return.
In the moonlit night, the moonlit night of
spring
Angels tread on soft soles; Blonde angels, heartfelt and secretly Kiss the most beautiful human flowers.
Of a thousand beauties, most beloved flower, It knows well whence comes the glow That lights up your face today: You are still lost in the dream of night.
You think the angel, that comes to you On a moonbeam, through the little window, To kiss you lightly on the lips and cheeks In the moonlit night, in the moonlit night of spring.
There is a breeze through the forest, I hear the wind's bride singing, She sings of a good husband, And until she lests in his arms, She must still longer wander Fearfully throughout the countryside.
Der Sang, der klingt so schauerlich, Der klingt so wild, so trube. Das heisse Sehnen ist erwacht, Mein Schatz, zu tausend gute Nacht, Es kommt der Tag, eh du's gedacht, Der eint getreue Liebe.
Program note and translation by Caroline Helton.
The song, it sounds so dreadful,
It sounds so wild and dark.
Passionate longing is awakened,
My beloved, for a thousand goodnights,
The day will come, sooner than you think,
That unites faithful love.
Piano Trio in c minor. No. 3, Op. 101
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany
Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna
Brahms wrote his third and last trio for piano, violin, and cello during an especially productive summer vacation in Switzerland (the Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 99 and the Violin Sonata in A, Op. 100, were also composed at the same time). In the Trio, Brahms revisited the key of c minor, a tragic and turbulent tonality since the days of Haydn and Mozart. The trio was a favorite of numerous musicians, including Clara Schumann, who believed it one of the greatest of his chamber works.
Against the broad and rather dramatic style of the opening movement, the second, written in duple meter, contracts by assuming the form and style of a Scherzo. The third movement reflects a lilting, Viennese influence, while the virtuoso composition of the final movement brings the trio to a brilliant close.
Richard Aaron {Cello) has traveled extensively, giving master classes in Madrid, Spain; Manheim, Germany; Seoul, Korea; Matsumoto, Japan; Paris, France; and in the US at many leading schools, including Rice, Eastman, Michigan, and Oberlin. He is a member of the Elysian Trio, in residence at BaldwinWallace College. During summers, he has taught at the Aspen Music Festival, Indiana University String Academy, Calgary Music Bridge, Aria, Innsbruck, the Chautauqua Festival, and Idyllwild. Mr. Aaron's students have won numerous national and international compe?titions; have performed as soloists with pres
tigious orchestras, including the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Seattle Symphonies; and are members of awardwin?ning quartets, including the Biava, Fry Street, and American. Mr. Aaron served on the facul?ty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and ENCORE School for Strings faculties for 14 years prior to his appointment at UM.
A prizewinner at the 1993 Naumburg compe?tition and a recipient of the 199697 Prix Opus, Yehonatan Berick {Violin) is in high demand internationally as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician (on violin as well as on viola), and pedagogue. His busy concert schedule has already taken him throughout North America, Europe, and Israel.
Mr. Berick has appeared at many nation?al and international festivals and chamber series, and was coartistic director of the revived Quebec Chamber Music Society. Touring as a chamber musician with Musicians from Marlboro, The LortieBerickLysy Piano Trio, the Huberman String Quartet, Concertante Chamber Players, and other chamber ensembles, he has been featured in the world's most important music centers.
Prior to his appointment as Professor of Violin at UM, Mr. Berick was on the faculties of McGill University and the Eastman School of Music. He began his musical education at the age of six. Having graduated from highschool at 16, he entered the Tel Aviv University's Music Academy, and completed his studies at the CollegeConservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, earning full tuition and graduating Summa cum Lauda. His principal violin teachers were Nona Feher, Henry Meyer, Kurt Sassmanshauss, and Dorothy Delay. One of the brightest talents of
Israel, Mr. Berick won several Clairemont Awards, and received yearly stipends from the AmericaIsrael Cultural Foundation. Mr. Berick currently plays on a violin by Honore Derazy Pere from 1852, and a viola by Stanley Kiernoziak from 2003.
Grace Browning (Harp)
Timothy Cheek (Piano) has served opera internships at the Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy, and at the National Theatre in Prague. His performances as a collaborative pianist have taken him to 12 countries, and have been heard on worldwide broadcasts, PBS, and Austrian television. Highlights of his work include engagements at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute, the Santa Fe Opera, the International Institute for Chamber Music in Munich, the Mozart Opera Studies Institute in Austria, the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, and recitals in Hong Kong and at the American Academy in Rome. Mr. Cheek has held several grants, including an Olivetti Foundation Grant to perform in Italy, a Fulbright award, and an IREX grant to con?duct research in the Czech Republic which led to his book Singing in Czech: A Guide to Czech Lyric Diction and Vocal Repertoire pub?lished by Scarecrow Press.
John Ellis (Piano) is the Director of Graduate Studies in Piano Pedagogy, administers the preparatory department and the class piano curriculum. He is in demand, nationally and internationally, as a masterclass clinician, adjudicator, and lecturer on piano pedagogy. His recent travels have taken him to the University of South Florida, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, and Hawaii. Mr. Ellis speaks regularly on pedagogy topics to teachers groups throughout Michigan. As a pianist, he has performed as soloist, lecturerecitalist, and collaborative artist in New York City, Finland, and Germany. He has recorded the piano music of Arthur Cunningham.
As a scholar in the field of pedagogy, Mr. Ellis combines music theory, musicology, and the humanities with the more traditional pedagogical methods. He has worked with the Musical Signification Project of the International Congress on Musical Signification (ICMS) since 1996, presenting
papers on musical meaning and pedagogy at the University of Bologna, the Universite de Provence, the University of Helsinki, and the New England Conference of Music Theorists at Wellesley College. His articles have been published by CLUEB (Bologna)lnternational Semiotics Institute (Finland), and Ada Semiotica Fennica.
His primary teachers were Mr. Cunningham, Frank logha, Michel Block, and Constance Keene. He has served on the fac?ulties at the Manhattan School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He has taught on the piano faculty of the UM AllState program at Interlochen and coordinated the piano pro?gram at the UM Summer Arts Institute. Mr. Ellis performed for three years as the pianist for an improvisational comedy group in New York City headed by Kathy Kinney, now fea?tured on The Drew Carey Show.
Caroline Helton (Soprano) joined the voice faculty at the UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance in the fall of 2000, after having com?pleted her doctoral work at that institution in 1998. Dr. Helton has recently appeared with the Michigan Chamber Players as well as with the Brave New Works Ensemble, with whom she performed Joseph Schwantner's Wild Angels of the Open Hills. Over the last year Dr. Helton sang a series of recitals in Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Michigan, after which she was described by the Durham Herald Sun as performing with "masterful" artistry and a "clear, belllike soprano." She has also had the pleasure of premiering works by Vitezslava Kapralova {Sbohem a satecek, Leden) with fellow UM faculty Timothy Cheek, Andre Myers (Moon Songs), Tom Schnauber (Liebeslieder fur Vogel) and Gabriel Gould (Songs from A Child's Garden) in Ann Arbor, Michigan and South Bend, Indiana. She appears yearly on concerts with the Ann Arbor Festival of Song, collaborating with pianist Kevin Bylsma, and has also performed with the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, founded by pianist Jeffrey Sykes, and flutist Stephanie Jutt. During her studies at UM with Freda Herseth and Martin Katz, she sang the role of Adina in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore and the title role in Stravinsky's Le Rossignol with the UM
Opera Theater, as well as the title role in Handel's Semele with Michigan Opera Works (directed by George Shirley). Ms. Helton has sung opera, oratorio, chamber music, and recitals in Germany and Italy as well as the US, and has also been active as a teacher, cli?nician, and adjudicator since she came to Michigan from North Carolina in 1995.
Martin Katz (Piano) has been dubbed "dean of accompanists" by The Los Angeles Times, and was the 1998 recipient of Musical America's "Accompanist of the Year" award. He regularly collaborates in recitals and on recordings with artists including Marilyn Home, Frederica von Stade, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle, Cecilia Bartoli, David Daniels, and Jose Carreras. Highlights of Mr. Katz's more than 30 years of concertizing with the world's most celebrated vocal soloists include innumerable recitals at Carnegie Hall, appearances at the Salzburg Festival, tours in Australia and Japan, and per?formances at La Scala, the Paris Opera, and the Edinburgh Festival. His concerts are frequently broadcast both nationally and internationally. His work has been recorded on the RCA, CBS, Cetra, BMG, EMI, Phillips, and Decca labels. The Metropolitan, Houston, and Ottawa operas have performed his editions of Baroque and bel canto operas of Handel, Vivaldi, and Rossini.
At UM, in addition to instruction in ensemble for pianists, Mr. Katz coaches singers, teaches vocal repertory, and is a frequent con?ductor of the School's opera productions.
Carmen Pelton (Soprano) has appeared in a wide range of works with orchestras, opera houses, chamber music groups, Equity drama theaters, and OffBroadway productions. Conductors have included Robert Shaw, Jeffrey Tate, Donald Runnicles, Patrick Summers, Gerard Schwarz, and Nicholas McGegan with such diverse groups as the San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Goodman Theater, the Smithsonian's 21thCentury Consort, the New York Festival of Song, and the Library of Congress. Recent pre?mieres include works by Mark Adamo at Carnegie Hall and Augusta Read Thomas at the Kennedy Center. Ms. Pelton's recent recordings include Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 795
with Pro Musica Orchestra, the Grammy Awardwinning Naxos recording of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and one of Robert Shaw's last recordings with the Atlanta Symphony: Barber, Bartok and VaughanWilliams, which won a Grammy for "Best Classical Album of the Year." She is also on the faculty at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
Rico Serbo (Tenor) hails from California where he studied at the University of the Pacific. He remained on the West Coast to begin his pro?fessional life at the San Francisco Opera. Subsequently, he was engaged as principal tenor with the Theater der Stadt Koblenz and the Staatstheater am Gaertnerplatz in Munich. Mr. Serbo also thrilled audiences with numer?ous guest appearances throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland offering stirring per?formances of many roles including the Duke in Rigoletto, Alfredo in La Traviata, Tamino in Die Zauberfloete, Rodolfo in La Boheme, and the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier. His return to American shore has brought many distin?guished engagements with numerous American opera companies and symphony orchestras.
Great versatility in a broad spectrum of musical styles has been a hallmark of this artist's career. His concert work has found him singing great masterpieces of the traditional classical repertoire such as the Verdi Requiem and Hymn of the Nations, Handel's Messiah, Rossini and Dvorak Stabat Mater as well as contemporary works such as Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Pulcinella, and completing the circle of reper?toire with popular favorites such as Bernstein's West Side Story, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and The Phantom of the Opera, and Schonberg's Les Miserables.
Mr. Serbo has won three prestigious vocal awards: The Kirsten Flagstad Award, a Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant, and both grant and award from the Corbett Foundation of Cincinnati, OH. This multifaceted artist has made his recording debut in the release of L'Assedio di Calais by Donizetti for the Opera Rara London label.
Mr. Serbo joined the faculty of the UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance in 2005.