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CHELSEA KNOX, FLUTE Chelsea Knox is the principal flutist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. A sought-after performer, Ms. Knox has held positions as assistant principal flute of the Baltimore Symphony and principal Flute of the New Haven and Princeton Symphonies. She has been hailed by the New York Times for her warmth, precision, and clarity, as well as by the New York Classical Review for her “expressive life and full tone.” An active orchestral and chamber musician, Ms. Knox has appeared with numerous orchestras including the Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and IRIS Orchestra. Additionally, she was a member of the acclaimed woodwind trio, ETA3, managed by Manhattan Music Ensemble. As a soloist, Ms. Knox has performed concertos with the Baltimore Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Manchester Symphony, Juilliard Lab Orchestra, and Connecticut Youth Symphony. She has won competitions including the New York Flute Club Young Artists Competition and the Hartford Symphony Young Artists Competition. Ms. Knox earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City as a student of Jeffrey Khaner. A native of Litchfield, CT, she received her early training at the Hartt School of Music, where she studied with Greig Shearer. In her spare time she is an active visual artist and her work has been displayed in galleries in New York and Connecticut.

PAUL WATKINS, CELLO Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished career as cellist and conductor. Born in 1970, he studied with William Pleeth, Melissa Phelps, and Johannes Goritzki, and was appointed principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1990 at the age of 20. He made his concerto debut at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Yakov Kreizberg. He now performs regularly with all the major British orchestras (including seven appearances at the BBC Proms) and many overseas orchestras including the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra of Turin. A member of the Nash Ensemble from 1997 to 2013, Mr. Watkins joined the Emerson String Quartet in May 2013. He is a regular participant at festivals and chamber music series, including New York’s Lincoln Center and Music@Menlo, and regularly performs with the world’s finest musicians, including Menahem Pressler, Jaime Laredo, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, and Vadim Repin. Highlights of recent seasons include solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and Queens Hall, Edinburgh, his debut at Carnegie Hall performing Brahms’s Double Concerto with Daniel Hope, as well as the premiere of a new concerto written especially for him by Mark-Anthony Turnage. Recent releases under his exclusive Chandos Records contract include Britten’s Cello Symphony, the Delius, Elgar, and Lutoslawski cello concertos, and discs of Martinu’s and Mendelssohn’s music for cello and piano, and an ongoing series of Britsh sonatas with his brother Huw Watkins. In 2009, he became the first ever Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra, and also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra from 2009 to 2012. Since winning the 2002 Leeds Conducting Competition, he has conducted all the major British orchestras, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Swedish and Vienna Chamber Orchestras, Prague Symphony, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Tampere Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony, Queensland and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras.

JOHN MUSTO, PIANO Composer and pianist JOHN MUSTO 's activities encompass orchestral, operatic, instrumental, chamber and vocal music, and music for film and television. His music embraces many strains of contemporary American concert music, enriched by sophisticated inspirations from jazz, ragtime and the blues. These qualities lend a strong profile to his vocal music, which ranges from a series of operas – Volpone , Later the Same Evening , Bastianello and The Inspector – to a catalogue of art songs that is among the finest of any living American composer. As a pianist, he performs frequently as soloist and chamber musician in a broad range of repertoire including his own piano concerti. He appears frequently with his wife, soprano Amy Burton, in recital and cabaret. Mr. Musto was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his orchestral song cycle Dove Sta Amore, and is a recipient of two Emmy awards, two CINE Awards, a Rockefeller Fellowship at Bellagio, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, and a Distinguished Alumnus award from the Manhattan School of Music. He is currently on the piano faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, where he also serves as Coördinator of the D.M.A. Program in Music Performance.Musto's work has been recorded by Bridge, Harmonia Mundi, Nonesuch, Cedille, Archive, Naxos, Harbinger, CRI and EMI, Hyperion, MusicMasters, Innova, Channel Classics, Albany, and New World Records. He is published by Peermusic Classical.

January 4, 2015 – Emerson String Quartet WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) String Quartet in G major, K. 387 January 4, 2015 – Emerson String Quartet One of Mozart’s most earthshaking developments musically upon his move from his native Salzburg to Vienna in 1781 was meeting Joseph Haydn for the first time and hearing the older composer’s Opus 33 Quartets. The profound influence of these works on the younger composer resulted in his composing six Quartets—the first three between December 1782 and July 1783 and the second three between November 1784 and January 1785. He dedicated these “fruits of a long and arduous labor” to his esteemed friend saying, “During your last stay in this capital you yourself, my dear friend, expressed to me your approval of these compositions. Your good opinion encourages me to offer them to you and leads me to hope that you will not consider them wholly unworthy of your favor.” In fact, on that occasion in 1785 when Haydn had heard Wolfgang, his father Leopold, and two friends play these Quartets, Haydn had told Leopold: “I tell you before God as an honest man that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by reputation. He has taste, and what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.” Haydn’s Opus 33 Quartets, which he himself had said were written “in an entirely new manner,” influenced Mozart particularly in their new equality of part-writing for the four individual instruments and their treatment of thematic elaboration as a integral part of a whole work rather than belonging only to traditional development sections. Mozart’s Haydn Quartets show these elements in abundance along with his own inspired brand of grace and inventiveness. Mozart completed the G major Quartet, K. 387, the first of the Haydn Quartets, on December 31, 1782. The stunning variety of the four movements and their combined effusive optimism have made this perhaps the most popular quartet of the six. The first movement revels in contrasts—soft and loud, determined and tender, ascending and descending, diatonic and chromatic. The opening gesture’s forthrightness followed by its gentle tag immediately demonstrates this, as does the contrast between the entire first theme and the gently marching second theme with its repeated notes. Not only is the development remarkable for Mozart’s ingenious spinning out of these ideas, but the recapitulation delights in further elaboration. The Menuetto takes dynamic contrast to a new level of detail when, following two graceful downward leaps, his chromatic lines alternate soft and loud with every note. As a counterbalance Mozart introduces a second theme—as part of this section’s miniature sonata form—now featuring repeated notes followed by chromatic descents. Drama explodes in the trio in minor-key unison where one might often find more pastoral repose. By now we expect dynamic contrast, which certainly abounds in the slow movement, though with a preponderance of quiet that is especially striking at the close of the first phrase. What becomes more salient as the movement unfolds is the contrast in textures between slow-moving lines and the fast notes of Mozart’s filigree, which is not always confined to the first violin part. A striking harmonic surprise prepares the second theme of this slow-movement sonata form (that is, exposition and recapitulation without a development section). In the recap’s brief delicate extension, Mozart emphasizes the triplet motion that had made an appearance toward the end of the first theme and become a defining feature of the second. The last movement gives us a wonderful preview of the composer’s crowning Jupiter Symphony, both in its four-note theme and in its fugal (imitative) treatment. The miracle of Mozart’s fugal style here comes in the ease with which he switches back and forth between contrapuntal and homophonic texture (melody and accompaniment). Thus his fugal writing becomes an enticing propellant rather than an academic exercise. These effortless shifts of style correspond to structural divisions in which the fugal texture presents the main thematic material of sonata form, and the homophonic texture the transitional and cadential material. Mozart takes his leave with a nice Haydnesque touch—forceful, seemingly conclusive chords that then give way to the quiet “true” ending. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

MICHELLE GOTT, HARP Michelle Gott, a native of Las Vegas, is a versatile performing artist dedicated to the artistic presentation of traditional repertoire and the creation of new works in collaboration with emerging composers. Ms. Gott began her studies at the age of four under the leadership of her mother and harpist, Caryn Wunderlich Gott, and immediately took to the stage in the performance of solo and chamber works. As a featured soloist, Ms. Gott has performed concertos with the ART Symphony Orchestra, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, the Nevada Chamber Symphony, and the Henry Mancini Institute. In April of 2006, Ms. Gott debuted in Carnegie Hall with the East Coast premiere of a new concerto for harp and wind ensemble by Los Angeles composer, Kevin Kaska. Ms. Gott regularly performs with the New Juilliard Ensemble and AXIOM, and has also worked with the Slee Sinfonietta at the University of Buffalo and the New York-based Sequitur Ensemble. In January 2008, Ms. Gott performed for Elliot Carter with the New Juilliard Ensemble as part of a historic FOCUS! Festival celebrating the composer’s centennial year. For the same Festival, she also performed Carter’s virtuosic work, Trilogy, for oboe and harp with oboist, Nicholas Stovall. Michelle Gott has worked closely with composer, Ursula Mamlok, for whom she performed Mamlok’s Music for Viola and Harp in 2006 for both the Ursula Mamlok Festival at the Manhattan School of Music and for Juilliard’s FOCUS! Festival. Ever striving to support the vital dialogue between composers and performers, Ms. Gott has collaborated closely with Virko Baley, Kevin Kaska, Anthony Cheung, Cristina Spinei, Brian Mark, Philippe Bigar, and Roderick Gorby. Ms. Gott is one of the founding musicians of the ART Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra INSONICA. An active chamber musician, Ms. Gott has performed several times for Juilliard’s Chamberfest, including a 2005 premiere of Cristina Spinei’s Petrarca (a setting of four Petrach sonnets for tenor, flute, viola, and harp) and a performance of Maurice Ravel’s Introduction et Allegro. Most recently, Ms. Gott devoted a recital at Juilliard to innovative chamber music, which included premieres of new works by Brian Mark and Roderick Gorby and a rare performance of Raga for two harps by French-Canadian composer, Caroline Lizotte. Following a concurrent passion for musical theater, Michelle has performed as a substitute harpist for Anna Reinersman at The Producers on Broadway and frequently performs as a substitute for Jacqueline Kerrod at The Fantasticks. Avidly committed to her work as an artist, teacher, and educator, Ms. Gott has coached young harpists for the pre-college programs of both The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music and for the InterSchool Orchestras of New York. Through the Morse Fellowship at Juilliard, she gained invaluable experience teaching music to 2nd and 3rd grade students in Harlem. For three years, Ms. Gott was also a teaching assistant for undergraduate theory courses in counterpoint at The Juilliard School. As a member of Juilliard’s Gluck Community Service Fellowship for five years, Ms. Gott presented over 60 interactive concerts for both children and adults in hospitals, cancer facilities, psychiatric rehabilitation centers, and homeless shelters in New York City. The challenges presented by these many performance and teaching situations are at the heart of Ms. Gott’s dedication to teaching artistry and her ardent belief that the artist should strive to be an integral and essential member of society. Michelle Gott has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Henry Mancini Institute, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Lucerne Festival Academy under the direction of Pierre Boulez. She was a winner of both the 2004 and 2006 Anne Adams Award, a prizewinner of the 2005 American Harp Society National Competition, and a winner of the 2004 International Jazz and Pop Harpfest Competition. In May 2007, Ms. Gott received the honor of the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Leadership and Achievement in the Arts from The Juilliard School. She holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Harp Performance from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Nancy Allen and is currently in the C.V. Starr Doctoral Program. Ms. Gott is also currently on summer faculty at the Performing Arts Institute of the Wyoming Seminary.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2022 AT 3 PM PAUL HUANG AND DANBI UM, VIOLINS JUHO POHJONEN, PIANO BUY TICKETS JUHO POHJONEN, PIANO “Juho Pohjonen demonstrated his elegant musicianship, pearly touch, singing tone, and sensitivity throughout the program…everything about his recital was formidable” — The New York Times PAUL HUANG, VIOLIN Paul Huang possesses a big, luscious tone, spot-on intonation and a technique that makes the most punishing string phrases feel as natural as breathing.” — The Washington Post DANBI UM, VIOLIN “Danbi Um’s playing is utterly dazzling…a marvelous show of superb technique” — The Strad FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS Two scintillating violinists, Paul Huang and Danbi Um , will collaborate with the superlative Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen in an exhilarating afternoon of musical treasures by Beethoven, Erich Korngold, Pablo Sarasate, and others. The musical centerpiece will be Afterword , a mesmerizing new work created especially for the ensemble by the award-winning young American composer Chris Rogerson. PROGRAM Erich Wolfgang Korngold Suite from Much Ado about Nothing , Op. 11 Danbi Um, violin; Juho Pohjonen, piano Program Notes Moritz Moszkowski Suite for two violins and piano , Op. 71 Program Notes Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major. Op. 12, No. 3 Paul Huang, violin; Juho Pohjonen Program Notes Chris Rogerson Afterword for two violins and piano Program Notes Amy Barlowe Hebraique Elegie for two violins Paul Huang and Danbi Um, violins Program Notes Pablo Sarasate Navarra, Op. 33 for two violins and piano Program Notes Watch violinists Paul Huang and Danbi Um perform Sarasate’s Navarra: Watch this short documentary about violinist Paul Huang: Watch pianist Juho Pohjonen play Rameau’s Keyboard Suite No. 2:

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023 AT 4 PM DANISH STRING QUARTET BUY TICKETS THE DANISH STRING QUARTET “That mixture of casualness and control that comes out when they perform makes them the quartet I would most want to hear play just about anything. Chords all have a diamond edge, tunes pour like molten silver, staccato passages skip like stones across a lake.” — Justin Davidson, New York Magazine FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The long-awaited return of the charismatic Danish String Quartet promises to be a true highlight of the 2022-23 season. In their own words, “We are three Danes and one Norwegian cellist, making this a truly Scandinavian endeavor. The three of us, the Danes, met very early in our lives in the Danish countryside, and none of us have any memory of our lives without the string quartet. In 2008 Norwegian cellist Fredrik joined in. He looked like a character from Game of Thrones, and we thought he was a perfect match.” The Danish Quartet will bring their perfectly balanced personal and musical rapport to beloved works by Mozart, Britten, and Schubert. PROGRAM Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Divertimento in F, K. 138 Program Notes Benjamin Britten Divertimenti Program Notes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart String Quartet No. 16 in E-flat, K. 428 Program Notes Franz Schubert String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, Op. 29 (“Rosamunde”) Program Notes Watch the Danish String Quartet perform Beethoven’s String Quartet in F, Op. 59, No. 1, at Parlance Chamber Concerts:

JEEWON PARK, PIANO Hailed for her “deeply reflective” playing (Indianapolis Star), pianist Jeewon Park is rapidly garnering the attention of audiences for her dazzling technique and poetic lyricism. Since making her debut at the age of 12 performing Chopin’s First Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Park has performed at major venues such as Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Kaplan Penthouse, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Steinway Hall, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Kravis Center (FL). As a recitalist, she has been heard at the Steinway Hall in New York, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Caramoor International Festival, Norfolk Music Festival, Music Alp in Courchevel (France) and Kusatsu Summer Music Festival (Japan), among others. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Park has performed in numerous festivals such as the Spoleto USA Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Beethoven Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (VT), Appalachian Summer Festival (NC), Emilia-Romagna Festival (Italy) and Barge Music. She has performed as a guest artist with the Fine Arts Quartet and New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, and has collaborated with numerous artists. As an orchestral soloist, she has performed with the Charleston Symphony (SC), Mexico City Philharmonic, Monterrey Symphony, Mexico State Symphony, in addition to many major orchestras from her native Korea. Following her performance of the Mozart Concerto K. 453 with the Charleston Symphony, the Post and Courier acclaimed that “Park demonstrated rare skill and sensitivity, playing with a feline grace and glittering dexterity…. lyrical phrasing and pearly tone quality.” In the 2008-2009 season, Ms. Park appears in many North American cities including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., St. Paul, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Burlington and Omaha. Highlights of this season include several performances of Mozart Piano Concertos K. 414 and K. 415, a solo recital and an all-Mendelssohn chamber music program at Caramoor, and a U.S. tour with the “Charles Wadsworth and Friends” series. Jeewon Park most recently recorded an album of chamber works by the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Paul Moravec, which was released by Naxos in the fall of 2008. She has been heard in numerous live broadcasts on National Public Radio and New York’s Classical Radio Station, WQXR. Additionally, her performances have been nationally broadcast throughout Korea on KBS and EBS television. Ms. Park holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University, where she was awarded the prestigious Dean Horatio Parker Prize. Her teachers include Herbert Stessin, Claude Frank and Gilbert Kalish.

October 18, 2009 – Rafael Figueroa, cello GASPAR CASSADÓ (1897-1966) Suite for Solo Cello October 18, 2009 – Rafael Figueroa, cello Gaspar Cassadó was one of the foremost cellists of the 20th Century. A musician of great versatility, he appeared regularly as a soloist with the world’s finest conductors and orchestras; performed chamber music with the most renowned musicians of the day; and produced a sizeable body of charming, well-crafted compositions and arrangements designed to showcase his own considerable talents as a cellist. His performance style and compositional oeuvre are often likened to those of the violinist Fritz Kreisler, who also wrote and performed his own concertos, showpieces, and charming recital encores that display the performer’s wit, agility, and lighter side. Born in Barcelona in 1897, Cassadó progressed quickly in his musical studies. In 1906 the emerging 21-year-old cellist Pablo Casals attended a performance by the nine-year-old prodigy and was so impressed that he invited him to become his first fulltime student. Cassadó eventually attained a scholarship from the city of Barcelona to move to Paris, where he studied for many years with Casals. Cassadó considered Casals to be his greatest musical influence and his “spiritual father.” While in Paris, Cassadó also pursued his studies in composition, working closely with such masters as Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel. Their stylistic influence can be heard in Cassadó’s 1926 Suite for Solo Cello, which was inspired by Casals’ legendary performances of the Bach cello suites. Up until the early 20th Century, Bach’s six cello suites were not widely known to the listening public; they were regarded as cello teaching material not quite suitable for general consumption. Casals radically altered that perception, performing them often and serving as their staunch advocate. His performances served as a catalyst for a vast outpouring of 20th Century solo cello works by major composers as diverse as Zoltán Kodály, Max Reger, Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, George Crumb, and Gaspar Cassadó. Cassadó’s Suite for Solo Cello combines the Baroque formalism and dance orientation of Bach’s suites with his own native Spanish flair. The first movement begins, á la Bach, with a free preludium that evolves into a zarabanda, a dignified Spanish dance related to the Baroque sarabande. The movement quotes Zoltán Kodaly’s Sonata for Cello Solo and, reflecting Cassadó’s studies with Ravel, makes extensive use of the motive that begins the famous flute solo from the ballet Daphnis et Chloe. The second movement is written in the form of a two-part sardana. Beginning with a characteristicly slow, introductory section (in classic saradanas the first tirada was danced with the arms down), the music soon breaks into an animatedly rustic dance in 2/4 (the second tirada was usually danced with the arms up). The jauntily rhythmic flavor of the movement makes this the most overtly “danceable” of the three. Cassadó continues to honor antique Spanish folkdance styles by basing the final movement largely on the jota, a dance originally performed in colorful costumes and accompanied by castanets. The movement begins slowly with a ruminative intermezzo featuring lyrical, five-beat phrases. The intermezzo gradually gives way to the more vigorous, swinging jota. The movement alternates between the introspection of the intermezzo and the extroverted, flamenco-like jota, bringing the suite to a lively, Spanish-style conclusion. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Oliver Neubauer, violin; Anne-Marie McDermott, piano GILAD COHEN Moonrhymes for Three Violins, Viola, and Piano May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Oliver Neubauer, violin; Anne-Marie McDermott, piano Commissioned by Parlance Chamber Concerts for the Neubauer-McDermott Family Premiere Performance, May 6, 2018 Born in Jerusalem, Israel, May 8, 1980 An active composer, performer, and theorist, Israeli musician Gilad Cohen focuses on a variety of musical genres that include concert music, rock, and music for theater. His works have been performed in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East by renowned artists ranging from London’s Nash Ensemble and the Apollo Chamber Players to the Brentano Quartet and Tre Voci, as well as orchestras and choirs throughout Israel and his own rock band, Double Space. Recipient of myriad honors and top composition prizes, Cohen was recently awarded the 2016 Barlow Prize, resulting in the commission of Late Shadow for violin and piano, which is being premiered by a consortium of performers in 2018. His other recent projects include Around the Cauldron , commissioned by Concert Artists Guild with support from Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund for the Lysander Trio and premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2017; Doaa and Masa (2016) which harpist Sivan Magen is performing around the world; and Firefly Elegy for clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and harp, written for the 10th anniversary of the Israeli Chamber Project and just premiered in March 2018. Further, his string quartet Three Goat Blues (2015) was recorded by the Apollo Chamber Players and just released in November as part of their album Ancestral Voices on the Navona label. On the rock/pop front, Cohen’s “After the Tsimess” for Double Space and modern-klezmer ensemble Klezshop was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Songwriting Award in the 11th Annual Great American Song Contest, and the song was a finalist at the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. As a theorist Cohen has researched structure in the music of Pink Floyd, resulting in articles in prestigious publications, lectures in the U.S. and Israel, a four-credit course at Ramapo College, and the first-ever academic conference devoted to Pink Floyd that he coproduced at Princeton University with composer Dave Molk. As a performing musician, Cohen has played piano, bass guitar, and six-string guitar at renowned venues worldwide, and he has served on occasion as a choral conductor and music director of musicals. A faculty member at Ramapo College, Cohen holds a Ph.D. in composition from Princeton University, and he is a graduate of Mannes College of Music, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Among his principal teachers were Robert Cuckson, Steven Mackey, and Paul Lansky. Cohen’s Moonrhymes for three violins, viola, and piano was commissioned by Parlance Chamber Concerts for this world-premiere performance. The composer writes: “Written with the theme of family in mind, Moonrhymes is based on nursery rhymes from several countries. The piece is comprised of three movements (in addition to an introduction and a finale, all played without a break), each of them focusing on a traditional song from a different origin: the English-Irish ‘Danny Boy,’ the Latin ‘A la nanita nana,’ and the Israeli-Yiddish ‘Numi numi.’ Though such tunes have been sung as lullabies for many years, their lyrics are often more bleak than what might seem appropriate for bedtime. My treatment of these melodies likewise takes them to mysterious, reflective, and dark places using folk elements from various cultures. “Moonrhymes plays with the question of what rhyming could mean in instrumental music. Literal rhymes feature similarities in sound between words: the endings of rhyming words usually sound identical, while the beginnings are different. Likewise, the themes of the piece are very similar to the original tunes, but each carries a significant musical difference in pitch, rhythm, etc. Additionally, many moments in the piece ‘rhyme’ with one another: accompaniment figurations recur while supporting different tunes (such as a repeated arpeggiated minor-seventh chord), sounds and textures repeat through the piece (such as ‘glassy’ chords in the violins using harmonics), and musical themes float again and again into the surface (such as the melody of ‘Rock-a-bye Baby,’ another popular lullaby that features disturbing lyrics and functions as an introduction to each of the movements). “In the finale, all tunes—and cultures—join together: the Yiddish-based ‘Numi numi,’ with its Phyrygian mode, provides the foundation for ‘Danny Boy’ and its iconic English-American use of the pentatonic scale while also supporting figurations from both ‘Nanita’ (featuring a highly embellished minor-scale Spanish melody) and ‘Rock-a-bye Baby’ (whose sweet melody is disguised under darker harmonies).” © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

WENDY BRYN HARMER, SOPRANO This season, soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Freia and Ortlinde in The Ring Cycle and makes her debut at the Tanglewood Festival in a concert version of Die Walküre, conducted by Andris Nelsons. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Harmer has appeared in their productions of Le nozze di Figaro, War and Peace, Khovanshchina, Parsifal, Die Agyptische Helena, Jenufa, and the complete Ring Cycle. She also appeared in the Met’s HD broadcasts of the Ring Cycle and The Magic Flute, which have subsequently been released on DVD (Deutsche Gramophone). Other recent opera engagements have included the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos and Adalgisa in Norma at the Palm Beach Opera, Leonora in Fidelio at Opera Omaha, Senta in Die fliegende Holländer and multiple roles in the Ring Cycle at the Seattle Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Houston Grand Opera, Eglantine in Euryanthe at the Bard Music Festival , Die Walküre at the San Francisco Opera, Glauce in Medea at the Glimmerglas Festival, Wanda in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito at Opera Boston, and Mimi in La Bohéme at the Utah Opera Festival. In concert, Ms. Harmer recently made her debuts with Boston Baroque in performances of Fidelio, and with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in performances of Vaughn William’s Sea Symphony. She has also appeared with the San Francisco Symphony in performances of the Beethoven Symphony No. 9, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in concert performances of Das Rheingold, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as a soloist at the Schubert Festival, and in Lincoln Center’s Tribute to Renata Tebaldi. In 2005, she made her New York recital debut under the auspices of The Marilyn Horne Foundation, and was presented by the George London Foundation in a recital with Ben Heppner at the Morgan Library. Born in Roseville, California, Ms. Harmer graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from The Boston Conservatory and attended the Music of Academy of the West. She was also a member of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theater of St Louis, and was one of nine singers invited to study at The Music Academy in Villecroze, France. Her many awards include a 2010 Richard Tucker Grant, the 2007 Jensen Award, the Teatro alla Scala Award at the 2007 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, first place at the Palm Beach Opera Competition, the 2005 winner of the George London/Leonie Rysanek Award, and an award from The Marilyn Horne Foundation.

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