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ANNE AKIKO MEYERS, VIOLIN Violin superstar Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the most in-demand violinists in the world. Regularly performing as guest soloist with the world’s top orchestras, she presents ground-breaking recitals and is a best-selling recording artist with 35 albums. Meyers is known for her passionate performances, purity of sound, deeply poetic interpretations, innovative programming and commitment to commissioning significant new works from living composers. Anne’s recent recording of Rautavaara’s Fantasia was the only classical instrumental work to be selected on NPR’s 100 best songs of 2017. Fantasia, Anne’s 35th recording, includes works for violin and orchestra by Rautavaara, Ravel and the Szymanowski Concerto No.1, recorded with Kristjan Järvi and the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2018, she will premiere a new violin concerto by Adam Schoenberg (which she commissioned) with the Phoenix and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. Anne will also return to Leipzig, Germany to premiere Rautavaara’s Fantasia with the MDR Leipzig Orchestra and has been invited by legendary composer, Arvo Pärt, to perform at the opening celebration of the new Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. Earlier this year, Anne performed the world premiere of Fantasia by Einojuhani Rautavaara, a work written for her and considered to be the composer’s final masterpiece, with the Kansas City Symphony, conducted by Michael Stern. She performed recitals in Florida, New York, Virginia, Washington D.C., and returned to the Nashville Symphony to perform the Bernstein Serenade with Giancarlo Guerrero. In May, she headlined the Kanazawa Music Festival performing the Beethoven Concerto with cadenzas by Mason Bates with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, toured New Zealand with the Mason Bates Violin Concerto and New Zealand Symphony, and returned to Krakow and Warsaw, Poland to perform the Szymanowski Concerto and Jakub Ciupinski’s newly orchestrated Wreck of the Umbria. Other recent projects include a nationwide PBS broadcast special and a Naxos DVD featuring the world premiere of Samuel Jones’ Violin Concerto with the All-Star Orchestra led by Gerard Schwarz, the French premiere of Mason Bates Violin Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre de Lyon, and two new recordings-Naïve Classics celebrating Arvo Pärt’s 80th birthday and a box set of Anne’s RCA Red Seal discography on Sony Classics. Anne’s prior releases the Four Seasons: The Vivaldi Album, debuted at #1 on the classical Billboard charts, as did Air: The Bach Album, and the Vivaldi was the recording debut of the Ex-Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri del Gesu violin, dated 1741, which was awarded to Meyers for her lifetime use. A champion of living composers, Meyers collaborates closely with many of today’s leading composers. She has expanded the violin repertoire by commissioning and premiering works by composers such as Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Pärt, Gene Pritsker, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Somei Satoh, Adam Schoenberg and Joseph Schwantner. Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists outside of traditional classical, including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis, avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita, pop-era act Il Divo and singer Michael Bolton. She performed the National Anthem in front of 42,000 fans at Safeco Field in Seattle, appeared twice on The Tonight Show and was featured in a segment on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann that became that show’s the third most popular story of the year. Anne has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS’ “The Good Wife”, NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer, All Things Considered with Robert Siegel and recently curated “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall with host David Srebnik. She was on the popular Nick Jr. show Take Me To Your Mother with Andrea Rosen, and best-selling novelist J. Courtney Sullivan consulted with Anne for The Engagements and based one of the main characters loosely on her career. She also collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator Kristine Papillon on Crumpet the Trumpet where the character Violetta the violinist is played by Anne. Anne Akiko Meyers was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California. She studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. She received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Colburn School of Music and is on the advisory council of the American Youth Symphony Orchestra.

ZUKERMAN TRIO Pinchas Zukerman (Violin); Amanda Forsyth (Cello); Angela Cheng (Piano) A prodigious talent recognized worldwide for his artistry, Pinchas Zukerman has been an inspiration to young musicians throughout his adult life. In a continuing effort to motivate future generations of musicians through education and outreach, the renowned artist teamed up in 2002 with four protégés to form a string quintet called the Zukerman ChamberPlayers. Despite limited availability during the season, the ensemble amassed an impressive international touring schedule with close to two hundred concerts and four discs on the CBC, Altara and Sony labels. Beginning in 2011 Zukerman, along with cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Angela Cheng, began offering trio repertoire as an alternative to the quintet works with the ChamberPlayers. In addition to piano trios by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Dvorak and Shostakovich, programs often include duo performances with various couplings including the Kodaly Duo. Invitations from major Festivals and venues led to the official launch of the Zukerman Trio in 2013. The ensemble has traveled around the globe to appear in Japan, China, Australia, Spain, Italy, France, Hungary, South Africa, Istanbul, Russia, and throughout the United States. Appearances at major festivals have included the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Verbier, and Bravo! Vail. This season, the Zukerman Trio returns to Australia for performances at the Adelaide Town Hall and the Ulkaria Cultural Centre. Other highlights include appearances at Chamber Music Sedona, Chamber Music Society of Detroit and the Music Institute of Chicago. The 2017-2018 marks Mr. Pinchas Zukerman’s ninth season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and his third as the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Residence and includes over 100 concerts worldwide. He joins long-time friend Itzhak Perlman for a gala performance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and duo recitals in Boston, Newark, Miami, and West Palm Beach. He tours with cellist Amanda Forsyth and the Zukerman Trio, and leads the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Baltimore, San Diego, Vancouver, Nashville and New West Symphonies, among others, as soloist and conductor. Born in Tel Aviv, Pinchas Zukerman came to America in 1962, where he studied at The Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian. He has been awarded a Medal of Arts, the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence, and was appointed as the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s first instrumentalist mentor in the music discipline. A devoted and innovative pedagogue, Mr. Zukerman chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts. He currently serves as Conductor Emeritus of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, as well as Artistic Director of its Young Artist Program. Canadian Juno Award-winning Amanda Forsyth is considered one of North America’s most dynamic cellists. Her intense richness of tone, remarkable technique and exceptional musicality combine to enthrall audiences and critics alike. From 1999-2015, Amanda Forsyth was principal cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, where she appeared regularly as soloist and in chamber ensembles. She is recognized as an eminent recitalist, soloist and chamber musician appearing with leading orchestras in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. As a recording artist she appears on the Fanfare, Marquis, Pro Arte and CBC labels. Consistently praised for her brilliant technique, tonal beauty and superb musicianship, Canadian pianist Angela Cheng performs regularly throughout North America as a recitalist and orchestral soloist. Angela Cheng has been Gold Medalist of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition, as well as the first Canadian to win the prestigious Montreal International Piano Competition. Other awards include the Canada Council’s coveted Career Development Grant and the Medal of Excellence for outstanding interpretations of Mozart from the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

JOSEPH JORDAN, OBOE

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INN-HYUCK CHO, CLARINET Inn-hyuck Cho, born in South Korea, joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra this season as Principal Clarinet. Previously, he was Principal Clarinet of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Switzerland after serving in one of the oldest European orchestras, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Switzerland. Mr. Cho has also performed as a guest with The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Zurich Tonhalle orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Zurich Philharmonia, Radio France Philharmonic orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio, and Luzern Symphony Orchestra. He proved his talent as a laureate of the Carl Nielsen International Music Competition and Debussy international clarinet competition. He is also a member of the Alma Woodwind Quintet, 1st prize winner of International Woodwind Quintet Competition “Henri Tomasi” in Marseille, France. Mr. Cho studied at the Korean National University of Arts and Conservatoire National Supérieur de musique de Paris with Prof. Michel Arrignon and Prof. Pascal Moragués.

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RICHARD STOLTZMAN, CLARINET Richard Stoltzman’s virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism have made him one of today’s most sought-after concert artists. As soloist with more than a hundred orchestras, as a captivating recitalist and chamber music performer, as an innovative jazz artist, and as a prolific recording artist, two-time Grammy® Award winner Stoltzman has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike throughout many musical genres. Stoltzman graduated from Ohio State University with a double major in music and mathematics. He earned his Master of Music degree at Yale University while studying with Keith Wilson, and later worked toward a doctoral degree with Kalmen Opperman at Columbia University. As a ten-year participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, Stoltzman gained extensive chamber music experience, and subsequently became a founding member of the noted ensemble TASHI, which made its debut in 1973. Since then, Stoltzman’s unique style of playing the clarinet has earned him an international reputation as he has opened up possibilities for the instrument that no one could have predicted. He gave the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, and in 1986, he became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize. In 2006, he was awarded the prestigious Sanford Medal by the Yale School of Music. His talents as a jazz performer as well as a classical artist have been heard far beyond his annual tours. He has performed or recorded with such jazz and pop greats as Gary Burton, the Canadian Brass, Chick Corea, Judy Collins, Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez, Keith Jarrett, the King’s Singers, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Mel Tormé, Spyro Gyra founder Jeremy Wall and Kazumi Watanabe. His commitment to new music has resulted in the commissioning and premiere of numerous new works for the clarinet, including “Fantasma/Cantos” by Toru Takemitsu, the 1994 winner of Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, “Landscapes with Blues” by Stephen Hartke, a concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara which premiered with conductor Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, and “TRIO 2009” written for him, cellist Lynn Harrell and pianist Robert Levin by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Yehudi Wyner. Richard Stoltzman has a discography numbering over 60 releases on BMG/RCA, SONY Classical, MMC, BIS, Albany and other labels, including a Grammy-winning recording of Brahms Sonatas with Richard Goode. Among Stoltzman’s most beloved releases are “Amber Waves”, a CD of American works, and the Trios of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma, which won Stoltzman his second Grammy® Award. Recent releases include the acclaimed recordings of Hartke’s “Landscapes with Blues” with IRIS, conducted by Michael Stern (Naxos), a New York Times “Best of 2003”, Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto recorded with Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic, released on Ondine, an All-Bach recording, “Vibrations and Fantasies”(BMG Japan, 2008), as well as works of Debussy, Tchaikovsky and Weber (Navona Records, 2008), among others. His newest orchestral recording features William Bolcom’s “Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra” and Clare Fischer’s “The Duke, Swee’pea and Me” (Marquis Classics, 2009). Richard Stoltzman continues to be a trailblazer for his instrument and his arrangement and performance of Debussy’s “Maid with the Flaxen Hair”(Navona Records, 2009) was chosen as one of only three tracks to be pre-loaded on the new Microsoft’s Windows® System 7 release. Bach’s “Chromatic Fantasy in D minor,” “performed so persuasively and exquisitely”(Baltimore Sun), as well as his reflections on the composer, that appear in the Michael Lawrence’s Documentary Film, “Bach & friends” have been singled out as “brilliant” (Huffington Post). Live performances have accompanied screenings at the official launch at the January 2010 EG conference in Carmel, CA and World Premiere at Symphony Space in New York City (May 2010). Mr. Stoltzman’s Summer 2010 includes an eclectic mix of performances, such as a duo recital with guitarist Eliot Fisk at Boston’s Jordan Hall, a return to the Norfolk Festival in Connecticut for Mozart Serenade, and helps to open the new venue for the Rockport Chamber Music Festival in Cape Ann with Jazz and Classics. The 10-11 Season includes collaborative performances with the New York Chamber Soloists at UCLA Live! in Los Angeles, CA, UA Presents in Tucson, AZ and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; several of these performances also reprise his collaboration with renowned pianist Menahem Pressler. Other collaborations include a partnership with the Klezmatics at the University of Texas, Austin, a residency and tour with the University of Northern Florida Jazz Ensemble, and Bach and Brahms in recital with pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Orchestral performances include works of Copland, Corigliano, Mozart, and Rossini. Throughout the season, Stoltzman will also continue his commitment to help bring music to children of all ages as an active Board Member of Young Audiences. Past season highlights have featured Stoltzman’s performances of Toru Takemitsu’s Fantasma Cantos with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as at the composers official 75th birthday memorial tribute in Japan, Mozart Concerto performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, marking Stoltzman’s 25th appearance at the Lincoln Center festival. Performances throughout the US, Canada and Europe of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto, Duo recitals with pianists Lukas Foss and Emanuel Ax, with whom he premiered Yehudi Wyner’s “Commedia,”, as well as performances and tours with the American, Borromeo, Emerson, Orion, Takacs, and Tokyo String Quartets are also highlights. Extended residencies have taken Stoltzman to numerous orchestras including and major universities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Especially memorable are concerts of jazz and classics with his son, pianist Peter John Stoltzman. Father and Son have performed together around the globe and were recently featured on NPR’s “Performance Today” and “Weekend Edition” as well as “Voice of America” radio. For their extraordinary talent on the stage, in the classroom, and throughout the community, WGBH radio in Boston called the Stoltzmans “New England’s First Family of Classical Music”. Over the years, Stoltzman has received numerous requests for the music to the enchanting arrangements and original works that can be heard on his recordings and in live performance. Amateur and professional clarinetists alike are now in luck as they can finally enjoy this music published in two appealing volumes entitled “ARIA,” which features the music from the BMG recording of the same name, and “The Richard Stoltzman Songbook,” a collection of jazz and classics, both published by Carl Fischer. Richard Stoltzman, resides in Massachusetts and is a passionate Boston Red Sox baseball fan. He is also a Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef.

MIHAI MARICA, CELLO Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a First Prize winner of the “Dr. Luis Sigall” International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile and the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer, and was a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. This season he joins the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Mr. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music where he was awarded master’s and artist diploma degrees. He is a former member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) String Quartet in F November 14, 2021 – Schumann String Quartet Incredible as it seems, Ravel’s efforts as a student at the Paris Conservatory and his attempts to win the prestigious Prix de Rome met with repeated rejection. His first dismissal from the Conservatory came in 1895 after he failed to win any piano prizes. He was dismissed again in 1900 when prizes in composition and fugue also eluded him. He nevertheless credited his teachers—Fauré in composition and Gédalge in composition—as major influences. He stayed on at the Conservatory as an auditor in Fauré’s class until 1903. Just as Ravel’s flouting of conservative counterpoint and harmony rules dogged his success at the Conservatory, it kept him from earning the Prix de Rome five times between 1900 and 1905. These utterly painful snubbings became known as the first “Affaire Ravel,” which ultimately led to the uncovering of a judging scandal and the replacement of the director of the Conservatory with the more tolerant Fauré. Against this backdrop of academic failure, however, Ravel was winning considerable public and critical support for his already mature-sounding compositions. Ravel’s only String Quartet, now one of the most beloved pieces in the chamber music repertoire, was the product of his last year of study with Fauré, to whom he dedicated it with affection. The Quartet’s glorious first movement was the submission that failed to win its composer the 1903 Prix. The first performance of the Quartet took place at the Société Nationale de Musique—a prestigious place indeed for a “failure”—on March 5, 1904, by the Heymann Quartet. The critics hotly contested the merits of the work, some considering it too derivative of Debussy and others boldly recognizing Ravel as one of the masters of the future. Obvious parallels exist between Debussy’s and Ravel’s Quartets—such as the shadowy accompanimental sixteenth-note figures in the first movement and the pizzicatos in the scherzo—but Ravel’s clarity of structure, innovative textures, and thematic transformations within and between movements bespeak his uniqueness. Despite a professional rivalry that became ugly in the press, Debussy is said to have written his younger colleague encouraging him to stand firm with exactly what he had composed. The warm pastoral theme of Ravel’s opening and a vigorous climax provide a wonderful foil for the soaring, haunting second theme played by the violin and viola paralleling one another two octaves apart. The composer drapes his inspired textures and colors over a transparent sonata framework. This form features some harmonic sleight of hand—when the haunting theme returns in the recapitulation, Ravel uses exactly the same notes in the upper three parts, but manages a change to the home key simply by raising the cello line. Like Debussy, Ravel places his Scherzo second. The younger composer uses contrasting meters between the outer and inner pairs of instruments, culminating in an insistent trill that blossoms into a plaintive melody over busy texture. The central trio slows to a moody, atmospheric meandering before the rhythmic pizzicato of the scherzo resumes. Ravel’s slow movement begins in the declamatory vein of a storyteller, whose muted narrative unfolds with alternating tension and serenity, periodically alluding to first-movement themes. A string of ingenious textures and ideas captivates the ear—delicate trills arising out of a gruff cello recitative, poignant melodies with rocking accompaniment or underlaid with rapid string crossings, and an exquisite peak followed by a nostalgic ebbing. The vigorous finale with its irregular 5/8 meter and juxtaposition of lyricism and insistent outbursts struck Fauré as “stunted, badly balanced, in fact a failure.” Time, however, has overruled his objections—the movement’s unsettled nature, its expressive transformations of first-movement material, and its whirlwind virtuosity are now deemed the perfect conclusion to a masterpiece. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes