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GILAD COHEN, COMPOSER Gilad Cohen’s new quintet for three violins, viola, and piano, Parlance Chamber Concerts’s first commissioned work, will be premiered by the Neubauer-McDermott Family Concert on May 6, 2018. 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 (Kim Kashkashian, Marina Piccinini and Sivan Magen), 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 a duet for violin and piano that will be premiered by a consortium of performers. His other recent and current projects include Around the Cauldron, commissioned by Concert Artists Guild with support from the Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund, to be premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2017, and Doaa and Masa, which will be premiered this year by harpist Sivan Magen in Hong-Kong, Israel, and Columbia. He is also working on a new quintet for the 10th anniversary of the Israeli Chamber Project for premiere performances on their 2018 tours. On the rock/pop front, Cohen’s music 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 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 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.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 2019 AT 3 PM PINCHAS ZUKERMAN TRIO BUY TICKETS PINCHAS ZUKERMAN; AMANDA FORSYTH; ANGELA CHENG “With Pinchas Zukerman’s matchless musicianship and charisma at its core, this is a trio made in heaven. Amanda Forsyth brings passion and formidable technique as a cellist, and pianist Angela Cheng is the dream accompanist who lives every note.” — Limelight, Australia’s Classical Music and Arts Magazine “The cleanly articulated performance was elevated by an uncommon passion, both in the tender Adagio and in the finale that shifts abruptly from sadness to joy.” — The Chicago Tribune FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman will collaborate with celebrated cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Angela Cheng in a performance of treasured piano trios by Beethoven, Arensky, and Brahms. PROGRAM Ludwig van Beethoven Kakadu Variations, Op. 121a Program Notes Anton Arensky Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32 Program Notes Johannes Brahms Piano Trio No. 2 in C, Op. 87 Program Notes Watch the Pinchas Zukerman trio perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio In D minor, Movement 1:

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DEMIAN AUSTIN, TROMBONE Demian Austin is principal trombonist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He is also a member of the MET Chamber Ensemble, which performs regularly at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel halls. He has performed with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and in the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center. Mr. Austin has played on numerous recordings including the Metropolitan Opera Brass CDs, several movie soundtracks, Dialogues with Double Bass with Jeremy McCoy on Bridge Records, the GM Recordings issue of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Brahms’ First Symphony conducted by Gunther Schuller, and many recordings with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, including Strauss’ Tod und Verklarung. He can also be heard regularly on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Live at the Met Broadcasts, the Saturday Matinee Broadcasts of the Met, and on The Met: Live in HD worldwide movie simulcasts. At Juilliard he has been the Gordon Henderson Pre-College Trombone Faculty since 2009. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1992 from Oberlin College, where he studied with Raymond Premru, and his Masters of Music degree in 1995 from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Per Brevig. Aside from his career in music, Mr. Austin has a keen interest in film and has attended several intensive seminars on screenwriting.

PASCUAL MARTÍNEZ FORTEZA, CLARINET Pascual Martínez Forteza, Acting Associate Principal Clarinet, The Honey M. Kurtz Family Chair, joined the New York Philharmonic in 2001, after holding tenure with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. At age 18 he was appointed assistant principal of the Baleares Symphony Orchestra in his native Spain, later becoming acting principal. He has recently performed as guest principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic, under Simon Rattle. Mr. Martínez Forteza appears regularly as a soloist, recitalist, and master class teacher at festivals and conservatories worldwide, including the International Clarinet Festival of Chanchung (China) and The Juilliard School, among others. Since 2003 Mr. Martínez Forteza and Spanish pianist Gema Nieto have played throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States as Duo Forteza-Nieto. Together they founded the Benifaio Music Festival in Spain. Mr. Martínez Forteza also founded Vent Cameristic, a wind ensemble of professional musicians from Spain. As a soloist with that ensemble, he has played every year at the Concerts d’Estiú in Valencia, Spain. In 2003 Spanish National Radio (RNE) produced a CD featuring selections from these performances. Pascual Martínez Forteza started playing clarinet at age ten with his father, Pascual V. Martínez, principal clarinet of the Baleares Symphony Orchestra for 30 years and teacher at the Baleares Conservatory of Music in Spain. Mr. Martínez Forteza earned his master’s degree from the Baleares and Liceo de Barcelona Music Conservatories in Spain and pursued advanced studies with Yehuda Gilad at the University of Southern California, where he won first prize in the university’s 1998 Concerto Competition. He is currently a faculty member at New York University and teaches orchestral repertoire at Manhattan School of Music. A Buffet Crampon Artist and Vandoren Artist, he plays Green Line Tosca Buffet clarinets and uses Vandoren reeds and M30D mouthpieces.

PIERRE LAPOINTE, VIOLA Pierre Lapointe is the violist of the Escher String Quartet and founded the group in 2005 with violinist Adam Barnett-Hart, violinist Wu Jie, and cellist Andrew Janss. The Escher Quartet was a member of Chamber Music Society Two from 2006 to 2009 and continues to perform extensively in the United States and all over the world. In 2012 he completed a thesis on Zemlinsky’s Second Quartet to earn a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music and finished almost simultaneously a recording project of all four Zemlinsky string quartets on the Naxos label. Before devoting himself entirely to the viola, he played the violin and studied composition. In 2002 he performed his first string quartet to great acclaim on the show Young Artists of CBC Radio in Canada. He also received a prize in 2004 from the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec for his work at the Gatineau Music Conservatory and was granted a gold medal by the University of Ottawa in 2000 for his undergraduate studies in composition and violin performance. His main teachers were Yaëla Hertz Berkson, Calvin Sieb, and Lawrence Dutton. Since 2015 Mr. Lapointe has been teaching chamber music at the Southern Methodist University of Dallas.

RACHEL NAOMI KUDO, PIANO Winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, American pianist Rachel Naomi Kudo is captivating audiences around the globe with her “heartfelt, courageous and perfect playing” (Lübecker Nachrichten) and as a “thrilling” artist with “the highest artistic claim who demonstrates a perfection of technique and precision down to the smallest motivic detail” (Die Rheinpfalz). Following her orchestral debut with the Chicago and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, Rachel has performed as both soloist and chamber musician at the Bachfest in Leipzig, Royal Castle in Warsaw, Salle Cortot in Paris, Musikverein in Vienna, Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel, International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, Poland, Tivoli International Festival in Denmark, Bergen International Festival in Norway, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York. She is recipient of the Gilmore Young Artist Award, a Davidson Fellow Laureate of the Davidson Institute of Talent Development, and the Salon de Virtuosi Grant. She has won numerous top prizes at the U.S. National Chopin Competition in Miami, and a finalist diploma at the 15th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Born in Washington, D.C., to Japanese-Korean parents, Rachel began her studies with Emilio del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago. She received the Arthur Rubinstein Prize, Chopin Prize, Sanders/Tel Aviv Art Museum Prize, and Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Joseph Kalichstein at The Juilliard School, and continued to work with Richard Goode at Mannes College of Music, Gilbert Kalish at Stony Brook University, and Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She received guidance in master classes of Robert Levin, and from Emanuel Ax and Sir András Schiff at Carnegie Hall’s Professional Training Workshops. Rachel believes in sharing the transformative power of music with the widest possible audience to foster cultural engagement and human connection. As an educator, she is passionate about mentoring the next generation of young musicians and has taught master classes worldwide. She was engaged as a live stream host for the Eighteenth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and the U.S. National Chopin and Cliburn Junior International Piano Competitions. In February 2021, in a Virtual Special Event for The Gilmore, Rachel presented the world premiere of Marc-André Hamelin’s Suite à l’ancienne, which she commissioned with her funding from the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival.

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December 19, 2017: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI (1913-1994) Variations on a Theme of Paganini for two pianos December 19, 2017: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano After Stalin’s death in 1953, Witold Lutosławski, along with Krzysztof Penderecki, led Polish composers in a great renaissance, bringing recognition to Polish music that had been lacking since the days of Chopin. Lutosławski had concurrently studied composition at the Warsaw Conservatory and mathematics at the University of Warsaw. In the 1960s he became internationally known as a conductor of his own works and taught and lectured on composition in Europe and the United States. Lutosławski’s style went through many stages—a folk music stage greatly influenced by Bartók, a twelve-tone phase, and a period in which he developed his own system that permitted him, he said, “to move within the scope of twelve tones, outside both the tonal system and conventional dodecaphony.” In the 1960s he became interested in aleatory techniques to enhance textural effects, not, as he said, “to free myself of part of my responsibility for the work by transferring it to the players,” but to achieve “a particular result in sound.” His exceptional attention to structure and detail and his careful working methods resulted in long periods of revision and polishing for most works—ten years in the case of the Third Symphony. His list of works, therefore, is relatively short, but each is of consistently high quality. During the Second World War, Lutosławski played piano in cafés (kawiarnie ) in order to make a living and as a means of public expression. He sometimes accompanied other artists and often performed together with composer and conductor Andrzej Panufnik in a duo piano team. Their concerts included light and serious music of all periods from Bach to Debussy, in arrangements on which he and Panufnik had collaborated. More than 200 of these arrangements were destroyed in the Warsaw Uprising, but one survived, the Wariacje na temat Paganiniego (Variations on a theme of Paganini), an arrangement by Lutosławski alone, which he published after the war. As in all their arrangements, one part was harder than the other, because Lutosławski was a better pianist than Panufnik; Lutosławski took the first piano part in the present arrangement. The Paganini theme is the famous one from the twenty-fourth Caprice for solo violin, which Paganini himself was the first to vary, and which has since attracted numerous composers, such as Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Blacher, Ginastera, Rochberg, and popular composers John Dankworth and Andrew Lloyd Webber. But where the most famous of these works—the Brahms and Rachmaninoff—present original variations on the theme, Lutosławski’s follows Paganini’s model closely; that is, Lutosławski “transcribed” Paganini’s variations. That is not to say Lutosławski’s Variations sound like products of the Romantic era—instead he used great imagination and twentieth-century vocabulary in transferring the violinistic passages to two pianos. The rapid string crossings in the second variation, for example, become rapidly alternating chromatically neighboring chords, and the thirds and tenths in the sixth variation are treated in canon and inversion with widely spaced triads in the first piano and octaves a third apart in the second piano. Though Lutosławski keeps the piece grounded in A minor, he introduces striking harmonic deviations, juxtapositions, and superimpositions. The first half of the second half of the theme, for example, begins in A major in the first piano while the second piano begins in E-flat, a tritone away. Lutosławski decided to trade Paganini’s arpeggiated conclusion for a brilliant, elaborate restatement of the theme—amounting to another variation—which is capped by a coda that increases in volume and speed to the end. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 25, 2016: Escher String Quartet HUGO WOLF (1860-1903) Italian Serenade September 25, 2016: Escher String Quartet Hugo Wolf is known primarily as a composer of nearly 350 art songs, as a champion of Wagner and disparager of Brahms, and as a man who spent the last years of his short life in agonizing insanity. Though Wolf faced many spells when his creative powers failed him, he also experienced great bursts of creativity. The Serenade in G major—he later called it “an Italian Serenade” in an 1892 letter to Emil Kauffmann—was composed in just such a burst, from May 2–4, 1887, in the midst of a larger creative surge during which he was immersed in setting Eichendorff poems. Wolf’s Eichendorff phase played an important role in the Serenade’s conception. The one-movement work relates thematically to the first of the Eichendorff songs “Der Soldat I,” of which the text concerns a soldier’s love for a lady who lives in a castle. The same subject matter appears in Eichendorff’s novella Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (Memoirs of a good-for-nothing) in which an Italian serenade figures prominently in the plot. The hero, who leaves home to seek his fortune, is a violinist, which might explain the importance of the solo violin in the quartet version of Wolf’s Serenade. At one point in the novella an orchestra plays a serenade, which may have inspired Wolf’s eventual arrangement for small orchestra (1892). As he was rescoring the Italian Serenade for orchestra, Wolf clearly had in mind a four-movement work, but attempts in 1893, 1894, and 1897, remained sketches. That he considered the existing one-movement work as a first movement speaks volumes about his approach to form. He made it perfectly obvious, especially as a critic for the Wiener Salonblatt, that he detested absolute music and any sort of academic technique—fugue, pedal points—that first movements inevitably contained. Therefore, instead of following a typical abstract sonata form, he relied on a form that implied some sort of program or narrative, though he never actually specified one. His free rondo form and recitative-like passages create such an effect. The Italian Serenade leaves the overall impression of playful irony, in part because of its saucy main theme, which returns often enough to overrule any lovesick outburst. In one episode the cello plays an impassioned recitative, which is clearly mocked by the response of the other instruments. At the end Wolf brings back the repeated notes of the introduction, with pizzicato chords providing a last bit of wit. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

NATHAN MELTZER, VIOLIN Recipient of the 2020 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and youngest ever to win the Windsor Festival International String Competition, Nathan has been a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Aalborg, Adelphi, Berlin, Concepción, Evansville, Indianapolis, Medellín, and Pittsburgh orchestras, among others, performing in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and across the US. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Nathan has performed at ChamberFest Cleveland, Giardini La Mortella, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Moritzburg Festival, the Musical de l’Orne, the Perlman Chamber Workshop, and the Verbier Festival Academy. He has been a concert artist with Omega Ensemble since 2016. Nathan’s 2020-21 season includes the release of his debut CD with Rohan De Silva, a UK concert tour, and the launch of Opus Illuminate, an online concert series dedicated to the works of composers from underrepresented communities. Nathan studies with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin at Juilliard. He performs on the “Ames, Totenberg” Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona 1734, generously on loan from Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative .

VIDEOS PARLANCE PERFORMANCE VIDEOS VIDEO CONCERT PREVIEWS PARLOFF MULTIMEDIA LECTURES AND INTERVIEWS Watch in full screen Go to the video you'd like to watch. Press the red button with white arrow to play video. At the bottom-right of the video player, click full screen icon. An introduction to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and guitarist Jason Vieaux An Introduction to Met Harpists Emmanuel Ceysson and Mariko Anraku Beethoven’s 9th violin sonata: The Kreutzer or the Bridgetower? Introduction to Brahms’s A-Major Violin Sonata, Op. 100; Stefan Jackiw, violinist Introduction to Brahms’s Klavierstücke, Op. 119; Richard Goode, pianist Introduction to Mozart’s A-minor Piano Sonata; Richard Goode, pianist Introduction to pianist Richard Goode Introduction to Vibraphonist Stefon Harris Preview of Matthew Polenzani & Ken Noda’s March 29, 2015 Concert A Short History of William Walton’s Façade Entertainments