December 16, 2018: Emerson Quartet GEORGE WALKER (1922-2018) Lyric for Strings December 16, 2018: Emerson Quartet George Walker’s long life consisted of a string of outstanding achievements. After graduating from Oberlin College as a piano and organ student, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music—composition with Rosario Scalero, teacher of Samuel Barber, and piano with Rudolf Serkin—and became the school’s first African-American graduate. He was also the first black instrumentalist to give a recital, his debut, at New York’s Town Hall and to appear as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He toured Europe under the auspices of National Concert Artists—their first African-American instrumentalist—then began teaching before beginning his doctoral studies at Eastman. Awarded Fulbright and John Hay Whitney fellowships (the Whitney’s first composer recipient), Walker studied in Paris with the renowned Nadia Boulanger. Walker taught at the Dalcroze School of Music, the New School for Social Research, Smith College (first black tenure recipient), University of Colorado, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and University of Delaware. His longest professorship, however, was at Rutgers University (1969–92), where he chaired the music department. Composing remained an equally important facet of Walker’s career, evidenced by over ninety published works to his credit, ranging from orchestral pieces and chamber music to choral works, songs, and piano pieces. Highlighting Walker’s remarkable list of awards and honors is the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in Music—he was the first African-American composer so honored—for his Lilacs for voice and orchestra, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Walker also received commissions from myriad other organizations, such as the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center. As recently as 2013 Walker was still having works premiered—his Movements for Cello and Orchestra that November with the Sinfonia da Camera led by Ian Hobson at the University of Illinois and his Bleu for Violin Unaccompanied at the Library of Congress the previous April. In 2012 the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra premiered his Sinfonia No. 4, “Strands,” a joint commission with the Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and National symphonies. That May he gave the commencement address at the Eastman School of Music, also receiving an honorary doctoral degree where he had already earned a doctorate as a student over half a century earlier. Later that month he received the prestigious Aaron Copland Award from ASCAP. Lyric for Strings originated as the second movement of Walker’s String Quartet No. 1, written in 1946 after he graduated from Curtis and dedicated to his grandmother, who had recently died. Under the title Lament, the piece received its premiere that year on a radio concert of Curtis’s student orchestra conducted by Seymour Lipkin. The official premiere took place the following year at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., by the National Gallery Orchestra conducted by Richard Bales. Retitled at the request of the publisher, Lyric for Strings became one of the most frequently performed pieces by a living American composer. The piece’s origin as a slow movement in a string quartet and its poignant strains tinged with Romanticism bring to mind Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings and the Curtis connection of both composers. Walker’s Lyric for Strings, however, stands beautifully on its own. Falling motives and sustained tones set a mournful mood at the outset. The motion increases with contrapuntal lines weaving their way over a sustained pedal tone until gentle chordal iterations briefly arrest the flow. The resumption of the entwined lyrical lines eventually comes to an impassioned peak, now with low, jabbing chordal interjections of utter anguish. As the passage ebbs and quiet chords sound again, the gentle earlier flow resumes. The piece concludes somberly yet with a sense of peace. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 14, 2025: “SINGERS” FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA ANTON RIST, CLARINET; MUSICIANS FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA; MICHAEL PARLOFF, CONDUCTOR WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622 September 14, 2025: “SINGERS” FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA ANTON RIST, CLARINET; MUSICIANS FROM THE MET ORCHESTRA; MICHAEL PARLOFF, CONDUCTOR Mozart composed his Clarinet Concerto for his friend and fellow Freemason Anton Stadler, who played in the imperial court orchestra in Vienna and whose playing was admired far and wide. Mozart’s relationship with Stadler has always fascinated historians. The clarinetist constantly borrowed money from his friend, who could ill afford to lend it. Once Mozart loaned him two watches to pawn and, when Mozart also loaned him the money to redeem them, he spent that as well, so Mozart permanently lost his watches. The composer’s widow Constanze reported that Stadler also stole silver from them! Stadler’s great artistry, charming personality, lively conversation, and membership in the Masonic order more than outweighed his sponging ways in Mozart’s eyes—for which we have some of the composer’s loveliest music as testament. Not only the Concerto, but the wonderful Clarinet Quintet and the obbligato solos in two of the arias in La clemenza di Tito were written for specifically Stadler. Stadler was especially known for his expressive playing in the “chalumeau” or lower register of the clarinet and had a special clarinet made for him by Theodor Lotz, another Freemason, that extended the lower range of the normal clarinet in A. Though Mozart’s original manuscripts for both the Clarinet Concerto and the Quintet no longer survive—Stadler is thought to have pawned or sold them—scholars have discovered that both were written for this extended range instrument, and have been able to reconstruct “original” versions of both. “Parto, parto” from La clemenza di Tito was also written with this special clarinet in mind. (Modern reconstructions of this instruments have resulted in replicas known as “basset clarinets.”) The Clarinet Concerto actually began as a Concerto in G major for basset horn (crescent-shaped alto clarinet). Mozart completed 199 measures of the first movement before deciding that it should really be written for the higher clarinet in A (with the extended range) and started over in A major. Completed in October 1791, just two months before his death, the Clarinet Concerto stands as one of the true gems of the clarinet repertoire, exploring every range of the instrument, from high to low and from poignant lyricism to agile merriment. The first movement shows the abundance of melodic ideas that we have come to expect from Mozart, here with a kind of luminous lyricism rather than impassioned energy. The tone quality is colored by Mozart’s light orchestration that includes no oboes and naturally no clarinets, but in which the flutes impart a limpid beauty. The dialogue between the clarinet and orchestra is masterful—often harmonious, occasionally competitive. Of particular note is the imitative play between the strings, joined by the clarinet, in elaborating the first theme even before the main solo entrance of the clarinet. Another fascinating passage has the clarinet playing an Alberti bass (broken chord pattern) in its lowest register in accompaniment to witty repartee between the first and second violins. Mozart’s recapitulation is a model of concision after the more expansive exposition and development. Words cannot possibly do justice to Mozart’s sublime slow movement, one of his simplest yet most profound utterances. The clarinet “sings” the melody to a tranquil rocking accompaniment and the whole is repeated by the combined ensemble. The clarinet then climbs with almost unbearable grace to a peak in its second phrase, again repeated by all. This entire opening section returns, ingeniously varied, after a middle section that shows off the clarinet’s ability to leap and decorate expressively. Mozart’s concluding Rondo reveals its riches in five sections—three occurrences of its capricious refrain alternate with two contrasting episodes. Mozart manages to display the soloist’s virtuosity while maintaining the highest level of artistic integrity—the clarinet dances, soars, tiptoes, leaps, wallows—all with incredible eloquence. Especially poignant is the haunting episode in minor with its heart-in-the-throat hesitations and pauses. Mozart’s lighthearted refrain banishes the shadows and the movement concludes in a coda of elegant exuberance. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2016 AT 3 PM Mariko Anraku, harp; Emmanuel Ceysson, harp; Leading members of the Met Orchestra BUY TICKETS David Chan, violin CATHERINE RO, VIOLIN JERRY GROSSMAN, CELLO EMMANUEL CEYSSON, HARP “Ceysson is a rising star of the harp world…Both his technique and his musicianship are virtually flawless…It was an impressive and deeply involving evening.” – The Washington Post ÉRIK GRATTON, FLUTE GILAD COHEN, COMPOSER Rafael Figueroa, cello Principal Cello, Met Orchestra DOV SCHEINDLIN, VIOLA MARIKO ANRAKU, HARP “…a manifestation of grace and elegance.” – The Jerusalem Post INN-HYUCK CHO, CLARINET Principal Clarinet Met Orchestra MELINDA WAGNER, COMPOSER “Melinda Wagner’s “Pan Journal” is a work by a top professional who knows how to keep the ears and brains of her listeners engaged.” – Vance R. Koven, Boston Music Intelligencer FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS On December 18 , The Met Orchestra’s exquisite harpists , Mariko Anraku and Emmanuel Ceysson , will join forces with seven principal players of the Met Orchestra for a celestial afternoon of music making. Their alluring program will include duos and ensemble works featuring the harp by Debussy and Ravel and engaging new music by the award-winning, Ridgewood-based composers Melinda Wagner and Gilad Cohen . PROGRAM Claude Debussy Danses sacree et profane, L. 103 for harp and strings Program Notes Maurice Ravel Ma mere l’oye arranged for two harps Program Notes Gilad Cohen Trio for a Spry Clarinet, Weeping Cello and Ruminating Harp Program Notes Melinda Wagner Pan Journal for harp and string quartet Program Notes Claude Debussy Suite Bergamasque, L. 75 arranged for two harps by Matthieu Martin Program Notes Maurice Ravel Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet Program Notes Meet Met Harpists Emmanuel Ceysson and Mariko Anraku: Emmanuel Ceysson performs Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro: Mariko Anraku performs Fauré’s Impromptu, Op. 86:

January 19, 2025: THE VIRTUOSO ORGANIST PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 65 January 19, 2025: THE VIRTUOSO ORGANIST PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN One of the most accomplished organists of his day, Mendelssohn had begun studying organ at the age of eleven with August Wilhelm Bach (not a descendent of J. S. Bach). This was in addition to his lessons in piano, violin, drawing, painting, Latin and Greek (and other languages), music theory, and general studies, as well as gymnastics, swimming, horseback riding, dancing, and chess—all of which showed his prodigious talents. A few of Mendelssohn’s great organ highlights include improvising on the St. Paul’s Cathedral organ when he was in London in 1833 to premiere his Italian Symphony and in 1837 completing his three organ Preludes and Fugues, op. 37. He performed organ works by Bach at the Birmingham Festival, when he also premiered his Piano Concerto No. 2 and conducted a performance of his oratorio St. Paul . Then in 1840 he gave a challenging concert of Bach’s organ works at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig to raise funds for a new Bach monument. He also began drafting the pieces that would become the six Organ Sonatas, op 65. He completed the first in F minor on December 28, 1844, and the other five by January 1845. Mendelssohn wrote to the publisher Coventry that he considered these sonatas a “kind of Organ-school” and to Breitkopf & Härtel that they represented his personal way of handling the organ. They are all very representative of his adoration of Bach in their use of chorales and fugues. At the same time, in their varied movements, they show Mendelssohn’s interest in contemporary styles of writing, such as song and Lieder ohne Worte (songs without words), while eschewing the usual sonata forms and also refecting his penchant for improvisation. Sonata No. 1 unfolds in four innovative movements—the first full of contrasts including an exordium for full organ, a fugato over organ pedal point, the calm introduction of the chorale Was mein Gott will, das ich g’scheh allzeit alternating with strains of a fugue, the fugue in mirror inversion, the mirror combined with the original, and finally a return to the chorale. The unusual form may have been inspired by a recitative in the same key in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (No. 25), in which Jesus’ agitated utterances alternate with a chorale. The second movement sounds like a song without words, the third like a recitative, and the fourth a fantasia-like movement with virtuosic toccata elements that may have arisen in Mendelssohn’s imaginative improvisations at the organ. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

November 15, 2015 – Jeremy Denk, piano; Stefan Jackiw, violin CÉSAR FRANCK (1822-1890) Violin Sonata in A major, M. 8 November 15, 2015 – Jeremy Denk, piano; Stefan Jackiw, violin César Franck, organist at St. Clothilde and professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory, influenced a generation of composers including d’Indy, Chausson, Duparc, and Vierne, yet was not prolific himself as a composer. He was a late achiever par excellence: he completed his only Symphony when he was sixty-six, and he composed his memorable chamber works, the Piano Quintet and Violin Sonata, just several years before, with the String Quartet closely following the Symphony. There is no telling what he might have achieved had he not died in 1890 at age sixty-seven. Franck’s concern for thematic unity led to the use of what his disciple and enthusiastic champion Vincent d’Indy called the “cyclic” principle—the use of similar thematic material in two or more movements in the same work. D’Indy related Franck’s cyclic procedures to Beethoven, who may have been his inspiration, but Franck’s structural ideas have much more in common with those of Liszt and his practice of deriving an entire work from one musical idea. The opening theme begins with a three-note “generating cell,” as d’Indy called it, that permeates the work. Almost immediately Franck shows his penchant for changing keys. As a teacher of organ, with composition mixed in, Franck grew uneasy when any student remained too long in one key—“Modulate, modulate!” he would urge, which was known to exasperate Debussy, who studied briefly in his class. Formally the first movement is based on this and another main theme that occurs only in piano interludes; the subjects alternate while passing through myriad keys. The presentation of the thematic material in this fashion and the lack of development give the movement the feel either of a prologue or of an inner movement. Originally Franck had conceived the movement in a slow tempo, but changed it to Allegretto after hearing it played by violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, to whom the work is dedicated. Full-fledged sonata form is saved for the second movement, which employs a bit of the generating cell and also introduces another theme that will return in the finale. The brilliance of this Allegro movement contrasts nicely with the poetic first movement and with the rhapsodic third movement. This Recitativo-Fantasia sounds improvisatory at the outset as Franck ruminates upon the generating cell. The final Fantasia section is dominated by another theme that will reappear in the finale and ends with an unexpected harmonic turn. The finale is remarkable for the exact imitation between the violin and piano—one of the famous examples of canonic writing in the literature—which appears four times like a rondo refrain. The intervening episodes are based on the materials of the previous movements. The Sonata was apparently given as a wedding present to Ysaÿe, who first performed it with pianist Léontine Bordes-Pène as the last work on an all-Franck concert at the Musée Moderne de Peinture in Brussels on December 16, 1886. D’Indy described that memorable late afternoon performance: It was already growing dark as the Sonata began. After the first Allegretto, the players could hardly read their music. Unfortunately, museum regulations forbade any artificial light whatever in rooms containing paintings; the mere striking of a match would have been an offense. The audience was about to be asked to leave, but, brimful with enthusiasm, they refused to budge. At this point, Ysaÿe struck his music stand with his bow, demanding, “Let’s go on!” Then, wonder of wonders, amid darkness that now rendered them virtually invisible, the two artists played the last three movements from memory with a fire and passion the more astonishing in that there was a total lack of the usual visible externals that enhance a concert performance. Music, wondrous and alone, held sovereign sway in the blackness of night. The miracle will never be forgotten by those present. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

December 4, 2022 – The Sitkovetsky Trio LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Allegretto WoO 39 December 4, 2022 – The Sitkovetsky Trio Beethoven made his final statement in the piano trio genre with this single-movement Allegretto in B-flat major. He inscribed his manuscript score: “Vienna, June 26, 1812: for my little friend Maxe Brentano, to encourage her in her piano playing.” Maximiliane Brentano was the ten-year-old daughter of Beethoven’s dear friends Antonie and Franz Brentano. The composer even included his own suggestions for fingerings to aid his little friend. If Maynard Solomon’s convincing evidence is accepted, Maxe’s mother Antonie was Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” the woman to whom Beethoven wrote his famous letter less than two weeks after completing the little Trio. With great anguish, Beethoven nobly resolved not to accept the high-society married woman’s offer to leave her husband, thereby preserving—if we adopt Solomon’s reasoning—his friendship with the family. Nine years later he dedicated his wonderful Piano Sonata in E major, op. 109, to Maximiliane, who must have kept up her piano studies. The sonata-form Allegretto contrasts a busy, cheerful main theme, played by the piano to chordal string accompaniment, with a simple second theme marked by a characteristic dotted rhythm that is echoed alternately by the strings. The development takes an excursion to D major, which Beethoven even notates in the key signature. The slightly varied recapitulation leads to a relatively substantial coda, which comes to a sprightly conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 23, 2018: Arnaud Sussmann, solo violin; Michael Brown, piano; Sean Lee, violin; Emily Smith, violin; Matt Lipman, viola; Nick Canellakis, cello ERNEST CHAUSSON (1855-1899) Concert for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet in D major, op. 21 September 23, 2018: Arnaud Sussmann, solo violin; Michael Brown, piano; Sean Lee, violin; Emily Smith, violin; Matt Lipman, viola; Nick Canellakis, cello Chausson is one of an illustrious group of composers who initially studied to be something else. Berlioz studied medicine, Vivaldi trained for the priesthood, Telemann, Rameau, Handel, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky all studied law, and so on. Chausson had to earn a law degree and license to satisfy his father. He had, nonetheless, been nurtured in music, painting, and literature by his wealthy parents and by the tutor they engaged for him, and he became acquainted with many of the most important artists of the day. He was twenty-five by the time he had finished his law studies and decided that of all the arts, music attracted him most. He then entered the Paris Conservatory, where César Franck became his most influential teacher. Because of his late start and untimely death at forty-four from a bicycle accident, Chausson had only a short composing career. His achievements were notable, however; his most successful compositions are probably his Poème for violin and orchestra, various songs, and the present Concert, op. 21. Written between 1889 and 1891, the Concert is unique in the chamber music repertoire—scored for solo piano and violin with string quartet. Chausson entitled it Concert (French for concerto) rather than “Sextet,” but it lies somewhere between a double concerto, in which the two solo instruments are pitted against an entire orchestra, and a sextet, in which all the instruments are more or less equal. The opening three-note motive of the introduction is the germinating cell of the first movement, which unfolds in full-fledged Romantic sonata form. The second movement is a brief intimate Sicilienne in A minor. The composer Vincent d’Indy, who arranged for the work’s premiere, described it as like “the gardens where bloom the charming fancies of a Gabriel Fauré.” Chausson is at his most brooding and chromatic in the third movement marked Grave. D’Indy remarked that the finale is “somewhat oddly conceived, and partakes rather of the nature of variation form than of one of the forms regularly employed in the sonata.” Yet it is like a rondo in many respects: the animated main theme regularly returns (albeit varied), and material of episodic nature intervenes, including material from the previous movements (second theme of the Grave). Franck’s influence on Chausson surfaces in the work’s cyclical form, modulatory procedures, and expressive lyricism. The Concert is dedicated, as is the Poème, to Eugène Ysaÿe, who played the solo violin part in the premiere in Brussels on March 4, 1892. The Crickboom Quartet played the remaining string parts, and Auguste Pierret was the pianist who saved the day when the originally scheduled pianist suddenly returned the score as too difficult. (Chausson dedicated his next chamber work, the Piano Quartet, op. 30, to Pierret in gratitude for his fine performance.) Chausson, a composer continually plagued by self doubt, was thrilled at the instant success of the Concert, which now occupies a permanent place in the chamber music repertoire. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

June 2, 2024: Mozart’s Double Concertos WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, K. 364 June 2, 2024: Mozart’s Double Concertos Scarcely anything is known about the circumstances surrounding the composition of Mozart’s glorious Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola. In the voluminous Mozart correspondence there is no mention of any impending occasion, soloists for whom it was written, or performances that took place. The work was almost certainly completed in the summer of 1779 while Mozart was in Salzburg, having recently returned from a trip to Mannheim and Paris. No dated autograph source survives for scholarly reference, only a sketch of part of the first movement and some cadenza material. Modern editions must rely principally upon the first edition published in 1801 by Johann André. Many have guessed that Mozart had himself in mind as the viola soloist. He had switched allegiance from the violin during this Salzburg period, much to his father Leopold’s chagrin. One can only be thankful that the circumstances did arise for Mozart to compose this glorious work, which the great Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein went so far as to call “Mozart’s crowning achievement in the field of the violin concerto.” Though the Sinfonia concertante is scored like many earlier concertos for strings with oboes and horns, the orchestral writing is much richer. There are many passages for divided violas, extensive separation of the cello and bass parts, and the inclusion of the soloists in the many of the orchestral tuttis (ensemble sections). Furthermore, Mozart originally required the solo viola to be tuned a half-step higher than normal, to give it a brightness that made it stand out from the orchestral violas. Thus, though the work is in E-flat, the solo viola part was notated in D major. (Nowadays, however, the violist often elects to perform the solo part without this scordatura, or unusual tuning.) Mozart’s use of the marking maestoso (majestic) was infrequent; it colors the whole sonority of the first movement. Other unusual features of this sonata form movement are the use of a long, thrilling crescendo known as a “Mannheim crescendo”—used by Mozart in the Figaro Overture but seldom elsewhere—and the eloquent semi-recitatives that open the development. The poignant slow movement is in the older sonata form in which the second part closely follows the material of the first, except for the traditional alterations in the harmonic scheme; this framework was closer to a binary than ternary form. Each successive antiphonal phrase of the soloists seems to outdo the previous in expressiveness. For his Presto finale Mozart employed a sonata rondo without a development—or if there is a development, it lasts only four measures after which an exact recapitulation begins. Here the soloists enter with the main theme in the subdominant, a rare device for Mozart, but one later favored by Schubert. This coupled with other unexpected events, such as the very first entrance of the soloists, contribute to an exhilarating movement rich in inventiveness. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

April 3, 2016: Sean Lee, violin JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Adagio and Presto from Sonata No. 1 in G minor for Unaccompanied Violin, BWV 1001 April 3, 2016: Sean Lee, violin Though we find precedents for Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin in works by Johann Jacob Walther, Heinrich Biber, and Johann Paul Westhoff, Bach’s contributions totally eclipsed these and remain unsurpassed to this day in invention and magnificence. Trained as a violinist in his youth by his father, Bach knew the capabilities of the instrument and expanded greatly upon them. The autograph manuscript, dated 1720, presents three sonatas in alternation with three partitas. The sonatas represent the serious Italian sonata da chiesa (church sonata) form with four movements in a slow, fast, slow, fast pattern; the partitas resemble the sonata da camera (chamber sonata), a series of dance movements, which if Bach had been writing in the French style would have been called a suite. Throughout the unaccompanied violin works and in those for solo cello, Bach showed his mastery at creating a many-voiced texture with what is essentially a single-line instrument, often by the use of double stops or rolled chords, but even more often by implying several melodic lines by artful figuration. He counted on the ability of the ear to pick out and hold onto notes in one register and string them together over time as an independent voice; one can often hear such implied voices in counterpoint, occurring in two or more registers. Bach’s elaborate ornamentation in the G minor Adagio makes a fitting opening to the Sonata and indeed to the entire set of sonatas and partitas. He was not content to simply write out a few chords and a figured bass and leave the rest up to the performer. Rather, his ornamentation is carefully notated, though the Adagio gives a free, improvisatory impression. The Presto closing movement runs along in constant sixteenth-note motion and single-voice texture until the concluding chords of each half. This lighter style provides wonderful contrast to the weightier preceding movements. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola MARK O’CONNOR F.C.’s Jig May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola Mark O’Connor has long embraced both folk and classical music, influenced by such giants as folk fiddler Benny Thomasson and jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli as well as classical icons Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Yehudi Menuhin, and Pinchas Zukerman. He has produced some forty-five feature albums—mostly of his own compositions—that have greatly influenced succeeding generations. O’Connor’s multiple Grammy-winning recordings include Appalachia Waltz with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, which was released in 1996 and topped the Billboard classical music charts for a year. The O’Connor Band, which he formed with family members and friends, received the 2017 Grammy Award for “Best Bluegrass Band” with its album Coming Home. His Fiddle Concerto, released on the Warner Bros. label in 1995, has been performed over 250 times, making it the most-performed modern violin concerto composed in the last half century. He has since gone on to write three other violin concertos, one of which is a double concerto that he premiered with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the Chicago Symphony in 2000. At age thirteen O’Connor was the youngest person ever to win the Grand Master Fiddler Championships—competing against amateurs and professionals of all ages—and he is still the only person to have also won national titles on guitar and mandolin. Winner of a record-breaking six Country Music Association Musician of the Year awards, O’Connor has played with a number of influential bands, including the David Grisman Quintet, The Dregs, and Strength in Numbers. In his twenties he appeared on over five hundred albums with all of Nashville’s greatest artists. A dedicated educator, O’Connor has taught at string camps and universities across the country. In 2009 he released The O’Connor Method (2009), based on traditional American tunes, which has been hailed by the New Yorker and teachers across the country for filling a gap in the education of classical violin players. O’Connor’s F. C.’s Jig (short for “Fiddle Concerto’s Jig”) is a duet for violin and cello arranged from the third movement of his popular Violin Concerto. He and Yo-Yo Ma recorded this captivating arrangement on the album Appalachia Waltz. Colorful episodes alternate with the lively refrain, along the way incurring delightful metric hiccups. The piece is heard here in its equally engaging version for violin and viola, maintaining its witty and virtuosic interplay from start to finish. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

2024-2025 ARTIST ROSTER RAFAEL FIGUEROA, CELLO JOHN MUSTO, PIANO STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO MICHAEL BORISKIN, PIANO MODIGLIANI QUARTET JAMIE BERNSTEIN, HOST EDWARD ARRON, CELLO ERIN BOURIAKOV, FLUTE PAUL LEWIS, PIANO DENIS BOURIAKOV, FLUTE PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN AMY BURTON, SOPRANO SOOHONG PARK, PIANO CONNIE SHIH, PIANO JEEWON PARK, PIANO QUARTETTO DI CREMONA ZVI PLESSER, CELLO ERIKA BAIKOFF, SOPRANO CARTER BREY, CELLO

2018-2019 ARTIST ROSTER EDWARD ARRON, CELLO MICHAEL BROWN, PIANO BARRY CENTANNI, PERCUSSION TIMOTHY COBB, DOUBLE BASS DAVID J. GROSSMAN, DOUBLE BASS PAUL HUANG, VIOLIN CHELSEA KNOX, FLUTE SEAN LEE, VIOLIN MIHAI MARICA, CELLO KEN NODA, PIANO WEN QIAN, VIOLIN SHERYL STAPLES, VIOLIN JASON VIEAUX, GUITAR PINCHAS ZUKERMAN; AMANDA FORSYTH; ANGELA CHENG ELAINE DOUVAS, OBOE MAURYCY BANASZEK, VIOLA THE CALIDORE STRING QUARTET INN-HYUCK CHO, CLARINET EMERSON STRING QUARTET WENDY BRYN HARMER, SOPRANO PAUL JACOBS, ORGAN PIERRE LAPOINTE, VIOLA QIAN-QIAN LI, VIOLIN ANNE AKIKO MEYERS, VIOLIN GARRICK OHLSSON, PIANO DOV SCHEINDLIN, VIOLA ARNAUD SUSSMANN, VIOLIN GILLES VONSATTEL, PIANO JOEL NOYES, CELLO PASCUAL MARTÍNEZ FORTEZA, CLARINET ALESSIO BAX, PIANO NICHOLAS CANELLAKIS, CELLO LUCILLE CHUNG, PIANO DAVID FINCKEL, CELLO MING FENG HSIN, VIOLIN FRIEDRICH HEINRICH KERN, GLASS HARMONICA KRISTIN LEE, VIOLIN MATTHEW LIPMAN, VIOLA EILEEN MOON-MYERS, CELLO CYNTHIA PHELPS, VIOLA EMILY DAGGETT SMITH, VIOLIN DANBI UM, VIOLIN SARAH CROCKER VONSATTEL, VIOLIN KEVIN ZHU, VIOLIN YOOBIN SON, FLUTE