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MARK ROMATZ, BASSOON Mark L. Romatz, bassoon, is currently Second Bassoon and Contrabassoon the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Prior to that appointment, the University of Michigan graduate held positions with the Montreal, Jacksonville, Savannah, Duluth, and Flint Symphonies. He has been a member of the Bellingham, Grand Teton, Grant Park, Colorado, Spoleto, Lancaster, Sunflower, and Buzzard Bay Music Festivals. Mr. Romatz has been a faculty member at McGill University in Montreal, the University of Florida, St. Olaf College, and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He as served as Acting Second Bassoon with the Minnesota Orchestra and has performed with the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He studies with L. Hugh Cooper and John Miller.

MARK WALKER, DRUMS Drummer/percussionist/composer Mark Walker, originally from “Central America” (Chicago, Illinois) began his tenure with Paquito D’Rivera in 1989, when Paquito came to Chicago and needed a drummer who could handle a variety of rhythmic styles. Since then Mark has performed around the globe and recorded many Grammy award-winning albums, not only with Paquito, but also Oregon, Caribbean Jazz Project, Michel Camilo, Lyle Mays, Cesar Camargo Mariano, New York Voices, Patricia Barber, and many more. Mark is also associate professor at Berklee College of Music and has a side project called the “Berklee Brothers,” comprised of Berklee faculty.

May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Oliver Neubauer, violin Y. DOBON (1916-1996) Zowie! Goes the Weasel for 3 violins and viola May 6, 2018: Kerry McDermott, violin; Clara Neubauer, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Oliver Neubauer, violin Zowie! Goes the Weasel , a humorous arrangement for four violins of the well-known nursery tune “Pop! Goes the Weasel,” appeared in print in 1947 in Fiddle Sessions , a collection of ensemble pieces for two, three, and four violins compiled by Livingston Gearhart. A pianist, educator, composer, and arranger, Gearhart published a series of nine such Sessions, known for their humor and liveliness as they build students’ music skills. He may be best known, however, for his arrangement of the classic “Dry Bones” for Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. Gearhart studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, where he also met Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, and Robert Casadesus—and formed a successful piano duo with his future wife, Virginia Clotfelter (professional name Morley). They returned to the U.S. owing to WWII conditions, and by 1954 they had performed over 2,000 concerts, most of them under contract with Columbia Concerts and the Fred Waring Show . They also made many recordings for Columbia Masterworks and Decca Records, and Gearhart worked as a staff arranger for the Fred Waring Show . In 1955 Gearhart joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) where he taught piano, theory, and orchestration until his retirement in 1985. Also in 1955, divorced from Virginia, he married violinist and conductor Pamela Gerhart (not a misspelling!), for whose students at SUNY Buffalo, the Community Music School of Buffalo, and many workshops and clinics he continued to compose and make arrangements. Gearhart included no biographical information in Fiddle Sessions about “Y. Dobon” the composer of Zowie! Goes the Weasel , but it is entirely possible that it was one of his colleagues at the Fred Waring Show or someone he encountered on tour. Information about Dobon may lie somewhere in the 507 folders of Gearhart’s original compositions, arrangements, collections, and personal papers held at the SUNY Buffalo Library, but for the present, Gearhart deserves the credit for making this jazzy, lighthearted arrangement known. Here the four-violin arrangement is adapted for three violins and viola. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUSANNA PHILLIPS, SOPRANO Alabama-born soprano Susanna Phillips, recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, continues to establish herself as one of today’s most soughtafter singing actors and recitalists. 2012-13 sees Phillips take the stage of the Met for her fifth consecutive season, this time to perform Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, conducted by Edward Gardner. Her opera season in New York City continues with her return to the Perlman stage at Carnegie Hall for a special concert performance, portraying Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Renée Fleming—a role which she will then perform at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Phillips also makes her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall this season, presenting a program with accompanist Myra Huang in Weill Recital Hall. Other 2012–13 operatic highlights include Phillips’s return to Santa Fe Opera as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, and a concert production of Idomeneo at the Ravinia Festival under the direction of James Conlon. Symphonic appearances include Mozart’s Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Lord Nelson Mass with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Alabama Symphony, works by Berg and Beethoven with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson, performances with Musica Sacra led by Kent Tritle at Alice Tully Hall, and Paul Moravec’s Blizzard Voices with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall. Phillips’s recital performances include appearances with tenor Joseph Kaiser and Myra Huang in Boston with Celebrity Series and in New York City at the Morgan Library, as well as solo recitals at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Cal Performances, Sarasota, and Huntsville Chamber Music Guild. Last season, Phillips reprised her celebrated portrayal of Musetta in the Met’s timeless production of La bohème—the same role with which she made her Met debut in 2008. Phillips also released her first solo album on Bridge Records, Paysages, lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle as “sumptuous and elegantly sung.” Her 2011–12 season also boasted appearances in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor with Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Minnesota Opera; her European debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona; and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. In concert, Phillips appeared with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Santa Fe Concert Association. Highlights of Phillips’s previous seasons include numerous additional Metropolitan Opera appearances: as Pamina in Julie Taymor’s celebrated production of The Magic Flute, Musetta in La bohème (both in New York and on tour in Japan), and she was a featured artist in the Met’s Summer Recital Series in Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park. She made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Pamina, and subsequently performed a trio of other Mozart roles there: Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Countess Almaviva in Figaro, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Phillips made two appearances with Boston Lyric Opera (A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s Helena and Don Giovanni’s Donna Anna), and three with Opera Birmingham (the Countess, Violetta, and the title character in Lucia di Lammermoor). She portrayed Adina in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s L’elisir d’amore, and as a participant in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, she sang Juliette in Roméo et Juliette and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. Phillips made her Minnesota Opera debut in the notoriously challenging role of Elmira in Tim Albery’s production of Reinhard Keiser’s The Fortunes of King Croesus, and later sang Euridice there opposite David Daniels in Orfeo ed Euridice. Phillips has played Mozart’s Countess with the Dallas Opera and Donna Anna with the Fort Worth Opera Festival. In August 2011, Phillips was featured at the opening night of the Mostly Mozart Festival, which aired live on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. She has also been a resident artist at the 2010 and 2011 Marlboro Music Festivals, was part of Marilyn Horne Foundation Gala at Carnegie Hall, made her New York solo recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (in 2009 as a Juilliard School alumna and Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award recipient), and has appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC (under the auspices of the Vocal Arts Society). Her ever-expanding concert repertoire has been showcased with many prestigious organizations: she performed with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert; sung in Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Chicago Symphony; and also took part in Beethoven’s Mass in C major and Choral Fantasy at Carnegie Hall with Kent Tritle and the Oratorio Society of New York. Phillips has sung Dvorák’s Stabat Mater with the Santa Fe Symphony, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Santa Barbara Symphony, and Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Other recent concert and oratorio engagements include Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, the Fauré and Mozart requiems, and Handel’s Messiah. She also made her Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson, Rob Fisher, and the New York Pops. Following her Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut under Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Sun proclaimed: “She’s the real deal.” Phillips had a magnificent 2005, winning four of the world’s leading vocal competitions: Operalia (both First Place and the Audience Prize), the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the MacAllister Awards, and the George London Foundation Awards Competition. She has also claimed the top honor at the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, and she won first prizes from the American Opera Society Competition and the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago. Philips has received grants from the Santa Fe Opera and the Sullivan Foundation, and is a graduate of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center. Born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in Huntsville, Susanna Phillips is grateful forthe ongoing support of her community in her career. She sang Strauss’s Four Last Songs and gave her first concert performances in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor with the Huntsville Symphony, and returns frequently to her native state for recitals and orchestral appearances. Over 400 people traveled from Huntsville to New York City in December 2008 for Phillips’s Metropolitan Opera debut in La bohème.

STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLO Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Philharmonic and Zurich Tonhalle orchestras. He gives recitals every season in major musical centers, and plays with many of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras, including the Australian, Mahler, Norwegian, Scottish, Zurich and St Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classical programs. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Mozartwoche; the US premiere of Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, following world and UK premieres in Lucerne and at the BBC Proms, and a further performance of the work in Amsterdam with the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by the composer; Prokofiev’s Concerto Op. 58 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, in London and at the Dresden Music Festival; and Haydn’s C major Concerto with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Adam Fischer. As a chamber musician, he has curated series for many of the world’s most famous festivals and venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the 92nd St Y in New York, and the Salzburg Festival. These specially devised programs have included ‘In the Shadow of War’, a major four-part series for the Wigmore Hall to mark the centenary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War; explorations of Czech music; the teacher-pupil line of Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Ravel; the affinity of the cello and the human voice; varied aspects of Robert Schumann’s life and music; and the music of Sergei Taneyev (teacher of Steven’s grandfather, Julius Isserlis) and his students. For these concerts Steven is joined by a regular group of friends which includes the violinists Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Pamela Frank, and Janine Jansen, violist Tabea Zimmermann, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Stephen Hough, Alexander Melnikov, Olli Mustonen, Connie Shih, and Dénes Várjon. He also takes a strong interest in authentic performance. This season’s projects include a recording of the Chopin Cello Sonata and other works with Dénes Várjon for Hyperion, using ones of Chopin’s own piano; and a recital of Russian sonatas with Olli Mustonen. In recital, he gives frequent concerts with harpsichord and fortepiano. Recent seasons have featured a special performance with Sir Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, using Beethoven’s own cello; and performances and recordings (selected for the Deutsche SchallplattenPreis) of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano with Robert Levin, using original or replica fortepianos from the early nineteenth century. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, he has performed and recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach as well as sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti. This season, they tour together in the US. He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil (as well as several other pieces by Tavener), Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, Stephen Hough’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Left Hand (Les Adieux), Wolfgang Rihm’s Concerto in One Movement, David Matthews’ Concerto in Azzurro, and For Steven and Hilary’s Jig by György Kurtág. In 2016, he gave the UK premiere of Olli Mustonen’s of Frei, aber einsam for solo cello at the Wigmore Hall. Writing and playing for children is another major enthusiasm. He has written the text for three musical stories for children – Little Red Violin, Goldiepegs and the Three Cellos, and Cindercella – with music by Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley; these are published by Universal Edition in Vienna. He has also given many concerts for children, for several years presenting a regular series at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Steven Isserlis’ books for children about the lives of the great composers – Why Beethoven Threw the Stew and its sequel, Why Handel Waggled his Wig – are published by Faber and Faber, and have been translated into multiple languages. His latest book, a commentary on Schumann’s famous Advice for Young Musicians, was published by Faber and Faber in September 2016, and will be published in the US by Chicago University Press this season. As an educator Steven Isserlis gives frequent masterclasses all around the world, and since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, where his fellow-professors include Sir Andras Schiff, Thomas Adès and Ferenc Rados. As a writer and broadcaster, he contributes regularly to publications including Gramophone, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, has guest edited The Strad magazine, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio including on the Today program, Soul Music, as guest presenter of two editions of Saturday Classics, and as writer and presenter of a documentary about the life of Robert Schumann. Most recently, he presented a documentary on BBC Radio 4 ‘Finding Harpo’s Voice’, about his hero Harpo Marx. His diverse interests are reflected in an extensive and award-winning discography. His recording of the complete Solo Cello Suites by J.S. Bach for Hyperion met with the highest critical acclaim, and was Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year and Critics’ Choice at the Classic BRITS. Other recent releases include the Elgar and Walton concertos, alongside works by Gustav and Imogen Holst, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Paavo Järvi; Prokofiev and Shostakovich concertos with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, also under Paavo Järvi; Dvořák’s Cello Concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding; and recital discs with Stephen Hough, Thomas Adès and (for BIS) a Grammy-nominated album of sonatas by Martinů, as well as works by Mustonen and Sibelius, with Olli Mustonen. His latest recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and – as director and soloist – concertos by Haydn and CPE Bach, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Forthcoming recordings include a special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih, including works performed on a travel cello – now known as “the Trench Cello” – played in the trenches by WWI soldier Harold Triggs. The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’s honors include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the USA. He is also one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award in Dresden, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music. He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.

April 13, 2025: Quartetto Di Cremona Osvaldo Golijov (1960) Tenebrae April 13, 2025: Quartetto Di Cremona Golijov commanded international attention in 2000 with the premiere of his St. Mark Passion , commissioned in honor of the 250th anniversary of J. S. Bach’s death. He had steadily been winning over influential musicians, beginning with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, which premiered his Yiddishbbuk at Tanglewood in 1992, and he has enjoyed collaborations with such dynamic artists as the Kronos Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Yo-Yo Ma, Gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks, Mexican rock band Cafe Tacuba, tablas virtuoso Zakir Hussain, and legendary Argentine musician and producer Gustavo Santaolalla. His music typically combines his Argentine and Eastern European Jewish musical heritages with Western art music. Highlights of Golijov’s career include his groundbreaking chamber opera Ainadamar, based on the life of Federico García Lorca and featuring Dawn Upshaw, which premiered to great acclaim in 2003, the same year Golijov received the coveted MacArthur “genius grant.” The Metropolitan Opera just presented a critically acclaimed new production of Ainadamar in the fall of 2024, coproduced by Detroit Opera, Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, and Welsh National Opera. Golijov’s recent works include The Given Note , a violin concerto for Johnny Gandelsman and The Knights, and the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis , which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024 and which premiered in suite form by the Chicago Symphony the following fall. Golijov has held numerous residencies with major orchestras and in the 2012–13 season held the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall. Since 1991 he has taught at the College of the Holy Cross, where he is Loyola Professor of Music. “I wrote Tenebrae ,” explained the composer, “as a consequence of witnessing two contrasting realities in a short period of time in September 2000. I was in Israel at the start of the new wave of violence that is still continuing today, and a week later I took my son to the new planetarium in New York, where we could see the Earth as a beautiful blue dot in space. I wanted to write a piece that could be listened to from different perspectives. That is, if one chooses to listen to it ‘from afar,’ the music would probably offer a ‘beautiful’ surface but, from a metaphorically closer distance, one could hear that, beneath that surface, the music is full of pain. “I lifted some of the haunting melismas from Couperin’s Troisieme leçon de tenebrae , using them as sources for loops, and wrote new interludes between them, always within a pulsating, vibrating, aerial texture. The compositional challenge was to write music that would sound as an orbiting spaceship that never touches ground. After finishing the composition, I realized that Tenebrae could be heard as the slow, quiet reading of an illuminated medieval manuscript in which the appearances of the voice singing the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (from Yod to Nun, as in Couperin) signal the beginning of new chapters, leading to the ending section, built around a single, repeated word: Jerusalem.” —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

March 9, 2025: Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert, with Erika Baikoff, Soprano; Soohong Park, piano Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Air de feu from L’enfante et les sortileges March 9, 2025: Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert, with Erika Baikoff, Soprano; Soohong Park, piano Colette (known only by her surname), one of the most influential French writers of the twentieth century, penned the libretto for her Ballet pour ma fille (Ballet for my daughter) in 1916 at the request of Paris Opéra director Jacques Rouché, who wanted something avant-garde and engaging for younger audience members. Ravel accepted the commission to write the music, but owing to numerous delays—among them his World War I service and the emotional consequences of the death of his mother—he did not begin writing in earnest until 1924. Yet the project, which he envisioned as an opera rather than a ballet, had remained alive in his mind because the subject matter so appealed to him. All of his life he was attracted to the worlds of children, animals, and magic, so bringing Colette=s enchanted characters to life with musical imagery elicited one of the most witty and touching manifestations of his genius. The one-act opera—actually labeled fantasy lyrique and now titled L=enfant et les sortilèges (The child and the spells)—premiered at Monte Carlo on March 21, 1925. The production’s unbashedly enthusiastic reception was contrasted almost a year later by its stormy reception in Paris at the Opéra-Comique. The Paris critics were divided as to the opera’s merits, and as to the audience, Colette wrote to her daughter: “L=enfant et les sortilèges is playing twice a week before a packed but turbulent house. The partisans of traditional music do not forgive Ravel for his instrumental and vocal audacities. The modernists applaud and boo the others, and during the >meowed= duet there is a dreadful uproar.” The story revolves around a naughty child, who is impudent to his mother, tortures his pets, and destroys everything in his room. When the exhausted child tries to sink into an armchair, all of these objects come to life and turn against him. In the garden, the animals and insects also remind him of how he has mistreated them. Afraid and lonely, he cries out “Maman” (Mother), which only infuriates the animals further. In the ensuing frenzy a squirrel is hurt and the child binds up its wounded paw. This show of compassion immediately changes the animals’ opinion of him, and they realize they can help the child by imitating the cry for his mother. The sheer number of characters gave an unusually broad range for Ravel’s skills as a parodist and miniaturist. He wrote a remarkable coloratura soprano aria for the Fire that colorfully depicts this character jumping out of the fireplace and flickering brilliantly about the room in vocal runs, leaps, turns as it threatens: “I warm the good, but I burn the wicked.” —©Jane Vial Jaffe Test and Translation LE FEU Arrière! Je réchauffe les bons, je réchauffe les bons, mais je brûle les méchants. Petit barbare imprudent, tu as insulté à tous les Dieux bienveillants qui tendaient entre le malheur et toi la fragile barrière! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Tu as brandi le tisonnier, renversé la bouilloire, éparpillé les allumettes, gare! Gare au Feu dansant! Tu fondrais comme un flocon sur sa langue écarlate! Ah! Gare! Je réchauffe les bons! Gare! Je brûle les méchants! Gare! Gare! Ah! Gare à toi! FIRE Back! I warm the good, I warm the good, but I burn the wicked. You reckless little barbarian, you have insulted all the benevolent Gods who stretched the fragile barrier between misfortune and you! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! You have brandished the poker, knocked over the kettle, scattered the matches, watch out! Watch out for the dancing Fire! You would melt like a snowflake on its scarlet tongue! Ah! Watch out! I warm the good! Watch out! I burn the wicked! Watch out! Watch out! Ah! Watch out for you! Return to Parlance Program Notes

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.

LINO GOMEZ, SAXOPHONE Saxophonist Lino Gomez enjoys an extremely diverse career in the orchestral, chamber, and commercial music fields. A former member of both the American and the New York Saxophone Quartets, his other chamber music credits include performances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Chamber Players and recordings with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is a frequent guest artist, as both saxophonist and clarinetist, of the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, American Symphony, American Composers and New York Pops orchestras. He has performed solo roles with all of these ensembles, including performances of Eino Tanberg’s “Concerto Grosso” with the NY Philharmonic and the USA premier of Tan Dun’s “Red Forecast” with the American Composers Orchestra. Lino’s many commercial music credits include feature film soundtracks, radio andtelevision commercials, and Broadway shows. He is a former member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live band.

March 9, 2025: Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert, with Erika Baikoff, Soprano; Soohong Park, piano Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Cinq mélodies populaires grecques for soprano and piano March 9, 2025: Ravel’s 150th Birthday Concert, with Erika Baikoff, Soprano; Soohong Park, piano Early in 1904 French musicologist and philologist Pierre Aubry was preparing a lecture on Greek and Armenian folklore entitled “Songs of the Oppressed,” and he asked Greek-born fellow musicologist and critic Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi to provide some examples from Greece. Singer Louise Thomasset agreed to perform them on short notice, but only with piano accompaniment, so Calvocoressi enlisted the help of his longtime friend Ravel. They selected five folk songs—four out of Pericles Matsa’s Chansons (Constantinople, 1883) and the fifth, “Les cueilleuses de lentisques,” from a Hubert Pernot collection entitled Chansons populaires de l’le de Chio . Ravel came up with the accompaniments in only thirty-six hours—his first foray into folk settings—and the lecture-demonstration duly took place on February 20 at the Sorbonne. The following year Ravel decided that three of the songs were “too brief,” so he arranged three others from the Pernot collection, which together with two of the originals, “Quel galant” and “Chanson des cueilleuses,” now make up his Cinq mélodies populaires grecques . On April 28, 1906, Calvocoressi presented a recital on popular Greek song, on which Marguerite Babaïan gave the first performance of the set in its new configuration. These songs were the first of Ravel’s pieces to be accepted by prestigious music publisher Durand, who wished to be granted first option on all of his subsequent works. Ravel left his stamp on these accompaniments with their chromatic inflections and reinterpretations of modes, but without destroying their original flavor. “Chanson de la mariée” (Song of the bride) is a lively wake-up call for a bride on her wedding day. Ravel accentuates the modal tune (Phrygian) with his chromatic harmonies and uses rapid-fire repeated notes to generate excitement. “Là-bas, vers l’église” (There by the church) takes up the same mode, but in gentle, serious reflection on those buried in the cemetery, replete with softly chiming “bells.” “Quel galant m’est comparable” (What galant compares with me?) begins in a boastful proclamation, takes up a dancelike strut, then indulges in a moment of tenderness, before a brief return to the dance. In “Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques” (Song of the lentisk gatherers) Ravel keeps his setting simple, with floating harmonies and occasional spun-out elaboration for the voice alone. “Tout gai” (All gay!) cavorts happily in the major mode with no chromatic inflections. Ravel’s alternating-hand patterns provide lively interest to the ebullient “Tra-la-las.” —©Jane Vial Jaffe Texts and Translations Cinq mélodies populaires grecques Chanson de la mariée Réveille-toi, réveilletoi, perdrix mignonne, Ouvre au matin tes ailes. Trois grains de beauté, mon coeur en est brûlé! Vois le ruban d’or que je t’apporte, Pour le nouer autour de tes cheveux. Si tu veux, ma belle, viens nous marier! Dans nos deux familles, tous sont alliés! Làbas, vers l’église Làbas, vers l’église, Vers l’église Ayio Sidéro, L’église, ô Vierge sainte, L’église Ayio Costanndino, Se sont réunis, Rassemblés en nombre infini, Du monde, ô Vierge sainte, Du monde tous les plus braves! Quel galant m’est comparable Quel galant m’est comparable, D’entre ceux qu’on voit passer? Dis, dame Vassiliki? Vois, pendus à ma ceinture, pistolets et sabre aigu . . . Et c’est toi que j’aime! Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques Ô joie de mon âme, Joie de mon coeur, Trésor qui m’est si cher; Joie de l’âme et du cœur, Toi que j’aime ardemment, Tu es plus beau qu’un ange. Ô lorsque tu parais, Ange si doux Devant nos yeux, Comme un bel ange blond, Sous le clair soleil, Hélas! tous nos pauvres cœurs soupirent! Five Popular Greek Songs Song to the bride Awake, awake, you cute partridge, open your wings to the morning. Three beauty marks, my heart is on fire! See the golden ribbon I bring you, to tie around your hair. If you want, my beauty, we shall marry! In our two families, all are allied! There, by the church There, by the church, by the Ayio Sidero church, the church, o holy Virgin, the church Ayio Costanndino, are gathered, assembled in infinite numbers, of the world, o holy Virgin, of the world, all the most brave folk! What gallant compares with me? What gallant compares with me, among those one sees passing by? Tell me, lady Vassiliki! See, hanging on my belt, pistols and curved sword . . . And it is you whom I love! Song of the lentisk (mastic tree) gatherers O joy of my soul, joy of my heart, treasure that is so dear to me, joy of my soul and heart, you whom I love ardently, you are more beautiful than an angel. O when you appear, angel so sweet, before our eyes, like a beautiful, blond angel, under the bright sun, alas! all our poor hearts sigh! Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022 AT 3 PM MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN THE “HAMMERKLAVIER” SONATA BUY TICKETS MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN, PIANO “A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” — The New York Times FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The celebrated pianist Marc-André Hamelin is renowned for his compelling artistry, jaw-dropping technique, and inventive programming. His multifaceted Parlance debut will begin with a keyboard suite by CPE Bach followed by Hamelin’s own dazzling “Suite in the old style,” combining baroque and contemporary elements. His recital will culminate with Beethoven’s Olympian “Hammerklavier” Sonata of which his publisher wrote, “It excels above all other creations of this master not only through its most rich and grand fantasy, but also in regard to artistic perfection and sustained style, and will mark a new period in Beethoven’s pianoforte works.” “In everything he revealed himself to be a musician’s musician, a virtuoso in the most comprehensive sense of the word… jaw-dropping.” – John von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune PROGRAM C.P.E. Bach Suite in E minor Wq 62/12 Program Notes Marc-André Hamlein Suite à l’ancienne (Suite in the old style) (2020) Program Notes Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 “Hammerklavier “ Program Notes See Marc-André Hamelin perform Fauré’s Impromptu No.2, Op. 31: See Marc-André Hamelin perform Scarbo from Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit:

October 19, 2008 – Carter Brey, cello; Warren Jones, piano Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Sonata in A Minor, Op. 36, for cello and piano October 19, 2008 – Carter Brey, cello; Warren Jones, piano Arguably the most popular composer ever to emerge from the Scandinavian peninsula, Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1843. He received his formal musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory, but he did not find his unique musical voice until returning to Scandinavia after his graduation. There, Grieg was strongly influenced by Rikard Nordraak, the composer of the Norwegian national anthem. Nordraak’s obsession with the sagas, fjords and music of their homeland inspired Grieg to believe that a form of national music was also possible. He studied and drew inspiration from Norwegian folk music and is today considered a leading musical voice of Norwegian nationalism. Nevertheless, Grieg wrote that “music which matters, however national it may be, is lifted high above the purely national level.” Indeed, his music was admired by many of the most respected composers of his day, including Franz Liszt and Peter Tchaikovsky, both of whom offered their encouragement and approval. History has branded Grieg as a composer of delightful miniatures, owing largely to the popularity of such well-known works as his Holberg Suite and incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. This impression, however, is belied by the massive scale of his cello sonata, one of the most passionate and expansively Romantic sonatas ever composed for the instrument. Grieg dedicated the piece to his brother John, an amateur cellist with whom he had not been on a good terms for some time. Unfortunately, there was no reconciliation, and it was another cellist, Ludwig Gritzmacher, who premiered the work with Grieg at the piano on October 22, 1883. Perhaps reflecting the pain of the brotherly separation, the first movement begins with a brooding, agitated theme, which quickly dissolves into a tender second theme more characteristic of Grieg – warmly lyrical, very Norwegian. The movement has a wide emotional range, heightened by the unusual inclusion of a mini cadenza for the cellist. The lyrical Andante draws its opening theme from an Homage March composed by Grieg as incidental music to a play about King Sigurd Jorsalfar of Norway. (The march was originally scored for four cellos.) There is a stormy middle section before the processional theme returns at the end of the movement. The final movement begins with a brief recitative-cadenza for solo cello, which ushers in a vigorously rustic folk dance. As in the first movement, the finale traces a huge expressive trajectory. Although the sonata has no known extra-musical program, it creates a strongly narrative impression and represents Grieg at his most intense and passionate. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes