DANIELLE DE NIESE, SOPRANO Danielle de Niese’s “sweet, gleaming soprano,” “phenomenal musicality” and “sharply comic, yet utterly moving acting,” combined with youth and physical presence, have brought her to the edge of a spectacular career. At only 30 years of age, the Australian-born American singer regularly graces many of the world’s most prestigious opera and concert stages, and has an exclusive contract with Decca Records. Her debut solo album, Handel Arias was released to international acclaim in 2007 and her much anticipated second recording, The Mozart Album, is due out internationally this fall. Ms. de Niese’s career got off to a prestigious start when, at age 18, she became the youngest singer ever to enter the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. A year later she made her house debut as Barbarina in a new Jonathan Miller production of Le nozze di Figaro in a cast featuring Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel, and Cecilia Bartoli, and led by James Levine. Soon after came important operatic debuts with the Netherlands Opera, the Saito Kinen Festival, and the Paris Opera. But it was her portrayal of Cleopatra in a David McVicar production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare for her 2005 Glyndebourne Festival debut that brought her to true international acclaim. The New York Times hailed de Niese’s performance, writing, “Her singing is utterly delectable and completely assured…Sheer ‘joie de vivre’ and mastery come spilling across, to the eyes as well as the ears.” Since then Ms. de Niese has enjoyed operatic successes on the stages of the Paris Opera, Zurich Opera, Netherlands Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago among many others. Orchestral engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In the 2009-10 season Ms. de Niese returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the same production of Le nozze di Figaro where she made her house debut but this time as Susanna. Other important opera engagements this season include L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Teatro Real, Semele with Théâtre des Champs Elysées, as well as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera of Chicago under the direction of Edward Gardner. Additionally, Ms. de Niese will tour Europe with the period instrument group Il giardino armonico with an all Handel program with performances in Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin and Madrid among others. She will make her debut in Prague with the Philharmonia under the direction of Jakub Hrusa. Australian-born to parents of Sri Lankan and Dutch heritage, Danielle de Niese grew up in Los Angeles. The soprano has been captivating audiences since childhood, when she was a fixture of Los Angeles local television hosting a weekly arts showcase for teenagers, for which she won an Emmy Award. Trained in dance and piano as well as music at the famed Colburn School in Los Angeles, she participated in the Tanglewood, Aspen and Marlboro summer programs before coming to New York in 1997 to attend the Mannes School of Music. Recently the Netherlands Opera awarded Ms. de Niese their “Prix d’Amis” which is an honor bestowed upon the artist who their audience votes as the past season’s favorite performer. Ms. de Niese is the recipient of the 2008 Echo Award’s New Artist of the Year, the 2008 Orphee D’Or given by the Academie Du Disque Lyrique, and was nominated for the 2009 Classical Brit Award for female artist of the year, all for her debut album, Handel Arias.

May 12, 2024: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano Maurice Ravel Mother Goose Suite for piano 4-hands May 12, 2024: Alessio Bax, piano; Lucille Chung, piano Ravel often preferred the company of children to that of adults. In 1908 he wrote a delightful set of piano duets entitled Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose) for two of his favorite children, Mimi and Jean Godebski. Their parents, Ida and Cipa Godebski, some of Ravel’s best friends, regularly entertained many of the famous artists, writers, and musicians of the period. Years later Mimi wrote: Ravel was my favorite because he used to tell me marvelous stories. I would sit on his knee and indefatigably he would begin “Once upon a time . . .” And it was Laideronnette, Beauty and the Beast and above all the adventures of a poor mouse that he had made up for me. . . . It was at la Grangette [the Godebski’s country house at Valvins] that Ravel finished or anyway presented us with Ma mère l’oye. But neither my brother nor I was of an age to appreciate such a dedication and we saw it rather as something that involved hard work. The piano duets were first performed on April 20, 1910, in Paris on the first concert of the Société Indépendente, founded as a rival to the Société Nationale. The work was played, not by the Godebskis, but by two young girls—Jeanne Leleu (student of Marguerite Long, one of Ravel’s great interpreters) and Geneviève Duronys (student of Madame Chesné). Ravel was extremely pleased by the performance, as he touchingly wrote to Mlle. Leleu afterwards. She later won the Prix de Rome and became a professor at the Paris Conservatory. Ravel wrote in his autobiographical sketch: “It was my intention to awaken the poetry of childhood in these pieces, and this naturally led me to simplify my style and to thin out my writing.” The contrast between these five pieces and Gaspard de la nuit, also written in 1908, could scarcely be greater in this respect, yet Ravel remains Ravel in the essentials—the modality of the melodies, the harmonic and rhythmic treatment, the recall of old dance styles, and the evocation of fairy worlds. Writers of the past provided the direct inspiration for Ravel’s set of little “tales”: Charles Perrault for Sleeping Beauty and Tom Thumb (1697 anthology); Comtesse d’Aulnoy (a Perrault contemporary) for Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas; and Marie Leprince de Beaumont for Beauty and the Beast (1757 Children’s Treasury of Moral Tales). The final piece takes up the end of the Sleeping Beauty story, thus neatly enclosing the set. As with many of his piano works, Ravel orchestrated Ma mère l’oye, in this case on a commission from Jacques Rouché, director of the Théâtre des Arts, for a January 1912 ballet performance, choreographed by Mme. Jeanne Hugard. To make a complete ballet Ravel added two numbers and several transitions, and changed the order slightly. The work is best known, however, in its five-movement concert suite version, which follows the order of the piano duets. In the Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty, Ravel depicts the 100-year sleep of the princess by employing the ancient Aeolian church mode, evoking a sense of “long ago.” Gentle chimes add to the atmosphere. Tom Thumb is headed by a quotation from Perrault’s tale: “He thought he would be able to find the path easily by means of the bread which he had strewn wherever he had walked; but he was quite surprised when he could not find a single crumb; the birds had come and eaten them all.” The music depicts his trail with muted thirds in the accompaniment joined by a melody that often moves in parallel motion, lending an ancient flavor to the wistful passages. Ravel suggests bird twitterings midway through the piece. Ravel turned to the pentatonic (five-note) scale for Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas, to suggest its Eastern atmosphere. From the Comtesse d’Aulnoy’s story of the Ugly Little Girl (Laideronnette) and the Green Serpent, who both overcome their respective spells eventually to live happily ever after, Ravel depicted the following episode: “She undressed and got into the bath. The toy mandarins and mandarinesses began to sing and play instruments; some had theorbos made of walnut shells; some had viols made of almond shells, for the instruments had to be of a size appropriate to their own.” Ravel’s portrayal pays particular attention to their diminutive size. In Conversations of Beauty and the Beast (quotations from Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s tale head the piece), Beauty tells the Beast that he does not seem so ugly when she thinks of his kindheartedness. He asks her to marry him, and though she refuses at first, she finally accepts. He of course, turns into a prince at that moment. Musically their conversation takes place as a kind of slow waltz. The Suite concludes with The Fairy Garden, in which Sleeping Beauty wakes up to her handsome prince. The “magic” glissandos (slides) at the end caused poor little Jeanne Leleu to hurt her finger in the piano version, she later recalled. Any hopes she had of being allowed to finger the notes individually were dashed by Ravel who said simply, “I am an assassin!” and left them as they were to create their enchanting effect. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

TIMOTHY COBB, DOUBLE BASS Timothy Cobb is the principal bass of the New York Philharmonic, prior to which he served as principal bass for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Mr. Cobb serves as bass department chair for the Juilliard School, as well as serving on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Purchase College and Rutgers University. Mr. Cobb also holds the title ‘Distinguished Artist in Residence’ at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fl. Mr. Cobb has appeared at numerous chamber music festivals worldwide, and as a former participant in the Marlboro Music festival, has toured with the Musicians from Marlboro series. Mr. Cobb serves on the faculty of the Sarasota Music Festival each June, and in 2014 helped to launch a new bass program for the Killington Music Festival in Killington, VT. Mr. Cobb serves as principal bass for Valery Gergeiv’s” World Orchestra for Peace”, an invited group of musicians from around the world who donate their time biannually to form an orchestra promoting international friendship and understanding. From his affiliation with the World Orchestra, Mr. Cobb has been designated a ‘UNESCO Artist for Peace’. Mr. Cobb also served as principal bass for the Mostly Mozart festival orchestra from 1989-2015. Mr. Cobb graduated from the Curtis Institute where he studied with Roger Scott. While at Curtis, Mr. Cobb was a substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra and in his senior year became a member of the Chicago Symphony under Sir Georg Solti. Mr. Cobb can be heard on all Met recordings after 1986, New York Philharmonic recordings and broadcasts from 2011 on, as well as on the Naxos label, in a recording of Giovanni Bottesini’s duo bass compositions with fellow bassist Thomas Martin, of London. Additionally, Mr. Cobb has an ongoing collaboration with actor Stephen Lang, performing the solo bass soundtrack for Mr. Lang’s animated short, ‘The Wheatfield’, which depicts a moving and factual story from the Battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Lang and Mr. Cobb were joined by historian Harold Holzer when they were invited to Gettysburg in 2013 to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle by performing ‘The Wheatfield ‘at the Gettysburg Museum. In the 2018/19 season, Mr. Cobb will appear on the New York Philharmonic’s Merkin Hall chamber series, as well as two appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, and the Harris Theatre in Chicago. Mr. Cobb will also make two appearances at the Parlance Chamber Series in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Additionally, Mr. Cobb will travel to several countries in Asia and Europe to give master classes, as well as performing a full schedule with the New York Philharmonic and a performance of Beethoven’s ninth symphony with the World Orchestra for Peace in November in Germany marking the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, the end of WW1.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 AT 3 PM Jason Vieaux, guitar; Escher String Quartet BUY TICKETS ESCHER STRING QUARTET “The Escher players seemed to make time stand still, effortlessly distilling the essence of this introspective music with expressive warmth and a natural confiding intimacy.” — Chicago Classical Review JASON VIEAUX, GUITAR “…perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.” – NPR FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS Our gala opener on September 25 will have you dancing in the aisles. Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux will collaborate with the stellar Escher String Quartet in an exuberant international mix. The afternoon will journey from Hugo Wolf ’s buoyant Italian Serenade to Luigi Boccherini ’s sizzling Fandango , reaching a toe-tapping climax with Alan Jay Kernis ’s irrepressible 100 Greatest Dance Hits for Guitar and String Quartet . PROGRAM Hugo Wolf Italian Serenade for string quartet Program Notes Antonio Vivaldi Guitar Concerto in D, RV 93 Program Notes Luigi Boccherini Quintet in D for guitar and string Program Notes Johann Sebastian Bach Suite in E minor, BWV 996 for solo guitar Program Notes Francisco Tárrega Capricho árabe for solo guitar Program Notes Alan Jay Kernis 100 Great Dance Hits for guitar and string quartet Program Notes Jason Vieaux performs Albéniz’s Sevilla: The Escher String Quartet performs Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet, Mvts 1 & 2:

SEAN LEE, VIOLIN Violinist Sean Lee has attracted audiences around the world with his lively performances of the classics. A recipient of the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee enjoys a multifaceted career as both performer and educator. Embracing the legacy of his late teacher, Ruggiero Ricci, Lee is one of the few violinists who perform Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices in concert, and his YouTube series, Paganini POV, continues to draw attention for its new perspective and insight for aspiring young violinists. As an artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Lee continues to perform regularly in New York City at Lincoln Center, as well as on tour in the 2016-17 season across the United States and Asia. Lee has called New York City home since moving at the age of seventeen to study at the Juilliard School with his longtime mentor, violinist Itzhak Perlman. He currently teaches at the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, as well as the Perlman Music Program, where he was a student. Lee performs on a violin originally made for violinist Ruggiero Ricci in 1999, by David Bague.

November 20, 2016: Frank Huang, concertmaster; Sheryl Staples, principal associate concertmaster; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey; cello GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Lullaby November 20, 2016: Frank Huang, concertmaster; Sheryl Staples, principal associate concertmaster; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Carter Brey; cello Sometime around 1919 George Gershwin worked on a short piece for string quartet in the course of his harmony and orchestration studies with Edward Kilenyi. Though popular with his friends, the piece was put aside after Gershwin siphoned off its main motive for an aria in the one-act opera Blue Monday , which was pulled from the stage after its premiere in 1922. The manuscript of the quartet lay forgotten on his brother Ira’s shelf for four decades until harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler reminded Ira of its existence. Adler obtained permission to arrange the piece for harmonica and string quartet, in which version the piece was introduced at the Edinburgh Festival in 1963. It was a short step for Adler, now with the help of Morton Gould, to make an arrangement for harmonica and string orchestra, but it was not until October 28, 1967, that the Lullaby was publicly performed in its original version for string quartet. Ira and Arthur (another brother) published the piece the following year, and it has had equal success with both string quartets and string orchestras. George Gershwin’s ability to cross over between jazz and “art music” has always been considered one of his great claims to fame, and the Lullaby, written as a “classical” piece, enhances that claim. The Lullaby is designed in three main sections framed by a short introduction and coda. Softly sustained chords and violin harmonics lead to the first main section, which features a gently syncopated accompaniment. The central section itself contains three parts, marked Semplice, Recitativo, and Dolcissimo. The return to the main section is altered and shortened and the piece closes with a unifying return to the harmonics of the introduction with a little tossed-off pizzicato for impish finality. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

January 29, 2023: Danish String Quartet BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976) Divertimenti January 29, 2023: Danish String Quartet Already proficient on the piano since an early age, Britten began viola lessons at the age of ten with Audrey Alston, who introduced him to composer Frank Bridge. Britten’s youthful compositions, unguided by a composition teacher, already numbered over one hundred, and Bridge was impressed enough to persuade Britten’s parents to arrange for private lessons with him in London beginning in 1927. These lessons continued after Britten left South Lodge prep school in 1928 to attend Gresham’s, a boarding school in Norfolk. Bridge’s mentorship was a saving grace since Britten was often unhappy there. He entered the Royal College of Music in 1930, where he began studying composition with John Ireland, who was much more conservative than Bridge in his musical tastes. Britten kept in close contact with Bridge, whose advice he respected more. In his last year at the Royal College of Music in 1933, Britten began a suite of movements for string quartet initially titled Alla Quartetto serioso, with the deliberately contrasting subtitle “Go play, boy, play,” a quotation from Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale. His idea was to depict friends and activities from prep school days. He began on February 13 with an Alla marcia movement that briefly became conflated with a never-realized “Emil” suite at the beginning of April when Britten became enamored by the film Emil and the Detectives. Based on Erich Kästner’s novel, the story featured children triumphing over adults, which also had Britten thinking of his school days. Britten dedicated the Alla marcia movement to David Layton, a friend from Gresham’s, and at one time labeled it “P.T.” for “physical training,” a school activity in which Britten was adept, known especially for his cricket playing. Britten completed two other movements, “At a party” and “Ragging” (dedicated to South Lodge friend Francis Barton) and began another on his way to a projected five. The three completed movements were performed—not especially well, thought Britten—on December 4, 1933, by the Macnaghten String Quartet, led by his friend Anne Macnaghten. Then in 1936 Britten revisited the pieces, replacing the Alla marcia (which he recycled in “Parade” from the song cycle Les illuminations) with a more dramatic modern march. He titled the middle movement simply Waltz, and the last, still bearing its dedication to Barton, he called Burlesque. The work in final form, now titled Three Divertimenti, was premiered on February 25, 1936, by the Stratton Quartet at London’s Wigmore Hall. Britten wrote that the performance was received “with sniggers and pretty cold silence,” which so upset him that he never published the work. It was issued posthumously in 1983, and has received many performance by quartets seeking a somewhat less formal genre for their programs than a full-fledged string quartet. Britten wrote marches throughout his career. The edgy opening March here revels in spiky rhythms, glissandos, doubled-stopped unisons, piquant grace notes, and mock fanfares of the kind that appealed to Shostakovich. (Interestingly, the two were to become friends late in their careers after cellist Mstislav Rostropovich introduced them in 1960.) The middle movement, titled simply Waltz, sounds slightly nostalgic and a bit pastoral, as if glancing backward in time. Nevertheless, the forward-looking outlook that Bridge instilled in the younger composer often surfaces, and the waltz becomes somewhat aggressive before calm returns. Burlesque takes the listener on a wild ride with its constant tremolos and darting fragments. Its perpetual motion drives to demonstrative chords and, after pausing with hesitating fragments, drives maniacally to its abrupt close. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 24, 2017: Mihai Marica, cello; Michael Brown, piano CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) Romance, op. 36 September 24, 2017: Mihai Marica, cello; Michael Brown, piano Saint-Saëns was celebrated for his remarkable keyboard skills, his fabulous memory, and his sightreading abilities, which like Mozart’s showed themselves at an extremely early age. He chose the life of a composer rather than that of a touring virtuoso, though he did continue to perform his own works at home and abroad. He is known especially for his five piano concertos, his humorous Carnival of the Animals (which he did not allow to be performed publicly or to be published during his lifetime!), and his opera Samson and Delilah, but he also worked to fill in gaps for instruments in need of repertoire. In 1874 he wrote his alluring Romance for horn and orchestra for the famous horn player Henri Garigue. Well aware that it would work equally well with the warm timbre of the cello, he published it the same year with that option. The long flowing lines of this Romance (see definition above for Beethoven’s op. 50) unfold like a waltz, contrasted by a more impassioned middle section before returning to the lilt of the opening. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

May 19, 2019: Friedrich Heinrich Kern, glass harmonica; Chelsea Knox, flute; Elaine Douvas, oboe; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Adagio and Rondo, K. 617 for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola, and cello May 19, 2019: Friedrich Heinrich Kern, glass harmonica; Chelsea Knox, flute; Elaine Douvas, oboe; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello On a visit to England in 1761, Benjamin Franklin was impressed by Edmund Delaval’s playing on musical glasses—the rubbing of moistened fingertips around the rims of glasses tuned by adding or subtracting water. He was inspired to improve on the instrument by affixing glass bowls of graduated sizes concentrically around a horizontal metal spindle and rotating the apparatus with a crank attached to a treadle. This keyboard-like arrangement made chords and scales easily playable. Franklin’s glass armonica (later dubbed “harmonica”) received later modifications, some unsuccessful—such as the use of a kind of violin bow or keyboard mechanism to activate the sound—but others were worthwhile, such as the extension of the instrument’s range by German maker Joseph Aloys Schmittbaur. Performances across Europe by Schmittbaur’s student Marianne Kirchgässner (1769–1808), blind from the age of four, brought the instrument to the peak of its popularity. Kirchgässner’s playing in Vienna in 1791 inspired Mozart to compose his Adagio for solo glass armonica and also the Adagio and Rondo, K. 617, for glass armonica, flute, oboe, viola, and cello, which he dated May 23. She gave the quintet’s first performance with Mozart himself—probably on the viola part—at Vienna’s Kärntnerthortheater on August 19, and performed both pieces many times thereafter. Despite the fact that she died from a chest infection, rumor had it that the cause of death was nerve deterioration caused by the instrument’s piercing vibrations. The overall volume of the glass armonica, however, is relatively soft, and a critique of a performance she gave in London complained that her part couldn’t be heard above the other instruments. Whether the volume of the glass armonica was at issue, or there was simply a desire for wider circulation, a version with piano came into use even in Mozart’s day. In the present performance, Friedrich Heinrich Kern plays the verrophone, a modern version of the glass harmonica using tuned glass tubes, invented in 1983 by Sascha Reckert. Thus it gives a contemporary presentation of the sound rather than a “period instrument” re-creation. Mr. Kern has made subtle modifications in Mozart’s score to accommodate the differences in playing technique between the two instruments. Because the verrophone can produce more volume than the glass harmonica, the instrument is perfectly suited for Mozart’s quintet—a captivating, rarely heard piece that turned out to be the last chamber work from the master’s pen. The Adagio’s dramatic C minor outer sections alternate powerful chords with delicate ruminating passages. The contrast of the solemn and the ethereal brings to mind Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, which he was composing contemporaneously. His turn to the major mode brings a graceful middle section that features a lovely keyboard melody interspersed with comments by the quartet. Throughout both movements Mozart takes special care to alternate the keyboard with the other instruments, making the London critic’s complaint seem querulous. Mozart’s treatment of the deceptively simple main theme of the Rondo shows sophistication in its many decorative variants that keep the ear engaged. The form is also a masterful infusion of rondo and sonata form. Most striking are the intervening sections that use a descending chordal pattern—which also receives its share of variation—to launch some ravishing modulations. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

ITAMAR ZORMAN, VIOLIN Itamar Zorman is one of the most soulful, evocative artists of his generation, distinguished by his emotionally gripping performances and gift for musical storytelling. Since his emergence with the top prize at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, he has wowed audiences all over the world with breathtaking style, causing one critic to declare him a “young badass who’s not afraid of anything.” His “youthful intensity” and “achingly beautiful” sound shine through in every performance, earning him the title of the “virtuoso of emotions. Awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award for 2014, violinist Itamar Zorman is the winner of the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia. Mr. Zorman has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Mariinsky Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, KBS Symphony Seoul, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, German Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Kremerata Baltica, RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Dublin) and American Symphony. In 2024 he performed with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in their traditional televised Christmas concert, following the Pope’s blessing.He has worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson-Thomas, David Robertson, Valery Gergiev, James DePreist, Karina Canellakis, Yuri Bashmet, and Nathalie Stuztmann. Mr. Zorman has performed around the world in halls such as Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Zurich Tonhalle, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, and Teatro Massimo Palermo. As a recitalist he performed at Carnegie Hall's Distinctive Debut series, Wigmore Hall, People's Symphony Concerts, Merkin Hall, the Louvre Museum, Suntory Hall Laeiszhalle Hamburg and HR-Sendesaal Frankfurt. Mr. Zorman was invited to the Verbier, Marlboro, Rheingau, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brevard, Classical Tahoe, MITO SettembreMusica, and Radio France Festivals. He has also collaborated with a number of legendary artists such as Richard Goode (including performances at Carnegie Hall and Library of Congress), Mitsuko Uchida, Steven Isserlis and Jörg Widmann. Mr. Zorman’s latest CD, “Violin Odyssey”, a collection of works for violin from five continents, was released in 2022 by First Hand Records to critical acclaim. As part of an ongoing exploration of the music of Paul Ben-Haim, Mr. Zorman released a CD of the works for violin and orchestra with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Philippe Bach for BIS Records, in April 2019, entitled “Evocation”. His first solo CD recording, entitled “Portrait”, features works by Messiaen, Schubert, Chausson, Hindemith, and Brahms and was released by Profil - Editions Günther Hänssler. Described as a “poet of the violin”, Itamar Zorman is also a committed chamber player. He is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project and a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, with which he won the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prize in the 2011 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, 1st prize in the 2011 Arriaga Competition, and a bronze medal in the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Born in Tel-Aviv in 1985 to a family of musicians, Itamar Zorman began his violin studies at the age of six with Saly Bockel at the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel-Aviv. He graduated in 2003 and continued his studies with Professor David Chen and Nava Milo. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance as a student of Hagai Shaham, and his Master of Music from The Juilliard School in 2009, where he studied with Robert Mann and Sylvia Rosenberg. He then went on to receive an Artist Diploma from Manhattan School of Music in 2010 and an Artist Diploma from Julliard in 2012 under the tutelage of Sylvia Rosenberg, and he is an alumnus of the Kronberg Academy where he studied with Christian Tetzlaff and Mauricio Fuks. He is also the recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and has taken part in numerous master classes around the world, working with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz, Ida Haendel, and Ivry Gitlis. Mr. Zorman is an Associate Professor of Music (Violin) at Indiana University’s Jacob’s School of Music. He plays on a 1734 Guarneri del Gesù, from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.

SETH MORRIS, FLUTE Seth Morris serves as Principal Flute with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and previously held the same position with the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet Orchestras. He also was a member of the New World Symphony and West Michigan Symphony and has performed with ensembles across the United States including the Houston, Detroit, and Pacific Symphony Orchestras, American Ballet Theatre, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the Dallas Winds. Seth was a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as a member of the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, and performed at the Bay View Music Festival. A laureate of multiple competitions, Seth won first prize in the National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition, the James Pappoutsakis Memorial Competition, the Myrna W. Brown Artist Competition, and both the Kentucky Flute Festival's Young Artist and Collegiate Artist Competitions. In 2015, Seth won the bronze medal at the Ima Hogg Competition where he gave the Houston Symphony premiere of the Carl Nielsen Flute Concerto; other concerto performances include the Boston Chamber Symphony, the Bay View Chamber Orchestra, and the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. In addition to performing, Seth has taught at numerous universities and festivals around the country including serving as guest professor at the University of Michigan and University of Texas at Arlington. He has been a Guest Artist or featured clinician for the Texas Music Festival, Texas Flute Festival, Houston Flute Fest, San Diego Flute Club, Long Beach Flute Institute, Floot Fire Houston, and Kentucky Flute Festival, and has served on the faculty for Carnegie Hall’s NYO-USA and the Houston Youth Symphony. His articles have been published in The Flutist Quarterly and The Floot Fire Book: Advanced. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Seth went on to earn a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Music in Music Education at the University of Kentucky, a Master of Music at the New England Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance degree at the University of Michigan. His teachers include Paula Robison, Amy Porter, Fenwick Smith, and Gordon Cole. Seth is a William S. Haynes Artist.

October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Duo in G, K. 423, for violin & viola October 19, 2008 – Sheryl Staples, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola Mozart’s relationship with the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus Colloredo, was never a cordial one. The Archbishop regarded court musicians as members of his household staff, obliged to serve at the whim of the master. Mozart, feeling increasingly resentful and constricted, finally submitted his resignation in 1781. Afterwards, he wrote to his father, “I am no longer so unfortunate as to be in Salzburg’s services – today was that happy day for me.” The tense relationship between the composer and the prince ended ingloriously; the archbishop’s chief steward, Count Arco, dismissed the unruly musician with a “kick in the behind,” as Mozart reported to his father. In the summer of 1783, Mozart returned to Salzburg for the first time since his break with Archbishop Colloredo. It was a nervous visit for Mozart, who was bringing his new wife, Constanze, to meet his father for the first time. In a letter he expressed concern that the archbishop might have him arrested. While in Salzburg, Mozart found the court music director, Michael Haydn (the younger brother of Joseph), suffering from a protracted illness and unable to complete a commission from the Archbishop for six duos for violin and viola. The impatient Archbishop had threatened to cut off Haydn’s salary until the two remaining duos were complete. As a favor to his old friend, Mozart composed the missing duos and gave them to Hadyn to pass off as his own. The two resulting works, in G and B-flat major, received more praise than the other four. It must have given Mozart an ironic pleasure to know that his old enemy Colleredo was unwittingly enjoying the music of his despised former employee. Mozart was a skillful player of both instruments, although his preference was for the viola. The Duo in G reflects this preference, as he treats the lower instrument as a full partner in the musical discourse, rather than relegating it to its more familiar role as an accompanying voice. The first movement features a sparkling interchange between the two instruments. The lyrical slow movement is built on an aria-like main idea, reflecting Mozart’s lifelong love of opera and the human voice. The liting Rondo is a movement of great charm and virtuosity. Although composed in a lighter vein, as befit the style of his older musical colleague, Mozart’s effortless mastery shines through at every turn, often bringing to mind the writing in his earlier masterpiece for solo violin and viola, Symphonie Concertante. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes