SARAH CROCKER VONSATTEL, VIOLIN Violinist Sarah Crocker Vonsattel has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2008. She previously held positions in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony. Sarah has appeared as soloist with the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, among others. Recent performances include appearances at Lake Tahoe Summerfest, the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, the Bronxville Chamber Music Series, Downtown Music at Grace Church, the New Marlborough House Concerts, and the Syracuse Society for New Music. As a founding member of the Verklärte Quartet, Sarah was a Grand Prize Winner of the 2003 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, leading to concert tours in the U.S. and Italy with this ensemble. A proponent of new music, Sarah has appeared with the iO string quartet and the Talea Ensemble and can be heard on the Bridge Records label performing the music of Poul Ruders and Tod Machover. She has appeared as both performer and faculty member at festivals including the Orfeo International Music Festival (Italy), the Wellesley Composers Conference (Massachusetts), and the Musical Friends Academy (Tunisia). She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student of David Updegraff, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Ronald Copes and Naoko Tanaka. In her spare time, she enjoys distance running and traveling.

Lucy Shelton, soprano “In the forefront was Lucy Shelton, a new-music diva if there ever was one, performing with fire, sensitivity, astounding surety of pitch, and what seemed like love abounding.” —The Boston Globe The only winner of two Walter W. Naumburg Awards—for both chamber music and solo singing—American soprano Lucy Shelton is an internationally recognized exponent of 20th- and 21st-Century repertory, having premiered over 100 works by many of today’s preeminent composers. Notable among these are Elliott Carter’s Tempo e Tempi and Of Challenge and Of Love, Oliver Knussen’s Whitman Settings, Joseph Schwantner’s Magabunda, Poul Ruders’s The Bells, Stephen Albert’s Flower of the Mountain, and Robert Zuidam’s opera Rage d’Amours. She has premiered Gerard Grisey’s L’Icone Paradoxiale with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; sung Pierre Boulez’s Le Visage Nuptial under the composer’s direction in Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Paris; performed György Kurtag’s The Sayings of Peter Bornemisza with pianist Sir Andras Schiff in Vienna and Berlin; and made her Aldeburgh Festival debut in the premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Sing, Ariel. Ms. Shelton has exhibited special skill in dramatic works, including Luciano Berio’s Passaggio with the Ensemble InterContemporain, Sir Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage (for Thames Television), Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero (her BBC Proms debut), and Bernard Rands’ Canti Lunatici. Highlights of past seasons include Ms. Shelton’s 2010 Grammy Nomination (with the Enso Quartet) for the Naxos release of Ginastera’s string quartets; her Zankel Hall debut with the Met Chamber Orchestra and Maestro James Levine in Carter’s A Mirror On Which To Dwell; and, in celebration of the work’s centenary, multiple performances of a staged Pierrot Lunaire with ten different ensembles worldwide (including eighth blackbird, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and Da Camera of Houston). Ms. Shelton’s numerous festival appearances have included the Aspen, Santa Fe, Ojai, Tanglewood, Chamber Music Northwest, Caen, and Salzburg festivals. Among the major orchestras with which she has worked are those of Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Cologne, St. Louis, Denver, London, New York, Paris, Munich, and Tokyo, working with such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Marin Alsop, Leonard Slatkin, Ingo Metzmacher, and Alan Gilbert. Ms. Shelton’s extensive discography is on the Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, Koch International, NMC, Bridge, BIS, Albany and Innova labels. A native of California, Ms. Shelton’s primary mentor was mezzo-soprano Jan De Gaetani. In recognition of her contribution to the field of contemporary music, she received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Pomona College (2003) and the Boston Conservatory (2013). Ms. Shelton has taught at the Third Street Settlement School in Manhattan, the Eastman School, the New England Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Britten-Pears School. In the fall of 2007, she joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music’s innovative Contemporary Performance Program. Additionally, Shelton teaches privately in her New York City studio.

January 10, 2010 – Emerson String Quartet FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80 January 10, 2010 – Emerson String Quartet Felix Mendelssohn grew up with every familial and material advantage, and he made the most of his unique opportunities. He composed brilliantly from an early age and developed astonishing virtuosity as a pianist, organist, and conductor. Highly educated, he loved literature, poetry, and philosophy and became an adept linguist, painter, and writer. His ever-supportive father, Abraham, a wealthy banker, bought a magnificent estate in Berlin, which he turned into an artistic focal point of the culturally rich city. Distinguished artists, literary figures, and well-to-do colleagues attended the Mendelssohn family’s salon concerts, where the children performed, often playing their own music with full orchestras hired by their father. A child prodigy on the order of Mozart, Felix was admired by no less a figure than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who told the boy, “I am Saul and you are David. Come to me when I am sad and discouraged and quiet my soul with your sweet harmonies.” Felix’s older sister Fanny was – like Mozart’s older sister, Nannerl – also a child prodigy of remarkable capabilities. At 13 Fanny scored a Händel Oratorio for full orchestra as an exercise, and as a birthday gift for her father, she memorized and performed all 24 Preludes from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Although her compositional skills were not encouraged to the same degree as her brother’s, she wrote 466 pieces of her own over the course of her life. While the Mozart siblings eventually grew apart, Felix and Fanny grew increasingly devoted to each other during their short lives. There was never a hint of rivalry or jealousy between them. On the contrary, they dedicated many works to each other, advocated for each other’s music, and expressed extreme mutual fondness and admiration throughout their lives. When in 1847 Felix received the news of his beloved sister’s sudden death by a massive stroke, he was so devastated that he immediately suffered a stroke of his own. Unable to attend her funeral, he sank into a profound depression. His wife insisted that he take time off from his daunting performance and administrative schedule to travel with their family to the Interlaken region of Switzerland, where he could regain his physical health and emotional equilibrium. While in Switzerland, he spent his days hiking in the mountains, making watercolors and drawings of the Swiss landscape, and composing his string quartet in F minor, which he completed in September of that year. Soon after returning to Germany, however, his inconsolable grief came back to him. He suffered another stroke and within two months was dead at the age of 38. The F-Minor String Quartet, his last completed work, expresses his rage and despair at the loss of his beloved sister. Although Mendelssohn’s music is admired for its flawless technique and aura of classical refinement, some have criticized it for showing too much emotional restraint. The F-minor quartet completely belies this portrayal. It is, from beginning to end, a work of unprecedented intensity and turbulence, arguably his most impassioned and tragic work. The opening movement begins in a burst of violent, shuddering tremolos, clearly representing the shock and grief he must have felt when he was first informed of his beloved sister’s death. Thunderbolt-like fortissimos and stomping accents express the depth of his despair. The music is riven by extreme contrasts as Mendelssohn tries to calm himself, only to be wrenched anew by the slashing pain of loss. Toward the end of the movement a unison outburst ratchets the intensity up another notch, and the movement careens to a desperate conclusion. A Scherzo follows, but not the typically light, “Mendelssohnian” Scherzo of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The mood is operatic in its agitation, with fierce, off-kilter syncopations, heavy accents, and severe passages where the entire quartet again plays in unison. The contrasting Trio introduces a Verdian ghost dance in the viola and cello, which accompany a low, ominous violin duet. After returning to the agitated Scherzo, the ghosts slink off in a spooky, phantasmal coda. The Adagio is a warmly nostalgic song without words, reminiscent of the intimate piano pieces that Felix and Fanny wrote and often dedicated to each other. Closely woven string textures reflect their tight emotional bond. Although the movement begins as a wistful elegy, it builds to a cathartic fortissimo climax in which funereal, dotted rhythms predominate. The intensity gradually recedes although the dotted rhythms continue to echo through the texture, and the movement ends in a sweetly resigned pianissimo. Desperation and drama return full force in the final movement of the quartet. Shivering passagework is interrupted by crashing, dissonant chords. Extreme virtuosity is demanded of the four quartet members as Mendelssohn’s final work drives headlong toward a tragic conclusion. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 24, 2017: Sean Lee, violin; Michael Brown, piano LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Romance No. 2 in F major, op. 50 September 24, 2017: Sean Lee, violin; Michael Brown, piano Beethoven may have written his two Romances for violin and orchestra as potential slow movements for an unfinished concerto (WoO 5), but in the end he published them as separate pieces. The F major Romance may date from as early as 1798. In German, Romanze designates a songlike instrumental piece (specifically in alla breve meter or “cut time”), of which the French Romance is a special subcategory used for violin concerto slow movements by composers such as Viotti. Beethoven’s sweetly “singing” Romances clearly show his familiarity with this French style. The F major Romance is especially famous for its high range and sweet melodic line, which may partly account for its being played more often than its companion in G. Beethoven interjects contrasting orchestral sections at the ends of thematic statements, characterizing them with majestic long-short rhythms. He creates a wonderful touch at the end when his accompaniment provides a double echo of the solo violin’s last three notes. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 30, 2022: EMERSON STRING QUARTET DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) String Quartet No. 12 in D-flat, Op. 133 October 30, 2022: EMERSON STRING QUARTET Toward the end of his life, Shostakovich was beset by multiple health problems—loss of feeling and mobility in his limbs, a heart attack, a broken ankle—all of which brought his performing career to an end and curtailed many of his civic activities. With sadly more time on his hands, lengthy hospital stays, and deaths of people in his circle, he began thinking more about his own mortality. Many of his late works—the vocal cycles, Symphony No. 14, and the last four string quartets—reflect this preoccupation by plumbing new depths. While living at the Composers’ Union retreat at Repino, Shostakovich wrote to his friend Isaak Glikman on March 9, 1968, that he constantly feared he would die and leave whatever piece he was working on incomplete. Just two days later he finished his String Quartet No. 12 in D-flat major and wrote to the first violinist of the Beethoven Quartet, Dmitry Tsïganov, whose birthday was March 12, asking him to accept the dedication. Two years earlier he had dedicated his Eleventh Quartet to the memory of Vasily Shirinsky, second violinist of the Quartet until his death in 1965, and thus Shostakovich was continuing his plan of writing a quartet for each member of the group that had premiered most of his quartets. Shostakovich was quite pleased with the work, reportedly answering Tsïganov’s question about whether it was “chamber” in its proportions by saying, “No, no—it’s a symphony, a symphony.” The Beethoven Quartet gave the private premiere on June 14, 1968, at the first creative convocation of the new secretariat of the Russian Composers’ Union. Shostakovich commented on the magnificence of the performance, and the favorable reaction of musicians in attendance made its way into the press in advance of the public premiere in Moscow on September 14. The audience at both performances recognized a newness of form and language in the Twelfth Quartet, in particular its reliance on twelve-tone themes. Though Shostakovich was well-aware of the avant-garde tendencies of his younger colleagues and had occasionally incorporated twelve-tone rows himself, he was now using them in a new way to suit his own purposes. He described his approach to twelve-tone writing in a remarkable encapsulation of his ideals just before the private premiere: As far as the use of strictly technical devices from such musical “systems” as dodecaphony or aleatory is concerned . . . everything in good measure. If, let’s say, a composer sets himself the obligatory task of writing dodecaphonic music, then he artificially limits his possibilities, his ideas. The use of elements from these complex systems is fully justified if it is dictated by the concept of the composition. . . . You know, to a certain extent I think the formula “the end justifies the means” is valid in music. All means? All of them, if they contribute to the end objective. What makes Shostakovich’s use of twelve-tone material in the Twelfth Quartet so fascinating is the way in which he juxtaposes it with the work’s tonal anchor of D-flat major. One might expect the twelve-tone writing to sound antagonistic and be settled by the reassurance of tonality, but Shostakovich’s D-flat major passages seem instead to explore other realms that are at times anguished, brutal, or drained of enjoyment. Laid out unconventionally in two movements with the second much longer than the first, the work opens with a wandering twelve-tone gesture in the cello, which is treated along with other dodecaphic fragments as a delineating device rather according to the “rules” of serial technique. The answering, low-register D-flat music with its oscillating rising patterns sounds sorrowfully contemplative and searching. Another twelve-tone utterance, now in the first violin, brings on a kind of waltz that is far-removed from a glittering social occasion, and yet another twelve-tone fragment introduces an idea characterized by staccato repeated notes. These ideas become joined or layered in myriad ingenious ways with the twelve-tone interjections serving as points of departure. The hushed, fragmented ending still seems in search of closure despite its D-flat fade-out. The huge second movement takes on the symphonic proportions and sonorities Shostakovich suggested in his remarks to Tsïganov. He rolls several movement-like sections into one, beginning with an almost savage mixed-meter “scherzo” that is pierced by individual trills and a jabbing melodic idea begun by the cello. Eventually the tumult dies away with a somber cello recitative that initiates a “slow movement” (Adagio) comprised of funereal chanting juxtaposed with searing melodic lines of great pathos. A striking, insistent pizzicato solo by the first violin based on first-movement figures launches a remarkable section that further develops materials from the entire work. Shostakovich combines motives and textures from the scherzo and the Adagio, and at a climactic point has the lower strings play dense pizzicato chords containing all twelve pitches. A brief revisiting of the Adagio’s sustained pathos brings a return to the first movement’s contemplative sorrow as if “ending with the beginning.” Shostakovich has more to say, however, and revs up the music of the “scherzo” to drive relentlessly to the conclusion. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Sonata in F, K. 533/494 March 8, 2026: Jonathan Biss, piano Mozart’s F major Piano Sonata, K. 533 and K. 494, was published by Franz Anton Hoffmeister in 1790, perhaps assuaging part of the composer’s financial debt to his friend. But the work was not newly composed, nor had it all been written at the same time. The Rondo, K. 494, had been completed on June 10, 1786, and the Allegro and Andante, K. 533, on January 3, 1788. When Mozart decided to join these movements to form a complete sonata, he added a twenty-seven-measure “cadenza” toward the end of the Rondo for dramatic weight. Overzealous nineteenth-century editors began publishing the chronologically separated movements independently, fostering a certain reluctance to accept the Sonata as a whole and perhaps inhibiting more frequent performance. Yet the Sonata is regarded by many as a masterpiece and Mozart’s own authority that the components belong together should be trusted. The Allegro’s unpretentious beginning expands into a sonata form on a grand scale. Mozart displays his “late-period” fondness for contrapuntal textures—as in the Jupiter Symphony and other piano sonatas—and takes particular delight in the shift of melodic material between right and left hands. Harmonic adventures such as those in the development become even more pronounced in the expressive Andante, with its chromatic dissonances and bold diminished chords. The lighthearted Rondo refrain provides supreme contrast to the preceding introspection. The movement’s full proportions befit its origin as an independent piece, but it should also be borne in mind that Mozart lengthened rather than shortened the Rondo for inclusion in the Sonata. The music-box effect of the refrain is balanced by its final appearance at the end in the bass register. The “cadenza” that precedes the refrain’s deeper return serves to heighten the drama. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

October 18, 2009 – Rafael Figueroa, cello GASPAR CASSADÓ (1897-1966) Suite for Solo Cello October 18, 2009 – Rafael Figueroa, cello Gaspar Cassadó was one of the foremost cellists of the 20th Century. A musician of great versatility, he appeared regularly as a soloist with the world’s finest conductors and orchestras; performed chamber music with the most renowned musicians of the day; and produced a sizeable body of charming, well-crafted compositions and arrangements designed to showcase his own considerable talents as a cellist. His performance style and compositional oeuvre are often likened to those of the violinist Fritz Kreisler, who also wrote and performed his own concertos, showpieces, and charming recital encores that display the performer’s wit, agility, and lighter side. Born in Barcelona in 1897, Cassadó progressed quickly in his musical studies. In 1906 the emerging 21-year-old cellist Pablo Casals attended a performance by the nine-year-old prodigy and was so impressed that he invited him to become his first fulltime student. Cassadó eventually attained a scholarship from the city of Barcelona to move to Paris, where he studied for many years with Casals. Cassadó considered Casals to be his greatest musical influence and his “spiritual father.” While in Paris, Cassadó also pursued his studies in composition, working closely with such masters as Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel. Their stylistic influence can be heard in Cassadó’s 1926 Suite for Solo Cello, which was inspired by Casals’ legendary performances of the Bach cello suites. Up until the early 20th Century, Bach’s six cello suites were not widely known to the listening public; they were regarded as cello teaching material not quite suitable for general consumption. Casals radically altered that perception, performing them often and serving as their staunch advocate. His performances served as a catalyst for a vast outpouring of 20th Century solo cello works by major composers as diverse as Zoltán Kodály, Max Reger, Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, George Crumb, and Gaspar Cassadó. Cassadó’s Suite for Solo Cello combines the Baroque formalism and dance orientation of Bach’s suites with his own native Spanish flair. The first movement begins, á la Bach, with a free preludium that evolves into a zarabanda, a dignified Spanish dance related to the Baroque sarabande. The movement quotes Zoltán Kodaly’s Sonata for Cello Solo and, reflecting Cassadó’s studies with Ravel, makes extensive use of the motive that begins the famous flute solo from the ballet Daphnis et Chloe. The second movement is written in the form of a two-part sardana. Beginning with a characteristicly slow, introductory section (in classic saradanas the first tirada was danced with the arms down), the music soon breaks into an animatedly rustic dance in 2/4 (the second tirada was usually danced with the arms up). The jauntily rhythmic flavor of the movement makes this the most overtly “danceable” of the three. Cassadó continues to honor antique Spanish folkdance styles by basing the final movement largely on the jota, a dance originally performed in colorful costumes and accompanied by castanets. The movement begins slowly with a ruminative intermezzo featuring lyrical, five-beat phrases. The intermezzo gradually gives way to the more vigorous, swinging jota. The movement alternates between the introspection of the intermezzo and the extroverted, flamenco-like jota, bringing the suite to a lively, Spanish-style conclusion. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

September 29, 2024: Carter Grey and Edward Arron, cellos Jean Barrière (1707-1747) Allegro prestissimo from Sonata in G for two cellos September 29, 2024: Carter Grey and Edward Arron, cellos French cello virtuoso and composer Jean Barrière most likely lived in Bordeaux for some time before moving to Paris, judging by documents that appeared after his death. In 1730 he earned the designation “Musicien ordinaire de notre Académie Royale de Musique” in Paris, and three years later he was granted a privilege to publish “many sonatas and other instrumental musical works.” Two books of his sonatas appeared before Barrière left for Rome in 1736 intending to study with Italian cellist Francesco Alborea, known as Francischello. Barrière seems not to have studied with him, however, and made concert tours in Italy before returning to Paris in 1738. Few descriptions of Barrière’s playing survive, but he was known as one of the greatest cello virtuosos of the first half of the eighteenth century, when the modern cello, already popularized in Italy, began taking over from the viol in France. In 1739 Barrière’s publishing privilege was extended for twelve more years, and he continued to issue cello sonatas (which included a trio sonata for treble instrument and cello and the two-cello sonata), as well as a collection for pardessus de viole (highest member of the viol family) and one for harpsichord. Unfortunately he died at age forty—only four years into his second publishing privilege—but he is considered the first to write specifically idiomatic music for the cello. The Two-Cello Sonata in G major appears as the fourth work in Book 3 (later publications follow different numbering), and in Barrière’s day, when typically there would have been continuo accompaniment (keyboard and reinforcing bass instrument), the work gives no figures with a bass line accompaniment, meaning the two cellos alone carry the whole. After two slow movements, the virtuosic third movement takes off in a rapid-fire conversation between the two protagonists. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

April 19, 2009 – Elmar Oliveira, violin; Rafael Figueroa, cello; John Novacek, piano FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) Trio No 2 in C Minor, Op. 66 for violin, cello, and piano April 19, 2009 – Elmar Oliveira, violin; Rafael Figueroa, cello; John Novacek, piano Felix Mendelssohn was born 200 years ago into a wealthy, German Jewish family. His grandfather was the celebrated philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and his father, Abraham, was a successful banker. Raised in Berlin, Felix and his beloved sister Fanny were both formidable child prodigies, brought up in a rich cultural milieu where their talents could flourish. Mendelssohn’s remarkable musical abilities were encouraged by his loving parents, who enabled him to hear his early pieces performed at home by a private orchestra for their associates, who included the intellectual elite of Berlin. By his middle teens Mendelssohn was composing works of stunning maturity and originality. His Octet for Strings and Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, composed at 16 and 17 respectively, rank among his most celebrated and popular works. In addition to his compositional talent, Mendelssohn was blessed with a warm, benevolent personality and a wide range of extra-musical enthusiasms. His close friend, the conductor/composer Sir Jules Benedict wrote of him, “In society, apart from musical subjects, nothing could be more entertaining or animated than Mendelssohn’s conversation on literary topics. The works of Shakespeare and other eminent British poets were quite as familiar to him as those of his own country; and, although his accent was slightly tinctured by his German origin, he spoke as well as wrote the English language with great facility and purity. He sketched from nature and also painted very well; and, indeed, he might be said to possess every social accomplishment.” Among his many enthusiasms was a lifelong passion for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Mendelssohn made history as a conductor when, at the age of 20, he presided over a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, the first major European revival of Bach’s long-neglected music. Mendelssohn’s love of Bach is reflected in the noble chorale tune that dominates much of the final movement of the Piano Trio in C Minor. His second piano trio, Op. 66, was completed in 1845, two years before the end of his short life. The piece is laid out on a large scale, featuring soaring, lyrical melodies and intricate, virtuosic passagework for the three instruments. Mendelssohn, who played piano in the first performances, was joined by the famous violinist/composer Louis Spohr, to whom the piece is dedicated. The first movement starts in a restless, urgent hush, the mysterious atmosphere propelled by rapidly rising and falling figures in the piano. This section eventually gives way to a sunnier, more rhapsodic duet for violin and cello. The atmosphere vacillates between emotional poles, culminating in a stormy, C minor coda. In contrast to the agitation of the first movement, Mendelssohn offers a warmly reassuring Song Without Words in E-flat major as the basis of the second movement. Throughout his life Mendelssohn composed Lieder ohne Worte for solo piano, often as gifts to his sister Fanny. This movement begins with a glowing piano solo, strongly reminiscent of the style of these intimate works, and continues with a gentle, lilting duet for violin and cello. The adjective “Mendelssohnian,” signifying youthfulness and gossamer, fairyland textures, is well-applied to the third movement, a minor key Scherzo, which Mendelssohn himself described as “a trifle nasty to play.” The brisk, sparkling music provides challenges for all of the instrumentalists but particularly the pianist. Like many of Mendelssohn’s scherzos, the short movement whizzes along at breakneck speed, finally vanishing down a misty, pizzicato-strewn path. The spirited finale strings together a series of contrasting themes, beginning with a sweeping cello melody in C minor. The most striking of the themes is the noble, chorale-like third episode. Although the tune is apparently of Mendelssohn’s own invention, it is similar in atmosphere and harmonization to many of Bach’s chorales. The movement builds to a crowning restatement of the chorale tune in a glorious C major, bringing the piece – and Parlance Chamber Concerts’ second season – to a grand, celebratory conclusion. By Michael Parloff Return to Parlance Program Notes

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023 AT 4 PM LYSANDER PIANO TRIO SCANDINAVIAN INSPIRATIONS ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS The Lysander Piano Trio has developed a reputation for passionate playing and exciting programming. They find creative ways to connect well-known masterworks with music by lesser-known and underrepresented composers, discovering common threads across cultures and times. 2023-2024 SEASON October 15, 202 3 Lysander Piano Trio November 12, 2023 Angel Blue, soprano Bryan Wagorn, piano December 3, 2023 Brentano String Quartet Antioch Chamber Choir January 14, 2024 Goldmund String Quartet February 18, 2024 Candlelit Music of The Spirit March 10, 2024 Richard Goode, Piano Late Beethoven April 7, 2024 Jordi Savall, Conductor Hespèrion XXI May 12, 2024 Mothers Day Concert June 2, 2024 Mozart’s Double Concertos Artist Roster Parlance Program Notes LOCATION At West Side Presbyterian Church 6 South Monroe Street Ridgewood, NJ 07450 For map and directions, click here . CONCERT AMENITIES Whee lchair Accessible Fr e e Parking for all concerts FEATURING BUY TICKETS Lysander Piano Trio Itamar Zorman, violin Michael Katz, cello Liza Stepanova, piano “…technical assurance and thoughtful musicality…performed with rich sound and nuanced musicianship in the varied works… finely hued collaboration among the three musicians.” —The New York Times “…a passionate single-mindedness that wound up serving all of the score’s varied moods, right through to a finale of exhilarating panache.” — The Washington Post On October 15 they will perform a Scandinavian-themed program including music by the great Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg and 19th-century Swedish violinist-composer, Amanda Maier . The Lysander Trio’s concert will culminate with Schubert’s towering Piano Trio in E-flat, Op. 100 , which features the poignant Swedish folk song “Se solen sjunker” (The Sun Is Setting). PROGRAM Edvard Grieg Program Notes Andante con moto for piano trio Amanda Maier Program Notes Piano Trio in E-flat Franz Schubert Piano Trio in E-flat, Op. 100 Program Notes Watch the Lysander Trio perform the Finale of Ravel’s Piano Trio:

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Founders Michael and Inmo Parloff Artistic Director Michael Parloff Artistic Advisory Board James Galway David Finckel Thomas Hampson Members of the Emerson String Quartet (Emeritus): Philip Setzer Eugene Drucker Lawrence Dutton Paul Watkins Executive Board Donald Reeder , Chairman of the Board Michael Parloff , P resident Warren F. Cooke , Vi ce President Elizabeth Forbes, Secretary Edward Lowentha l Peter Riemer Development Director Inmo Parloff Leadership Council Thomas and Heidi Ahlborn Anne Bosch Catherine Cooke Eugene Cornell and Susan Mayo Paul Gridley Christina Hembree Adrian and Christina Jones Gary Knapp Ronald and Mollie Ledwith Thomas and Carol Martin Dorothy Neff Barry Poskanzer and Mary Krugman Suzanne Taranto Donald and Gigo Taylor