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ALBERT CANO SMIT, PIANO A musician who has been praised as “a moving young poet” (Le Devoir), Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality, the First Prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions has appeared as a soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, Montréal Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Barcelona Symphony, Catalonia National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Nottingham Youth Orchestra, and American Youth Symphony. Recital highlights have included his Carnegie Hall debut presented by The Naumburg Foundation, his Merkin Concert hall debut presented by Young Concert Artists, recitals at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton (the performance was streamed live globally), the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC, Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, and return performances at the Steinway Society in San Jose. He has been in residence at France’s Festival de Musique de Wissembourg for seven years, a piano fellow at Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Tippet Rise Art Center, and has had his recital debut in Asia at Xiamen’s Banlam Grand Theater. Albert has been presented in recital by Festival Bach Montréal, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Krannert Center (Urbana, IL), and Matinée Musicale (Cincinnati, OH). He recently premiered Katherine Balch’s “Spolia” with flutist Anthony Trionfo taking them to the Morgan Library and Carnegie Hall. Recent recitals with Trionfo have included the Alys Stephens Center, Kravis Center, Evergreen Museum & Library, and others. Cano Smit is set to continue touring with violinist William Hagen, with whom he has recorded the CD “Danse Russe”. During the 22-23 season Albert will appear in recital and chamber music performances at Merkin Hall (New York, NY), the Cosmos Club (Washington, DC), the Crystal Valley Concert Series (Middlebury, IN), Friends of Music Concerts (Sleepy Hollow, NY), Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota (Sarasota, FL), and Abbey Church Events (Lacey, WA), and will also participate in the inaugural chamber music ensemble of YCA on Tour. He will appear as soloist playing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 4 in G Minor with the Seattle Symphony (Seattle, WA), Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Aiken Symphony (Aiken, SC), and Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major with the Elgin Symphony (Elgin, IL). An advocate for new music, Albert has premiered numerous solo works on his recital programs, commissioned for him by Stephen Hough, Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. He has given four hand performances with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Wallis Annenberg Center Hall and Zipper Hall, taken part in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and performed with such artists as Gary Hoffman, Andrej Bielow, Thomas Mesa, and Lev Sivkov. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such ensembles as the Ebene, Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, Gerhard, and Verona Quartets, and has released an album of Austrian viola music for Champs Hills with Emma Wernig. Albert was First Prize winner at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition. Additional special prizes at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions include The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ). Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Albert recently completed an Artist Diploma with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano. Early on, he studied music at Montserrat mountain’s Escolanía de Montserrat choir, where he sang as an alto. Later, he studied piano with Graham Caskie, Marta Karbownicka, and Ory Shihor. He is an alum of the Verbier Festival Academy and holds a BA in Piano Performance from the Colburn School, as well as a MM from the Juilliard School. He currently resides in New York City.

THE TALLIS SCHOLARS THE TALLIS SCHOLARS Vocal Ensemble The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serves the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned. The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 80 concerts each year. In 2013 the group celebrated their 40thanniversary with a World Tour, performing 99 events in 80 venues in 16 countries. In 2020 Gimell Records celebrated 40 years of recording the group by releasing a remastered version of the 1980 recording of Allegri’s ‘Miserere’. In 2023/24 as they celebrated their 50th Birthday, the desire to hear this group in all corners of the globe was as strong as ever. They have now performed well over 2500 concerts. 2024/25 season highlights include performances in Japan, the USA, East Asia and a number of appearances in London as well as their usual touring schedule in Europe and the UK. Recordings by The Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. In 1987 their recording of Josquin's Missa La sol fa re mi and Missa Pange lingua received Gramophone magazine’s Record of the Year award, the first recording of early music ever to win this coveted award. In 1989 the French magazine Diapason gave two of its Diapason d'Or de l'Année awards for the recordings of a mass and motets by Lassus and for Josquin's two masses based on the chanson L'Homme armé. Their recording of Palestrina's Missa Assumpta est Maria and Missa Sicut lilium was awarded Gramophone's Early Music Award in 1991; they received the 1994 Early Music Award for their recording of music by Cipriano de Rore; and the same distinction again in 2005 for their disc of music by John Browne. The Tallis Scholars were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2001, 2009 and 2010. In November 2012 their recording of Josquin's Missa De beata virgine and Missa Ave maris stella received a Diapason d’Or de l’Année and in their 40th anniversary year they were welcomed into the Gramophone ‘Hall of Fame’ by public vote. In a departure for the group in Spring 2015 The Tallis Scholars released a disc of music by Arvo Pärt called Tintinnabuli which received great praise across the board. A 2020 release including Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie was the last of nine albums in The Tallis Scholars' project to record and release all Josquin's masses before the 500thanniversary of the composer’s death. It was the winner of the BBC Music Magazine’s much coveted Recording of the Year Award in 2021 and the 2021 Gramophone Early Music Award. Their latest Gimell release in November 2024 is of music by Robert Fayrfax and was made Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. www.thetallisscholars.co.uk / www.gimell.com Promoters please note: We update our biographies regularly and ask that they are not altered without permission. For updated versions, please e-mail Jessica Kinney: jk@jamesbrownmanagement.com PETER PHILLIPS Director Peter Phillips has dedicated his career to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony, and to the perfecting of choral sound. He founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 2,500 concerts world-wide, and made over 60 discs in association with Gimell Records. As a result of this commitment Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars have done more than any other group to establish the sacred vocal music of the Renaissance as one of the great repertoires of Western classical music. Peter Phillips also conducts other specialist ensembles. He is currently working with the BBC Singers (London), the Netherlands Chamber Choir (Utrecht), the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Tallinn), The Danish Radio Choir (Copenhagen)and El Leon de Oro (Oviedo). He is Patron of the Chapel Choir of Merton College Oxford. In addition to conducting, Peter Phillips is well-known as a writer. For 33 years he contributed a regular music column to The Spectator . In 1995 he became the publisher of The Musical Times , the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. His first book, English Sacred Music 1549-1649 , was published by Gimell in 1991, while his second, What We Really Do , appeared in 2013. During 2018, BBC Radio 3 broadcast his view of Renaissance polyphony, in a series of six hour-long programmes, entitled The Glory of Polyphony . He is a regular reviewer on music for the London Review of Books. In 2005 Peter Phillips was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2008 Peter helped to found the chapel choir of Merton College Oxford, where he is a Bodley Fellow; and in 2021 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. www.thetallisscholars.co.uk / www.gimell.com This biography is valid for use until September 2025. We update our biographies regularly and ask that they are not altered without permission. For updated versions, please e-mail jk@jamesbrownmanagement.com

March 24, 2019: Edward Arron, cello JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Prelude from Suite for Cello in D, BWV 1012 March 24, 2019: Edward Arron, cello Bach most likely composed his Six Suites for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007–1012, while serving as Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. Precise dating is difficult because they survive, not in Bach’s own hand, but in a copy made later in Leipzig by his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. It is likely that the Suites were written either for Christian Ferdinand Abel or Christian Bernhard Linigke, both accomplished cellists and Cöthen residents. Estimation of their performing abilities is, in fact, considerably enhanced by the mere idea that Bach may have written these substantial works for one or the other of them. Though appreciated in some circles, as Forkel’s 1802 Bach biography makes clear, the Suites fell into quasi-oblivion along with much of Bach’s music in the decades following his death. Bach’s celebrated biographer Philipp Spitta gave them their due for their “serene grandeur” in his monumental study (1873–80), but they remained little known by the general public until they were championed by Pablo Casals in the early twentieth century. Bach’s forward-looking exploration of the cello’s potential unfolds within the traditional configuration of the Baroque suite, which consisted of old-style dances in binary form—allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue—with a newer-style optional dance movement, or Galanterie, interpolated before the final gigue. These interpolated dances in his cello suites consist of minuets, bourrées, or gavottes, and he prefaced each of the Suites with a Prélude. Throughout, Bach’s contrapuntal genius shows in his ability to project multiple voices and implied harmonies with what is often considered a single-line instrument. The Sixth Suite is unusual in that it was written for a five-stringed instrument. Was it the violoncello piccolo? viola pomposa? cello da spalla? In any case, the fifth string would have sounded a fifth higher than A, the highest string on a four-stringed cello. Any performance problems in playing this work on today’s four-stringed instrument—different tone quality from playing higher on the A string than Bach would normally have written, certain awkward double stops, or rapid string crossings (bariolage) requiring an open E string—have long since been solved. The extensive Prelude immediately proclaims the virtuosic nature of this Suite—the cello plays almost constant triplets except for a passage near the end when Bach employs doubled note values. Specified dynamic markings, used sparingly in Bach’s time, call for quick juxtapositions of loud and soft. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2017 AT 3 PM Jerusalem String Quartet BUY TICKETS JERUSALEM STRING QUARTET ”Superlatives are inadequate in describing just how fine this playing was from one of the young, yet great quartets of our time.” – The Strad FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS On March 26 , the elegant Jerusalem String Quartet will make its Parlance debut. Strad Magazine characterized this ensemble in glowing terms, saying, “Superlatives are inadequate in describing just how fine this playing was from one of the young, yet great quartets of our time.” The first half of their program will be a study in contrasts, journeying from the winged exuberance of Haydn’s “Lark” Quartet in D to the scorching passions of Beethoven ’s “Serioso” Quartet in F minor. After intermission, Dvořák ’s valedictory string quartet in G major will bring the afternoon to a jubilant, sunlit resolution. PROGRAM Joseph Haydn Quartet in D, Op. 64, No. 5 (“The Lark”) Program Notes Ludwig van Beethoven Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 (“Serioso”) Program Notes Antonin Dvořàk Quartet No. 13 in G, Op. 106 Program Notes The Jerusalem Quartet performs Beethoven’s Quartet in G, Op. 18, No 2, mvt 1: The Jerusalem Quartet performs Beethoven’s Quartet in G, Op. 18, No 2, mvt 2:

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2012-2013 SEASON 2012-2013 SEASON 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

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2018-2019 SEASON Dear Friends, I am very excited to welcome you to the twelfth season of Parlance Chamber Concerts. Forty-eight remarkable artists will grace our stage in eight exhilarating events. On September 23 , seven dazzling young musicians will blend solo panache and salon intimacy in virtuoso concertos in chamber settings by Mozart, Schubert, and Chausson . Our seasonal opener will start with the pristine classicism of Mozart’s 14th Piano Concerto and culminate with the dramatic romanticism of Ernest Chausson’s masterpiece for solo violin, piano, and string quartet. On October 14 , it will be an honor to welcome the renowned master pianist Garrick Ohlsson to our series for an afternoon of Brahms . The program will climax with the devilishly tricky Variations on a Theme of Paganini — a work so challenging that Clara Schumann called it “The Witches’s Variations!” On November 4 , the charismatic pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung will join forces with eight leading members of the New York Philharmonic in Saint-Saëns’s beloved classic, Carnival of the Animals . The program will also include zoological favorites of Vivaldi, Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mozart, and others . Bring your entire family! Our December 16th event will feature the return of the great Emerson String Quartet with special guest cellist, David Finckel . The venerable ensemble and their erstwhile colleague will reunite for a festive performance of Schubert’s cherished Cello Quintet . On January 27 , the legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman will collaborate with celebrated cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Angela Cheng in a performance of treasured piano trios by Beethoven, Arensky, and Brahms . Don’t miss this seasonal highlight! On March 24 , celebrate Bach ’s 334th Birthday with fourteen outstanding artists. The program will include six irresistible Bachian classics including the Double Violin Concerto, Third Brandenburg Concerto, and D-minor Piano Concerto . On April 14, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and guitarist Jason Vieaux , two of the most scintillating artists of our time, will team up for an afternoon of sparkling music by Paganini, Piazzolla, Falla, and others . Anne Akiko Meyers was Billboard’s top-selling classical instrumentalist of 2014, and Jason Vieaux won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Their starry collaboration will cause sparks to fly! On May 19, Leading Members of the Metropolitan Opera and the Calidore String Quartet will explore the profoundly mysterious world of Mozart’s Last Year . The final event of the season will showcase Mozart’s works from 1791, including songs, arias, organ music, his last string quintet, and two mesmerizing works featuring glass harmonica . Michael Parloff Programs and artists are subject to change 2018-2019 SEASON September 23, 2018 Chamber Concerto October 14, 2018 Garrick Ohlsson, piano November 4, 2018 Carnival of the Animals Bax-Chung Duo and NY Phil Members December 16, 2018 Emerson String Quartet with David Finckel, guest cellist January 27, 2019 Pinchas Zukerman Trio March 24, 2019 Bach’s Birthday Concert April 14, 2019 Anne Akiko Meyers, violin Jason Vieaux, guitar May 19, 2019 Mozart’s Last Year: 1791 Members of the Met Opera and Calidore String Quartet 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

RAFAEL FIGUEROA, CELLO Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, cellist Rafael Figueroa is established as one of the most sought-after cellists of his generation, having appeared in numerous performances throughout the United States, Europe, Central and South Americas, Japan and his homeland of Puerto Rico. His impressive list of prizes and awards include the First Prize at the Gregor Piatigorsky Competition in Boston, The Bronze Medal at the International Pablo Casals Competition in Budapest, winner of the Jill Sackler Cello Competition at the Third American Cello Congress and winner of the Gina Bachauer Memorial Award. Mr. Figueroa occupies the prestigious position of principal cellist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under James Levine in addition to his participation in many of the chamber music series in the New York area including The Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, The Met Chamber Ensemble with James Levine, The New Jersey Chamber Music Society, The Morgan Library Chamber Music Series and Bargemusic. Rafael has appeared in recitals and concerts along such artists as the late Rudolf Serkin, Peter Serkin, the late Samuel Sanders, Andre Michel Shub, Ruth Laredo, Michael Tree, Cho Liang Lin, The Cleveland Quartet, the late Alexander Schneider and James Levine. Mr. Figueroa completed his studies at the Indiana University School of Music under Janos Starker and Gary Hoffman where upon graduation, he became a member of this school’s cello faculty. In 1987 Rafael moved to New York City where he began a ten year collaboration with The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, touring world-wide and recording for Deutsche Grammophon. For five years he was the cellist of The Amadeus Trio and a member of the Chelsea Chamber Ensemble, with whom he premiered and championed a large number of works by contemporary American composers. His summer festival activities have included the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland, the Aspen Music Festival, The Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Marlboro Chamber Music Festival, Lemi-Lappenranta Chamber Music festival in Finland and the Rockport and Marblehead Chamber music Festivals. In addition to his participation for the first time at the International Festival of Music in Cheyu, Korea in the summer of 2003. Highlights of the past seaons include a performance to critical acclaim of the Brahms Double Concerto with Concertmaster David Chan and The Met Orchestra under James Levine at Carnegie Hall on February 2 , 2003 as part of the orchestra’s subscription series at Carnegie Hall and a second performance of the Brahms Double and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations in Seoul, Korea.

February 9, 2025: The Virtuoso Cellist, with Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) 3 Pieces for cello and piano February 9, 2025: The Virtuoso Cellist, with Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih Nadia Boulanger together with her equally gifted sister, Lili, created quite a stir in many areas of French music that had typically been the domain of men. Their father and grandfather had been professors at the Paris Conservatoire, in which steps Nadia followed, though not without a struggle. Their mother, a Russian countess and singer, oversaw their early musical education but also instilled rigid values in them and rarely praised their achievements. Nadia often felt eclipsed by her sister, but devoted herself to promoting her younger sister’s works after Lili’s untimely death at age twenty-four in 1918. Nadia, however lived until the ripe old age of ninety-two, and became far more influential as a teacher of composition to many of the most renowned composers of the era—Leonard Bernstein, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and Virgil Thomson, to name just a few of the Americans she taught. She also influenced American musical life by conducting American works while touring the United States in the 1920s. In between the two World Wars she became the first woman to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra and famously conducted the première of Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks in Washington (1938). During WWII she resided in the United States, where she guest-conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic and taught at Wellesley College, Radcliffe College, and the Juilliard School. After WWII Boulanger returned to teach at the Paris Conservatory, though she continued to travel internationally in response to a plethora of invitations, even teaching for a time at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England. Failing hearing and eyesight curtailed her activities at the end of her life, but she continued to work almost until her death in 1979. Boulanger composed her Trois pièces (Three pieces) in 1911 originally for organ, transcribing them for cello and piano in 1914. The Impressionistic opening piece projects a diaphonous effect whose delicacy was much admired by her contemporaries. The gently rippling piano effects complemented by long lines on the muted cello build toward the center point before ebbing. The second piece also projects an air of intimacy, now with a folklike melody whose tiny short-short-long melodic units in the cello are instantly imitated by the piano. The vigorous dance character of the final piece provides complete contrast, propelled by its motoric rhythms. The first section broadens into 5/8 time, its unusual metric feel taken up by the slower middle section now in 5/4. A tantalizing hesitancy brings on a vigorous return of the opening music to round off the piece in ebullient style. —©Jane Vial Jaffe 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