25tH anniversary gala ConCErt and reception saturday, september 16, 2017, 8:00 P.m. EmErson ConCErt Hall schwartz CEntEr for PErforming arts

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1 17 ECMSA 18 emory chamber music emerson s e r i e s society of atlanta William Ransom, artistic director 25th Anniversary Gala concert and reception saturday, september 16, 2017, 8:00 p.m. Emerson Concert Hall Schwartz Center for Performing Arts

2 Canzon in Double Echo Vespers to the Blessed Virgin program Giovanni Gabrieli ( ) arr. Frackenpohl Claudio Monteverdi ( ) arr. Frackenpohl Canzon XVI Gabrieli arr. Frackenpohl Trumpet: Rolando Fernandez, Jeremiah Kersting, Doug Lindsey, Derrick Montgomery, Paul Poovey, Alex Rodiek French Horn: Katy Ray, Amy Trotz, Richard Williams Trombone/Euphonium: Marc Boehm, Jason Casanova, Adam Frey Tuba: Paul Dickinson, Bernard Flythe, Bill Pritchard Four Songs from Dichterliebe, op. 48 Robert Schumann Im wunderschönen Monat Mai ( ) Aus meinen Tränen sprießen poems by Heinrich Heine Die Rose, die Lilie Ich grolle nicht Première Rhapsody Bradley Howard, tenor; William Ransom, piano Laura Ardan, clarinet; Julie Coucheron, piano Claude Debussy ( ) La Valse Elena Cholakova, piano; William Ransom, piano intermission Please join us for a reception in the lobbies. Maurice Ravel ( ) 2

3 program (Continued) Allegro molto from Ludwig van Beethoven the String Quartet in C Major, op. 59, No. 3 ( ) William Preucil and Jessica Shuang Wu, violins; Yinzi Kong, viola; Guang Wang, cello Adagio from the String Quintet in C Major William Preucil and Elizabeth Fayette, violins; Yinzi Kong, viola; Guang Wang and Charae Krueger, cellos Franz Schubert ( ) Allegro moderato from Peter Tchaikovsky the String Sextet Souvenir de Florence ( ) William Preucil and Elizabeth Fayette, violins; Yinzi Kong and Sonja Braaten Molloy, violas; Guang Wang and Charae Krueger, cellos Presto from the Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, op. 20 Felix Mendelssohn ( ) William Preucil, Elizabeth Fayette, Jessica Wu, and Helen Kim, violins; Yinzi Kong and Sonja Braaten Molloy, violas; Guang Wang and Charae Krueger, cellos 3

4 Texts and translations Four Songs from Dichterliebe, op. 48 Im wunderschönen Monat Mai Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, als alle Knospen sprangen, da ist in meinem Herzen die Liebe aufgegangen. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, als alle Vögel sangen, da hab ich ihr gestanden mein Sehnen und Verlangen. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen Aus meinen Tränen sprießen viel blühende Blumen hervor, und meine Seufzer werden ein Nachtigallenchor, und wenn du mich lieb hast, Kindchen, schenk ich dir die Blumen all, und vor deinem Fenster soll klingen das Lied der Nachtigall. Die Rose, die Lilie Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne, die liebt ich einst alle in Liebeswonne. Ich lieb sie nicht mehr, ich liebe alleine die Kleine, die Feine, die Reine, die Eine; sie selber, aller Liebe Bronne, ist Rose und Lilie und Taube und Sonne. Ich liebe alleine die Kleine, die Feine, die Reine, die Eine! In the Wonderfully Fair Month of May In the wonderfully fair month of May, as all the flower buds burst, then in my heart love arose. In the wonderfully fair month of May, as all the birds were singing, then I confessed to her my yearning and longing. From My Tears Spring Forth From my tears spring many blooming flowers forth, and my sighs become a nightingale choir, and if you have love for me, child, I ll give you all the flowers, and before your window shall sound the song of the nightingale. the Rose, the Lily The rose, the lily, the dove, the sun, I once loved them all in love s bliss. I love them no more, I love only the small, the fine, the pure, the one; she herself, source of all love, is rose and lily and dove and sun. I love only the small, the fine, the pure, the one! Ich grolle nicht i Bear No Grudge Ich grolle nicht, I bear no grudge, und wenn das Herz auch bricht, even when my heart is breaking, ewig verlor nes Lieb! Ich grolle nicht. eternally lost love! I bear no grudge. Wie du auch strahlst in Diamantenpracht, Even though you shine in diamond splendor, es fällt kein Strahl in deines Herzens Nacht, there falls no light into your heart s night, das weiß ich längst. that I ve known for a long time. Ich grolle nicht, I bear no grudge, und wenn das Herz auch bricht. even when my heart is breaking. Ich sah dich ja im Traume, I saw you, truly, in my dreams, und sah die Nacht and saw the night in deines Herzens Raume, in your heart s space, und sah die Schlang, and saw the serpent die dir am Herzen frißt, that feeds on your heart, ich sah, mein Lieb, wie sehr du elend bist. I saw, my love, how very miserable you are. Ich grolle nicht. I bear no grudge. 4

5 Performer biographies Clarinetist Laura Ardan was the youngest principal clarinetist to join a major symphony orchestra when she became principal clarinet with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in She has been featured soloist with the orchestra in works by Mozart, Weber, Debussy, Finzi, Copland, Shaw, and Rossini. A student of Roger Hiller and Stanley Drucker, she attended the Juilliard School on scholarships from both the Juilliard and the Naumberg Foundation. Prior to coming to Atlanta, she was the resident clarinetist and teaching artist for the Lincoln Center Institute and she played in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. She regularly appears at many festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Rockport, Mostly Mozart, Highlands-Cashiers, the Grand Teton, and Sewanee. She is a founding member of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta, and she teaches at Emory University. Bulgarian pianist Elena Cholakova has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in Eastern and Western Europe, South America, and the United States. She has given solo recitals at the Liszt Academy and the United States Embassy in Budapest, Bulgaria Hall and Sofia Conservatory in Bulgaria, Aosta Concert Hall in Italy, Fellbach Musicschulle in Germany, Fazioli Salon in Chicago, and more. She has toured the Southeast United States as a member of the American Chamber Music Society. Her performances have been broadcast live on NPR, Atlanta s WABE, Chicago s classical music radio station WFMT, and Bulgarian TV and radio stations. As a member of the Atlanta Chamber Players, Cholakova has appeared in the International Chamber Music Festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; has regularly performed in Atlanta s premier Spivey Hall; and has premiered commissioned works by leading American composers. Cholakova was most recently featured in the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina as well as the International Days of Music Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Cholakova is a recipient of Rislov Foundation Scholarship of University of Michigan, awarded to musicians nationwide, for their high achievements in the field of music. Specializing in Chopin s Preludes, op. 28, she presented a lecture recital at the Third World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia, focusing on the different editions of the piece. A dedicated educator, Cholakova has a special interest for teaching. Her students have won top prizes at a number of national and international competitions, and she is a lecturer at Emory University, directing the collaborative piano program. Cholakova has an MMus and DMus from Northwestern University. Her primary piano teachers include James Giles, Ursula Oppens, Atanas Kurtev, and Klaus Hellwig. With a career spanning classical and modern choral works, solo recitals, and opera roles, tenor Bradley Howard has gained recognition as a multifaceted artist, performing under the batons of renowned conductors Seiji Ozawa, 5

6 William Fred Scott, Christian Badea, Riccardo Muti, Joesph Flummerfelt, Yoel Levi, John Mauceri, and Robert Spano. A passionate educator, he joined the faculty of Emory University as director of vocal studies in 2011, and he is a member of the distinguished faculty of the Amalfi Coast Music Festival. Howard began his career as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center when his performance brought him to the attention of conductor Seiji Ozawa. Further operatic successes include Tamino in The Magic Flute, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Beppe in I Pagliacci, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Peter Quint in Britten s Turn of the Screw and Albert in Albert Herring. He has performed at various festivals including Spoleto, Chautauqua Opera, the Ohio Light Opera, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Breckenridge Music Institute. Howard brings depth and excitement of an expansive repertoire to his solo recitals, handling the florid style of Bach and the fragmented tonalities of Britten and Menotti with equal aplomb. His concert engagements have included a long-time collaboration with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). As soloist with the ASO, Weill s Seven Deadly Sins, Beethoven s Choral Fantasy, Christmas with the ASO, and, most recently, Saint Saens s Samson and Dalila are among his performances. Recording credits include the ACA Digital production of the Atlanta Opera s Mozart Requiem and Telarc s La Bohème with the ASO. A noted educator, Howard s students have been accepted to undergraduate and graduate programs in voice performance and musical theater at the Julliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin College, University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, Florida State University, Carnegie Mellon, New York University, Roosevelt University, Bard College, Indiana University, and many others. They have been accepted to and participated in young artist programs such as Interlochen, CCM Opera Boot Camp, Amalfi Coast Music Festival, Houston Grand Opera s YAVA, and Castleton Festival. His students consistently place as finalists in young artist competitions including NATS auditions. Howard s BM and MM degrees in music and voice from Baylor University and the University of Cincinnati opened the doors to America s musical stage. Howard is an active adjudicator and clinician, and he has presented masterclasses and clinics at the University of Washington, Whitman College, Sam Houston State University, Emory University, Georgia State University, Valdosta State University, and Ohio State University. Helen Hwaya Kim made her orchestral debut with the Calgary Philharmonic at age six. She has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops at Boston s Symphony Hall, as well as with the Milwaukee and Atlanta symphonies. Kim has BM and MM degrees from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Cho-Liang Lin and Dorothy DeLay, and she was the winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition. She is the recipient of more than one hundred national and international awards. In 1992, she won the prestigious Artists International Competition in New York and, as a result, gave debut recitals at Carnegie Weill Hall and the Aspen Music Festival. A native of Canada, Kim 6

7 has been engaged by many of Canada s leading orchestras, including the National Arts Center, Montreal Metropolitan, Vancouver, McGill Chamber, and the Windsor, Regina, Victoria, and Prince George symphonies. She has also appeared with the DeKalb, New Orleans, Aspen, and Banff Festival orchestras, and with orchestras in the UK, Germany, and Poland. Kim has toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Sante Fe and La Jolla music festivals, where she performed with Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Andre Previn, and the Orion String Quartet. She performed Bach s double violin concerto with Hilary Hahn at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. Kim served as assistant and associate concertmaster for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for three seasons. She is currently the assistant concertmaster of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and professor of violin at Kennesaw State University. She is also the violinist of the Atlanta Chamber Players and the new music ensemble, Sonic Generator. Sonja Braaten Molloy joined the second violin section of the Cleveland Orchestra in She has degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), where she was a recipient of the Gross Prize in violin, was named Theodore Presser Scholar, won the concerto competition, and received the Levine Memorial Award in Chamber Music. An avid chamber musician, Molloy performs frequently on the Heights Arts concert series in Cleveland Heights as both a violinist and violist. She has participated in San Diego s Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and she is the director of the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra Strings Chamber Music Workshop. Molloy has also been a member of the Strings Music Festival Orchestra in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Molloy works closely with high school students in the Cleveland Youth Orchestra in its chamber music program, playing alongside the students in chamber groups. She is on the faculty at Cleveland s Music School Settlement, and she also teaches violin and viola at the summer camp, W.O.R.K., which began in summer 2015 in Cleveland, giving young musicians ranging in ages from ten to twenty-two the opportunity to sharpen their skills during the summer months in a variety of creative ways. William Preucil was appointed concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra in Prior to joining the orchestra, he performed for seven seasons as the first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet, performing more than one hundred concerts annually throughout the world and recording the Beethoven quartet cycle and other works for Telarc. Preucil is former concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Ocrhestra (ASO), and he has held similar posts in Utah and Nashville. During his tenure in Atlanta he appeared with the orchestra as soloist in seventy performances of fifteen different concerti. The Violin Concerto by Stephen Paulus was dedicated to him, and he recorded it with the ASO for New World Records. Other solo appearances have been with the orchestras of Minnesota, Detroit, Rochester, Utah, and Hong Kong. Preucil performs regularly at the most prestigious chamber music festivals, including Seattle, Sitka, Sarasota, Norfolk, 7

8 and in Switzerland, France, and Germany. He was a member of the Lanier Trio, whose recording of the complete Dvořák piano trios was honored as one of Time magazines s top ten CDs in Actively involved as an educator, Preucil teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has held positions as professor of music at Eastman School of Music and distinguished lecturer in music at the University of Georgia. He is a member of the artistic advisory board for the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Preucil began violin study at age five, taught by his mother, Doris Preucil. At sixteen, he graduated with honors from the Interlochen Arts Academy and entered Indiana University to study with Josef Gingold. Pianist William Ransom appears as soloist with orchestras, and as recitalist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America, and throughout the United States. His performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and television in the United States, Argentina, Poland, and Japan. He regularly collaborates with musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Stoltzman, William Preucil, Stephen Isserlis, and Zuill Bailey; with members of the Juilliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, American, St. Petersburg, Borromeo, Parker, Ariel, and Lark string quartets; the Empire Brass Quintet; Eroica Trio; and the percussion group Nexus; among others. As a master teacher, he has also performed and given masterclasses at numerous schools of music and universities around the world. He has recorded for ACA Digital and Rising Star Records. Ransom is the Mary Emerson Professor of Piano at Emory University in Atlanta where he is director of piano studies and founder and artistic director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the University of Michigan, in the summers, Ransom is artistic director of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina and he was recently named artistic director for Juneau Jazz & Classics in Alaska. For a decade he was an artist-faculty member at the Kamisaibara Pianists Camp in Japan. Ransom was recently named one of Musical America Worldwide s 30 Musical Innovators for The Vega String Quartet elizabeth fayette and Jessica Shuang Wu, violins; Yinzi Kong, viola; Guang Wang, cello The Vega String Quartet, quartet in residence at Emory University, is cultivating a new generation of chamber music lovers through dynamic performances and innovative community engagement. The New York Times raved that [the quartet s] playing had a kind of clean intoxication to it, pulling the listener along... the musicians took real risks in their music making and the Los Angeles Times praised their triumphant L.A. debut. They concertize both nationally and internationally, most recently in Baltimore, Chicago, Nashville, Sacramento, Berlin, San Miguel, and the Brahmssaal in Vienna s Musikverein. The quartet s major performing projects at Emory have included performing the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets, as well as pairing Bach s complete 8

9 works for solo violin, viola, and cello with the six Bartók quartets. The quartet has also developed a series of Jazz Meets Classics programs, bringing the two genres together. One of the unique aspects of the quartet s residency at Emory is to bring performance into the classroom, collaborating with academic professors to create interdisciplinary parallels and conversations. The quartet also enriches the cultural life of its community, having founded the Emory Youth Chamber Music Program, which gives intensive training in small ensemble playing to advanced pre-college students. The quartet was appointed to the roster of the Woodruff Arts Center s Young Audiences program, engaging thousands of students throughout the greater-atlanta school system. It has also held residencies in Augusta, Jacksonville, and Juneau, which combined traditional performances with educational outreach, performances in nontraditional venues, and masterclasses for area students. The Vega String Quartet has won numerous international awards, including at the Bordeaux String Quartet Competition, as well as top prizes from the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, the Carmel Chamber Music Competition, and the National Society of Arts and Letters String Quartet Competition. The quartet tours throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, and it has appeared at Weill Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic, and Duke Hall at the Royal Academy of Music, London. The members of the quartet collaborate with some of the world s finest musicians including Andres Cardenes, Eliot Fisk, Christopher O Riley, William Preucil, Richard Stoltzman, Robert Spano, Charles Wadsworth, Peter Wiley, and the Eroica Trio. It also commissions, premiers, and records works by leading composers. The quartet is a frequent guest at numerous music festivals including Amelia Island, Aspen, Brevard, Highlands-Cashiers, Juneau Jazz & Classics, Kingston, Mostly Mozart, Rockport, San Miguel de Allende, and SummerFest La Jolla. The Vega String Quartet s Residency at Emory University is supported by the Rebecca Katz-Doft Chamber Music Endowment. Arts at Emory Box Office/Audience Information arts.emory.edu IN CONSIDERATION Please turn off all electronic devices. PHOTOGRAPHS AND RECORDINGS Not permitted without advance permission. COUGH DROPS Available in the lobby. USHERS Members of Music at Emory Volunteers and Alpha Phi Omega, a national service and social fraternity. Call for ushering opportunities. event and program information Available online at arts.emory.edu. Back cover photos Courtesy of Emory Photo/Video. TREE LIGHTS and exterior in-ground building lights Made possible by a generous gift from Donna and Marvin Schwartz. 9