Myra Presents: Sunday Concerts in the Galleries 2015-2016 Season

Trio Solisti
October 18, 2015 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
October 19, 2015 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University
 

Trio Solisti has forged a reputation as “the most exciting piano trio in America” (The New Yorker) with a passionate performance style that combines exceptional virtuosity and penetrating musical insight. Possessing a repertoire that encompasses the standard repertoire and works by contemporary composers, rave reviews follow the trio throughout its concert tours. Noted Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout proclaimed, “To my mind, Trio Solisti has now succeeded the Beaux Arts Trio as the outstanding chamber music ensemble of its kind.” Described by The New York Times as “consistently brilliant,” the group has been praised by The Washington Post for its “unrelenting passion and zealous abandon.”

Alongside its ongoing touring activities, Trio Solisti is embarking upon a number of exciting new ventures. In Fall 2015, the ensemble plans to unveil a three-concert series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, presenting the complete piano chamber music of Brahms. Special guest performers include violinist Jesse Mills, violists Richard O'Neill and    Hsin-Yun Huang, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and French hornist Julie Landsman. The trio will also dedicate itself to recording two magnum opuses: the complete Tchaikovsky & Rachmaninoff piano trios, and the complete Brahms piano trios, scheduled for release on Aeolian Classics in Fall 2015 and 2016, respectively. In addition, Trio Solisti is working with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon to commission a piano trio to be premiered in 2017.

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Sarah Cahill
November 22, 2015 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
November 23, 2015 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

Sarah Cahill, recently called “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by the New York Times and “a brilliant and charismatic advocate for modern and contemporary composers” by Time Out New York, has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to her include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, and Evan Ziporyn, and she has also premiered pieces by Lou Harrison, Julia Wolfe, Ingram Marshall, Toshi Ichiyanagi, George Lewis, Leo Ornstein, and many others.

Cahill has researched and recorded music by the important early 20th-century American modernists Henry Cowell and Ruth Crawford, and has commissioned a number of new pieces in tribute to their enduring influence. She enjoys working closely with composers, musicologists, and scholars to prepare scores for performance.

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Jupiter Quartet
January 24, 2016 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
January 25, 2016 | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

 

The Jupiter String Quartet concertizes across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. They relish the opportunity to perform in the world’s finest halls, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s National Arts Center and Sejong Chamber Hall. They have been enthusiastically received at many major music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival (where they performed their first complete Beethoven quartet cycle), West Cork (Ireland) Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Maverick Concerts, Madeline Island Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Yellow Barn Festival, Skaneateles Festival, and the Seoul Spring Festival, among others.

The quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (older sister of Meg), and cellist Daniel McDonough (husband of Meg, brother-in-law of Liz). As they enter their fourteenth year of making music together, the members of this tightly-knit ensemble have firmly established their quartet as an important voice in the world of chamber music. In addition to their performing career, the Jupiters are the String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where they maintain private studios and run the string chamber music program.

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Amit Peled
February 28, 2016 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
February 29, 2016  | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University

Underwritten in part by Sandy and Richie Aanderud

Program:
 
Handel - Sonata in G minor
Bach - Suite no. 3 in C for cello solo
Intermission
Beethoven - Variations in e Flat
Faure - Elegie
            Sicilienne
            Papillon
Bach - Aria
Saint Saens - Allegro Appassionato

From the United States to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Israeli cellist Amit Peled, a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, is acclaimed as one of the most exciting instrumentalists on the concert stage today. At 6'5" tall, Peled started life as a basketball player and was called "larger than life" when he enveloped his cello and "Jacqueline du Pré in a farmer's body." Peled often surprises audiences with the ways he breaks down barriers between performers and the public, making classical music more accessible to wider audiences. Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun reflected on a recent performance: “Peled did a lot of joking in remarks to the audience. His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we’ll need more of if classical music is to survive.”

During the 2014/15 season Mr. Peled will continue sharing with audiences around the world the sound of the historic cello of Pablo Casals. The instrument, a Goffriler ca. 1733, was personally handed to him by the Maestro’s widow, Mrs. Marta Casals Istomin. Some of the upcoming highlights with this historic cello include a 20 city U.S. recital tour entitled “Homage to Pablo Casals” culminating in a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, recording the Miaskovsky Cello Concerto for Naxos, and a return trip to Asia for recitals and performances with the National Symphony of Taiwan, to name a few. As an advocate of modern music Mr. Peled will also premier a solo piece written especially for him by composer Lera Auerbach.

Mr. Peled has performed as a soloist with many orchestras and in the world’s major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, New York; Salle Gaveau, Paris; Wigmore Hall, London; Konzerthaus, Berlin; and Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium. Following his enthusiastically received Alice Tully Hall concerto debut playing the Hindemith cello concerto, the New York Times stated: “Glowing tone, a seductive timbre and an emotionally pointed approach to phrasing that made you want to hear him again.”

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A Celebration of Song

April 3, 2016 | 2 pm, North Dakota Museum of Art
April 4, 2016  | 7:30 pm, Mayville State University
 

A Celebration of Song will feature singers Anne Christopherson, Stephanie Beinlich, and Wesley Lawrence, with John Clodfelter at the piano. The program will showcase music from around the world, with special attention paid to the development of American song. From the art song of Samuel Barber, to the spirituals of Harry Burleigh, to the folk tunes of Stephen Foster, you will hear that engage the mind, delight the ears, and remind you of songs you grew up singing!

Stephanie Beinlich, soprano, is an Instructor in Voice at the University of North Dakota.  She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of South Carolina before joining the music facality at UND.

Anne Christopherson, soprano, is an Associate Professor of Voice and Vocal Studies at the University of North Dakota. She received her BA and MFA degrees in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado-Boulder and her PhD in Musical Arts and Vocal Performance from Ohio State University.  Anne has been a guest artist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the New York Lyric Opera Theatre, the Boulder Philharmonic, among others. She debuted at Alice Tully Hall as soprano soloist with the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra as part of the Mozart Bicentennial Celebration at Lincoln Center.

John Clodfelter, pianist, moved from Indiana to Grand Forks to undertake graduate studies at UND. He frequently accompanies regional musicians and groups such as the Grand Forks Master Chorale.

Wesley Lawrence is an Instructor of Voice at UND.  A native of the Boston area, he holds a BA of Music Performance from Gordon College, as well as an MA in Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati's College–Conservatory of Music. Dr. Lawrence is also the 2014 recipient of the
UND Foundation’s Lydia & Arthur Saiki Faculty Award for Individual Excellence in Teaching. As a performer Dr. Lawrence has sung both oratorio and opera throughout America and Europe. In 2013, he became the Assistant Director of the Grand Forks Master Chorale, and, in fall of 2014, Conductor of the Grand Forks Community Chorale.