An Array of Genres
Showcased in Winter Programming for the MasterCard Performance Series In Sonoma
State University’s Weill Hall
November and December concerts feature renowned
mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Blythe and Joyce DiDonato, Afro-Cuban musician Chucho
Valdés, jazz-infused flamenco artist Buika, Renaissance polyphony with the
Tallis Scholars, and Handel’s Messiah
with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
Located on the picturesque campus of Sonoma State
University in the heart of California’s wine region, Weill Hall at the Green
Music Center continues its 2012-13 inaugural season of the MasterCard
Performance Series with November and December concerts by world-renowned
artists including acclaimed mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Blythe and Joyce DiDonato,
Afro-Cuban musician Chucho Valdés, jazz-infused flamenco artist Buika,
Renaissance vocalists the Tallis Scholars, and Philharmonia Baroque with
Handel’s Messiah.
Renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe brings her highly
praised program, “We’ll Meet Again: The Songs of Kate Smith” Saturday, November
10 at 8 p.m. New York Times critic
Zachary Woolfe asserts that Blythe “was in some ways an even better Kate Smith
than Kate Smith. Guiding listeners through anecdotes alternately hilarious and
moving, and accompanied subtly and stylishly on the piano by Craig Terry, she
infused this sometimes frustratingly stable material with nuance and
sophistication, filament-thin pianissimos and formidable walls of sound, which
excavated fresh emotion in songs that she lovingly called ‘musical comfort
food, mac-and-cheese music.’”
Hailed by The New
York Times as "the dean of Latin jazz" and "one of the
world's great virtuosic pianists," Afro-Cuban musician Chucho Valdés and
his quintet perform in Weill Hall on Sunday, November 11 at 7 p.m. Their sound
is a unique blend of African, South American, Cuban, and Spanish music
traditions, with the dexterous Valdés leading from the piano and combing sheer
power with rhythmic sensibility, steeped in the intricacies of Afro-Cuban
culture. Valdés has a forty-year track record of blazing new trails – as a
visionary musician unwilling to bend to his government’s aesthetic structures,
and as a composer, musician, arranger, and bandleader.
The New York Times
describes singer Buika’s unique blend of flamenco, jazz, soul and blues as
"luminous...magnificent...superb!” Daughter of political refugees from
Equatorial Guinea, the “Flamenco Queen” was raised in a gypsy neighborhood on
the Spanish island of Mallorca. Her soulful, passionate and powerful vocals
have been described as a mixture of Tina Turner, Lora Flores, and Sarah Vaughan
– but her musical style is one all her own. Her performance takes place
Thursday, November 15 at 8 p.m.
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is beloved by audiences and
critics alike, receiving international honors including the 2010 Gramophone Artist of the Year award.
Proclaimed by the New York Times to
be “the perfect 21st-century diva --an effortless combination of glamour,
charisma, intelligence, grace, and remarkable talent,” DiDonato performs at
Weill Hall on Tuesday, November 20 at 8 p.m., one of only three recitals in the
United States this season. Fresh off of her hugely successful performance as
Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I
Montecchi with the San Francisco Opera, mezzo-soprano DiDonato’s recital,
“Drama Queens,” focuses on music from the Italian Baroque period.
The superbly blended voices of The Tallis Scholars, led by
Peter Phillips, are renowned for their absolute clarity and purity of sound in
Renaissance polyphony with The New York Times calling them “the rock stars of
Renaissance vocal music” and asserting that the group has “proved themselves
equally adept in the idiom of the contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.”
Their program, “Love is Better Than Wine,” will demonstrate that range when
they mix works by Tallis, Praetorius, Lassus, Vivanco and Pärt on Saturday,
December 8 at 8 p.m.
Famed Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki, founder and Music
Director of the Bach Collegium Japan, leads the internationally renowned
Philharmonia Baroque on Sunday, December 9 at 3 p.m. in a performance of
Handel’s beloved Messiah. Recently proclaimed by Joshua Kosman in Gramophone as
“a leader in the field of historically informed performances, both in the U.S.
and internationally,” the Bay Area-based early music ensemble will be joined by
Philharmonia Chorale led by director Bruce Lamott, and soloists Sherezade
Panthaki, Fabiana González, Dann Coakwell and Dashon Burton.
MasterCard Worldwide is the series presenting sponsor for
Weill Hall at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center, providing generous
supports for the annual MasterCard Performance Series, as well as a future
outdoor pavilion for music and dance. Programming support is also provided by
the Edward and Carolyn Stolman Fund, inaugural season lead underwriter; and Jan
Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem, vocal series underwriters.
Tickets range from $20 - $90 and are available through the
Green Music Center Box Office at 1-866-955-6040 or online at
gmc.sonoma.edu. For further
information, please visit gmc.sonoma.edu or email
greenmusiccenter@sonoma.edu.
--Karen Ames Communications
National
Philharmonic Chorale to Perform Handel’s Messiah at the Music Center at
Strathmore
In celebration of the holidays, National Philharmonic
Chorale Artistic Director Stan Engebretson will conduct the National
Philharmonic in Handel’s Messiah on
Saturday, December 8 at 8 pm, Saturday, December 22 at 8 pm and Sunday,
December 23 at 3 pm at the Music Center at Strathmore. The concert will feature
the National Philharmonic’s nearly 200 voice all-volunteer Chorale, as well as
soloists Danielle Talamantes (soprano); Magdalena Wór (mezzo-soprano); Matthew Smith (tenor); and Kevin Deas (bass).
Handel’s Messiah,
among the most popular works in Western choral literature, was first performed
in Dublin on April 13, 1742. The composer’s most famous work is divided into
three parts that address specific events in the life of Christ. Part one is
primarily concerned with the Advent and Christmas stories; part two chronicles
Christ's passion, resurrection, ascension and commitment to spreading the
Christian message; and part three is based primarily upon the events chronicled
in the Revelation of St. John. The National Philharmonic and Chorale, in
addition to a stellar cast of soloists, will perform the complete work, which
includes such favorites as “The Trumpet Shall Sound,” “And the Glory of the
Lord,” and, of course, the famous “Hallelujah Chorus.”
About the Soloists
DC’s Danielle Talamantes is one the region’s most sought
after soloists. Appearing before sold out houses, Ms. Talamantes continues to
garner the attention of a number of classical music organizations, symphonies,
and opera companies. She recently debuted as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata with Fremont Opera to the
tune of rave reviews. She was also thrilled to fulfill her debut contract in
the Spring of 2011 with the Metropolitan Opera covering the role of Najade in
Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. Recent
concert performances featured Ms. Talamantes as soprano soloist with the
Nashville Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Choralis, and the Oratorio
Society of VA. She looks forward to making her debut with the Baltimore Choral
Arts Society in May, 2012 in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and is delighted to return to
perform with the New Dominion Chorale in an October 2012 production of Orff’s Carmina Burana as well as the National
Philharmonic Chorale & Orchestra in a December, 2012 performance of
Handel’s Messiah, and a February,
2013 performance of Poulenc’s Gloria. This summer, Ms. Talamantes, will be
soprano in residence at the 2012 Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.
Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wór is the first place Winner of
the Heinz Rehfuss Vocal Competition (2005), a Metropolitan Opera Competition
National Finalist (2002), a winner of the Mozart Society of Atlanta
Competition, an alumna of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Summer Opera Program
and Chautauqua Music Institution’s Marlena Malas Voice Program and St. Louis
Opera Theatre’s Gerdine Young Artist Program. Ms. Wór was a member of the
Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera from
2006-2008. She has recently appeared with the Metropolita Opera, National
Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony and New Trinity Baroque. A polish native,
Wór has lived in the United States since 1991. She received her Bachelor’s and
Master’s degrees in vocal performance from Georgia State University.
Tenor Matthew Smith is an accomplished tenor, having
performed with many prestigious ensembles including the Washington Bach
Consort, Cathedral Choral Society, Washington Concert Opera, Niagara Symphony
Orchestra, Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra, and the Mendelssohn Club of
Philadelphia. His operetta and operatic roles have included Frederic in Pirates of Penzance, Baron Zsupà n in Countess Maritza, the Prologue in The Turn of the Screw, Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Mayor
in Albert Herring, and Torquemada in L’heure
Espagnol. Smith received the Carmel Bach Festival’s Adams Fellowship in
2008. He studied voice with Beverley Rinaldi and Christine Anderson while
earning his BM in Voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a MM in Opera
from Temple University. Matthew currently serves with the Air Force Singing
Sergeants in Washington, DC.
American bass Kevin Deas is especially celebrated for his
riveting portrayal of the title role in Porgy and Bess with the New York
Philharmonic, National Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia
Orchestra, San Francisco, Atlanta, San Diego, Utah, Houston, Baltimore and
Montreal Symphonies and at the Ravinia and Saratoga Festivals. His recent recordings include Die Meistersinger with the Chicago
Symphony under the late Sir Georg Solti and Varèse’s Ecuatorial with the ASKO Ensemble under Ricardo Chailly, both on
Decca/London. Other releases include Bach’s B
minor Mass and Handel’s Acis &
Galatea on Vox Classics and Dave Brubeck’s To Hope! with the Cathedral Choral Society on the Telarc label.
About the Conductor
In demand throughout the United States and Europe, Dr.
Stan Engebretson has led choirs in Venice’s Cathedral of St. Mark and taught in
Cologne, Trier, St. Moritz, and Barcelona. He has studied with the great
masters of choral music, including Robert Shaw, Gregg Smith, Richard
Westenburg, Roger Wagner and Eric Ericson. After attending the University of
North Dakota and earning his Doctorate from Stanford University, Engebretson
taught at the University of Texas and the University of Minnesota. He also was
the Artistic Director of the Midland-Odessa Symphony Chorale and the Associate
Conductor of the Minnesota Chorale. In Washington since 1990, Engebretson is
Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at George Mason University
and is the Director of Music at the historic New York Avenue Presbyterian
Church. From 1993-2003, he was the Artistic Director of
the predecessor to the National Philharmonic Chorale, the
Masterworks Chorus and the semi-professional National Chamber Singers.
Engebretson remains active in other areas, performing as a professional
chorister and lecturer, and leading the Smithsonian Institution’s Study
Journeys
at the Spoleto-USA Festival of the Arts.
--Deborah Birnbaum, National Philharmonic
Joana Carneiro and
Berkeley Symphony Present a World-Premiere by Dylan Mattingly, with Shai Wosner
as Soloist in Ligeti’s Piano Concerto December 6
Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony
continue their 2012-13 Season on Thursday, December 6 at 8 PM in Zellerbach
Hall with the world premiere of Invisible Skyline by Berkeley native Dylan
Mattingly. Berkeley Symphony also welcomes acclaimed pianist Shai Wosner.
Praised by NPR’s “All Things Considered” for his “keen musical mind and deep
musical soul,” Wosner will perform as soloist in Ligeti’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Robert Schumann’s Symphony No.2 in C Major, Op.61 also features on the program. Berkeley Symphony
dedicates the concert to the memory of Alan Farley, who hosted the KALW
broadcast of the orchestra’s Zellerbach Hall performances until his passing in
October.
Dylan Mattingly’s music has been performed around the
world by such performers as Berkeley Symphony, the Del Sol String Quartet,
Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Soovin Kim, Sarah Cahill, Mary Rowell and Geoffrey
Burleson. A multi-talented performer and improviser on cello, bass, piano,
guitar and percussion, Mattingly is influenced by the music by Thomas Ades,
John Adas, Olivier Messiaen, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and the old American
blues and folk field recordings of the Lomaxes. For two years he was the
co-director of “Formerly Known as Classical,” a Bay Area new-music ensemble
whose young members only play music written in their lifetimes, and is now the
co-artistic director and co-founder of Contemporaneous, a New York-based
ensemble of young musicians dedicated to performing the most exciting music of
the present moment. Contemporaneous has just released an album on INNOVA
Records entitled “Stream of Stars--Music of Dylan Mattingly.” Mattingly is a
graduate of Berkeley Symphony’s “Under Construction Composers Program” which
offers the opportunity for emerging composers to further develop their skills
and gain practical experience in writing for a professional orchestra.
In demand as a soloist, chamber musician and recording
artist, Israeli pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for
his exceptional artistry, musical integrity and creative insight. The New York Times wrote of his Onyx debut
recording of works by Brahms and Schoenberg as “inventively conceived and
impressive.” A versatile performer of all musical genres, Shai Wosner will
demonstrate his contemporary artistry with Ligeti’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Throughout Ligeti’s life, he
continually sought out new musical styles and remained open to fresh influence.
It was perhaps his endurance of two totalitarian regimes--Nazi and
Stalinist--that provoked his rejection of compositional systems and sparked exploration
of ideas such as African polyphony and mathematically inspired principles of
fractals and chaos theory. The same influences informed his Piano Concerto.
Conducted by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig, the premiere of
Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C
Major in 1846 received a lukewarm reception from the audience. But after
the composer made numerous edits creating a much sleeker version, it soon
became the most highly esteemed of his symphonies. Despite suffering from
mental illness throughout most of his adult life, Schumann overcame these
afflictions through his dedication and application to music. He studied Bach
counterpoint with his wife Clara, each writing a series of fugues including a
set on the name B-A-C-H. The exercise was to leave its mark on the C Major Symphony.
--Karen Ames Communications
The Philharmonia
Baroque Orchestra Returns with Handel’s Messiah at First Congregational Church,
Saturday, December 8, at 7:00 p.m.
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by guest conductor
Masaaki Suzuki, with “a subtle ear for color, a keen sense of harmonic
direction, and an ability to make phrases breathe and rhythms live” (The New
York Times), returns to Cal Performances with George Frederic Handel’s class
oratorio Messiah on Saturday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. at First Congregational
Church. This performance will feature the Philharmonia Chorale, directed by
Bruce Lamott, and soloists from Suzuki’s ensemble at Yale University’s
Institute of Sacred Music: Sherezade Panthaki, soprano, Fabiana González, alto,
Dann Coakwell, tenor and Dashon Burton, bass-baritone. Speaking on a recent
Handel performance, San Francisco Classical Voice applauded the “irresistible
combination of rhythmic verve and sheer delight” of the ensemble.
Handel (1685–1759) completed Messiah in 1742. While it was originally intended for performance
during Lent and Easter, Messiah—subtitled
“A Sacred Oratorio”—has in modern times become an Advent and Christmas-season
mainstay. The work combines Old and New Testament texts concerning prophecies
of a savior, the Messiah.
The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has presented
historically informed Baroque, Classical and early-Romantic music on original
instruments since its founding in 1981 by Laurette Goldberg. Nicholas McGegan
has been its artistic director since 1985. The group has garnered an impressive
reputation including Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2004. Based in
the Bay Area, the ensemble has toured nationally and internationally performing
in prominent locations such as BBC Proms, Tanglewood, Concertgebouw and Disney
Hall. The Philharmonia Chorale was
created in 1995 to provide voices for works that the orchestra performs. This
group is composed of 24 singers that have distinguished solo and ensemble
experience with San Francisco Symphony, American Bach Soloists, Carmel Bach
Festival and others. The chorale has
been led by Bruce Lamott since 1997.
The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has collaborated with Cal
Performances on a number of occasions. Most recently in the 2011-2012 season
the ensemble performed in Mark Morris’s Dido and Aeneas with Stephanie Blythe
singing the role of Dido and with Morris conducting.
Masaaki Suzuki is currently the director of Bach Collegium
Japan and a visiting professor at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music. A leading voice in early music, Suzuki has
conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Melbourne
Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and others. He has recently won the German Record Critic’s Award in 2010 and
a BBC Music Magazine Award with his recording of Bach motets with Bach
Collegium Japan. Suzuki last appeared with Bach Collegium Japan at Cal
Performances in March 2006.
Soprano Sherezade Panthaki is known as a talent in the
field of early-music and has worked with many of the world’s leading early
music interpreters including Nicholas McGegan, Simon Carrington and Willim
Christie. She sang Handel’s Messiah
previously with the Nashville Symphony. Born in India, Panthaki recently graduated with an Artist Diploma from
Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music where she won multiple
awards such as the prestigious Phyllis Curtin Career Entry Prize. Alto Fabiana González, a Puerto Rican
native, recently completed her Masters in Early Music Performance at Yale
School of Music, and has since become a rising star in the United States. In
addition to solo performances, she has worked with various national and
international festivals including the International Baroque Institute at the
Longy School of Music, the Norfolk Festival and the Simon Carrington Chamber
Singers. Tenor Dann Coakwell is equally well versed in early and lyric opera.
He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2010 as Audrey in Prokofiev’s Dalyekie Morya
(Distant Seas) and has worked with such conductors as Suzuki and Helmuth
Rilling. He has appeared as a tenor soloist with the five time Grammy-nominated
group Conspirare both in performance and in their 2009 CD, Conspirare: A
Company of Voices. Coakwell holds his Artist Diploma in Vocal Performance from
Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Bass-baritone Dashon
Burton has recently collaborated with Suzuki, Pierre Boulez and Steven Smith.
He sang and recorded with Cantus, an elite nine piece vocal ensemble that
travels across the country and collaborates with artists and groups such as the
Boston Pops, James Sewell Ballet and Bobby McFerrin. He is a founding member of
Roomful of Teeth, a vocal group committed to exploring the full range of
possible vocal techniques.
--Joe Yang, Philharmonia Baroque
American Bach
Soloists Present Handel’s Messiah in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, December
20-22, 2012
There will be three performances only of Northern
California's beloved holiday tradition and perenially sold-out event.
American Bach Soloists (ABS) have been thrilling audiences
with holiday presentations of Handel’s Messiah in the breathtaking setting of
San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral since 1998. To mark the opening of ABS’s 24th
season—and the 14th of this beloved tradition—music director Jeffrey Thomas
will lead three performances from December 20-22, 2012, of the immortal
masterwork with the period-instrument specialists of ABS, “some of the greatest
period-instrument players in the world” (San Francisco Classical Voice), a
superb quartet of vocal soloists, and the American Bach Choir, which “sets the
standard in choral singing” (SFCV). Building upon the usual one or two
performances of past seasons, 2012 marks the first time that the opportunity to
experience this event will be extended through a Saturday presentation. These
are always sold-out affairs, year after year, so even with an added performance
seats are filling rapidly.
Having already presented the myriad versions of the work
that Handel prepared during his lifetime, ABS will perform a version with voice
assignments and sequences of parts that communicate the humanity and brilliance
of Messiah with the greatest immediacy. Utilizing period instruments, these
performances feature valve-less trumpets, the warm tone of gut strings, and
expressive singing according to the performance practices of the composer’s
time. With Maestro Thomas at the helm leading the extraordinary forces of ABS,
these performances will continue to be among the finest anywhere. From the
opening strains of the overture to the final “Amen,” the powerful score
resonating throughout the awe-inspiring interior of Grace Cathedral makes this
the perfect holiday treat to inspire wonder and joy.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, December 20, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street (at Taylor
Street), San Francisco
Friday, December 21, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street (at Taylor
Street), San Francisco
Saturday, December 22, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street (at Taylor
Street), San Francisco
Single tickets $20--$94. For more information, visit
americanbach.org or call 415-621-7900.
--Christopher D. Lewis, Development and Communications
Director