San Francisco International Piano Festival Presented by NEW PIANO COLLECTIVE
August 20-30, 2020 San Francisco International Piano Festival At a Glance... A Call to Reflection Concert Confidential In Collaboration with Lieder Alive! A Festival Original Thursday, August 20 Wednesday, August 26, 2020 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. — 8:30 p.m. Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano Jeffrey LeDeur, piano Jeffrey LaDeur, piano [PAGE 11] [PAGE 5] ————— ————— Frederic Rzewski: Songs Of Insurrection Music Of The Future: 2019 Retrospective Performance In Conversation With Albert Kim Thusday, August 27 2020 Livestream Interview 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. & Retrospective Performance Bobby Mitchell, piano The Future of Classical Music is in Their Hands [PAGE 12] Friday, August 21, 2020 ————— 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. Albert Kim, piano Beethoven 250 - Live! very August since 2017, the San Francisco International Piano Festival has welcomed Fervida Trio Livestream Concert audiences throughout the Bay Area to come together in a spirit of joy and celebration of [PAGE 6] E A Celebration of Beethoven’s Chamber Music music at the piano. The Festival runs the last two weeks in August, a summer swan song after ————— Friday, August 28, 2020 8:00 p.m. — 10:90 p.m. travels and family visits, but before back-to-school rhythms return. Just as the days lengthen Mysteria Eunseo Oh, violin in sunlight, our concerts extend into the evenings, and our spirits expand with the richness Broadcast Premiere Stephen Harrison, cello of music, community, and shared experience. Saturday, August 22, 2020 Gwendolyn Mok, piano 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. Allegra Chapman, piano This year, there are no travels, no gatherings, and almost no live music. So many of the things Kayleen Sánchez, soprano & Paul Sánchez, piano Sarah Yuan, piano that remind us of our purpose feel distant. And yet, we show up for ourselves and each other. Eka Gogichashvili, violin [PAGE 14] We make music in our homes. We develop the next recording projects and plan the concerts [PAGE 7] ————— that have been rescheduled. We listen. Without the healing power of music during this time, ————— Dialogue Interrupted life would be unimaginably more difficult. Ode to Joy Created/Curated For 2020 Festival 2019 Retrospective Performance Saturday, August 29, 2020 That is why the San Francisco International Piano Festival is presenting its 4th annual season Friday, August 23, 2020 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. FREE to the public in a variety of virtual formats, combining commissioned programs with 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. Nicholas Phillips, piano retrospective highlights in the tradition of eclectic and compelling programming that has Bobby Mitchell, piano Owen Zhou, piano become our signature. 2020 will be a different kind of celebration: a more sober, reflective Heidi Moss Erickson, soprano [PAGE 15] Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano acknowledgment of this confusing and painful moment in our world, and of the essential ————— Michael Jankosky, tenor and sustaining life force that music is for us at this time. Kirk Eichelberger, bass Reflection In Nature [PAGE 8] Livestream Concert I invite you to visit our website and social media pages often, to engage with the ————— Sunday, August 30 2020 performances that our artists will share, and to return to yourself through the healing power 2:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. of music. From our whole selves, we can serve the great need before us. Night Music Jeffrey LaDeur, piano New Performance from Eunmi Ko Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano Sincerely, Monday, August 24, 2020 Jesse Barrett, oboe 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. Jonathan Szin, clarinet Eunmi Ko, piano Kristopher King, bassoon [PAGE 9] Stephanie Stroud, french horn [PAGE 16] ————— ————— Nicholas Phillips Presents #45 Miniatures Project: A Musical Protest Created/Curated for the 2020 Festival Tuesday, August 25, 2020 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. Jeffrey LaDeur Nicholas Phillips, piano Founder and Artistic Director [PAGE 10] San Francisco International Piano Festival ————— New Piano Collective 2 3 San Francisco International Piano Festival A Call to Reflection In Collaboration with Lieder Alive! This concert is made possible through the Musical Grant Program, which is administered by InterMusic SF, and supported by the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and San Francisco Grants for the Arts.* Thursday, August 20 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.
It was with a Schubertiade that the piano festival opened its inaugural season in 2017, and we return to Schubert for reflection and healing in the midst of a turbulent world. 2020 Mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich and pianist Jeffrey LaDeur will share a selection of Schubert’s most beautiful lieder, exploring themes of hope, love, loss, and the ephemeral nature of time. Robert Schumann wrote that Schubert’s Sonata in G Major was his “most perfect in form and conception”, and this performance will intersperse its four SanFrancisco expansive movements throughout the evening. International Piano Sonata in G Major D.894 I. Molto moderato e cantabile
Sei mir Gegrüßt D.741 (Friedrich Rückert) PianoFestival Frühlingsglaube D.686 (Ludwig Uhland) Franz Schubert
Piano Sonata in G Major D.894 Programs II. Andante Der Lindenbaum from Winterreise D.911 (Wilhelm Müller) Nacht und Träume D.827 (Matthäus Collin) Franz Schubert
Piano Sonata in G Major D.894 III. Menuetto: Allegro moderato IV. Allegretto
Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
*Livestream link: https://youtu.be/hxI1OKfLy3g
4 5 San Francisco International Piano Festival San Francisco International Piano Festival Music Of The Future: In Conversation With Albert Kim Mysteria Livestream Interview & Retrospective Performance Broadcast Premiere The Future of Classical Music is in Their Hands Saturday, August 22, 2020 Friday, August 21, 2020 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.
Join us for a livestream interview and discussion with Festival favorite Albert Kim and The Festival is pleased to share this special concert by candlelight featuring soprano Kayleen artistic director Jeffrey LaDeur. In addition to his remarkable gifts as a concert pianist, Sánchez, pianist Paul Sánchez and violinist Eka Gogichashvili. Presented in partnership Albert is a passionate educator and thinker who is sensitive to the constantly shifting with Old First Concerts during the 2019 Festival, David M. Gordon’s evocative and dramatic landscape of performance, scholarship, and classical music at large. Discussion topics work comes to life through the artists’ mastery of a complex instrumentation involving will include exploration of tradition and innovation, the formats through which we share three pianos, singing glasses, autoharp, finger symbols, harmonica, and more. Don’t miss and receive music, illusions of the classical music industry, and the extraordinary young this unique performance that fuses vocal and instrumental music in a magical way. musicians that are leading the way forward. The evening will include performances from Mr. Kim, the Fervida Trio’s appearance at the 2019 Festival, and more.
https://youtu.be/0D2ue5y7DRA Une Barque sur l’océan Fader, stilla våra andar for soprano and piano (2002) Maurice Ravel https://youtu.be/iv7mKbacvIc Albert Kim, piano Consolation New for one pianist playing two Discussion Part I microtonally-tuned pianos (2018) Trio No.1 (Life Cycle) https://youtu.be/ECwKWDzSqBQ?list=PLycU6upYk9k1T2aPGzUXwdRFz_29iljCT Pierre Jalbert Mysteria Incarnationis for soprano, violin, and prepared piano (2015) Discussion Part II https://youtu.be/ruv26b--wn8t Trio Op.1 No.1 (Finale) Shbih hakimo Man hi tamrah Ludwig von Beethoven Manu yab lo (Lullaby 1) Fervida Trio Manu mtse dnimar Sean Mori, violin Lo aten ber (Lullaby 2) Angeline Kiang, cello Brikh hu dlo sokh destayakh Karina Tseng, piano FarSong Duo — Kayleen Sánchez, soprano & Paul Sánchez, piano Special guest — Eka Gogichashvili, violin
6 7 San Francisco International Piano Festival San Francisco International Piano Festival Ode to Joy Night Music 2019 Retrospective Performance New Performance from Eunmi Ko
Friday, August 23, 2020 Monday, August 24, 2020 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.
We revisit this exciting and joyful performance given by Bobby Mitchell during Pianist Eunmi Ko has captivated festival audiences with her insightful performances the 2019 Festival at the San Francisco Conservatory of music: Beethoven’s Ninth of new and old music, and tonight’s program features Night Music by Chopin, John Symphony in a dazzling arrangement for solo piano by Liszt. The iconic Ode to Joy Liberatore, David Liptak, and Tyler Kline. Eunmi has introduced many of these pieces finale features special guest soloists Heidi Moss Erickson, Kindra Scharich, Michael and composers to San Francisco audiences since her Festival debut in 2017. Jankosky, and Kirk Eichelberger. Almost forty years after my encounter with Crumb’s music, I found myself writing Constellations, an extended collection of pieces for piano. I had been planning to write such a piece for a few years, and the opportunity to write it for pianist Zuzanna Szewczyk Kwon brought the task to hand. I had decided to write a collection of longer, rather than shorter, pieces, thinking abut the way Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana is structured. Schumann’s piano writing often features an interlocking counterpoint within the texture of an embellished figuration, where inner voices reveal primary melodic ideas. This device appears in various ways in Constellations, and clearly so in “Cassiopeia.” When viewing constellations in the night sky, it is often much easier to identify them by finding the “asterisms” that are part of the totality of the star group. For example, The Big Dipper, an asterism, is much easier to spot than Ursa Major, the larger constellation that contains it. In “Cassiopeia,” structural pitches are embedded inside elaborations and are sometimes revealed, a pleasant analog to the idea of the asterism. The nine movements of Constellations are titled with names of constellations that are not zodiacal. They are arranged in three groups, and each group includes a mythological figure or his symbol (“Cassiopeia,” “Argo Navis”—for Jason, and “Lyra”—for Orpheus), a hunter (“Orion,” “Vulpecula,” and “Canis Major and Canis Minor”—the companion dogs of Orion), and a bird (“Cygnus,” “Columba,” and “Aquila”). Each set ends with a bird piece, and each of the bird pieces contains a reference to a work by Schumann. “Cygnus” quotes a short passage from the first piece in Kreisleriana, “Columba” includes a “footnote” quotation of “Vogle as Prophet” from Waldszenen, and there is a disguised quotation of “Des Abends” from the A message from Bobby Mitchell Fantasy Pieces, op. 12, in “Aquila.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IisdBVEZro —David Liptak Star Light Symphony No.9 in D Minor Op.125 David Liptak I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso II. Molto Vivace Nocturne Op.9 No.1 III. Adagio molto e cantabile Frédéric Chopin IV. Finale Nocturne after Stella by Starlight (composed for Eunmi Ko) Ludwig van Beethoven, Arranged by Franz Liszt Bobby Mitchell, piano John Liberatore Heidi Moss Erickson, soprano Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano Carambola from Orchard Michael Jankosky, tenor Tyler Kline Kirk Eichelberger, bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAOiG5fQnWw&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTLtFoOcEwU&feature=youtu.be Intermission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXbFZkAMicM&feature=youtu.be Constellations (Complete) David Liptak Eunmi Ko, piano
8 9 San Francisco International Piano Festival San Francisco International Piano Festival Nicholas Phillips Presents #45 Concert Confidential Miniatures Project: A Musical Protest A Festival Original Created/Curated for the 2020 Festival Tuesday, August 25, 2020 Wednesday, August 26, 2020 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. — 8:30 p.m.
Music can be a powerful artistic response to things beyond our control, and many Pianist Jeffrey LaDeur shares an evening of anecdotes, musical encounters, and composers responded to the idea with great excitement and enthusiasm. Pianist mishaps in a candid and humorous style. Musical selections include Couperin’s “Les Nicholas Phillips did a "Call for Scores" on Facebook where composers were welcome Barricades Mysterieuses”, Chopin’s Ballade in G Minor op.23, Debussy’s Prelude “… to use anything related to our 45th President (tweets, speeches, etc.) as source material La Fille aux cheveux de Lin…” and William Bolcom’s “Graceful Ghost” Rag. to create a miniature, or small collection of miniatures, for solo piano. These serve as commentary on, or reaction to, words, attitudes, policies, and general behavior that This performance took place during the 2018 San Francisco International Piano they find amusing, unacceptable, confusing, disturbing, and so on. Festival and was co-presented with the Empress Theatre in Vallejo.
The musical program will be announced. The musical program will be announced.
10 11 San Francisco International Piano Festival Frederic Rzewski: Songs Of Insurrection 2019 Retrospective Performance Sneak peak…
Thusday, August 27 2020 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.
Bobby Mitchell Performed the US Premiere of Frederic Rzewski’s Songs of Insurrection during the 2019 San Francisco International Piano Festival, and tonight we revisit this thrilling and powerful performance. Frequent collaborations with the composer Fifth Anniversary Souvenir Edition have established Mitchell as one of the foremost interpreters of Rzewski’s music, and Bobby has introduced several his works to San Francisco audiences. Mr. Rzewski makes accessible dozens of his scores through Creative Commons Licensing, and it is this rare opportunity that guides our audio presentation of Bobby Mitchell’s performance, allowing those listeners that are interested to follow along with the score below.
To download a copy of this score from IMSLP.org, click on this link:
12 13 San Francisco International Piano Festival San Francisco International Piano Festival Beethoven 250 - Live! Dialogue Interrupted Livestream Concert Created/Curated For 2020 Festival A Celebration of Beethoven’s Chamber Music Friday, August 28, 2020 Saturday, August 29, 2020 8:00 p.m. — 10:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.
The San Francisco International Piano Festival continues its partnership with Old This program juxtaposes exquisitely crafted miniatures and a grandly romantic First Concerts in a program celebrating the chamber music of Beethoven, including sonata by Florence Price with the deeply searching and ultimately unfinished Art of the Sonata for Piano and Cello in G Minor Op.5 No.2, Sonata for Piano and Violin Fugue by J.S. Bach . in G major Op. 30, No. 3, and the Sonata for Piano in E Major Op.109 . Special Florence Price (1887-1953) wrote extensively for piano, and this evening’s selections guests include pianists Gwendolyn Mok and Allegra Chapman, cellist Stephen performed by Nicholas Phillips affirm her presence as a distinctive and powerful Harrison, and two emerging artists from Burlingame’s Young Chamber Musicians. voice in American music, Owen Zhou has brought compelling performances of Bach’s music to the Festival since its inaugural season, and his performance from Art of Fugue comes from the Empress Theatre in Vallejo during 2018 Festival. The final contrapunctus was left unfinished at the time of the composer’s death, and it is with respect to voices that have gone unheard or have been prematurely silenced that we conclude the program with this dialogue interrupted.
Part I Part II Piano Music of Florence Price Selections from J.S. Bach
7 Miniatures Art of Fugue BWV 1080)
Sonata for Cello & Piano in G minor, Op. 5, No. 2 Song without words (Pleading) Contrapunctus I
Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major, Op. 30, No. 3 Memory Mist Contrapunctus II
Sonata for Piano in E Major Op.109 Little Melody in E-Flat Major Contrapunctus III Ludwig van Beethoven Honeysuckle at Dusk Contrapunctus IV Eunseo Oh, violin Stephen Harrison, cello Honeysuckle (or) A Southern Sky Contrapunctus XIV (Unfinished) Gwendolyn Mok, piano 2 Dream Boat Owen Zhou, piano Allegra Chapman, piano Sarah Yuan, piano Andante in E-Flat Major Piano Sonata (1932) I. Andante- Allegro II. Andante
III. Scherzo Nicholas Phillips, piano1
1https://youtu.be/hO3crPAA8Xw 2https://youtu.be/Ka1AgfCtXiA
14 15 San Francisco International Piano Festival Reflection In Nature Livestream Concert*
Sunday, August 30 2020 2:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m.
The Festival Finale explores the human experience as reflected in nature. Schubert’s Impromptu in F Minor recalls his song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin in its plaintive search for peace and dialogue with the brook, while Chopin’s E Major Scherzo alternates quicksilver fireworks with a soulful barcarolle. George Walker’s Sonata No.3 evokes Fantoms, the haunting toll of a bell, and sinewy Choral and Fughetta. Mr. Walker (1922-2018) is one of the foremost black composers of the 20th century and a prolific composer of music for the piano. 2020 After intermission, special guest Kindra Scharich joins for Jules Renard’s Histoires Naturelles, vividly animated by Maurice Ravel’s brilliant setting. From the vain peacock to the compulsive cricket, the cloud-chasing swan to the raging guinea fowl, Renard and Ravel depict the foibles of human nature with incisive wit and poignancy. Finally, Mozart’s Quintet K.452 is a glimpse of the sublime. Highly valued by the composer New Piano himself, this unique work brings together the operatic characters of the stage and the bucolic setting for serenades. Members of San Francisco’s premiere wind octet, Nomad Session, join Jeffrey LaDeur to close the festival with this masterpiece. Collective Impromptu in F Minor, Op. 142 No. 1 Franz Schubert Sonata No. 3 (1975/1996) & Festival George Walker Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54 Frédéric Chopin Guests Wiegenlied FranzLiszt Intermission Histoires Naturelles Maurice Ravel Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Jeffrey LaDeur, piano; Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano Jesse Barrett, oboe; Jonathan Szin, clarinet Kristopher King, bassoon; Stephanie Stroud, french horn
*This concert is made possible in part through support from the Ross Mckee Foundation.
16 17 Allegra Chapman, piano Albert Kim, piano Eunmi Ko, piano Jeffrey LaDeur, piano Described as "brilliant" by the San Francisco American pianist Albert Kim has enthralled Praised for “beautiful array of pianistic colors”, Jeffrey LaDeur is known for his “delicate keyboard Classical Voice, San Francisco-based pianist audiences in the United States, Europe and Asia “abundance of technique”, “original interpretation”, touch and rich expressivity” (San Francisco Chronicle) and presenter Allegra Chapman is dedicated to with his poetic and visceral readings of the solo and “undeniably impressive prestidigitation”, and playing described as “deeply moving, probing, felt connecting deeply with audiences. Allegra has and chamber repertory. Born to South Korean pianist Eunmi Ko (eunmiko.com) appeared in the entirely in the moment” (Eduard Laurel) Much sought performed as soloist and chamber musician at parents, Mr. Kim made his public debut at the age Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Festival de Musica after for his rare blend of insight, spontaneity, and prestigious venues throughout the United States, of ten when he substituted for an ailing Vladimir Contemporanea, Festival Cervantino Internacional approachable, communicative stage presence, Jeffrey has Europe, and China, including Alice Tully Hall, the Horowitz to inaugurate the 500,000th Steinway in Mexico, Chautauqua Music Festival, Rebecca captured the hearts and minds of audiences from the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, the Bard piano at Carnegie Hall. He made his solo recital Penneys Piano Festival, Women in Music Festival Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall to San Francisco Jazz Music Festival, the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum debuts in the U.S. and Europe as a Carnegie Hall/ (Rochester, NY), Music Center of Christchurch, Center and the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. in Budapest, San Francisco Jazz Center, and Xi'an Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Madrid, European Concert Hall Organization Rising Passionate about chamber music, LaDeur was a founding Concert Hall in Xi'an, China. Her performances Siam Ratchada Auditorium, Seoul Arts Center, Star, followed by recitals at Ravinia, Caramoor member of the Delphi Trio and served as the Trio’s have been broadcast on WQXR New York, WFMT Eastman School of Music, World Piano Conference, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a pianist for a decade. Pulitzer Prize winning composer Chicago, and KALW San Francisco. Music Since 1900 Conference, among others. Ko member of the former Kim-Jacobsen-Arron Trio. William Bolcom dedicated his first piano trio to the performs a wide range of piano repertoire from Allegra is founding artistic codirector and He has appeared with the Orpheus Chamber ensemble, and the world premiere recording appears premieres of new works by living composers to the executive director of Bard Music West, a branch Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Virginia on Triptych(MSR 1674) along with trios by Beethoven traditional and rarely played piano works. Recently, of the Bard Music Festival based in San Francisco Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, and Brahms. Independently, LaDeur has collaborated she was guest artist/teacher at Universidad Alfonso that explores the worlds of composers from the Eastman Philharmonia, Ensemble Signal and with artists such as Robert Mann, Bonnie Hampton, X el Sabio, Ohio University, Eastern Michigan past one hundred years. the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Geoff Nuttall, Ian Swensen, Anne Akiko Meyers, Toby University, Lynn University, University of Florida, and premiered or recorded works by Ellen Taaffe Appel, David Requiro, and the Alexander, Telegraph, Allegra received her MM from The Juilliard School University of Tampa, University of Tennessee, Zwilich, Hilary Tann and Robert Bradshaw. He and Afiara Quartets. With mezzo soprano Kindra and graduated in the inaugural class of the Bard Ying Wa College, among others. Ko is co-founder Scharich he recently recorded To My Distant Beloved, Conservatory of Music’s double-degree program maintains an active schedule as an arranger, and co-director of the unique piano trio Strings & an album exploring the relationship Beethoven’s An die with degrees in history and piano performance. with his solo paraphrase of Ravel's La Valse and Hammers, which has the unusual instrumentation ferne Geliebte, Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben and Allegra owes much to her many wonderful chamber adaptation of Strauss's Salome receiving of violin, piano, and double bass and music his epic Fantasy for Solo Piano, Op. 17, to be released on teachers who include Joseph Bloom, Jeremy Denk, recent premieres. He is the pianist of The Tabletop director of new opera company Sunshine City MSR Classics spring of 2020. Seymour Lipkin, Sharon Mann, Julian Martin, John Opera, a multimedia performance collective Opera. This spring, she launched the piano- voice McCarthy, and Peter Serkin. based in Rochester, New York. duo Songeaters with Grammy nominated mezzo Dedicated to the principle that solo pianists thrive Mr. Kim holds degrees from Harvard University soprano Thea Lobo. together, rather than as competitors, Jeffrey founded New Piano Collective, an artistic alliance of pianists, and the Eastman School of Music, where he Ko holds a BM degree from Seoul National dedicated to uniquely personal artistry, collaboration, completed his doctorate with Natalya Antonova. University and graduate degrees (MM and DMA) and ground-breaking programming. In 2017, LaDeur He pursued his formative studies with Solomon from the Eastman School of Music where she expanded the Collective and founded the San Francisco Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music studied with Rebecca Penneys. Ko teaches at International Piano Festival, now in its third year, for Preparatory Division. He teaches and performs USF as Assistant Professor of Piano and Rebecca which he serves as artistic director. The festival has actively throughout the U.S. and China, with Penneys Piano Festival. She is also co-advisor quickly become of the most exciting and engaging music recent or upcoming engagements at, Yellow of the New-Music Consortium at the University festivals in the country. Springs Piano Fest, Castleman Quartet Program, of South Florida. Ko may also be heard on the Neskowin Chamber Music, Oregon Music recently published CD release of She Rose, and LaDeur holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music Teachers Association, Dongfang Arts School and Let Me In (“This is an unusual but beautifully and San Francisco Conservatory of Music in piano Texas State University. He began his appointment assembled program…”) and Musical Landscapes performance and chamber music, respectively. Jeffrey as Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Hilary Tann (“excellent introduction to Tann’s counts among his teachers Mark Edwards, Douglas of Central Missouri in fall 2017. music world”). Humpherys, Yoshikazu Nagai, and Robert McDonald. 18 19 Bobby Mitchell, piano Gwendolyn Mok, piano Nicholas Phillips, piano Paul Sanchez, piano Bobby Mitchell is an American pianist whose Gwendolyn Mok is a leading pedagogue, lecturer, Described by the New York Times as a "talented and Praised as “a great artist” (José Feghali, interests are embedded in the here and now of soloist and highly acclaimed recording artist. entrepreneurial pianist" and an "able and persuasive 2013), pianist and composer Paul Sánchez has music as performance art, as well as the more advocate" of new music, Nicholas Phillips' playing concertized in North America and Europe, and has standard classical repertory of centuries past. Born in New York City, Ms. Mok has appeared in many of the world's leading concert halls, including has been praised for its "bejeweled accuracy" appeared on CBS national television and in radio His interests lie mainly with the contemporary (Fanfare) and as "razor-sharp yet wonderfully broadcasts nationwide. Of his recent engagements music canon and combining these works with the the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, spirited" (American Record Guide). He is active as performing music of Ives and Gershwin for Joseph standard repertoire in an illuminating fashion. Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Davies Symphony a soloist and collaborative artist, having performed Horowitz’ Music Unwound: American Roots, a He is active as a solo and collaborative concert Hall, and the Hong Kong Performing Arts Center. program funded by the National Endowment pianist on modern and historical instruments and She is frequently invited to play and record with all across the United States, as well as Europe, South is also experienced in the fields of improvisation, major international orchestras, such as the London America, Asia, and Africa. for the Humanities, Horowitz stated, “Sanchez’ account of Rhapsody in Blue was original - the most composition, and conducting. Symphony, the Philharmonia, the Hong Kong Phillips is an active recording artist and champion Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beijing Philharmonic bewitchingly lyric I have ever encountered.” He has performed extensively in the Americas, of living composers. In 2011, he released two CDs on Orchestra and the Residency Orchestra of the Hague. across Europe, South Africa, and the Middle Albany Records: Portals and Passages (TROY 1246), Sánchez is an active recording artist with six East, and this upcoming season includes concerto Ms. Mok is a recording artist for Nonesuch/Elektra, which features the works for solo piano by American commercial releases as of 2017, and his compositions performances with Philippe Herreweghe and Musical Heritage Society, Musician Showcase composer Ethan Wickman, and Boris Papandopulo: have been featured on the Soundset Recordings and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. He has Recordings, Cala Records, and EMI. Her highly Piano Music (TROY 1274), which features music Albany labels. Forthcoming CD releases in 2019 otherwise performed as concerto soloist with acclaimed debut CD with the Philharmonia of by the famous Croatian composer. Recent releases include new works by composers Shawn Okpebholo the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Eastman Ravel's “Piano Concerto in G Major” on the Cala include American Vernacular: New Music for Solo and David M. Gordon, in collaboration with mezzo- Wind Ensemble, Noord Nederlands Orkest, label was nominated for an Alternative Edison award. soprano J’Nai Bridges, baritone Will Liverman, and Amman Symphony Orchestra, Kwazulu-Natal Piano (New Focus Recordings, 2014), which features A second Cala recording of Saint-Saëns’s “Africa— soprano Kayleen Sánchez. Philharmonic Orchestra, Concerto Armonico commissioned works written for him on that theme Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra” with the London Freiburg, and the new-music ensemble OSSIA, by ten American composers, and Impressions (Blue Dr. Sánchez is Director of Piano Studies and Philharmonic has been equally applauded. Three among others. Significant solo activities include Griffin Records, 2016), a collection of 21st-century the International Piano Series at the College of solo CDs, “Ravel Revealed” (Ravel’s piano works) numerous performances of Frederic Rzewski’s character pieces by living American composers. Shift Charleston in South Carolina. He is a co-founder and “Brahms: Late Piano Works,” and “Legacy, The epic 36 Variations on The People United Will Never (Panoramic Recordings) releases in March, 2019, and of the San Francisco International Piano Festival, Spirit of Beethoven” were recorded on historic pianos Be Defeated! and frequent work with composers features world premiere recordings of works by eight the Charleston Chamber Music Intensive, and such as Frederic Rzewski, Steve Reich, and Louis for the Musicians Showcase Recording label. All (3) living women composers. the Dakota Sky Foundation. Sánchez is also an active Andriessen as well as regular work with peer CDs received outstanding reviews and are broadcast recording engineer and producer, having engineered composers of his own generation. frequently around the world. Recently two new A native of Indiana, Phillips began formal piano CDs have been released: Poldowski Art Songs with lessons at Indiana University at the age of ten. and produced albums on the Athyr Records, Albany Bobby records for the Alpha/Outhere music soprano Angelique Zuluaga and pianist Gwendolyn He holds degrees in piano performance from the Records, and Soundset Recordings labels. label (Haydn on an original pianoforte), and Mok on the Delos label and EKTA Trilogy, featuring his YouTube channel has become an Internet University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory Sánchez, a Fulbright fellow from 2005–2007, Mok as soloist on EKTA II, a concerto written for her phenomenon for classical and improvised of Music (Doctor of Musical Arts), Indiana earned his Master of Spanish Music degree under piano music, with more than half-a-million by composer Brent Heisinger. University (Master of Music), and the University the legendary Alicia de Larrocha. He studied views. Primary teachers include Nelita True, Ms. Mok began her studies at the Juilliard School of of Nebraska-Lincoln (Bachelor of Music, summa with Tamás Ungár at Texas Christian University, David Kuyken, Robert Hill, Stephen Perry, and Music, completed her undergraduate work at Yale cum laude). His teachers include internationally- graduating summa cum laude, and with Douglas Bart van Oort. University, and earned her Masters and Doctorate renowned pianists and pedagogues Karen Taylor, Humpherys at the Eastman School of Music, where Bobby Mitchell not only knows how to make at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Paul Barnes, Karen Shaw, and Robert Weirich. he completed his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. Sánchez is a New Piano exciting and unique music using ornamentation, She is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies Phillips is currently an Associate Professor at at San Jose State University and maintains a busy Collective artist. sound, and tempo, but you can hear that he never the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He is a just plays what is written. performing and recording schedule. Yamaha Artist. 20 21 Kayleen Sánchez, soprano Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano Fervida Trio Sarah Yuan, piano Owen Zhou, piano Young Chamber Musicians, Burlingame A native of Canada, Owen Zhou holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano Sarah Yuan, age 15, lives in Moraga and is a performance from the University of Colorado freshman at Miramonte High School. She began at Boulder, where he studied with Dr. Andrew piano studies at age seven and is currently a Cooperstock. He received his master’s degree student of Sharon Mann. from Northwestern University, where he studied with Alan Chow, and a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he worked with Dr. Douglas Humpherys. Owen was the top prize-winner in the Ekstrand Graduate Student Performance Competition as well as a recipient of the Beverly Sears Graduate Student Award at the University of Colorado at Eunseo Oh, violin Jesse Barrett, oboe Stephen Harrison, cello Boulder. Owen made his New York debut with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta in 2012, where he performed the rarely heard Scriabin Piano Concerto as the first prize winner of the New York Concerti Sinfonietta International Concerto Competition. A resident of Denver, Colorado, Owen maintains a full teaching studio. He has also made a name for himself as an audio engineer and cinematographer in the Denver area. The quality of his work has gained him numerous high profile clients such as the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra and members of the Kristopher King, bassoon Jonathan Szin, clarinet Stephanie Stroud, French horn Colorado Symphony. An avid mountaineer and skier in his spare time, Owen is on his way to climb all 58 of Colorado’s famed 14ers, mountain peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation. This journey has become the inspiration for a multi-media performance project with music composed by composer and pianist Paul Sanchez.
22 23 Thomas C. LaDeur (1956-1994) 27 years ago, we lost a bright light. Tom was loving, hilarious, charismatic, athletic, a devoted husband, father, son, brother, uncle, coworker, and teammate. He brought out the best in his friends and family with self-effacing kindness and humor. When such a deep void is left by the departure of one so extraordinary, it is difficult to know how to embrace their irreplaceable presence while actively celebrating their living legacy. This paradox has been a constant companion Thomas C. LaDeur (1956-1994) through my growing up years and into adulthood. Eventually, I came to the understanding that I knew much more about the past tense of my grief than its present or future. I also knew that music has been the saving grace of my life in many dark times and that so many others shared a similar experience. The Thomas C. LaDeur memorial concert is an expression of continuity, gratitude, and life. This season returns to childhood, celebrates the past, recommits to the present, and affirms the future. Thank you for honoring Tom's life and his inspiring example. Sincerely,
Jeffrey LaDeur 24 25