March 22, 2020 Board of Program Book Contact Directors Credits Us
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NAREK ARUTYUNIAN, CLARINET STEVEN BECK, PIANO MARCH 22, 2020 BOARD OF PROGRAM BOOK CONTACT DIRECTORS CREDITS US James Reel Arizona Friends of Editor President Chamber Music Jay Rosenblatt Post Office Box 40845 Paul Kaestle Tucson, Arizona 85717 Vice-President Contributors Robert Gallerani Phone: 520-577-3769 Joseph Tolliver Holly Gardner Email: [email protected] Program Director Nancy Monsman Website: arizonachambermusic.org Helmut Abt Jay Rosenblatt Recording Secretary James Reel Operations Manager Cathy Anderson Wes Addison Advertising Treasurer Cathy Anderson USHERS Philip Alejo Michael Coretz Nancy Bissell Marvin Goldberg Barry & Susan Austin Kaety Byerley Paul Kaestle Lidia DelPiccolo Laura Cásarez Jay Rosenblatt Susan Fifer Michael Coretz Randy Spalding Marilee Mansfield Dagmar Cushing Allan Tractenberg Elaine Orman Bryan Daum Susan Rock Alan Hershowitz Design Jane Ruggill Tim Kantor Openform Barbara Turton Juan Mejia Diana Warr Jay Rosenblatt Printing Maurice Weinrobe & Trudy Ernst Elaine Rousseau West Press Randy Spalding VOLUNTEERS Paul St. John George Timson Dana Deeds Leslie Tolbert Beth Daum Ivan Ugorich Beth Foster Bob Foster Traudi Nichols Allan Tractenberg Diane Tractenberg On the cover: Manuel de Falla 2 FROM THE PRESIDENT Welcome to our concert. Now, goodbye! Even though it doesn’t matter, much, who serves as AFCM president, two constants are essential to I’m not shooing you away, just letting you know maintain: the quality of our programming—superb that this is my final letter to you as president of the music, superbly performed—and you, coming to Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. If all goes our concerts, sharing your opinions with us and with according to plan, barring Russian interference or your friends, slipping us the occasional contribution, voter suppression, at our board meeting at the end and keeping your ears and your hearts open to this of this month we’ll elect an excellent new president. colorful, compelling thing that is chamber music. I know who it’s supposed to be, because the vote is After this month, I’ll be one of you. rigged, but I’ll let him introduce himself to you at the next concert. I joined the AFCM board about 20 years ago, and had attended its concerts for about two decades before JAMES REEL that—sometimes as a music critic, sometimes as a President radio producer, and sometimes just as an enthusiastic audience member. I’m still enthusiastic, but like the human body, or the Venetian lagoon, AFCM needs regular circulation to keep the environment fresh and to flush out the stale crud (that would be me). 3 NAREK ARUTYUNIAN, STEVEN BECK MARCH 22, 2020 NAREK ARUTYUNIAN Clarinetist Narek Arutyunian is an artist who “reaches passionate depths with seemingly effortless technical prowess and beguiling sensitivity” (The Washington Post). As soloist with orchestra, his performances include Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall, Artie Shaw’s Concerto for Clarinet with The Boston Pops, Mozart’s Concerto with Oregon’s Newport Symphony and New York’s St. Thomas Orchestra, appearances with Prague Radio Symphony, the Kaliningrad Philharmonic, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, and a recording of Weber’s Concertino with the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra. Born in Armenia, Mr. Arutyunian’s family moved to Moscow when he was three. As a teenager, he won First Prizes in the International Young Musicians Competition in Prague and the Musical Youth of the Planet Competition in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory as a student of Evgeny Petrov, received a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Charles Neidich, and continued his studies with Mr. Neidich at the Manhattan School of Music on a Leon Russianoff Memorial Scholarship, where he received Narek Arutyunian, clarinet a Master’s Degree in 2018. Steven Beck, piano Mr. Arutyunian has performed extensively in Australia, Asia, and in Europe, including at the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the Palazzo del Principe in Genoa. Young Concert Artists, Inc. 250 West 57th Street Festival appearances include return engagements at Suite 1222 the Marlboro Music Festival and at Juilliard’s New York, NY 10107 ChamberFest, where he performed Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayer, the New York Festival of Song, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival in Washington, Krzyzowa Music Festival in Poland, Germany’s Usedomer Musikfestival, Musica Viva’s Huntington Estate and Sydney festivals in Australia, and Young Concert Artists Festivals in Tokyo and Beijing. In addition to solo recitals, he consistently receives acclaim for his educational outreach programs in New York City public schools and around the country. 4 NOW MUSIC STEVEN BECK THIS AFTERNOON’S PROGRAM American pianist Steven Beck is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where his teachers were Seymour LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–1990) Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Bruce Brubaker. He made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano and has toured Japan as soloist with the New York Grazioso—Un poco più mosso Symphonic Ensemble. Other orchestras with which Andantino—Vivace e leggiero he has appeared include the New Juilliard Ensemble (under David Robertson), Sequitur, the Jupiter ELLIOTT CARTER (1908–2012) Symphony Chamber Players, and the Virginia Symphony. Gra Mr. Beck has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, AARON COPLAND (1900–1990) Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theater, and Steinway Hall, as well as on the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano New York Philharmonic Ensembles Series and Andante semplice—Allegro WNYC. Summer appearances have been at the Aspen Lento Music Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Allegretto giusto Greenwich Music Festival, the Woodstock Mozart Festival, and the Wellesley Composers’ Conference. He is an Artist Presenter and regular performer at Bargemusic (where he recently performed all of the INTERMISSION Beethoven piano sonatas), performs frequently as a musician with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has performed with the New York City Ballet. BÉLA BARTÓK (1881–1945) Composers Mr. Beck has worked with include Elliott Romanian Folk Dances Carter, Henri Dutilleux, George Perle, and Charles Jocul cu bâtă (Stick Dance) Wuorinen, and he has appeared with ensembles such Brâul (Sash Dance) as Speculum Musicae, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Pe loc (In One Spot) the Manhattan String Quartet, the Pacifica String Buciumeana (Dance from Buscum) Quartet, The Metropolis Ensemble, New York Poarga Românească (Romanian Polka) Philomusica, the New York New Music Ensemble, Mărunțel (Fast Dance) Mosaic, the Lyric Chamber Music Society, the Omega Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso, the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Counterinduction, the MANUEL DE FALLA (1876–1946) American Contemporary Music Ensemble, the East “Nana” from Suite Populaire Espagnole Coast Composers’ Ensemble, the Fountain Ensemble, Friends and Enemies of New Music, Lost Dog, and Antisocial Music. He is a member of the new music PAUL SCHOENFIELD (b. 1947) ensemble Future In Reverse (FIRE) as well as the Klezmer Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano notorious Knights of the Many-Sided Table. His recordings are on the Albany, Bridge, Monument, I. q = 104 Mulatta, and Annemarie Classics labels. II. Allegretto 5 PROGRAM NOTES as well as distinctive tone colors. His intricate “The Clarinet Sonata was my creations are sonorous constructs that have been first published piece (1942). praised critically for their wit and lyricism. The recipient of a National Medal of Arts Award and a I’m still proud of it, despite Pulitzer Prize, Carter has been labeled “America’s a certain student element great musical poet.” Carter writes about his 1993 work (which he rescored in the music.” the following year for solo trombone): “Gra (‘Play’ in Polish) for solo clarinet, was written as a tribute to my LEONARD BERNSTEIN dear friend Witold Lutosławski to commemorate his 80th birthday. During the twenty-five or so years that AMERICAN ICON Leonard Bernstein has been I have known Witold, I have never ceased to admire described as a Renaissance man. Renowned as a his impressive works and his gracious personality. much-recorded composer, conductor, and pianist, This clarinet piece combines frequently changing, he also wrote influential books and essays that playful characters together (all based on the same promoted music as a vital, living art. An inspiring material) and recalls to me my many delighted visits teacher, Bernstein brought his messages into with the composer in America and Poland.” American life through televised lectures and Young OFTEN CALLED “the Dean of American Composers,” People’s Concerts. Despite a schedule of astounding Aaron Copland also enjoyed a long career as teacher, complexity, he remained dedicated to numerous conductor, writer, and critic. During the 1920s, humanitarian causes throughout his life. His Copland studied composition in Paris with Nadia impressive list of awards includes 21 honorary degrees, Boulanger, who encouraged him to create a 13 Grammy Awards, 11 Emmy Awards, 25 television specifically American neoclassical idiom. After awards, 23 civic awards, and honorary titles in 20 exploring avant-garde chromatic and serial societies and orchestras, including Laureate techniques in the 1930s, Copland in the 1940s found Conductor of the New York Philharmonic and his national voice with a series of American-themed the Israel Philharmonic. ballet scores, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian While still a student at the Curtis Institute, Bernstein Spring (which won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize). began his clarinet sonata during a 1941 visit to Key Copland’s style, which balances modernist and folk West. He recalled in an interview that he had bought elements and most often develops with expansive a clarinet in a pawnshop two years earlier. “I fooled and slow-moving harmonies, has been heard as an around with it, so I was inclined towards the evocation of the vast American landscape.