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Life Story A kernel of autobiogra- “My father was focused on classical music, where Folk Musiqa was found- 4,000 kids file into Zilkha Hall, phy is at the core of he was very open-minded—anything from early ed in Houston by many of them getting their first every piece Jeff Haas music to Xenakis,” Haas says. “He was not Wisdom five composers— taste of live music. The event turns writes. The pianist and open-minded outside the classical realm.” The Karim Al-Zand, concert-going from a realm that composer blends three Haas kids weren’t allowed to listen to jazz or pop Anthony Brandt, might seem forbidding into some- different influences in at home; Jeff’s sister hid a John Coltrane/ Shih-Hui Chen, thing friendly and approachable. his works: European classical music, traditional Thelonious Monk album under the mattress. Pierre Jalbert and Rob Smith—with the “The Hobby staff greets the Jewish music and African American jazz. The But when, as a teenager, he got his first exposure express aim of serving contemporary children warmly,” says Brandt, amalgam reflects Haas’s life story. He’s the son to the music of Coltrane, Monk, Charles Mingus music. Its programs are dotted with names Musiqa’s cofounder and president. of the late Karl Haas, a co-founder of the and Miles Davis, he became entranced. like Rochberg, Lutoslawski, Andriessen “They get to sit in a beautiful, Society of Detroit and host of Haas saw jazz not so much as a departure and Dallapiccola. Which is why some of its wood-paneled space. We’re up the long-running, nationally syndicated radio from the music of his childhood as an extension adult audience might be surprised to find there doing something that’s obvi- program “Adventures in Good Music.” The of it. “What I heard was very similar to the Musiqua’s players leading a group of ously very well-prepared. They can elder Haas taught his son a love of European Jewish music I heard in the synagogue,” he says. schoolchildren in a rendition of “She’ll Be tell that somebody really cared for The composers of Musiqa masters, and by bringing the boy with him to “It spoke to the human condition, full of hope Comin’ ’Round the Mountain.” But in them.” and despair at the same time.” fact, one of the group’s most important For all of its reliance on folk Karol Bennett soothes a caterwauling Given the diverse strands woven into Haas’s endeavors is a program presented in the songs that children can recognize, the pro- Jeff Haas Sesame Street Ernie doll with a lullaby by music, it’s little wonder that he and his epony- spring to thousands of fourth-graders. gram isn’t the naive romp that it might Shih-Hui Chen, written in a distinctly mous quintet have become virtual ambassadors Starting as a pilot education program, appear at first glance. “She’ll Be Comin’ modern, Asian-influenced idiom. “We take of diversity. The group has given over 500 for the last two seasons “Around the World ’Round the Mountain” becomes the basis them step-by-step to stuff that even cultured “diversity workshops” in Detroit schools. Haas with Musiqa” has taken place at the Hobby for Al-Zand’s theme-and-variations, “Red adults wouldn’t be listening to every day,” helped develop a program in Traverse City, MI, Pajamas”—and an opportunity says Brandt. which brought high school kids together for ten for Brandt to point out how Four out of Musiqa’s five principals are weeks, rehearsing an original composition for a Soprano Karol Bennett and pupils music can be varied and aug- parents—a factor that adds significance to Martin Luther King celebration. mented. “Children are used to the project. (Brandt’s daughter attended Recently, Haas’s quintet played a performance hearing the same performances this year with her fourth-grade class.) In in Sheboygan, Wisconsin—a city where, as Haas over and over again,” says future seasons, Musiqa plans to expand the says with only slight hyperbole—“There are no Brandt. “When you introduce program to the neighboring school district Jewish or African American people.” After the them to the idea of trans- of Spring Branch, and the group hopes to show, an older man walked up to the group, formed, rather than literal, rep- create other child-friendly programs, such and as Haas relates: “He looked like he had etition, you introduce them to as an hour of fables and folktales, with each had a bit of a rough life. He said ‘I don’t like the idea that music is alive and composer contributing a 10-minute narra- black people; I have never met a Jew—but I love developing— it doesn’t have to tive piece. “This is such an important part your music!” Needless to say, a pregnant pause sound the same way twice. You of what Musiqa does,” says Brandt. “The ensued, as the quintet’s members—which also open up the door to all sorts of chance to do something for kids means so Detroit’s Temple Israel, where he was music includes a Filipino, a WASP, and two African music.” much.” www.musiqahouston.org director, he introduced him to the Jewish musical Americans—took in the import of what the man “Around the World with tradition. was saying. Musiqa” also gently leads the “I grew up on the organ bench,” Jeff Haas A response like that could prove daunting to Center for the Performing Arts in down- children toward modern music. Proceeding says. “My dad would point to the first note of even the most open-minded performer. But as town Houston. The program is provided from the basic folk songs themselves, the the service and let me play it. It was quite thrill Haas notes: “We certainly were not preaching free to schools, which sign up on a first- concert presents folk-song settings and for a little kid to press a note and make a sound to the choir in that situation!” After the dust come, first-served basis. Over the course of folk-influenced music by Bartók, Ives, for the twelve hundred people in the temple.” had settled, it was clear the Jeff Haas Quintet four days and eight performances in May, Crumb and Berio. At one point soprano The jazz came later—a passion that emphati- had accomplished just what it set out to do. cally began outside the bosom of the Haas family. www.jeffhaasmusic.com

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AmericanEnsemble Dowdall, David Miles and Boland, with composer Andrew Simpson (seated)

The city is famous for blue crabs, the Orioles fessional lives, they lived the life of touring musicians, Lyric and the films of John Waters. But Baltimore is playing dates across the U.S. and abroad. But Iowa Impulses also home to a thriving classical music scene, was home base, and as their joint career advanced, with a top symphony orchestra, an opera com- so did their allegiance to the community. “We pany and a leading conservatory. And it’s the decided we wanted to bring back home to eastern breeding ground for the Poulenc Trio, a three- Iowa that wonderful music we heard when we were year-old oboe, bassoon and ensemble out and about,” says Dowdall. A CMA grant in quickly establishing an international reputation. 1987 helped them put together outreach programs, The trio’s genesis came when its members decided to explore the unexpected creating a community presence that paid off when combination of their three instruments. “We got together to see how far it could they founded Red Cedar Chamber Music. go,” says Bryan Young, the group’s bassoonist. Young is a principal with the The concert series is only the most visible of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra; both he and pianist Irina Lande serve on the fac- Red Cedar’s many activities. In a given year, the ulty of the Peabody Institute; Irina’s husband, Vladimir Lande, is principal oboist group will perform between 60 and 80 concerts in with the Baltimore Opera. The group’s name was a natural: Poulenc is after all schools, senior citizen homes and public spaces. the composer of the most famous piece written for these quirky forces. Through its Chamber Music Now program, the For Young, the group offers a whole new level of professional satisfaction. “I’ve organization works with talented high school and always loved chamber music over orchestral playing,” he says. “It’s more inti- college students, coaching them not just on musi- mate, more lyrical. As a bassoonist, I don’t always have to play the buffoon.” cal matters, but on their presentation skills. The ensemble has expanded the oboe/bassoon/piano repertoire through com- Local A concert series built around a Boland and Dowdall stage a summer festival, missions, and also broadens its musical possibilities through collaborations with guitar/ duo might be unusual specifically for flute/guitar duos, and incorporate other musicians, such as the Jacques Thibaud Trio and violinist Hilary Hahn. Heroes enough in one of the world’s major training in the business aspects of performing. Last year the musicians achieved a new measure of local visibility when they musical centers. But Red Cedar Red Cedar’s Rural Outreach program stages became musicians-in-residence at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum. The position Chamber Music, featuring the concerts in small towns within a roughly fifty-mile not only calls upon the Poulencs to perform but to serve as the museum’s music Boland-Dowdall Flute & Guitar Duo, is giving its radius of Cedar Rapids/Marion. Red Cedar does curators. The first year’s season was sold out; this year, four concerts are sched- tenth season of successful concerts centered in the the fundraising; the communities themselves are uled, along with “field trips” to the National Gallery in nearby Washington. The Poulenc trio towns of Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa—a required to pay a mere $200, which they can The Poulenc also tours extensively in the thriving area, but not a cultural hub. The husband- recoup in ticket sales. “It’s critical that we ask them U.S., and has performed in venues as far wife team of Jan Boland (flute) and John Dowdall for something,” says Boland. “An event that’s free afield as Italy’s Ravello Festival and the (guitar) are the constants; the violist David Miller isn’t looked at the same way as something you have White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. often joins them, and guest artists round out the to pay for.” The financial structure of Rural Out- The ensemble’s touring schedule calls for programs. Given in museums, libraries and reach gives Red Cedar an unusually high profile in the musicians to be on the road roughly churches that usually seat fewer than 150 people, its area. “It replaces the model of the eighties, when two weeks a month. “One of the prob- the programs are so popular that often repeat con- we would generate publicity materials and send lems we’re running into—a good prob- certs have to be scheduled. them out to venues around the state,” says Dowdall. lem to have—is that as we expand, we “The response is somewhat to flute and guitar, “With those kind of bookings, a site wants to look have to figure out where to put all the but more so to the fact that people enjoy the intimate for new performers every year. But because we do time,” says Young. “It’s an adjustment experience of chamber music,” says Boland. “It’s the fundraising, they look to us on an annual basis.” between the thing you used to do and so much nicer to be close to the instruments.” Part Taken together, Red Cedar’s activities have given the growing demands of the trio.” of the sense of audience involvement, too, comes Boland and Dowdall a work situation matched by www.poulenctrio.com from the talks that the musicians give during the few other professional musicians—full-time work concerts. “It pulls them into the experience,” Boland that depends on neither teaching nor touring. “At says. “If you impart passion, the audience will be first, I didn’t see this as a full-time model,” says involved.” Dowdall. “But I didn’t understand our community Red Cedar’s activities are rooted in deep com- would get behind us the way it has.” munity ties. Boland is a native Iowan; Dowdall hails www.redcedar.org from St. Paul, but attended the University of Iowa, where the two met. In the early years of their pro-

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The Trio today (left), and circa 1980 (below).

Seattle Chamber Players the new, SCP leads its audiences down some requested by Jimmy and to wear all hats.” But the hats have, if any- unexpected byways—a multimedia collaboration Rosalynn Carter for the thing, multiplied. Last year Laredo was between Louis Andriessen and filmmaker Hal presidential inauguration. appointed to an endowed professorship at Hartley; an environmental installation (For Solo This season marks the the University of Indiana School of Music, Flute, 8 Pottery Wheels and Assorted Vinyls) from thirtieth anniversary for where Robinson has also accepted a faculty sound sculptor Trimpin. the Kalichstein-Laredo- position. To compensate, Laredo finally The group currently has four players at its core: Robinson enterprise. gave up the studio he had maintained Taub, Laura DeLuca () Mikhail Shmidt Next to the venerable at Curtis Institute of Music since 1971. (violin) and David Sabee (cello). Equally important Beaux Arts ensemble, (Trying to maintain both positions is artistic advisor, musicologist Elena Dubinets. In they are certainly the “wouldn’t be fair to the students at either collaboration with the musicians, Dubinets plans nation’s most distin- school,” he confesses.) Frankly, he adds, rigorously thematic programs. This season’s con- guished piano trio. Yet “playing with the trio is the most fun”; but certs include a program of six commissioned works How did the the ensemble was never “teaching is perhaps more important than by emerging and mid-career composers from It’s All Kalichstein- meant to be the musicians’ sole, or even anything else, because it’s what I will leave Scandinavia, the Baltic republics and Russia; a About Laredo-Robinson primary, focus. “When we started out, behind.” weekend of three different “Com-poser Portraits;” Trio get together? says Laredo, “we each had a career.” Laredo and Robinson slow down only a program devoted to 20th- and 21st-century Balance Blame it on man- Paradoxically perhaps, the ensemble’s during summer. “I am not a good ‘crammer’ Italian works; and a collaboration with the agement. It was longevity may well be owed to its mem- as far as music goes,” says Robinson, “that’s Symphony presenting contemporary works from 1975. Violinist Jaime bers’ commitment to why Jaime and I base Central Europe. Aside from its hometown series Laredo and cellist balancing touring with ourselves in Vermont in The sixteen-year history of at Benaroya Hall, SCP this year will head overseas Sharon Robinson all their other activities. the summer and live a Making Seattle Chamber Players for concerts in concerts in Turin, Copenhagen, were slated to play an all-Dvorˇák program In addition to being normal life and build can almost be seen as a long- Imprints Stockholm and at the Autumn Festival. with famed Czech-American pianist chamber musicians, all the next year’s reper- range education in contem- Even though SCP strives to include its core Rudolf Firkusˇny at New York’s 92nd Street are soloists, recitalists, toire.” Kalichstein adds porary music. Starting (in members in each concert, the programming is Y. Five days before the scheduled perform- and educators; and that “keeping things the words of flutist Paul driven by repertoire, not personnel. The strategy ance, Firkusˇny discovered he had been Laredo, who is still fresh and happy is a Taub, a founding member) brings in a wildly eclectic group of collaborators, double-booked and cancelled his trip from artistic director of question of planning as “a group of friends who liked to play chamber ranging from ney player Hossein Omoumi, lead- Europe back to New York. A panicked Chamber Music at the two years ahead of time music,” SCP’s early programs would mix classics ing an ensemble of Persian musicians, to Xenia, Laredo phoned Joseph Kalichstein, whom Y, is a busy guest con- and setting aside the with modern masters like Stravinsky, Bartók, the avant-garde Italian string quartet. he’d once met at a benefit through Isaac ductor and directs both time to work.” Martinuº, eventually adding in the knotty works of It’s a recipe for musical excitement, if not Stern and who he knew had performed the the Vermont Symphony What’s the future late-century composers like Morton Feldman and necessarily for creating a core audience: SCP’s Dvorˇák piano quintet. Kalichstein was and the New York String of chamber music? George Crumb. Slowly but surely, as the years audience demographics tend to change from available: “I knew the quintet but not the Orchestra. Kalichstein, a New have passed, SCP has evolved into Seattle’s go-to concert to concert. A hip, younger crowd helped quartet—but I came,” says Kalichstein. How does the con- Jersey resident who has destination for contemporary chamber music. sell out a John Zorn concert, while Latinos (“Yossi lied. He said he knew the quartet, stant going apart and held the Edwin S. and “It was more an evolution than an about-face,” flocked to Astor Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires too,” recalls Robinson with a laugh.) coming back together Nancy A. Marks Chair says Taub. “My colleagues who play in the Seattle and jazz aficionados to a concert with pianist/ The experience was positive nonetheless. affect things musically? in Chamber Music Symphony get a strong dose of standard repertoire composer Wayne Horvitz. “It’s been a challenge “It was so easy and natural and fun to play “You can put a work away and take it out Studies at Juilliard since 2002, feels that every week. Contemporary music turned us on for us to get people from one area of interest to together,” says Robinson, “that the next again years later,” says Robinson, “and the our field is experiencing a resurgence: and made an imprint in our own lives.” attend other concerts,” says Taub. “We’re happy to year, when Jaime and I started to consider miracle is you find you’ve grown at the “Certainly that was the main point of SCP now focuses resolutely on the music of today, see John Zorn fans come, but disappointed if they the idea of a piano trio, we both thought of same speed and in the same directions— establishing the chair. Historically, chamber typically mixing the works of leading international don’t come back to another concert. Some of them Yossi first.” Kalichstein signed on in which is amazing given the different things music was always at the center of musical composers with world-premiere commissions. Even do, though—which is why our subscription base August 1976; the group began to rehearse we all do. But I think it has nourished the activities,” he observes. “And somewhere a program centered around Shostakovich’s 1971 increases little by little each year.” in September; and—as luck, reputation, trio and not taken away from it.” in the 19th century, we moved away from 15th Symphony—an old work by SCP standards— www.seattlechamberplayers.org and good connections would have it— “As a trio, we self-limit to no more than that. Now we’re coming back.” explored the master’s influence on three current premiered in January 1977 in Washington, forty concert dates a season,” says Kalichstein, Russian-born composers: Pavel Karmanov, Sofia DC, as part of the musical activities “and we also limit our teaching. It’s hard Gubaidulina and Alissa Firsova. In its quest for

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AmericanEnsemble SEGUES Ta ra b is an Arabic word The ensemble formed at the Eastman School of Eight Is So- Percussion’s new member is Josh Quillen, a David Kim, a student of Kim Kashkashian and Carol describing the ecstasy induced Music, and in the years since, its members have Rodland at New England Conservatory, has by beautiful music. Florent established careers throughout the country. percussion improviser and steel pan virtuoso. Quillen Enough recently received his M.M. degree in percussion per- won the 2006 Lionel Tertis International Viola Renard-Payen hoped to evoke Scheduling rehearsals requires the skills of a travel Competition, held on the Isle of Man. Kim was just that state when he gath- agent, but nonetheless, twice a year Tarab gathers for formance from Yale University. He succeeds founding So- member Doug Perkins, who is concentrating on among the young musicians chosen last year to take ered eight cellists together in two weeks, taking over one lucky member’s home. part in Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society II. 2000 to start the Tarab Cello (This summer was San Diego; D.C. is next.) “It’s a a new duo project, The Meehan/Perkins Duo, while Ensemble. Dedicated to com- happy family going on vacation,” says Renard-Payen, teaching and coaching chamber music at Dartmouth College. John Hunt has succeeded the late Ethan Bauch as bas- who is a teacher of cello at Colgate soonist of the New York-based Dorian Wind University and string chamber music Helen Callus Quintet. Hunt is professor of bassoon and chair of coach at Hamilton College. The Violist has been named artistic direc- Centrum the department of winds, brass, and percussion at the rehearsals prepare the ensemble for its tor for classical music for , in Fort Tom Stone Eastman School of Music and serves on the fac- two annual tours, summer and winter. Townsend, Washington. She succeeds , a Cypress String ulty of the Festival–Institute at Round Top, The group has made it a special goal set violinist with the Bay Area–based Quartet Texas. Karl Kramer-Johansen has joined the Dorian to expand the eight-cello repertory by . Stone has recently joined Chamber Music America’s board of directors. Quintet as hornist. An active recitalist, lecturer, con- commissioning new works by American ductor, and composer, he is a member of the Jupiter composers—two a year, although the Symphony Chamber Players. group is always tempted to take on more. David J. Baldwin is now the executive director of the Shriver Hall Concert Series “Every composer who has the opportunity in Baltimore. Baldwin was most recently director of ICM Artists, Eric Lind has been appointed managing director of to write for eight cellos is absolutely Present Music. Lind’s most recent posts were direc- ecstatic,” says Renard-Payen. The list London Ltd. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Baldwin earned a diploma in piano tor of corporate and foundation giving at the includes David Liptak and Dan Milwaukee Repertory Theater and development Trueman, both of whose works Tarab has accompaniment from the Curtis Institute of Music and an MBA from Columbia University. director for the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee’s recorded for Bridge Records. Tarab’s Peck School of the Arts. composers generally work alongside the group preparing the new pieces; this season, along with the Zohn-Muldoon Tarab Cello Ensemble commission, Tarab will work with Martin Scherzinger on a genre-bending missioning and performing new music by American piece based on African rhythms. “He’s asking us to Directory Corrections composers, the octet will have its New York City ‘Africanize ourselves,’” Renard-Payen says. The close debut this January at Alice Tully Hall in the world involvement of the composers with these eight gifted Please note the following On page 263 (“Ensembles, premiere of a work for eight cellos and orchestra by musicians makes Tarab truly, in its founder’s words, corrections to CMA’s 2007 West Virginia”), the email Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. “a family affair.” www.tarabcello.com Membership Directory: address for Susan Gray, of the Kobayashi/Gray Duo, On page 279 (“Presenters, should be: Missouri”), contact information [email protected] for Pro Musica should be: Malcolm Arnold, composer William Howard Parker, French An omitted business member Etta Baker, guitarist horn, Metropolitan Brass Quartet Cynthia H. Schwab, in Missouri is: Miguel Díaz, conga player Léopold Simoneau, tenor founder and artistic director Rufus Harley, jazz bagpipes Ruth Schonthal, pianist and 2700 East 15th Street Mark A. Steiner Duke Jordan, pianist composer Steiner Talent, Inc. Bismillah Khan, shehnai artist Thomas Stewart, baritone Joplin, MO 64804 Milton Kaye, pianist and arranger Ross Tompkins, pianist Tel: 417-623-8865 2733 E. Battlefield Rd. Norman Kelley, tenor Astrid Varnay, soprano Fax: 417-623-0402 Springfield, MO 65804 Alfred Mann, musicologist E-mail: [email protected] (417) 889-9909 Dika Newlin, composer and [email protected] musicologist www.steinertalent.com In Memoriam

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