2013 Annual Report

David Finckel & Wu Han, Artistic Directors • Edward P. Sweeney, Executive Director 2013 ANNUAL REPORT “The world-class chamber music festival and institute featured an innovative approach to showcasing the breadth of Bach’s work and his tremendous artistic influence on generations of Western composers.” —SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS MUSIC@MENLO concert program vii: die kunst der fuge. Mission 2013 Summer Festival Summary To expand the chamber music community and to enhance the Music@Menlo’s 2013 season, From Bach, celebrates the timeless enjoyment and understanding of the art form by championing the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, the composer whose profound highest artistic quality in live performance, promoting in-depth legacy has shaped Western music over the two and a half centuries audience engagement with the music and artists, and providing since his death. intensive training for aspiring professional musicians and industry To the ears of many modern listeners, the canon begins with leaders. Bach, and arguably every major musical innovation has borne his influence. Whether in the craftsmanship of composers from Haydn Overview to Mendelssohn, the sonic magnitude of Brahms, Bartók, and Celebrating its eleventh season this year, Music@Menlo has Shostakovich, or even the sensual allure of Debussy, Richard Strauss, become an internationally acclaimed summer festival and institute and George Gershwin, Bach’s legacy endures. The 2013 summer combining world-class chamber music performances, extensive season examined that legacy, mining the depths of Bach’s art from audience engagement, intensive training for preprofessional the perspective of the generations of great composers who followed. musicians, and a variety of activities which have broadened and Through eight Concert Programs, five Carte Blanche Concerts, enhanced the chamber music community of the San Francisco Bay and four Encounters, festival participants had the opportunity to Area and beyond. experience more music in the festival’s three weeks than ever before. Music@Menlo was founded on the conviction that, while great In the festival’s signature fashion, the depth and content of music offers aesthetic pleasure and spiritual renewal at the most Music@Menlo’s ancillary offerings provided opportunities for basic listening level, deeper engagement with the art form opens discovery and engagement unique to Music@Menlo. Through doors to inspiration and enlightenment. Great music generates public Institute activities including master classes and Café connections with cultures across ages and continents and culti- Conversations and extended offerings including the Listening Room vates fluency in new and diverse creative languages. It enhances and AudioNotes, fifty professional musicians, six emerging young our understanding of Western history, intensifies the enjoyment of professional alumni-faculty members, thirteen preprofessional well-known works, and increases the appetite for and capacity to be musicians, thirty-two Young Performers, twenty-five interns, and engaged by unfamiliar music. thousands of audience members enjoyed exploring music through a lens of their own emotional responses. An immersive experience centered on distinctive thematic pro- gramming, Music@Menlo enriches its core concert offerings with myriad opportunities for in-depth learning to intensify audiences’ enjoyment and understanding of the music. The festival’s partic- ular brand of enrichment complements core content, providing new ways for longtime concertgoers and newcomers of all ages to explore chamber music. 2 2013 ANNUAL REPORT cellist colin carr leads a master class. carte blanche concert i: percussion complexities. 2013 Summer Festival Activities CHAMBER MUSIC INSTITUTE Forty-five conservatory-level performers and promising young MAIN-STAGE EVENTS musicians, ages nine to twenty-nine, participated in the 2013 International Program and Young Performers Program of the Thematically Organized Chamber Music Concert Programs — In Chamber Music Institute. The Institute offers an intensive program 2013, Music@Menlo explored the legacy of Bach through a total of where students have unparalleled opportunities to hone their thirteen performances of eight Concert Programs in three venues. musical skills through daily individual and ensemble coachings. They Each Concert Program reflected Bach’s influence on the entire attend all festival concerts and lectures, appear before and interact trajectory of music history. with large festival audiences, and receive ongoing professional Carte Blanche Concerts — This series included five performances by a mentoring. cadre of today’s most exciting musicians. Percussionists Christopher Faculty-Coaches and Artist-Faculty — The Institute provides Froh, Ayano Kataoka, and Ian Rosenbaum performed on an array students with direct and sustained contact with leading musicians of percussion instruments, portraying the vitality of the Baroque and musicologists. Most artists on the festival’s elite roster of main- master’s impact in the twentieth century. Violinist Soovin Kim stage performers instruct and collaborate with students in coaching made his Music@Menlo debut with a formidable recital program sessions, master classes, and other Institute activities. This year, traversing the evolution of the solo violin repertoire. Colin Carr, six Chamber Music Institute alumni returned as faculty-coaches who inaugurated Music@Menlo’s Carte Blanche Concert series in for the Young Performers Program, and International Program 2004 with an unforgettable marathon performance of the complete alumna Gloria Chien (’06) continued as Chamber Music Institute Bach Cello Suites, revisited two of them as part of the 2013 season’s Director. Again this year, renowned pianist Gilbert Kalish returned Bachian journey. In “Into the Light,” violinist Jorja Fleezanis curated as International Program Director, and all six members of the and led our fourth Carte Blanche Concert by examining music’s coaching faculty joined Music@Menlo’s main-stage professional mysterious power to give voice to the human condition, from our artist roster. darkest and most introspective moments to our most radiant. The final Carte Blanche of the season welcomed distinguished cellist International Program — Thirteen students, with an average age of Laurence Lesser, renowned for his probing explorations of the Bach twenty-five, participated in the International Program. They came Suites in concert and on recordings, to complete the summer’s cycle to the Institute from prestigious educational institutions including of Bach’s Cello Suites in a provocative program. the Juilliard School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, and the Peabody Conservatory. All International Michael Steinberg Encounter Series — Encounters, Music@Menlo’s Program participants attended the Institute at no cost, through signature series of multimedia symposia led by classical music’s generous support provided by contributions to the Ann S. Bowers most renowned authorities, embody the festival’s context-rich Young Artist Fund. approach to musical discovery and add an integral dimension to the Music@Menlo experience. The 2013 festival season’s four Young Performers Program — Thirty-two students, with an average Encounters explored Bach’s enduring legacy and significance in age of fifteen, participated in the Young Performers Program, nineteen our time, giving audiences context for the season’s eight Concert of whom were from the San Francisco Bay Area. Through special Programs. These ticketed events continue to be some of the most funding from the Tenth-Anniversary Campaign, eleven students from sought-after programs at the festival. This year, Music@Menlo outside the Bay Area were provided housing in nearby Menlo College welcomed Ara Guzelimian, Stuart Isacoff, Michael Parloff, and dormitory facilities. Twenty-seven Young Performer families were Artistic Administrator Patrick Castillo as Encounter Leaders. awarded full or partial need-based financial support and/or merit- based scholarships from the Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund. 3 MUSIC@MENLO interns mingle with music@menlo patrons at a postconcert event. wu han leads a master class. Concerts by Chamber Music Institute Participants — This year, and featured acclaimed cellist Laurence Lesser and percussionists Institute students performed in three Koret Young Performers Christopher Froh, Ayano Kataoka, and Ian Rosenbaum, with Patrick Concerts and seventeen Prelude Performances, all of which were Castillo. Live webcasts were offered of all Café Conversations. free and open to the public. Master Classes (FREE) — The festival’s artist-faculty led eleven master classes in 2013. Live webcasts were offered of all master classes. ARTS ADMINISTRATION INTERNSHIP PROGRAM Visual Artist — Each season, Music@Menlo invites a distinguished Twenty-five college students and recent college graduates contemporary visual artist to exhibit a selection of works during the participated in the 2013 Arts Administration Internship Program. festival and showcases the artist’s work in the festival’s publications. Interns were trained in all aspects of arts administration including In 2013, artist Sebastian Spreng’s work was featured in the season’s artist services, development, event planning and catering, marketing promotional materials, including the brochure, program book, and and merchandising, operations, patron services, photography and season poster, as well as on note cards, the Music@Menlo website,

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