SHARING THE SPOTLIGHT BRINTON AVERIL SMITH, Cello EVELYN CHEN, Piano (guest) SCOTT MCCREARY, Cello PETER GARRETT, Cello “Music of France” Thursday, February 6, 2014 8:00 p.m. Lillian H. Duncan Recital Hall PROGRAM Theme and Variations Jean-Baptiste Bréval (1753-1823) Morceau de lecture Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Scott McCreary, cello Peter Garrett, cello Sonata in A Minor (1856) Édouard Lalo Andante non troppo – Allegro moderato (1823-1892) Andante Allegro Sérénade, Op. 7 Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937) Beau Soir Claude Debussy (1862-1918) arr. Heifetz Le petit âne blanc (Histoires) Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) arr. Heifetz INTERMISSION Sonata in A Major (1886) César Franck Allegretto ben moderato (1822-1890) Allegro Recitativo-Fantasia: Ben moderato Allegretto poco mosso Tzigane – Rapsodie de Concert Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) arr. Varga The reverberative acoustics of Duncan Recital Hall magnify the slightest sound made by the audience. Your care and courtesy will be appreciated. The taking of photographs and use of recording equipment are prohibited. BIOGRAPHIES The New York Times hailed EVELYN CHEN as “a pianist to watch,” praising her “brilliant technique, warm, clear tone, and exacting musical intelligence.” Ms. Chen’s recent engagements have included performances on five continents at venues including Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Wolf Trap, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, the Central Conservatory Concert Hall in Beijing, the Cultural Center of Hong Kong, and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. A Steinway Artist, Ms. Chen has performed with numerous orchestras in- cluding the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Nation- al Symphony Orchestra (upon Mstislav Rostropovich’s recommendation), the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the New Zealand Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, and the San Diego Symphony, and has collaborated with renowned conductors including Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Zdeněk Mácal, Joseph Silverstein, Henry Mazer, Alberto Bolet, Enrique Bátiz, and JoAnn Falletta. Ms. Chen’s recent recordings have received critical acclaim internation- ally, and her recording of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos with Leonard Slatkin and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London on BMG was among the top ten best-selling classical recordings in England. Ms. Chen has been fea- tured on the CBS Evening News, and her performances have been broadcast by National Public Radio affiliates WGBH (Boston), WQXR (New York), WNYC (New York), WNCN (New York), WFMT (Chicago), and WGTS (Washington, D.C.), as well as throughout Taiwan and Great Britain (Classic FM). Ms. Chen has performed before prominent dignitaries including the Princess of Thailand and the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Ms. Chen has been a winner of several international competitions, in- cluding First Prize in the 1981 Bach International Competition in Washington, D.C. Ms. Chen is the recipient of the 1994 Petschek Award at the Juilliard School, where she received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Having re- ceived a Bachelor of Arts degree in composition from Harvard University, Ms. Chen is currently Associate Professor of Piano at Teachers College, Columbia University. Hailed by New York Newsday for “extraordinary musicianship...force- ful, sophisticated and entirely in the spirit of the music,” American cellist BRINTON AVERIL SMITH’s performances have drawn rave reviews around the world, praising virtuosic performances and musical ideals rooted in the golden age of string playing. Smith’s debut recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Cello Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on Koch Classics won widespread international critical acclaim, including the annual Gramophone Awards Issue which praised Smith as a “hugely eloquent, impassioned solo- ist,” and continued, “The sheer bravura of Smith’s reading is infectious.” His recording of Fauré’s Piano Trio and Après un Rêve with Gil Shaham was selected as one of BBC Music magazine’s best albums of the year and the American Record Guide praised their performance as “Stunningly beautiful”. Mr. Smith has appeared regularly as a soloist with the Houston Sympho- ny since joining the orchestra as principal cellist in 2005. Prior to this, he was the first musician chosen by Lorin Maazel to join the New York Philhar- monic and the principal cellist of the San Diego and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Smith’s North American engagements have included per- formances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Centre for the Arts and with orchestras throughout the country. A passionate advocate of compelling unfamiliar repertoire, Mr. Smith gave the North American premieres of rediscovered works of Jean Sibelius and Alexander Zemlinsky at the Shepherd School and his performances have been broadcast on CBS's Sunday Morning and on the radio throughout the U.S., including NPR’s Performance Today and Symphonycast. An active chamber musician, Smith has collaborated with violinist Gil Shaham on numerous occasions including Carnegie Hall’s Gil Shaham and Friends series. He has also collaborated with cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell, violinists Cho-Liang Lin, James Ehnes and Sarah Chang, soprano Dawn Upshaw and members of the Beaux Arts Trio and the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland, and Berg quartets. Smith has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marl- boro Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the New York Philharmonic Chamber Series, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, El Paso Pro Musica, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Brevard Music Festival and the Texas Mu- sic Festival and is an artistic director of the Restoration Chamber Music festival in Galveston. As a student, he was a prize winner in the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition and in several consecutive Juilliard concerto competitions and was invited to perform at the American Cello Congress. Mr. Smith is currently a member of the faculty at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and has given masterclasses through- out the United States, including at the Aspen Music Festival, the New World Symphony and the National Orchestral Institute. The son of a mathematician and a pianist, Brinton Averil Smith was admitted to Arizona State University at age 10, where he took courses in mathematics and German and, at age 17, completed a B.A. in mathemat- ics. He then became a student of Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, where he was also a teaching assistant in the math- ematics department, and completed work for an M.A. in mathematics at age 19. He subsequently studied with the renowned cellist Zara Nelsova at The Juilliard School, where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, writing on the playing of Emanuel Feuermann. Mr. Smith resides in Hous- ton with his wife, the pianist Evelyn Chen and their daughter, Calista. For further information, please visit www.brintonaverilsmith.com .