1Chamber Music Milwaukee

Chamber Music Milwaukee

F e b r u a r y 2 3 , 2 0 1 2 8 p mH e l e n B a d e r C o n c e r t H a l l

with THE ARCAS STRING QUARTET

PROGR A M

Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio, Op. 2 (1932) ..............................Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Margaret Butler, oboe • Margot Schwartz, violinWei-Ting Kuo, viola • Peter Thomas, cello

Quintet for Horn, Violin, 2 Violas and Cello in E-flat Major, K. 407/386c (1782) .....................................Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I. Allegro (1756-1791)II. AndanteIII. Rondo: Allegro

Greg Flint, horn • Ilana Setapen, violinWei-Ting Kuo, viola • Jenny Kozoroz, viola

Peter Thomas, cello

- Intermission-

Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B Minor, Op. 115 (1891) ......................................................... Johannes Brahms

I. Allegro (1833-1897)II. Adagio- Più LentoIII. Andantino- Presto non assai, ma con sentimentoIV. Con Moto

Todd Levy, clarinet • Ilana Setapen, violinMargot Schwartz, violin • Wei-Ting Kuo, viola

Peter Thomas, cello

2 UWM Peck School of the Arts

PROGR A M NOTES

Written by Timothy Noonan, Senior Lecturer – Music History and Literature

Britten, Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio, Op. 2In his late teens Benjamin Britten studied at the Royal College of Music in London. He was fascinated with Beethoven and Brahms and had difficulty with some modern works by Schoenberg and Stravinsky. At the conclusion of his second year at the College, he won the Cobbett Chamber Music Prize for a work for string quintet. His first major work was his Sinfonietta, Op. 1, written in the summer of 1932, a work influenced by early Schoenberg. Later that year, he composed what would be his first published chamber work, the present Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio, Op. 2, completing it in October. Composed over a two-month period of extensive revision and rewriting, the work received its premiere over the BBC the following August. The oboist on that occasion was Leon Goosens, for whom Britten wrote the piece. Set in a single movement, the Phantasy begins with a silent measure, as though the listener is straining to hear a faint sound, and then the cello begins, very quietly. The viola and violin then enter in turn, and when the oboe joins in, it presents the main theme, still at a soft dynamic level. Section-alized, and incorporating changes of tempo, the work proceeds to a return of this theme toward the end, again in the oboe, and the work ends much as it began, with the instru-ments dropping out one by one and concluding with the very soft cello.

Quintet for Horn, Violin, 2 Violas and Cello in E-flat Major, K. 407/386cMozart composed his only horn quintet in late 1782, during his first full year in Vien-na, after having moved from his native Salzburg in March 1781. He was a newlywed: he and Constanze Weber married in August 1782. The quintet stands beside Mo-zart’s other major chamber works for winds and strings, including the Oboe Quartet K. 370, at least three flute quartets, and the Clarinet Quintet, K. 581. The Horn Quintet was written for the hornist Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb (1732-1811), who was also a native of Salzburg and went to Vienna. Often the target of Mozart’s joking insults, Leutgeb coupled his horn playing with operating a cheese shop in Vienna.

The Quintet is scored unusually, for a violin, two violas, a cello, and the horn. Perhaps the extra viola line is intended to complement the horn’s timbre by enriching the middle string register. The work, in three movements without a minuet, combines elements of traditional chamber music, serenade, and horn concerto. In the first movement, the horn takes a leading role, often engaging in dialogue with the first violin. As we often find in Mozart’s sonata forms, the development section is fairly brief and prepares strongly for the arrival of the recapitulation. In the slow movement, the strings present a theme that the horn then takes up, not unlike the approach taken in some concerto slow movements. And the finale, cast in rondo form, begins with a jolly refrain presented by the horn, and continues to a contrast-ing B section in the dominant key. The C section is in the traditional minor key, and after the last refrain, a fugal passage leads to the Quintet’s rousing conclusion.

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3Chamber Music Milwaukee

Brahms, Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B Minor, Op. 115Johannes Brahms declared himself retired from composition late in 1890 and again in 1894. In both cases, the musicianship of Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907), clarinetist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra (conducted by Hans von Bülow), inspired him to return to composition. The results were four works now firmly in the standard rep-ertoire: the Clarinet Trio, Op. 114, and the present Quintet, Op. 115, both composed in the summer of 1891, and the two sonatas for clarinet (or viola) Op. 120 of 1894.

The first movement of this great quintet begins by emphasizing the two notes of the B-minor chord that it shares with the D-major chord, D and F-sharp. By initially avoiding the tonic B, he creates the impression that the music is in D major, a device of tonal deception (that Haydn used in two of his quartets, both also in B minor), and the exposition of this sonata form moves to D major for the second theme. In the coda, an intense climax on the main theme appears, and the move-ment ends on soft, dark B-minor chords. In the slow movement the clarinet sings the lyrical theme with the muted strings providing harmonic support that mixes triplets and duplets in characteristic Brahmsian fashion, giving way to a more restless middle section at a somewhat slower tempo, and then a return of the opening material, resulting in an A-B-A scheme. The third movement follows this same plan. The clarinet, accompanied by the viola and cello, presents a tuneful initial idea in D, and the B section, in which the clarinet initially does not partici-pate, is much faster and in the minor mode. This central section carries out a sonata form unto itself before the A material returns to round out the movement. (It is noteworthy that all four movements of this autumnal work end quietly). The finale is a theme with five variations, an approach perhaps modeled on the varia-tion finale of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. After the fifth variation, as a coda, Brahms recalls the opening of the first movement, and the ending of the two movements is intriguingly similar. This Quintet, a major work of the 19th-century chamber music literature, achieves its effects subtly, carefully interrelating its elements with ever a hint of the melancholy of the end of a career.

PROGR A M NOTES (c o n t.)

B IOGR APHIES

Arcas String QuartetIn 2009 the newest members of the Milwaukee Symphony discovered a shared affinity for chamber music, and they decided to form a string quartet. Peter Thomas, Ilana Setapen and Margot Schwartz were the original creators, and Wei-Ting Kuo joined the quartet when he came into the orchestra in 2010. Since their formation they have performed at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, The Villa Terrace, The First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, St. John’s on the Lake, and UW-Milwaukee’s Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts. Their passion for chamber music has also led them to multiple collaborations with Chamber Music Milwaukee. In mythology, Arcas was the son of the god Zeus and the nymph Callisto. Zeus turned both his mother and him into the two constellations we know as Ursa Major

and Ursa Minor, or the big and little dipper. The quartet chose the name Arcas for its resemblance to the term “arco,” or “with the bow.”

Margaret Butler, oboeOboist Margaret Butler grew up in the New England area where she began her studies on the recorder and flute. A love for the sound of the Baroque oboe led her to study the modern oboe. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Margaret participated in the Banff Summer Music Festival where she was a featured soloist and has also played in Graz, Austria with the Ameri-can Institute of Musical Studies. She was principal oboist for the Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet and Palm Beach Opera before joining the Milwaukee

4 UWM Peck School of the Arts

B IOGR APHIES (c o n t.)

Symphony Orchestra in 2002. In 2007 she was Principal Oboist for the Santa Fe Opera Company and was guest principal oboist for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She was a former member of the Bach Babes and currently teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Gregory Flint, hornGregory Flint is associate professor of horn at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and co-director of the Chamber Music Milwaukee concert series. As a performer, he is currently principal horn with the Elgin Symphony, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Pres-ent Music of Milwaukee and the Fulcrum Point New Music Project. He often performs with the Milwaukee Symphony, and has also appeared with the Chicago Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Honolulu Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. A busy chamber musician, Flint is a founding member of the critically ac-claimed Asbury Brass Quintet, hornist with the Tower Brass of Chicago, and has also toured regularly with the Prairie Winds and the Chicago Brass Quintet.

Past summers have included solo ap-pearances in Spain, Costa Rica and South America. Gregory currently spends his summer months in New Mexico as a member of the Santa Fe Opera orchestra.

Wei-Ting Kuo, violaWei-Ting Kuo was born in Taiwan, where he began his viola studies at the age of 9. He quickly gained recognition after winning the first prize in the Taiwan Viola Competition and attracted critical attention as the first violist to win the first prizes in the Hsing-Tien-Gong String Competition, the Young Artist Showcase String Competition, and the National Taiwan Normal University String Competition. He was awarded and recognized as the ‘Most Potential Young Musician’ by the members of the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra. He attended the Taos Music Festival in 2008 and recently was selected as a finalist for the 2008 Primrose International Viola Competition. In 2009, Kuo was a prizewinner of the Tokyo International Viola Competition and also received a special prize for the best interpretation.

In 2009 he also attended the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. Currently Kuo is the Assistant Principal Violist in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Todd Levy, clarinetPrincipal Clarinet of the Milwaukee Stm-phony Orchestra and The Santa Fe Opera orchestras, two-time Grammy Award winner Todd Levy has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Mostly Mozart, with the Israel Philharmonic, and at the White House; as chamber musician with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Miami quartets, James Levine, Christoph Eschenbach, and Mitsuko Uchida; and as guest principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Op-era, and frequently for Seiji Ozawa and Ricardo Muti in Japan. He has performed world premiere concerti or chamber works by composers such as John Harbison, Joan Tower, Peter Schickele, Paquito D’Rivera, Morton Subotnick, and Marc Neikrug and performs on the new release of Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses chamber work with violinist Pinchas Zuckerman, actor John Rubenstein and the composer conducting.

He has recorded the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas for Avie, and three educational book/CD’s of clarinet competition works for G. Schirmer/Hal Leonard, and a new edition/CD of the Bernstein Clarinet Sonata for Boosey and Hawkes/Hal Leonard. He performs exclusively on Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and liga-tures, and Selmer Signature clarinets. He is also on the faculty of UW-Mil-waukee and is co-director of Chamber Music Milwaukee. For a more complete biography, visit toddlevy.org.

Margot Schwartz, violinA native of Oakland, California, violinist Margot Schwartz is currently a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as soloist with the Berkeley Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Northwestern University Chamber and Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestras. As a chamber musician, in which capacity she has performed extensively on both violin and viola, she was a winner of the Yale School of Music’s Chamber Music Competition and has performed at New York’s Bargemusic and at the Kennedy

5Chamber Music Milwaukee

B IOGR APHIES (c o n t.)

Center. Margot has performed orchestrally in over twenty countries, as well as on a substitute basis with some of the nation’s top orchestras, and has taught violin at the Music Institute of Chicago and Homestead High School in Mequon. Her summer plans this year include performances in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brainerd, Minnesota, Bellingham, Washington, and Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Margot holds a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Ani Kavafian, and a Bachelor’s degree which she earned cum laude at the Northwestern University School of Music, where she was a student of Roland and Almita Vamos.

Ilana Setapen, violinSince her solo orchestral debut at age 15 with the Amarillo Symphony, Ilana Setapen has been flourishing as a violinist with a powerful and original voice. She is currently the Associate Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Assistant Concertmaster of the Grant Park Festival Orchestra in Chicago.

Recently, Setapen has made solo appearances with the Milwaukee Symphony, the Riverside Philharmonic, the Pasadena Pops, the American Youth Symphony, the Idaho Falls Symphony, and the National Repertory Orchestra, among others. She is also a frequent performer on the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series in Chicago.

Setapen has won top prizes in many competitions, such as the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the Pasadena Showcase Competition, and the Kingsville International Competition. At the

age of 21, she became concertmaster of the Riverside Philharmonic in Los Angeles. She has also held concertmaster positions with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Colburn Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the USC Thornton Symphony.

Also a passionate chamber musician, Setapen was for two years the first violinist of the award-winning Calla Quartet in New York. Her talent has also led her to collaborations with such distinguished artists as Ron Leonard, Lynn Harrell, Toby Appel, Peter Stumpf, Paul Coletti, the Fine Arts Quartet, Frank Almond, Joe Johnson, Todd Levy, and David Geber. Solo and chamber music performances have brought her abroad to France, Brazil, Holland, England, Monaco, and Italy. She performs on a 1624 Brothers Amati violin on loan from Frank Almond.

Jennifer Snyder Kozoroz, violaKozoroz began her studies at the age of 4. She completed her high school studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy and her Bachelor of Music degree in viola perfor-mance at Ohio State University. She then went on to receive her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School where she was a student of Karen Tuttle.

Before moving back to her native Mil-waukee, she was Assistant Principal violist with the Virginia Symphony, violist and founding member of the Ambrosia String Trio, which performed in the U.S. and abroad, and violist with the Harrington String Quartet.

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6 UWM Peck School of the Arts

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PECK SCHOOL OF THE ARTS ADMINISTR ATION

Wade Hobgood ............................................................................................................................DeanScott Emmons ..........................................................................................................Associate DeanMary McCoy ...................................................................................................Assistant to the DeanSue Thomas ..................................................................................................Administrative OfficerEllen Friebert Schupper....................... Director of Marketing and Community Relations Nicole Schanen...............................................................................................Marketing SpecialistDiane Grace ................................................................................................ Development DirectorKen Otte ................................................................................................................Creative SpecialistRandall Trumbull-Holper ................................................................................ Facilities ManagerTianna Conway ................................................................................................ Box Office ManagerMaria Corpus, Tom Gray, Mike Gold, ..................................................................Box Office StaffBrianna Husman, Lauren Messner, Chris Ouchie, Nick Ouchie, Clair Paul, Chelsey Porth, Bob Schaab

Kozoroz has performed with the Milwau-kee Symphony, the Columbus Symphony, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, The Ritz Chamber Players, Norfolk Chamber Consort, Virginia Chamber Players, The Arcas String Quartet, Venus Chamber Players, on the Feldman Chamber series, with Chamberworks and Manhat-tan Virtuosi. She has participated in music festivals such as; The Breckenridge Music Festival, The National Orchestral Institute, The Aspen Music Festival, The National Repertory Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan and The Interlochen Arts Camp. Kozoroz is a seven time scholar-ship winner of the American Symphony Orchestra League and grant recipient from the International Congress of Symphony and Orchestra Musicians. She was also an ASTA scholarship recipient and has been honored as an Outstanding Young Woman of America. Kozoroz continues to be a strong advocate and advisor for the Sphinx Organization (Music Scholarship Assis-tance Fund) which aids in the mentoring and financial support of minority student musicians in America.

Peter Thomas, celloOriginally from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where he started to play the cello in 1986 at age five, Peter Thomas was born into a family of musicians. He graduated from the ASTEC Suzuki Education Program in 1999 studying under Dr. Lawrence Leviton and went on to win numerous scholarships and competitions as an undergraduate at the University of

Minnesota-Twin Cities. Thomas received his bachelor of music degree in 2003, having studied with Tanya Remenikova and Joseph Johnson, Principal Cello of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In 2005 he earned a master of music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the guidance of Stephen Geber, Principal Cello (retired) of the Cleveland Orchestra. Thomas was appointed to the cello section of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2005, and won the position of Assistant Principal Cello of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra in March 2006. In October 2007, Thomas moved to Miami Beach and joined the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, where he performed Elgar’s Cello Concerto as the NWS 2008 Concerto Competition winner. As of November 2008, Mr. Thomas resides in Milwaukee after winning a section cello position in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician and experimental collaborator, Thomas can be heard with his string quartet, the Arcas Quartet, and his classically infused indie-rock band, I’m Not A Pilot, in the Milwaukee area and on many local radio stations. Thomas is also a dedicated teacher and his students have won competitions and scholarships in Ohio, Florida, Oregon, and Wisconsin. During the summer, Thomas performs with the Sun Valley Symphony in Idaho and he will be performing Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No.1 with the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra in April 2011.

7Chamber Music Milwaukee

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC FACULT Y AND TEACHING STAFF

EnsemblesJohn Climer, BandsScott Corley, BandsMargery Deutsch, OrchestrasCurt Hanrahan, Jazz BandGloria Hansen, ChoirsSharon Hansen, ChoirsDavid Nunley, ChoirsPaul Thompson, Choirs

GuitarPeter BaimeBeverly BelferPete BillmannElina ChekanRené IzquierdoDon LinkeJohn Stropes

HarpAnn Lobotzke+

Jazz StudiesCurt Hanrahan, Jazz Ensemble/

Jazz ArrangingSteve Nelson-Raney, Jazz Theory

and History

Music EducationJill AndersonScott EmmonsSheila Feay-ShawJeffrey GartheeCatherine RobertsonBeth SacharskiBonnie Scholz

Music History and LiteratureMitchell BraunerJudith KuhnTimothy NoonanGillian RodgerMartin Jack Rosenblum

Music Theory, Composition and TechnologyJames BurmeisterChristopher BurnsLou CucunatoWilliam HeinrichsJonathan MonhardtSteve Nelson-RaineyKevin SchleiAmanda SchoofsJon Welstead*

PianoElena AbendJudit JaimesLeslie KruegerPeggy OtwellJeffry PetersonMaría Valentina Schlei

StringsScott Cook, String Pedagogy^Darcy Drexler, String Pedagogy^Stefan Kartman, CelloThomas McGirr, Jazz BassLewis Rosove, ViolaLaura Snyder, String Bass+Bernard Zinck, Violin

Fine Arts QuartetRalph Evans, ViolinEfim Boico, ViolinNicolò Eugelmi, ViolaRobert Cohen, Cello

VoiceKerry BienemanValerie ErranteJenny GettelConstance HaasTanya Kruse RuckKurt Ollmann

Winds, Brass and PercussionStephen Ahearn, ClarinetDave Bayles, PercussionDean Borghesani, Percussion+Margaret Butler, Oboe+Marty Erickson, Tuba & EuphoniumGregory Flint, HornBeth Giacobassi, Bassoon+Curt Hanrahan, SaxophoneKevin Hartman, TrumpetMark Hoelscher, TromboneTodd Levy, Clarinet+Ted Soluri, Bassoon+Carl Storniolo, PercussionCaen Thomason-Redus, FluteThomas Wetzel, Percussion+

*Department Chair+Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra^String Academy of Wisconsin

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