2002
Festival
Season
2002
Concert Schedule
2002
Artists
2002 Artists
THE ARTISTS
Evelina Chao, Assistant Principal Violist of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, joined that ensemble in 1980. Also an accomplished violinist, Chao was formerly Acting Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony, and toured the United States and Europe as first violinist of the Amici Quartet. Chao has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony, Arlington Symphony, Fairfax Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has presented recitals at the Phillips Gallery, in Washington, D.C., and in New York. She has also appeared in chamber music concerts with Pinchas Zukerman, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, Scholomo Mintz, Yo Yo Ma, Steven Doane, Seyda Ruga Suzuki, and William Preucil. In the summers, Chao has performed at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and for the past six years has taught and performed at the Madeline Island Music Camp. In the Twin Cities, Ms. Chao has appeared as guest artist with the Chopin Society, The Musical Offering chamber ensemble, the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, and Sommerfest. A graduate of the Juilliard School, where she was a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay and Ivan Galamian, Chao is also a novelist. Her first novel, Gates of Grace, was published in 1985. She completed her second novel in 1990, and is currently at work on a fictional memoir. In 2001, she received certification as a life coach through Coaches Training Institute and established a private practice serving clients to reach their personal and professional goals.
Physicist and violin maker William Frederick (Jack) Fry is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where, in 1952, he established the Experimental High Energy Physics Program. This group, of which he was Principal Investigator (Director) for 43 years, became the second largest in the U.S., with yearly support of $6.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. Fry was also instrumental in establishing High Energy physics programs at Padova and Milan Universities. He has been advisor to many leading physics laboratories and has published an lectured throughout the world. Fry's work on violin acoustics began in 1965. He has applied principles of acoustics and physics to the complex problems of string instrument construction. His work has been featured on PBS Nova (The Great Violin Mystery) and he has presented 250 public lectures on his violin research in twenty-three states and six countries. In 1992 Rose Mary Harbison performed her Berlin Radio American Music concert (still in circulation in Germany) on a Fry instrument. Fry is also a discerning collector of everything from rare books to early 20th century fountain pens. Recently he donated his unique collection of Italian fascist period materials to the University of Wisconsin Library.
From an early age, Ross Gilliland, bass, was surrounded by music, and the mellifluous low voice of a certain classical music radio personality. Would this be the reason he soon showed great talent for the deepest pitches of the string family, beginning a journey (encumbered by a very large travel companion, the only string design unchanged since medieval times) that has taken him to many locations? He has performed with the Madison Symphony, the Madison Savoyards, and has served as principal bassist in the University of Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Beloit-Janesville Symphony Orchestra. He is currently attending the University of Wisconsin, studying string bass performance under Richard Davis, as well as Physics. Ross can also be found impressing crowds of young people across the nation playing electric bass in his Ska band.
Pianist Judith Gordon was chosen as "Musician of the Year" of 1996 by the Boston Globe. The wide range of composers with whom she has worked or who have written music for her includes John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Libby Larsen, Peter Lieberson and Martin Brody. She has appeared in concert with many artists and ensembles including mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, soprano Lisa Saffer, cellists Andres Diaz and Yo-Yo Ma, violist Cynthia Phelps, violinists Rose Mary Harbison and Andrew Kohji Taylor, oboist Douglas Boyd, the Borromeo, Lydian and St. Lawrence string quartets, and many members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Gordon gave her New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Introductions' Series. She has appeared at Weill Hall in New York, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum, and regularly performs in the many concert halls of Boston. She has been soloist with the Boston Pops, as well as with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and has been invited numerous times to perform on the FleetBoston Celebrity Series, including her 2001 recital "Judith Gordon and Friends", which featured specially commissioned new songs by Martin Brody, Alan Fletcher, David Horne, and Lee Hyla alongside the music of Brahms, Ravel, and John Harbison. This season, Ms. Gordon has appeared in festivals at Spoleto USA (SC), Innsbrook (MO), Charlottesville (VA), Rockport (ME), and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival (NM).
Composer John Harbison is artistic co-director of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival. Among his principal works are four string quartets, large orchestral works, three operas, and a cantata, The Flight Into Egypt, which earned him the Pulitzer Prize (1987). Other awards include the Kennedy Center Friedheim First Prize (1980), a MacArthur Fellowship (1989), and the Heinz Award (1997). Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood, Marlboro, Aspen, Ojai, and Santa Fe Festivals, and the American Academy in Rome. Fifty of his pieces have been recorded on Nonesuch, Northeastern, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Koch, Albany, and CRI labels. His opera, The Great Gatsby, returned to the Metropolitan Opera in April 2002. Four Psalms, for the fiftieth anniversary of the State of Israel, was performed in December 2001 by the Choral Union and UW-Madison Symphony, Beverly Taylor, conducting. Premieres in 2002 include String Quartet No. 4 at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and a new motet at Emmanuel Church, Boston. This past May Harbison was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from UW-Madison. He has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cantata Singers, and the Handel and Haydn Society. Harbison is Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves on the board of directors of the Koussevitsky Foundation and is President of the Copland Fund.
Rose Mary Harbison, violin, is artistic co-director of the Token Creek Festival. She has recorded for DDG, CRI, Koch, Northeastern, and New World. Her recent releases include recordings of John Harbison's Fantasy Duo (with Robert Levin) and Concerto for Violin. Her recording of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto is due for release on Koch. Among her concert partners are Leonard Stein, Judith Gordon, Ursula Oppens, and Robert Levin. She appeared as soloist with the Oakland, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh Symphonies, and has worked directly with many composers, including Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions. She has been guest artist with the Santa Fe, Aspen, Tanglewood, and Berlin Festivals. She performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group in Vienna's historic Secession Museum. With Rudolph Kolisch she founded the Kolisch Ensemble, and is a founding member of Emmanuel Music Boston, with whom she performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto in November 2000. Harbison has taught at Brandeis University and MIT, and was a Scholar at the Radcliffe Institute and winner of an Ingram-Merrill Award. She has taught chamber music at Tanglewood: in 1992 specializing in recent music, and as part of Emmanuel Music's Bach Institute in 2001 and 2002 In January of 2001 she performed at the 92nd Street Y, New York, on the series Ned Rorem Presents. This season, with Rhonda Rider and Robert Levin, she played Schubert's Piano Trio in Eb on the seventh year of Emmanuel Music's Schubert Series.
Cellist Parry Karp is Professor of Music, Artist-in-Residence, and director of the string chamber music program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. He became a member of the Pro Arte Quartet in 1976. Mr. Karp received his early training in Vienna, Austria and continued his studies with Peter Farrell in Urbana, Illinois. He studied first at the University of Michigan, then at the University of Illinois as a scholarship student of Gabriel Magyar. He was awarded the Kate Neal Kinley fellowship for excellence in the arts and won the National String Artist Competition in 1977. Parry Karp frequently performs solo recitals in the United States and Canada, and has performed as soloist with the San Salvador Symphony and many symphony orchestras in the United States and abroad. Recently, he gave the premiere of Lloyd Ultan's Cello Concerto, the second performance of John Harbison's new Cello Concerto, and performed at the International Enescu Festival. During his tenure with the Pro Arte Quartet he has recorded prolifically, most recently works of Roger Sessions, Samuel Rhodes, Walter Mays and Antonin Dvorak. As a solo recording artist, he has recorded works of Frank Bridge, Rebecca Clarke, Ernest Chausson, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alberic Magnard, Richard Strauss, and John Ireland. His recently completed a CD recording of Ernest Bloch's cello music will be released by Laurel Records later this year. Recent performances include the Six Suites for cello of J.S. Bach, the Dvorak Concerto, and rarely heard music of Georges Enesco. He recently produced a four-CD set celebrating his parents' musical careers, Howard and Frances Karp: A Half-Century of Music-Making.
Boston-based violinist Danielle Maddon performs on both period and modern violin with groups such as Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, The Handel & Haydn Society, and The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. She is concertmaster of Emmanuel Music, and is heard often on WGBH Boston's broadcasts of Emmanuel's Bach Cantata series. As a soloist, she has appeared with the New England Philharmonic, the Brookline Symphony, the Brandeis University Orchestra, Boston Baroque, the Handel & Haydn Society, and Emmanuel Music, in concertos ranging from Vivaldi and Bach through Mendelssohn and Bruch, and on to Alban Berg and Witold Lutoslawski. In April 2002, she performed John Harbison's Violin Concerto with the New England Philharmonic. Her chamber music groups include Boston Musica Viva, Music At Eden's Edge, The Art of Music Chamber Players, and The Onyx Ensemble. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Texas Christian University and Ohio University, she was twice awarded full fellowships to both the Tanglewood and Los Angeles Philharmonic Institutes, where she won concertmaster positions for conductors Kurt Masur, Andre Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Leonard Slatkin. Post -graduate studies at Boston University include work with Rafael Druian, Eugene Lehner, Bayla Keyes, Raphael Hillyer, and the Muir String Quartet.
Robert H. March has been on the Faculty of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin since 1962. He has taught in the physics department and in an interdisciplinary program called Integrated Liberal Studies. He was educated at the University of Chicago, where he began his scientific career as a technician in the laboratory of Enrico Fermi. He has done experimental research in particle physics at laboratories in the United States and in Europe, and since 1980 has focused his research on astrophysics, using facilities located in the Hawaiian Islands.. He is also a popularizer of science. His book, Physics for Poets, has been translated into twelve languages.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Lawrence Neuman joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1991. He holds Degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California, and studied with Heidi Castleman, Donald McInnes, and Robert Vernon. Before coming to Chicago, he was violist with the Miami String Quartet. He has been heard as a chamber musician in many venues in the Chicago area and has performed nationally at such festivals as the Marlboro Music Festival, Summerfest LaJolla, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Quad Cities, and the Chamber Music Conference at Interlochen. During the 1998-1999 season, Mr. Neuman took a leave of absence from the CSO to play principal viola with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. When not playing the viola, he loves to play ice hockey and is passionate about anything having to do with the bicycle, which is his first choice of transportation both in the city and the countryside.
Rictor Noren M.M. received his training from the Indiana University School of Music on violin with Josef Gingold, and viola and violin pedagogy with Mimi Zweig. His orchestral engagements include the American Sinfonietta, principal violist with the Naples Philharmonic, and acting principal violist with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and the New York String Orchestra. As a teacher, Mr. Noren was head of the strings development and orchestra programs at the Irvine Conservatory of Music, and assistant instructor at Indiana University School of Music. In addition, Mr. Noren held an appointment as director of orchestras to the Montessori school system in Southern California. Currently, he enjoys a successful private studio with many competition-winning students pursuing careers in violin and viola. Mr. Noren currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, where he is a member of both the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
Rhonda Rider, cellist, was a founding member of the Naumburg Award winning Lydian Quartet. This ensemble played throughout the world, including concerts at Aspen, the American Academy in Rome, and the US/USSR Contemporary Music Festival in Russia, and recorded a wide variety of repertoire including Schubert, Ives, Hyla, and two CDs of Harbison quartets. In 2002 Rider left the quartet to devote more time to her work as a soloist, as a duo performer, as a member of the trio, Double Helix, and as director of her Cello Seminar, devoted to contemporary music, in Salem, NY. In the summer of 2002, she acted as the cello coach for the Asian Youth Symphony in Hong Kong. Rider strikes a balance between exploration of the standard repertoire (a complete Beethoven trio cycle with Double Helix in Boston and Los Angeles, and commission, performing, and recording many new pieces. Her solo and duo recordings of recent music bother were cited as Best of the Year by the Boston Globe.
Cheryl Bensman Rowe, soprano, is known to both new music and early music audiences in this country and abroad. Her voice of "timbral purity with dramatic intensity" (New York Times) has been heard in premieres of works by Steve Reich, Ingram Marshall, Michael Torke and William Bolcom. Orchestral engagements include performances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Israel Phiharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony and the St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra. A former member of the Waverly Consort and Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, she has also performed with the Folger Consort, The Smithsonian Chamber Ensemble and Pomerium Musices. Ms. Bensman Rowe has toured extensively in North and South America, Europe and Japan. Festival appearances include concerts at Aspen, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ravinia, Caramoor, Casals, Mostly Mozart, Wiener Festwochen, Holland and Bobigny. A Grammy award winner in 1999, she has recorded for Nonesuch, ECM, CBS Masterworks. She is co-director, with Paul Rowe, of the Madison Early Music Festival, and has appeared this season with Present Music in the premiere of a new piece by Michael Torke.