Past Guest Artists : Boston Classical Orchestra

Guest Artists from Past Seasons

Featured Soloist: Laura Ahlbeck, oboe

Laura Ahlbeck is principal oboe of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and Boston Lyric Opera. A native of Ohio, she attended Ohio State University studying with William Baker and earned a graduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music with Elaine Douvas. Ms. Ahlbeck was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 11 years before coming to Boston where she teaches at Boston University, New England Conservatory and the Boston Conservatory.

Ahlbeck played Vivaldi’s Concerto for Oboe & Bassoon for the Valentine’s Concert with her husband Richard Ranti, bassoon, on February 14, 2004

Featured Composer: Robert Aldridge

April 15 and 17, 2005

ROBERT_ALDRIDGE Robert Aldridge has written more than sixty works for orchestra, opera, music-theater, dance, string quartet, solo and chamber ensembles. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He earned a doctorate in composition from the Yale School of Music and a master’s degree in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music. Mr. Aldridge has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Massachusetts Artist’s Foundation, the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund, the Oregon Arts Commission and the Portland Arts Council. His tone poem, Leda and the Swan, a joint commission from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, was premiered in January 2003 at the New Jersey Performing Center for the Arts. His many compositions and commissions are listed on his web site at www.robertaldridge.com.

The BCO performed the world premiere of Mr. Aldridge’s composition, “A Brand New Day” on April 15 and 17, 2005.

Featured Composer: Kenneth Amis

October 15 and 17, 2004

KENNETH_AMIS A native of Bermuda, Kenneth Amis began playing the piano at a young age and took up the tuba upon entering high school, where he nurtured his interest in performing and writing music. A graduate of Boston University and the New England Conservatory of Music, Mr. Amis is presently the tuba player of the Empire Brass Quintet and the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, and holds the International Brass Advisory Chair at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His music has been performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Academy of Music Symphonic Winds and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa.

The BCO performed the world premiere of Mr. Amis’ composition, “Fanfare for Boston Classical Orchestra” on October 15 and 17, 2004.

Borromeo String Quartet

Featured Artists: February 10, 2008

Nicholas Kitchen and Kristopher Tong , violins
Mai Motobuchi, viola
Yeesun Kim, ‘cello

BORROMEO_STRING_QUARTET The critically acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet is one of the most sought after string quartets in the world, performing over 100 concerts of classical and contemporary literature across three continents annually.

In September, 2005, Nicholas Kitchen and his wife, Yeesun Kim, performed the Brahms Double Concerto with Boston Classical. Audiences and critics alike have championed the Borromeo’s revealing explorations of Beethoven, Brahms, Bartok, and Ligeti, and its affinity for making challenging repertoire approachable. The quartet performs at the world’s most illustrious concert halls and music festivals, and continues long-standing residencies at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum (“one of the defining experiences of civilization in Boston” Boston Globe), the Tenri Cultural Institute (“one of New York’s best kept secrets” N.Y. Sun), Dai-Ichi Semei Hall in Tokyo, and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, where first violinist Nicholas Kitchen serves as Artistic Director. With a grant from Chamber Music America, the Borromeo continues an innovative multimedia public school residency program, and as faculty Quartet-In-Residence at the New England Conservatory of Music works with the institution’s “Learning Through Music” program.

In 2003 the Borromeo made classical music history with its pioneering record label, the Living Archive Recorded Performance Series, which makes it possible to order DVDs and CDs of most BSQ concerts from anywhere around the globe, a feat only previously attempted in rock music. The series promotes the importance and impact of the live performance, and allows listeners the chance to explore in greater depth music just heard in concert, as well as explore new and rarely performed works. This season the Aaron Copland House honors the Borromeo’s commitment to contemporary music by creating the Borromeo Quartet Award, an annual initiative that will premiere the work of important young composers to audiences internationally. In 2000 they completed two seasons as a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two and served as Ensemble-in-Residence for the 98-99 season of National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Awards include Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award in 2001, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award in 1998 and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1991, as well as top prizes at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France in 1990.

Featured Artists: The Boston Cecilia (Donald Teeters, Music Director)

October 13 and 15, 2006

BOSTON_CECILIA The Boston Cecilia stands among America’s oldest and finest performing arts organizations. Under the leadership of Donald Teeters, Cecilia has an established reputation for its period-instrument performances of baroque music, especially the oratorios of Handel and works of Bach.

It all began in 1876 when B.J. Lang founded The Cecilia Society. A man of great force of personality, Lang ’s boldness set the tone for what Cecilia was to become. He had a passion for “firsts,” and presented the Boston premieres of 105 works that have now become standard choral repertoire, including perennial favorites like Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Brahms’ Ein deutches Requiem.

During the first half of 1900s, Cecilia grew into a superior chorus that took the stage at key points in Boston’s musical history. Cecilia was there at the dedication and Symphony Hall, singing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (another Boston first). It was Cecilia that provided the choral portion of his Ninth Symphony at the dedication of the Tanglewood Shed. The Cecilia Society, under the direction of Arthur Fiedler, served as the resident chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 16 years. And Cecilia was the choice of Isabella Stewart Gardner to help celebrate the opening of her now beloved museum. In subsequent years the group had the great privilege of working under such celebrated conductor/composers as Igor Stravinsky and Antonin Dvoràk.

In 1968, Donald Teeters took the baton and began his pioneering work in the American movement toward period-instrument performances. Under his leadership, Cecilia established its reputation as Boston’s foremost performer and interpreter of Handel, with critically acclaimed productions of 18 of his oratorios. At the same time, Teeters has continued the tradition of performing new works, presenting world premieres of contemporary composers including Daniel Pinkham, Robert Sirota, Scott Wheeler, James Woodman, and others. Teeters and Cecilia have also gained recognition as leaders in the interpretation and performance of music in the English choral tradition, as demonstrated by stellar productions of works by Britten, Vaughan Williams and Elgar.

Today, Cecilia remains among Boston’s premier performing entities. Cecilia has been acknowledged as consistently presenting programs with an uncommon depth of artistic understanding within a context of excellence and innovation.

The Boston Cecilia will join the BCO in Handel’s “Ode to St. Cecilia” on October 13 & 15, 2006.

Featured Artists: The Boston Trio

November 17 and 19, 2006

BOSTON_TRIO The Boston Trio’s debut performance in April, 1997 was greeted with such acclaim that the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences invited the ensemble to become Trio-in-Residence. One short year later the Boston Globe’s Richard Dyer called the Trio one of the Best of 1998. The musicians are all Boston based: Irina Muresanu, violin; Allison Eldredge, ‘cello; and Heng-jin Park, piano. Ms. Muresanu made her own solo debut with the Boston Classical Orchestra three years ago.

The group has since been presented by the Celebrity Series in Jordan Hall; at the Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine; twice at Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood as part of the Tanglewood Prelude Concert Series; the Harvard Musical Association; for several summers in the Rockport Chamber Music Festival in Rockport, MA; at the Maine Center for the Arts, at Brigham Young University in Utah; and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In the spring of 2004 the Boston Trio traveled to Belgrade, Serbia to perform at Kolarac Foundation Hall.

Irina Muresanu, violin
Praised by the Boston Globe as “not just a virtuoso, but an artist…” Irina Muresanu has won universal acclaim as an outstanding young soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. “Muresanu brings dramatic edge, spine-tingling brilliance, and rhythmic tautness. Her playing was thrilling .“ (Boston Globe). The Los Angeles Times wrote that her “musical luster, melting lyricism and colorful conception made Irina Muresanu’s performance especially admirable.” Irina Muresanu has appeared as a soloist with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Boston Pops, the Metropolitan Orchestra in Montreal, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, and many others. She has taken top prizes and awards at the Montreal International Competition, Queen Elizabeth Violin Competition, UNISA International String Competition, Washington International Competition, and the Schadt String Competition. Irina Muresanu currently serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory, the Preparatory Division of New England Conservatory of Music, and the Music Department at MIT. Her violin is an 1856 Joseph Rocca and her Charles Peccat bow is courtesy of Mr. Mark Ptashne.

Allison Eldredge, ‘cello
Heralded as “a musician of remarkable gifts” by the Chicago Tribune, ‘cellist Allison Eldredge is a recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has performed with many of the world’s foremost orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Boston Pops, Montreal Symphony, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She has toured North America, Europe and Asia as featured soloist with such prominent ensembles as the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Haifa Symphony, and leading ensembles of Japan.

Sought after as a chamber musician, she has shared the stage with numerous acclaimed artists, among them Andre Previn, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gil Shaham. Allison Eldredge was born in New York City where she graduated from the Juilliard School. She now lives in the Boston area with her husband, pianist Max Levinson and their daughter Natalie, and is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.

Heng-Jin Park, piano
Heng-Jin Park has been praised by Richard Dyer in the Boston Globe as, “A centered musician with uncommon control over the sonorous possibilities of her instrument; she plays boldly with a full spectrum of colors, expertly mixed”

Joan Reinthaler in the Washington Post wrote, “Heng-Jin Park is a pianist and an ensemble player of unusual artistry and musical imagination”

Ms. Park was born in Korea and raised in the Boston area. She started studying the piano at the age of 5. She studied with Leonard Shure and Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory and received her Bachelor and Master Degrees there. She also worked with Marie-Françoise Bucquet at Conservatoire National Superieur de la Musique de Paris and concertized in France and Switzerland.

Heng-Jin Park made her debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra in Boston Symphony Hall at the age of 15 and has returned as soloist to perform the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Boston Pops with John Williams conducting. She has performed in Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Library of Congress, the Ambassador Hall in California, Jordan Hall, Gardner Museum, Taos School in New Mexico, Ernen Music Festival in Switzerland, many important halls in France, and at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada.

Ms. Park has won a number of awards and prizes including the Tourje Grant for graduate study and the Frank H. Beebe Grant for study abroad. She was a prizewinner in the Coleman National Chamber Music Competition and the Monterey Peninsula Chamber Music Competition. She has given masterclasses at Longy School of Music, Brigham Young University, University of Kansas, and at Penn State University. Ms. Park currently serves on the faculties of M.I.T. and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.

Featured Soloist: Stephen Burns, trumpet

October 19 and 21, 2007

STEPHEN_BURNS Wellesley native and trumpet virtuoso Stephen Burns is making his third appearance with the Boston Classical Orchestra at these concerts. He has been acclaimed on four continents for his varied performances comprising recitals, orchestral appearances, chamber ensemble engagements, and innovative multi-media presentations involving video, dance theatre, and sculpture. He began his studies at the age of ten and made his professional debut at the age of 14 performing the Handel Aria “Let the Bright Seraphim” with coloratura soprano Elizabeth Phinney. In 1988 he won First Prize at the second Maurice Andre International Competition for Trumpet in France.

Stephen Burns has performed in the major concert halls of New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Houston, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, and Venice. He has been a guest at the White House and has appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” In 1998 he was invited to create innovative new music programs as the Artist in Residence with Performing Arts Chicago. He is the Artistic Director of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project and the American Concerto Orchestra whose mission it is to champion classical music influenced and inspired by Pop culture, Jazz, Rock, Blues, Latin, Folk, Klezmer, World Music, literature, film, art, dance, and theatre.

He has given numerous premiers by American composers (Rorem, David Stock, Gunther Schuller, Robert Rodriguez, Philip Glass) as well as composers of international renown (Stockhausen, Franck Amsellem, Somei Satoh, Sallinen). Committed to new music, Mr. Burns has written for trumpet, electronic music, chamber music and symphony orchestra. His composition “Reflections,” a work created in collaboration with choreographer Ruby Shang, was performed around the Henry Moore reflecting pool at Lincoln Center. In 1993 he composed and performed the Inaugural Fanfare for the Kuhmon Talon Concert Hall and his most recent composition, “Fanfare for Freedom” was premiered in Wellesley, Massachusetts dedicating the Wellesley Free Library.

Stephen Burns studied under Armando Ghitalla, Gerard Schwarz, Pierre Thibaud, and Arnold Jacobs at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Julliard School (BM/MM 1981-82), as well as in Paris and Chicago for post-graduate studies.

Featured Soloists: Robert Levin, YaFei Chuang & Steven Lipsitt

Classical Improvisation with Robert Levin & Friends – The Goethe Institute

ROBERT_LEVIN Robert Levin is an internationally-known pianist and Mozart scholar. He has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia with the orchestras of Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles and Vienna. He is renowned for his improvised embellishments and cadenzas in Classical period repertoire. His recordings include cycles of the complete Bach harpsichord concertos with Helmuth Rilling and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (Hänssler), the Mozart piano concertos with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music (Oiseau-Lyre), and the complete Beethoven piano concertos with John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique (DG Archiv). He has recently begun a Mozart piano sonata cycle for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.

In addition to his performing and recording activities, Levin is a noted theorist and Mozart scholar. His completions of Mozart fragments are published by Bärenreiter, Breitkopf & Härtel, Carus, Peters and Wiener Urtext; they have been recorded and performed throughout the world. His new completion of the Mozart C-Minor Mass, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, was premiered there under the direction of Helmuth Rilling in January 2005. He is President of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig, Germany), a member of the Akademie für Mozartforschung and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Dwight P. Robinson Jr. Professor of Music at Harvard University.

YA-FEI_CHUANG Acclaimed by critics in the United States and abroad for performances of stunning virtuosity, refinement and communicative power, pianist Ya-Fei Chuang has appeared at festivals around the world. She has also appeared with the Spectrum Concerts in Berlin, at the Fromm Foundation concerts at Harvard, at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge (USA), and performed in venues such as the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonien, Schauspielhaus Berlin, Gewandhaus Leipzig, National Philharmonic Hall Warsaw, and in Jordan Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, as a duo partner with Kim Kashkashian, Robert Levin, Steven Isserlis, and is a member of the chamber ensemble Mistral.

Prizewinner in the Cologne International Piano Competition at age 18, Ya-Fei Chuang first performed on television in her native Taiwan at the age of eight and gave her first public recital at age nine. She won first prize at the nationally televised ‘Genius vs. Genius’ Competition at age ten and first prize at the National Competition (Taiwan) at age eleven. The following year she received unprecedented fellowships and scholarships from several prestigious foundations in Germany and Taiwan that enabled her to pursue pre-college, under¬graduate, and masters-level studies at the Freiburg Conservatory (Musik¬hochschule) with Rosa Sabater and Robert Levin, completing the six-year course of study in four. During this time she was awarded prizes including the Basel-Colmar-Freiburg Arts Prize and the Mendelssohn Prize in Freiburg. She subsequently concluded her German studies with Pavel Gililov, receiving a concert diploma (final degree) at the Musikhochschule of Cologne. In 1993 Ya-Fei Chuang moved to the United States, where she earned a graduate diploma at the New England Conservatory in Boston, with Russell Sherman.

Ya-Fei Chuang’s mastery of the most challenging solo repertoire is comple¬mented by extensive activities as a chamber musician and duo partner, and by her commitment to contemporary music, including world premieres of works by Stanley Walden and Thomas Oboe Lee, and future projects with John Harbison.

STEPHEN_LIPSITT Stephen Lipsitt, now in his ninth season as music director of the Boston Classical Orchestra, began his musical training as a clarinetist. He played in youth orchestras at New England Conservatory and Boston University, and won the first annual Tanglewood Award from the Brookline Chamber Music Society, a prize that included tuition in the Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra, where he played under conductors Lawrence Leighton Smith, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Seiji Ozawa, and studied with the late Pasquale Cardillo of the Boston Symphony. While earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at Yale in music and conducting, he continued clarinet studies with Keith Wilson (teacher of Richard Stoltzman), and played in orchestras and chamber groups. After a hiatus of many years, he picked up his clarinet again on his BCO educational outreach visits to Boston Public School classrooms, and has occasionally had the opportunity to make chamber music with his BCO colleagues.

Featured Soloist: Ronald Crutcher, cello

April 20 and 22, 2007

RONALD_CRUTCHER Ronald Crutcher was born in Cincinnati and began studying the ‘cello at the age of 14 with Elizabeth Potteiger, a faculty member at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. At the age of 17 he won the Cincinnati Symphony Young Artist Competition. As a Woodrow Wilson and Ford Foundation Fellow, he studied at Yale University with the renowned ‘cellist Aldo Parisot and became the first ‘cellist to receive the doctor of musical arts degree from Yale. The recipient of a coveted Fulbright Fellowship, Mr. Crutcher continued his studies in Germany with Siegfried Palm and Gerhard Mantel. Other teachers have included Janos Starker, Margaret Rowell, and Enrico Mainardi. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in March 1985.

A former member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he has performed numerous recitals in the United States, Europe, and South America and has recorded for Austrian and West German radio.

Ronald Crutcher has written several articles on music for professional journals and reference books and has served internationally as a consultant for numerous music and fine arts programs.

Now the president of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Mr. Crutcher formerly served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University of Ohio. A member of the Association of American Colleges and Universities for many years, he currently serves as the chair of that organization’s board. He remains an active performing musician and is currently a member of the Klemperer Trio which performs regularly throughout the United States and Europe.

Ronald Crutcher plays Vivaldi’s ‘Cello Concerto with Owen Young on April 20 & 22, 2007.

Featured Soloist: Matthew DiBattista, tenor

February 10, 2006

MATTHEW_DIBATTISTA Tenor Matthew DiBattista has an exciting and successful career in the opera and concert worlds. Career highlights include the role of Wesley in the Emmy nominated world premier of “Central Park” at Glimmerglass Opera, broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances. He sang the world premiere of Gerhard Samuel’s “Hyacinth from Apollo” at the 100 Days Festival in Lisbon, Portugal, written expressly for him and recorded on Vienna Modern Masters. Of the Cincinnati May Festival’s Rachmaninoff Vespers, American Record Guide said, “Matthew DiBattista was tenor soloist and sounded remarkably Russian – and ecstatic hovering in radiance above the gentle keening of the chorus. His singing of the ‘Nunc Dimittis’ was a mystical high point.”

Recent performances include the role of George Hancock in “Margaret Garner” at Michigan Opera. Singing opposite his wife, Soprano, Megan Tillmann, he was Martin in “The Tender Land” at Opera Omaha, Rinuccio in Dorothy Danner’s production of “Gianni Schicchi” at Skylight Opera, and Nanki-Poo in “The Mikado” at Mississippi Opera. DiBatatista has also performed with The Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Kentucky Opera, The Whitewater/Sorg Opera as well as The Cincinnati May Festival, The Cincinnati Symphony, The Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, The Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and The MEC Ensemble of Los Angeles.

Mr. DiBattista sings duets with his wife and soprano Megan Tillmann on Feb 10, 2006. Also on the program are husband and wife team Majie Zeller, mezzo soprano and David Kravitz, baritone.

Featured Composer: Howard Frazin

March 16 and 18, 2007

HOWARD_FRAZIN Howard Frazin lives in Cambridge, where he has taught composition at the Longy School of Music since 1991 and is currently President of Composers in Red Sneakers. His music has been performed throughout the US, Canada, France, and Russia.

After graduating from the University of Michigan Honors College, Mr. Frazin began his formal music training at the New England Conservatory of Music and later received an M.A. in Composition from the University of Minnesota where he studied with Dominick Argento. His composition, The Voice of Isaac, an oratorio commissioned by PALS Children’s Chorus, was premiered at Jordan Hall in March 2003 when it was hailed by the Boston Globe as “…clear in design and Brittenesque in texture…ingeniously scored…(having an) almost unbearable poignancy.”

Howard Frazin has received composition grants from the Dr. Scholl Foundation, Composers Forum of New York, and the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts, among others. Vocal music collaborations have included works for Kendra Colton, William Hite, Robert Honeysucker, Jayne West, and Elizabeth Anker. Chamber music collaborations have included works for violinist Valeria Kuchment, pianist Sally Pinkas, flutist Fenwick Smith and the chamber ensembles Janus 21, the Arden String Quartet, Vento Chiaro, and Commonwealth Brass, among others. Among his orchestral pieces, Mr. Frazin’s “Amid a Crowd of Stars” was recognized by the Boston Globe as one of Boston’s best new works in 1993.

Eli Newberger and Mike Roylance will perform the world premiere of Howard Frazin’s “Theme & Reverberations for Two Tubas and Orchestra” on March 16 & 18, 2007.

Featured Soloist: John Ferrillo, oboe

September 15 and 17, 2006

JOHN_FERILLO John Ferrillo joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as principal oboe at the start of the 2001 Tanglewood season, having appeared with the orchestra several times as a guest performer in previous seasons. From 1986 to 2001 he was principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. A native of Bedford, Massachusetts, he played in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra while in high school and received his diploma and artist’s certificate from the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with John de Lancie. He also studied with John Mack at the Blossom Festival and has participated in the Marlboro, Craftsbury, and Monadnock festivals.

Prior to his appointment at the Metropolitan Opera, John Ferrillo served as second oboe of the San Francisco Symphony and was a faculty member at Illinois and West Virginia state universities. A former faculty member of Mannes College of Music and The Juilliard School in New York City, he has taught and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Waterloo Festival, and Mannes Bach Institute. He currently serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory.

Mr. Ferrillo plays Bach’s Concerto for Violin & Oboe with violinist Sandy Kott on September 15 & 17, 2006.

Featured Soloist: Ian Greitzer, clarinet

April 20 and 22, 2007

Ian Greitzer is principal with Boston Classical Orchestra as well as the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He is also a member of the Boston Conservatory Chamber Players, Boston Musica Viva, Dinosaur Annex, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and the Boston Conservatory Faculty Wind Quintet. He is currently on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory and Boston University School of Music.

Ian Greitzer will also join The BCO Wind Octet for the Valentine’s Day Concert on February 14th.

Featured Soloist: Richard Given, trumpet

Richard Given has been principal trumpet of the Boston Classical Orchestra since 1987. Known for his musical versatility, he has toured nationally with the Broadway shows Les Miserables, Pirates of Penzance, 42nd Street, and Sweeney Todd, and has played in the Boston productions of Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. In addition he has toured Italy performing the music of Bach and Haydn with the Chorus of Westerly. His diverse styles can be heard on such recordings as The Sounds of Trinity, Candlelight Carols and on Gunther Schuller’s Jumpin’ in the Future.

Richard Given played Handel’s “Trumpet Suite” (Suite No. 2, D major) with Gregory Whitaker on November 21 and 23, 2003

Featured Composer: Stephen Halloran

February 11, 2005

STEPHEN_HALLORAN Stephen Halloran earned a BM from the Eastman School of Music and both MM and DMA from Boston University, studying composition with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, Lukas Foss and Stephen Albert. Among his numerous awards for composition are the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and multiple ASCAP grants.

Dr. Halloran is the recipient of the 2003 Renee B. Fisher Award for his piano work, The Galilee Hitchhiker, which has been released on compact disc. As a result of the Renee B. Fisher award, Dr. Halloran recently completed a commission, Transformations, for solo piano for the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT. He is currently on the faculty of the Rivers Music School in Weston, MA, where he is Chair of the Music Theory Department.

The BCO performed the world premiere of Dr. Halloran’s composition, “Concerto for New Orleans” (for Jazz Sextet and Classical Orchestra) at the Valentine’s concert on February 11, 2005.

Featured Soloist: Catherine Hudgins, clarinet

Catherine Hudgins began her career in Caracas, Venezuela, as a member of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Caracas. She later held positions in the Sinfonica Municipal de Caracas, the Charleston (SC) Symphony for seven seasons, and served as principal clarinetist of the Boise Philharmonic. Ms. Hudgins performs frequently with the Boston Symphony, Portland (ME) Symphony, and as principal clarinetist with the National Lyric Opera. Ms. Hudgins was a member of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Charleston and Italy for several years, and was featured in chamber music concerts there and at the Scotia Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her chamber music performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio, West German Radio, RAI (Italian Radio), and CBC, among others. She studied at Indiana University, and at Northwestern University, where she was a student of Robert Marcellus.

Hudgins played Stamitz’s Concerto for Two Clarinets for the Valentine’s Concert with her husband William Hudgins, also on clarinet, on February 14, 2004.

Featured Soloist: William Hudgins, clarinet

William R. Hudgins is in his tenth season as principal clarinet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has been heard as a soloist with the BSO on numerous occasions including performances of the Mozart and Copland Clarinet Concertos, and most recently in Frank Martin’s Concerto for Seven Winds. As a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players he can be heard on the Grammy nominated CD of the Hindemith Quartet. Before joining the Boston Symphony he served appointments as principal clarinetist and soloist with the Orquesta Sinfonica Municipal in Caracas, Venezuela and the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra. For seven seasons he performed with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra (Charleston, SC) and the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy.

Hudgins played Stamitz’s Concerto for Two Clarinets for the Valentine’s Concert with her husband Catherine Hudgins, also on clarine, on February 14, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Sharon Isbin

October 15 and 17, 2004

SHARON_ISBIN Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, Grammy Award winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as ‘the pre-eminent guitarist of our time.’ She is also the winner of Guitar Player magazine’s ‘Best Classical Guitarist’ award, the Madrid Queen Sofia and Toronto Competitions, and was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition. She has given sold-out performances throughout the world. She has been profiled on CBS Sunday Morning and A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, and in periodicals from People and Elle to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Ms. Isbin’s catalogue of more than 20 recordings range from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossover and jazz-fusion. Her latest Warner Classics release, Sharon Isbin Plays Baroque Favorites for Guitar, features concerti by Bach, Vivaldi, and Albinoni, including four world premieres, and debuted on the Billboard Top 10 Classical Chart for over 15 weeks. Her world premiere recording of concerti written for her by Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun (composer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), debuted as #6 on the Billboard charts.

Sharon Isbin has been acclaimed for expanding the guitar repertoire with some of the finest new works of the century. She has commissioned and premiered more concerti than any other guitarist, as well as numerous solo and chamber works. Her American Landscapes (EMI/Virgin Classics) with the SPCO conducted by Hugh Wolff is the first-ever recording of American guitar concerti and features works written for her by John Corigliano, Joseph Schwantner, and Lukas Foss. (In November 1995, it was launched in the space shuttle Atlantis and presented to Russian cosmonauts during a rendezvous with Mir.) She has also recorded the Schwantner with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony. In January 2000, she premiered the ninth concerto written for her: Concert de Gaudí by Christopher Rouse with Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony, followed by performances with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony, and David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival. Among the many other composers who have written for her are Joan Tower, David Diamond, Ned Rorem, Aaron Jay Kernis and Leo Brouwer.

She has appeared as soloist with some 120 orchestras, including the National Symphony, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, Minnesota, St. Louis, New Jersey, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Utah, and Honolulu Symphonies, the Rochester, Brooklyn, and Buffalo Philharmonics, as well as the St. Paul, New York, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras. Ms. Isbin began her guitar studies at age nine in Italy, and later studied with Andrès Segovia and Oscar Ghiglia. She received a B.A. from Yale University and a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music.

Learn more about Sharon Isbin at her web site at www.sharonisbin.com.

Ms. Isbin played Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez on October 15 and 17, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Juliette Kang

March 18 and 20, 2005

JULIETTE_KANG Canadian violinist Juliette Kang is celebrated for her interpretive insight and technical mastery. Her solo engagements have included performances with the San Francisco Symphony, l’Orchestre National de France, the Baltimore Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, and every major orchestra in Canada. Overseas she has performed with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul. As gold medalist of the 1994 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, she was presented at Carnegie Hall in a recital that was recorded live and released on the Samsung/Nices label. She has also recorded two discs for CBC Records. In the summer of 2003 Ms. Kang was appointed Assistant Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, having played the previous two seasons with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Ms. Kang played Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat major on March 18 and 20, 2005.

Featured Soloist: Kim Kashkashian

November 18 & 20, 2005

KIM_KASHKASHIAN Grammy nominated violist Kim Kashkashian has established herself as one of the most accomplished artists of her generation. She has been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an artist who combines a probing, restless musical intellect with enormous beauty of tone”. The New York Times has joined in these accolades, praising her “rich, mellow timbre and impressive artistry”.

In recent seasons, Kim Kashkashian has appeared as soloist with the major orchestras in New York, Berlin, Vienna, London, Milan, Munich and Tokyo including performances with Ricardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach and Riccardo Muti. She has performed recitals at the Metropolitan Museum and the 92nd Street “Y” in New York City, in Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Cleveland and Los Angeles.

In her quest for new directions and forms, she has developed working relationships with such composers as Gubaidulina, Penderecki, Kancheli, Kurtág, Mansuriän, Pärt, Berio and Eotvos. Current ongoing chamber music partnerships include duos with pianist Robert Levin, percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, and harpsichordist Robert Hill. She has performed with the Tokyo, Guarneri, and Galimir Quartets and toured with a unique quartet, which included violinists Gidon Kremer and Daniel Phillips and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Kashkashian records for ECM. Her discography ranges from the concertos of Bartok, Kurtag, Eotvos, Kancheli, Berio, Penderecki and Mansurian to the complete sonatas of Hindemith, Brahms and Shostakovich as well as works for viola da gamba by Bach. Her extensive teaching activities have included professorships at the University of Indiana and Sin Freiburg and Berlin, Germany. She currently teaches viola and chamber music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Born in Detroit, Michigan, of Armenian descent, Kim Kashkashian graduated from the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she studied with Walter Trampler and Karen Tuttle.

Ms. Kashkashian plays Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Lucy Chapman Stolzman on November 18 & 20, 2005.

Featured Soloist: Yeesun Kim

September 23 & 25, 2005

YEESUN_KIM Hailed by the New York Times for her “focused intensity” and “remarkable” performances, cellist Yeesun Kim enjoys worldwide acclaim as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Like her husband, Nicholas Kitchen, she is a founding member of the Borromeo String Quartet and has performed in more than 20 countries and in many of the world’s illustrious concert halls and festivals. Since making her orchestral debut at age 13 with the Korean Broadcasting Service Symphony, she has toured extensively throughout Europe and Asia. Currently living in Boston, Kim enjoys returning to her native Korea, where she is frequently invited to perform as soloist with the Korean Symphony, give recitals and teach. A much sought after chamber musician, Yeesun Kim has performed at the Spoleto Festival in the United States and Italy, Ravinia, Marlboro, Santa Fe, La Jolla, the Prague Spring Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Stavanger Festival in Norway and the Evian and Divonne Festivals in France. Her frequent collaborations with other artists have included appearances with Joshua Bell, Christoph Eschenbach, Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Menahem Pressler, Rudolph Serkin, Russell Sherman, and Richard Stoltzman. She has concertized with members of the Guarneri and Julliard String Quartets, and appears frequently as a member of the Pamela Frank-Yeesun Kim-Wu Han piano trio. As a member of the Borromeo Quartet, Ms. Kim has been part of the Ensemble in Residence for NPR’s Performance Today and has had extensive involvement with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two Program. Her radio and television credits also include numerous appearances on WGBH in Boston, Radio France, and NHK Radio and Television in Japan.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, with advanced degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, Yeesun Kim currently serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in the cello and chamber music departments. Her teachers have included Minja Hyun, Hyungwon Chang, David Soyer and Lawrence Lesser. She has earned numerous awards, including the Ewha and Jungagng National Competitions in Korea, and the Seoul Young Artists Award for achievement in music and academics. Yeesun Kim plays a Peregrino Zanetto cello, circa 1576.

Ms. Kim plays Brahms’ Double Concerto with violinist Nicholas Kitchen on September 23 and 25, 2005.

Featured Soloist: Nicholas Kitchen, violin

September 23 & 25, 2005

NICHOLAS_KITCHEN Nicholas Kitchen, whose musicianship has been hailed by the New York Times as “thrilling, vibrant and captivating,” is a founding member of the Borromeo String Quartet. With a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, teacher, arts administrator and media innovator, Kitchen is one of the country’s most active musicians.

His appearances as soloist and chamber musician have taken him across the United States and to more than 25 countries. He has worked with many distinguished conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas and Otto Werner Mueller, and has recorded for Denon, Albany, Arabesque, Centaur and Image Recordings. Kitchen is Artistic Director of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival as well as a frequent guest artist at international music festivals, including the Spoleto Festival in the US and Italy, and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival in Canada.

A recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Medallion for Artistry and the Presidential Scholar in the Arts award, Kitchen began his career performing in his home state of North Carolina where he made his debut with the North Carolina Symphony at age 12. His pioneering audio and visual work includes recording and producing CDs and DVDs of live concerts (primarily of the Borromeo Quartet), culminating in a collaboration on the “Four Seasons” with violinist Midori and the Cotuit Center for the Arts. Artwork created by children and professionals in response to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” were synchronized and projected along with Midori and the Borromeo Quartet.

Nicholas Kitchen began his study of violin at Duke University with Giorgio Ciompi. At age 16, he went on to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with David Cerone and Szymon Goldberg, and subsequently, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with James Buswell. He plays the A. J. Fletcher Stradivarius, a violin purchased expressly for long-term loan to him by the A. J. Fletcher Foundation of Raleigh, NC.

Mr. Kitchen plays Brahms’ Double Concerto with cellist Yeesun Kim on September 23 and 25, 2005.

Featured Soloist: Nina Kotova, cello

Ms. Kotova played with the BCO on Jan 24 and 26, 2003

Newsweek Magazine has called Nina Kotova “A Model Musician” — and no wonder. The Russian-born artist appears in many of the world’s great concert halls as soloist, chamber musician and composer. At the same time, she is a sought-after fashion model with a recent listing on ELLE Magazine’s Top 25 “Hot List”. In 1996 her Wigmore Hall debut in London was highlighted by the world premiere of her own composition, “Sketches from the Catwalk”. Since then, Nina Kotova has appeared at Carnegie Hall as soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Town Hall in New York and on Ravinia’s “Rising Stars” series. Her debut album of romantic ‘cello repertoire with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra stayed on the Billboard charts for several weeks and she has been featured in Time, Newsweek, Vogue, the Wall Street Journal and on network TV. The Los Angeles Times summed up her career this way: “a talent to reckon with – poised, committed, graceful and spirited.”

Featured Soloist: Sandra Stecher Kott, violin

September 15 and 17, 2006

SANDRA_STECHER_KOTT Sandra Kott was named concertmaster of the Boston Classical Orchestra in 1997. She is an active orchestral and chamber musician performing with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Cantata Singers and the Arriaga String Quartet. She is also concertmaster of the Boston Lyric Opera Company and previously served as concertmaster with the Opera Company of Boston under the late Sarah Caldwell. Ms. Kott holds masters degrees in violin and music theory from the New England Conservatory of Music and is an Assistant Professor at the Berklee College of Music and a member of the string faculty at the Rivers Music School in Weston.

Ms. Kott plays Bach’s Concerto for Violin & Oboe with oboist John Ferrillo on September 15 & 17, 2006.

Featured Soloist: David Kravitz, baritone

February 10, 2006

DAVID_KRAVITZ Baritone David Kravitz has received wide critical acclaim for his singing, acting, and careful attention to text, on both the operatic and the concert stages. His concert appearances include his Carnegie Hall debut in Handel’s “Messiah” and his Symphony Hall major role debut as Apollo in Handel’s “Apollo e Dafne” with the Handel and Haydn Society under Grant Llewellyn, as well as major works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Fauré, Berlioz, Britten, and Prokofiev, with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Roger Norrington, David Hoose, Craig Smith, Martin Pearlman, Gil Rose, and others. Kravitz’s opera roles include Leporello and the title role in “Don Giovanni,” Figaro in “The Barber of Seville,” Count Almaviva in “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Papageno in “The Magic Flute,” Don Alfonso in “Così fan tutte,” Nick Shadow in “The Rake’s Progress,” and Captain Corcoran in “HMS Pinafore.” He has performed with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Boston, Lake George Opera Festival, Granite State Opera, Opera Aperta, and others.

Kravitz has presented world and regional premieres of numerous contemporary works, including Andy Vores’ song cycle “Goback Goback” with Collage New Music, John Harbison’s “Four Psalms” with Cantata Singers (recently released on CD by New World), and Tod Machover’s “Resurrection” with Boston Lyric Opera.

Mr. Kravitz sings duets with his wife and mezzo-soprano Majie Zeller on Feb 10, 2006. Also on the program are husband and wife team Megan Tillmann, soprano and Matthew DiBattista, tenor.

Featured Soloist: Mark Kroll, fortepiano

March 3 & 5, 2006

MARK_KROLL Mark Kroll makes his third appearance with the Boston Classical Orchestra at these concerts and his second on fortepiano. For more than three decades, he has performed on four continents, winning critical praise for his expressive playing and virtuosity. Kroll is the first American harpsichordist to appear in several countries, including recent concerts in Abu Dhabi and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. He has appeared as concerto soloist with some of the world’s major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra and I Solisti di Zagreb. Since 1979 he has been official harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony.

His extensive list of recordings includes solo harpsichord works of J.S. Bach, Handel and D. Scarlatti; a world-premiere recording of Mozart’s “Haffner” and Linz” symphonies as transcribed by J. N. Hummel for fortepiano and instruments; and two compact discs of contemporary American harpsichord music. A noted authority on performance practice and period instruments, Kroll has contributed to scholarly publications and general readership magazines and journals. He is a proponent of the harpsichord music of the 20th and 21st centuries and has premiered, commissioned and recorded many new works.

As a conductor, he has directed both orchestral and vocal ensembles, and served as the Artistic Director of Opera New England. He has received a Senior Fulbright Award from the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and in 1989 served as Fulbright Professor and Artist-in-Residence in Yugoslavia, later returning for recitals in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade and Zadar. In 1991 he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Padua, Italy and in 1993 he served as Professor at the Conservatory of Music in Würzburg, Germany. He has conducted master classes in the music academies of Warsaw, Krakow and Ljubljana and the Athens Conservatory in Greece. Kroll is Professor Emeritus at Boston University, where for 25 years he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Historical Performance.

Mr. Kroll plays F. Haydn’s Concerto for Violin & Fortepiano in F major with violinist Carol Lieberman on March 3 & 5, 2006.

Featured Soloist: Robert Levin

September 28 & 30, 2007

Featured Soloist: Carol Lieberman, violin

March 3 & 5, 2006

CAROL_LIEBERMAN Carol Lieberman, recognized as one of America’s leading exponents of Baroque violin performance for the past 30 years, is equally acclaimed for her command of the violin repertoire from the 19th to the 21st centuries. The scope of her versatility is demonstrated by her performances of the complete Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord of J.S. Bach in cities from Lisbon to Boston. She has concertized throughout Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East, and frequently performs for radio and television, including Radio Nacional Espana, Belgian Radio, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her recordings have received the highest critical acclaim. Stereo Review awarded her J. S. Bach Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord the “Recording of Special Merit,” writing “Lieberman produces a beautifully focused, sweet sound that balances perfectly with the harpsichord”. She has also recorded a world premiere album of sonatas by Simon LeDuc, an album of sonatas of C.P.E. Bach and J.C. Bach, about which Atlantic Magazine wrote: “her playing is technically flawless and rhythmically vital”, and CDs of Schubert’s Three Sonatinas for Violin and Fortepiano. Lieberman’s recordings of contemporary music include Theodore Antoniou’s Suite for Violin and Harpsichord, Walter Piston’s Sonatina, Alan Hovhaness’s Duo, Elliott Carter’s “Riconoscenza” and Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.” Carol Lieberman has performed the violin concertos of Sibelius, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Vivaldi and Bach with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the CBC Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Associazione Musicale Romana, the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, and the Masterworks Chorale, where she has also served as concertmistress since 1980. Lieberman has been a professor at the College of the Holy Cross since 1985, where she also serves as Director of the Holy Cross Chamber Players.

Ms. Lieberman plays F. Haydn’s Concerto for Violin & Fortepiano in F major with Mark Kroll on March 3 & 5, 2006.

Featured Soloist: Lucia Lin, violin

March 28 and 30, 2008

LUCIA_LIN Boston Symphony violinist Lucia Lin made her debut performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11. Since then, she has won numerous competitions, including the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She has performed in solo recitals throughout the U.S., making her New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in March 1991, and has appeared with the Boston Pops Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria.

A frequent collaborator in chamber music, Lin is a member of the Muir String Quartet, the quartet in residence at Boston University. She is also a founding member of the Boston Trio and the chamber group Innuendo. She has performed in the Sapporo Music Festival, Taos Festival, Da Camera Society in Houston, St. Barts Music Festival, and Barbican Hall Chamber Series in London.

A native of Champaign, Illinois, she received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois and her master’s degree at Rice University in Houston. Important musical influences include Sergiu Luca, Paul Rolland, Josef Gingold, Dorothy DeLay, and Louis Krasner.

Lucia Lin joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1985 and served as assistant concertmaster from 1988 to 1991 and 1996 to 98. During the 1991-92 season, she was acting concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and during the 1994 to 1996 seasons, she served as joint concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra

Featured Artists: Made in the Shade

February 11, 2005

MADE_IN_THE_SHADE Made in the Shade is an exciting acoustic group that entertains audiences worldwide with the exuberant spirit of New Orleans street music. Their unique blend of New Orleans jazz, swing, ethnic folk, and original music delights listeners and dancers of all ages. The members include Dan Fox (trombone); Mike Peipman (trumpet); Paul Dosier (tuba); Crick Diefendorf (banjo); and John McLellan (drums). Clarinetist Lee Childs has been added as a special guest on Concerto for New Orleans. Lee is one of the busiest jazz musicians in New England, having performed with legends Bobby Hackett, Vic Dickenson, and Flip Phillips, among others.

Made in the Shade was originally formed in 1990 for a student recital at Berklee College of Music. That summer they ventured to the Boston Common on the 4th of July. Knowing only a handful of tunes didn’t deter them from playing all day while appreciative passersby threw money into the banjo case. The sweet taste of success that summer led them to the seemingly logical conclusion that the next step was an international tour. The summer of 1992 saw the scrappy young lads embarking on a three-month, twelve-country street tour of Europe. Since then they have gone on to play at the Boston Globe and Newport Jazz Festivals as well as on radio and television shows, and at social functions throughout the U.S. and Europe. Since 1994 Made in the Shade has performed their educational show, Jazz: America’s Music, at hundreds of schools around the country in conjunction with Young Audiences of Massachusetts. More information on the group can be found at www.madeintheshademusic.com.

Made in the Shade performed at BCO’s Valentine’s concert on February 11, 2005.

Featured Soloist: David Martins, clarinet

April 20 and 22, 2007

David Martins is a member of both the Boston Classical Orchestra and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He performs often with New Hampshire Symphony, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and the contemporary chamber ensemble Alea III. He is a founding member of Commonwealth Winds and Harmonie Musik. David Martins holds degrees from Eastman School of Music and the University of Massachusetts Lowell College of Music where he is presently Professor of Music and conductor of the Wind Ensemble. He also conducts the Boston University Wind Ensemble and the Lowell Summer Concert Band.

Featured Soloists: Douglas Myers & Gregory Whitaker

October 21 & 23, 2005

The Myers-Whitaker Duo is one of the world’s most sought-after ensembles on the early Hunting Horn. Both musicians are accomplished trumpet players. Whitaker is a regular member of the Boston Classical Orchestra and Myers has performed in orchestras from Hong Kong to Milwaukee. As the Myers-Whitaker Duo they specialize in the rarely heard high horn parts of the Baroque and Pre-Classical periods and perform on the newly-developed piccolo French horn, also called the Corno da caccia. This new instrument has captivated audiences for its warm, rich sound and is performed in the authentic Baroque manner without putting a hand inside the bell. Whitaker and Myers follow in the footsteps of Baroque instrumentalists who usually played both trumpet and horn.

The Myers-Whitaker Duo has performed around the world to critical acclaim. In this country, the duo has appeared with the Bach Aria Group (New York City), the Berkshire Bach Society (Tanglewood), the Bethlehem Bach Orchestra (Pennsylvania), the Winter Park Bach Festival (Florida), the New England Bach Soloists (Connecticut), the Philharmonia Virtuosi (New York), Musica Sacra (New York), the Emmanuel Bach Orchestra (Boston), the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the New York Chamber Soloists, the Concerto Soloists (Philadelphia), the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival (California), as well as with just about every major Bach festival in the United States. Internationally, the duo has performed with the Gewandhaus Orchestra Summer Festival (Germany), the Canary Island Music Festival (Spain), the Bergen May Festival (Norway), the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia (Spain), the Caracas Philharmonic Orchestra (Venezuela), and the Munich Brass (Germany).

Additionally, Whitaker and Myers are experts and lecturers on the history of the horn. As scholars they own a large collection of original Baroque manuscripts, which they have discovered in the great libraries of Europe. They have been responsible for first editions of many pieces, including J. S. Bach-Chorale Preludes for Organ. Both Myers and Whitaker have studied with the best early horn authorities of our day, including Barry Tuckwell, Hermann Bauman, Peter Damm and Lowell Greer.

Douglas Myers & Gregory Whitaker plays Baroque and Classical duet concertos on October 21 and 23, 2005.

Featured Soloist: Eli Newberger, tuba

March 16 and 18, 2007

ELI_NEWBURGER Eli Newberger, MD, plays both classical and jazz tuba, is a pediatrician, an expert on child abuse and influential author. He teaches at the Harvard Medical School and founded the Child Protection Team and the Family Development Program at Children’s Hospital in Boston. He was for 30 years (1971-2001) the high-profile tuba player with the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, one of the most prestigious jazz ensembles performing today. A rave review of the band in the New York Times hailed Eli Newberger as one of the outstanding tuba players in the country.

Eli Newberger studied theory at the Juilliard School and attended Yale University where he majored in music theory and began a lifelong interest in applying principals of musical analysis to the study of jazz improvisation. Concurrent with his music studies, Dr. Newberger took pre-med courses and graduated from the Yale Medical School in 1966. His eight-year stint as tubist with the New Haven Symphony was his last serious flirtation with a classical tuba career, although he has performed in recent years the David Baker Sonata for Tuba and String Quartet, and Tubby the Tuba (twice). On the jazz side, in addition to numerous Black Eagle recordings, he has recorded frequently with the banjo virtuoso and vocalist Jimmy Mazzy, most notably with Butch Thompson in “The Men They Will Become: Jazz Takes on Male Character” (Stomp Off Records).

Eli Newberger and Mike Roylance will perform the world premiere of Howard Frazin’s “Theme & Reverberations for Two Tubas and Orchestra” on March 16 & 18, 2007.

Featured Soloist: Kathleen O’Donnell, flute

April 20 and 22, 2007

Kathleen O’Donnell has been principal flute of the Boston Classical Orchestra since 1987 and has held the same post with the Boston Ballet since 1998. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and Boston University, she substituted with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on their European tours in 1991, 1993 and 1998 and their South American tour in 1992. From 1978-1981 she lived in Brazil, where she was a member of the Orquestra Sinfónica Estadual de São Paulo.

Featured Soloists: The Singers from Opera at Longy

Opera at Longy is a full scale training company of graduate level singing actors which has produced several American and Boston area premieres. It regularly provides opportunity for singers to work with internationally recognized artists, lecturers and composers, while including workshop performances and recording projects. Opera students perform regularly in oratorio and concert opera productions with orchestras throughout New England.

Donna Roll, Artistic Director of Opera at Longy, is a dramatic soprano and winner of the Kristen-Flagstad Award who made her operatic debut at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and recital debuts in London, Copenhagen and New York’s Lincoln Center. She has appeared in opera, oratorio and recital in Europe, the former Soviet Union and throughout the United States. She has performed with 20 major U.S. orchestras and recently sang with the Minnesota Symphony where she accepted the Sigma Alpha Iota Award for her dedication to creating opportunities for young singers. She directs her own summer opera touring company, Operafest, and is currently a guest lecturer at the University of Miami.

Thomas Enman, Music Director of Longy’s Opera Department, has performed throughout the United States and has prepared world premieres of two American operas. He has made three State Department recital tours of Latin America. Presently he is vice president and program chairman of the Boston Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). An active performer, he recently returned from the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Noriko Yasuda, Principal Coach of Opera at Longy, began her musical career in Osaka, Japan, as accompanist for the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and the Opera house of Osaka College of Music. She received her Artist Diploma in Harpsichord performance from the Longy School of Music in 1996.

The singers of Opera at Longy sang Salieri’s Prima la Musica, Poi le Parole (First the Music, Then the Words) and Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), K.486 Komödie mit Musik on March 12 and 14, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Benjamin Pasternack

November 19 and 21, 2004

BENJAMIN_PASTERNACK Benjamin Pasternack was the Grand Prize winner at the inaugural World Music Masters Piano Competition held in Paris in July 1989. Bestowed by the unanimous vote of a distinguished panel of judges, the honor carried with it engagements in Portugal, France, Canada, Switzerland and the United States. His earlier competition victory, in August 1988 when he won top prize at the 40th Busoni International Piano Competition, led to a series of recitals in Northern Italy and a compact disc recording on the Nuova Era label.

Mr. Pasternack’s American engagements have included solo appearances with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Hartford. He has been a guest artist at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Capuchos Festival in Portugal and the Menton Festival in France. In October 1988 he won exceptional critical acclaim appearing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on less than 36 hours notice, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in G Major, K. 453. He appeared again with the Boston Symphony in August 1991, at Tanglewood, as soloist in Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 (“The Age of Anxiety”) under Seiji Ozawa’s direction. Shortly thereafter he performed the Bernstein work in Athens, Salzburg and Paris as part of the orchestra’s European tour.

A native of Philadelphia, Benjamin Pasternack began his performance career at the age of eight. At thirteen, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Rudolf Serkin and Seymour Lipkin. His other teachers have included Leon Fleisher and Leonard Shure. Mr. Pasternack is currently a member of the piano faculty at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.

Mr. Pasternack played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major (“Elvira Madigan”) on November 19 and 21, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Ann Hobson-Pilot, harp

April 21 & 23, 2006

ANN_HOBSON-PILOT Ann Hobson Pilot is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music. She became principal harp of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1980, having joined the BSO in 1969 as assistant principal harp and principal with the Boston Pops. Before that she was substitute second harp with the Pittsburgh Symphony and principal harp of the Washington National Symphony.

Pilot has had an extensive solo career with orchestras throughout the United States Europe, Haiti, New Zealand, and South Africa. She has several CDs available on Boston Records, and on the Koch International and Denouement labels. In 1999 she traveled to London to record, with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Harp Concerto by the young American composer Kevin Kaska, a work that she commissioned.

Ann Hobson Pilot is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston University, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She is a member of the contemporary music ensemble Collage and has also performed with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Newport Music Festival, to name but a few.

Ms. Pilot plays Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with flutist Elizabeth Rowe on April 21 & 23, 2006.

Featured Soloist: Barbara Poeschl-Edrich, harp

Barbara Poeschl-Edrich grew up in Germany, between Munich and Salzburg. She has performed in recitals throughout Germany, Austria, England, Japan, and the United States (where she moved to with her husband in 2000). Her performance experience includes solo, chamber and orchestra concerts, she premiered works by H. Regner and E. Shin.

Barbara graduated from the University Mozarteum in Salzburg with a Concert Diploma and a Master of Arts, having studied both ‘Harp Performance’ and ‘Instrumental Education’. Continuing in the Master’s program in London, she received a ‘distinction’ for performance in 2000. In 2003 she performed at the Tanglewood Music Center. Barbara is currently completing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Harp Performance with Ann Hobson Pilot at Boston University.

Since moving to Boston she played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Classical Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, Lexington Sinfonietta, New Bedford Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, and the Mozart Society at Harvard. Also, she is freelancing with ‘The Gilded Harps’ in the New England area.

Being a member of the American Historical Harp Society, Barbara performs on a Bavarian single-action harp, a small Irish harp, and an Italian Baroque triple harp in addition to her grand Lyon & Healy. Her academic work ranges from the Welsh Triple Harp to Bavarian harp music. She also did extensive research on the Irish nineteenth-century harp maker John Egan. Barbara attended master classes with distinguished musicians such as Alice Giles, Luciano Berio, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Awards made to her include the Carl-Orff medal (Munich, 1995), a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship (London, 1998), and the UK Harp Association Award (2000).

Poeschl-Edrich played Handel’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra on January 16 and 18, 2004

Featured Soloist: Barbara Quintiliani, soprano

October 13 and 15, 2006

BARBARA_QUINTILIANI When Boston’s own Barbara Quintiliani debuted at Washington National Opera in 2002 as Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo, it was heralded as the “start of a significant operatic career.” She returned to Washington National Opera in 2003 as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni under the direction of Placido Domingo, and has sung Gulnara in Verdi’s Il corsaro with Sarasota Opera, the title role in Luisa Miller for Opera Boston, Liù in Turandot with Opera Madison, and Leonora in Il trovatore with Austin Lyric Opera, all to critical acclaim. In January, 2006 she became the first American woman in more than 25 years to win First Prize in the International Singing Contest Francisco Viñas, and was also awarded the Competition’s Verdi Prize and Public Prize. Recent engagements include her debut with Gran Teatro del Liceu as Elettra in Idomeneo, Lucrezia in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia for Opera Boston, and her debut with Teatro Real in Madrid.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Barbara Quintiliani is equally at home in the concert and recital repertoire. She has appeared in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony. A frequent recitalist, she is currently on the roster of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Under the auspices of the Foundation, she made her Weill Recital Hall debut as part of The Song Continues… 2004 and recently appeared in recital for the On Wings of Song series and the Bank of America Celebrity Series. Ms. Quintiliani has also appeared in recital for Artsong of Williamsburg, the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series, the Phillips Collection, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the Virginia Waterfront Arts Festival.

In 1999, she was one of the five national grand-prize winners for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and first place winner of the 1999 Marian Anderson International Vocal Arts Competition, and in 2001 was awarded a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation.

A native of Quincy, Massachusetts, Barbara Quintiliani studied with Kathleen Kaun and Anna Gabrieli at the New England Conservatory. The Boston Globe’s Richard Dyer has described Barbara Quintiliani’s voice as “…drop-dead gorgeous, with pearly-lustrous timbre, supple cantilena and high notes that open out into the hall with real glamour.”

Barbara Quintiliani will join the BCO in Handel’s “Ode to St. Cecilia” on October 13 & 15, 2006.

Featured Soloist: Richard Ranti, bassoon

Richard Ranti is associate principal bassoon of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal of the Boston Pops. Born in Montreal, he studied with Sol Schoenbach at the Curtis Institute of Music, and at age 19 won the second bassoon position in the Philadelphia Orchestra where he spent six seasons, the last as acting associate principal. A 1982 Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Ranti has also participated in the Spoleto and Marlboro festivals.

Ranti played Vivaldi’s Concerto for Oboe & Bassoon for the Valentine’s Concert with his wife Laura Ahlbeck, bassoon, on February 14, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Elizabeth Rowe

April 21 & 23, 2006

ELIZABETH_ROWE Elizabeth Rowe joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Principal Flute in 2004 and makes her concerto debut at these concerts. Previously she held positions with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and the New World Symphony. She has also served on the faculties of the Peabody Institute of Music, the University of Maryland and Catholic University.

A native of Eugene, Oregon, Rowe received her Bachelor of Music degree in 1996 from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Jim Walker, former Principal Flute of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She was the First Prize winner of the 2000 National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and has performed as soloist with orchestras throughout the country, including many of the orchestras where she has held positions. Most recently, Rowe performed the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in several national and international music festivals, most notably as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center.

An advocate of new music, Elizabeth Rowe was invited to Carnegie Hall to perform a concert of works by Schoenberg under the direction of Pierre Boulez. She enjoys chamber music and was a founding member of the Metropolis Winds woodwind quintet, based in southern Florida. She can now be heard in concert regularly as a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.

Ms. Rowe plays Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with harpist Ann Hobson Pilot on April 21 & 23, 2006.

Featured Soloist: Mike Roylance, tuba

March 16 and 18, 2007

MIKE_ROYLANCE Mike Roylance became tubist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2003. Born in Washington, DC, he attended the University of Miami, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL where he served on the faculty, conducting the brass ensemble and directing the Pep Band. Mike Roylance was also professor of tuba and euphonium at the University of Central Florida. He did graduate studies in the Masters of Music program at DePaul University in Chicago where he was in demand as a performer. He played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Mike had spent the previous 15 years as a freelance musician and teacher in Orlando, Florida. He performed on tuba and electric bass in orchestras, chamber groups, Dixie-land bands, big bands, and Broadway shows. He was a member of Walt Disney World’s “Future Corps” and principal tubist with the Walt Disney World Orchestra. Mike was also a member of Rosie O’Grady’s Dixie-Land Jazz Band. His career also includes performances in Europe and Japan. While in Japan, he performed as a soloist and taught master classes.

Mike Roylance has studied with such notable players as Connie Weldon (former
University of Miami professor), James Jenkins (Jacksonville Symphony), Bob Tucci (Bavarian State Opera), Chester Schmitz (Boston Symphony, retired), Gene Pokorny (Chicago Symphony), and Floyd Cooley (San Francisco Symphony, retired).

Eli Newberger and Mike Roylance will perform the world premiere of Howard Frazin’s “Theme & Reverberations for Two Tubas and Orchestra” on March 16 & 18, 2007.

Featured Soloist: Jane Sebring, french horn

A native of Rhode Island, Jane Sebring is currently a member of the Boston Ballet Orchestra, and is an active freelancer in the New England area. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory (where she met her husband) and a Master of Music degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. Her hobbies include triathlon, water sports, and raising Labrador Retrievers.

Sebring played Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Horns for the Valentine’s Concert with her husband Richard Sebring, also on french horn, on February 14, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Richard Sebring, french horn

Richard Sebring is associate principal horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal horn of the Boston Pops, Born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, he studied at Indiana University, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of Washington. In 1979 he was a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center. Previously principal horn of the Rochester Philharmonic, he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1981 as third horn. Since 1982 he has been the BSO’s associate principal horn and principal horn of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Mr. Sebring has been soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston, at Tanglewood, and on tour.

Sebring played Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Horns for the Valentine’s Concert with his wife Jane Sebring, also on french horn, on February 14, 2004.

Featured Soloist: James Sommerville

French hornist James Sommerville plays Haydn’s Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major on November 2 and 4, 2001. He joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as principal horn in January 1998. After winning the highest prizes at the Munich International Competition, Concours de Toulon, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Young Performers Competition, Mr. Sommerville embarked on a solo career that has brought critically acclaimed appearances with all the major Canadian orchestras, the radio orchestras of Bavaria and Berlin, and many others throughout North America and Europe. Recent engagements included solo appearances in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, and Chicago, and chamber music in Boston, Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, New Hampshire, and Colorado Springs. His first appearance as concerto soloist with the BSO was at Tanglewood in August 2000.

Mr. Sommerville’s recording of the Mozart horn concertos with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra won the 1998 Juno Award for Best Classical recording in Canada. He teaches at New England Conservatory and Boston University.

Featured Soloist: Fenwick Smith, flute

Fenwick Smith has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1978, and a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 1984. He has performed on Baroque flute with Boston’s leading early-music ensembles, and was for thirteen years a member of the contemporary music ensemble Boston Musica Viva. Smith often includes chamber music on his annual Jordan Hall recitals, which, after 24 seasons, are a prominent feature of Boston’s concert calendar. His adventuresome discography includes premiere recordings of works by Copland, Foote, Ginastera, Dahl, Harbison, Cage, Pinkham, Rorem and Reinecke.

An instructor at both the New England Conservatory and Tanglewood, Smith worked for 12 years for Verne Q. Powell Flutes, Inc. and today plays a Powell flute of his own construction. He no longer makes flutes but continues to work with his hands. He designed a solar-tempered post-and-beam house in the woods of Richmond, MA near Tanglewood and has converted the former Roslindale Masonic Lodge into a state-of-the-art venue for acoustic recording.

Fenwick Smith played Mozart’s Double Concerto for Two Flutes (K. 448) with Robert Stallman on Jan 24 and 26, 2003.

Featured Soloist: Kenneth Stalberg, viola

Stalberg played Mozart’s Andante from Sinfonia Concertante with Sandra Stecher Kott on November 21 and 23, 2003.

Kenneth Stalberg earned his Bachelor of Music degree at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying violin with Steven Staryk and Andor Toth, and was awarded a Master of Music from Boston University where he studied both violin and viola with Joseph Silverstein. From 1977-82 he was the violist with the New College String Quartet and principal viola with the Florida West Coast Symphony, both in Sarasota. Presently he is principal viola of the Boston Classical Orchestra and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and plays both violin and viola with the Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and the New Hampshire Symphony.

Featured Composer: Robert Stallman

Robert Stallman won the George W. Chadwick Medal from the New England Conservatory of Music and received a Koussevitsky Fellowship and the C.D. Jackson Prize at Tanglewood. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied in Paris with Jean-Pierre Rampal and since then has developed an international reputation as performer, master teacher, editor and arranger who has done much to expand the flute repertoire.

One of the first artists to receive a Solo Recitalist Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Stallman has given acclaimed recitals at New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls and other major venues here and abroad. In 1977 he founded the critically acclaimed Marblehead Summer Music Festival, where for 20 seasons he created “special occasions in every sense of the word” (The Boston Globe) in a unique chamber music series heard regularly on WGBH.

Stallman’s transformation of Mozart’s Sonata for C major for piano four hands into a Divertimento for classical orchestra will be given its world premiere March 28th and 30th, 2008. Mr. Stallman will join Mary Ann Nichols in the preconcert lecture to discuss his work.

Featured Soloist: Daniel Stepner, violin

Stepner played Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (“Turkish”) on April 23 an 25, 2004.

Daniel Stepner, violin, is concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society, first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet, a member of the Boston Museum Trio, Artistic Director of the Aston Magna Festival in the Berkshires, and a Preceptor in Music at Harvard University. He has been concertmaster for a number of orchestras, including Boston Baroque, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and the New Haven Symphony. A native of Wisconsin, his major teachers were Steven Staryk in Chicago, Nadia Boulanger in France, and Broadus Erle at Yale. He has taught violin and chamber music at the New England Conservatory, Boston University and the Longy School.

Featured Soloist: Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

November 16 and 18, 2007

RICHARD_STOLTZMAN Richard Stoltzman’s virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism have catapulted him to the highest ranks of international acclaim, making him one of today’s most sought-after concert artists. As a soloist with more than a hundred orchestras, a captivating recitalist and chamber music performer, and an innovative jazz artist, Stoltzman has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike with his performances of all genres of music.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a jazz-playing railwayman, Richard Stoltzman spent his early years in San Francisco and then moved to Cincinnati. His musical education started with his father’s saxophone sessions and informal church concerts. After high school in Cincinnati, Stoltzman entered Ohio State University as a double-major in music and mathematics.

Stoltzman went on to earn a Master of Music degree at Yale University while studying with Keith Wilson, and later worked toward a doctoral degree with Kalmen Opperman at Columbia University. In 1967, he began what was to be a ten-year association with the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Marlboro’s focus on chamber music put him in direct contact with such musical luminaries as Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals and Marcel Moyse – artists who were to have a profound effect on the way Stoltzman regarded his music-making. Through musical relationships established there, he became a founding member of the chamber music group TASHI in 1973.

Since then, Stoltzman’s unique way with the clarinet has earned him an international reputation as he has opened up possibilities for the instrument no one could have predicted, including presenting the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. In 1986, he became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, joining such other eminent recipients as Richard Goode and Yo-Yo Ma. Hailed for doing for the clarinet what Rampal and Galway have done for the flute, Stoltzman has appeared as soloist with Levine and the New York Philharmonic, Dohnànyi and the Orchestra of La Scala, Chailly and the Berlin Radio Symphony, Leppard and the English Chamber Orchestra, and Eschenbach and Previn with the Pittsburgh Symphony. As a member of TASHI, he has premiered works by Takemitsu and Wuorinen with the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.

His talents as a jazz performer as well as a classical artist, have been heard the world over. Stoltzman’s recital at the Bayreuth Opera House caused a scandal for the local presenter, who had requested that the program include jazz – a precedent-shattering event for Wagner’s opera house but one that brought a cheering, capacity audience that demanded five encores. Stoltzman’s interest in new music is reflected in a continuing program he has established to commission works for the clarinet. In 1990, he was approached by five major U.S. presenters – in New York, Boston, Washington, Ann Arbor and Houston, all members of the International Society of Performing Arts Administrators – to participate in a joint commission. The composer chosen for “The ISPAA Commission” was Nicholas Thorne, whose new clarinet sonata Stoltzman premiered in Houston in September 1992.

In August 1993, Stoltzman was featured in “CONCERTO”, a six-part television series featuring host Dudley Moore, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra. CONCERTO, created by the producers of the widely-acclaimed ‘ORCHESTRA’ series featuring Moore and Sir Georg Solti, was aired over cable television on The Learning Channel and on England’s prestigious Channel Four, and continues to be broadcast worldwide. The program featuring Stoltzman has been praised by critics and audiences alike and was the recipient of an Emmy Award in the International Performing Arts category.

Featured Composer: Tison Street

November 19 and 21, 2004

TISON_STREET Composer Tison Street was born in Boston and received degrees from Harvard University. His honors include the Naumberg Recording Award, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, among many others. He has taught at Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley and Boston University. His music has been programmed by many of the country’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. A performing violinist, Tison Street is a member of the Boston Ballet Orchestra and was a founding member of the Boston Classical Orchestra. Tison Street has been commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress and the Koussevitzky Foundation Inc. of New York to write “Symphony No. 5 (Colonial Scenes)” for the Boston Classical Orchestra.

The BCO performed the world premiere of Mr. Street’s composition, “Symphony No. 5 (Colonial Scenes)” on November 19 and 21, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Roksana Sudol, violin

April 20 and 22, 2007

A native of Poland, Roksana Sudol started her violin education with her father. In 1981 the Family moved to Guadalajara (Mexico) where as a teenager she became well known as violin soloist and chamber musician, playing the Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Saint-Saens Violin Concertos with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra. In 1986 she won the Dean Scholarship Award for study at Boston University where she earned Bachelor and Master Degrees in violin performance under Roman Totenberg. She is presently the principal second violinist of the Boston Classical Orchestra and has her own private studio in Andover where she is also adjunct professor at Phillips Academy.

Donald Teeters, Music Director The Boston Cecilia

October 13 and 15, 2006

DONALD_TEETERS Music Director Donald Teeters is in the forefront of historically-oriented New England musicians. He was the first Boston choral conductor to engage players of period instruments for pre-19th century works. He conducted the Boston period-instrument premiere of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in 1979, and the first American period-instrument performance of Bach’s St. John Passion in 1981. Teeters’ two-decade exploration with Cecilia of the Handel oratorios in period-instrument performances has undoubtedly contributed to this area’s reputation as a world as a center for Handel studies.

In 2001, The Boston Globe’s Richard Dyer wrote of Samson, “the orchestra, seated in an oval around the conductor, as in period etchings, played with purpose in style, and Teeters had trained the chorus wonderfully well — it sang with security, balance, and involvement… (Teeters) cast all inhibition aside to explore the farthest emotional reaches of this all-embracing music.”

Of the recent Brahms Requiem, Dyer cited for praise Teeters’s “lucid, transparent, flowing, and deeply felt performance.”

Teeters’ interest in earlier music has not led him to neglect music of his own time. in 2002, he conducted the first performance of Daniel Pinkham’s Christmas Jubilations, a work composed for and dedicated to Teeters and Cecilia. Music by Donald Martino, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, James Woodman, and others have figured prominently in Cecilia’s recent programming. In 1994, Teeters led the world premiere of Scott Wheeler’s The Angle of the Sun, which was commissioned by Cecilia in honor of Teeters’ 25th anniversary as director.

In addition to his work with Cecilia, Donald Teeters is also music director at All Saints Parish in Brookline, a church with a celebrated music tradition.

Featured Soloist: Megan Tillmann, soprano

February 10, 2006

MEGAN_TILLMAN Described as a performer with “fresh tone and easy acting skills” (Opera News), Soprano Megan Tillmann is a name to watch. Her award-winning singing and critical acclaim have brought her national attention. District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and winner of the Opera/Columbus Competition, she has sung with several companies including Cleveland Opera, Skylight Opera, Opera Omaha, Des Moines Metro Opera and Lyric Opera Cleveland and Mississippi Opera.

Recently, Tillmann performed the role of Laurie Moss in Opera Omaha’s production of “The Tender Land” and Lauretta in Skylight Opera’s “Gianni Schicchi.” She also took the role of The Child alongside baritone Sanford Sylvan in the world premiere of “Come to Me in Dreams” with music by Lori Laitman at Cleveland Opera and performed the role of the Erste Knabe in “Die Zauberflöte” under the baton of Maestro Anton Coppola, also at Cleveland Opera.

Ms. Tillmann sings duets with her husband and tenor Matthew DiBattista on Feb 10, 2006. Also on the program are husband and wife team Majie Zeller, mezzo soprano and David Kravitz, baritone.

Featured Soloist: Linda Toote, oboe

Toote played Salieri’s Concerto for Flute and Oboe for the Valentine’s Concert with her husband Mark McEwen, also on oboe on February 14, 2004

Linda Toote is principal flute of the Boston Lyric Opera and a member of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra as well as a frequent substitute with the Boston Symphony. Before coming to Boston she played principal flute with the Atlanta and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and served on the faculty of Emory University. Locally she also performs with Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music and the Boston Artist’s Ensemble. She is a faculty member at Boston University and has given master classes throughout the United States, Canada and Taiwan. Ms. Toote is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music where she studied with John Wion and was a student of Thomas Nyfenger at Yale University.

Featured Soloist: Linda Wang, violin

April 18 and 20, 2008

LINDA_WANG A native of New York City, now residing in California, Linda Wang is among the premier young violinists of our time, consistently praised for her artistry, warm, singing tone and charismatic performances. She makes her Boston debut at these concerts.

Since her debut with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic at the age of nine, she has performed throughout the United States with orchestras in California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. She has also been guest soloist with Sir Georg Solti and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, Paris Sinfonietta, Germany’s Sächsische Kammerphilharmonie Dresden and Philharmonisches Orchester des Vogtland and The Czech Republic’s Southern Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she toured. In Asia, her appearances have included an enthusiastically received debut with the Philippines Philharmonic Orchestra.

Linda Wang’s solo concerts have taken her to New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Beurs van Berlage and the Berlin Schauspielhaus. Festival appearances include those of Aspen, Norfolk, Savannah, Canada’s Orford Centre d’Arts, Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende, Italy’s Festival of Two Worlds (Spoleto), Japan’s Okhust, England’s Aldeburgh Festival, the Holland Music Sessions and Austria’s Salzburg Festival.

Linda Wang studied at The Juilliard School (Pre-College Division) and the University of Southern California. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, she pursued advanced studies at the famed Salzburg Mozarteum. Her principal teachers were Dorothy DeLay, Alice Schoenfeld and Ruggiero Ricci. Currently, Ms. Wang serves on the faculty of the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, teaching violin and chamber music, as well as frequently performing as a member of the New Pacific Trio. She also continues as a Touring Artist of the California Arts Council.

Featured Composer: Michael Weinstein

March 3 & 5, 2006

MICHAEL_WEINSTEIN Michael H. Weinstein (born June 26, 1960 Lausanne, Switzerland) is a composer, theorist, hornist, and educator. He studied at the Conservatory of the State University of New York College at Purchase (B.F.A.), the New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.), and received his Ph.D in Composition and Theory from Brandeis University in 1991. His principal composition teachers include Marty Boykan, Malcolm Peyton, Harold Shapero and Yehudi Wyner. He studied theory with Robert Fertita, Steve Lubin, Allen Anderson, Allen Keiler, and Robert Cogan. He studied horn with Harry Berv, Daniel Katzen, and William Purvis.

A BMI registered composer Michael H. Weinstein has written over fifty works in the concert music field and his catalogue includes pieces for symphony orchestra, wind ensemble, brass ensemble, choral and solo vocal works, chamber works, and solo instrumental pieces. He is particularly committed to writing music for wind instruments and has received some of his most important commissions and performances in that genre. His works have been commissioned/performed and recorded by organizations such as: the NEC Wind Ensemble, the NEC Jordan Winds, the NEC Symphony Orchestra, the USAF Band (Washington, D.C.), the USAF Band of Mid-America, the Civic Symphony of Boston, the Boston Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, the MIT Wind and Brass Ensembles, the Washington Winds, Michigan State University, Ithaca College, Yale University, the University of Washington Wind Ensemble, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Calgary University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the League ISCM – Boston Chapter, Bishop Ireton H.S., and the Massachusetts Instrumental Conductor’s Association among others. Recent performances have taken place in Seattle, Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and Micha Music and is distributed online through the Hal Leonard Corporation.

Since 1994 he has been the third horn of the Nashua Symphony Orchestra in New Hampshire. He was second horn with the Cape Symphony Orchestra from 1989-2000. He is a member of the Berklee College of Music Faculty Woodwind Quintet and Faculty Brass Ensemble. As a free lancer in the Boston area he has performed and recorded with ensembles such as the Boston Classical Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic, the Civic Symphony of Boston, the Pro Arte Orchestra of Cambridge, the Back Bay Chorale, Emmanuel Music, and the Masterworks Chorale. He is a founding member of the Capital Brass established in 1985, a quintet dedicated to performing contemporary works for brass with a particular emphasis on premiering works of New England composers. In 1997 the quintet gave the local premiere performances of John Harbison’s Magnum Mysterium in concerts at the New England Conservatory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He teaches horn lessons in the brass department of the Berklee College of Music and the Preparatory Division of the New England Conservatory. He has also been a coach and monitored auditions for the horn sections of the NEC Preparatory Division Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. While living in Berlin, Germany during the academic year 1991-92 he played concerts with the Boris Blacher Ensemble fur Neue Musik based at the Hochschule der Kunste Berlin and the ars-nova-ensemble Berlin led by Peter Schwarz. He has been awarded four “Patenring” fellowships to play with the studio ensembles of the contemporary music festival in Darmstadt, Germany (1992, 94, 96, & 98) and worked in master-classes with trombonists Barrie Webb & Michael Svoboda and trumpeter Markus Stockhausen.

Since April 2001 he has been the chair of the music department at the Cambridge School of Weston where he conducts the choir and chamber orchestra, coaches chamber music, leads the Contemporary Ensemble, and teaches courses in music history, theory and composition. He is an Assistant Professor of Composition at the Berklee College of Music where he teaches courses in traditional harmony, computer notation, counterpoint, and contemporary techniques. He was recently hired at the Walnut Hill School of the Arts to lead their Composition Seminar and to teach private composition lessons. He is also on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division in the Theory/Composition Department. Past positions include teaching appointments at Brandeis University, the Boston Conservatory, Wheelock College, and the Milton Academy.

Dr. Weinstein is a member of Local 9-535, Boston Chapter of the American Federation of Musicians and of Local 4412 of the American Federation of Teachers. He is a member of the International Horn Society and the Society for Music Theory. He is also a member of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association and it’s parent organization, the MENC National Association for Music Educators.

The BCO performs the world premiere of Mr. Weinstein’s composition, “Chamber Symphony” (an NEOC/ACFNE commission) on March 3 and 5, 2006.

Featured Soloist: Alan Weiss, flute

April 20 and 22, 2007

Alan Weiss is active in Boston’s musical circles. In 1995 he made his European debut with the Romanian State Radio Orchestra when the Bucharest paper Cortidianul called him “truly a master of the American school of wind playing.” His orchestral experience includes positions with the Mexico City Philharmonic, State Orchestra of Mexico and the Iceland National Symphony. He has performed with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Alea III and the Stockbridge Chamber Concerts and taught at Boston University and the Tanglewood Institute.

Featured Soloist: Gregory Whitaker, trumpet

Gregory Whitaker played Handel’s “Trumpet Suite” (Suite No. 2, D major) with Richard Given on November 21 and 23, 2003

Trumpeter Gregory Whitaker is in his sixth season with the Boston Classical Orchestra. He has been a regular member of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra since 1987 and with that group has appeared on television and toured with them throughout the United States and Asia under Keith Lockhart. He is also a regular member of Boston Lyric Opera, Emmanuel Music and the New Hampshire Symphony. He has played with the Boston Symphony, Boston Ballet, Handel and Haydn, National Lyric Opera and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. In 1997 he spent a year performing with the Bergen (Norway) Philharmonic.

Featured Composer: Lawrence Wolfe

September 17 and 19, 2004

LAWRENCE_WOLFE Lawrence Wolfe has been composing for most of his life. After joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1970, where he is now assistant principal bass and principal bass of the Boston Pops, he was invited to write an overture by Pops Assistant Conductor Ronald Feldman. The result was the much-praised “Fanfare,” soon followed by a trumpet concerto (premiered by John Williams and the Pops), a number of popular songs, four musicals, and additional instrumental compositions. A recent work for solo trombone and concert band won top prize in the British Trombone Society’s Composer Competition.

The BCO performed the world premiere of Mr. Wolfe’s composition “Motives” (after Mozart K. 279) on September 17 and 19, 2004.

Featured Soloist: Owen Young, cello

April 20 and 22, 2007

OWEN_YOUNG Owen Young joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in August 1991. A frequent collaborator in chamber music concerts and festivals, he has appeared at Tanglewood, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Brevard Music Center, and the Aspen, Davos, Sunflower, Gateway, and St. Barth’s music festivals. As a concert soloist, he has appeared with numerous orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Salisbury Symphony Orchestra, Racine Symphony Orchestra, and San Antonio Chamber Orchestra. He is a founding member of the innovative chamber ensemble Innuendo and performs chamber music and recitals in the United States and abroad. His performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio, WQED in Pittsburgh, WITF in Harrisburg, and WGBH in Boston. He has performed frequently with singer/songwriter James Taylor, including the nationally televised recorded concert “James Taylor Live at the Beacon Theatre” in New York City.

Mr. Young has been on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory, New England Conservatory’s Extension Division, and the Longy School of Music and is currently active in Project STEP (String Training and Educational Program for Students of Color) and the BSO’s Boston Music Education Collaborative. From 1991 to 1996, he served as a Harvard-appointed resident tutor and director of concerts for Dunster House at Harvard University.

Owen Young’s teachers included Eleanor Osborn, Michael Grebanier, Anne Martindale Williams, and Aldo Parisot. A cum laude graduate of Yale University, where he received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, he served as principal ‘cello of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and was soloist for its 1986 European tour. In 1986 and 1987, he was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. Mr. Young won an Orchestra Fellowship in 1987; he played with the Atlanta Symphony in 1988 and with the Boston Symphony in the 1988-89 season. He was a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 87 and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1989 until he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Owen Young plays Vivaldi’s ‘Cello Concerto with Ronald Crutcher on April 20 & 22, 2007.

Featured Soloist: Peter Zazofsky

March 28 & March 30, 2008

PETER_ZAZOFSKY Peter Zazofsky is first violinist of the Muir String Quartet and an internationally recognized soloist, chamber musician and educator. Winner of numerous prizes and awards, he has performed worldwide with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, and many others. His first teacher was Boston Symphony concertmaster Joseph Silverstein and he went on to study with Jaime Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt and Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Zazofsky grew up in Newton and attended Newton Public Schools. His father was assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony.

Starting in 1974, Mr. Zazofsky won a series of prizes and awards, culminating in the Grand Prize of the 1979 Montreal International Competition and second prize at the 1980 Queen Elizabeth Contest in Brussels. These honors led to appearances with orchestras all over the world.

In recent years Peter Zazofsky has explored new repertoire, premiering works written for him by composers in Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Spain.

Currently he is Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Boston University.

Featured Soloist: Majie Zeller, mezzo soprano

February 10, 2006

MAJIE_ZELLER Majie Zeller, mezzo-soprano, has received critical praise for the “opulent tone” and “warmth of expression” she brings to her performances as a soloist in opera, oratorio, and chamber music. Her recent opera performances have included Mao’s secretary Nancy T’ang in Opera Boston’s acclaimed production of John Adam’s “Nixon in China,” the Second Lady in “The Magic Flute” with Granite State Opera, and Mother Goose in the Cantata Singers’ production of “The Rake’s Progress.” She made her Boston Lyric Opera debut in 2000 as one of Akhnaten’s daughters in Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten” and has since been featured in BLO productions of “Madama Butterfly” and Tod Machover’s “Resurrection.” Other operatic roles include the title role in “La Cenerentola,” Rosina in the “Barber of Seville,” and Dorabella in “Cosi fan tutte.” She has been a cantata soloist with Emmanuel Music under Craig Smith, and has been featured in opera and oratorio with Monadnock Music, Michigan Opera Theater, the Cantata Singers, Dedham Choral Society, Brookline Chorus, and many other performing organizations.

Ms. Zeller sings duets with her husband and baritone David Kravitz on Feb 10, 2006. Also on the program are husband and wife team Megan Tillmann, soprano and Matthew DiBattista, tenor.