To Schumann With Love
MILL VALLEY 142 Throckmorton Theatre • Thursday, March 21, 2013 8PM Buy Tickets
SAN FRANCISCO SF Conservatory of Music • Monday, March 25, 2013 8PM Buy Tickets
Johannes Brahms • Intermezzo Opus 118 No. 2 in A Major
Clara Schumann • Romances for Oboe and Piano, Opus 22
Olli Kortekangas • Aveux, Hommages à Schumann for Oboe and String Quartet US PREMIERE
Ryan Carter • too many arguments in line 17 for String Quartet 2012 LCCE Composition Contest Winner WEST COAST PREMIERE
Eric Zivian Florestan and Eusebius for Violin and Piano WORLD PREMIERE
Robert Schumann • Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Opus 105
Left Coast pays tribute to Robert Schumann, presenting his Violin Sonata alongside Clara Schumann’s Romances for Oboe and Piano and a tribute to Schumann by Finnish composer Olli Kortekangas. Kortekangas' tribute is a meditation on Schumann’s work Aveux. Completing the program is the winner of Left Coast’s 2012 composition contest, Ryan Carter’s too many arguments in line 17; Carter’s work has been praised by the New York Times as "imaginative...like, say, a Martian dance party.”
These performances are made possible in part by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation. The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and the Board of Directors also wish to thank Henry and Judith Presler for their generous sponsorship of this concert in celebration of the 20th season.
Thoughts from Left Coast musicians Tom & Andrea:
"Being married to another oboe player has been a wonderful journey on many levels,” said Tom Nugent of his wife and fellow LCCE oboist Andrea Plesnarski. “Like any musical couple, we have shared in each other's musical growth and have been a sounding board for ideas and concepts. This interchange keeps us evolving and has been great fun."
In connection to the Schumanns Plesnarski commented, “One analogous thing is the fact that Tom and I are married and play the same instrument, and Robert and Clara did too. When two people are together and share something like playing the same instrument there are some intrinsic things you understand about one another. Yet, even though you share something so similar, your experience with and your strengths and weaknesses often differ, leading to self-discovery and some frustration and jealousy."
About the Contemporary Composers:
Ryan Carter is a composer of music for instruments, voices, and computers. Mr. Carter’s music has been performed throughout Europe and North America by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Nieuw Ensemble, the JACK Quartet, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, NOW Ensemble, and many others. Carter has received numerous commissions and major awards. In addition he is an avid computer musician and programmer. His Monkeypants app is an album of algorithmically generated, listener-interactive electronica. Carter also serves on the Board of Directors of SEAMUS (the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States.)
Olli Kortekangas, born in 1955, is one of the most famous Finnish composers of his generation, and has composed more than one hundred works, from solo pieces and chamber works to orchestral works, concertos, music for choirs and opera. His latest opera, Daddy's Girl, commissioned jointly by the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Finnish Parliament, was premiered in Savonlinna in 2007. The Finnish National Opera staged a new production in January 2009.
Eric Zivian is a graduate of Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, and Yale School of Music. He studied composition with Ned Rorem, Jacob Druckman, and Martin Bresnick, and piano with Gary Graffman and Peter Serkin. Mr. Zivian has performed new music with Earplay and Empyrean Ensemble, and Beethoven and Mozart with Santa Rosa Symphony and Toronto Symphony. Zivian's current project is a program of music showing the history of repertoire written for the modern piano, including Brahms, Schoenberg, Ravel, Debussy, Albeniz, as well as more contemporary works by Andriessen, Christian Baldini and Lee Hyla.
