A Little More Marlboro

Today we didn't go to Marlboro early in the day. We waited until Harry had left for home and Ellen made a trip to the landfill. We actually left the house at about 1:30pm real time, maybe a few minutes earlier. We noted the time when we left the covered bridge in order to time the trip to Marlboro via South Newfane on Auger Hole Road. But then we forgot to note the time when we arrived! Phooey! But then, it wasn't the perfect day to time the trip either, because they were grading the road and that slowed us down. Oh well! Anyway, here we are, and they are playing the Beethoven Wind Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 103. Which of course, is very nice to listen to, especially in this delightfully cool hall. Today, we have a whole new set of musicians. Frank Rosenwein, oboe; Russell Hoffman, oboe; Sang Yoon Kim, clarinet; Víctor Díaz Guerra, clarinet; Marlène Ngalissamy, bassoon; Jake Thonis, bassoon; Richard King, horn; Ryan Williamson, horn. Yesterday, the clarinetist in the Brahms Clarinet Quintet was Yoonah Kim, but not today. I think we have heard Victor Diaz Guerra before, but let's look at Sang Yoon Kim. Born in 1987, he is a graduate of the Conservatoire national superieur de musique et de danse in Paris, where he was accepted as the first Korean clarinetist in the school's history. He studied there in the years 2005-2010 with distinguished professors Michel Arrignon and Pascal Moragues. His tuition in Paris was preceded by three years with Florent Heau at the Conservatoire a Rayonnement Regional de Rueil-Malmaison. After Paris he went on to study in Los Angeles at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, gaining an artist diploma under Yehuda Gilad in 2014. He was appointed Principal Clarinet of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2018. Sang Yoon is the first prize winner of the 67th Prague Spring International Music Competition 2015. He appeared as a soloist with BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of their Music Director, Sakari Oramo at the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

Sang Yoon Kim, clarinet.

Frank Rosenwein plays oboe. He joined The Cleveland Orchestra as principal oboe at the beginning of the 2005–06 season. He made his solo debut with the Orchestra in February 2007, in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. Since then he has performed many times as soloist, including playing the Richard Strauss Oboe Concerto in 2012 and the first Cleveland Orchestra performances of the Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto in 2017.Since 2006, Mr. Rosenwein has served as head of the oboe department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where in 2015 he was given the Alumni Achievement award. He also teaches at the Kent Blossom Music Festival, and is in demand as a guest artist and masterclass clinician in schools all over the world. An avid chamber musician, he has spent many summers at the Marlboro Festival and has performed with the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society. Born in Evanston, Illinois, Mr. Rosenwein holds a bachelor of music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Mack (Cleveland Orchestra principal oboe, 1965–2001), and a master of music degree from the Juilliard School. Prior to coming to Cleveland, he served as principal oboe (2002–05) of the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera. Mr. Rosenwein is married to Cleveland Orchestra associate concertmaster Jung-Min Amy Lee. They live in Cleveland Heights with their twin boys, Joshua and Julian, and their dog, Sofie.***********************

Marlène Ngalissamy plays bassoon. Born in Moscow, Marlene moved to Canada at the age of 10 and began learning the bassoon three years later. She quickly developed a deep passion for the instrument and was accepted at the Montreal Conservatory of Music where she studied with Mathieu Harel and Stephane Levesque. She completed her undergraduate diploma in Montreal and her post-bachelor at the Curtis Institute of music with Daniel Matsukawa. Winner of the first prize in the Canadian Music Competition (2012)and finalist of the Meg Quigley bassoon competition (2015), she performed with the Edmonton Symphony orchestra, the Montreal Metropolitain symphony orchestra, the Montreal Conservatory orchestra and the Youth orchestra of Montreal. She was invited to perform as guest principal bassoon with the Saint-Paul chamber Orchestra and is frequently performing with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New-York. She is also part of a community teaching artist program, working along with Penn memory center, where she is leading a “creativity through music” class for people with diverse stages of Alzheimer’s disease.*********************************** LATER The ensemble playing Beethoven ended their rehearsal early. We are now waiting for the next group, a trio playing Erwin Schulhoff's Concertino for flute, viola and double-bass. Since Schulhoff is not exactly a household name, here is a bit about him:

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) was born in Prague into a German-speaking merchant family. His great-uncle Julius was a composer and pianist, and Erwin's mother hoped her son would follow in his footsteps. The child learned to play the piano, and in 1901 his reputation as a prodigy won him an audition with Antonín Dvorák, who recommended a career in music for the boy. After further private study, Schulhoff was ready for the Prague Conservatory, which he entered in 1904. He also spent an important period in Leipzig, from 1908 to 1910, where he studied at the conservatory with Max Reger, a leading German composer in the post-Brahms tradition, and with Robert Teichmüller, a pianist with a taste for Russian and other exotic eastern music. After four years in the Austrian army during World War I, Schulhoff broke with the late Romanticism espoused by his conservatory teachers. He moved to Dresden, where he met several important artistic figures, including the painter Otto Dix, whose violent, despairing images captured the trauma inflicted by the war, and with them founded the "Werkstatt der Zeit" (Workshop of the Times). Under its banner, Schulhoff began a series of concerts showcasing the latest developments in expressionist music, whose atonal idiom appealed to him as an alternative to what he had learned. He also got to know another painter, George Grosz, and the two listened to records from Grosz' collection of American jazz, another influence embraced by the composer. Following his return to Prague in 1923, Schulhoff began to compose works synthesizing all of these influences - Czech music, Russian and eastern music, late Romanticism, expressionism, and jazz - into a compelling, personal style. Schulhoff wrote the Concertino in a mere four days, between May 28 and June 1, 1925. The first movement begins with bass and violin playing an eastern-sounding motto and the flute offering an improvisatory theme as counterpoint. Schulhoff introduces brief contrasting episodes but always returns to the opening motto. The second movement derives from a Czech folk dance, the furiant, with a rhythm combining characteristics of 2/4 and 3/4. A folk song from the Carpathian Mountains in what is now the western Ukraine provides the basis of the Andante, its melody given to the flute. In the finale, the flutist doubles on piccolo and the bass provides the rhythm for another lively folk dance. After the Germans annexed Czechoslovakia, Schulhoff tried to emigrate to the Soviet Union (he had participated in the International Congress of Revolutionary Musicians in Moscow in 1933 and joined the Communist Party shortly thereafter) and to the West, but without success. The Nazis arrested him in June 1941; he died of tuberculosis in the Bavarian fortress of Wülzburg just over a year later.************************** Here are the musicians who will be playing the Schulhoff Concertino: Joshua Smith, flute; Yuchen Lu, viola; Nina Bernat, double-bass.

The Schulhoff trio on stage.

"Firmly established as one of America’s outstanding flutists, Joshua Smith is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. He was appointed as The Cleveland Orchestra’s principal flute at age twenty, joining the ensemble in 1990. He appears regularly as soloist with the Orchestra, in repertoire ranging from Bach and Mozart to Penderecki and Widmann. In September 2014, he was featured with the Orchestra on tour in Europe, playing Jörg Widmann’s flute concerto at the BBC London Proms, Lucerne Festival, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Mr. Smith received a Grammy nomination for his Telarc recording, Air, and has recorded two discs with harpsichordist Jory Vinikour dedicated to the Sonatas of J.S. Bach. He appeared on a Live from the Marlboro Music Festival recording and can be heard on more than 100 Cleveland Orchestra recordings. Mr. Smith appears as a chamber musician throughout the United States, including recent and ongoing appearances with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society series, at the Marlboro and Santa Fe Music Festivals, and with the Israeli Chamber Project. He has performed in collaborative concerts at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Pensacola Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, and the 92nd Street Y in New York City."

"Yuchen Lu, viola. Lu is from Hefei, China), and is currently studying for his BM at New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian. Previously, he studied at the Shanghai Music School, where he was principal violist for two years. He won third prize at the Johansen International String Competition, and won the MA-ASTA Solo Competition. Yuchen has attended the Morningside Music Bridge summer festival, and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of China and the Seiji Ozawa Orchestra Academy."

"Double bassist Nina Bernat is the first prize winner at the 2019 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition and first and grand prize winner of the 2022 Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition. At the age of 19, she performed as guest principal of the Israel Philharmonic under Adrás Schiff and Osmo Vänskä as well as with the New York Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. As a recipient of the 2019 Keston MAX Fellowship, she performed with the London Symphony Orchestra on a subscription series concert at the Barbican Centre and in a chamber music concert for LSO Discovery Day at LSO St. Lukes.   Particularly interested in chamber music, she has performed with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and been a part of Juilliard ChamberFest. Additionally, Nina performed Mozart’s Per Questa Bella Mano with the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall as winner of the Juilliard Double Bass Competition. Her most recent projects include co-directing the Grace Note Farm Chamber Music Festival, where she shared the stage with violinist Joseph Lin, among others. Nina began studying under the instruction of her father and former member of the Israel Philharmonic, Mark Bernat. She has continued her studies with Tim Cobb and cellist Astrid Schween at the Juilliard School as a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. She has been an invited participant of festivals such as the Verbier Festival Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Yellowbarn Young Artists Program, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. Her 2022 summer plans include a residency at the Grace Note Farm Chamber Music Festival and Marlboro Music Festival." **************** You can't tell clearly from the photo above on stage, but Nina Bernat is about a foot shorter than her double-bass! Whereas Joshua Smith is quite tall, but plays flute and also piccolo.