Bloomingdale School Of Music Presents THE LYRICAL BRAHMS, Today

Bloomingdale School of Music (BSM) continues its focus on faculty performances with pianist Judith Olson and guest artist Rolf Schulte on violin in a concert entitled, The Lyrical Brahms on Friday, April 27th at 7:00 pm. This free concert will be held at the school's home site located at 323 West 108th Street in Manhattan. Seating is limited.

BSM faculty pianist Judith Olson and violinist Rolf Schulte will perform two melodious Brahms works: the Sonata in G Major. Op. 78, known as Regensonate, and the Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2, originally written for clarinet. The Sonata in G Major, Op. 78, Regensonate (Rain Sonata), is one of Brahms's most lyrical instrumental works. The third movement, whose minor key is unusual in such a sunny and radiant work, explicitly uses material from two of his songs. Clara Schumann wrote to Brahms of this Sonata, "I wish the last movement could accompany me in my journey to the next world." The Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2, written for clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, was the composer's last published chamber work. His arrangement for viola is a staple of the repertoire but the violin version is seldom performed.

About the Artists

Judith Olson, *BSM Faculty, Piano

Pianist Judith Olson, is a graduate of The Juilliard School, and made her New York debut with Alexander Schneider conducting Walter Piston's Concertino. She has since toured North, Central, and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Korea as soloist and in collaboration with leading instrumentalists, including Kyung Wha Chung, Eugene Fodor, Miriam Fried, Joseph Fuchs, Daniel Heifetz, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Nathan Milstein, and Tossy Spivakovsky. A versatile artist, she has performed Beethoven at Bard, Rachmaninoff at Newport, and has appeared as soloist on numerous new music series in New York, including Composers Collaborative and Composers Concordance. She is the dedicatee of works by Otto Luening, William Mayer, Ned Rorem and Olav Anton Thommessen, and she has recorded for Albany, Capstone, Newport Classics, MMO Laureate Series, and RCA. She has appeared at major halls including Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center, and has participated in the festivals of Ankara, Bard, Bar Harbor, Capri, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Killington, and Newport. She is recently recorded the solo piano music of jazz composer Ed Bland for Cambria Records.

Rolf Schulte, Guest Artist, Violin

German-born Rolf Schulte, whom The New Yorker has called "one of the most distinguished violinists of our day," started playing the violin at age five under his father's tutelage. He later studied with Kurt Schäffer at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf, attended Yehudi Menuhin's summer course in Gstaad, Switzerland, and studied with Franco Gulli at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena before moving to the United States to study with Ivan Galamian at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. At age 14, he made his orchestral debut with the Philharmonia Hungarica in Cologne, playing Mendelssohn's Concerto.

He has since performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Frankfurt Museums Orchester, Stuttgart Staatsorchester, Bamberg Symphony, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in Venice (in Stravinsky's Concerto under Robert Craft), RTE Irish National Symphony in Dublin, and the Radio Orchestras of Berlin (RSO), Cologne (WDR), and Stuttgart (SDR) under conductors Christoph von Dohnányi, György Lehel, Tamas Vásary, Dennis R. Davies, Daniel Nazareth, Alexander Lazarov, Guido Ajmone-Marsan and many others. In 1990 he performed Roger Sessions' Violin Concerto with the Radio Orchestra of the USSR in Moscow under the direction of Lukas Foss and presented American music in recital.

Among the works Schulte has premiered are Donald Martino's Violin Concerto, Tobias Picker's Concerto with the American Composer's Orchestra at Lincoln Center (recorded by CRI), Milton Babbitt's The Joy of More Sextets at the Library of Congress (New World Records), Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms No. 9 at M.I.T. (Wergo), and Elliott Carter's Fantasy at Harvard. American premieres include György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments at Tanglewood, Poul Ruder's Violin Concerto No. 1 (Bridge Records), and Elliott Carter's Riconoscenza per Goffredo Petrassi. Mr. Schulte has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the 1990 Kuhmo Music Festival in Finland. His numerous recital performances include the cycle of ten Beethoven sonatas at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Middlebury colleges, and the complete violin works of Igor Stravinsky at the 92nd St. Y and Berliner Festwochen, among other places. From 1999-2001 Rolf Schulte held a residency at Harvard University during which he presented new works by Carter, Donald Martino (Romanza), and Milton Babbitt (Little Goes a Long Way).

ABOUT BLOOMINGDALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Now in its 53rd year, BSM has served more than 80,000 children and adults through group classes, private instruction, and performance opportunities in classical, jazz, and rock music. Each week, over 650 students of all ages participate in a wide range of music making including early childhood classes, a comprehensive pre-college program, free community concerts, and internet-based music programs. With accessibility central to its mission, more than 20% of Bloomingdale's student body receives financial aid and scholarship assistance annually. For more information on Bloomingdale School of Music's programs and concerts, visit www.bsmny.org, call the office at 212-663-6021, or email info@bsmny.org. BSM is located in a charming historic landmark brownstone at 323 West 108th Street.

Bloomingdale School of Music is grateful to the following donors: Foundations: Associated Chamber Music Players, Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Edwin Caplin Foundation, Columbia Community Service, D'Addario Foundation, Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation, The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Exploring the Metropolis Con-Edison Composers' Residency Program, The Hearst Foundation, Libby Holman Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, The New York Community Trust, The Pinkerton Foundation, Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, Corporations: Colgate-Palmolive Inner-City Education Fund, ConEdison, Public: New York State Council on the Arts with Support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Assembly Member Daniel J. O'Donnell, and New York City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer, and many other generous individuals.