Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Announces 2013 Season, 7/14-8/19

The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, with Artistic Director Marc Neikrug and Executive Director Steven Ovitsky, announces its 2013 season, which runs from July 14 through August 19, 2013.

Highlights of this summer include distinguished pianist Garrick Ohlsson as the Festival's 2013 Artist-in-Residence; a four-concert mini-festival entitled "Years of Wonder" that focuses on four exceptionally prolific years in the lives of Gesualdo, Mozart and Schumann, featuring the preeminent Santa Fe Desert Chorale in performances of Gesualdo's ethereal Book V madrigals; the launch of a week-long string quartet workshop for young composers that comprises daily rehearsals, mentoring by Marc Neikrug and top publishing executives, and world premiere performances of the resulting works; a commissioned premiere by Thierry Lancino and a co-commissioned premiere by Marc-André Dalbavie. Now in its 41st season, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, nestled in the breathtaking Sangre de Cristo Mountains, annually brings audiences a summer season filled with compelling chamber music programs performed by world-renowned artists. In addition to presenting the masterworks of the chamber music repertoire, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival is dedicated to supporting living composers and perpetuating the chamber music medium, which has resulted in the premieres of over 50 newly commissioned works since 1980.

"We are especially excited for this summer's Festival, because it is structured in such a way that clearly highlights the masters of the past, today's consummate artists, and emerging talent that will keep the chamber music art form alive for generations to come" observes Marc Neikrug, who celebrates his 16th season as Artistic Director of the Festival. "For instance, the 'Years of Wonder' mini-festival not only looks at the work of three revered composers-Gesualdo, Mozart and Schumann-but more specifically, four particular years in their lives that resulted in some of their most revered works. As part of this festival, we are extremely pleased to welcome back the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, one of the premier choral ensembles in the United States, who will perform Book V of Gesualdo's madrigals. These madrigals, written 400 years ago, are intensely expressive pieces that are guaranteed to move the audience, even more so because they are being performed by one of the best chorales in the nation."

Neikrug continues, "We are also thrilled to welcome Garrick Ohlsson as our Artist-in-Residence this summer. It has been 10 Years since Garrick debuted with the Festival in 2003, and it's so exciting for us to have him return for three separate concerts. Audiences rarely get to hear this incomparable pianist in a chamber music and recital setting."

Juxtaposing the performances of works by classical music masters at the Festival is the launch of a new program for young composers. The week-long workshop welcomes composers Reena Esmail, David Hertzberg and Elizabeth Ogonek who will each write a string quartet that the FLUX Quartet will rehearse with them daily, providing immediate feedback and suggestions for fine tuning. As an experienced composer himself, Marc Neikrug will oversee all rehearsals and counsel both composers and performers. Additionally, executives from publishing companies G. Schirmer and Boosey & Hawkes will meet with the three composers to discuss various aspects of the music business, and what is involved when young artists seek to have their works published, performed and recorded. The week culminates with the FLUX Quartet performing the world premieres of all three works in a concert that also includes Marc Neikrug's String Quartet No. 4.

In addition to the world premieres by the workshop participants, audiences will hear the world premiere of Thierry Lancino's String Quartet, a Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival commission that will be performed by the Orion String Quartet, as well as the New Mexico premiere of Marc-André Dalbavie's Piano Quartet, a co-commission between the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and La Jolla Music Society for Summerfest.

Additional highlights of the 2013 Festival season include:

"Bach Plus" celebrates J.S. Bach's timeless music, as well as works by his contemporaries and those that were later inspired by him. Figuring prominently in the series is "Reflection and Revolution: Music in the Time of Goya," a multimedia presentation hosted by guitarist Richard Savino that showcases the romantic Spanish painter's work alongside music written during the same time period. Also featured in this Saturday series are Samuel Baron's arrangements of Bach's monumental The Art of Fugue for string quartet and wind quintet.

Baritone Matthew Worth in Schumann's song cycle Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love) and Mahler's Songs of A Wayfarer conducted by Lawrence Foster, as well as soprano Lucy Shelton performing one of her signature roles in Schoenberg's melodrama Pierrot lunaire.

Mexican composer Mario Lavista's atmospheric Marsias for Oboe & Eight Crystal Glasses with surprise guest "crystalists."

7th Annual Chefs' Gala Benefit on July 16 begins with a performance by pianist Inon Barnatan, followed by a private dinner featuring 20 of Santa Fe's premier chefs each designing their own four-course menu and table décor.

The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival's Albuquerque Series at Simms Auditorium has been expanded to four concerts, allowing audiences outside of Santa Fe to enjoy the superb programs and performers that the Festival brings to New Mexico every summer.

Additional composers featured in the Festival include Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Chausson, Dohnányi, Dutilleux, Dvorák, Enescu, Schuloff, Shostakovich, Stockhausen, Stravinsky, Suk, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, and many more.

Returning artists include pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Jeremy Denk, Inon Barnatan, Anne-Marie McDermott and Shai Wosner; violinists Daniel Hope, Ida Kavafian and Lily Francis; flutist Tara Helen O'Connor; and the Orion, Johannes, Miami, and Shanghai String Quartets, among many others.

Artists making their Festival debut are pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, violinist Benjamin Beilman and clarinetists Carol McGonnell and Patrick Messina.

Subscription packages for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival are on sale now. Ticket information is available through the Festival website at www.SantaFeChamberMusic.com, and tickets can be purchased by calling 888-221-9836 or 505-982-1890. Single tickets for individual concerts will be available for sale on Monday, February 25.

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS IN DETAIL

Garrick Ohlsson - 2013 Artist-in-Residence

Internationally renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson serves as the Festival's 2013 Artist-in-Residence, performing on two separate chamber programs in addition to a solo piano recital. These are Ohlsson's first Festival performances since making his debut in 2003. A consummate artist that regularly appears with the world's top symphony orchestras, Ohlsson seldom performs in a chamber music or recital setting, making his appearances with the Festival this summer a particularly exceptional treat for audiences to experience.

Garrick Ohlsson's first Festival concert this summer is on Sunday, August 11, in a performance of Ernest Chausson's Concerto for Violin, Piano & String Quartet in D Major, in which Ohlsson is joined by violinist William Preucil and the Orion String Quartet. On Thursday, August 15, Ohlsson performs a solo piano recital. And on Sunday, August 18, Ohlsson performs Ludwig Thuille's Sextet for Winds & Piano along with flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, oboist Robert Ingliss, clarinetist Patrick Messina, bassoonist Theodore Soluri and horn player Julie Landsman.

Since winning the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself Worldwide as a musician of interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, which ranges the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Garrick Ohlsson is noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. To date, he has at his command more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century, many commissioned for him.

"Years of Wonder" Mini-Festival

This four-concert "festival within a festival" focuses on the masterpieces of Gesualdo, Mozart, and Schumann written in the years 1611, 1786, 1788, and 1842-each a particularly productive year in the composers' lives.

"When the Orion String Quartet told me they wanted to play all three Schumann quartets this summer, I noticed that all three of these works, in addition to his piano quartet and piano quintet, were written in the space of one year," Neikrug explains of the Festival's initial inspiration. "These are five of Schumann's greatest works. I found this spurt of creativity fascinating, so I decided to research other composers and see if there were similar patterns. I found that Mozart wrote his last five piano trios in about a year and a half, and the Italian prince and composer Carlo Gesualdo wrote his fifth book of madrigals-some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard, yet also some of the most difficult to perform-in the space of one year. I'm very excited to present these works side by side over the course of four concerts, as it will be a wonderful contemplation of the genius these composers accomplished over a short period of time."

The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival welcomes back the Santa Fe Desert Chorale-one of the nation's premier choral ensembles-in the performances of Gesualdo's ethereal Book V madrigals, which will be spread out over the course of the four concerts on August 12, 14, 15 and 19. Over the course of the "Years of Wonder" mini-festival, Gesualdo's madrigals are joined by Mozart's Piano Trios Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 6; and Schumann's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 3, along with his Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet. The musicians performing the Mozart and Schumann works are violinists Ida Kavafian, William Preucil and Benny Kim; violist Steven Tenenbom; cellists Peter Wiley and Eric Kim; pianist Anne-Marie McDermott; and the Orion String Quartet

String Quartet Workshop for Young Composers

In keeping with the Festival's commitment to supporting living composers and contributing new works to the chamber music repertoire, Marc Neikrug introduces a new program this summer that will guide three young composers through the process of creating and revising a new work for a world premiere performance. The week-long workshop welcomes composers Reena Esmail, David Hertzberg and Elizabeth Ogonek. Each will write a string quartet that the FLUX Quartet will rehearse with them daily, giving the participants a chance to fine tune their works as they work together with the musicians.

"In my opinion, one of the most difficult things to compose is a string quartet, and I think it is nearly impossible if you do not have some kind of feedback," Neikrug observes. "Sometimes, the work is written and performed as is, and the composer might be so unhappy with it that he or she completely starts over. What we want to do with this new workshop is create a model where composers have the opportunity to write something and have a professional quartet rehearse it and refine it over the course of one week. This allows the composers to make adjustments each day based on what they are hearing, so, at every rehearsal they are bringing their work closer and closer to the final envisioned product. This is certainly a unique learning experience for emerging composers, and we're providing it at a point in their careers when they will benefit from the experience most."

An experienced composer himself, Marc Neikrug will oversee rehearsals. Additionally, executives from the publishing companies G. Schirmer and Boosey & Hawkes will meet regularly with the three composers to discuss career development strategies for succeeding in the music industry. The week-long intensive workshop culminates on Friday, July 26 with the FLUX Quartet performing the world premieres of all three works in a concert that also includes Marc Neikrug's String Quartet No. 4.

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail enjoys working in both the Western and Hindustani classical music idioms. Esmail holds a bachelor's degree in composition from The Juilliard School and a master's degree from the Yale School of Music, where she is currently pursuing a doctoral degree. Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Martin Bresnick, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She has won numerous awards, including the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Esmail was a recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru grant for the 2011-2012 year and spent the year living in New Delhi, India, where she was affiliated with the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at Delhi University, and studied Hindustani vocal music with Gaurav Mazumdar.

Elizabeth Ogonek was born in Anoka, Minnesota and moved to New York City when she was four. She began formal music studies at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division at age five, concentrating on piano. It was not until her junior year in high school that she began composition studies with Matthew Van Brink. She received her bachelor's degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and her master's degree in composition from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music. Her composition teachers have included Matthew Van Brink, Don Freund, Claude Baker, Michael Gandolfi, Samuel Adler and Donald Crockett. Ogonek is the recipient of a 2007 Morton Gould Young Composer Award (ASCAP), the 2010 Dean's Prize from Indiana University and the 2010 PACO Youth-for-Youth Commission. Her music has been performed by ensembles such as the Wellesley Sinfonietta, Dinosaur Annex, the Brillaner Duo, members of eighth blackbird and the Britten-Pears Ensemble.

David Hertzberg began his musical studies in composition, violin, and piano when he was eight years old at The Colburn School in Los Angeles. In 2012, he earned his bachelor's degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Samuel Adler. He is currently enrolled in the Accelerated Master of Music program at The Juilliard School, where he holds the Jerome L. Green Fellowship. In 2012, he was awarded a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. In 2012, David was also named Composer-In-Residence for Young Concert Artists, a post which he will hold through 2014. His upcoming projects include a commission from the new YCA ensemble miXt, which will premiere his new work this season at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, a commission from the New Juilliard Ensemble, which will premiere at Alice Tully Hall, and a 2012 Jerome Fund Commission for the PRISM saxophone quartet, which will premiere in New York and Philadelphia in the 2013-14 season.

Commissions and Premieres

The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival is dedicated to supporting living composers and perpetuating the chamber music medium, which has resulted in the premieres of over 50 newly commissioned works since 1980. This year, in addition to the workshop composers' world premieres, audiences will hear the world premiere of French composer Thierry Lancino's String Quartet, a Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival commission that will be performed by the Orion String Quartet on Sunday, August 11. Before that performance, Lancino will participate in a pre-concert discussion with Marc Neikrug on the art of composing.

On Wednesday and Thursday, July 17 and 18, French composer Marc-André Dalbavie's Piano Quartet-a co-commission between the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and La Jolla Music Society for Summerfest-will receive its New Mexico premiere featuring violinist Lily Francis, violist Teng Li, cellist Nicholas Cannellakis and pianist Inon Barnatan.

Thierry Lancino's groundbreaking work in both electronic and traditional composition places him at the forefront of his musical generation. Recently, Lancino was awarded a prestigious co-commission by the Koussevitsky Music Foundation, the French Ministry of Culture and Radio France, which resulted in the 2010 world premiere of Requiem with a subsequent release by Naxos recordings, performed by the Radio France Chorus and Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salle Pleyel. Other orchestral commissions include his Violin Concerto (2005) for the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and The Death of Virgil, an orchestral suite for the Orchestre National de France (2000). In 2005 he wrote ONXA, a chamber work for mezzo-soprano and strings that had its U.S. premiere at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in 2008. Also in 2008, his Cinq Caprices for violin and piano were heard at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In March 2009, the Jeune Chœur de Paris and music director Laurence Equilbey presented the world premiere of Lancino's choral work Who is the Third? at the Opéra Comique in Paris.

Marc-André Dalbavie had his first music lessons at age six and later studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1985 he joined the research department of IRCAM where he studied digital synthesis, computer assisted composition and spectral analysis. He currently lives in St. Cyprien and teaches orchestration at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. In 1994 he was awarded the Rome Prize, and that same year was one of three composers to win the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. In 1998, The Cleveland Orchestra appointed him composer-in-residence for two years. In 2004, he was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. Dalbavie has received commissions from some of the world's most prestigious orchestras, such as the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre de Paris and BBC Symphony Orchestra; as well as for organizations such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, London's Proms Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Radio France's Présences Festival and Cité de la Musique in Paris. He is currently writing the music for a new Peter Martins ballet to be premiered by New York City Ballet.

"Bach Plus" Series

The "Bach Plus" series, consisting of five concerts, celebrates J.S. Bach's timeless music, as well as works by his contemporaries and those who were later inspired by him.

Figuring prominently in the series is the Saturday, July 27 presentation of "Reflection and Revolution: Music in the Time of Goya (1746-1828)," a multimedia event created and hosted by guitarist Richard Savino. Through music and visual illustrations, Savino will draw parallels between the romantic Spanish painter's work and the music which was being composed across Europe at that same time.

On Saturday, August 10, Samuel Baron's acclaimed arrangements of Bach's monumental The Art of Fugue for string quartet and wind quintet will be performed by the Orion String Quartet and a Festival wind quintet consisting of flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, oboist Robert Ingliss, clarinetist Patrick Messina, bassoonist Theodore Soluri and horn player Julie Landsman.

Other composers performed on this series are C.P.E. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Suk and Stravinsky.

7th Annual Chefs' Gala Benefit

On Tuesday, July 16, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival will hold its 7th Annual Chefs' Gala benefit. The evening begins with a 6pm performance by internationally renowned pianist Inon Barnatan at the First Presbyterian Church. Following the performance are cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the Santa Fe Convention Center Courtyard and an exclusive, private dinner in the Convention Center's Sweeney Ballroom. Each of the 250 guests experiences the creations of one New Mexico's finest chefs; over 20 such culinary masters participate in the dinner, and they each design their own four-course menu and table décor for a selection of the tables. Table and chef assignments are made by a double-blind drawing, and are not revealed until the guests arrive.

The Chefs' Gala is the largest annual fundraising event for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. All proceeds from the Gala support the Festival's annual summer season, as well as its year-round musical Education and outreach programs for children and adults in the greater Santa Fe community.

Tickets for the evening are $600 per person, which includes a $250 tax-deductible donation to the Festival. For more information, call Allison Hooper at 505.983.2075, ext. 111.

Since its inaugural festival in 1973, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival has become one of the world's preeminent music festivals, guided by a visionary spirit and dedicated to artistic excellence and innovation. Contributing to its magic is the Festival's unique Santa Fe setting, nestled amid the timeless splendors of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Under the spirited artistic leadership of composer/pianist Marc Neikrug, the Festival invites scores of distinguished musicians, along with emerging young talent, to participate in its 6-week season. The Festival encourages communication among composers, musicians, and audiences through premieres of Festival-commissioned works, the programming of works by living composers, and concerts featuring the composer as performer. Since 1980, the Festival has commissioned more than 50 works from such composers as Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, John Harbison, Gunther Schuller, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Steven Stucky and Brett Dean, among many others, thereby contributing significantly to contemporary chamber music repertoire.

Concerts take place in the intimate, historic St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art, The Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, and at Simms Auditorium at Albuquerque Academy.

Pictured: Garrick Ohlsson - 2013 Artist-in-Residence

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