Brightmusic eNewsletter - February 2010

Mark you calendars for Tuesday evening, February 9, when Brightmusic will perform its fourth concert of the 2009-10 season.  “Music for Three – Part I” will feature Brightmusic pianist Amy I-Lin Cheng performing three piano trios with Brightmusic violinist Gregory Lee, cellist Tomasz Zieba and trumpeter Michael Anderson.  



Amy, Gregory and Tomasz will start the program with Franz Josef Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 43 in C major, Hob XV:27, one of Haydn’s late piano trios.  This work, published in 1797, is an example of Classical-era piano trios at their finest.



Next, Amy, Tomasz and Michael will fast-forward to the 20th Century to play Eric Ewazen’s Trio for Trumpet, Violin and Piano.  Ewazen is a prolific American composer and a faculty member at The Julliard School since 1980.  Composed in 1992, this work shows that the piano trio is modern format, as well as classical, and that the genre is open to brass as well as strings!   

To close the program, Amy, Gregory and Tomasz will perform one of the best-known trios from the European Romantic era – Dvořák’s Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, op. 90 – the “Dumky” trio.  This work alternates slow, melancholy sections with vigorous Slavic folk dances.  “Dumky” is a play on two Ukrainian words, one referring to a lament and the other to an epic or ballad.

This concert will be performed at Brightmusic’s usual venue at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, 127 NW 7th Street (at Robinson) in Downtown OKC.  The new two-performance concert format will return for Concert 6 in April.  As always, a reception with the musicians will follow the February 9 concert.
 

               
Brightmusic Performed Its First “Double-Header” on January 11-12 at Casady School and St. Paul’s 
 

In an effort to serve its ever-increasing audiences, and especially to make it easy for students and other residents of Northwest OKC to hear our great musicians, Brightmusic gave two performances of its January concert, “Musical Legacies.”  On Monday night, January 11, Brightmusic performed in the Fee Theater on the campus of Casady School in Northwest Oklahoma City.



The following evening, January 12, Brightmusic repeated the concert at St. Paul’s.

The first half of the concert featured three clarinet quintets: Alan Shulman’s “Rendezvous for Clarinet and Strings” (originally titled “Rendezvous with Benny” in honor of the legendary Benny Goodman), composed and premiered in 1946; Quincy Porter’s “Quintet for Clarinet and Strings,” composed in 1929; and Heinrich Baermann’s “Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major for Clarinet and Strings, op. 23,” composed in 1821.
 
The musicians who performed in the first half were Chad Burrow (clarinet), Gregory Lee (violin), Katrin Stamatis (violin), Royce McLarry (viola) and Jonathan Ruck (cello).


In the second half of the concert, Brightmusic double bassist George Speed moved to stage center and, joined by Gregory, Katrin, Royce and Jon, gave a wonderful performance of Antonín Dvorak’s “Quintet for Strings in G Major, op. 77,” which premiered in Prague in 1876.  Dvořák drew upon Bohemian melodies, harmonies and rhythms for this work, which he appropriately dedicated “To my Nation.”
 
Each performance of the February concert received a review in The City Sentinel.  Contributing writer Libby Price reviewed Monday night’s performance at Casady.  You can read that review here.  Sentinel Staff Writer Nancy Condit reviewed Tuesday night’s performance at St. Paul’s.  That review is located here. The City Sentinel is a great supporter of Brightmusic and other arts and cultural organizations in Oklahoma City.  Pick up a copy, read it online or subscribe!


 

Another New Brightmusic Director
 
In our last newsletter, we announced the election of three new directors to Brightmusic’s Board of Directors:  Andy Peterson of McAfee & Taft, Deborah Senner of Allied Arts, and Kip Welch of Chesapeake Energy.  In this newsletter, we have the pleasure of announcing the election of Dr. Joy Reed Belt to Brightmusic’s Board.  Joy is known to many Oklahoma City residents as the proprietor of JRB Art at the Elms in the Paseo, one of OKC’s finest private art galleries.  See www.jrbartgallery.com.  In addition, Joy is the owner of three executive search firms, and she was recently selected as one of the top 250 recruiters in North America.  We welcome Joy to the Board of Directors of Brightmusic!
 

 

A “Shout Out” to Brightmusic from Allied Arts!
 
On Friday, January 15, Allied Arts featured a wonderful article about Brightmusic on its website blog, written by Lindsay McIntyre, senior communications director for Allied Arts.  If you haven’t seen it, read it here.  Thank you, Allied Arts!
 

Brightmusic Musicians’ Recent Performances
 
The Brightmusic musicians have been busy performing around the country in venues other than Brightmusic’s concerts.  On January 7, Brightmusic Co-Artistic DirectorChad Burrow (clarinet) participated in a faculty chamber music recital at the University of Michigan School of Music.  With five colleagues, he performed Paul Schoenfield’s emotionally gripping “Ghetto Songs,” composed in 2008 and commissioned by Music of Remembrance.  That work sets to music the poetry of the Yiddish poet and songwriter Mordachai Gebirtig.  He, his wife and his daughters were among those killed in Krakow, Poland Ghetto on “Bloody Thursday” in 1942.  
 
After the last Brightmusic concert, our Co-Artistic Directors,Chad Burrow (clarinet) and Amy I-Lin Cheng (piano) – performing as Duo Clarion – gave three concerts in Oklahoma before heading to Taiwan for more performances there.  Chad and Amy played in Hugo, Oklahoma on January 15; on Virginia Campbell’s 27th annual piano artist concert series in OKC on January 17; and on the performing arts series at Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa on January 19. 
 
On January 18, Brightmusic trumpeter Michael Andersonplayed in the second concert of the exciting new Oklahoma City Jazz Orchestra.  The OKC Jazz Orchestra performs its concerts at the Petroleum Club atop the Chase Bank Building in downtown OKC.  Their next concert will be on Tuesday evening, April 27. 


On January 23, Brightmusic violinist Gregory Leeperformed works of Bach, Beethoven, Vaughn Williams and Paganini and Bazzini.  You might not believe the virtuosity of the Paganini and Bazzini pieces if you’d not been there to see and hear it!  

Brightmusic violinist Sean Wang has been busy performing from his new home in Houston, Texas.  On January 9, Sean played with the contemporary music group Musiqa at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston.  See www.musiqahouston.org.  Sean was also invited to perform twice during the winter session of the prestigious Banff Centre in Canada.  On January 15, he played for the opening “Concert Night Out” of the winter session, and on January 19 he played a private recital.  Seewww.banffcentre.ca.  
 

Brightmusic Musicians’ Upcoming Performances 
 
At 8:00 pm on Saturday, February 20, the Oklahoma Chamber Players will give a Sutton Concert Series performance in the Sharp Concert Hall at the University of Oklahoma School of Music.  Brightmusic cellist Jonathan Ruck serves as the director of The Oklahoma Chamber Players.  Also performing at that concert will be Brightmusic violinist Gregory Lee, Brightmusic oboist Lisa Harvey-Reed and Brightmusic bassoonist Carl Rath.  All four of those musicians are principals in their respective sections of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra.  Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students, seniors and OU faculty/staff.  For more information, visithttp://www.ou.edu/finearts/events.html.

Brightmusic cellist Tomasz Zieba will perform in two Oklahoma City University music faculty recitals at the Bass School of Music.  On February 16, Tomasz will play Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet and Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 in the Petree Recital Hall at OCU at 7:00 pm.  And on March 8, Tomasz will play Brahms’ Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, op. 114 and de Falla’s “Suite Populaire Espagnole” for cello and piano at 7:00 pm in the Petree Recital Hall.  For more information about these events, seewww.okcu.edu/music.  On March 31, Tomasz will perform works by Piazzola and Smetana with pianist Haysun Kang and violinist Diana Seitz at the University of Kansas.  That concert will repeat a program they gave last October 20 on the Chamber Music Concert series of the Valley Symphony Orchestra in McAllen, Texas.

Brightmusic violinist Sean Wang will play concerts on February 4-5 at the Southern Regional Conference of The College Music Society at Loyola University in New Orleans.  See www.music.org.  And on February 27, Sean will play with The IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee.  Seewww.irisorchestra.com.    
 
Sean Wang, Chad Burrow and Amy I-Lin Chengcomprise the performing trio, Trio Solari, which will perform three university concerts in March: on March 4 at the University of Houston (see here), on March 8 at Rice University in Houston, and on March 15 at the University of Michigan. 

Contributing to Brightmusic
 
Contributions to Brightmusic can be made by mail: Brightmusic Society of Oklahoma, P.O. Box 404, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73101-0404; by leaving cash in the baskets at the entrances to Brightmusic’s concerts; or through our website via credit card,

If you would like to discuss a contribution that could fund a particular Brightmusic concert or some facet of Brightmusic’s operations, please contact John Williams, President, 405-621-0300; David Johnson, Vice President, 405-216-5595; or Grant DeFehr, Secretary and Chair of Fund Raising, 405-204-7366.