Rite of String, Part II

Rite of String, Part II: InterHarmony Highlights a Prismatic Array of Artists and Music at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on May 7, 2015 AT 8PM

• Author: Noah Willumsen
• Tags: Chamber Music Quintets, InterHarmony, Artist Faculty, Young Artists

The InterHarmony International Music Festival presents the final concert of its 2015 series at Weill Recital Hall on May 7 at 8:00. Members of this year's acclaimed faculty will perform alongside their students, showcasing the young IIMF talent taking the world's stages by storm. For tickets call CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800 or, for more information, go to www.interharmony.com.

About the Program: Rite of String, Part II

Each year, Music Director Misha Quint brings together a handpicked group of young virtuosi to perform with him and members of IIMF's distinguished faculty at Weill Recital Hall, giving the public a sneak peak at the next generation of great classical performers. The program is laid out symmetrically. The students play before the intermission, the professors afterward; each group will perform an ensemble work and a solo piece. As the professors push musical boundaries forward with new, exciting pieces, the students delve into the Romantic past.

Repertoire: May 7

The evening begins with Schumann's epochal Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op.44, which, by bringing the piano soloist together with a string quartet, almost single-handedly invented the genre. The string quartet acts as miniature orchestra, encircling the pianist in a tightly written musical embrace. With these reduced dimensions, Schumann created a form that could bring the epic emotional sweep of a symphony into the intimacy of a parlor room. Dedicated to his wife, the concert pianist Clara Schumann, and published on her birthday, this piece, perhaps the best Schumann ever wrote, was extremely personal, a portrait of his beloved. Performers Kristie Janczyk (piano); Maïthéna Girault (violin), Matthew Madonia (violin), Amber Reed (viola) and Caitlin Quinn McConnell (cello) – are Schumann's own voice: his joy, his passion and despair.

Ms. Girault takes center stage for the following piece: Maurice Ravel's Tzigane. Ravel described this work revealingly as "a virtuoso piece in the style of a Hungarian rhapsody." This play of authenticity and exoticism is central to its charm, at once gripping and histrionic. In ten emotionally charged minutes, Ravel expands on the fiddle fireworks of the gypsy style using all the possibilities of Late Romantic chromaticism and development. Ornaments, doubles stops, left-hand pizzicati, harmonics, sliding and scratching: Ravel uses a kind of precise imperfection to unlock unheard of levels of difficulty from the instrument. In the fiery young Québécoise Maïthéna Girault, however, the piece has met its match. She prosecutes her task with the fresh ruthlessness of youth. She will be accompanied by Kristie Janczyk (piano).

Tatjana Rankovich (piano), IIMF faculty member since 2011 and long-time Naxos recording artist, will push the limits of Romanticism far beyond what even Ravel could have imagined with Nicolas Flagello's Symphonic Waltzes. Born into a musical family in New York City, Flagello was composing and performing publicly by the age of ten. An accomplished pianist, he wrote a number of works for the instruments, including three concertos and a sonata (all of which have been recorded by Ms. Rankovich): Symphonic Waltzes was his first extended work for piano solo. Written in 1958, they recall the dark gleam of fin-de-siècle Paris. Ms. Rankovich premiered them herself in 1992, shortly before the composer's death, in this very hall.

Like Schumann's Quintet, a major inspiration, Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 57 spans the distance between two worlds: the public world of Soviet officialdom, censorship and ideology and the private world of his very personal artistry and self-expression. The quintet form offered Shostakovich, like Schumann, the opportunity to bring the power and scope of his symphonies into a more intimate frame, where he could work with greater seriousness and less external pressure. Here, in the relative safety that private instrumental music offered, he could express emotions it was impossible to name publicly. It proved one of his most popular works, earning him the coveted Stalin Prize along with 100,000 rubles, said to be the highest sum ever paid for a work of chamber music. The work is presented by an ensemble of celebrated, international musicians, overcoming, as Shostakovich did, the political tensions of our own times in beautiful music: Violinists Andrzej Grabiec and Matthew Vincent; violist Hong-Mei Xiao; festival founder, cellist Misha Quint; and pianist Tatjana Rankovich.

PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES

Artist Faculty

Cellist MISHA QUINT made his orchestral debut at the age of 13 after winning first place in the Boccherini Competition in St. Petersburg. Some of the celebrated orchestras that Quint has performed with include: Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional do Brasilia, The Metropolitan Symphony, New York Chamber Orchestra, The National Irish Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Leningrad State Orchestra, Orchestra of Classical and Contemporary Music and the Symphony Orchestras of Latvia and Georgia. Quint has worked with an equally illustrious group of conductors, including Maxim Shostakovich, Paul Lustig Dunkel, Colman Pearce, Sidney Harth, Ravil Martinov, Camilla Kolchinsky, Yaacov Bergman, Franz Anton Krager and Ira Levin, and premiered works the most outstanding composers of today including Sophie Goubadalina, Robert Sirota, Steven Gerber, Thomas Fortmann, Nathan Davis, and Alfred Schnitke. Quint is an active chamber musician and has performed with such artists as Nikolai Znaider, Bela Davidovich, Sherban Lupu, Andrzej Grabiec, Yuri Gandelsman, Boris Kushnir, andMikhail Kopelman. Quint started founding music festivals in Europe in 1997 with the creation of The International Cello Festival in Blonay, Switzerland, followed by the Soesterberg International Music Festival in Holland in 1998. Quint established the InterHarmony Music Festival in Geneva, Switzerland in 2000, and has since moved iterations of the festival to San Francisco, the Berkshires in Massachusettes, Schwarzwald, Germany, Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany, and Tuscany, Italy. Quint is currently on the faculty of the Preparatory Division at Mannes College The New School for Music, in Manhattan. www.mishaquintcello.com

Violinist ANDRZEJ GRABIEC, prizewinner at the Fifth International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poland (1967) and the International Jacques Thibaud Violin Competition in Paris, France (1969), made his debut with Opole Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland at age 14. He studied at the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland, where he was later appointed Professor of Violin. He went on to become a soloist and concertmaster of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish National Radio and Television and the leader of Capella per Musica da Camera. Grabiec became concertmaster at the Rochester Philhamonic, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra in Kansas, as well as Music Director of the Mozart Festival Chamber Orchestra. Grabiec became Professor of Violin at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston in 1995. He performed with the Houston Symphony in 1999, and is a founder and Artistic Co-Director of the Virtuosi of Houston. Invited by Australia's government, Grabiec served as Artistic Director of an Olympic Arts Tour throughout Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific Islands, where he also performed as a violin soloist and conductor in 1999. In 2002 Grabiec performed the world premiere of Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, "Seren", by American composer Peter Lieuwen, and was its dedicee. Grabiec made his Chinese debut in 2008 in Guangzhou, China with master classes and a performance of Saint-Saens Violin Concerto with the Xinghai Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. He has performed under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Erich Leinsdorf, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutoslawski, Kazimierz Kord, Mark Elder, and Erich Bergel and continues to teach and perform at a litany of music festivals around the world.

Described by The New York Times as an "astonishingly good pianist," TATJANA RANKOVICH has performed throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Central and South America. She is the first pianist ever to play the First, Second and Third Piano Concertos of Nicolas Flagello, recording them with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Slovak Philharmonic, which were released to unanimous praise and chosen for one of the five "best of the year" recordings in 1996, 1999 and 2005, by Fanfare magazine. These premiere recordings were described as "splendid" and "superb." In his review (Classical Net, 2008), of the Naxos/Flagello Piano Concerto CD, Steve Schwartz writes: "… pianist Tatjana Rankovich, one of my favorite performers, who routinely takes risks on unknown repertoire. She undoubtedly knows like the back of her well-muscled hand the Russian school of piano writing Flagello makes use of. She plays with fiery power. At the end of the recording I, without giving it a thought, stood up. Imagine what she would do to a live audience." She has recorded many other acclaimed discs for Phoenix USA, Naxos, Albany, Artek, Dezil, Citadel, and most recently, a highly praised 3-disk set of live recordings for IBOX. The review by Jerry Dubins of Fanfare Magazine (October, 2010) reads: "My long time favorite recording (of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto #1) has been the one with Argerich….But I think this version with Rankovich now takes pride of place. It's quite stunning..." Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Ms. Rankovich was a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of numerous awards. She holds her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Music & More Concert Series in Tribeca and is presently on the piano faculty in the Preparatory Division at the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

HONG-MEI XIAO was the first-prize winner of the Geneva International Music Competition. Her extraordinary artistry and brilliant virtuoso technique have gained accolades from reviewers across the globe. A recipient of the coveted Patek Philippe Grand Prize, Ms. Xiao has made an international career as a soloist with performances in major concert halls and with orchestras of the greatest distinction throughout the world. Ms. Xiao was honored as a United States Artistic Ambassador. Her performances and interviews have been broadcast on television and radio in Europe, Asia and North America. She has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Joseph Silverstein and Cho-Liang Lin. Ms. Xiao was the featured artist for the Annual William Primrose Memorial Concert. She was also an adjudicator for the 2013 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in the United Kingdom. Ms. Xiao was the winner of the "Critic's Choice Award" from American Record Guide, which praised her performance as "the solo playing is spectacular on all counts." Her CDs of Bartok Viola Concerto and Bloch Works for Viola and Orchestra have won international critical acclaim since their releases. Ms. Xiao's new CD with the Budapest Symphony of Works for Viola and Orchestra by English Composers will be release by Delos this fall. Ms. Xiao began her violin study with her father, Xiao Heng, a well-known composer. A graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory, Ms. Xiao was the recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Award. She completed her master's degree at State University of New York at Stony Brook with violist John Graham. Ms. Xiao is currently on the faculty at the University of Arizona School of Music. She is also an honorary guest professor of the China Conservatory in Beijing. Previously she was a faculty member at the University of Michigan. She has also served as the principal violist of the Minnesota Orchestra, and has taught at the Eastman School of Music as a visiting professor.

Young Artists

Violinist MAÏTHÉNA GIRAULT Maïthéna Girault began playing the violin at the age of 6. Two years later, she was admitted to the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal where she was a student of Prof. Helmut Lipsky for ten years. She also worked with him at the Camp musical de Laurentides, the Domaine Forget International Festival, the Thüringischen Sommerakademie and recently, at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Sulzbach-Rosenberg during the summer of 2014. Since September 2014, she studies with Andrew Wan and André Roy at McGill University. Maïthéna took part in three tours in France with the Joseph-François Perrault Symphony Orchestra (2008, 2009, 2011), the last one as a soloist. The following year, she performed five times as a soloist with the JFP string and symphony orchestras and the Conservatory string orchestra. One of these concerts was broadcasted by Radio Ville-Marie. She was invited to perform again as a guest soloist with the OSJFP last June. Maïthéna has also worked with Pierre Amoyal, Martin Chalifour, Johnathan Crow, Augustin Dumay, Patrice Fontanarosa, Rodney Friend, Micheal Frischenchlager, Régis Pasquin and many others. Trice, Maïthéna won the first prize at Concours des solistes et petits ensembles de Victoriaville. She won first prizes twice at the Festival de musique OPUS 21, leading to a Gala recital at the Cécile-Romain Hall in Montréal on February 7th of 2015. Furthermore, she obtained first prizes at the QMEA Competition and the Classival Music Competition, where she won the "Coup de coeur" award. She received a second place at the Concours de musique du Canada 2014. In 2013 and 2014, she was the grand winner of the MSYO Concerto Competition and Sandra Wilson Prize. Maïthéna is currently completing a Licentiate in Music diploma at the Schulich School of Music. Her violin is generously lent to her by Andrew Wan, a copy of his personal 1744 Michel'Angelo Bergonzi.

Known for passionate performances with impeccable acuity for color, textural balance and keen attention to detail, KRISTIE JANCZYK is one of today's young prolific American pianists. Playing since the age of three, Ms. Janczyk is sought after around the world as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist. She is consistently praised for her inspiration and flair by communicating the energy and musical impulses in the pieces, as well as for presenting programs full of confidence and passion that underscore her love for the piano. A prizewinner of major competitions throughout the world, Ms. Janczyk made her debut at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in 2009 as being named a first prizewinner in the American Protégé International Competition. As a soloist, Ms. Janczyk has appeared with numerous orchestras throughout the world, and has been invited to perform for many dignitaries including Prince Edward of England, as well as for the President of Latvia. Ms. Janczyk has participated in several renowned festivals including the InterHarmony International Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music Festival & Academy, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival, Aloha International Piano Festival, Chetham International Summer Festival, and the Bosendorfer International Piano Academy. She was Principal Pianist for the Napa Valley Orchestra Institute, and orchestral pianist for the Russian National Orchestra during Festival del Sole, where she accompanied Sarah Chang for the Barber Violin Concerto. Ms. Janczyk also is pianist for the newly formed piano trio, K*M*J. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Master's and Bachelor of Music Degree in piano performance both under the direction of Alfred Mouledous. Ms. Janczyk is currently a DMA Collaborative Piano candidate at Arizona State University. She currently serves as sub pianist with the Phoenix Symphony and is represented by Dominique Moralez, M Artist Agency. Visit www.kristiejanczyk.com.

MATTHEW E. S. MADONIA, a Michuda Music scholar and 2012 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. made his concert debut with the Notre Dame Symphony in 2010 and served as concertmaster of the Notre Dame Symphony for three years. He played in the Academy of Conducting Arts Orchestra at Aspen Music Festival during the summer of 2011 before beginning studies for a Master of Music degree at the University of Louisville. As a member of Louisville's Graduate String Quartet, Matthew studied with J. Patrick Rafferty and served as associate concertmaster of University of Louisville's Orchestra. He was a prizewinner in the MacCauley Chamber Music Competition in April, 2014. During the summer of 2014, Matthew studied with Andrzej Grabiec, and served as concertmaster of Sulzbach-Rosenberg InterHarmony Opera Symphony. Matthew has performed master classes for Tokyo String Quartet, Kronos Quartet, The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Max Rabinowitz and the American String Quartet. Currently, he is studying for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and received a Graduate Teaching Assistantship at the University of Alabama under the direction of Jenny Grégoire. He serves as concertmaster of the Huxford Symphony Orchestra and performs with the Capstone String Quartet. In February 2015, he received the Garrett-Himmel Award, winning 1st Place in the string division of the Alabama Federation of Music Clubs Auditions. Matthew is a sought after liturgical musician in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, where he began to perform publicly at the age of ten.

Cellist CAITLIN QUINN MCCONNELL, winner of the Pennsylvania, Regional, and National divisions of the National Federation of Music Clubs Collegiate Competitions, captured the Gladys W. Fisher Violoncello Award, the PFMC Award, the Harvey Gaul Award recognizing artistic potential, Agnes Fowler/Marie V. Thiesen Award and the Lawrence Foster Violoncello Award and was featured in the NFMC special publication. Ms. McConnell was also winner of an Assistanceship to Duquesne University for their Masters program under the tutelage of New York Soloist Misha Quint, the Tuesday Musical Club Scholarship Competition in May of 2008, Opus I Music Club Scholarship in April of 2008, and an Honorable Mention in the Music Teacher's National Association Young Artists Competition in 2007. Critics wrote that she "shone on the cello with wholehearted devotion and rich expression", in a performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany in August of 2011. Ms. McConnell has performed extensively in the United States, Holland, Romania and Germany, where she toured and at such prestigious festivals as the Soesterberg International Music Festival in Holland, and InterHarmony International Music Festival in The Berkshires, MA, San Francisco, CA, Hinterzarten, Germany, and Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany, was featured on German television. Ms. McConnell performed at Carnegie Hall as part of the New York Womens Ensemble in November of 2011. She performed Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence with Andrzej Grabiec, Bora Jeong, Marylene Gingras-Roy, Matthew Pickart, and Misha Quint at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York in March of 2013, and Schubert's Double Cello Quintet at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Ms. McConnell was a featured performer and was featured on Romanian television, in the 2013 and 2014 Festivalul "Cetatea Muzicala a Brasovului" in Brasov, Romania, where she performed with Sherban Lupu, Misha Quint, Rodica-Daniela Ciocoiu, Karina Sabac, and Luiza Balant.

AMBER REED, viola: Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 2013 Masters of Music in Viola Performance in progress at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 2015. Ms. Reed began her studies on violin at an early age. After studying violin for 10 years, she made the switch to viola and never looked back! She performs nationally, with an upcoming perfomance in Carnegie Hall May 7, 2015 and internationally--most recently returning to perform in Italy at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Italy. She has studied as well as performed in Shanghai, Beijing and many other cities across China. Ms. Reed is also an active performer in International Competitions worldwide, most recently visiting the Isle of Man, UK for the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition to compete as a finalist for their 2013 competition (this is one of the two international competitions in the world for viola!). Ms. Reed is currently a graduate student at Temple University studying Viola Performance. Her principle teachers include international viola soloist, Hong Mei Xiao and Kerri Ryan of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ms. Reed also enjoys a career as a freelance musician and private teacher of the violin and viola. She has actively taught for nearly a decade and currently maintains a private studio of twenty plus students. Other interests in no particular order include ancient history, philosophy, astronomy, Earth science, veganism, quantum physics, traveling, spirituality, anything interesting and following her heart always.

Violinist MATTHEW VINCENT has made several solo appearances, and has participated in numerous orchestras, chamber groups, competitions, and festivals in North America, Europe, and Asia. Matthew recently performed the Dvorak Piano Quintet with pianist Jon Nakamatsu at the Aloha International Piano Festival in Honolulu,HI. He is a former concertmaster of the Jr. Philharmonic Orchestra of California, playing under the baton of founder Ernst Katz, and alongside dozens of celebrities including Pat Boone, Dick Van Dyke, Florence Henderson, Flea, Bryan Cranston, and Mickey Rooney. Matthew holds his Bachelor of Music and Arts degrees from Southern Methodist University. His primary teachers include Endre Granat, Henry Gronnier, Chee-Yun Kim, Emanuel Borok, and Arkady Fomin. He has just recently completed a Master of Music degree at Arizona State University under Danwen Jiang.

Program

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