20-21 Program

USCB CHAMBER MUSIC
THE LOWCOUNTRY’S FINEST CLASSICAL MUSIC SERIES
2020-2021 season

OUR STAFF MAY NOT
WEAR CAPES...
....................................................
HONORING THE HISTORY
AND INNOVATION THAT MAKE
AMERICA’S HOSPITAL WORKERS
NOT ONLY EXCEPTIONAL, BUT
ALSO INDISPENSABLE.
We salute the providers and employees
who every day do us proud at Beaufort
Memorial, caring for our patients, and
one another, with sensitivity and
expertise and, yes, heroism whatever
their department or job title.
We never forget that however well
equipped, hospitals are just buildings,
bricks and mortar and windows and
walls. Their heart and soul are the
people who work within.
Ours at Beaufort Memorial are the
best of the best—and especially this
year, we can’t say it often enough.

November 1
Andrew Armstrong, piano
Aaron Boyd, violin
Edward Arron, cello
December 13
Jeewon Park, piano
Edward Arron, cello
January 31
Stefan Jackiw, violin
Raman Ramakrishnan, cello
Marta Aznavoorian, piano
Andrew Armstrong, piano
March 7
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Melissa Reardon, viola
Edward Arron, cello
Andrew Armstrong, piano
April 19
Demarre McGill, flute
Valerie Muzzolini, harp
Ani Aznavoorian, cello
Andrew Armstrong, piano
For more artist/program information or to purchase tickets
visit us at uscbchambermusic.com or call 843.208.8246 dwh
Cover: Chamber Music Legacy | Rebecca Davenport, 2017
Page 1

Edward Arron
Artistic Director, Host and Resident Cellist
Cellist Edward Arron has garnered recognition
worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned
performances, and creative programming. A
native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New
York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared
in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and
as a chamber musician throughout North America,
Europe and Asia.
The 2019‐20 season marks Mr. Arron’s eleventh season as the artistic
director and host of the acclaimed USC Beaufort Chamber Music Series in
Beaufort, SC. He is also the artistic director of the Musical Masterworks concert
series in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and is the co‐artistic director with his
wife, pianist Jeewon Park, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at
the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. With violinists James
Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, and violist Richard O’Neill, Mr. Arron tours
as a member of the renowned Ehnes Quartet. He appears regularly at the
Caramoor International Music Festival, where he has been a resident performer
and curator of chamber music concerts for over a quarter of a century.
In 2013, he completed a ten‐year residency as the artistic director of
the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created
in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious
Concerts and Lectures series.
Mr. Arron has performed numerous times at Carnegie’s Weill and
Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls, New
York’s Town Hall, and the 92nd Street Y, and is a frequent performer at
Bargemusic. Festival appearances include Ravinia, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart,
Bravo! Vail, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Bowdoin, Santa
Fe Chamber Music, Seattle Chamber Music, Kuhmo, PyeongChang, Evian,
Charlottesville, Telluride Musicfest, Seoul Spring, Lake Champlain Chamber
Music, Chesapeake Chamber Music, La Jolla Summerfest, and Bard Music
Festival. He has participated in Yo‐Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project as well as Isaac
Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Mr. Arron’s performances
are frequently broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today.
Edward Arron began playing the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and
continued his studies in New York with Peter Wiley. He is a graduate of
the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro. In 2016,
Mr. Arron joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst, after
having served on the faculty of New York University from 2009 to 2016.
Page 2

Dear Friends,
After a memorable season celebrating the first 40 years of USCB
Chamber Music, it is perhaps as fitting a moment as there ever will be for
me to thank you for 12 years of warm receptions and many wonderful visits
to Beaufort as I pass the baton to my dear friend Andy Armstrong in the
tradition established in 2009 by another dear friend- Charles Wadsworth. At
our April 2020 concert, we were prepared to announce that this seamless
transition would occur during the upcoming season, which Andy and I
would jointly direct. Then our best laid plans were leveled by the arrival of
COVID-19, and with the virus persisting, I think now is the time to make our
announcement; I regret that we were not able to do it in person.
As I begin to gently turn to a new chapter in my own life, I will be with
you on November 1 and December 13 as Artistic Director; then Andy will
take over, bringing with him a parade of extraordinary friends for the spring
concerts- and I look forward to returning as Andy’s guest cellist for the
March concert. During these strange and uncertain times, it gives me great
comfort to know that my colleagues and I will still have the opportunity
to make music in Beaufort, and that our devoted audience will be able
to experience another season of concerts, whether in person or virtually.
Jeewon and I are particularly delighted to have you all to ourselves for the
December concert, but we also regret that we will not be able to gather and
celebrate with you in the same manner that we usually do. I look forward
to many happy returns when we can all comfortably and safely assemble
once again in the Center for the Arts, and in any case, I promise never to be a
stranger in the place that I have called my “musical home away from home.”
At this very significant moment in the Series’ history, I would like to ask
that you please do all that you can to keep subscriptions and gifts at a high
level so that we can move through this pandemic season as strongly as
possible. It has been my great honor to maintain the excellence established
by Mary Whisonant and Charles and it is my fervent hope that I will be
able to hand the baton to Andy with the Series at its highest numbers of
subscribers and donors. At a time filled with angst and uncertainty, I ask that
you join Andy and me in proclaiming a bright and glorious future for USCB
Chamber Music.
Thank you for your past commitment, generosity and friendship; I look
forward to returning to the stage in Beaufort in just a few short weeks.
Sincerely,
Edward Arron
Page 3

Andrew Armstrong
Artistic Director, Host and Resident Pianist
Praised by critics for his passionate expression
and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong
has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe,
Latin America, Canada, and the United States,
including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie
Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow
Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.
Andrew’s orchestral engagements across
the globe have seen him perform a sprawling repertoire of more
than 50 concertos with orchestra. He has performed with such
conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig,
Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has
appeared in chamber music concerts with the Elias, Alexander, American, and
Manhattan String Quartets, and also as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi,
Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the
Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.
The 2019-2020 Season takes Andrew across the globe with concerts
in London and Norwich, Amsterdam, Prague, Ostrava, and across the US
and Canada. Also this season, Andrew and violinist James Ehnes team up
to release recordings of the complete cycle of 10 Beethoven Violin Sonatas
to celebrate the master’s 250th birthday in 2020. The duo will perform the
cycle in cities around the world over the next season.
On top of his performance activities, Andrew embarks on his second
season as Artistic Director of Columbia Museum of Art’s “Chamber Music
on Main” series in South Carolina, and enters his third year as Director of the
Chamber Music Camp at Wisconsin’s Green Lake Festival of Music.
He has released several award-winning recordings with his longtime
recital partner James Ehnes -- most recently Beethoven’s Sonatas Nos. 6 &
9, to stellar reviews, Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, and Sunday Times’ Disc
of the Week.
Andrew is devoted to outreach programs and playing for children. In
addition to his many concerts, his performances are heard regularly on
National Public Radio and WQXR, New York City’s premier classical music
station.
Mr. Armstrong lives happily in Massachusetts, with his wife Esty, their
three children including two-year-old Gabriel and big siblings Jack & Elise,
and their two dogs Comet & Dooker.
Page 4

Chamber Music Notes for our Pandemic Season
During these improbable times, our 41st season has been redesigned to
meet the new realities, and we are offering every form of access available.
For the first time in our history, professional audio/visual engineers will
record the concerts for both live stream and on demand access.
Thus, there are three ways to enjoy this season.
• Live Attendance: If a season subscriber, you may elect to attend live
performances on Sundays at five. Seating will conform to physical
distancing and CDC guidelines, so the number of available seats will
be limited, and this option will be available only to subscribers on
a first-come basis until restrictions are lifted. All subscribers with
email addresses will receive an email at 9 am on the Monday before
each concert telling you how to reserve seats for the upcoming
performance. If you do not have email, please call 843-208-8246 at
9 am on that Monday and leave a voicemail with the number of seats
you are requesting for Staci Breton. Reservations will be on a firstcome
basis and will be limited to the number of subscriptions that
you hold.
• Live Stream: Both season subscribers and individual ticket holders
may choose to join the artists and patrons in the hall from the safety
of your homes with live streaming.
• On-Demand: All patrons can view the concerts and 8-10 minute
interviews with the evenings’ artists at your homes within a week of
the performances at times convenient to you. Subscribers will have
access to the concerts and interviews through Memorial Day 2021.
Individual ticket holders will have access for three weeks.
Recognizing that attending from afar can never replicate completely the
experience of a live performance, we have reduced our season subscription
rates by 50%. If seating restrictions should be lifted and we are all able
to join the artists for live concerts during the season, the reduced rate will
remain in place for all pre-season subscribers, and you will continue to
receive videos of all concerts and interviews.
We have great hopes these options will work as planned, but we ask
for your patience and cooperation if changes are required as the season
progresses.
With the added costs of videoing and losses from reduced subscription
rates and, no doubt, reduced ticket sales, we ask that you share the link,
www.uscbchambermusic.com, with friends and family, both near and far,
and ask them to join us for a virtual season. If we can count on you as a
subscriber, Friend, and recruiter, we know we shall fly the chamber music
banner high in the Carolina Lowcountry this season…COVID or no COVID.
Page 5

We are working with Public Radio to broadcast portions of all five
concerts this season on Carolina Live. Since all concerts will be recorded,
we ask all live audiences to please listen and enjoy as quietly as possible
during the pieces.
We are pleased to announce that Saltus River Grill, Hearth, and Plum’s
will provide our audiences with five 15% discounts for dining either in
restaurants or by take-out from November 1 until Memorial Day 2021. Just
tell the restaurant personnel you are a Chamber Music patron.
Once again, we are greatly indebted to The Beaufort Inn and the Best
Western Sea Island Inn for providing fine accommodations for our artists
at special rates. We are also proud of our continuing partnership with
the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at USCB. OLLI supports free
classes by Michael Johns that are usually offered the Friday before each
concert for everyone who would like some prepping about the composers
and the music that will be featured the following Sunday. This season, the
classes will be available on-line. Please call the OLLI office at 843-208-8247
to register. We also thank Dr. Johns for the excellent program notes for each
concert that are included in this season’s program.
We are off together on a venture, not of our making, but for our
surmounting. Thank you for joining us and for supporting our artists
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Register for on-demand classes and Live on Zoom OLLI classes and
Register for on-demand enjoy the class classes on your and own time. Live on events Zoom will OLLI be in classes June and and July.
enjoy the class Access on your to the own class time. will be in events the The will Zoom be in link June and and information July.
Access to the class enrollment will confirmation be in the email. The On-
Zoom will be link included and in information
the enrollment
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Register Register classes for can on-demand for be on-demand accessed classes confirmation classes and and email and reminder
will be confirmation included in email the enrollment
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between enjoy enjoy the June 1 class the and July class on 31 unless your on your own own time. time.
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Page between 6June 1 and July 31 unless
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Register for on-demand email (sent closer classes to events start and date). events will be will Live in be on June in Zoom June and July. and OLLI July. classes and
Access Access to enjoy the to class the class will be will on in your be the in the own The time. The Zoom Zoom link events link and will and information be information
June and July.

November 1
Andrew Armstrong, piano
Aaron Boyd, violin
Edward Arron, cello
W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Duo in B-flat Major for Violin and Viola, K. 424 (1783)
Adagio; Allegro
Andante cantabile
Tema con Variazioni: Andante Grazioso
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
Piano Trio (1904/1911)
Moderato
TSIAJ: Presto
Moderato con moto
~ Intermission ~
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Trio in B Major (1853-4, rev, 1889)
Allegro con brio
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Adagio
Finale: Allegro
Please turn off all cell phones and any other light-illuminating or
sound-emitting devices before the live performance.
Page 7

November 1 ~ Program Notes by Michael Johns
Duo in B-flat Major for Violin and Viola, K. 424
One of Mozart’s first positions, a court musician to the Archbishop of
Salzburg, ended badly in 1781. Two years later Mozart planned a return visit and
upon arriving learned that his friend and successor Michael Haydn was ill and
unable to complete the final two violin/viola duos of a six-set commission. In
a selfless act of friendship, Mozart retired to his quarters, wrote furiously, and
returned several days later with two newly composed duos. The Archbishop
was pleased, singling out Mozart’s contribution for particular praise, a tribute
he would have withheld had he recognized its authorship.
An accomplished violist, Mozart presented the viola as an equal partner
with the violin. Movement one begins with an introductory Adagio warmly
colored with gentle chromaticism, elegant trills, and unhurried motion. Several
motives reappear in the Allegro, linking the two sections in ways both subtle
and elegant. The Allegro is concise, but Mozart’s gift for effortless invention
packs it with interesting contrasts and flourishes.
The Adagio cantabile is a violin aria. Wide range and large violin leaps
combine with intimate and nuanced vocal expression while the viola
accompanies with tender, rocking-motion rhythm as its double-stops provide
rich harmonies and full texture.
Movement three is a theme and six variations. The walking-speed Andante
has an air of “grazioso” entertainment rather than bravura display. Mozart
gently changes the mood to create a more theatrical conclusion; variation six
picks up speed as an Allegretto, and the work is rounded off with an Allegro
coda.
Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano
Charles Ives was an American-original musician, universally considered
the greatest American composer from the country’s founding into the 1920’s.
He had an idyllic New England upbringing and learned about music from
his father, George, a decorated union-army band leader. Charles grew up
surrounded by amateur music making in church, home, park, and village
square. Music was viewed as the highest form of communication and a
reflection of spiritual power, both human and divine. As Ives once said, “Music
is life.”
Ives matriculated at Yale University and upon graduation accepted a job
as an insurance company clerk, reasoning that if a composer “has a nice wife
and some nice children, how can he let them starve on his dissonances?” Thus
began the most unusual career of any major composer: respected business
professional by day; relentless, prolific composer of experimental, modernist
music after-hours.
Ives tinkered with Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano for years, completing
it in 1915. Late in life he said, ”...The Trio was, in a general way...a reflection
or impression of ...college days on the Campus...” An alternate subtitle he
suggested: “Trio Yalensia & Americana.”
“The first movement recalled a rather short but serious talk, to those on
the Yale fence, by an old professor of Philosophy.” It has a somber, patrician
mood underpinned with flexible rhythm. The same 27 measures are repeated
three times: cello and piano, violin and piano, concluding with all three. Each
Page 8

of the mildly dissonant duets could stand by itself. The final section is actually
the most consonant because its fuller texture creates greater harmonic
stability.
Movement two, TSIAJ (“This Scherzo Is A Joke”), is a tongue-in-cheek
musical mosaic containing distorted fragments of American folk melodies,
hymns, fraternity ditties, and campus songs. It recalls “games and antics by the
students...on a Holiday afternoon; and some of the tunes and songs of those
days were... suggested in this movement, sometimes in a rough way.” Song
fragments, sometimes in different keys, are layered over each other—a polytonal
recipe for jarring dissonance—but the melodies are so straightforward
and tuneful that the listener recognizes each as a consonant, free-standing
unit. Clashing harmonies clarify rather than destabilize each melody. Only
Charles Ives was thinking and writing with this type of melodic/harmonic
invention at this time.
“The last movement was partly a remembrance of a Sunday Service on
the Campus...which ended near the ‘Rock of Ages’.” A jagged introduction
gives way to a rhapsodic melody that establishes the movement’s restrained
tone and the work ends in reflection, with the cello intoning Thomas Hastings’
“Rock of Ages.”
Piano Quartet in g minor, Opus 25
By the middle of the nineteenth century concerts were being presented
in large venues requiring greater sound and scope. Adapting to these
circumstances, between 1856 and 1861 the young Brahms created his
four-movement, symphonic-scale Piano Quartet in g minor, Opus 25. This
multifaceted work has memorable melodies, a wide range of moods, concise
reasoning balanced with broad swaths of sound, and high-spirited folkdancing.
In the sonata-form first movement there are multiple exposition themes
and digressions while in the recapitulation themes return out of order. There
is, however, a unifying motive—heard in the first measure. This rising/falling
figure is the seed from which the movement grows. Focusing on its myriad
treatments is one of the satisfactions of listening to this intellectually rigorous
and complex movement.
The c-minor Intermezzo is a light interlude after the monumental first
movement. In ternary form, it begins with bubbling triplets accompanying two
themes, the first light and diaphanous, the second more biting. The Trio picks
up speed and lightens the atmosphere. Movement three is a song that churns
along in a spirit of affirmation and self-confidence. By its conclusion, unresolved
questions from the opening movements are answered or overwhelmed by
waves of sonic opulence, clearing the stage for the concluding Presto, the
shortest and most famous movement of the quartet.
Brahms’ Rondo alla Zingarese (“Rondo in the Gypsy style”) finale is a
tour-de-force of rhythmic and melodic exuberance. The sectional form is a
perfect set-piece vehicle for juxtaposing colorful, dramatic, and contrasting
episodes. Rustic, evocative touches are found in the grandeur and pathos
of the slow episodes while piano textures evoke the sound of the Central-
Eastern European cimbalom. Brahms craftily ratchets up increasing bits of
momentum, hurtling the music to a virtuosic conclusion.
Page 9

Aaron Boyd
Violin
Violinist Aaron Boyd has established an
international career as soloist, chamber musician,
orchestral leader, recording artist, lecturer and
pedagogue. Since making his New York recital debut
in 1998, Boyd has appeared at the most prestigious
venues throughout the United States, Europe,
Russia and Asia and has appeared at the Marlboro,
Tippet Rise, La Jolla, Rockport, Aspen and Hong
Kong and Music@Menlo festivals and is a season
artist of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a member of the
Escher String Quartet for five seasons, Boyd was a recipient of the Avery
Fisher Career Grant and the Martin E. Segal prize from Lincoln Center.
A prizewinner in the Ecoles D’art Americaines de Fontainepbleau, the
Tuesday Musical Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society competitions,
Boyd was awarded a proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for his musical
accomplishments. As a passionate advocate for new music, Boyd has
been involved in numerous commissions and premieres in concert and
on record, and has worked directly with such legendary composers as
Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter and Charles Wuorinen. As a recording artist,
Boyd can be heard on the BIS, Music@Menlo Live, Naxos, Tzadik, North/
South and Innova labels. Boyd has been broadcast in concert by PBS, NPR,
WQXR and WQED, and was profiled by Arizona Public Television.
Formerly on the violin faculties of Columbia University and the University
of Arizona, Boyd now serves as director of chamber music at the Meadows
School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and makes his home in
Plano, Texas, with his wife Yuko, daughter Ayu and son Yuki.
Boyd plays on violins crafted by Matteo Goffriller in Venice, 1700, and
Samuel Zygmuntowicz, Brooklyn, 2018.
Page 10

Chancellor Al M. Panu,
Mrs. Judith Panu,
and the full USCB family
appreciate each
Chamber Music patron
and donor.
Congratulations on
41 wonderful years!
Looking forward to
many more!
Page 11

Finding Our Way Through the Pandemic
The pandemic has upended the classical music world. Even the
Metropolitan Opera has canceled its season. And throughout these long
months, musicians, like everybody else, have had to grapple with isolation and
perhaps with more uncertainty than most of us. While we may romanticize
musicians and imagine them as emotionally driven aesthetes who must
make music, we know that even the most talented need food and shelter
and pocket change. This pandemic has spotlighted the precarious financial
tightrope so many musicians walk. “It is a very, very grim time,” says pianist
Igor Levit. Musicians “were the first to be shut down, and we will be the
last to be opened.” But as grim as this time is, musicians around the world
are finding ways to provide solace and inspiration to a global population in
isolation. Here in the lowcountry, we are grateful for your generosity and
our artists’ dedication and gifts. It is with great joy that we welcome Ed,
Andy and their dear friends to USCB Chamber Music’s 41st season and our
first effort at live and virtual music making.
Page 12

December 13
Jeewon Park, piano
Edward Arron, cello
W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
12 Variations on “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” for Solo Piano
K. 265/300e (1781)
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Suite in C Major for Solo Cello, BWV 1009 (ca. 1720)
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Bourrées I and II
Gigue
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Le Grand Tango for Cello and Piano (1982)
Allegro
Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo
Andante con moto
Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto
~ Intermission ~
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Sonata in g minor for Piano and Cello, Opus 19 (1901)
Lento; Allegro moderato
Allegro scherzando
Andante
Allegro mosso
Please turn off all cell phones and any other light-illuminating or
sound-emitting devices before the live performance.
Page 13

December 13 ~ Program Notes by Michael Johns
“Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” for Solo Piano K. 265/300e
“Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” is a theme with twelve variations. It is now
believed Mozart composed it during 1781-82, a debate reflected by the dual
catalog number: K. 265/300e. The variations were published in Vienna in
1785. The origin of the melody was an anonymous pastoral tune from 1740,
first published in 1761. “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” (“Ah, Mother, if I could tell
you”) is the added text that made it a popular French children’s song. We
know it by more sophisticated titles: “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Baa Baa
Black Sheep,” and “The Alphabet Song.”
The work begins with a simple, unadorned reading of the tune followed
by variations in rhythm, harmony, and texture. There are moments of
ornamentation and blazing technical display but the smile-inducing charm
of the theme is always recognizable. It sets a gracious, uplifting mood for
the evening’s program.
Suite No. 3 in C Major for Solo Cello, BWV 1009
Bach worked in the secular court of Cöthen from 1717-1723.
Instrumentalists everywhere rejoice at this fortuitous collaboration because
it was here that Bach wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier, six “Brandenburg
Concertos,” Six Sonatas and Partitas for violin, and the Six Cello Suites. Bach
had an exquisite feel for instrumental capacity, and he redefined technical
standards by exploiting their idiomatic characteristics.
All the Cello Suites have the same layout, a prelude followed by five
dance movements: allamande, courante, sarabande, a pair of linked dances
(bourrées in the third suite), and gigue. Virtuosity was expected but not
sought for its own sake. Bach combined dense counterpoint and refined
harmony in ways that exploited sonic possibilities. Standard cello tuning
creates many opportunities to sympathetically vibrate open strings in the
C-Major suite, enlarging the resonance of the instrument. Bach utilized
this expanded potential to create music of warmth, tonal richness, and
extroverted character.
The prelude, based on scales and chords, begins with both, a
descending C-Major scale and outlined chord, landing on the most resonant
of all strings, the low C. A steady stream of notes follows, leading through
multiple harmonies, ebbing and flowing energy, and a dramatic conclusion
with rock-solid chords and arresting silences, ending with the scale with
which it began. The allemande is stately and proper, while the courante is
athletic and jaunty. A sarabande sits at the heart of each suite. Here Bach
stacks voices on top of each other, creating imposing pronouncements and
thick texture. The bourrées compliment each other: the first bouncy and
confident, the second sliding along sotto voce, in minor. The gigue is playful
and brilliant, ending the suite with a rousing flourish.
Le Grand Tango for Cello and Piano
Astor Piazzolla, a tango composer and bandoneón player, was born in
Argentina. He spent much of his childhood in New York City where he was
Page 14

exposed to jazz and J.S. Bach. He won a scholarship to study composition in
Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She suggested that his gifts lay with tango rather
than classical composition, advice which was accepted. Piazzolla began
to experiment with the Argentine tango and in the process revolutionized
traditional tango with a new style—nuevo tango—incorporating jazz, classical
music, non-traditional harmonies, and an edgier sound.
In Le Grand Tango, written in 1982, the piano provides the primary tango
rhythm, while the cello’s twists and turns create much of the seductive
atmosphere. It is a single-movement work in three broad sections. Strongly
accented rhythm dominates the opening section, alternating moods of
violence and sultry insouciance; in the second the players are given more
expressive latitude, while the final section returns to the rhythmic drive of
the first. The music charges ahead to a rapturous conclusion amid spiky
syncopations and grinding glissandos. The sound is visually evocative,
calling up images of bodies intertwined, sweating, and ecstatic.
Sonata in g minor for Cello and Piano, Opus 19
Sergi Rachmaninoff wrote this sonata, his final chamber work, in 1901
at age 28. Several years earlier he had endured a period of crippling self
doubt. Through treatment he regained confidence and wrote his Second
Piano Concerto, which had a wildly successful premiere. While savoring this
triumph he wrote the sonata, which shares the concerto’s larger-than-life
personality.
Rachmaninoff was one of the great pianists of the twentieth century. He
thought of the piano in orchestral terms and made the point that the sonata
was conceived as a Sonata for Cello and Piano. He requires bold sweeps of
sound and intense emotion from both players.
The Lento introduction is laced with discrete intervals and gestures
that will be developed in the sonata-form Allegro. The cello’s first theme
throbs with energy while the second, given to the piano, is songful but less
robust. Even when the mood is delicate the texture remains thick with piano
inner voices, chords and counterpoint. This quality does not gum up the
works; it keeps the texture pliable and ready to open into oceans of sound
or collapse into sweet caresses.
Primarily urgent, breathless, and volatile, the c-minor Allegro scherzando
contrasts furtive mutterings with moments of sentimental lyricism. In ABA
form, the fast outer sections contain melodious episodes. The Andante
is the shortest and most direct movement. There is no equivocation—it
is all melody. A single tune, richly accompanied, is given to both players.
Rachmaninoff wrote nearly seventy songs and brilliantly applied that
knowledge to an “instrumental” melody containing bell-like repeated notes
and a prominent leap, transforming it into a rhapsody.
The first theme of the G-Major, Allegro-mosso finale is built on driving
triplets, the second is a simple, soulful anthem. Each performer is pushed
mightily; the cellist must generate enough sound to compete with ten-note
piano chords and the muscular piano part steps right out of the Second Piano
Concerto. The sonata calls for an all-in, every-moment-counts approach
creating passionate music played with passion, an unbeatable combination.
Page 15

Jeewon Park
Piano
Praised for her “deeply reflective playing”
(Indianapolis Star) and “infectious exuberance”
(New York Times), Korean-born pianist Jeewon Park
has garnered the attention of audiences for her
dazzling technique and poetic lyricism. Since making
her debut at the age of 12 performing Chopin’s First
Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra,
Ms. Park has performed in such prestigious venues
as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall,
Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Seoul Arts
Center in Korea.
As a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and chamber musician, Ms. Park
has appeared at major concert halls across North America, Europe and
Asia. Recently, she performed as a soloist in the inaugural festival of the IBK
Chamber Hall at the Seoul Arts Center, in addition to engagements at such
venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tilles Center, Vilar Performing
Arts Center, and Kumho Art Hall, among others. Ms. Park regularly returns
to the Caramoor International Music Festival where she first appeared as a
Rising Star in 2007, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic in New York.
A passionate chamber musician, Jeewon Park has performed at
prominent festivals throughout the world, including Spoleto USA, Seattle
Chamber Music Society, Bridghampton, Chautauqua, Lake Champlain,
Seoul Spring, Great Mountains, Manchester, Taos, Norfolk, Emilia-Romagna
(Italy), Music Alp in Courchevel (France), Kusatsu (Japan) Music Festivals.
Currently, she is the co-artistic director, along with her husband, Edward
Arron, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute
in Williamstown, MA
Ms. Park has been heard in numerous live broadcasts on National Public
Radio and New York’s Classical Radio Station, WQXR. Additionally, her
performances have been broadcast nationally in Korea on KBS television.
She came to the U.S. in 2002, after having won all the major competitions
in Korea, most notably Joong-Ang and KBS competitions. Ms. Park is a
graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale University, where she was awarded
the Dean Horatio Parker Prize. She holds the DMA degree from SUNY Stony
Brook. Her teachers include Young-Ho Kim, Herbert Stessin, Claude Frank
and Gilbert Kalish.
Page 16

World Class
Performances
for a
World Class
Community
Page 17
A Life Plan Community in Charleston, SC | 800.373.2384 | bishopgadsden.org

USCB Chamber Music Endowment
As we open the fortieth season of USCB Chamber Music, Chancellor
Panu is pleased to announce the continued growth of the USCB Chamber
Music Endowment. Initiated in 2017 and made possible by the consistent
generosity of the Series’ Friends, a significant initial donation from Anita and
John Mahoney, and generous donations from the Founding Members of
the Endowment Legacy Society and others, this Endowment will ensure
that the music of the world’s finest classical composers will continue to be
played by some of the world’s finest musicians to benefit this University and
the communities it serves.
The Significance of the Endowment
While the Friends of Chamber Music annual donations are essential
to support the expected yearly operating expenses of the series, the
Endowment is a statement of the community’s and the University’s long
term commitment to the program and an invaluable means of meeting
unforeseen financial challenges should they arise. As a life-sustaining, lifeenhancing
instrument, it offers donors the opportunity to provide support
that strengthens not only the program’s present, but also its future. Going
forward, it will grow with additional donations, earnings, and the routine
reinvestment of earnings, thus, establishing further financial stability and
security for the incomparable music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, et al. as
well as the brilliant artistry of Arron, Armstrong, Park, et al.
The USC Educational Foundation
The USC Educational Foundation in Columbia provides professional
expertise for investing and administering the USCB Chamber Music
Endowment. It offers a variety of methods for contributing: cash/securities,
retirement plans, matching gifts, multi-year pledges, bequests, charitable
gift annuities, and charitable reminder trusts. For information on the USC
Foundation, go to www.sc.edu/foundations/educational. Please contact
Staci Breton at 843-208-8246 M-F or sjbreton@uscb.edu with any questions
on how to support the USCB Chamber Music Endowment.
The future depends on what we do in the present.
~Mahatma Gandhi
Page 18

Legacy Society Members
Patricia and Colden Battey
Nancy and Howell Beach
Staci and Michel Breton
Dorothy Davis
Cynthia Warrick and John Folts
Becky and Charlie Francis
Jill Kammermeyer and
Robert Hochstetler
Jan and David House
Marilyn and Paul Jones
Mary Robertson and Charles Keith
Lainey Lortz
Anita and John Mahoney
Carol and Lee Mather
Suzanne and Pat McGarity
Lila Meeks
Peggy and Bo Mohr
Meredith and Joseph Oliver
Beth Brya Oliver and Tom Oliver
Diane and Richard Price
Peggy and Wayne Reynolds
Pam and Drew Scallan
Bailey Symington
Mary Whisonant
Diane and Jim White
Endowment Donors
Penny and Bill Barrett
Jennifer Lortz
Ann Baruch
Michael and Susan Lortz
Shavon Dempsey
Erica and Tye Martin
Dr. Ron Erdei
Cecil and Lydia Minich
Scrib and Ann Fauver
Francis Newton
Bruce and Peggy Fryer
Judith and Al Panu
Weezie and Jim Gibson
Robert Price
Emily Hart
Woody Rutter
Dean Hewitt
Susan Siegmund
Russell Jeter
Pat Ashton and Bob Steinmetz
Michelle and Michael Johns
Bill and Shana Sullivan
Dr. and Mrs. Richard Lawson
Page 19

Friends of Ch
ANGEL $10,000 and higher
Anita and John Mahoney
PRODUCER $5,000 - $9,999
Anonymous
Nancy and Larry Fuller
Morrow Legacy Foundation
Vortex Foundation
DIRECTOR $2,500 - $4,999
Marie Baker
Beaufort Memorial Hospital
Lora and Dick Childs
Cynthia Warrick and John Folts
Becky and Charlie Francis
Susan and Charles Kalmbach
Peggy and Wayne Reynolds
Pam and Drew Scallan
Shanna and Bill Sullivan
Bailey Symington
PATRON $1,000 - $2,499
Penny and Bill Barrett
Nancy and Howell Beach
Marty and Dan Boone
Claudia Carucci
Mary and Roger Coe
Babs and Charles Ewing
Peggy and Bruce Fryer
Gloria Pinza and Andrew Geoghegan
Weezie and Jim Gibson
Katherine and Dennis Green
Deborah and Charles Gomulka
PATRON - cont’d
Lynn Letson and Drayton Hastie
Jill Kammermeyer and
Robert Hochstetler
David and Jan House
Russell Jeter
Paul and Marilyn Jones
Mr. and Mrs. Lee Mather
Anne and Brem Mayer
Karin McCormick
Mr. and Mrs. Wallace McDowell
Suzanne and Pat McGarity
Sue and Jack McNamara
Lila Meeks
Alice Beddingfield Moss
Woody Rutter
Cheryl Steele
Leslie and Landon Thorne
Naomi Crockett and Paul Trask
Annick and Eliot Wadsworth
BENEFACTOR $500-$999
Isa and Bob Allen
Patricia and Colden Battey
Ellen and Greg Davis
Carolyn and Charles Dunlap
Dr. and Mrs. Gerhard C. Endler
Lillian and Gordon Haist
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel V. Molinary
Lucky Moore
Elizabeth N. Muench
Terry and David Murray
Page 20

amber Music
SUPPORTER $250 - $499
Margy Anderson
Mary and Gene Arner
Barbara and David Billet
Gordon A. Bryant
Ann Craigmile
Renee and David Dugger
Ann Fauver
John and Molly Gray
Dean Hewitt
Kathleen and Usinan Ismail
Michelle and Michael Johns
Mary Robertson and
Charles Keith
Wendy and Rick Kilcollin
Wendy Zara and Dean Moss
Fran and Dennis Nolan
Katherine and Daryll Samples
Becky and Greg Sprecher
Elizabeth Locke and John Staelin
Pat Ashton and Bob Steinmetz
Cecily and Jim Stone
Mrs. L. Paul Trask
DJ McPherson and Bud Wilfore
MEMBER $100 - $249
Saskia and Steve Amaro
Elizabeth B Campen
Gerhard and Erika Endler
Eileen Gebrian
Nancy and D.C. Gilley
Kathyln Gray
MEMBER - cont’d
Mr. and Mrs. David T. Harris
Anne Helm
Phyllis L. Herring
Arlene Jacquette
Barbara and Randy James
Joyce Lovell
Martha and Carl Raichle
Margit Resch
Laura and Bill Riski
Anne Saravo
David Simpson
Headley and Roger Smith
Caroline and John Trask
Gretchen and Bruce Wager
Mary Whisonant
Nancy Wingenbach
FRIENDS ADVISORY BOARD
Bruce Fryer
Weezie Gibson
Michael Johns
Russell Jeter
Jill Kammermeyer
Lainey Lortz
John Mahoney
Lila Meeks
Peggy Reynolds
Drew Scallan
Bailey Symington
Leslie Thorne
Page 21

January 31
Stefan Jackiw, violin
Raman Ramakrishnan, cello
Marta Aznavoorian, piano
Andrew Armstrong, piano
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sonata for Cello and Piano L. 135 (1915)
Prologue: Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto
Sérénade: Modérément animé
Finale: Animé, Léger et nerveux
Claude Debussy
Petite Suite for Piano four-hands, L. 65 (1889)
En bateau: Andantino
Cortège: Moderato
Menuet: Moderato
Ballet: Allegro giusto
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)
Duo No. 2 for Violin and Cello, H. 371 (1958)
Allegretto
Adagio
Poco allegro
~ Intermission ~
William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Three Visions, for Piano Solo (1936)
Dark Horsemen
Summerland
Radiant Pinnacle
Page 22
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Piano Trio No. 2 in c minor, Opus 66 (1845)
Allegro energico e con fuoco
Andante espressivo
Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto
Finale: Allegro appassionato
Please turn off all cell phones and any other light-illuminating or
sound-emitting devices before the live performance.

January 31 ~ Program Notes by Michael Johns
Sonata for Cello and Piano
Debussy’s cello sonata (1915) was completed during an unhappy time: he
was suffering from the cancer that would eventually kill him, he had recently
emerged from a fallow period of non-composing, and WWI raged. Feeling that
his end was approaching, he wrote feverishly.
Sonata for Cello & Piano is a concentrated, austere work. It is organized with a
nod to classical forms, but themes do not develop by the conventional method;
their fragments reappear in various guises. The sonata’s beauty lies in concise
reasoning, an economical, cool delivery, and the crystallization of its discrete
parts into a cogent whole. The Prologue–Lent exemplifies Debussy’s terse
approach to sonata form. It seems longer than its 51 measures due to frequent
changes of tempo, articulation, and mood. A great amount of information is
packed into a small space.
The ABA-form Sérénade is ironic rather than singing. Debussy considered
calling it Pierrot Angry at the Moon. Its spectral mood, partially created with
plucked and snapped pizzicatos, continues into an off-kilter, woozy waltz. The
mercurial, rondo-like finale’s snappy theme is offset by lyrical and brilliant
episodes.
Petite Suite, L 65 for Piano Four Hands
Petite Suite, from the front end of Debussy’s career, was written in 1889.
Unlike the cello sonata, its purpose was to entertain and it has become one
of his most popular pieces. Each of its four ABA-form movements has a title
suggestive of motion.
The long-spanning melody of En Bateau (In a Boat) is gently rocked by a
rippling, flowing accompaniment. This reverie is interrupted with lighthearted
dancing rhythms in the central section. A cheeky spirit prevails in Cortège,
based on a poem by Paul Verlaine, picturing a society lady preceded by her pet
monkey, the train of her dress carried by a helper. “Menuet” is the least fussy,
most elegant of the four movements and foreshadows Debussy’s beyondwords
world of subtle colors. “Ballet” is all bright lights and down-stage energy;
a jaunty, bustling opening tune is paired with a saucy dance-hall waltz.
Duo No 2 in D Major for Violin & Cello, H371
Bohuslav Martinů was a man with a probing and inventive musical mind,
boundless energy, and honorable character. Born in Czechia, he studied music
at Prague Conservatory before moving to Paris, where he thrived in its post-
WWI explosion of creativity. He was forced to flee Paris in 1940 and eventually
landed in the U.S., where he spent a portion of the next decade on the Princeton
University faculty. In 1953 he returned to Europe but never again lived in his
homeland.
The three movements of Duo No. 2 in D Major were written over a period of
four days in 1958. The players are co-equal protagonists in music that is intricate,
lyrical, energetic, and filled with life, belying the fact that the composer was a
dying man. The outer movements are restless and exciting; changes in mood,
harmony, rhythm, and articulation occur at a dizzying rate, ratcheting up the
Page 23

intensity. In the central Adagio, Martinů revisits the expressive lyricism of his
homeland. The first two movements end with a reprise of their opening; the
third movement concludes with a dashing coda.
Three Visions for Piano Solo
William Grant Still, an accomplished composer and trail blazer, was born
in Mississippi to musical and scholarly parents of African-American, Native
American, Spanish, Irish, and Scotch descent. After attending Wilberforce
University, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the New England Conservatory
of Music, Still became the first African-American to conduct a major U.S.
symphony orchestra (Los Angeles Philharmonic, 1936) and have an opera
produced by a major U.S. company (City Opera of New York, 1949). He wrote
over 150 compositions in multiple genres, including opera, ballet, symphony,
and chamber music.
Three Visions is a piano suite he wrote for his wife, who premiered it in
Los Angeles in 1936. The “visions” are three strongly contrasted moods. “Dark
Horsemen” is one of horror, with horse’s hooves beating and shrieks of anguish.
“Summerland” portrays the promised beauty of the afterlife, “Radiant Pinnacle”
is a vision of aspiration that is ever-climbing. Its continuous rhythmic flow and
final deceptive cadence create the impression that there is more to come and
the last word has not been said.
Piano Trio No. 2 in c minor, Opus 66
Felix Mendelssohn is arguably the most precocious and prodigiously gifted
of all composers. Robert Schumann referred to him as “The Mozart of the
nineteenth century.” He was a superbly gifted composer, pianist, conductor,
educator, and music historian.
Piano Trio in c minor, Opus 66 was composed, premiered, and published
in 1845. Mendelssohn played piano for the first performances. Movement one,
marked “energetic and with fire,” surges with both. The anxious and wavelike
opening theme contrasts with a bold and forthright second theme.
The lyrical, straight-forward Andante espressivo serves as a soothing balm.
The piano begins alone with a gently rocking melody, after which strings and
piano take turns singing to each other. In ternary form, the soothing atmosphere
is pervasive; the middle section seems like an extension of the opening rather
than a digression into new territory. The darting Scherzo is an elfin delight—
non-stop motion lightly flits through the air. The pleasure is all for the audience;
for the performers, not so much: Mendelssohn described it as “a trifle nasty to
play.”
The “appassionato” finale provides the heft needed to balance the first
movement’s “fuoco” (fire). It is in a rondo-like form with three repeating ideas. The
apprehensive principal theme defines c-minor and begins with a memorable
leaping gesture. Theme two is more dignified and sweeping. Mendelssohn
pays homage to Bach by using the chorale melody from “Praise God from
whom all blessings flow” for the third theme. Its second appearance, toward
the end, is in a triumphant, thunderous C-Major. Darkness is vanquished. All
that’s left is to hold this tonality, briefly reprise the earlier motives, and race to
an ecstatic conclusion.
Page 24

The three movements of Duo No. 2 in D Major were written over a period
of four days in 1958. The players are co-equal protagonists in music that is
intricate, lyrical, energetic, and filled with life, belying the fact that the composer
was a dying man. The outer movements are restless and exciting; changes in
mood, harmony, rhythm, and articulation occur at a dizzying rate, ratcheting
up the intensity. In the central Adagio, Martinů revisits the expressive lyricism
of his homeland. The first two movements end with a reprise of their opening;
the third movement concludes with a dashing coda.
Three Visions for Piano Solo
William Grant Still, an accomplished composer and trail blazer, was born
in Mississippi to musical and scholarly parents of African-American, Native
American, Spanish, Irish, and Scotch descent. After attending Wilberforce
University, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the New England Conservatory
of Music, Still became the first African-American to conduct a major U.S.
symphony orchestra (Los Angeles Philharmonic, 1936) and have an opera
produced by a major U.S. company (City Opera of New York, 1949). He wrote
over 150 compositions in multiple genres, including opera, ballet, symphony,
and chamber music.
Three Visions is a piano suite he wrote for his wife, who premiered it
in Los Angeles in 1936. The “visions” are three strongly contrasted moods.
“Dark Horsemen” is one of horror, with horse’s hooves beating and shrieks of
anguish. “Summerland” portrays the promised beauty of the afterlife, “Radiant
Pinnacle” is a vision of aspiration that is ever-climbing. Its continuous rhythmic
flow and final deceptive cadence create the impression that there is more to
come and the last word has not been said.
Piano Trio No. 2 in c minor, Opus 66
Felix Mendelssohn is arguably the most precocious and prodigiously
gifted of all composers. Robert Schumann referred to him as “The Mozart
of the nineteenth century.” He was a superbly gifted composer, pianist,
conductor, educator, and music historian.
Piano Trio in c minor, Opus 66 was composed, premiered, and published
in 1845. Mendelssohn played piano for the first performances. Movement one,
marked “energetic and with fire,” surges with both. The anxious and wavelike
opening theme contrasts with a bold and forthright second theme.
The lyrical, straight-forward Andante espressivo serves as a soothing
balm. The piano begins alone with a gently rocking melody, after which
strings and piano take turns singing to each other. In ternary form, the soothing
atmosphere is pervasive; the middle section seems like an extension of the
opening rather than a digression into new territory. The darting Scherzo is an
elfin delight—non-stop motion lightly flits through the air. The pleasure is all
for the audience; for the performers, not so much: Mendelssohn described it
as “a trifle nasty to play.”
The “appassionato” finale provides the heft needed to balance the first
movement’s “fuoco” (fire). It is in a rondo-like form with three repeating
ideas. The apprehensive principal theme defines c-minor and begins with
a memorable leaping gesture. Theme two is more dignified and sweeping.
Mendelssohn pays homage to Bach by using the chorale melody from
Page 25

Stefan Jackiw
Violin
Stefan Jackiw is one of America’s foremost
violinists, captivating audiences with playing that
combines poetry and purity with an impeccable
technique. Hailed for playing of “uncommon
musical substance” that is “striking for its
intelligence and sensitivity” (Boston Globe), Jackiw
has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Chicago,
Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San
Francisco symphony orchestras, among others.
Jackiw also regularly performs in Europe and Asia, and has appeared
with the London Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra, the Tokyo
Symphony, and the Seoul Philharmonic.
Born to physicist parents of Korean and German descent, Stefan
Jackiw began playing the violin at the age of four. He holds a Bachelor of
Arts from Harvard University, as well as an Artist Diploma from the New
England Conservatory, and is the recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher
Career Grant. Jackiw plays a violin made in 1750 in Milan by G.B. Guadagnini,
on generous loan from a private collection. He lives in New York City. To
learn more about Stefan, visit his website at www.stefanjackiw.com.
“ ”
As many of us have discovered, the Lowcountry of
South Carolina is a treasure trove, and I submit that
one of its finest gems is USCB Chamber Music. How
lucky I feel to have found it, and how grateful I am
that we are keeping it safe.
~Bailey Symington
Page 26

Raman Ramakrishnan
Cello
As a member of the Horszowski Trio, cellist
Raman Ramakrishnan has performed across North
America, Europe, India, Japan, and in Hong Kong,
and recorded for Bridge Records and Avie Records.
For eleven seasons, as a founding member of the
Daedalus Quartet, he performed around the world.
Mr. Ramakrishnan is currently an artist member of
the Boston Chamber Music Society and is on the
faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Mr. Ramakrishnan has given solo recitals in New York, Boston, Seattle,
and Washington, D.C., and has performed chamber music at Caramoor, at
Bargemusic, with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and at the Aspen, Bard,
Charlottesville, Four Seasons, Kingston, Lincolnshire (UK), Marlboro, Mehli
Mehta (India), Oklahoma Mozart, and Vail Music Festivals. He has toured
with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed, as guest principal cellist,
with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a guest member of Yo-Yo Ma’s
Silk Road Ensemble, he has performed in New Delhi and Agra, India and
in Cairo, Egypt. He has served on the faculties of the Taconic and Norfolk
Chamber Music Festivals, as well as at Columbia University.
Mr. Ramakrishnan was born in Athens, Ohio and grew up in East
Patchogue, New York. His father is a molecular biologist and his mother
is the children’s book author and illustrator Vera Rosenberry. He holds a
Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a Master’s degree
in music from The Juilliard School. His principal teachers have been Fred
Sherry, Andrés Díaz, and André Emelianoff. He lives in New York City with his
wife, the violist Melissa Reardon, and their young son. He plays a Neapolitan
cello made by Vincenzo Jorio in 1837.
Page 27

Marta Aznavoorian
Piano
Multi Grammy nominated artist, Marta
Aznavoorian has performed to critical acclaim
throughout the world as orchestral soloist, recitalist,
chamber musician and educator. She made her
professional debut at the age of 13, performing
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with the
late Sir George Solti and was hailed as “A Pianist
of exceptionally finished technique and purity of
musical impulse”. She has won numerous awards
including the First Prize and prize for best interpretation of a commissioned
contemporary work in the Stravinsky International Competition.
A champion of new music, Ms. Aznavoorian has worked with, recorded
and premiered works by leading composers including William Bolcom,
Augusta Read Thomas, Jennifer Higdon, Shulamit Ran and many
others. Aznavoorian is founding member of the Lincoln Trio, hailed by
Fanfare Magazine as “one of the hottest young trios in the business.” The
Grammy - nominated trio tours regularly, and is preparing for their new
Cedille release of music by Chicago composers, Ernst Bacon, Leo Sowerby
and Robert Kurka.
A passionate teacher and educator, she has taught and given
masterclasses throughout the US and abroad, and is on Piano faculty at the
Depaul University School of Music. Aznavoorian records for Naxos, ARTEC,
and Cedille Label, and recently released violin and piano arrangements of
the Music of Charlie Chaplin under the Warner Classics and Erato Label.
Ms. Aznavoorian is a Steinway Artist.
Page 28

March 7
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Melissa Reardon, viola
Edward Arron, cello
Andrew Armstrong, piano
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Pièce for Cello and Piano, Opus 39 (1897)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Trio in G Major, Opus 9, No. 1 (1799)
Adagio -- Allegro con brio
Adagio ma non tanto e cantabile
Scherzo -- Allegro
Presto
~ Intermission ~
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Opus 87 (1889)
Allegro con fuoco
Lento
Allegro moderato, grazioso
Finale: Allegro ma non troppo
Please turn off all cell phones and any other light-illuminating or
sound-emitting devices before the live performance.
Page 29

March 7 ~ Program Notes by Michael Johns
Pièce for Cello and Piano, Opus 39
Ernest Chausson earned a law degree then scrapped that career to enter
the Paris Conservatoire at age 24, a late start for a composer. A meticulous,
laborious worker, he benefited from family wealth that allowed him to rewrite
and procrastinate. These habits, coupled with his early death, at age 44 from
a cycling accident, left him with a relatively small number of published works.
Initially enamored of Wagner, Chausson became a fervent defender of
French music, serving for several years as secretary of the Société Nationale
de Musique, and enthusiastically supporting younger French composers.
His style was dramatic and richly chromatic but tempered by the reserve of
French taste.
Pièce, Opus 39 for cello (or viola) and piano was composed in 1897. The initial
theme is a caressing, gently rising and falling melody. Literal or shadowy
iterations of this theme shape much of the work. Chausson had an intuitive
capacity for writing vocal melody and that quality is present throughout.
A floating character is created using asymmetrical meters of five or seven
pulses while melodic syncopations further obscure the bar lines.
String Trio in G Major, Opus 9, No. 1
In 1792, two years after arriving in Vienna, Beethoven met Count Johann von
Browne and his wife. The Count, a former brigadier general in the Russian
army, was a person of means who befriended Beethoven and became a
generous benefactor. Between 1798-1803 Beethoven dedicated six early
works to von Browne, including the three Opus 9 string trios which received
the grandiloquent flourish: ‘au premier Mécène de sa Muse, la meilleure de ses
oeuvres‘ (“to the foremost Patron of his Muse, the best of his works”).
Beethoven had written two earlier, divertimento-style string trios. The Opus 9
set, written in 1797-98, followed a four-movement symphony blueprint with
a sonata-form first movement, suggesting they were conceived as works of
substance. They may favorably be compared with Beethoven’s first quartet’s,
the Opus 18 set of 1801. Their level of craft and aesthetic maturity encouraged
Beethoven to expand into quartet writing. Once there, he hit his stride and
never composed another string trio.
The introduction of String Trio in G Major, Opus 9, No. 1 begins with a bold
unison statement that gently fades to tiptoeing scales and their arpeggiated
answers. Theme one presents Beethoven’s mercurial side—four soft, gently
falling violin gestures, a sweeping, loud, upward scale and arpeggio, and veryloud,
tutti, leaping chords—all within the first eight measures. Surprises, twists,
turns, and bold statements are Beethovenian hallmarks. His development of
this jumble, however, displays exquisite executive control of compositional
craft. Theme two arrives in d-minor, an unexpected turn, but exits in D-Major.
The development is completely built from theme one while the introduction’s
‘tiptoeing scales’ lead into the recapitulation. A coda with theme-one,
Page 30

development-like characteristics brings the movement to a dramatic close.
The violin is the principal cantabile voice in the gently-pulsing Adagio. In two
large sections, it has a lovely, unhurried, opening melody and episodes of
heightened emotion suggestive of opera. The palette-cleansing scherzo is
elegant and lighthearted while its contrasting trio is down-to-earth and rustic.
“Presto” was not a marking that Beethoven took lightly. He pushed performers
in order to extract greater emotion. The finale is filled with characteristic
touches that keep the players—and listeners—on their toes: bouncing bows,
sharp accents, and ensemble virtuosity. The message is clear: this is a brilliant
romp. It is no wonder that he did not return to writing string trios: with the Opus
9 set he had already rung the full gamut of possibilities out of that configuration.
Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87
Dvořák’s early career was built upon progressive Liszt and Wagner models.
During his middle period, when the Opus 87 quartet was written, he returned
to more classical forms and proportions. He found new inspiration in the music
of his homeland and began incorporating Czech folk music into compositions,
bringing him professional success and international recognition.
After writing a few brief sketches in October, 1887, Dvořák began composing
Piano Quartet in E-flat Major in earnest on July 10, 1889, and completed it
six weeks later, on August 19. Written during an especially fertile period of
composition, Dvořák wrote, in an August 10, 1889 letter: “I’ve now already
finished three movements of a new piano quartet and the Finale will be ready
in a few days. As I expected it came easily and the melodies just surged upon
me.” The work was premiered on November 23, 1890.
The quartet is filled with bold phrases, shapely melodies, whiffs of Bohemia,
joy, mystery, orchestral depth, and breathless excitement. From the outset, it
is clear that this is a work with a strong point of view. An emphatic string unison
is answered by the equally loud but capricious piano, one of many instances
where they will be set as adversaries. The second theme is introduced by
Dvořák’s instrument, the viola, with a vocal, rising melody. All of the basic material
has now been introduced and it is creatively kneaded together throughout the
rest of the movement. The Lento, in binary form with a coda, begins with a
particularly lush cello melody and demonstrates just how easily the “melodies...
surged upon me” as there are five of them.
The Scherzo is the the most folk inflected. The first melody lilts, descends two
octaves, and on occasion playfully mimics the Czech cimbalom. A second
melody winds within the range of four adjacent notes. The sonata-form Finale
bursts with energy and high spirits. The second theme soars ecstatically and,
similar to the first movement’s second theme, is bestowed on the viola. It is in
the non- traditional key of e-flat minor before E-flat Major is restored in the
recapitulation and a short coda brings the work to a thunderous close.
Page 31

Jennifer Frautschi
Violin
Two-time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher
career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi has garnered
worldwide acclaim as an adventurousmusician
with a remarkably wide-ranging repertoire. She
has appeared in recent seasons as soloist with
the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra, performed a
‘reimagining’ of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Asheville
Symphony, and gave two repeat performances
of the James Stephenson’s Violin Concerto, a
work she premiered with Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, at
the Cabrillo Festival and Elgin Symphony. She also performed with the
Brevard, Des Moines, Elgin, Kalamazoo, Santa Barbara, and Wheeling
Symphonies, as well as Chanel’s Pygmalion Series in Tokyo, and the St.
Barth’s Music Festival. She has appeared as soloist with Pierre Boulez
and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Christoph Eschenbach and the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, and at Wigmore Hall and
Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. As a chamber artist she has
appeared at the Boston and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Societies; the
Cape Cod, Charlottesville, Lake Champlain, La Musica (Sarasota), Moab,
Newport, Ojai, Salt Bay, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Spoleto Chamber Music
Festivals; Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest, and
Music@Menlo.
Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi attended the Colburn School,
Harvard, NEC, and the Juilliard School. She performs on a 1722 Antonio
Stradivarius violin known as the “ex-Cadiz,” on generous loan from a private
American foundation with support from Rare Violins In Consortium. She
currently teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University.
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Melissa Reardon
Viola
Grammy-nominated violist Melissa Reardon is
the Artistic Director of the Portland Chamber Music
Festival in Portland, ME, Artist in Residence at Bard
College and Conservatory and a founding member
and the Executive Director of the East Coast Chamber
Orchestra (ECCO). As a member of the Ensō String
Quartet from 2006 until its final season in 2018,
Melissa toured both nationally and internationally,
with highlight performances in Sydney, Melbourne,
Rio de Janeiro, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Washington, DC’s Kennedy
Center to name a few. Melissa won first prize at the Washington International
Competition, and is the only violist to win top prizes in consecutive HAMS
International viola competitions. She has appeared in numerous festivals
across the United States and around the world, including tours with Yo-Yo
Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and with Musicians from Marlboro.
Melissa is married to the cellist Raman Ramakrishnan and they live in
NYC with their seven-year-old son Linus.
Page 33

April 18
Demarre McGill, flute
Valerie Muzzolini, harp
Ani Aznavoorian, cello
Andrew Armstrong, piano
Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960)
Air for Flute and Piano (1996)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Impromptu No. 6 for Harp, Opus 86 (1904)
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Suite Popular Española, arranged for Cello and Piano (1914)
El paño moruno
Asturiana
Jota
Nana
Canción
Polo
Joseph Jongen (1873-1953)
Deux Pièces en trio for Flute, Cello, and Harp, Opus 80 (1925)
Assez lent
Allegretto moderato - Très modéré - Vif
~ Intermission ~
Page 34

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Le cygne (The Swan) from Carnaval des animaux (1886)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Sonata for Flute and Piano, FP 164 (1957)
Allegretto malincolico
Cantilena: Assez lent
Presto giocoso
Amy Beach (1867-1944)
Water Sprites for Flute, Cello, and Piano, Opus 90 (1921)
Pastorale
Caprice
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Introduction and Allegro, arranged for Harp and Piano (1905)
Please turn off all cell phones and any other light-illuminating or
sound-emitting devices before the live performance.
Page 35

April 18 ~ Program Notes by Michael Johns
Air for Flute and Piano
Aaron Jay Kernis, a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer, is
currently on the faculty of Yale University. His academic studies were at the San
Francisco Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Yale. The time spent
on both coasts helped to define his eclectic musical style, blending minimalism,
impressionism, post-Romanticism, and hip hop. His broad appeal is reflected in
the fact that 45 of his compositions have been recorded by major ensembles
and soloists.
The composer writes: “Air [written in 1996] is a love letter to the flute.
Songlike and lyrical, it opens up a full range of the instrument’s expressive and
poignant possibilities.
The first [theme] poses melodic questions and their response, while the
second is very still. Following a middle section of dramatic intensity it cycles
back to the themes in reverse, developing each along the way.”
Impromptu No. 6, Opus 86 for Harp Solo
The harp can be played with punch and vehemence but its strength is
weighted toward infinitely-shaded, gossamer aspects of expression. The Paris
Conservatoire has a unique examination tradition; all students perform a newly
written piece. For the 1904 exam, Gabriel Fauré was commissioned to write the
harp pièce de concours. Impromptu, Opus 86 was the result.
Fauré was a meticulous technician with a heart deeply steeped in
French traditions. He crafted a work based around a recurring rustic melody
while organically integrating virtuosic harmonics, glissandi, cross-fingerings,
arpeggios, and pedal-work into the story-telling.
Suite Populaire Espagnole for Cello and Piano
Manuel de Falla wanted to create a Spanish national style of music and
looked to folk music for inspiration. This led to Suite Populaire Espagnole, a
popular miniature travelogue for voice (transcribed for cello) and piano. De
Falla’s Spanish roots seep into every measure of the piano part, evoking guitarlike
strums, plucks, runs, and harmonies.
“El Paño moruno” warns the young of the consequence of losing virtue.
“Nana,” subtitled “Lullaby,” was sung to de Falla by his mother. “Canción”
bemoans the loss of young love. The Andalusian “Polo” is filled with despair and
anguish. “Asturiana” is about a despairing girl. The suite concludes with “Jota,” a
Catalan dance often accompanied with castanets.
Deux Pièces en Trio, Opus 80 for Flute, Cello, and Harp
Joseph Jongen was a talented and hard working Belgium composer,
organist, and music educator. He began early (admitted to Liège Conservatory
at seven) and ended late (composing into his 70s). Between his first string
quartet (age 19) and the String Trio of 1948 (age 75) were approximately forty
chamber music works, in the middle of which was Deux Pièces en Trio, Opus 80.
It was written in 1925 for the Quintette Instrumental de Paris, a commissioning
group founded to champion the double-action pedal harp.
Page 36

Pièces is a classically impressionistic, atmospheric work with colors,
articulations, registers and instrumental combinations gracefully woven
together. Its texture is always transparent, clear, and clean. The slow opening
movement hovers without sagging; diaphanous, fluid harmonies keep the
sound suspended in time. Movement two is more energetic and forwardmoving
with wisps of non-native melodies gliding in and out.
“The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals for Cello and Piano
Saint-Saëns considered Carnival of the Animals good fun but insisted that it
not be published during his lifetime, fearing that it would reflect poorly on him as
a ‘serious’ composer. The sole exception was the 13th of the 14 movements, Le
cygne. He wrote Carnival in 1886 and arranged “The Swan” for cello and piano in
1887.
Saint-Saëns captures the full character of a swimming swan; its decorous
and regal demeanor as well as the efficient machine below the waterline. The
resplendent cello sound, leisurely pace, elegantly rising and falling lines, and
legato articulation is grace personified while the rippling accompaniment
reveals the propulsive motion of the webbed feet.
Sonata for Flute and Piano
Francis Poulenc was a composer and pianist who sought to rid French
classical music of foreign influence and re-infuse it with restraint and clarity. In
keeping with his self-description as “a melancholy person who loves to laugh,”
his music contains aspects of sadness and tragedy balanced against wit and
ironic humor,
Sonata for Flute and Piano was commissioned in 1956 by the Library of
Congress and premiered in 1957, by flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and Poulenc. The
ABA-form Allegretto malinconico begins with a rapidly outlined minor chord—
the piece’s signature motive—followed by a chromatic descent decorated
with flippant trills and upward leaps, encapsulating Poulenc’s blending of
oppositional moods. The slow movement is a self-indulged, nostalgic flute
song while the Presto, sparkling and energetic, closes off with a return of firstmovement
motives.
Pastorale & Caprice “The Water Sprites”, Opus 90 for Flute, Cello, and Piano
Amy Beach was an extraordinary example of honor, talent, perseverance,
and musical accomplishment. She lived comfortably within nineteenth-century
expectations even as she was exceeding them. Mrs. Beach achieved what no
American women had done before; her compositions were recognized and
performed by august ensembles at home and abroad.
She had a vivid imagination, stoked by a rural New England upbringing.
Her instrumental and vocal works resound with descriptive word painting.
Composed while at the McDowell Colony in 1921, the Pastorale of “Water
Sprites” is a sweetly swaying, bucolic and innocent ode to summer. The airy
Caprice fleetingly spirals along, evaporating shortly after it begins.
Page 37

Introduction and Allegro for Harp and Piano
In 1905 the Érard piano company commissioned Ravel to write a concertolike
demonstration piece highlighting their double-action pedal harp. The
resulting single-movement Introduction and Allegro was a septet that Ravel
transcribed for harp and piano in 1906.
The short introduction presents material to be developed in the Allegro. Its
floating, waltz-like first theme flows seamlessly into the pulsing second theme.
The development uses both themes and climaxes with a brilliant harp cadenza,
followed by a recapitulation and dazzling close. Both instruments employ their
full dynamic range but the soft passages reveal infinite shades of nuanced and
intimate color.
These notes were written during 2020’s pandemic summer. Now that spring is
here, whatever our situation, today’s music is uplifting, gracious, tuneful, and
passionately optimistic. Whether the need is to soldier on with caution or to
celebrate the storm’s passing, we are grateful that the power of music to soothe
and heal once again graces us with its presence.
“ ”
A musician’s aphorism:
A great player can make a poor instrument sound good;
a poor player cannot make a great instrument sound good.
Page 38

Demarre McGill
Flute
Demarre McGill has gained international
recognition as a soloist, recitalist, chamber and
orchestral musician. Winner of an Avery Fisher
Career Grant and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence,
he has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia
Orchestra, the Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Grant Park,
San Diego and Baltimore symphony orchestras and,
at age 15, the Chicago Symphony.
In September 2017, he returned as principal flute of the Seattle Symphony,
having previously served as principal flute of the Dallas Symphony, San
Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He also
has served as acting principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and
with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
As an educator, Demarre has performed, coached and presented master
classes in South Africa, Korea, Japan, Canada and throughout the United
States. He has also served on the faculties of the National Youth Orchestra
of the United States, the National Orchestral Institute (NOI) at the University
of Maryland, the Orford Music Festival, and participated in Summerfest at
the Curtis Institute of Music. In August of 2019, he was named Associate
Professor of Flute at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and is an
artist-faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and School.
A founding member of The Myriad Trio, the McGill/McHale Trio, and
former member of Chamber Music Society Two, Demarre has participated in
the Santa Fe, Marlboro, Seattle and Stellenbosch chamber music festivals,
to name a few.
A native of Chicago, Demarre McGill began studying the flute at age 7
and attended the Merit School of Music. In the years that followed, until he
left Chicago, he studied with Susan Levitin. Demarre received his Bachelor’s
degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and a Master’s degree at The
Juilliard School.
Page 39

Valerie Muzzolini
Harp
Born in Nice, France, Valerie Muzzolini began to
study harp at age seven. She made her first national
television appearance at nine. At age twentythree,
she was appointed to her current position as
principal harpist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra
and Seattle Opera. Valerie has performed as a
guest with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
the Orchestre Philhamonique de Radio-France, the
Mariinsky Orchestra and the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. She is also a very
active chamber musician and teaches at the University of Washington.
Valerie studied harp with Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche in Nice, Marilyn
Costello and Judy Loman at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Nancy Allen at
Yale University for her graduate studies.
Page 40
Ani Aznavoorian
Cello
The Strad magazine describes cellist Ani
Aznavoorian as having “scorchingly committed
performances that wring every last drop of emotion
out of the music. Her technique is well-nigh
immaculate, she has a natural sense of theater, and
her tone is astonishingly responsive.” Ms. Aznavoorian
has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s
leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki
Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Ms. Aznavoorian is an avid chamber musician and teacher. She is the
principal cellist of Camerata Pacifica and has served on the distinguished
music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. Her
numerous accolades include being the recipient of the prestigious
Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award for her outstanding cello playing and artistry,
being named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and being a prize winner of
the International Paulo Cello Competition. She is a proponent of new music
and she has premiered concertos by Lera Auerbach and Ezra Laderman
and continues to expand the chamber music repertoire with commissions
by John Harbison, David Bruce, and Bright Sheng. Currently, she is working
on recording a soundtrack for an upcoming series on HBO. Ms. Aznavoorian
records for Cedille Records and she proudly performs on a cello made by
her father Peter Aznavoorian in Chicago.

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