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Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”

Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”

World-renowned clarinetist and CMNW Artistic Director Emeritus David Shifrin leads an incredible concert of soaring clarinet favorites. The evening begins with Mozart’s dazzling Clarinet Quintet, a magical display of woodwind virtuosity in the hands of one of the world’s greatest aficionados of the instrument. Equally mesmerizing is Astor Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango, embodying all the passion and rhythm of Argentina.

These delightful works are a prelude to one of the most iconic American clarinet and piano masterworks ever written—George Gershwin’s jazzy Rhapsody in Blue. Don’t miss Alistair Coleman’s special chamber arrangement of Gershwin’s most famous piece featuring the charismatic Cliburn finalist, Avery Fisher Career Grant and 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient, pianist Clayton Stephenson.

Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Saturday, 7/18 • 8:00 pm

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Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

MOZART Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 (“Stadler”)

W. A. MOZART (1756–1791) Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 (“Stadler”) (30’)
   
I. Allegro
II. Larghetto
III. Menuetto
IV. Allegretto con variazioni

At the end of the 1780s, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) found himself in increasingly dire circumstances. In a panicked letter to a friend, he wrote “I have been living in such misery that for very grief I have not only been unable to go out, but I could not even write.” Unable to keep up with his expenses, he went to Germany in early 1789 for a hopeless bid to gain employment with the king of Prussia. Then, he returned to Vienna for a slightly more successful attempt to save his failing marriage.

By the late summer, at least, Mozart’s life had stabilized enough for him to work on some new compositions, including the Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 (“Stadler”). He wrote this quintet, like the 1791 Clarinet Concerto, K. 622, for his favorite clarinetist, Anton Stadler, who premiered it at a December 1789 concert benefitting widows and orphans.

At this time, the clarinet was still a relatively young instrument, although a personal favorite for Mozart. He elected to write the quintet for the Clarinet in A, which offered a gentle, melancholy tone quality, as opposed to the stronger, more majestic Clarinet in B-flat.

No composer before Mozart had written a quintet for clarinet and strings, but many composers followed in his footsteps. The quintet begins with a graceful opening Allegro that establishes a nearly operatic dynamic between the clarinet and the strings. This approach develops further in the Larghetto, in which the clarinet exchanges an emotional duet with the first violin.

In the Menuetto third movement, Mozart depicts a rustic dance scene, drawing from the clarinet’s historical association with pastoral music making. The quintet’s final Allegretto closes with a typically witty theme and variations, initially introduced by the strings alone. Interestingly, in the third variation, the clarinet fades into the background, while the solo goes to the viola—the instrument Mozart himself likely played in the premiere.

—© Ethan Allred

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA “Le Grand Tango”

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA (1921–1992) Le Grand Tango (12’)

In 1982, Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) purchased a home in the Uruguayan seaside resort Punta del Este, where he would spend his remaining summers relaxing, fishing, and writing music. Having finally received recognition both at home and abroad, he eased into a distinguished final period of creativity.

During his first summer at his new home away from home, Piazzolla composed Le Grand Tango for cello and piano. He set his sights high for the premiere, sending the score to world-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, on whose desk it remained, unread, for eight years. When Rostropovich finally looked at the music, though, he found himself “astounded by the great talent of Astor” and immediately included it in an upcoming concert series.

This action-packed, single-movement work unfolds in three parts. The first section introduces Piazzolla’s Nuevo Tango style, filled with fierce syncopation, harshly dissonant chords, and other influences from jazz and classical music. In the slower central section, Piazzolla reframes the melodic and harmonic elements of tango within a more pensive, lyrical context. Piazzolla saved the most expressive bits for the final section, in which the piano and cello exchange a series of wails, slides, and scales for a fittingly thrilling conclusion.

—© Ethan Allred

GEORGE GERSHWIN “Rhapsody in Blue” (Arr. Alistair Coleman)

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898–1937) Rhapsody in Blue (18’) (Arr. Alistair Coleman)

George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue introduced jazz to classical audiences, and simultaneously made an instant star of its composer. From its iconic clarinet glissando to its brilliant finale, Rhapsody in Blue epitomizes the Gershwin sound.

On January 4, 1924, Ira Gershwin showed his brother George an article in the New York Tribune about an upcoming concert by jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman, grandiosely titled “An Experiment in Modern Music,” that would endeavor to trace the history of jazz. The article concluded, “George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto.” This was certainly news to Gershwin, who was then in rehearsals for a Broadway show. Gershwin contacted Whiteman to refute the Tribune article, but Whiteman eventually talked Gershwin into the project.

In 1931, Gershwin described to biographer Isaac Goldberg how the musical ideas for Rhapsody in Blue first emerged: “It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer … And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end … I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”

At the premiere, Gershwin’s “musical kaleidoscope of America,” coupled with his phenomenal abilities at the keyboard, wowed the audience as much as the novelty of hearing jazz idioms in a classical work.

The opening clarinet solo got its signature jazzy glissando from Whiteman’s clarinetist Ross Gorman. This opening unleashes a floodgate of colorful ideas that blend seamlessly. The pulsing syncopated rhythms and showy music eventually morph into a warm, expansive melody.

—© Elizabeth Schwartz

Artists

Efe Baltacigil Efe Baltacigil Cello

Turkish cellist Efe Baltacigil finished his undergraduate studies in Istanbul, Turkey, before attending the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. During his last year of study, at the age of 23, he won the Associate Principal Cello position at the famous Philadelphia Orchestra.

Since 2011, he has held the position of Principal Cellist at the Seattle Symphony and has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony. Efe has had recital and concerto debuts in Carnegie Hall and has been a senior member of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont since 2017.

Efe performed as a soloist for Seattle Symphony’s 2022 Opening Night Gala and played Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto with them in October 2023.

Besides music and his family, Efe enjoys windsurfing, sailing, drawing, and volleypong.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Gloria Chien Gloria Chien Piano & Artistic Director

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became Artistic Directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in 2020. Most recently, she released two albums—her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.

Chien studied extensively at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Jonah Ellsworth Jonah Ellsworth Cello, Protégé

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jonah Ellsworth started playing the cello at age five. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. His principal teachers have been Laurence Lesser, Kim Kashkashian, Lluís Claret, Natasha Brofsky, Andrew Mark, Peter Wiley, and Paul Watkins. At Yale, he was awarded the Aldo Parisot Prize and the Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize. He joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra cello section in 2023. After a year and a half playing with the BSO, he participated in the exchange program with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester. This exchange was created by Andris Nelsons, the conductor of both orchestras. After spending six months with the Gewandhaus Orchester, Jonah decided to take an audition with this orchestra and now is a member of the Leipzig Gewandhaus cello section. He started this job in September 2025.

Along with orchestral playing, Jonah has been featured as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Symphony By the Sea, and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia. In 2016, Jonah filled in for Nicolas Altstaedt on 72 hours’ notice to play the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Jacksonville Symphony in Florida. He also toured Europe as soloist in 2015 with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, alternating solo performances with Natalia Gutman. He has participated in many music festivals, including Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Steans Institute of Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Rockport Music Festival, and Orford Musique Academy. Jonah has devoted much of his professional life to honing his skills as a chamber musician. He spent eight years with the Boston Trio, and with them he performed in some of the most prestigious concert venues in the United States including Carnegie Hall, Newport Music, and Jordan Hall.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Jonathan Greeney Jonathan Greeney Percussion

Jon Greeney has been Principal Timpanist of the Oregon Symphony since the Autumn of 2010. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Percussion Studies at Portland State University. Jon holds a B.M. from the Peabody Conservatory and an M.M. from Cleveland State University. His teachers at Peabody included percussion virtuosos Robert van Sice and Jonathan Haas, and at Cleveland State he studied with Tom Freer of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Jon has performed as an orchestral percussionist, timpanist, and chamber musician in numerous venues around the country, including Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. In 2006, Jon won a position in the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa in Veracruz, Mexico, where he performed as a full-time Section Percussionist until the summer of 2008. Since joining the Oregon Symphony, Jon and his family have resided happily in Portland, Oregon.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Braizahn Jones Braizahn Jones Bass

Braizahn Jones is a double bassist, educator, and entrepreneur based in Portland, Oregon. He serves as Assistant Principal Bass of the Oregon Symphony and is on the faculty at Portland State University and Reed College. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he maintains a multifaceted career spanning orchestral performance, chamber music, and teaching.

As an orchestral musician, Jones has appeared extensively as a substitute with major ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony, and has performed at festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Bellingham Music Festival, and the Pacific Music Institute. He has performed with many of today’s leading conductors and soloists.

Jones has been on the faculty of the National Orchestral Institute since 2019. He is the founder of Umami Bass, an international workshop and performance initiative dedicated to bass pedagogy and community building. The project has hosted successful programs in Japan and the United States, with further expansion underway.

Known for his precise, detail-oriented teaching, Jones works with students at all levels to develop sound musical clarity, and artistic confidence. Through his work as a performer, teacher, and organizer, Jones aims to foster musical environments that value depth, curiosity, and meaningful collaboration.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Soovin Kim Soovin Kim 2026 YAI Faculty, Violin & Artistic Director

Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart, and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season. When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.

Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015. In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became artistic directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Samuel Rosenthal Samuel Rosenthal Viola, Protégé

Internationally acclaimed for his generous musical spirit, violist Samuel Rosenthal delights in sharing music with audiences of all ages and collaborating with some of today’s preeminent artists. His performances are recognized for their “intimate, personal approach” (Journal of the American Viola Society) and communicative style “clearly conveying the range of human emotions” (Cleveland Classical).

First Prize winner at the 2025 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Sam was also recipient of the silver medal at the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition. Other awards and recognitions include major prizes at the Johansen International Competition and, as a member of the Razumovsky String Quartet, at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Sam began his musical studies in Cleveland and continued his viola studies with Jeffrey Irvine as a member of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His passion for chamber music was ignited by formative work with the Cavani String Quartet and Cleveland Quartet violinist Peter Salaff. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Perlman Music Program community as a student at both the Summer Music School and the Chamber Music Workshop.

Chamber music plays a central part in Sam’s musical life. Since 2023, he has attended the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, where he had the opportunity to perform and collaborate with its legendary roster of extraordinary artists. Sam has been invited to perform at a variety of celebrated chamber music festivals across the United States and abroad including Chamberfest Cleveland, Musique de Chambre en Normandie, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute.

Sam is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he had the honor of studying with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang, and was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. He is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy under the tutelage of Nobuko Imai and Antoine Tamestit. These studies are funded by the Annika and Wolfgang Fink Patronage.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

David Shifrin David Shifrin Clarinet & Artistic Director Emeritus 1981–2020

David Shifrin began performing with Chamber Music Northwest in 1978 and served as its Artistic Director from 1981 to 2020. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1982 and served as its Artistic Director from 1992 to 2004.

Shifrin received Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Avery Fisher Prize, as well as numerous awards and prizes competitions and organizations worldwide.

David Shifrin is the Samuel S. Sanford Professor in the Practice of Clarinet at the Yale School of Music where he teaches a studio of graduate-level clarinetists and coaches chamber music ensembles. He is also the Artistic Director of Yale’s Oneppo Chamber Music Society and the Yale in New York concert series. Previously, Shifrin served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii. He has appeared with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad and has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of New Haven, Honolulu, and Dallas. Shifrin also continues to broaden the clarinet repertoire by commissioning and championing more than 100 works of 20th and 21st-century American composers. Shifrin’s recordings have consistently garnered praise and awards including three Grammy nominations and “Record of the Year” from Stereo Review.

Shifrin is represented by CM Artists in New York and performs on Backun clarinets and Légère reeds.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Clayton Stephenson Clayton Stephenson Composer & Piano

American pianist Clayton Stephenson’s love for music is immediately apparent in his joyous charisma onstage, expressive power, and natural ease at the instrument. Hailed for “extraordinary narrative and poetic gifts” and interpretations that are “fresh, incisive, and characterfully alive” (Gramophone), he is committed to making an impact on the world through his music-making.

Growing up in New York City, Clayton started piano lessons at age seven, and the next year was accepted into The Julliard School’s Music Advancement Program—a full-scholarship program for underrepresented students—where he lingered to watch student recitals and fell in love with music. He advanced to Juilliard’s elite Pre-College at age 10—with the help of his teacher at the time, Beth Nam, who gave him countless extra lessons without charge—to study with Matti Raekallio, Hung-Kuang Chen, and Ernest Barretta. Clayton practiced on a synthesizer at home until he found an old upright piano on the street that an elementary school had thrown away; that would become his practice piano for the next six years, until the Lang Lang Foundation donated a new piano to him when he was 17.

He credits the generous support of community programs with providing him musical inspiration and resources along the way. As he describes it, the “Third Street Music School jump-started my music education; the Young People’s Choir taught me phrasing and voicing; Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program introduced me to formal and rigorous piano training, which enabled me to get into Juilliard Pre-College; the Morningside Music Bridge validated my talent and elevated my self-confidence; the Boy’s Club of New York exposed me to jazz; and the Lang Lang Foundation brought me to stages worldwide and transformed me from a piano student to a young artist.”

Recent and upcoming highlights include concertos with the Houston, North Carolina, and Cincinnati Symphonies; festival appearances at Grand Teton, Grant Park, and Tippet Rise; recitals at Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center, Fondation Louis Vuitton, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; gala performances with the New York and Las Vegas Philharmonics; and collaborations with violinists Nikki and Timothy Chooi. He also joined the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as 2024-2025 Artist-in-Residence.

Clayton graduated from the Harvard-New England Conservatory (NEC) dual degree program in spring 2023 with a Bachelor’s degree in economics at Harvard and a Master’s degree in piano performance at NEC under Wha Kyung Byun. In addition to being the first Black finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2024, won the inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition in 2023, and was a 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence honoree.

Artist's Website


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Claire Wells Claire Wells Violin

American violinist Claire Wells is acclaimed by audiences and press for her expressive musicality and rich, singing quality of sound. Claire has won numerous major prizes in renowned international competitions such as the Sibelius, Michael Hill, and Indianapolis competitions, and has collaborated with orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and others. Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, and Teatro Degollado.

Having always held a special place in her heart for chamber music, Claire has been invited to perform at several international festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World, the Gstaad Festival, Krzyzowa Festival, and the Verbier Festival. Claire has the pleasure of frequently collaborating with some of the world’s top young musicians, as well as sharing the stage with world-renowned musicians such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Anders Tomter, and Enrico Pace, amongst others.

Since 2022, Claire Wells has studied with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage. Claire plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.


Upcoming Concerts & Events

Suggested Event

7/16  •  7:30 pm Patricia Reser Center for the Arts Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”   Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”



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