Folk Ingenuity
Experience masterpieces from English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Antonin Dvořák, and Dvořák’s son-in-law, Josef Suk. They each incorporated unique folk voices from around the world, including African spiritual, American, and Czech musical traditions.
Co-Sponsors: Heidi Yorkshire & Joseph Anthony
CATCH the pre-concert prelude inside with the Young Artists Institute musicians at 6:30pm!
COME EARLY to picnic beforehand at Reed (BYOP or pick up nosh from Bon Appétit ), or visit the food carts at The Reser.
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
Thursday, 6/30 • 8:00 pm
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Saturday, 7/2 • 8:00 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- DVOŘÁK ‘Humoresque’ (Arr. De Luca & Alistair Coleman)
ANTONIN DVOŘÁK
Humoresque in G-flat Major, Op. 101 No. 7The myth that the signature rhythm of Antonin Dvořák’s Humoresque in G-flat Major, Op. 101 No. 7 came from the train Dvořák was supposedly on while composing it, sounds just plausible enough to be true, which is why the story persists even though there is no factual basis to support it. Dvořák finished the collection of Humoresques for solo piano in 1894; his publisher, Fritz Simrock, subsequently published many arrangements for No. 7, which is, according to writer David Hurwitz, “probably the most famous small piano work ever written, after Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise.’”
Violist William Primrose’s 1941 recording with the Victor Symphony Orchestra is the source of this version, with its brief additional introduction. This record, according to violist Paul Neubauer, is one of the most famous – if not the most famous – recordings Primrose ever made, and did much to advance his career.—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR ‘Deep River’ Op. 59, No. 10 (Arr. by Maud Powell & Paul Neubauer)
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR
Deep River Op. 59, No. 10
(Arranged by Maud Powell & Paul Neubauer)British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, son of a medical student from Sierra Leone and a white English woman, revealed his prodigious musical talent early. He began playing violin at five and entered London’s Royal College of Music at 15; his classmates included Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Coleridge-Taylor quickly attracted favorable attention from his teachers, including his composition teacher Sir Charles Stanford. When a racist fellow student insulted Coleridge-Taylor, Sanford retorted that Coleridge-Taylor had “more music in his little finger than [the abuser] did in the whole of his body.” Edward Elgar concurred, saying Coleridge-Taylor was “far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men.”
“What Brahms has done for the Hungarian folk-music, Dvořák for the Bohemian, and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies,” Samuel Coleridge-Taylor declared of his 24 Negro Melodies Op. 59, which he published in 1905. Coleridge-Taylor’s Pan-Africanism spurred his interest in music from all over the Black diaspora; the songs of Op. 59 come from East, West, and South Africa, the West Indies, and America.
Coleridge-Taylor first encountered “Deep River,” a well-known Negro spiritual, when he heard the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American a capella group from Fisk University in Nashville, TN, perform in London during one of their tours of Europe. Coleridge-Taylor’s setting presents only the first four measures of the song, then expands into a quasi-fantasia before returning to the opening bars.— © Elizabeth Schwartz
- SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR (1875-1912)
Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10 (1895) (34’)I. Allegro energico
II. Larghetto affettuoso
III. Scherzo. Allegro leggiero
IV. Finale Allegro agitatoBritish composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, son of a medical student from Sierra Leone and a white English woman, revealed his prodigious musical talent early. He began playing violin at five and entered London’s Royal College of Music at 15; his classmates included Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Coleridge-Taylor quickly attracted favorable attention from his teachers, including his composition teacher Sir Charles Stanford. When a racist fellow student insulted Coleridge-Taylor, Sanford retorted that Coleridge-Taylor had “more music in his little finger than [the abuser] did in the whole of his body.” Edward Elgar concurred, saying Coleridge-Taylor was “far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men.”
“What Brahms has done for the Hungarian folk-music, Dvořák for the Bohemian, and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies,” Samuel Coleridge-Taylor declared of his 24 Negro Melodies, Op. 59, which he published in 1905. Coleridge-Taylor’s Pan-Africanism spurred his interest in music from all over the Black diaspora; the songs of Op. 59 come from East, West, and South Africa, the West Indies, and America.
The Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10 emerged as the result of a challenge from Charles Stanford to his students in 1895. After attending a performance of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, Stanford reportedly claimed no subsequent clarinet quartets could be written without reflecting Brahms’ influence. Two months later, the 20-year-old Samuel Coleridge-Taylor presented Stanford with his own clarinet quintet, which not only fully refuted Sanford’s assertion, but stands as a monumental achievement on its own terms.
The Allegro energico opens with the clarinet singing in its chalumeau register, emphasizing the sunlight-and-shadow quality of the F-sharp Minor tonality. Howsoever Coleridge-Taylor presents his musical ideas, he never lets us lose track of the basic motifs that anchor this movement. The exquisite languor of the opening theme of the Larghetto affettuoso recalls momentarily the composer’s setting of “Deep River.” The strings assume the central thematic role, while the clarinet serves in a supportive capacity until more than halfway through the movement, when the instruments reverse their roles. In the sunny Scherzo, playful rhythmic ideas abound. Coleridge-Taylor’s love for Dvořák shows itself most clearly in this delightful mercurial music. The closing Allegro agitato features a bracing thematic idea, first sounded by the clarinet, then strings. The constant interplay between F-sharp Minor and A Major (the related major key) keeps both musicians and listeners alert to sudden changes of mood, key, and tempo.— © 2022 Elizabeth Schwartz
- JOSEF SUK Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op. 1
JOSEF SUK
Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op. 1I. Allegro appassionato
II. Adagio
III. Allegro con fuocoUpon hearing Josef Suk’s Piano Quartet in A minor for the first time, you may be surprised to discover it is a student work, written by a 17-year-old in 1891, under the supervision of his composition teacher and future father-in-law Antonin Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory. Dvořák was so pleased with Suk’s Quartet that he chose it for performance at the Conservatory’s commencement ceremony that year.
In 1898, Suk married Dvořák’s daughter Otilie. Her untimely death in 1905 at age 27 and Dvořák’s a year earlier marked a permanent change in Suk’s musical style, which until that time had been grounded in the solidly Romantic pastoral Czech tradition.
Suk numbered this quartet Op. 1 to indicate it was his first “mature” work, although he had composed earlier pieces. The emotional content reveals its youthful genesis, full of the intense ardor that only teenagers experience so completely. Structurally, Suk’s mastery of form and his ability to develop musical ideas show a maturity beyond his chronological age.
— © Elizabeth Schwartz
Artists
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David Shifrin
Clarinet & Artistic Director Emeritus 1981–2020
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Clarinetist David Shifrin graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 1967 and the Curtis Institute in 1971. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra having won the Orchestra’s Student Competition in 1969. He went on to receive numerous prizes and awards worldwide, including the Geneva and Munich International Competitions, the Concert Artists Guild auditions, and both the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000).
Shifrin received Yale University’s Cultural Leadership Citation in 2014 and is currently 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. Shifrin previously 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.
Shifrin served as artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 1992 to 2004 and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon from 1981 to 2020. He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras in the United States and abroad and has served as Principal Clarinet with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (under Stokowski), the 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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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George Li
Piano
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Praised by The Washington Post for combining “staggering technical prowess, a sense of command and depth of expression,” pianist George Li possesses an effortless grace, poised authority, and brilliant virtuosity far beyond his years. Since winning the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Li has rapidly established a major international reputation and performs regularly with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.
Li’s 2023-24 season begins with a recital at the Grand Teton Music Festival followed by his debut with the Aula Simfonia in Indonesia. He will tour China and Europe and will make his debut with the Prague Philharmonia. U.S. performances include the Cincinnati and Milwaukee Symphonies, Florida Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, and recitals across the country. A committed collaborator, George returns to the ECHO series with the Dover Quartet and Davies Symphony Hall with violinist Stella Chen.
Li is an exclusive Warner Classics artist, with his debut recital album released in 2017. His second recording in 2019 featured Liszt solo works and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, recorded live with Vasily Petrenko and the London Philharmonic. His third album with the label will include solo pieces by Schumann, Ravel, and Stravinsky, and will be released in the spring of 2024.
Li gave his first public performance at Boston’s Steinway Hall at the age of ten, and in 2011 performed for President Obama at the White House in an evening honoring Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among Li’s many prizes, he was the recipient of the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the First Prize winner of the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory. When not playing piano, he is an avid reader and photographer, as well as a sports fanatic.
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Viano Quartet
String Ensemble
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Lucy Wang, violin
Hao Zhou, violin
Aiden Kane, viola
Tate Zawadiuk, celloPraised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles today and recipients of the prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since soaring to international acclaim as the first-prize winner at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles. They are currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program from 2024-2027.
During the 2025 summer season, the quartet will debut at Klavier-Festival Ruhr, CMS Summer Evenings, Tippet Rise, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Their many return visits include Music@Menlo, Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music, and MISQA. Their latest album, Voyager, was released with Platoon Records in Spring 2025.
The Viano Quartet has collaborated with world-class musicians including Emanuel Ax, Fleur Barron, Sir Stephen Hough, Miloš Karadaglić, Mahan Esfahani, and Marc-André Hamelin. Dedicated advocates of music education, they have given classes at institutions such as Northwestern University, University of Victoria, Colburn Academy, Duke University, and SMU Meadows School of the Arts. Each member of the quartet is grateful to the interminable support from their mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, including members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets.
The name “Viano” reflects the unity of four string instruments acting as one, much like a piano, where harmony and melody intertwine.
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Jennifer Frautschi
Violin
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Two-time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, has appeared as soloist with innumerable orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has performed with the Boston Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and appeared at Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise Art Center, Toronto Summer Music, and the Bridgehampton, Charlottesville, Lake Champlain, Moab, Ojai, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Spoleto Music Festivals.
Her extensive discography includes several discs for Naxos: the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by the legendary Robert Craft, and two Grammy-nominated recordings with the Fred Sherry Quartet of Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra and the Schoenberg Third String Quartet. Her most recent releases are with pianist John Blacklow on Albany Records: the first devoted to the three sonatas of Robert Schumann; the second, American Duos, an exploration of recent additions to the violin and piano repertoire by contemporary American composers Barbara White, Steven Mackey, Elena Ruehr, Dan Coleman, and Stephen Hartke. She also recorded three widely praised CDs for Artek: an orchestral recording of the Prokofiev concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony; the violin music of Ravel and Stravinsky; and 20th-century works for solo violin. Other recordings include a disc of Romantic Horn Trios, with hornist Eric Ruske and pianist Stephen Prutsman, and the Stravinsky Duo Concertant with pianist Jeremy Denk.
Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi attended the Colburn School, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, 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.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Paul Neubauer
Viola
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Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing led The New York Times to call him “a master musician.” In 2025 he will release two albums for First Hand Records that feature the final works of two great composers: an all-Bartók album including the revised version of the viola concerto, and a Shostakovich recording including the monumental viola sonata.
At age 21, Mr. Neubauer was appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic, and he held that position for six years. He has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; Chicago, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Mariinsky, Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras.
He has also premiered viola concertos by Béla Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Reinhold Glière, Gordon Jacob, Henri Lazarof, Robert Suter, Joel Phillip Friedman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Detlev Müller-Siemens, David Ott, Krzysztof Penderecki, Tobias Picker, and Joan Tower. He performs with SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, with a wide range of repertoire including salon style songs.
He has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical.
Mr. Neubauer appears with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Zlatomir Fung
Cello
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Cellist Zlatomir Fung burst onto the scene as the first American in four decades (and youngest musician ever) to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division. Subsequent accolades, critical acclaim, and standing ovations at performances around the world have established him as one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Astounding audiences with his boundless virtuosity and exquisite sensitivity, the 25-year-old has already proven himself a star among the next generation of world-class musicians.
In the 2024–2025 season, Fung gives recitals in New York City, Boston, and St. Louis, and performs the complete Bach Cello Suites at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts and in Arcata, California, following summer appearances at the Aspen and Ravinia Festivals. He joins orchestras in Rochester, San Antonio, and Billings, among others. Internationally, he performs in Europe and Asia with the London Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, and others, and offers a recital tour of Italy. In January 2025, Signum Records released Fung’s debut album, a collection of opera fantasies and transcriptions for cello and piano.
Fung served as Artist-in-Residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2023–2024 season; recent debut appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, and BBC Philharmonic, as well as Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, and Kansas City Symphonies.
Fung made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2021 and was described by Bachtrack as “one of those rare musicians with a Midas touch: he quickly envelopes every score he plays in an almost palpable golden aura.” Fung was a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Winner in 2022.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Sophie Shao
Cello
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Cellist Sophie Shao, winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, is a versatile and passionate artist whose performances the New York Times has described as “eloquent, powerful,” “beautifully phrased and interestingly textured,” the LA Times noted as “impressive” and the Washington Post called “deeply satisfying.”
Shao has appeared as soloist to critical acclaim throughout the United States and has premiered Howard Shore’s cello concerto Mythic Gardens with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra, the UK premiere with Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and European premiere with Ludwig Wicki and the 21st Century Orchestra at the KKL in Lucerne. She also premiered Richard Wilson’s The Cello Has Many Secrets with the American Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Shao has given recitals in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Middlebury College, Phillips Collection, Walter Reade Theater, and Rose Studio in Lincoln Center, the complete Bach Suites at Union College, and in New York City. Her dedication to chamber music has conceived her popular “Sophie Shao and Friends” groups. She was a member of Chamber Music Society Two/Bowers Program, a young artist residency of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Ms. Shao’s recordings include the Complete Bach Suites, Andre Previn’s Reflections for Cello and English Horn and Orchestra on EMI Classics, Richard Wilson’s Diablerie and Brash Attacks and Barbara White’s My Barn Having Burned to the Ground, I Can Now See the Moon on Albany Records, Howard Shore’s original score for the movie The Betrayal on Howe Records, Marlboro Music Festival’s 50th Anniversary on Bridge Records, and Howard Shore’s Mythic Gardens on Sony Classical.
A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six and was a student of Shirley Trepel, the former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer and chamber music with Felix Galimir. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. She is on the faculty of the University of Connecticut and is playing a Hieronymus Amati cello c.1700 on a generous loan.