7 p.m. Tuesday, February 23, 2021 Live streamed from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series Russian Masters PROKOFIEV (1891 - 1953) String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50 I. Allegro II. Andante molto III. Andante 24' Rockefeller Quartet Trisha McGovern Freeney & Linnaea Brophy, violin Katherine Reynolds, viola Jacob Wunsch, cello TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 - 1893) String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, Op. 30 I. Andante sostenuto – Allegro moderato II. Allegretto vivo e scherzando III. Andante funebre e doloroso, ma con moto IV. Finale: Allegro non troppo e risoluto 36' Quapaw Quartet Meredith Maddox Hicks & Charlotte Crosmer, violin Timothy MacDuff, viola David Gerstein, cello ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Transcript
7 p.m. Tuesday, February 23, 2021 Live streamed from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
River Rhapsodies
Chamber Music Series
Russian Masters
PROKOFIEV (1891 - 1953)
String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50 I. Allegro
II. Andante molto
III. Andante
24'
Rockefeller Quartet
Trisha McGovern Freeney & Linnaea Brophy, violin
Katherine Reynolds, viola
Jacob Wunsch, cello
TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 - 1893)
String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat minor, Op. 30 I. Andante sostenuto – Allegro moderato
II. Allegretto vivo e scherzando
III. Andante funebre e doloroso, ma con moto
IV. Finale: Allegro non troppo e risoluto
36'
Quapaw Quartet
Meredith Maddox Hicks & Charlotte Crosmer, violin
Timothy MacDuff, viola
David Gerstein, cello
ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Rockefeller Quartet
Trisha McGovern Freeney (violin) is new to Little Rock, Arkansas. A native of Kansas City, Dr. McGovern recently completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music & Dance where she studied Violin Performance with Benny Kim. She also holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied Violin Performance with Ian Swensen and chamber music with Mark Sokol. While a student at UMKC, she was awarded a fellowship with the Graduate Fellowship String Quartet and performed with that group for three years under the direction of Carter Enyeart. She maintains an active and varied career as an orchestral musician, solo recitalist, chamber player, and teacher, with performing and teaching experience throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area, Des Moines, Iowa, Wichita, Kansas, Saint Joseph, Missouri, and the San Francisco Bay Area. She was recently appointed Assistant Concertmaster with the Saint Joseph Symphony, a Tenure Violin Position with the Des Moines Symphony, and a Tenure Violin Position with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra all in the same year upon graduating. Her most recent concert engagements include performances with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony, Wichita Symphony, Saint Joseph Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, Civic Opera Theatre of Kansas City, Monterey Symphony, Marin Symphony, Oakland/East-Bay Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic and the Oakland Opera Theatre. She was a finalist in the 2005 auditions for the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida and has enjoyed subbing with the orchestra. Dr. McGovern has also studied with Noah Geller, Concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony, and Catherine Van Hoesen of the San Francisco Symphony and has performed in violin master classes of Charles Castleman, Brian Lewis, and Ellen Jewett, and chamber master classes with Sadao Harado, Robert Mann, Jorja Fleezanis, and Mack McCray, as well as the Parker, Ying, Formosa and St. Lawrence String Quartets.
Linnaea Kathleen Brophy (violin) Linnaea is a 27 year old violinist from Memphis, TN, is a versatile musician who is a skilled soloist, orchestral player, and chamber musician. A rising doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University and a recipient of SBU’s Staller Scholar Award, she is currently a member of the Anello String Quartet. Formed in fall of 2017 under the auspices of the Emerson String Quartet at their prestigious Emerson String Quartet Institute, the Anello String Quartet has given concert tours throughout the northeast and been hailed by the Woodstock times as “Beautifully Tonal, Coordinated and Balanced.” A veteran of the violin concerto repertoire, Linnaea has performed as soloist with the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra as the winner of the Stony Brook University Concerto Competition, the Nashville Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Alabama Symphony, the Paducah Symphony, the Delta Symphony, and the Vidin Sinfonietta in Vidin, Bulgaria. At age 14, she gave her solo debut at the Neue Gallery in Manhattan, which led to further concert appearances at venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Zenkel Hall, Julliard’s Paul Hall, Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Schermerhorn Symphony Hall, the Cannon Center and the Alys Stevens Center as well as solo concert tours throughout Israel, Canada, Italy, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. During her studies at the New England Conservatory, she frequently served as concertmaster of both the New England Conservatory Philharmonia and the New England Conservatory Symphony, working under the baton of noted maestros such as Stephen Lord, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gill Rose, Hugh Wolf, Joshua Weilerstein and Jefferey Kahane. She was featured as a conductor/soloist in a performance of the violin concertino part in Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6 in F Major with the New England Conservatory Chamber Symphony along with fellow violinist Alexey Kinney and cellist Seth Russel. She gained further orchestral experience working with multiple Boston based ensembles, including the GRAMMY nominated self-conducted chamber orchestra: A Far Cry, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Unitas Ensemble, the Boston Chamber Symphony and the Discovery Ensemble. Competition prizes she has won include 1st prize at the Music Teachers National Association Competition, 1st prize at the Stony Brook University Concerto Competition, 2nd prize at the Susan Bales Violin Competition at NEC, 1st prize at the Curb Concerto Competition in Nashville, 1st prize at the Alabama Symphony Concerto Competition, 1st prize at the Delta Symphony Young Artist Competition and the Concerto Soloist Award at the International Institute for Conductors.
A familiar presence at summer festivals, Linnaea Brophy is an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program and has attended the Julliard String Quartet Seminar, the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse, Holland
International Music Sessions, Orford Music Centre, Aspen Music Festival, and the Mastering the Concerto Course for Violin Soloists at the International Institute for Conductors.
She has been guided by renowned musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Ivry Gitlis, Vadim Repin, Arnold Steinhart, Pierre Amoyal, Alexander Vinnitski and Roger Tapping. She collaborated with famed composer John Corigliano on a debut of his Red Violin Concerto at California Summer Music Institute and has performed alongside Lawrence Dutton, the violist of the Emerson String Quartet. Linnaea Brophy holds a B.A. and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory where she was awarded a Merit Scholarship and Academic Honors as a student of Donald Weilerstein and Lucy Chapman.
Katherine Reynolds (viola) joined the ASO as principal violist and Arts Partner in 2000. She received a Master of Music degree from SUNY at Stony Brook (NY) and a Bachelor of Music degree from the St. Louis Conservatory. Katherine also holds principal positions in the Conway Symphony and the Pine Bluff Symphony. In addition to teaching private lessons in Little Rock, "Kater" also teaches viola at the University of Central Arkansas. Most recently she was a member of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony and extra with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra.
Jacob Wunsch (cello) joined the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the Rockefeller Quartet in the fall of 2019. Actively involved in orchestral performance, chamber music, and music education, he has made concert appearances across the United States and Europe. His accomplishments include 1st prize in both the inaugural Briggs Chamber Music Competition and the ASTA (American String Teachers Association) Competition. He has served as section cellist most recently with the Ann Arbor Symphony, as well as the Evansville Philharmonic and the Owensboro Symphony. He has performed across the US, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and France.
A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wunsch began cello studies at age four and his teachers at university have included Eric Kim, Richard Aaron, Michel Strauss, Jan Ype Nota, and Roger Regter. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University and the University of Michigan respectively. Through fellowship grants he has attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Music Center.
Wunsch has also received a full tuition scholarship to attend the Koninklijk Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands for graduate studies, where he received his second Master of Music degree as well as Artist Certificate. Among performance and study, he conducted research and the transcription of works for the purpose of providing professionals and students alike with an expanding range of quality repertoire for cello ensemble.
Wunsch is a dedicated cello educator and attends teaching workshops.
Quapaw Quartet
Meredith Maddox Hicks (violin) joined the Arkansas Symphony in 2002 after receiving her Master’s degree in Music Performance and completing Doctoral coursework at Florida State University. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, she graduated from Belmont University with a Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance before becoming an exchange student in Moscow, Russia at the Russian Academy of Music, Gnessin Institute. Her teachers include Elisabeth Small, Karen Clarke and Eliot Chapo.
Meredith’s orchestral experience includes the concertmaster position at both of the universities she attended, as well as holding positions with the Memphis, Jacksonville, Naples and New World Symphony Orchestras. As a chamber musician, she is a member of the Arkansas Symphony’s flagship string quartet, the Quapaw Quartet and the Albani Trio at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. While considering chamber music her first love, Meredith also enjoys teaching students of all ages. She teaches privately and is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She is the Visiting Lecturer of Violin and Viola at the University of Arkansas Little Rock; a position made possible through partnership between the University and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Meredith is thrilled to be the 2016/17 winner of the Belmont Encore Award for outstanding alumni in classical music.
Charlotte Crosmer (violin) discovered a love for chamber music early on, growing up playing in a string quartet with her siblings. In addition to her classical studies, she started experimenting with improvising and old-time fiddle music. This interest led her to winning numerous fiddling contests around the state (including the Arkansas State Old-time Fiddling Championship at age 12) as well as an appearance as a featured performer on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion.
Charlotte completed a B.M. in Violin Performance at the University of Central Arkansas ('11) where she studied with Dr. Linda Hsu. She went on to study with Aaron Berofsky at the University of Michigan and graduated with Masters degrees in Chamber Music and Violin Performance ('14). That summer, she was selected as a Young Performing Artist for the Almalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival and performed in solo recitals in Maiori, Italy.
In 2015, she was invited to join the cast of Barrage 8 and toured with them for one year. While she was in the group, they performed high energy shows in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Canada and 23 U.S. states. In the summer of 2017, she toured all over Japan as a member of the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Charlotte has recently accepted a position with the Quapaw String Quartet and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. She can also be heard fiddling with bluegrass groups Big Still River and Runaway Planet.
Timothy MacDuff (viola) picked up the viola guided by the teachers in his public school music program where he grew up in upstate New York. After being exposed to the string quartets of Johannes Brahms and Antonin Dvorak at New England Music Camp in Maine, he decided to become a professional musician.
Early chamber music experiences include attending the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont and performing with Loon Lake Live: an intimate chamber music series in upstate New York. At the University of Maryland, he and other graduate students formed the Anacostia String Quartet which served as the ensemble in residence of the District New Music Coalition in 2018. In octet form, he has collaborated with the award-winning Omer Quartet and performed on the Washington Performing Arts Series with the Left Bank Quartet. Through the National Orchestral Institute, he worked with the Adelphi Quartet on community engagement projects in schools and retirement communities in Prince George’s County, Maryland. In 2019, Tim joined the Quapaw Quartet of the Arkansas Symphony.
Orchestral experiences include playing in summer festival orchestras such as the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado, the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, and the Texas Festival Orchestra at Round Top. In 2018, Tim was a finalist and substitute musician with the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida. He was also an active substitute musician in the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in Maryland and the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra in Virginia. The winner of two concerto competitions, Tim is also comfortable as a soloist and has performed concertos by Cecil Forsyth and Ernest Bloch. As a teacher, he enjoys working with students of all ages and abilities. At the college level, he has served as a teaching assistant responsible for instructing undergraduate lessons and an orchestral excerpts course. While living in Maryland, he maintained a studio of 30 violin and viola students of which many received music scholarships, entered youth orchestras, and earned grades of distinction at Solo and Ensemble Festival.
Tim received his Bachelor of Music degree from the State University of New York at Potsdam and his Master’s degree from Rice University. He completed his Doctoral studies at the University of Maryland. His mentors and major teachers are Shelly Tramposh, James Dunham, and Katherine Murdock.
David Gerstein (cello), a devoted performer of chamber and contemporary music has played concerts all over the world, from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the Great Wall of China.
Mr. Gerstein has recently appeared in concert with the Ying Quartet, flutist Leone Buyse, clarinetist Michael Webster, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, soprano Renee Fleming, cellist Fred Sherry, violinist Jonathan Carney, and Vern Sutton of The Prairie Home Companion.
David is currently the principal cellist of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, which he has been a member of since September ’08. He is also the cellist of the Quapaw String Quartet, which performs regularly at the
Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, AR as well as in schools all over the state as part of the ASO’s Arts Partner program.
Mr. Gerstein has played as principal of the Shepherd School Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, The Eastman Philharmonia, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. He has performed under the baton of great conductors such as James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Oliver Knussen, Mark Elder, Larry Rachleff, and Stefan Asbury.
During the summer of ‘10 as a guest artist at Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Gerstein performed in the American Premiere of Elliott Carter’s What Are Years. The performance received favorable reviews in both the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Mr. Gerstein performed as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center from 2006-2008. Past summers have included residencies at the Banff Centre in Alberta, CA and the Colorado Quartet’s Chamber Music Institute on Cape Cod.
David has maintained an active relationship with performing and promoting new works by little known composers. He has received grants from the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music and has performed actively with groups such as the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble and Ossia: New Music (both in Rochester, NY) as well as the 20/21 Ensemble and Musiqa (in Houston, TX). In 2008, Mr. Gerstein performed many works of Elliott Carter as part of his 100th birthday celebration at Tanglewood with Mr. Carter in attendance. In 2008 Mr. Gerstein premiered Ekphrasis sobre el “Miedo” de Tanguy by Colombian composer Jairo Duarte-Lopez. The piece won the national composition award in Colombia and was recently published along with a recording that Mr. Gerstein recorded in March of 2008.
Mr. Gerstein has participated in the prestigious New York String Orchestra Seminar in New York City, presenting concerts in Carnegie Hall under the direction of Jaime Laredo. He was a founding member of the Cape Cod Ensemble, a consistently multi-faceted chamber ensemble. CCE was invited to attend the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as Semi-Finalists. In the summer of 2009, CCE performed concerts in Little Rock, AR and Ashland, OR.
David received a BM with Distinction from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with David Ying. He completed his studies at Rice University in 2008, where he earned a Master of Music under the direction of Norman Fischer.
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