cc >> Good afternoon, and welcome
to Sunday Afternoon Live from the Wisconsin Union Theater.
I'm Lori Skelton. I am honored today to take part
in another concert honoring some of either Wisconsin-born or
Wisconsin-nurtured young talent in the field of chamber music.
Once again, you are tuned into the Neale-Silva Young Artists'
Competition Winner's Recital. You're going to be hearing
amazing music from amazing performers this afternoon.
The wonderful thing is, this is probably not going to be
the only time you're hearing these people.
They're going to be around, enriching our lives for years
to come. Before we begin the actual
concert, I would like to welcome to the stage, our coordinator
for the Neale-Silva Competition, Wisconsin Public Radio's
Ruthanne Bessman [applause]
Thank you. Thank you, good afternoon,
and welcome to the Winner's Recital of Wisconsin Public
Radio's 2012 Neale-Silva Young Artist Competition.
This afternoon, we recognize outstanding young Wisconsin
musicians who demonstrate an exceptionally high level of
artistry. Auditions were open to all
instrumentalists and vocal performers.
Participants had to be between the ages of 17 and 26,
and residents of Wisconsin or attend a Wisconsin college
or university. The competition is made possible
by a grant from the estate of the late University of Wisconsin
Madison professor, Eduardo Neale-Silva.
Neale-Silva was a classical music enthusiast who was born
in Talca, Chile, and came to the United States in 1925.
A Professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and a
dedicated listener to Wisconsin Public Radio, he left a portion
of his estate to help fund our community outreach programs.
Once again, we were greatly impressed with the talent
this year. Five winners were selected to
perform this afternoon and each will receive a $400 honorarium.
Congratulations to all the contestants.
They are wonderful musicians. Wisconsin Public Radio wishes to
thank the three final judges: Ian Nie, Professor of Piano
at Beloit College; clarinetist Vladislav Gorbich,
a member of the KAT Trio; and violinist Victoria Gorbich,
also a member of the KAT Trio; and our two preliminary judges,
Tom Buchhauser, WYSO Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra;
and Dan Lyons, Principal Pianist of the Madison Symphony
Orchestra; and our own competition accompanist,
Claire Mallory. For their generous contributions
our gratitude to: the Wisconsin Union Theater;
the University of Wisconsin-Madison
School of Music; the Green Lake Music Festival;
HotelRED; David R. Beach
and Carmen Mercedes Rigau; SprintPrint;
and Ward-Brodt. Now back to Lori Skelton, our
host for this special program, the Winners' Recital
of the 2012 Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition.
[applause]
Thank you, Ruthann Bessman, and thank you for a year's worth
of hard work in bringing us yet another amazing competition
and concert. We'll begin this afternoon with
pianist Cameron John Pieper, who is originally from Fond du Lac.
He is taking a double degree at Lawrence University.
He is a piano student of Catherine Kautsky.
And he recently had surgery on his right wrist because of an
injury from playing on the Lawrence University soccer team.
So his performance this afternoon will focus on
the left hand. He does hope to become a
professor at a conservatory and teach both hands of piano.
But today, we will hear first from Scriabin, the "Prelude
in c# minor for the Left Hand," his "Op. 9, No. 1,"
and the "Nocturne in D-flat major for the Left Hand,"
the "Op. 9, No. 2." Some say Scriabin wrote works
for the left hand when a shoulder injury he had sustained
as a teenager would occasionally flare up and bother him.
We'll also hear "Hungary's God," from Franz Liszt.
This was originally a song for chorus and piano.
It happens to be the only piece for piano, left hand,
that Liszt ever wrote. To begin this year's Neale-Silva
Young Artists' Competition Winners' Recital, please welcome
Cameron John Pieper. [applause]
Pianist Cameron John Pieper, our first performer,
our first winner for this year's Neale-Silva
Young Artists' Competition, music for piano, left hand,
by Franz Liszt and Alexander Scriabin.
Next, we'll meet cellist Chris Peck, who was born into
a musical family in Stevens Point.
He's currently an undergraduate at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, pursuing majors in mathematics,
as well as cello performance as a student of Parry Karp.
He performed Hayden's "C major Cello Concerto"
as soloist with the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra
when he was all of 17 years old. He is currently the principal
cellist of the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra,
and is in the cello section of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
He brings us this afternoon excerpts from Bach's
"Solo Cello Suite VI," in the joyful key of D major.
We'll hear the "Gavotte" with wide chords and melody
over a ground bass. It almost resembles
a hurdy-gurdy playing at a peasant celebration.
And also, the "Gigue," which actually turns out to be a duet
for the solist. Interlocking voices will
gradually climb the scale and then sweep us back down.
Please welcome cellist Chris Peck.
[applause]
With portions of Johann Sebastian Bach's
"Solo Cello Suite VI," cellist Chris Peck.
The Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition is just the latest
accolade for our next performer. A year ago,
soprano Rachel Eve Holmes made her Carnegie Hall debut,
sponsored by the Associated Music Teachers League,
with pianist Jonathan Ware. She received her bachelor
of music from the New England Conservatory and was
an Apprentice Artist with Opera Fort Collins while
completing her master's of music at Colorado State University.
She has also sung in China, Italy, and Belgium.
She now resides in Madison, Wisconsin, and studies with
Julia Faulkner. Upcoming engagements
include her singing the role of Kid Clementine
in Fresco Opera Theater's new pastiche-style opera
"The Good, the Bad, and the Divas."
You'll hear this at Overture Center this September.
She brings us four examples of the soprano's art this
afternoon, beginning with "Batti, batti o bel Masetto"
from Mozart's "Don Giovanni," where Zerlina has to charm her
way back into the good graces of a jealous boyfriend.
Next, "Saper Vorreste" from Verdi's "A Masked Ball,"
where Oscar the page is being pressured to reveal Riccardo's
costume for the ball, pressured by the man who plans
to murder Riccardo. We turn next to Douglas Moore,
"Dearest Mama," from his "The Ballad of Baby Doe,"
as Elizabeth Doe is writing her mother about her emotional
turmoil and that she's fallen in love with a married man.
And then "Donizetti," from his "Daughter
of the Regiment Chacun le Sait," as the daughter in question,
who has been raised by soldiers, sings proudly of these soldiers,
saying that everyone knows of the most victorious,
most charming men of the handsome 21st.
Please welcome soprano Rachel Eve Holmes.
[applause]
With pianist Claire Mallory, soprano Rachel Eve Holmes.
Our next winner in this year's Neale-Silva Young Artists'
Competition is horn soloist, Austin Larson, who graduated
from Neenah High School in 2009.
He's performed with the Fox Valley, Green Bay,
and Oshkosh Symphonies, and is currently
a third-year undergraduate horn performance student
at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music,
studying with Randy Garnder, Elizabeth Freimuth,
and Duane Dugger. He's received top honors
in many competitions, most notably First Place in both
the International Horn Society Premier Soloist Competition
and the International Horn Competition of America.
He's also involved in "Horns a Plenty Christmas,"
which is a charity organization that brings horn players
together to play holiday music and raise money for high school
horn player scholarships. What we'll hear this afternoon
is the first movment of the "Gliere Concerto
for Horn and Orchestra." It was written in 1951 in the
Russian Romantic tradition. It's full of long, big, rich,
juicy melodies. It's one of the most difficult
of all horn concertos. Gliere modeled it after
the fiendishly difficult Tchaikovsky "Violin Concerto."
Please welcome horn soloist Austin Larson.
[applause]
With pianist Claire Mallory, horn soloist Austin Larson.
Our final winners of the Neale-Silva Young Artists'
Competition are the five musicians that make up
a wind quintet from Lawrence University.
Originally from Springfield, Virginia, Sam Golter
has a flute performance and Gender Studies major,
from Lawrence University, or will, when he graduates.
His principal teachers have been Ernestine Whitman
and Erin Lesser. As the winner
of the Lawrence Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition,
Sam will perform Carl Reinecke's "Flute Concerto" with
the Wind Ensemble on May 19. Kinsey Fournier, an Arkansas
native, is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree
in clarinet performance, and instrumental and general
education. Her primary teachers
have been David Bell and Dr. Kelly Johnson.
In addition to being principal clarinet in the Lawrence
Symphony and the Wind Ensemble, she also teaches part-time
for the Lawrence Academy of Music.
Kelsey Burk is a senior majoring in oboe performance
and mathematics. She studies with Howard Niblock,
has performed as principal oboe for the Lawrence Wind Ensemble.
She's currently principal oboist with the Lawrence
Symphony Orchestra Emma Jane Richart was born and
raised in Olympia, Washington, by two, as she calls them,
loving bassoon-playing parents, except she chose to play
the horn when she was in fifth grade.
In high school, she was the principle horn
of the All-Northwest Orchestra. She's been studying with
James DeCorsey since 2008. She is a DJ at Lawrence's
radio station, and plans to pursue a degree in
Library Science following her graduation.
And finally, our horn player in this quintet is Jake Fisher,
who grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois--
I'm sorry, not horn, bassoon. Here's my bassoonist.
He's a fifth-year student majoring in bassoon performance
and also minoring in Russian. He's played with many of the
large ensembles, including the Jazz Ensemble,
and was recently Grand Master of the 47th Great Midwest
Trivia Contest. What we'll hear from the quintet
this afternoon, first is the "Persichetti Pastoral
for Wind Quintet," a work from 1942, which the composer
describes as "free, nostalgic and happy,"
and then Elliot Carter's "Woodwind Quintet,"
which was written in 1948, the first movement.
We find the composer at tail end of his neoclassical period,
looking to bring out individual characteristics of each
instrument. We'll have some of
that pastorale feeling, of the "Persichetti"
in that first movement, although with Carter,
the flowing melody is going to be interrupted
with some strong outbursts. The second movement has touches
of ragtime playfulness. Please welcome
our final winners, the Lawrence Conservatory
Woodwind Quintet. [applause]
[tuning instruments]
[applause]
Our Wind Quintet from Lawrence University.
Samuel Golter, Kinsey Fournier, Kelsey Burk, Emma Richart,
and Jake Fisher. [applause]