Unlike many chamber concerts that center on strings, this program is devoted to the brilliant colors of wind instruments. It opens with Beethoven’s Sonata in F major for horn and piano, a playful yet noble work that shows off the horn’s heroic voice. American composer Samuel Barber follows with Summer Music for wind quintet, filled with breezy shifts of character that feel light and conversational. The Trio for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Latin American music, bursts with rhythmic vitality and the vibrant spirit of his homeland. From Georgia, Otar Taktakishvili’s Sonata for flute and piano offers flowing melodies and heartfelt lyricism, reflecting the warmth and musical traditions of his country. The program concludes with the Rhapsody in D minor by Belgian composer Joseph Jongen, whose lush, late-Romantic style brings the winds and piano together in a sweeping, powerful finale.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)Sonata in F major for Horn and Piano, Op. 17
(1800)Samuel Barber
(1910–1981)Summer Music for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn, Op. 31
(1955)Heitor Villa-Lobos
(1887–1959)Trio for Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon
(1928)Otar Taktakishvili
(1924-1989)Sonata for Flute and Piano
(1968)Joseph Jongen
(1873-1953)Rhapsody in D minor for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, and Piano, Op. 70
(1922)
Juho Pohjonen
Demarre McGill
James Austin Smith
Marc Goldberg
Nathaniel Silberschlag
Pianist Juho Pohjonen is in demand internationally as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber performer. An ardent exponent of Scandinavian music, he has a growing discography offering music by Finnish compatriots such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kaija Saariaho, and Jean Sibelius. Recent engagements include the Taiwan, BBC, and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras; and the symphonies of San Francisco, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Colorado. Pohjonen is an alum of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and enjoys an ongoing relationship with the organization. Pohjonen earned a master’s degree from Meri Louhos and Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He was selected by Sir András Schiff as the winner of the 2009 Klavier Festival Ruhr Scholarship. In 2019, Pohjonen launched MyPianist, an AI-based app that provides interactive piano accompaniment.
Flutist 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 a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Grant Park, San Diego, Chicago, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras. Now principal flute of the Seattle Symphony, he previously served as principal flute of the Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He has also served as acting principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. McGill is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and has participated in the Santa Fe, Marlboro, Seattle, and Stellenbosch chamber music festivals, among others.
Performer, curator, and on-stage host James Austin Smith “proves that an oboist can have an adventurous solo career” (The New Yorker). Smith appears at leading national and international chamber music festivals, as Co-Principal Oboe of the conductor-less Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and as an artist of the International Contemporary Ensemble. As Artistic and Executive Director of Tertulia Chamber Music, Smith creates intimate evenings of music, food, and drink in New York and San Francisco, as well as an annual festival in a variety of global destinations. He serves as Artistic Advisor to Coast Live Music in the San Francisco Bay Area and mentors graduate-level musicians as a professor of oboe and chamber music at Stony Brook University and as a regular guest at London's Guildhall School. A Fulbright scholar and alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and CMS’s Bowers Program, he holds degrees in music and political science from Northwestern and Yale University.
A member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and New York Woodwind Quintet, Marc Goldberg is principal bassoonist of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Ballet Theater, the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and the NYC Opera. Previously the associate principal bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, he has also been a frequent guest of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, touring with these ensembles across four continents and joining them on numerous recordings. A long-time season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has been a guest of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Brentano Quartet, Music@Menlo, Musicians from Marlboro, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band. Goldberg is on the faculty of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Mannes College, New England Conservatory, the Hartt School, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Nathaniel Silberschlag was appointed principal horn of the Cleveland Orchestra in May 2019 and took up the position in August prior to the start of the 2019–20 season. He previously served as assistant principal horn of the Washington National Opera/Kennedy Center Opera House orchestra, where he was the youngest member ever to win a position with the ensemble, at the age of 19. He made his debut in Italy at age 9, with news of the performance appearing on the front page of Italy’s newspaper La Stampa. As soloist, he has performed with the Juilliard Orchestra, Bulgarian Philharmonic, Romania State Symphony, New York’s Little Orchestra Society, and the Chesapeake Orchestra. He has also played concerts with a variety of ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Silberschlag completed his bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School in May 2019, where he was a student of Julie Landsman and recipient of the Kovner Fellowship.