New Prairie Camerata: Duos & Trios

Claudia Anderson, Flute, Christine Rutledge, Viola

Nancy McFarland Gaub, Violin, Eugene Gaub, Piano

Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

Sondheim Center

200 N Main, Fairfield, Iowa

Chamber Music Society Fairfield presents New Prairie Camerata on Thursday, December 11, 2008, 7:30 p.m. at the Sondheim Center, Fairfield, IA.

The program features both brilliant and introspective compositions for various combinations of four instruments: flute, violin, piano and viola.

You will be hearing duos and trios by composers from six different nationalities.  There are the scintillating and witty Max Reger (German) and Bohuslav Martinù (Czech); the humorous Virgil Thomson, Alan Tormey (both American) and Jacob ter Veldhuis (Dutch) with compositions inspired by American popular music; the meditative Arvo Pärt (Estonian); and Frenchman Jacques Ibert whose passionate works on this program are inspired by Spanish music!

    PROGRAM

Serenade

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)

I. March

II. Aria

III. Fanfare

IV. Flourish

V. Hymn

The Ballad of Buster P. Squirrelhead (world premiere)

Alan Tormey (b.1974)

Claudia Anderson, flute

Nancy McFarland Gaub, violin

Lipstick (1998) for flute, alto flute and recorded soundtrack

Jacob ter Veldhuis (b.1951)

Claudia Anderson, flute

Serenade, Op. 77a

Max Reger (1873-1916)

I. Allegro

II. Andante semplice con variazioni

III. Presto

Claudia Anderson, flute

Nancy McFarland Gaub, violin

Christine Rutledge, viola

    INTERMISSION

Spiegel im Spiegel (1978)

Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)

Nancy McFarland Gaub, violin

Eugene Gaub, piano

Aria

Jacques Ibert (1890-1962)

Deux Interludes

I. Andante espressivo

II. Allegro

Madrigal Sonata

Bohuslav Martinù (1890-1959)

I. Poco Allegro

II. Moderato/Allegro

Claudia Anderson, flute

Nancy McFarland Gaub, violin

Eugene Gaub, piano

Claudia Anderson’s brilliance and originality as a solo performer (“Flute playing of the highest echelon” - New York Concert Artists Guild; “Vast range of sonorities” - Giornale di Sicilia) have graced audiences throughout the U.S., Europe and Brazil.  A Fullbright scholar to Italy, Ms. Anderson was subsequently principal flute of the Orchestra del Teatro Massimo in Palermo.  After returning to the U.S., she was solo piccolo for ten years with the Cedar Rapids Symphony and is presently principal flute with the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony in Iowa.  During the summers she teaches at Rocky Ridge Music Center in CO, where she is also Program Director for the Junior Student Seminars.

Receiving degrees from the Universities of Michigan, Massachusetts and Iowa, Dr. Anderson is a guest artist and clinician at many colleges and music series around the country.  She also performs with flutist Jill Felber in the innovative duo ZAWA!  Her work with ZAWA! reflects the drama/theatricality of new music and the operatic stage, with their unconventional staging, lighting and costumes.

Faculty positions include Grinnell College, Universities of Iowa and Northern Iowa, Ithaca College and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Violinist Nancy McFarland Gaub is a Lecturer in Music at Grinnell College, where she directs the Chamber Ensembles, and teaches violin and aural skills.  She performs frequently as a member of the McFarland-Gaub Duo, the New Prairie Camerata, and the Roycroft Chamber Musicians.  She has been acting concertmaster of the Cedar Rapids Symphony, and is currently concertmaster of the Ottumwa Symphony.  Her violin was made by Giovanni Grancino in 1695.

Along with her husband, pianist Eugene Gaub, Ms. McFarland Gaub is co-artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Roycroft Chamber Music Festival, which they founded in East Aurora, NY, in 1994.  Then a member of Violinist Nancy McFarland Gaub has had a varied career throughout the U.S., Mexico & Europe as soloist, recitalist, chamber & orchestral musician. She teaches violin & chamber music at Grinnell College, performs chamber music with the Iowa Chamber Coalition & the New Prairie Camerata, and is performer & co-artistic director of the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival in E Aurora, NY.

    Pianist Eugene Gaub is Associate Professor at Grinnell College. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he holds a Doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. Along with his wife, Nancy McFarland Gaub, he is Co-artistic Director of the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival, which they founded in 1994 in East Aurora, NY. Last spring, he completed a fourteen-concert series devoted to the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven, with performances in Grinnell and other cities.

    Violist Christine Rutledge has appeared as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout the United States and abroad.  Her performances and recordings have been praised in such publications as “The Strad,” “Fanfare,” the “New York Times,” and “The New York Concert Review.”  Recent solo performances and master classes include those in the US, Germany, Iceland, and Sweden.  Rutledge’s repertoire spans major works from the standard repertory to lesser-known and obscure works for the viola, particularly those for viola in unusual combinations.  She also performs many of her original transcriptions of Baroque compositions on both modern and Baroque viola, including the Bach Cello Suites and Sonatas for viola da gamba, Johan Helmich Roman’s Assaggi, Biber’s Passacaglia, and Telemann’s 12 Fantasias.

Tickets $20 for general audiences, $15 for students, children over age 12, IA Course participants & seniors 60+.  Children age 12 and under: free.  Tickets available by calling the Sondheim Center box office at 641-472-2787.  www.sondheimcenter.com

Design and copyright 2009 Freddy Niagara Fonseca

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