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Casual Classic 1: Venice - A Place between Memory and Desire

Performances:

November 6, 2009

8:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox

Event Details

Casual Classic 1: Venice - A Place between Memory and Desire

Eckart Preu, conductor

Spokane Symphony Chorale

Mateusz Wolski, Jason Bell, Amanda Howard- Phillips, David Armstrong, violins

Giovanni Gabrieli,

Canzon Primi Toni a 8

Antonio Lotti,

Crucifixus a 8 and Crucifixus a 10

Igor Stravinsky, Pater noster

Igor Stravinsky, Ave Maria

Claudio Monteverdi,

Orfeo: Sinfonie e ritornelli

Igor Stravinsky, Dumbarton Oaks

Gregorio Allegri,

Miserere mei, Deus

Antonio Vivaldi,

Concerto for 4 Violins in B minor

The magic of Venice with its Carnival, its squares, bridges and palaces and charm, makes it belong to the imagination of the World. Venetian music is an integral witness of its past greatness and myth. Gabrieli’s best-known works feature separate choirs of instruments and dramatic dynamic and spatial effects, taking full advantage of the accoustics of the expansive space of a cathedral. Lotti was known for his expansive settings of Crucifixus.. Allegri’s Miserere was so valuable to the Papal choir that is was kept secret. Maybe we wouldn’t know about it hadn’t the 14-year-old Mozart written it down from memory. Here excerpts from Monteverdi's Orfeo, which is generally recognized as the first opera. Igor Stravinsky, an 'adopted son" of Venice, is represented with the famous Dumbarton Oaks and two settings of Pater noster and Ave Maria. The concert will conclude with Vivaldi’s exquisite Concerto for 4 Violins. The four solo parts will be performed by the principal violinist of the Spokane Symphony.

Artist Bios:

Mateusz Wolski is in his third year as the Spokane Symphony’s concertmaster. He has had a distinguished career in the United States and abroad. He came to the U.S. from Poland to attend Manhattan School of Music in 1996. It was there, with full scholarship, that he completed his bachelors and masters degrees under the tutelage of Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.

Wolski has appeared in New York City at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y, and the Kosciuszko Foundation. Abroad, his performances have included Wigmore Hall in London and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, as well as numerous engagements throughout Poland, Italy, England and Germany. He plays first violin with the Spokane String Quartet.

Wolski performed Henri Wieniawski’s Concerto in a Casual Classics performance with the Spokane Symphony in February 2008 and Mieczyslaw Karlowicz’s Violin Concerto in A in April 2009.

Jason Bell began studying the violin at the age of four. He is currently the Associate Concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony and has played with the organization since 2002. He began his higher education at the University of Montana and continued on at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He also attended summer festivals at Aspen, CO and Brevard, NC. Recently, he was a guest artist at the Festival Amadeus in Kalispell, Montana and also was heard playing Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto with the Spokane Symphony in May 2009.

Bell enjoys an active and prolific career as a violin pedagogue, symphony musician, soloist, chamber musician and clinician. He has created one of the largest private violin studios in Spokane and his students have won Gold and Silver medals in Spokane’s yearly Musicfest Northwest competition. Other students have been awarded major scholarships to study violin in college. Jason is a frequent clinician to the Spokane Youth Orchestra program and has adjudicated numerous competitions in Washington State.

Amanda Howard-Phillips joined the Spokane Symphony in 2003 and was awarded the position of Principal Second Violin in 2008. She earned her Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Camilla Wicks. Howard has studied chamber music with members of the Cleveland, Tokyo, and Juilliard String Quartets and has been awarded fellowships to perform with the National Repertory Orchestra and the International Festival-Institute at Round Top.

Aside from the Spokane Symphony, she also performs with the Oregon Coast Music Festival Orchestra and the Northwest Bach Festival. This past summer, Amanda was wed to Spokane Symphony clarinetist Chip Phillips.

David Armstrong was recently named assistant principal second violin for the Spokane Symphony. Formerly a resident of Kirkland, Wa., Armstrong began his musical studies with Rebecca Lowe and later continued his instruction with Walter Schwede. In 2006, he received a Bachelor’s degree in music performance from Michigan State University where he studied with Charles Avsharian.

From 2006 to 2008, Armstrong was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and was awarded a Civic Fellowship during which time he studied with Almita Vamos. In 2008, he received a Master of Music performance with an emphasis in orchestral and chamber music literature from Northwestern University. Most recently, David served as the first violinist of the Lyrica String Quartet at the Strings Music Festival in Colorado and was a member of the Bellevue Philharmonic during the 2008-09 season.