Shenandoah Conservatory
Premiere Concert Series
JOHN O'CONOR, piano
All Beethoven
Solo Concert
Friday, April 18 at 8 PM
Westmoreland Congregational
United Church of Christ
One Westmoreland Circle
Bethesda, MD 20816
Information: 301-320-2770

A free concert by critically acclaimed Irish pianist, John O’Conor will be presented on Friday, April 18 at 8 PM at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, One Westmoreland Circle, Bethesda, MD. The church is located at Massachusetts and Western Avenues, at the border of the District of Columbia and Bethesda. Donations will be accepted at the door. For more information: 301-302-2770. The concert is co-sponsored by The Washington Conservatory of Music and Shenandoah Conservatory as part of the 4-concert Premiere Concerts series.

Mr. O’Conor will perform a concert of all-Beethoven: Sonata Op. 13, c minor ("Pathetique"), Sonata Op. 53, C Major ("Waldstein"), Six Bagatelles Op. 126, and Sonata Op 27 No. 2, c# minor ("Moonlight").

Through his recitals, concerto appearances and recordings, John O'Conor has earned a reputation as a masterful interpreter of the Classic and Early Romantic piano repertoires. He first gained widespread attention in the USA in 1986 with the release of the initial volume of the complete Beethoven Sonata cycle on the Telarc label which was issued as a box set in 1994.

CD Review described Mr. O'Conor's Beethoven recordings as "piano recording of the highest calibre and Beethoven playing at its best… John O'Conor, who by now should be recognized as the world's premier Beethoven interpreter, gives each sonata its due, never overworking, always sensitive to expressive possibilities inherent in a melody or suggested by a larger structural scheme."

Mr. O'Conor has made more than 20 recordings for Telarc, including the complete Beethoven Bagatelles (which was cited by the New York Times as the best recordings of these works) and Mozart Concertos with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded the complete Nocturnes, Sonatas and Concertos of the Irish Composer John Field.

In January 2007 he recorded Beethoven Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Andreas Delfs and will complete the cycle in 2008.

He has performed throughout the world with many of the world's leading orchestras including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, l'Orchestre National de France, the NHK Orchestra in Japan and the Cleveland, San Francisco, Dallas, Montreal and Detroit Symphonies in North America.

He has given concerts in many of the world's most famous halls including Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Dvorak Hall in Prague and the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. He also enjoys collaborating in Lieder recitals and performing chamber music with many instrumentalists and ensembles such as the Cleveland, Tokyo, Vanbrugh, Vermeer, Takacs, Vogler and Ying Quartets.

Mr. O'Conor's early studies began in his native Dublin. He spent five years in Vienna studying with the renowned pedagogue Dieter Weber, winning 1st Prize at the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna in 1973, and made a special study of Beethoven with the legendary German pianist Wilhelm Kempff.

John O'Conor is now regarded as one of the most important piano teachers in the world today. His students have won many international prizes and he is in great demand for masterclasses and as a juror at the most prestigious International Piano Competitions worldwide. For his services to music he has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the National University of Ireland and by Trinity College Dublin, the title "Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Government and the "Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst" by the Austrian Government.

AN AFTERNOON OF FRENCH SONG
Sunday, April 6 at 3 PM
Westmoreland Congregational
UCC Church
One Westmoreland Circle
Bethesda, MD 20816
Information: 301-320-2770

At 3 PM on April 6 Washington Conservatory faculty members Nancy Almquist, soprano; Grace Gori, mezzo-soprano, Jeffery Watson, piano will present An Afternoon of French Song featuring the music of Fauré, Offenbach and Delibes.

Nancy Almquist has been a soloist with Washington Cathedral Choral Society, Hesperus, and Folger Consort, Maryland Choral Society, Prince George's Choral Society, New Century Singers and sung operatic roles with Annapolis Opera, Opera Americana, The Other Opera Co., Interact Theatre Co and Washington Savoyards. She has performed recitals at venues including Harmony Hall, The National Archives and Hammond Harwood House.
 
 
 
 

Grace Gori has appeared in operatic and concert performances including soloist with the Cathedral Choral Society, New Dominion Chorale, Washington Bach Consort, and Master Chorale of Washington and soloist at the Kennedy Center’s "Sing-Along Messiah." She has appeared with the North York (Ontario) Symphony, Amherst (New York) Symphony and Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic.
 
 
 
 
 

Jeffery Watson’s numerous performances as a collaborative and solo pianist include being soloist with the Honduran National Symphony, Pan American Symphony, Rosario (Argentina) Chamber Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra with the Kirov Ballet.
 
 
 
 
 

AN AFTERNOON OF ART SONG
Sunday March 30 at 3 PM
Westmoreland Congregational
UCC Church
One Westmoreland Circle
Bethesda, MD 20816
Information: 301-320-2770

At 3 PM on March 30, soprano Brooke Evers and tenor Michael Gallant, winners of the 2007-08 Vocal Arts Society Art Song Discovery competition, will present a voice recital designed to make art song accessible to a broad audience. They will perform songs by diverse composers including Purcell, Beethoven, Rossini, Schumann, and contemporary composers Donald Swann, Theodore Morrison, Richard Hundley, John Greer and Andre Previn. Elizabeth Daniels will provide musical commentary throughout the program. Ms. Evers and Mr. Gallant will be accompanied by R. Timothy Reynolds.

Brooke Evers, a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna, has performed as a soloist in Vienna, Berlin, and Milan, and in Washington as a recitalist at the Embassy of Austria, the Strathmore Mansion and as soloist for the Fauré Requiem with conductor J. Reilly Lewis at the National Cathedral. She is a member of the Washington Bach Consort and serves as faculty at Shepherd University. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Vocal Performance and German from Indiana University.

Michael Gallant has appeared with the Ohio Light Opera, Detroit Chamber Players, the Omaha Opera and Annapolis Opera. He was awarded the Shoshana Foundation Apprentice Award at Central City opera in 2001 and was a finalist with the Chicago Lyric Opera Young Artist program. He graduated from the University of Michigan with both Bachelors and Masters degrees in voice performance.

WCM Faculty Concert
Haskell Small
FREE - Saturday, March 15, 8 PM
Narrators: Brigadier General W. Leon Goodson, USAF (Retired) and Maryn Goodson

Bethesda, MD -- A free concert by pianist and composer Haskell Small will be presented on Saturday, March 15 at 8 PM at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, One Westmoreland Circle in Bethesda, MD. Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ is located at Massachusetts and Western Avenues, at the border of the District of Columbia and Bethesda. Donations will be accepted at the door. For more information: 301-320-2770. The concert is sponsored by The Washington Conservatory of Music as part of a 10-concert series: Concerts for the Nation’s Capital.

Haskell Small will perform two works: Lullaby of War (2007), a setting of six war poems for piano and narrator composed by Mr. Small, and Sonata in G Major, D. 894 by Franz Schubert

Lullaby of War was commissioned by pianist Soheil Nasseri who premiered the work at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, New York, on Sept. 24, 2007. The second performance by Nasseri was on Oct. 9, 2007 in Konzerthaus Berlin, in Berlin, Germany, with the composer, Haskell Small, narrating. The March 15 performance by Haskell Small is the Washington, DC premiere of the complete Lullaby of War.

The Narrator of the poems is Brigadier General W. Leon Goodson, USAF (Retired), a member of Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ. Ms. Maryn Goodson will assist in the two-voice reading of the poem “NO” by Joy Harjo.

Lullaby of War:
Mr. Small describes the work as follows: “My composition Lullaby of War is both an expression of outrage at our perpetual rationalizations for making war and an offering of compassion for its victims. Set for piano and narrator, it is comprised of six war poems — two from the Civil War era, one from each World War, and two drawn from a contemporary anthology, Poets Against the War. A prayer theme interconnects the poems as well as opens and closes the work. “Stephen Crane's War is Kind immediately attracted me. The sardonic quality of lines such as ‘Make plain to them the excellence of killing...’ helped set the tone of my music. Additionally, the striking irony of the poem's opening statement, ‘Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind,’ provided the premise for the title of my piece, as well as the piece’s major tenet: a lullaby can offer comfort, but also, as is the case with war, can seduce us with a false sense of security, a palliative masquerading as a solution.”

The poems of Lullaby of War are:
I. War is Kind, Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
II. NO (first published version), Joy Harjo (b. 1951)
III. Recitative (excerpts), Yvan Goll (1891-1950)
IV. Naming Souls, Uri Zvi Greenberg (1896-1981)
V. Look Down, Fair Moon, Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
VI. Guernica Pantoum, Paula Tatarunis (b. 1952)

Haskell Small: Hailed by England's Musical Times for his “dazzlingly prodigious technique,” Haskell Small first came to public attention after winning the Pittsburgh Concert Society auditions at the age of 21. A recipient of a solo recitalist grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a semifinalist in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition, Mr. Small has performed throughout the United States, in venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, National Gallery of Art, the Kennedy Center and the Spoleto Festival, winning an enthusiastic following. Mr. Small was featured in the PBS television special A Celebration of the Piano, taped at Wolf Trap. In recent seasons, Mr. Small has made several tours of Japan and performed recitals in Paris and London.

Following in the tradition of 18th and 19th century pianist/composers, Haskell Small is also an accomplished composer, who often performs his own works. He has received commissions from such organizations as the Phillips Collection, Washington Performing Arts Society, Three Rivers Piano Competition, Georgetown Symphony and Paul Hill Chorale, and he was the winner of the 1999 Marin Ballet Dance Score Competition. Following Small's premiere performance, Tim Page of The Washington Post lauded the composer's Symphony for Solo Piano as “a serious and substantial composition that deserves a permanent place in the keyboard repertory."

Significant among Haskell Small’s numerous commissions is Renoir's Feast, for piano solo, commissioned by The Phillips Collection and premiered in April of 2006 to mark the return of the Collection's most renowned impressionist work, Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. Joan Reinthaler of The Washington Post wrote of the premiere, “Small's idiom includes a comfortable mix of impressionistic color, jazz and blues inflection, whiffs of Stephen Foster and a sense of improvisatory freedom. Small's personalities are as muted as Renoir's softened outlines. The people he portrays are good friends who share many characteristics, and so the personalities are drawn subtly and cerebrally; you get a sense of companionable conversation and French understatement rather than of enthusiastic partying.”

Currently a faculty member of the Washington Conservatory, Haskell Small received his musical training at the San Francisco Conservatory and Carnegie-Mellon University. He has studied piano with Leon Fleisher, William Masselos, Harry Franklin and Jeanne Behrend, and composition with Roland Leich and Vincent Persichetti.

Concerts for the
Nation's Capital
Michael Adcock, piano
FREE - Saturday, February 16 at 8 PM

Bethesda, MD - A free concert by pianist Michael Adcock will be presented on Saturday, February 16 at 8 PM at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, One Westmoreland Circle in Bethesda, MD. Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ Church is located at Massachusetts and Western Avenues, at the border of the District of Columbia and Bethesda. Donations will be accepted at the door. For more information: 301-320-2770. The concert is sponsored by The Washington Conservatory of Music.

Adcock will perform a diverse program including Suite in D Minor by G.F. Handel, four pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff: Humoresque, Moment Musicaux in B Minor, Wohin (Schubert) and Moment Musicaux in E Minor. Other selections include Pavane pour une Infante défunte and La Valse (Poème Chorégraphique) by Ravel, Rondo in A Minor by Mozart, and five short pieces by Percy Grainger: Handel in the Strand, Colonial Song, Scotch Strathspey, Irish Tune from County Derry and Shepherd’s Hey.

Winner of the 1998 Lili Boulanger Memorial Award, pianist Michael Adcock has cultivated a versatile career as both a soloist and frequent chamber music collaborator. Prizewinner in the 1996 Washington International Competition and winner in both the Chicago and New York Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competitions, Mr. Adcock made his Carnegie Recital Hall debut in December of 1998. His career has taken him to France, Italy and Australia, as well as a performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Notable musicians with whom Mr. Adcock has collaborated include Denyce Graves, Ani Kavafian, Gervase dePeyer, Phillipe Muller, David Jolley, James Buswell and the St. Petersburg String Quartet.

Described by the Washington Post as having “an unusually fresh and arresting approach to the piano,” Michael Adcock received a Doctorate of Musical Arts at The Peabody Conservatory, where he was also an adjunct member of the theory and chamber music faculties. During the summer months, Mr. Adcock is on the piano faculty of the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida. Currently, Mr. Adcock maintains an active performance schedule, in addition to being a faculty member of The Washington Conservatory of Music.

Shenandoah Premiere Concert Series at the Washington Conservatory
Jens Lindemann, trumpet
Jennifer Snow, piano
FREE - Friday, February 1 at 8 PM

Bethesda, MD -- A free concert by internationally acclaimed trumpet soloist Jens Lindemann will be presented on Friday, February 1 at 8 PM at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, One Westmoreland Circle in Bethesda, MD. Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ is located at Massachusetts and Western Avenues, the border of the District of Columbia and Bethesda. Donations will be accepted at the door. For more information: 301-320-2770 and www.washingtonconservatory.org. The concert is sponsored by The Washington Conservatory of Music in cooperation with the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. Lindemann will perform virtuoso works for trumpet from various musical eras with pianist Jennifer Snow.

Jens Lindemann is hailed as one of the most celebrated soloists in his instrument’s history and was recently named “International Brass Personality of the Year” (Brass Herald). He has played in every major concert venue in the world: from the Philharmonic Halls of New York, Los Angeles, London, and Berlin to Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and even the Great Wall of China.

His career has ranged from appearing internationally as an orchestral soloist, performing at London’s ‘Last Night of the Proms,’ and recording with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, to playing lead trumpet with the renowned Canadian Brass and a solo Command Performance for the Queen of England. Jens has also won major awards ranging from Grammy and Juno nominations to winning the prestigious Echo Klassik in Germany, as well as receiving an honorary doctorate. He is a faculty member at UCLA and artist-in-residence at Shenandoah Conservatory.

Classically trained at the Juilliard School, he was a prizewinner at the prestigious ARD in Munich, and placed first, by unanimous juries, at both the Prague and Ellsworth Smith (Florida) International Trumpet Competitions in 1992. Since then, he has performed solos with orchestras including the London Symphony, Philadelphia, Beijing, Bayersicher Rundfunk, Buenos Aires Chamber, Atlanta, Washington, Seattle, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Montreal, Toronto, National Arts Centre, Vancouver, Warsaw, Welsh Chamber, I Musici de Montreal, St. Louis, and Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center.

Shenandoah Premiere Concert Series at the Washington Conservatory
Susan Starr, piano
Audubon String Quartet
FREE - Sunday, January 27 at 3 PM

Bethesda, MD -- A free concert by pianist Susan Starr and the Audubon String Quartet will be presented on Sunday, January 27 at 3 PM at Westmoreland Congregational UCC Church, One Westmoreland Circle in Bethesda, MD. Ms. Starr is replacing the previously announced Irish pianist, John O'Conor. For more information: 301-320-2770. The concert is sponsored by The Washington Conservatory of Music and the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. Donations will be accepted at the door. Westmoreland Congregational UCC Church is located at Massachusetts and Western Avenues, the border of the District of Columbia and Bethesda.

The concert includes Quartet in F Major by Maurice Ravel, Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky for string quartet, Op. 28 by György Kurtág and Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 by Antonín Dvorák.

Pianist Susan Starr, described by the New York Times as "a star of the first magnitude," has performed on more than 50 occasions with the Philadelphia Orchestra since her debut at age six, an engagement that marked her as the youngest soloist ever to appear with a major orchestra. She has also been heard with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Moscow State Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, St. Louis, Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Montreal, New Jersey, New Orleans, and Vancouver, among others. Among the eminent conductors who have chosen Ms. Starr as soloist throughout her career are Sergiu Commissiona, Charles Dutoit, Aldo Ceccato, Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Erich Kunzel, Raymond Leppard, Sir Neville Marriner, Maxim Shostakovich, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and Leonard Slatkin as well as the late conductors Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Fiedler, Eugene Ormandy, Max Rudolf, Robert Shaw, and William Steinberg. Susan Starr's active international career has taken her on three tours of the then Soviet Union, more than a dozen trips to the Far East and South America, as well as to Belgium, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Hong Kong.

Heralded for their "strikingly beautiful, luminescent" sound (The New York Times), the Audubon Quartet has won acclaim throughout the world for over 30 years. Founded in 1974, the ensemble quickly achieved international recognition by winning top prizes in competitions in France, Brazil, and England. The Quartet regularly performs in the major concert halls throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. They were the first American quartet ever to perform a concert tour in the People's Republic of China. The Audubon Quartet are artists in residence at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Winchester, Virginia.

Concerts for
the Nation's Capital
Washington Conservatory
MARCEL WORMS, piano
New Blues for Piano
FREE - Saturday, January 19 at 8 PM

Bethesda, MD --- A free concert, “New Blues for Piano,” by Dutch pianist Marcel Worms will be presented on Saturday, January 19 at 8 PM at Westmoreland Congregational UCC Church by the Washington Conservatory of Music. Donations will be accepted at the door on a pay-as-you-can basis. For information: 301-320-2770. Westmoreland Congregational UCC Church is located at 1 Westmoreland Circle, Bethesda, MD at Massachusetts and Western Avenues, the border of the District of Columbia and Bethesda. Parking is in the church parking lot and on-street.

Dutch pianist Marcel Worms may be described as a classical pianist, a jazz pianist, or a little of both. Worms enjoys performing modern-classical repertory which has been influenced by jazz. Because of the prominent position the blues maintains in the jazz genre, in 1996 he began commissioning composers to write blues or blues-like pieces. Worms "New Blues" project has grown to include compositions by one hundred seventy Dutch and foreign composers from 45 countries on all continents. The project has been released on three CD's.

Marcel Worms has performed the "New Blues" program in many European countries, China, Indonesia, Russia, the Middle East, the Far East, the United States, Africa, South America and Cuba. Festival performances include the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, Festival for New Music in Bucharest, Warschauer Herbst in Warsaw, EU Jazz Festival in Mexico City, Audio Art Festival in Krakow, festival De la Musica Contemporanea in Bolivia, Forum Neuer Musik in Cologne, Festival of Aveiro (Portugal), Fajr Festival in Iran, and Festival Tblisi Autumn in Georgia.

Throughout the year, special master classes and seminars will be given by Conservatory guest artist faculty members.

The Washington Conservatory of Music is pleased to refer you to artist-faculty members who are available for concerts and events. Fees and schedules are arranged between the performer and the presenter. Select faculty CDs may be purchased in the WCM offices.

Students are encouraged to serve their community by performing at area retirement homes, community gatherings, and in other public venues.

On various evenings throughout the year, Conservatory adult students may perform for each other in the informal setting of private homes.