Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Margo and Tom Scribner.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. These are the prerequisites for a successful marriage, or at least wedding. And as we’ve learned before, there is perhaps no more perfect sonic marriage than that of the saxophone quartet.

Tonight, the something old is also the something borrowed, music originally written for string instruments by Edvard Grieg. As it happens, Grieg was born three years prior to the invention of the saxophone.

Something new? A huge portion of instrumental music composed in the 20th century was written for the saxophone. And that continues into our present time. There’s a reason. Saxophonists are both cool, and have voracious appetites for new music. Simply put, composers want to hear their works played and saxophonists are down. A work by composer, Karalyn Schubring, written in 2023 will do the trick nicely.

What about blue? Is there an instrument more associated with jazz than the sax? Jazz is all about the language of blue notes. Tonight, the blue notes are scented with pimentón, a smokey Spanish spice, in music by Pedro Iturralde.

Cerus Quartet are the 2024 WWCMF Emerging Artist Fellowship Quartet. They will appear throughout the Valley during their residency, performing for more than 1000 youngsters while presenting bilingually in English and Spanish.

All works will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Cerus Quartet: Roberto Campa, soprano saxophone; Brian Kachur, baritone saxophone; Philip Kleutgens, tenor saxophone; Laura Ramsay, alto saxophone

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Iain and Stephanida Christie.

Form is funny. It tells us the shape of thing, and on first glance might seem like a limitation. But when we look at poetry, from the ephemeral haiku to the workaday limerick (Nantucket aside) to the ever tightening restrictions of the sestina, sonnet or pantoum, form itself seems to unlock boundless creativity. Form gives art a sense of timelessness, permanence and purpose. Tonight we explore three ‘first movements’ by Brahms, all for the same pair of instruments, all cast in the same form. If “beauty is truth, truth beauty,” form is the Urn itself, practically speaking. Though, to quibble with Keats on one point, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/ Are sweeter…” Not tonight! Lastly, enjoy wines from Reininger, available by the urn or cup, poetically speaking.

Johnannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 108

I. Allegro

Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in A, Op. 100

I. Allegro amabile

Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in G, Op. 78

I. Vivace, ma non troppo

Artists: Timothy Christie, violin; Henry Kramer, piano; Stephen Miahky, violin; Philip Payton, violin; Maria Sampen, violin

Tonight’s performance and the residency of Henry Kramer have been made possible by the generosity of Dr. Steven Maxood.

Korine Fujiwara

BeSpoke, Unspoken (2024) for four violins, World Premiere

The commission of a new work for the 2024 June Festival and the residency of composer, Korine Fujiwara, have been made possible by the generosity of John Jamison and Kathy Wildermuth

Johnannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in G, Op. 78

I. Vivace, ma non troppo

II. Adagio

III. Allegro molto moderato

Intermission

Johnannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in A, Op. 100

I. Allegro amabile

II. Andante tranquillo — Vivace

III. Allegretto grazioso, quasi Andante

Johnannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 108

I. Allegro

II. Adagio

III. Un poco presto e con sentimento

IV. Presto agitato

Artists: Timothy Christie, violin; Korine Fujiwara, composer; Henry Kramer, piano; Stephen Miahky, violin; Philip Payton, violin; Maria Sampen, violin

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Anne Haley and Jim Shepherd.

Instrumentalists — who are all jealous of singers, by the way— tend to tease singers about their counting abilities. Well, instrumentalists, you didn’t count on soprano, Jennifer Goltz-Taylor. The PhD in Music Theory should make you a little nervous. And then you learn she’s a multi-instrumentalist, at ease with an accordion, ukulele or seated at the piano. And then you hear hear voice. Was that a Schubert art song? Followed by cabaret? Followed by the crunchiest of atonal modernism? Eerie sprechstimme? Klezmer? French grand opera? Yes to all of the above.

There’s not much to tease, here. So best to embrace it and save your jokes for the viola. Tonight, Jennifer brings a recital of her favorite songs from the 20th century with pianist Ronaldo Rolim, featuring music of Rachmaninov, Barber, Poulenc, Debussy, Respighi, and more.

All works will announced from the stage.

Artists: Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, soprano; Ronaldo Rolim, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Beth Barbre and John Mangan.

All humans the world over have two things in common. We share both the capacity to suffer and the right to be happy. Nowhere are these two states more perfectly encapsulated than in the Love Song.

In Verdi’s La Traviata, Violetta and Alfredo sing a great duet. He sings about his love for her, “the torment and delight of his heart.” He feels suffering and happiness simultaneously. She sings back that she just wants to be friends. Of course, she’s in love with him, too, but she is from a lower class. Turns out Alfredo’s meddling father— who just loves his son, and wants his daughter to have prospects— has coerced Violetta into professing a false sentiment. The lovers just want to be happy, but they suffer instead. By the time everyone comes around (and back onstage), convinced of and happy in the purity and goodness of the love between Violetta and Alfredo, Violetta’s pesky tuberculosis flares up one final time, bringing the whole affair to a tragic conclusion, brief happiness supplanted by ultimate suffering.

In a nutshell.

And that is what a Love Song is, the human condition of suffering and happiness in a nutshell. Of course, we are not an opera festival, but a chamber music festival. Therefore, we look to smaller forms, in this case, love songs in Chinese and Spanish by Bright Sheng and Joaquin Turina.

Artists: Brittany Boulding Breeden, violin; Timothy Christie, viola; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, soprano; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Maria Sampen, violin; Xiaohui Yang, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Mike and Sue Gillespie.

Joaquín Turina (1882-1949)

Las Musas de Andalucía, Op. 93 (1942)

I. Clío. Andante, piano

(las puertas de la Rábida)

II. Euterpe. Tiempo alegre de Sevillanas, violin and piano

(plena celebración)

III. Talía. Allegretto, string quartet

(naranjos y olivos)

IV. Polimnia. Lento, cello and piano

(nocturno)

V. Melpómene. Allegretto quasi andantino, voice and piano

(reflexiones)

VI. Erato. Andante, voice and string quartet

(trovos y saetas)

VII. Urania. Allegro moderato quasi allegretto, piano

(farruca fugada)

VIII. Terpsícore. Allegretto, piano

(minué)

IX. Caliope. Andante, piano and string quartet

(himno)

Intermission

Bright Sheng (b. 1955)

Three Chinese Love Songs (1988) For voice, viola and piano

I. Blue Flower

II. At the Hillside Where Horses Are Running

III. The Stream Flows

Miguel del Aguila (b. 1957)

Charango Capriccioso, Op. 90 (2006) For piano 4 hands and string quintet

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

5 Fantasiestücke, Op. 5 (1895) For string quartet

I. Prelude

II. Serenade

III. Humoresque

IV. Minuet

V. Dance

Artists: Brittany Boulding Breeden, violin; Timothy Christie, viola; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, soprano; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Maria Sampen, violin; Xiaohui Yang, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Brad Anderson and Kay Mead.

WWCMF welcomes groundbreaking percussion ensemble, Beyond This Point, for an immersive Special Event. Timber by composer Michael Gordon, is a work for six pieces of wood. I suppose in a way, a string sextet by Brahms could also be considered a work for six pieces of wood. But Timber is more elemental.

What was the very first musical sound ever made intentionally by a human? My guess is that it was a percussion sound, probably produced by a concussion idiophone, fancy talk for clacking a pair of rocks together. Next, maybe, came the percussion idiophone, striking a log or a rock or a seashell with a stick of some kind. And here we are tonight, only two steps into the invention of music. And yet the ancient, futuristic and infinite become fused in this magnificent work. Add in a little tech in the form of some contact mics, an integrated light display and the magnificent acoustics of The Walls Winery production space and you have something deep, pulsing, meditative and beautiful.

Like the world’s first musicians, we looked around our immediate environs for something to hit with a stick. We came up with six staves from a decommissioned wine puncheon. Turns out there’s this whole wine industry around these parts. Enjoy a glass from The Walls Vineyards and settle in for an epic journey through time and space.

Artists: Garrett Arney, percussion; John Corkill, percussion; James Doyle, percussion; Sijia Huang, percussion; Nonoka Mizukami, percussion; Adam Rosenblatt, percussion

WWCMF’s Collage performances have been made possible by the generosity of Darcie Furlan.

It is the 17th Season of WWCMF. It’s only fitting that we have a cast of 17 musicians performing in our annual musical kaleidoscope. Darkness, Shadow, Light, Life. These are the musical themes that will surround you. From lush impressionistic harmonies to Lebanese folk music to a touch of Wham!, Collage keeps you guessing while keeping you delighted.

What’s more, the exquisite grounds of the Inn at Abeja will open 2.5hrs before showtime so you can come enjoy wood-fired pizzas, salads and an array of world-class wines before heading into the barn for the performance. No pre-order necessary for food or drink. Pre-order necessary for tickets… they go fast!

Artists: Garrett Arney, percussion; Charlotte Christie, soprano; Timothy Christie, viola; John Corkill, percussion; James Doyle, percussion; Tracy Doyle, percussion; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, soprano; Sijia Huang, percussion; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Patty Mathieu, lighting design; Nonoka Mizukami, percussion; Vanessa Moss, violin; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Adam Rosenblatt, percussion; Maria Sampen, violin; Kevin Schempf, clarinet; Kurt Walls, lighting design; Xiaohui Yang, piano

WWCMF’s Collage performances have been made possible by the generosity of Darcie Furlan.

It is the 17th Season of WWCMF. It’s only fitting that we have a cast of 17 musicians performing in our annual musical kaleidoscope. Darkness, Shadow, Light, Life. These are the musical themes that will surround you. From lush impressionistic harmonies to Lebanese folk music to a touch of Wham!, Collage keeps you guessing while keeping you delighted.

What’s more, the exquisite grounds of the Inn at Abeja will open 2.5hrs before showtime so you can come enjoy wood-fired pizzas, salads and an array of world-class wines before heading into the barn for the performance. No pre-order necessary for food or drink. Pre-order necessary for tickets… they go fast!

Artists: Garrett Arney, percussion; Charlotte Christie, soprano; Timothy Christie, viola; John Corkill, percussion; James Doyle, percussion; Tracy Doyle, percussion; Katri Ervamaa, cello; Jennifer Goltz-Taylor, soprano; Sijia Huang, percussion; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Patty Mathieu, lighting design; Nonoka Mizukami, percussion; Vanessa Moss, violin; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Adam Rosenblatt, percussion; Maria Sampen, violin; Kevin Schempf, clarinet; Kurt Walls, lighting design; Xiaohui Yang, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Ron Van Yserloo, in honor of Barb, who loved playing the clarinet.

Kevin is not wrong in his musings about WWCMF and Brahms. So, it is only fitting that he brings us the first Festival performance of a Brahms clarinet sonata movement. What else might he have in mind for tonight’s Portrait recital? I went ahead and took a look through my extensive scrapbook of Kevin’s various musings to get a better idea.

“…a military march in reference to my military service.”

Sounds good. What’s next?

“…a reference to [the film] ‘Maestro.”

I’m intrigued. And?

“…a beautiful new piece, [then] one with a nice frilly fun ending.”

At WWCMF, we love nice fun frilly endings. Kevin makes his return to WWCMF after a season’s absence filled with solo sea voyages and much more. This evening’s performance provides a window into one of WWCMF’s most beloved performers.

All works will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Kevin Schempf, clarinet; Xiaohui Yang, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor in memory of Tim Brown — gentle soul, enquiring mind, devoted to chamber music.

Tonight’s Tasting Music performance features one of Mozart’s great chamber works. The legacy of this work is not just the invention of a musical form, the clarinet quintet, but perhaps the establishment of the clarinet itself as an indispensable part of the corps of classical instruments. The sonority of late Mozart leans into the clarinet, even displacing the more standard pair of oboes in the orchestra of the time. And behind this epiphany on Mozart’s part was one man, Anton Stadler. Stadler was a virtuoso of the instrument whose playing inspired Mozart to compose both this quintet and ultimately his final completed work, the Clarinet Concerto, K. 622. Oh, and that famous incomplete final piece? The Requiem is scored for two clarinets and no oboes. OK, ok… you know your history. Technically, the clarinets of the Concerto and the Requiem are basset horns, a variant of the clarinet with access to additional low notes. But it was Stadler who figured prominently in the invention and perfection of the basset horn, too. Tonight, our Stadler is named Schempf.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1765-1791)

Quintet in A for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581

I. Allegro

II. Larghetto

III. Menuetto

IV. Allegretto con variazioni

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Vanessa Moss, violin; Maria Sampen, violin; Kevin Schempf, clarinet

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Karl Eckhardt and Pamela Mittelstadt.

Schubert Fantasia in F minor, D. 940 (1828) For piano four hands

I. Allegro molto moderato

II. Largo

III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace

IV. Finale. Allegro molto moderato

John Mackey

Breakdown Tango (2000) For piano, clarinet, violin and cello

Intermission

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1765-1791)

Quintet in A for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581

I. Allegro

II. Larghetto

III. Menuetto

IV. Allegretto con variazioni

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Vanessa Moss, violin; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Maria Sampen, violin; Kevin Schempf, clarinet; Xiaohui Yang, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Cecile and Rick Ervin.

We are delighted to welcome PUBLIQuartet in their WWCMF debut. This program features selections from the quartet's ongoing What Is American project, which inspired a GRAMMY®-nominated album of the same name. This wide-ranging set of works will explore the resonances between contemporary, blues, jazz, free and rock-inflected music — all of which trace their roots back to the Black and Native American music that inspired Antonin Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet.

The program will include re-imaginations of music by Ornette Coleman, Ida Cox, Alice Coltrane, Betty Davis, Duke Ellington, Tina Turner, and Fats Waller alongside recent works by Vijay Iyer and Henry Threadgill; also on the program is a new work by Jeff Scott, commissioned with the support of a 2024 Chamber Music America Artistic Projects grant. Interrogating these traditions of our nation’s complex history, PQ attempts to connect the dots, illuminating the past, present, and future of American concert music.

All works will be announced from the stage.

Artists: PUBLIQuartet: Hamilton Berry, cello; Rubén Rengel, violin; Nick Revel, viola; Curtis Stewart, violin

Tonight’s performance is made possible by the generosity of Kris and Tim Barry.

At first, you think you’re in for a wonderful recital by an extremely talented violinist. (Don’t worry. You are!) Then the question is posed to said violinist, in this case MingHuan Xu, “Have you ever been part of a sting operation?” And things shift a bit. What lurks beneath MingHuan’s polished exterior? Pure intrigue. She’s tough on crime by night, a virtuoso violinist by day.

Sounds more like a movie than a Portrait recital, right? And that’s fitting. Joined by pianist Winston Choi, MingHuan has a program of music featured on the big screen by composers John Corigliano, Dmitri Shostakovich, Carlos Gardel and more.

All works will be announced from the stage.

Artists: MingHuan Xu, violin; Winston Choi, piano

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Michael Haight and Cathy Lee-Haight.

Born in New Hampshire in 1867, Amy Marcy Cheney, displayed musical gifts almost from the start. She first studied piano with her mother, then with two prominent German expats in Boston, eventually adding courses in counterpoint with a German-trained Bostonian. She established herself as a concert soloist, performing with the most esteemed arts organizations in the US, notably the Boston Symphony.

At the age of 18, Amy married Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a 42-year old surgeon. Much about this union seems strange to our modern sensibilities, perhaps nowhere more so than in the prenuptial agreement curtailing Amy’s musical activities, limiting her public piano performances to two per year, and then only for charity. But composition was deemed a suitable pursuit for a married woman, and Mrs. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach would compose and publish musical works throughout her self-reported happy marriage, and continue to do so under the same name long after Henry’s passing in 1910.

And yet, and I say this objectively, Amy was a far superior musician than Henry was a surgeon! While he poked about with blunt instruments of the Civil War era, she performed Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven and Bach to international acclaim, and became the first American woman to compose and publish a symphony (E minor, The Gaelic, Op. 32), a work which received rave reviews in the US and Europe, a coup for any American composer, let alone a woman. Henry may still have been using leeches.

Tonight, we perform the lyrical masterpiece, the Piano Quintet in F# minor, Op. 67, by Amy Beach, as she is now known.

Amy Beach (1867-1944)

Piano Quintet in F# minor, Op. 67 (1907)

I. Adagio - Allegro moderato

II. Adagio espressivo

III. Allegro agitato - Adagio come prima - Presto

Artists: Winston Choi, piano; Timothy Christie, viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Maria Sampen, violin; MingHuan Xu, violin

Tonight’s performance has been made possible by the generosity of Susan Monahan and Mark Brucks.

David Glenn (b. 1951)

Sculpture Garden (2009) For piano quintet

I. Styx

II. Three Stories

III. Carnival

IV. Pirouette

V. Soaring Stones

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847)

String Quartet in E flat (1834)

I. Adagio ma non troppo

II. Allegreto

III. Romanze

IV. Allegro molto vivace

Intermission

Amy Beach (1867-1944)

Piano Quintet in F# minor, Op. 67 (1907)

I. Adagio - Allegro moderato

II. Adagio espressivo

III. Allegro agitato - Adagio come prima - Presto

Artists: Winston Choi, piano; Timothy Christie, viola, Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Maria Sampen, violin; MingHuan Xu, violin