Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

PIANO TRIO IN E MINOR, OP. 67 (1944)

I. Andante — Moderato

II. Allegro con brio

III. Largo

IV. Allegretto — Adagio

— Intermission —

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)

STRING SEXTET, OP. 10 (1916)

for 2 violins, 2 violas & 2 cellos

I. Moderato - Allegro

II. Adagio. Langsam

III. Intermezzo. In gemäßigtem Zeitmaß, mit Grazie

IV. Finale. So rasch als möglich (Presto). Mit Feuer und Humor.

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Linda Kline, Viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Stephen Miahky, violin; David Requiro, cello; Ronaldo Rolim, piano; Maria Sampen, violin; Meta Weiss, cello

Academy Award-winning composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold never set out to win an Oscar (actually, he won two and was nominated for two more besides). Far from it. If you asked him, he would tell you that he was mainly a composer of opera. However, Austria in the 1930s proved inhospitable to its Jewish population, and Korngold emigrated to the United States, specifically Hollywood, CA. Korngold would go on to score some 16 feature films, elevating the work of actors from Errol Flynn to a young Ronald Reagan.

The Sextet heard tonight is from Korngold’s formative years as a prodigy in Vienna, Austria. This work, composed at the ripe age of 19, marks the ascent of a great artist. Hailed as a genius by Gustav Mahler and supported by leading artists throughout Europe, Korngold could never have guessed his path would lead him away from the world’s musical capital and onto the silver screen.

Tasting Music 4; Scene 1; Take 1; Action!

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)

STRING SEXTET, OP. 10 (1916)

for 2 violins, 2 violas & 2 cellos

I. Moderato - Allegro

II. Adagio. Langsam

III. Intermezzo. In gemäßigtem Zeitmaß, mit Grazie

IV. Finale. So rasch als möglich (Presto). Mit Feuer und Humor.

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Linda Kline, Viola; Stephen Miahky, violin; David Requiro, cello; Maria Sampen, violin; Meta Weiss, cello

Pianist Ronaldo Rolim makes his WWWCMF debut in this Portrait of an Artist recital. Born and raised in Brazil, Ronaldo came to the United States at 18 to pursue musical studies, first at Oakland University (Michigan), then at the Peabody Conservatory and Yale University. Performances in some of the world’s musical temples followed— Carnegie Hall, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Wigmore Hall (London), and the Franz Liszt Academy (Budapest). The next natural and logical step in the progression, as with so many emerging artists, is the tasting room of Forgeron Cellars in Walla Walla, Washington.

As of 2022, Ronaldo will make a habit of performing in the Pacific Northwest. He begins a new chapter as Professor of Piano at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA.

Welcome to Washington, Ronaldo! All selections will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Timothy Christie, moderator; Ronaldo Rolim, piano

WWCMF should be a resource to the entire Walla Walla community. As an organization, we need to do a better job making everyone in the community feel welcome and included. To improve on our efforts, WWCMF is proud to present the inaugural season of a new initiative called the Pilot Quartet Fellowship, featuring the magnificently talented Ivalas Quartet. Composed of violinists Reuben Kebede and Tiani Butts, violist Aimée McAnulty and cellist Pedro Sánchez, the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music since its inception in 2016.

During their week-long residency in Walla Walla, the Ivalas have ranged far and wide in the community, performing for often marginalized groups, including the Spanish-speaking population. Tonight, we celebrate their extraordinary musicianship and commitment to building community through music with a program from the historic Plaza Theater in downtown Waitsburg. Pro Tip: Watch social media for information about pop-up performances in downtown Waitsburg before the big show — WWCMF musicians will be checking out some of the new restaurants and bars, and they’ll have their instruments with them… more to come.

All selections will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Ivalas Quartet — Tiani Butts, violin; Reuben Kebede, violin; Aimée McAnulty, viola; Pedro Sánchez, cello

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

TRIO IN A MINOR, OP. 114

for piano, clarinet and cello

I. Allegro

II. Adagio

III. Andantino grazioso

IV. Allegro

— Intermission —

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

BRANDENBURG CONCERTO NO. 6 IN B FLAT, BWV 1051

I. [Allegro]

II. Adagio, ma non tanto

III. Allegro

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912)

FIVE NEGRO MELODIES FOR PIANO TRIO, OP. 59, NO. 1

I. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

II. I Was Way Down A-Yonder

III. Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?

IV. They Will Not Lend Me A Child

V. My Lord Delivered Daniel

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Philip Payton, violin; David Requiro, cello; Kevin Schempf, clarinet; Joshua Skinner, bass; Meta Weiss, cello; Xiaohui Yang, piano

The Six Brandenburg Concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach represent one of the more interesting cover letters in the history of job searches. Bach wanted to change gigs. His patron, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, was a Calvinist, and music was not an integral part of his worship. Bach wanted the opportunity to compose sacred music, having focused primarily on instrumental works during his service to Leopold. And so, he drafted an elaborately self-deprecating letter of interest and sent it along with the manuscript of his set of concertos for a variety of instruments to the Margrave of Brandenburg.

The Margrave employed a modest house band, likely incapable of playing these demanding works or even fielding a team, which included flutes, recorders, trumpet, horns, harpsichord, and all manner of strings. It doesn’t appear that Bach received any reply for his efforts, and the manuscript remained unplayed in the Margrave’s library until his death. It was sold shortly after for a sum of about $22 in equivalent value for the time. Even with the manuscript’s sale, the concertos would remain unplayed until 1850 upon their discovery in the Brandenburg archives. The Sixth Concerto, heard tonight, is scored for the enlightened, ingenious, heroic combination of two solo violas, keyboard, and a consort of viols. Like the Margrave, we don’t have the exact instruments required, but we do have a very capable consort of cellos to fill in for the viols… Don’t worry. We’ll explain it all.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

BRANDENBURG CONCERTO NO. 6 IN B FLAT, BWV 1051

I. [Allegro]

II. Adagio, ma non tanto

III. Allegro

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Philip Payton, violin; David Requiro, cello; Joshua Skinner, bass; Meta Weiss, cello; Xiaohui Yang, keyboard

You have to catch her before you can get Meta Weiss to sit down at her cello and play a Portrait of an Artist recital.

A native of San Francisco, Meta made her international debut in Utrecht, Holland, at age 7, and her whirlwind career hasn’t afforded her many pauses since.

She went to New York, Moscow, Turkmen, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Brazil, and China. And then to Australia — one of her pauses — just long enough to give birth to her firstborn before hopping a plane back to the US and the mountains of Colorado, where she currently resides with her husband, cellist David Requiro their two little ones. Her life in music has spanned the globe, bringing artistry, insight, connection, and good cheer wherever she goes.

And now you know why Facebook changed its name to Meta! All selections will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Timothy Christie, moderator; Meta Weiss, cello; Xiaohui Yang, piano

One of WWCMF’s most popular offerings since its inception in 2010, Collage returns to the idyllic setting of Abeja. What is Collage? It is a style of performance where lots and lots of different kinds of music are mashed together to form two large super-pieces. We call these pieces Act I & Act II. There’s an intermission for you to catch your breath.

The music doesn’t unfold “up there” on the stage. You are the stage. From Handel to Jimi Hendrix, you might hear anything. And you don’t know where it’s coming from next. In front of you, behind, above? Yes, yes, and yes. You are right in the middle of this epic musical Collage.

Musical Direction by Timothy Christie

Lighting Design by Patty Mathieu and Kurt Walls

One of WWCMF’s most popular offerings since its inception in 2010, Collage returns to the idyllic setting of Abeja. What is Collage? It is a style of performance where lots and lots of different kinds of music are mashed together to form two large super-pieces. We call these pieces Act I & Act II. There’s an intermission for you to catch your breath.

The music doesn’t unfold “up there” on the stage. You are the stage. From Handel to Jimi Hendrix, you might hear anything. And you don’t know where it’s coming from next. In front of you, behind, above? Yes, yes, and yes. You are right in the middle of this epic musical Collage.

Musical Direction by Timothy Christie

Lighting Design by Patty Mathieu and Kurt Walls

Giving Circles are a standard practice among nonprofit organizations. WWCMF employs a whimsical device for classifying donations, composer lifespan. Haydn is known both for the tremendous volume of his compositional output — 60+ string quartets, 100+ symphonies, 17 operas, a host of masses, oratorios, etc., not to mention essentially inventing chamber music — and for his long life of 77 years. Fittingly, Haydn is right up near the top of WWCMF’s Giving Circles.

But there is one tier higher, and it carries the name Living Composer. “Music is alive…” begins the description of the category. And nowhere is the beauty and impact of that statement more keenly felt than in tonight’s program. The whole program is by living composers, many under the age of 40. Composer Philip Glass, whose 2018 work Perpetulum is on the program, doubles down on the WWCMF Giving Circle scheme, eclipsing Haydn’s lifespan by eight years while continuing to produce beautiful music in the present day. The oldest music you will hear on this program was composed in 2016.

Devonté Hynes (b.1985)

PERFECTLY VOICELESS (2018)

PRESS (2019)

FIELDS (2019)

Jlin (b. 1987)

DUALITY (2020)

Peter Martin (b. 1980)

BEND (2016)

Gemma Peacocke (b. 1984)

DEATH WISH (2017)

Philip Glass (B. 1937)

PERPETULUM (2018)

Clarice Assad (b. 1978)

HERO (2019/2020)

Artists: Third Coast Percussion— Sean Conners, percussion; Robert Dillon, percussion; Peter Martin, percussion; David Skidmore, percussion

George Crumb (1929-2022)

VOX BALAENAE (VOICE OF THE WHALE) (1971)

for Three Masked Players

I. Vocalise (...for the beginning of time)

II. Variations on Sea-Time [Sea Theme]

III. Archeozoic [Var.1]

IV. Proterozoic [Var.2]

V. Paleozoic [Var.3]

VI. Mesozoic [Var.4]

VII. Cenozoic [Var.5]

VIII. Sea-Nocturne (...for the end of time)

— Intermission —

George Crumb (1929-2022)

BLACK ANGELS: THIRTEEN IMAGES FROM THE DARK LAND (1970)

I. Departure

1. Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects

2. Sounds of Bones and Flutes

3. Lost Bells

4. Devil-music

5. Danse Macabre

II. Absence

6. Pavana Lachrymae

7. Threnody II: Black Angels!

8. Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura

9. Lost Bells (Echo)

III. Return

10. God-music

11. Ancient Voices

12. Ancient Voices (Echo)

13. Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects

Artists: Winston Choi, amplified piano; Timothy Christie, electric viola; Katri Ervamaa, electric cello; Norbert Lewandowski, electric cello; Jennifer Rhyne, electric flute; Maria Sampen, electric violin; MingHuan Xu, electric violin

George Crumb (1929-2022)

BLACK ANGELS: THIRTEEN IMAGES FROM THE DARK LAND (1970)

I. Departure

1. Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects

2. Sounds of Bones and Flutes

3. Lost Bells

4. Devil-music

5. Danse Macabre

II. Absence

6. Pavana Lachrymae

7. Threnody II: Black Angels!

8. Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura

9. Lost Bells (Echo)

III. Return

10. God-music

11. Ancient Voices

12. Ancient Voices (Echo)

13. Threnody III: Night of the Electric Insects

David Bowie sums it up pretty well, bejabbers and all. There is terror in this music. And yet, so too, there is sublime beauty. Framed in three sections— Departure, Absence, and Return — Black Angels explores ideas of superstition, fate, death, and redemption. Using an instrumental palette of extraordinary range from tam-tams to crystal glasses and an electric string quartet, Crumb conjures a world in which disparate times— ancient, present, and future— exist as one.

Artists: Timothy Christie, electric viola; Norbert Lewandowski, electric cello; Maria Sampen, electric violin; MingHuan Xu, electric violin

Pianist Winston Choi has been a WWCMF staple since 2009. He doesn’t know it, but he was the inspiration for the whole Portrait of an Artist Series. While on tour in New England with new music ensemble Brave New Works, a rare night off coincided with an invitation for the whole ensemble to dine at an exclusive Back Bay social club in Boston. Aperitifs. Multi-course dinner. Digestifs. The whole nine yards. But not yet epic…

After dinner, overstuffed musicians settled into overstuffed chairs for brandy by a roaring fire when someone noticed a piano across the room. “Hey Winston,” someone called. “What are you working on these days?” He described an upcoming solo recital tour across Canada and volunteered to get up and play through some of the repertoire. Very cool, but not yet epic…

At some point, people just began shouting out requests. One particular request was for the Brahms A major Intermezzo, Op. 118. Winston replied that he had never played it. The group was incredulous. “What!” Winston said, “lemme see…” He went into a trance-like state and played a piece he had never played before, just from the memory of its sound… As the Intermezzo faded into silence, he looked up. “You mean that one?” Yes. That one. Epic.

Now you have the opportunity to spend an evening in the glow of Winston’s artistry, much as we did so many years ago. All selections will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Winston Choi, piano; Timothy Christie, moderator

2022 WWCMF Commission — World Premiere

Andre Meyers (b. 1973)

Rainwater Song (2022)

for viola and harp

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)

String Quartet No. 2 (1918)

I. Allegro

II. Andante. Quasi recitativo - Allegro giocoso

— Intermission —

William Lloyd Webber (1914-1982)

Fermo Bellini (1804-1865)

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Songs for harp and cello

I. Nocturne

II. Nocturne

III. Song of the Black Swan

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

String Quartet No. 5 (1931)

I. Poco andantino

II. Vivo e energico

III. Andantino - tempo giusto e bem ritmado

IV. Allegro

Artists: Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Timothy Christie, viola; Artur Girsky, violin; Rowena Hammill, cello; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Amy Ley, harp

What was happening roughly a century ago? Well, we are living it. Global Pandemic? Check. War in Europe? Check. Performance of a new quartet by Hungarian superstar composer Zoltán Kodály? Happily, check! While the quartet isn’t new anymore— it’s a hundred years old— it still sounds new, and that’s a comfort compared with the other two examples of history repeating itself.

If history is to repeat, we would do well to take up another of Kodály’s great musical contributions, the education of elementary and middle school children in the foundations of music. Kodály made it his life’s work and revolutionized the field. His method is taught to this day (where support for compulsory music education exists). With its folk influence, modal harmonies, and energetic country dance finale, this great quartet is a reminder to us all that history can repeat in all the right ways if given a chance.

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)

String Quartet No. 2 (1918)

I. Allegro

II. Andante. Quasi recitativo - Allegro giocoso

Artists: Girsky Quartet — Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Timothy Christie, viola; Artur Girsky, violin; Rowena Hammill, cello

In works for stage and screen, one musical device stands out among all others to express fantastical transformation, the harp glissando. You know the sound, alternately plunging and soaring swoops of angelic resonance that propel you from terra firma to ethereal heights, from the practical constraints of daily life to the infinite possibility of dreams. Not only do you know the sound, but given a concert grand harp, you could probably even deliver a passable example, drawing a finger or thumb (but never a pinky!) up and down the 47 strings ad libitum. Yes, the harp offers a ready vehicle to express our sense of wonder and enter an imaginary world where anything is possible...

…anything except being able to actually play the harp. For that, we need an expert and true artist. Harpist Amy Ley is here to save the day. Yes, she plays a mean glissando and can send us straight to Cloud Cuckoo Land at the drop of a hat. But more importantly, she is a virtuoso performer and an artist of the most refined sensibilities. And the harp repertoire is often not as familiar to audiences as that of violin, piano, etc. Therefore, it is a guarantee that you will be transported. Works by Couperin, Humperdinck, Grandjany and more. All selections will be announced from the stage.

Artists: Timothy Christie, moderator; Amy Ley, harp