The Degas String Quartet Returns
THE SWANNANOA CHAMBER PLAYERS, celebrating their 39th season in the summer of 2008, are a group of outstanding professional musicians, from throughout the United States, who perform together each year at the Festival. Living and working on the beautiful and arts-positive campus of Warren Wilson College inspires these players to give performances that are not only at a consistently high level, but have an enormous energy and style.
We have been fortunate to secure, over the years, the participation of string quartets just at the cusp of their ascendant careers, a time when their quality has solidified, but just before the whirlwind of recognition is about to whisk them away from summer-long residences. Our audiences are the first to enjoy the matured musical quality of these young ensembles!
Our pianist, Inessa Zaretsky, is back for her 10th anniversary season. She has become an audience favorite because of her moving, virtuosic playing and congenial personality.
The Festival welcomes the Degas String Quartet back for this summer's concert season. The “Degas” made an immediate connection to the audiences both on and off stage, last year, starting with their memorable performances of the Haydn “Sunrise” Quartet and the Schumann Piano Quartet at their first concert with us. During the remaining weeks of last year's season, they played string quartets by Beethoven and Mozart, as well as a stunning performance the Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 with Inessa Zaretsky. This summer they will bring the Debussy and Bartók quartets, among others, to our programs.
The members of the Degas Quartet are all very serious musicians on stage, but lively and approachable off-stage, and our audiences enjoyed meeting and conversing with them at our after-concert receptions.
This year, they have been busy making themselves known in the southeastern United States, holding concerts in Charlotte, Hickory, Greensboro, Wilmington, and Appalachian State University, among other locations.
Two new violinists joined the Quartet last fall: both bring a love for the performance of chamber music along with their experience of it. This season, the Degas String Quartet will be with us for all five weeks of the Festival:
EMILY POPHAM, first violin, received degrees from Indiana University, the Julliard School and Mannes School of Music. She has performed at the music festivals of Prussia Cove, Ravinia, Taos and Kneisel Hall, has won the Balsam Prize for Duos and the Pablo Casals award, and has become a well-known and sought-after chamber-music player.
TIMOTHY PETERS, second violin, graduated from Rice University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was a founding member of the Brutini String Quartet, which was a prizewinner in the Fischoff National chamber music competition. He has also performed with the Houston, San Diego and San Antonio Symphonies, and has appeared on “A Prairie Home Companion” and in recital on WCLV, Cleveland.
SIMON ERTZ, viola, a native of northwestern Scotland had already been a performing musician when he came to Michigan State University to persue his graduate degree in performance. He has played in the Greater Lansing and Syracuse Symphony, and joined the Degas Quartet in 2002. He enjoys an unusual luxury among string players: Neil Kristóf Értz, is a violin maker, and so the viola he plays is one fashioned by his own brother!
PHILIP VON MALTZAHN, violoncello, began playing at the age of nine, in Texas, went on to Indiana University and the Eastman School of Music, since when he has been active both as a soloist and in chamber-music. He has appeared at Spoleto, Aspen, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and won the International Masterclas Competition before joining the Degas Quartet in 2001.
The wind players, after many years, include some débuts, this year. We welcome our new flautist, George Pope; our new oboist, Cynthia Watson, and John Kehayas, bassoonist. George Pope and Cynthia Watson are both from the University of Akron, where our horn player, Bill Hoyt, is also on the faculty: they perform together throughout the year in a faculty woodwind quintet, and so they come to our Festival in a position to bring the same unified sound and spirit that we have had in years past—and the same high level of performance!
GEORGE POPE, flute. Professor of Flute at the University of Akron. He is a founding member of the Solaris Wind Quintet, and has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Canton and Toledo Symphony Orchestras. His solo and chamber performances throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil, and broadcasts on National Public Radio, have received unanimous acclaim.
CYNTHIA WATSON, oboe. Professor of Oboe at the University of Akron. She performs with the Solaris Wind Quintet and is the principal oboe of the Akron and Youngstown Symphonies. She has performed with the Cleveland Symphony, the Cleveland Opera, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Virginia Opera, to reviews full of praise.
JOHN KEHAYAS, bassoon. A member of the Florida Orchestra, and Bassoon Instructor at the University of Southern Florida. He has concertized throughout Japan, China, Hong Kong, as well as Europe and the United States. Mr. Kehayas also plays with the Florida Pro Musica.
FRANK ELL, Festival director and clarinet, is Professor Emeritus of Michigan State University; founding member, American Reed Trio; participant at Marlboro, Brevard, Monadnock and Holland Festivals; Rotterdam and New Orleans Symphonies; soloist with the St. Paul Chamber orchestra. In addition to directing and performing at the Festival, he also enjoys travel, reading, cooking, and doing a daily sudoku!
RICHARD ILLMAN, trumpet. Professor of Trumpet at Michigan State University since 1990, he is currently performing with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Brass Band of Battle Creek, the Millennium Brass Quintet, the Beaumont Brass Quintet, the Lansing Symphony Big Band, and Thom Jayne and the Nomads.
WILLIAM HOYT, horn. Professor of Horn at the University of Akron. He performs regularly with the Paragon Brass Quintet, the Solaris Woodwind Quintet, and the Jazz Unit. He has also performed with the Akron Symphony, the Canton Symphony and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.
That is how the role of the piano in chamber-music is often described, since composeers so often rely upon it to express harmonies and rhythms primarily. This season marks our present “backbone's” first decade at the Festival, continuing the tradition of the sturdy, piano framework upon which so much chamber-music depends!
INESSA ZARETSKY, piano. Professor of Piano at Mannes School of Music, New York. Winner of the Frina Auerbach International Competition and has been the recipient of awards from Mannes College, Yale University and the Exxon Corporation. She maintains a busy performance schedule in New York City, and has emerged as an extremely gifted composer as well.
Inessa Zaretsky can only play in the first and second weeks of the Festival, this year. For the third and fourth concert programs, we will be joined by:
PAUL NITSCH, piano. Professor of Music at Queens University of Charlotte, he holds the prestigious McMahon endowed Artist in Residence position. He is also Director of the Friends of Music concert series at the University, and is a noted chamber music performer, teacher and competition judge. He was formerly Director of the Fontana Chamber Music Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Each year, we aim to present the world premiere of a new, contemporary piece of chamber music, commissioned especially for our festival. We are proud to introduce a new work by this year's “composer-in-residence:”
RON NEWMAN, Composer, Jazz Pianist. Originally from Howell, Michigan, Ron Newman has been a member of the Michigan State University faculty since 1980, where he served as Director of Jazz Studies from 1980 until 1995, and where he is currently Professor of Music Theory. His activities span both the jazz and classical fields, as a performer and as a composer: among his recent works are the Concerto for Piano and Winds, Two States of Being, and A Kenton Summer, a four-movement piece for jazz orchestra, a tribute to the music of Stan Kenton. He performs extensively with his wife, jazz vocalist Sunny Wilkinson, and can be heard on her CD Hire Wire, available on Chartmaker Records.