ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Bernard Gondos, violinist and scientist, is currently Senior Scientist at the Sansum Medical Center Research Foundation and Clinical Professor of Pathology at the UCLA School of Medicine. While growing up in New York, he studied violin with Irma Zacharias, and more recently has worked with Gilles Apap. As an undergraduate at Yale, he studied theory and composition. Among his compositions are two string quartets which have been recorded by the Anacapa String Quartet. Bernie presently serves as President of the Board of the Friends of New Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Elaine Renner, cello, studied with Gretchen Kuhney Geber in Hollywood, Stephen De'ak at USC, and Daniel Rothmuller, co-principal cellist of the L.A. Philharmonic. She is currently studying with Geoffrey Rutkowski, principal cellist of the Santa Barbara Symphony, and she is enrolled in Glory Fisher's chamber music class at Santa Barbara City College. Elaine played many years with the Palisades Symphony and the Brentwood Symphony.
John Sonquist, piano, is a regular performing member of the Santa Barbara Music Club, and is on the board of directors of Chamber Musicians of Northern California. He studied with Margit Varro in Chicago and with Glory Fisher and the Santa Barbara City College Chamber Music Class. He is a chamber music veteran of over thirty five years. John is also professor emeritus of sociology at UCSB, where he specialized in computer applications in the social sciences.
PROGRAM NOTES
Clara Schumann was born in 1819 at Leipzig, the daughter of Friedrich Wieck, a highly esteemed piano teacher. Like Mozart, she was given strict musical training by her father, starting with her earliest childhood. When Robert Schumann came to their house to study with her father, Clara determined eventually to marry him. When she was twenty one, she did just that, and fought off her father's attempts to have the marriage annulled.
She and Robert went on to a musical life together. She, primarily as a concert pianist, and he as the composer of the family. Clara was certainly one of the top concert pianists of the 19th century, sharing the honors with Franz Liszt. Her concert career, largely dedicated to promoting the works of her husband, lasted through most of the 19th century. She was a gifted composer in her own right, though, as was her lifelong friend, Johannes Brahms, and she often played her own works at her recitals, as was the custom.
The Trio, Opus 17, was composed and published in 1846, when she was only twenty seven years old. It is a lyrical and romantic piece, reflecting the musical idioms that she and Robert shared with Chopin and Mendelssohn, and with Brahms.
Program notes by John Sonquist 4/20/97
PRESS RELEASE
MORNING CONCERT SERIES
SANTA BARBARA MUSIC CLUB
CONTACT: John Sonquist
Email
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 1997
On Wednesday, May 14, 1997, from 10:30 AM to 12:00 noon, the Santa Barbara Music Club will present another event in its Morning Concert Series, programs of instrumental and vocal chamber music with performances by local artists. The concert, featuring works by Clara Schumann, Brahms, and Ravel, takes place in the Faulkner Gallery of the Santa Barbara Public Library, Downtown Branch, 40 E. Anapamu St. The public is cordially invited. Admission is free. For more information, call 805-963-1102.
The program opens with pianist Linde Romillo performing waltzes from Brahms' Opus 39, his Intermezzo Opus 118, No. 2, and his Rhapsody in G minor, Opus 79, No. 2. Then Fred Griesinger, baritone, will sing Ravel's "Don Quichotte a Dulcinee" and Massenet's "Vision Fugitive". He will be accompanied by Ellen Riedel, piano. The program closes with a little-known, but outstanding work by Clara Schumann, her Piano Trio, Opus 17. It will be performed by Bernard Gondos, violin, Elaine Renner, cello, and John Sonquist, piano.
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