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Program.
J.S. Bach – Sonata BWV 1031 in E-flat Major
Francis Poulenc – Sonata for flute and piano, FP 164
Stephanie Ann Boyd – Songbird *USA premiere
ABOUT songbird.
flute + PIANO | COMMISSIONED BY gabriela vargas and the flutists of the world sonata project: flute
At the beginning of the Covid lockdown in NYC in spring 2020, the sudden quiet encouraged the wildlife to come out of the parks and into the streets and onto rooftops. Hearing this magnificent birdsong for the first time in the city was profound, and felt like an anthem of hope in their small melodies. For Songbird, I took the songs of many different birds and made those the starting points for the melodies in this work in the first two movements. The final movement is influenced by starling murmurations.
gabriela vargas, flute
Virginia native and third-year Violin Fellow at the New World Symphony, Brendon Elliott received his bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Pamela Frank and the late Joseph Silverstein. He completed his master’s degree at The Juilliard School under Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes. He began playing under his mother’s tutelage at the age of three and made his solo debut when he was 10, performing a concerto with the Hampton University Orchestra. Since then, he has soloed with several professional and community orchestras.
Mr. Elliott is a two-time alumnus of NPR's From the Top, a nationally syndicated radio broadcast featuring America’s talented young musicians. He toured with the Virginia Symphony performing the Hailstork Violin Concerto, performing alongside the legendary Natalie Cole and also guest soloed with the Symphony for five special Young Peoples Concerts, “Songs for a Dreamer” MLK Memorial Concert and a 9/11 Memorial Concert. His performance of William Grant Still's Mother and Child was broadcast on WMRA radio. As a three-time concerto competition winner, he was invited as a guest soloist with the Richmond Symphony on its masterworks series.
Mr. Elliott also performed Joachim’s cadenza for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5 during a special concert with the New York Philharmonic. He has performed with orchestras such as the Sphinx Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra St. Luke’s and Chineke! Orchestra. The Charleston Post and Courier described his solo performance with the Colours of Music Virtuosi as “playing with grace and poise, displaying a fine technique and sweet tone.”
kuang-hao huang, piano
Commended for his “perceptive pianism” (Audiophile) and “playing that is sensitive and wonderfully warm” (American Record Guide), Chicagoan Kuang-Hao Huang is a highly sought-after collaborative pianist whose performances have taken him throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
He has performed in New York City’s Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Hall; in Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center; and at every major venue in the Chicago area, including the Harris Theatre and Symphony Center. He is often heard live on WFMT and has also performed on WQXR and on Medici.tv. Mr. Huang has recorded for Aucourant, Cedille, Centaur, Innova and Naxos, including a CD of flute fantasies with flutist Mathieu Dufour and a premiere recording of early songs by Alban Berg with mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley. His most recent recordings include Notorious RBG in Song with soprano Patrice Michaels and Songs from Chicago with baritone Thomas Hampson.
A strong advocate of new music, Mr. Huang is a core member of Fulcrum Point New Music Project and Picosa. He has premiered numerous works, including pieces by Mason Bates, Jacob Bancks, Kyong Mee Choi, Stacy Garrop, John Harbison, Daniel Kellogg and Shulamit Ran. Mr. Huang gave the world premiere performances of works by Louis Andriessen and Chen Yi at Weill Hall as part of Carnegie Hall’s Millennium Piano Book Project. He has appeared on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series.
A dedicated teacher, Mr. Huang serves on the faculties of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Concordia University-Chicago. He has also taught at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.
Mr. Huang is Associate Artistic Director for the International Music Foundation (IMF) and is the driving force behind Make Music Chicago, a day-long, citywide celebration of music every June 21. He also founded IMF's Pianos in the Parks program, which partners with the Chicago Park District to give all Chicagoans access to outdoor pianos as well as free lessons.
STEPHANIE ANN BOYD, COMPOSER
Michigan-born, Manhattan-based American composer Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990) writes melodic music about women’s memoirs and the natural world for symphonic and chamber ensembles. Her work has been performed in nearly all 50 states and has been commissioned by musicians and organizations in 37 countries. Boyd’s five ballets include works choreographed by New York City Ballet principal dancers Lauren Lovette, Ashley Bouder, NYCB soloist Peter Walker, and XAOC Contemporary Ballet’s Eryn Renee Young. Eero, a ballet commissioned by Access Contemporary Music and Open House New York, was written for the grand opening of the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. Her music has been praised as “attractive lyricism” (Gramophone), “[with] ethereal dissonances” (Boston Globe), “[music that] didn’t let itself be eclipsed” (Texas Classical Review), “arrestingly poetic” (BMOP), and “wide ranging, imaginative” (Portland Press Herald).
Boyd’s music has been commissioned and performed by concertmasters of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony, the Faroe Islands Symphony, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Smith Symphony, the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and principal players in the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been commissioned and/or played by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the New England Conservatory Philharmonic, the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, the New York Jazzharmonic, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, the Roosevelt University Orchestra, the Eureka Ensemble, the JVL Festival Orchestra, the Texas State University Symphony, the Cremona International Academy Orchestra, the UW La Crosse Symphony, the Detroit Civic Orchestra, and the El Paso Youth Symphony. Her work has been presented by the Thalia and her Sisters concert series, the Moirae Ensemble, and Sandcastle New Music in New York City; Æpex Contemporary Music in Michigan; Juventas New Music, Collage New Music, and the New Gallery Concert Series in Boston; Cincinnati Soundbox, and others. Stephanie has worked with conductors such as Andrew Litton, Lina Gonzales, Earl Lee, Nathan Aspinall, Cliff Colnot, Gill Rose, Julian Benichou, Kristo Kondakci, and Kevin Fitzgerald.
The 2020/2021 season includes commissions from the Wyoming Symphony, Astral Artists with cellist Tommy Mesa, violinist Megan Healy, pianists Lara Downes, Lise de la Salle, Marta Aznavoorian, Lucille Chung, Susie Maddocks, Adrienne Park, Diane Kaztenburg Braun and Music Street, Sarah Bob and the New Gallery Concert Series, Holly Roadfeldt, Marianne Parker, Eunbi Kim, the Kurganov-Finehouse Duo, and others. This season also includes performances by the Lincoln Trio, Juventas New Music, Jennifer Reason, Lisa Pegher, Shouthouse, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, including concerts at the Kaufman Center, the Boston New Music Festival, the Festival of New American Music, Pianoforte in Chicago, live on Chicago’s WFMT radio station, and elsewhere.
Stephanie holds degrees from Roosevelt University and New England Conservatory, and she was one of the last violin students of renowned pedagogue John Kendall.