Lara St. John announced as curator of 2017-18 season of Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at The Barns

As Artistic Advisor, the Canadian born violinist and musical maverick has chosen a series of performances exploring the intersection of classical and folk music Performers include the Attacca Quartet, clarinetist David Krakauer, pianist Marc-André Hamelin, members of the Sphinx Ensemble, cellist Cameron Crozman, a retrospective of John Corigliano’s chamber music in celebration of the composer’s 80th birthday and St. John herself with pianist Matt Herskowitz

June 5, 2017

New York, NY — Violinist Lara St. John announced her curated 2017-18 season of Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at The Barns, exploring the intersection of classical and folk music. Each performer and ensemble has included a work based on a traditional theme.

The season opens October 20, with St. John and pianist Matt Herskowitz performing music from her recent album Shiksa, in which she commissioned contemporary composers to re-imagine traditional folk tunes, as well as the Franck sonata and a series of jazz arrangements. November 5, the Attacca Quartet will perform music by Haydn, Beethoven and Michael Ippolito (from their new album Songlines). January 21, clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg will offer a far-reaching program centering on ‘lost’ music of the Jewish people. March 2, pianist/composer Marc-André Hamelin will give a recital of works by Liszt, Feinberg, Debussy, and Godowsky. March 18, members of the Sphinx Organization will perform a mixed program including Dvořák’s String Quintet in G major with Double Bass op. 77. April 8, cellist Cameron Crozman will give a recital of 20^th century works by Debussy, Poulenc, Messiaen, Françaix, and Koechlin. The series will conclude on April 22 with a celebration of composer John Corigliano’s 80^th birthday, with St. John, pianist Martin Kennedy, soprano Melinda Whittington and the PubliQuartet performing selections of his chamber music.

St. John says of the season: “I’ve long been a fervent collector and admirer of music of the people – that love began as a small child begging to play only classical works inspired by mostly Roma traditions – and I learned through extensive travelling in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in my teenage years the intrinsic value of this music. As songs and lore change from region to region like accents in language, they also develop through generations of oral transmission within communities. No culture on earth is without this musical custom in some form, which seems to bring truth to the pithy saying that music is the universal language.

Thus my interest, and the inspiration for practically every ‘art music’ composer in history: One person might write a symphony for a thousand, but perhaps a thousand people collectively composed, as it were, the smallest traditional folk melody.”

PERFORMANCE LISTINGS

October 20, 2017, 7:30 PM
Lara St. John and Matt Herskowitz (violin/piano)

Cesar Franck: Sonata for Violin and Piano
Jazz arrangements
John Kameel Farah: Ah Ya Zayn (Levant)
Matt Herskowitz: Nagilara (lsrael)
Serouj Kradjian: Sari Siroun Yar (Armenia)
L. St. John/Herskowitz: Adanáco
Martin Kennedy: Czardashian Rhapsody (Hungary)

November 5, 3 PM
Attacca Quartet

Joseph Haydn: Op. 20/4
Michael Ippolito: Songlines
Ludwig van Beethoven: Op.132

Jan 21, 2018, 3 PM
David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg (clarinet/piano)

Johannes Brahms: Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1
Olivier Messiaen: Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the Birds) From the Quartet for the End of Time
Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint for Clarinet and Tape
Claude Debussy: Première Rhapsodie
Emil Kroitor: Moldavian Voyage (arr. Krakauer/Tagg)
David Krakauer: Synagogue Wail
Trad. Der Heyser Bulgar (arr. Krakauer/Tagg)

March 2, 2018, 7:30 PM
Marc-André Hamelin, piano

Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in A minor, S.244/13
Franz Liszt: “Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude” from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S.173
Franz Liszt: Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H; S.529ii
Samuel Feinberg: Sonata No. 4 in E-flat minor, Op. 6
Claude Debussy: Selections from Images, Book I
Leopold Godowsky: Wine, Women and Song (from 3 Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Johann Strauss II)

March 18 2018
SphinXtravaganza
Featuring Ifetayo Ali, cello, Hannah White, violin, and Xavier Foley, bass

Mixed repertoire showcase of individual artists
Antonin Dvořák: Bass Quintet op 77 (with Elena Urioste, violin)

April 8, 2018
Cameron Crozman, cello, pianist to be announced

20^th Century French Music, including the Debussy and Poulenc cello sonatas, and works by Messiaen, Françaix, and Koechlin

April 22 2018
Corigliano 8.0
A restrospective of John Corigliano’s chamber music

String Quartet (PubliQuartet)
Phantasmagoria (Sterling Elliott, cello, Martin Kennedy, piano)
Dylan Songs (Melinda Whittington and Martin Kennedy, soprano/piano)
Violin Sonata (Lara St. John and Martin Kennedy, violin/piano)

ABOUT LARA ST. JOHN

Canadian violinist Lara St. John has been described as “something of a phenomenon” by The Strad and a “high-powered soloist” by The New York Times. She has performed as soloist with many orchestras, including those of Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in North America, and throughout Europe, Australia, Asia and South America. Lara created her own Ancalagon Records label in 1999, and has recorded with the Royal Philharmonic, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra and The Knights. She won a Juno in 2011 for her Mozart album. Of her album Bach: Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo, American Record Guide wrote: “I simply don’t know where else you can go to hear Bach played at this level of artistry.”