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Romantic Moods

Presented by Classically Alive at Classically Alive

February 4, 2012

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Join us for this program of Romantic music for our February salon, the month of Valentine’s Day after all. The program starts with 3 Romances by Clara Schumann for viola and piano. Clara Schumann was one of the great pianists of the 19th century, and her music compositions were highly respected during her day. In recent decades much of her fine music is now performed again.

Also on the first half is the Robert Schumann cycle of 12 songs, Liederkreis, Opus 39. The songs are meant to be performed together as an integral set - a musical journey from beginning to end. Liederkreis, Opus 39 is considered one of the greatest song cycles of the 19th century. Each song is infused with deep Romantic yearning and tender sensitivity and intimacy. The cycle was composed during 1840, the “year of song” in Robert Schumann’s output, and also the first year of the marriage between Robert and Clara. The Schumanns went on to have 7 children and continue their brilliant musical careers.

The second half will be dedicated to one work, Ernest Bloch’s Suite for Viola and Piano, an emotive, improvisatory and modernistic work. The music is in the voice of eastern exoticism over and above its Jewish strains. Its opening movement begins slowly and wanders between moments of great power and quiet introspection. There is a pulsating, scherzo-like second movement and a flowing slow movement. The suite concludes with an upbeat, optimistic and passionate movement. As a whole, the Suite is a stirring, emotional work that will reward several hearings.

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Three Romances, Op. 22                    Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
                Andante molto
                Allegretto
                Leidenschaftlich schnell

Margaret Miller, viola
Sara McDaniel, piano
 
 Liederkreis, Opus 39 Robert Schumann (1810 -1856)
In der Fremde
Intermezzo
Waldesgespräch
Die Stille
Mondnacht
Schöne Fremde
Auf einer Burg
In der Fremde
Wehmut
Zwielicht
Im Walde
Frühlingsnacht

Connie Heidenreich, voice
Abe Minzer, piano

Intermission

Suite for Viola and Piano (1919)           Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
                Lento-Allegro
                Allegro ironico
                Lento
                Molto vivo

Margaret Miller, viola
Sara McDaniel, piano

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Violist Margaret Miller for eighteen years was a member of the Da Vinci Quartet which toured throughout the country and recorded for the Naxos American Classics label. She joined the Colorado State University at Fort Collins Music Faculty in 2004 as Assistant Professor, and in 2009 became Coordinator of the Graduate String Quartet program. Margaret Miller and pianist Sara McDaniel have been performing viola/piano literature together for 15 years, and including many concerts planned throughout Colorado for 2012. Margaret has been recognized for her teaching by the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony and the Colorado String Teachers Association. She has been a long-time contributor to the Pikes Peak region music scene as well, and even finds time to teach viola at Pikes Peak Community College. It is a pleasure to have Margaret Miller here in her first performance at the Classically Alive venue.

Pianist Sara McDaniel is known throughout the western region as a performer, teacher, clinician, and adjudicator.  Much of her work has been done through Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and affiliates, Colorado State Music Teachers and Pikes Peak Music Teachers Associations.  Her performance specialty is chamber music.  She collaborates regularly with musicians of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and faculty of Colorado colleges.  She has been a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs and the Pikes Peak Philharmonic. 

She has given piano pedagogy workshops and master classes throughout Colorado and many other states.   Teaching comprises a major part of her career, both in an independent studio and on the faculty at University of Colorado Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak Community College.  In 2001, she was Colorado’s first nominee for Music Teachers National Association’s Teacher of the Year.  Ms. McDaniel is a graduate of Southern Colorado State College (now CSU Pueblo) and received her masters degree from University of Hawaii. 

Soprano Connie Heidenreich, received her Masters Degree with High Distinction followed by doctoral studies in Vocal Literature from the Indiana University School of Music. While at Indiana, she had the opportunity to perform as soloist in well-known operas as well as in the American premieres of several operas by composers such as Janacek and Martinu. Her solo performance with the Indiana cast of Martinu's “The Greek Passion” went all the way to the Metropolitan Opera in NYC, and with PBS broadcasts.

Connie has appeared as soloist with numerous organizations in the Colorado Springs and Front-Range area, Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Colorado Opera Festival, Colorado Springs Symphony and TheatreWorks to mention just a few. Most notable are her performances as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Papagena in the Magic Flute, Annina in La Traviata and Solveig in Peer Gynt. Oratorio highlights include the Bach B Minor Mass, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor and Handel’s Messiah. Connie maintains a private voice studio and also teaches private voice, vocal performance and diction for singers at Pikes Peak Community College. It is a pleasure to have Connie Heidenreich in her debut perfoamnce with Classically Alive

Pianist Abe Minzer earned a master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, a doctorate in music at West Virginia University, and has taught at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.  He plays concerts throughout the US, and has appeared as piano soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Currently, Dr. Minzer is on the faculty at Pikes Peak Community College where he teaches Private Piano, Group Piano, Music Theory, and serves as staff pianist/accompanist. Abe Minzer also teaches music history and music theory at UCCS.  At the 2010 Colorado Music Teachers Conference, Dr. Minzer presented the lecture-performance “Late Chopin, New Beginnings”.
Under the sponsorship of the Pikes Peak Arts Council, Classically Alive hosts over 40 musicians and other artists, and features diverse monthly at-home music/arts salons, in addition to programs across Colorado. A venue for painters, poets, discussion, with fine food and great camaraderie, Classically Alive salons host a wide range of styles including classical, contemporary, popular styles, jazz, and world music.