Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien
NEW POWERHOUSE TRIO OF CMNW FAVORITES
Returning to CMNW this fall are three of classical music’s most brilliant musicians: the exceptional clarinetist and Avery Fisher Prize-winner Anthony McGill, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, and our own Artistic Director, pianist Gloria Chien! Their new Trio Afiori will present one of our most unique programs yet, as these three illuminating musical minds join forces with repertoire specially arranged for the triple-threat of mezzo-soprano, clarinet, and piano. Join them for an evening of stunning music by Brahms, Kian Ravaei’s mesmerizing Gulistan—a CMNW commission premiered in 2023—and two brand-new works by Alex Ho and Valerie Coleman commissioned by CMNW for this outstanding trio.
“Fleur Barron, Anthony McGill, and Gloria Chien are excited to offer a program on the theme of ‘Heritage,’ featuring works composed or arranged expressly for their trio.”
— MKI Artists
PSU, College of the Arts, Lincoln Performance Hall
Saturday, 11/8 • 7:30 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- BRAHMS Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91 (Arr. Kian Ravaei)
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91 (1884)
I. Gestillte Sehnsucht. Adagio espressivo
II. Geistliches Wiegenlied. Andante con moto- ALEX HO New Commission TBD
ALEX HO (b. 1993) New Commission TBD
WORLD PREMIERE • CMNW COMMISSION
- BRAHMS Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2 (1894)
I. Allegro amabile
II. Allegro appassionato
III. Andante con moto — AllegroIn the fall of 1890, Brahms decided that he was through composing. At 57, he felt that he had said the things he wanted to, and he intended that his String Quintet in G Major, completed the summer before, should be his last work. He began clearing out his files, destroying old manuscripts he did not want to keep and publishing a few pieces he did. But he was fairly sure there would be no new music.
Then in 1891 Brahms met the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld and was captivated by his playing. Mühlfeld (1856-1907) had originally joined the Meiningen orchestra as a violinist. He taught himself to play the clarinet and soon became the principal clarinetist of that orchestra and later of the Bayreuth orchestra. So enthusiastic was Brahms about Mühlfeld’s playing that he came out of retirement and began to compose for him: from 1891 came a Clarinet Trio and the great Clarinet Quintet. Three years later Brahms wrote his final instrumental works for Mühlfeld, two sonatas for clarinet and piano.
Both sonatas share the autumnal quality of Brahms’s late music, though the Second Sonata is the more immediately friendly of the two. The opening tempo marking, Allegro amabile, sets the tone for the entire work, for this is indeed music full of love. The clarinet enters immediately with a lyric theme that seems to flow endlessly, and this quality of continuous lyricism extends throughout the movement. The poised and noble second subject (Brahms marks it sotto voce) helps maintain the mood of calm acceptance that characterizes this sonata. The Allegro appassionato is in the standard scherzo-and-trio form. The clarinet’s surging, twisting opening establishes the high energy level of this movement, and the trio section of characteristically Brahmsian nobility is all the more effective by contrast. The Andante con moto is a set of variations based on the clarinet’s opening theme. That theme undergoes four variations, all in 6/8 time, and then Brahms provides an unusual conclusion by shifting to 2/4 for the final variation and suddenly speeding the music up.—© Eric Bromberger
- VALERIE COLEMAN New Commission TBD
VALERIE COLEMAN (b. 1970) New Commission TBD
WORLD PREMIERE • CMNW COMMISSION
- KIAN RAVAEI “Gulistan” for Voice, Piano & Cello (2023)
KIAN RAVAEI (b. 1999) Gulistan (15-20’)
CMNW Commission World PremierePart 1 (Sari Gelin/Wildwood Flower)
Part 2 (Saye Chaman/Seeds of Love)In Gulistan, I bring together traditional songs from my Western and Middle Eastern heritage. The title comes from the thirteenth-century Persian poet Sa’di, whose monumental work Gulistan (“flower garden” in Persian) uses flowers as a metaphor for wisdom. Folk songs may be said to represent the collective wisdom of a culture, preserving generations of values and worldviews. Inspired by Sa’di, I chose folk songs that make reference to flowers, each with different metaphorical implications.
Part 1 combines the traditional Azerbaijani song Sari Gelin with the American folk song Wildwood Flower. The former describes a man helplessly longing for his distant lover, while the latter tells the story of a heartbroken woman whose lover has abandoned her. I intertwine the songs, suggesting a dialogue between two inconsolable lovers, each pining for the other.
Part 2 unites two metaphorical commentaries on the nature of love: the traditional Iranian song Saye Chaman and the English folk song Seeds of Love. I set the Iranian melody in an American folk style, and the English melody in a style evoking Iranian classical music. The melodies are often presented in counterpoint—a kind of musical metaphor for the mixture of cultures in my own life.
This work was written expressly for mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, who shares in common with me a diverse heritage comprising Eastern and Western cultures.
—© Kian Ravaei
Artists
-
Fleur Barron
Mezzo-soprano
-
Hailed as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron is a passionate interpreter of opera, symphonic works, and chamber music ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary. She is currently Artistic Partner of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, for which she will curate and perform multiple projects across several seasons. The artist is mentored by Barbara Hannigan.
The 2024-25 season sees Fleur Barron emerge as an exciting, leading voice in Mahlerian repertoire across a series of important symphonic debuts: Das Lied von der Erde with Daniel Harding and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on tour across Germany, with Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm, on tour to Spain with Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Staatsorchester at the Elbphilharmonie, and at the Oregon Bach Festival; Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony; Mahler’s second symphony with the Orquesta de Valencia; Rückert Lieder with PhilZuid; and the Kindertotenlieder at Het Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival with Julius Drake.
Other orchestral engagements include Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, Saariaho’s Adriana Songs with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, and orchestrated Schubert songs with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias.
She takes on three new opera roles: Concepción in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot (including a studio recording); Comrade Chin/Shu Fang in Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly at the Barbican Centre directed by James Robinson; and Galatea in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with La Nuova Musica at Wigmore Hall.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien (currently selected)
-
Gloria Chien
Piano & Artistic Director
-
Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade.
In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in 2020. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic.
Most recently, Gloria was named Advisor of the newly launched Institute for Concert Artists at the New England Conservatory of Music. Gloria released two albums—her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.
Gloria received her bachelor, master’s, and doctoral degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Brentano Quartet & Gloria Chien: Schubert, Andres & Beach
- Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien (currently selected)
-
Anthony McGill
Clarinet
-
Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound, and rich character” (The New York Times), clarinetist Anthony McGill enjoys a dynamic international solo and chamber music career and is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—the first African American principal player in the organization’s history. He is the recipient of the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize, one of classical music’s most significant awards.
McGill appears as a soloist with top orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. He performed alongside Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece by John Williams. As a chamber musician, McGill is a collaborator of the Brentano, Daedalus, Guarneri, JACK, Miró, Pacifica, Shanghai, Takács, and Tokyo Quartets, and performs with leading artists including Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Gloria Chien, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, Midori, Mitsuko Uchida, and Lang Lang.
He serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is the Artistic Director for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. He holds the William R. and Hyunah Yu Brody Distinguished Chair at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2020, McGill’s #TakeTwoKnees campaign protesting the death of George Floyd and historic racial injustice went viral.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
- Trio Afiori: Anthony McGill, Fleur Barron & Gloria Chien (currently selected)