Debussy & Schubert on the Allegheny

David Allen WehrPianist
Lorna McGheeFlute
Jennifer SteeleFlute
Marylene Gingras-RoyViola
Gretchen Van HoesenHarp
Jeffrey TurnerBass
Katherine SorokaMezzo Soprano

Join us for an Early Autumn Afternoon of  “Debussy and Schubert on the Allegheny” on Sunday, October 1 at 2:00 PM as Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts proudly opens its 2017 Fall Season with a chamber music program of gorgeous melodies and lush, impressionistic tone paintings in Foxburg’s Lincoln Hall. After the concert, meet the artists in a reception at the Red Brick Gallery from 4 to 6:00 PM and view the exhibit “Vistas and Vignettes: Pastels, Pencils and Paper – the artwork of Julia McCray and Nancy Yergin.

Program host and pianist David Allen Wehr will be joined by members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra:  Principal Flute Lorna McGhee, Violist Marylène Gingras-Roy, Flutist Jennifer Steele, Principal Bass Jeffrey Turner, and Principal Harp Gretchen Van Hoesen plus Mezzo-Soprano Katherine Soroka.

This extraordinary program of beloved masterworks, part of the three-year, sold-out “Schubert on the Bluff” series at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, marks the return of David Allen Wehr and colleagues.  In year one of the series, they performed the beloved Schubert “Trout Quintet” in Foxburg for ARCA’s enthusiastic audience.  Each season the series has included a guest composer, with Claude Debussy doing the honors this year.

Artistic Director David Allen Wehr, along with five members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will perform Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata (played by PSO Principal Bass Jeffrey Turner) and Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque (which includes Clair de lune, possibly the most popular classical piano piece ever written), alongside the more rarely heard Debussy Trio Sonata (with an ensemble led by PSO Principal Harp Gretchen Van Hoesen) and Schubert’s brilliant and virtuosic Flute Variations on “Trockne Blumen” from “Die Schöne Müllerin”, showcasing PSO Principal Flute Lorna McGhee.  Katherine Soroka will sing the Schubert song prior to its performance.

A favorite of Foxburg audiences, international competition winner, pianist David Allen Wehr will serve as the program host for the concert providing enlightening insights on the music and composers sure to delight and charm the audience.

Tickets are Adults $25, ARCA Members $20 and Students $5.  Call to reserve 724-659-3153 or buy online here.  Immediately following the concert, the audience is invited to meet the artists at a post concert reception in the Red Brick Gallery and Gift Shop coinciding with the exhibit of artists Julia McCray and Nancy Yergin.

Plan to make a full autumn day of it in FOXBURG on the beautiful banks of the Allegheny River – arriving early to walk or bicycle along the Allegheny or have lunch in The Allegheny Grille or Foxburg Pizza, wine tasting at Foxburg Wine Cellars, and gourmet coffee, ice cream and a handmade chocolate dessert at Divani Chocolatier and Barrista.

Photograph compliments of denniskeyesphotography.com


This program is part of Duquesne University three-year concert series, Schubert on the Bluff,  featuring works of Franz Schubert, the great Viennese composer of some of the most purely beautiful music ever written. Initially famous in his brief lifetime for his over 600 songs, Schubert made enormously valuable contributions to the chamber music literature, masterpieces full of passionate melodies and rich harmonies.

During the first season of Schubert on the Bluff, David Allen Wehr and PSO and Duquesne University colleagues performed the much beloved “Trout Quintet” in Lincoln Hall in Foxburg.  Returning in the third and final season of Schubert on the Bluff, this year’s concert will feature guest composer Claude Debussy. Schubert’s gorgeous melodies and emotionally gripping music has captivated audiences for almost two centuries, while Debussy’s lush, Impressionistic tone paintings have placed him among the giants of the 20th century. For the 16th season, Artistic Director David Allen Wehr, holder of the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair at Duquesne University, will lead his faculty colleagues, members of the Pittsburgh Symphony, in programs of some of the most memorable and moving music ever written.

Program Host – David Allen Wehr

David Allen Wehr’s international career was launched when he won the Gold Medal at the 1987 Santander International Piano Competition in Spain. The resulting tours have taken him to over 30 countries in Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, including performances in the world musical capitals of New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Washington, Madrid and Buenos Aires

It was David’s thirteen seasons touring the United States and Canada for Community concerts as a soloist and in chamber music partnerships that honed his unique ability to make great works of music accessible to the public.  Known for his ability as a “Living Program Note”, David Allen Wehr has a warm personality that welcomes an audience member into the emotion of the music and makes imaginative and simple the intricacies of great works of master composers.  The audience will certainly be charmed by this wonderful program made more enjoyable by the rich program commentary by David Allen Wehr.

Schubert on the Bluff Concert – “The Trout” 2015

Debussy and Schubert on the Allegheny
As Duquesne University’s “Schubert on the Bluff” comes to Foxburg

Lorna McGhee, Principal Flute, PSO
*Gretchen Van Hoesen, Principal Harp, PSO
*Jeffrey Turner, Principal Double Bass, PSO
*Jennifer Anne Steele, flute, PSO
*Marylene Gingras-Roy, viola, PSO
*David Allen Wehr, piano

* Duquesne University faculty artists

 

Schubert: Sonata in A Minor for Arpeggione and Piano, D. 821
Jeffrey Turner, double bass
David Allen Wehr, piano

Debussy: Trio Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp (1915)
Jennifer Anne Steele, flute
Marylene Gingras-Roy, viola
Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp

—-  Intermission  —-

Debussy: Suite Bergamasque for Piano
David Allen Wehr, piano

Schubert:  “Trockne Blumen” from “Die Schöne Müllerin”
Katherine Soroka, mezzo soprano
David Allen Wehr, piano

Schubert: Variations on “Trockne Blumen,” D. 802
Lorna McGhee, flute
David Allen Wehr, piano

 

David Allen Wehr

David Allen WehrDavid Allen Wehr holds the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair at the Mary Pappert School of Music. His international career was launched when he won the Gold Medal at the 1987 Santander International Piano Competition in Spain. The resulting tours have taken him to over 30 countries in Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, including performances in the world musical capitals of New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Washington, Madrid and Buenos Aires. Over 1,000 concerts include 13 seasons of touring the United States and Canada for Community Concerts as soloist, pianist with the Sartory Trio, and duo-recital partner with violinist Linda Wang and cellist Zuill Bailey. Wehr has been soloist with the London Symphony, National Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, Houston Symphony, New Zealand Symphony and all the major Spanish and Latin American orchestras.

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Wehr grew up in Boise, Idaho, where his parents, graduates of Westminster Choir College, were ministers of music at the Methodist Cathedral of the Rockies. Piano lessons began on his fourth birthday with his mother and continued with his father. Later teachers were Peggy Erwin, Edward Zolas and Sequeira Costa. Wehr studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Taos School of Music, the Dartington Summer Music School in England, and holds degrees from the University of Kansas. He coached extensively with Leon Fleisher, Jorge Bolet and Malcolm Frager. Early in his career, Wehr won the 1975 Kosciuszko Chopin Prize in New York City, the 1983 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Award, and Second Prizes in the 1983 Naumburg International Piano Competition at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and the 1986 Kapell Competition at the Kennedy Center.

David Allen Wehr has amassed a large and critically acclaimed discography with Connoisseur Society, Inc., with programs by Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, Schumann, Delius, Czerny, Gershwin, Brahms, Griffes, Wagner-Liszt, Dvoř-k and Joe Utterback. The complete Beethoven Sonata Cycle has been released in four double-CD albums. His CDs are available through the Mary Pappert School of Music by calling (412) 396-6082 and at amazon.com. Since 2007, Wehr has served each summer as Principal Keyboard at the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas and the Buzzards Bay Musicfest in Marion, Massachusetts.

Wehr was first associated with Duquesne from 1991-1994, when the Sartory Trio was chamber ensemble-in-residence, and his current tenure began in 2001, when he was named the first Hillman Distinguished Chair. His previous performance projects here include the complete Beethoven Sonata Cycle (2002-2004), Beethoven’s “Dynamic Duos”: the complete violin-piano sonatas with Charles Stegeman, the complete works for cello and piano with Anne Martindale Williams, and the Ninth Symphony in Liszt’s two-piano transcription with Helene Wickett (2004), “Brahms on the Bluff”, (Brahms’ complete instrumental chamber music, 2005-2008), “Musique on the Bluff” (French music, 2008-2010), “Bicentennials on the Bluff” (Chopin and Schumann, 2010), “Dvořák at Duquesne” (2011), and “Budapest on the Bluff” (2012) and “Beethoven on the Bluff” (2013-14) presenting the major piano chamber works of Beethoven.

Lorna McGhee

Scottish-born Lorna McGhee is principal flute with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and has performed as guest principal with Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Before emigrating to North America in 1998, McGhee was co-principal flute of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in England. As a soloist, she has given concerto performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the UK; Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Philharmonia and Victoria Symphony in Canada; and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and  Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra in the United States. A career highlight was a performance of Penderecki’s flute concerto with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra under the baton of the composer in 2004.

As a chamber musician and recitalist, she has performed throughout Europe and North America in such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall, Barge Music in New York, the Louvre, Paris and the Schubertsaal of Vienna’s Konzerthaus. McGhee is often featured in chamber music festivals in Canada, the United States and Australia. Her performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio in Canada, BBC Radio, NPR (USA), Netherlands Radio and ABC (Australia). She has made chamber music recordings for EMI, Decca ASV, Naxos and Meridian. Along with Duo partner Heidi Krutzen, McGhee has released two CDs on Skylark Music: Taheke, 20th century Masterpieces for flute and harp and Canada, New Works for flute and harp. As a member of Trio Verlaine (with Heidi Krutzen, harp and David Harding, viola) McGhee has most recently recorded Fin de Siècle, a CD of music by Debussy and Ravel for Skylark Music. Both the Trio and Duo are committed to broadening the repertoire and have contributed six new commissions to date.

Having taught at the University of Michigan and the University of British Columbia, McGhee has given master classes at universities and conservatoires in the UK, United States and Canada, including the Julliard School, the Royal Academy of Music and the Banff International Centre for the Arts. She is now an honorary “Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.”

Marylène Gingras-Roy

gingras_roy_maryleneA native of Québec City, Canada, Marylène Gingras-Roy joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra viola section in the 1997 season, and in 2004 was promoted to fourth chair. She studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec with Douglas McNabney and François Paradis and graduated in 1993 with unanimous First Prizes in both in viola and chamber music. She was then the recipient of Canada and Québec Arts Councils’ Scholarship Grants, enabling her to attend the Harid Conservatory with Victoria Chiang and the renowned Curtis Institute of Music with Karen Tuttle and Joseph DePasquale, where she earned an Artist Diploma in 1997.

Marylène has participated in many festivals, including the Festival Dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, the Solti Project at Carnegie Hall, the Jerusalem Music Festival, the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, where she served as Principal violist, and since 2000 she is a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho.

Marylène is heard regularly in chamber music concerts and maintains a full teaching schedule at Duquesne University, privately and is the viola coach for the Three Rivers Young People Orchestra. Marylène has also taught at summer music festivals such as: Domaine Forget, Québec, Interharmony Festival in Germany and Advanced Chamber Music Seminar in Pittsburgh.

Katherine Soroka

Katherine Erlandson Soroka

Mezzo soprano Katherine Soroka has become known for her passion for conveying the song text and connecting with audiences. Her singing with the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival was acclaimed as “masterful” and “heroic”, with “heartfelt vocalism” (Post Gazette). Katherine’s 2016 premiere of David Stock’s Solomon Songs with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble was hailed for “finding both lush lines and dramatic intensity… commanding the stage””. (TribLive)

A winner of Pittsburgh’s Concert Society Major Auditions, vocal chamber music performances have included a Frick Museum Music For Exhibitions concert with Chatham Baroque and a performance of David Stock’s Three Yiddish Songs with a string quartet of Pittsburgh Symphony musicians in a Chatham University memorial concert. An avid recitalist, recently she has sung an all Mahler recital with Nathan Carterette, a  concert on Chatham University’s Eden Hall campus, and recitals in Kresge Recital Hall, at Allegheny College, in Lincoln Hall in Foxburg,  and in NYC at Cami and Merkin concert halls.

A proponent of new music, Katherine has sung Betty Oliviero’s Juego de Siempre in New York City with Joel Sachs and the Continuum contemporary ensemble and with the Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble the world premiere of Rumi Sings of Love by David Stock and Judith Shatin’s Ahkmatova Songs. Other venues include Aspen Music Festival, The Kitchen, Greenwich House, The Juilliard School, Columbia University, and City University of New York performing Chinery Ung and Noel Zahler, among others.

Katherine has sung with the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and narrated and sung with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in “Tiny Tots” and School-time educational concerts.  In 2018 she will sing Mahler’s Songs of the Wayfarer with the Edgewood Symphony and Klythemnestra in Elektra at Chatham University.  In her early career in NYC, she performed the roles of Cherubino, Romeo, Dido and Cenerentola and in cabaret at Panache and Don’t Tell Mama. She has performed musical theatre in summer stock, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, and in 2016 performed the Witch in Into the Woods with the Barrow Civic Theatre.  Katherine is an adjunct voice faculty member of Mercyhurst University and teaches privately in Pittsburgh and Foxburg.  She shares her experience in the senior management of the New York Philharmonic, as Executive Director of the Grand Teton Musical Festival and on the faculty and administration of the Manhattan School of Music as a Board member of Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts.

Jennifer Steele

Described by critics as “thoroughly delightful, with remarkable tone in every register,” Jennifer Steele enjoys a dynamic career as both an orchestral musician for the Pittsburgh Symphony and as a chamber player for several ensembles including the acclaimed Pittsburgh Chamber Music Project at the Andy Warhol Museum. Previous to her appointment as Second Flute by former PSO Music Director Lorin Maazel, Ms. Steele performed for five seasons as Principal Flute with the Charleston Symphony in South Carolina. While working towards her bachelor’s degree at the Juilliard School, Ms. Steele was afforded the luxury of studying with world-renowned flutists Jeanne Baxtresser and Julius Baker. Ms. Steele has performed numerous recitals in both the United States and Asia and in 1987, was awarded first prize in the first annual Flute Talk magazine competition. In addition to her current position as Second Flute, Ms. Steele has made several appearances as soloist with the PSO.

Outside of performing, Ms. Steele continues to show her dedication to training the next generation of flutists through her past and present associations with Carnegie Mellon, Indiana (Bloomington), and Duquesne universities, as a volunteer for the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Early Childhood Pilot Project, as an adjudicator for the National Flute Association, and as a contributing author for Flute Talk magazine.

Jeffrey Turner

TURNER__JEFFREYJeffrey Turner is the Principal Bassist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Director of Orchestral Studies at Duquesne University, where he serves as conductor of the Duquesne Symphony Orchestra. A native of South Carolina, he completed his Bachelor’s degree with James VanDemark at the Eastman School of Music, and Master’s in Conducting with Dr. Robert Page at Carnegie Mellon University.

Before joining the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1987, Mr. Turner was the Principal Bass of the New American Chamber Orchestra from 1984 to 1986, and played with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the 1986-87 season. He has served as Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and the University of Maryland, and as a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon University for over 20 years.

Mr. Turner has served in recent years as Artistic Director of the City Music Center Chamber Orchestra and as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Live Chamber Orchestra. He has served as resident artist for many annual festivals including the Pacific Music Festival, The National Orchestral Institute, the National Youth Orchestra (USA), the Korsholm Festival (Finland), Indiana University’s Summer Music Festival, and The Asian Youth Orchestra (Hong Kong). He is featured as recitalist, clinician, and competition judge at the conventions of The International Society of Bassists.

Gretchen Van Hoesen

Gretchen Van Hoesen has been Principal Harpist of the Pittsburgh Symphony since 1977. She presently holds the Virginia Campbell endowed Principal Harp Chair of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions, both on the subscription series and on tour. Ms. Van Hoesen gave the New York premiere of the Alberto Ginastera Harp Concerto in 1976 and the Pittsburgh premiere in 1978. She has appeared as soloist with conductors André Previn, Lorin Maazel, James Conlon, Zdnek Macal, Sergiu Comissiona, and Pinchas Zukerman and has collaborated with flutists James Galway, Bernard Goldberg, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Emmanuel Pahud. Additional appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony have included performances of the Handel Concerto in B flat, Danses Sacré et Profane by Debussy, Concierto Serenata by Joaquin Rodrigo, Rhapsody by Peggy Stuart Coolidge, Noels for Harp by Marcel Tournier and the Concerto for Harp by Rheinhold Gliere. Ms. Van Hoesen and her husband, PSO Co-Principal Oboe James Gorton, presented the Pittsburgh premiere of Witold Lutoslawski’s Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp and Chamber Orchestra on the Pittsburgh Symphony subscription series. She gave the United States premiere of Suite Concertante for solo harp and orchestra by Manuel Moreno-Buendia in San Antonio, Texas. In March 2008 she presented the world premiere of Sir André Previn’s Concerto for Harp on the Pittsburgh Symphony subscription series. Concert Piece, Op. 65 for Oboe/English horn, Two Harps, and Orchestra by Eugene Goossens will close the orchestra’s subscription season in June 2012.

Ms. Van Hoesen has also performed as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestral Association, the Greenwich Philharmonia, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the Lake Placid Sinfonietta and the Westmoreland Symphony. She has concertized in the metropolitan New York area at Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Brooklyn Museum, and has presented concertos at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Ms.Van Hoesen was winner of the 1978 Passamaneck Competition. Gretchen Van Hoesen was selected to perform in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, in the Super World Orchestra 2000, an orchestra made up of key musicians from around the globe. She has been a featured soloist at American Harp Society National Conferences in Boston, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Denton, Washington, D.C. and Fredonia. Ms.Van Hoesen has served as a judge for National Competitions of the American Harp Society and has been past President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Harp Society.

Gretchen Van Hoesen graduated from the Juilliard School of Music earning both B.M. and M.M. degrees in harp as a scholarship student of Marcel Grandjany and Susann McDonald. She is also a graduate of the Eastman School of Music Preparatory Department with highest honors in piano and harp, where she was a student of Eileen Malone. She further studied with Gloria Agostini.

Her recordings include Lullabies and Night Songs on the Caedmon label, Pavanes, Pastorales, and Serenades for Oboe and Harp, and Concertos for Harp, CD’s on the Boston Records label, and Breath of Heaven, A Christmas Collection with Soprano Sarah Botkin and a work by Bernard Andres with Judith LeClair, Principal Bassoonist with the NY Philharmonic.

Ms. Van Hoesen is a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities and combines teaching there with private students at her home in Pittsburgh. She has given master classes at Duquesne University, the Eastman School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, the University of Illinois, the Aspen Music Festival, the National University of the Arts in Seoul, Korea, and has been an artist-lecturer on numerous series in Pittsburgh as well as throughout the country. She was a faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School from 2001-2006. She is a past president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Harp Society. Her students have won numerous national awards and prizes.