Ischia Chamber Music Festival Concerts Program

Villa Arbusto, Lacco Ameno – May 11, 13, 16, 2008 – 9 pm

May 11, 2008 – 9 pm

M. Arnold – Piano Trio, op. 54
A. Schnittke – String Trio
Y. Linkola – Piano Trio
W.A. Mozart – Kegelstatt Trio
Byron Wallis, violin
David Yang, viola
Kenneth Woods, cello
Giuseppe Carannante, clarinet
Aldo de Vero, piano

May 13, 2008 – 9 pm

W.A. Mozart – Piano Quartet in E flat K. 493
J. Brahms – Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115
Byron Wallis, violin
Robert Ellis, violin
David Yang, viola
Kenneth Woods, cello
Giuseppe Carannante, clarinet
Aldo de Vero, piano

May 16, 2008 – 9 pm

Ischia Chamber Music Workshop
Participant’s Final Concert
Program to be decided

Tomorrow morning I set off for the beautiful island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples for my first visit to the Ischia Chamber Music Festival. I’m thrilled at the two programs we’re playing- I’ve always loved the Brahms Quintet, but funnily enough, it is the only major Brahms chamber work with cello I’ve never performed.

I’m a bit nervous about the Schnittke- I played the 2nd movement at another chamber festival four years ago and was heartbroken when the artistic director cut the first movement to shorten the concert. In the end, the Schnittke got the strongest audience response of anything we played that year, so I really pushed to do it here at Ischia. I hope the audience there enjoys and responds to the whole thing.

I’m looking forward to playing with Byron Wallis again, who is a dear old friend and colleague. We played together in the Strelow Quartet in Madison, then in the Taliesin Trio, which was a National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant ensemble. Between those two groups and several summer festivals, we’ve covered a lot of repertoire together. Amazingly, it has been over 10 years since we played together! Yikes!

Having just ended the OES season, it is good to be playing some cello. One of my resolutions as I approach one of “those” birthdays this summer is to play a lot more cello, especially chamber music, and next year looks exciting from a cello perspective. I’m playing the Brahms Double for the first time since 2001 and doing some exciting chamber music concerts on the East Coast in the fall and another recital.

KW