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66th CONCERT SEASON 2022-2023 • The Magical Sounds of the Orchestra

PROGRAM 4 • SOLOISTS SERIES

Thursday, June 8 2023 • 8pm | Regent Theatre Oshawa

CONCERTO BLAST • OP STARS TAKE THE STAGE

Ontario Philharmonic is delighted to present an evening of exciting and thrilling concertos for a variety of solo instruments, featuring our highly talented Principal musicians of the orchestra. With the Ontario Philharmonic String Orchestra accompanying them, our lead musicians perform perpetually treasured concertos giving you, our cherished audience, a unique chance of acquainting yourself more closely to OP’s Principal musicians. Magnificent works by J.S.Bach, Weber, Tartini and the great Mozart will resonate in the acoustics of Regent Theatre, guaranteed to imbue your senses with an exhilarating musical experience.
Andante e Rondo ungarese in C minor op.35, for Bassoon solo andStrings
Samuel Fraser, bassoon soloist (Principal Bassoon of OP)
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K.297b, for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn& Bassoon solos and Strings
Ron Cohen Mann, oboe (Principal Oboe of OP)
David Gazaille, clarinet soloist (Principal Clarinet of OP)
Lucy Nesbitt, French Horn soloist (Associate Principal Horn of OP)
Samuel Fraser, bassoon soloist (Principal Bassoon of OP)
Intermission
Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV 1060R (1736)
Ron Cohen Mann, oboe (Principal Oboe of OP)
Hanna Kim, violin (Concertmaster of OP)
Clarinet Concertino Op.26
David Gazaille, clarinet soloist (Principal Clarinet of OP)
Trumpet Concerto in D Major, D53
Declan Scott, trumpet soloist (Principal Trumpet of OP)
Johann Sebastian BACH


Carl Maria von WEBER

Giuseppe TARTINI
Carl Maria von WEBER

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART

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RON COHEN MANN • biography

Ron Cohen Mann (they/them), a.k.a. oboeron, brings brightness and optimism through their popular Instagram and YouTube channel. Ron has been hailed as the "Jonathan Van Ness of the oboe" (CBC Music) and proudly projects their queer identity as a role model for LGBTQ youth. Ron is a frequent recitalist, new music proponent, orchestral musician, and teacher based in Toronto. Ron was recently named on CBC’s 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30. Ron is a Howarth Artist and plays on a Howarth LXV-VT oboe.

Inspired by the variety of sounds and colours of the oboe, Ron is passionate about advancing the instrument as a solo voice in recitals and chamber music. Ron's solo debut at Carnegie Hall was with harpist Noël Wan, as featured artists in the Yale in New York series. As a winner of the Yale Chamber Music Competition, Ron performed the monumental Prokofiev Quintet on the subscription Oneppo Chamber Music Series. At the Orford Festival, they shared the stage with Alex Klein, James Campbell, and Stéphane Lévesque. At the Brott Music Festival, Ron was a featured soloist for J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti Nos. 1 & 2.

Ron was a prizewinner at the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition, and the winner of the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition and Ben Steinberg Musical Legacy Award. They were a semi-finalist in the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition.

A champion of new music and lesser-known solo music for the oboe and English horn, Ron has been fortunate to premiere pieces by Jocelyn Morlock, Nicky Sohn, Matthew Emery, and Liliya Ugay. Ron has fostered a partnership with the Yarilo Contemporary Music Society in Vancouver, BC as both a featured recitalist and ensemble member for Steve Reich’s Tehillim. Ron has served as guest principal oboe with the Esprit Orchestra.

Feeling equally at home within the orchestra, Ron cherishes performing with ensembles in Canada and abroad. In Ontario, Ron has appeared with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of Toronto, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, Niagara, and Windsor. Their festival appearances include The National Repertory Orchestra (Breckenridge, Colorado), L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, The National Academy Orchestra of Canada, and The National Youth Orchestra of Canada where they received the Award of Excellence. Outside of North America, they have toured to India, China, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Portugal.

Ron is a recent addition to the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University as Oboe Instructor. Ron has previously held positions as an Oboe Instructor at Yale College and as a Teaching Artist at the Yale Music in Schools Initiative. They proudly serve as a Mentor for the National Academy Orchestra of Canada. Ron is a frequent clinician at arts high schools in the Greater Toronto Area.

Ron is a graduate of the prestigious Artist Diploma program at the Yale School of Music. They completed their Master of Music at Mannes School of Music and their Bachelor of Music at the University of British Columbia where they were awarded the UBC Medal in Music. Ron’s teachers and mentors include Sarah Jeffrey, Stephen Taylor, Sherry Sylar, and Beth Orson.


HANNA KIM • biography

Hanna Kim has over 20 years of professional playing and teaching experiences. Hanna was a music professor at the Chung-Ang University and associate professor at Seoul National University of Education in Korea. Hanna’s playing has been described as a highly intuitive violinist.  Her sense of the music shines through her performances.

Hanna earned her Doctoral degree in musical performance from Trossingen University of Music, Germany in 2014 and her master and bachelor degrees in musical performance at Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts, Germany in 2011.

Holding a professor position at Canada Christian College, Hanna now resides in the Toronto area and holds the Concertmaster position with the celebrated, Ontario Philharmonic.  

DAVID GAZAILLE • biography

David Gazaille is highly involved with orchestras both on the performance and the administrative side. He holds degrees in clarinet performance from McGill University, as well as Stony Brook University. He is an accomplished orchestral performer in Canada and the US.  David is Principal Clarinet with Ontario Philharmonic and also plays with ensembles such as Albany Symphony Orchestras and Kingston Symphony Orchestra.

David co-created a not-for-profit program on Long Island, NY, introducing classical music to young children. This program was well regarded throughout Long Island and Manhattan, with over 2000 children reached. Since 2020, he has been involved in bringing arts programs virtually to people’s homes, participating in online music festivals and directing live-streamed performances of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. In his free time, David enjoys the occasional DIY project, and watching movies.

David is based in Kingston, Ontario, on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

DECLAN SCOTT • biography

Declan Scott has been playing trumpet for 10 years, and enjoys performing in a variety of styles. He has garnered awards at several prestigious solo competitions; including second place in the 2015 International Trumpet Guild Youth Competition: Senior Division, and second place in the 2016 Young Artist Concerto Competition of the Canadian Sinfonietta. After graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 2017, he began his undergraduate degree in trumpet performance at McGill University and will complete his degree at the University of Toronto in 2021.

Declan is the Principal Trumpet of Ontario Philharmonic.

SAMUEL FRASER • biography

Samuel Fraser holds Ontario Philharmonic’s Principal Bassoon position and that of Windsor Symphony Orchestra.  He is a former member of the Daraja Ensemble, and also an active freelancer in Toronto

Other groups Samuel has played with include Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, Niagara Symphony Orchestra, Washington Chamber Orchestra, and National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

He has earned his Masters of Music from University of Maryland where Samuel was a member of their fellowship chamber music program, and holds a Bachelors of Music from the Eastman School of Music. His principal teachers have been: Eric Hall, Sue Heineman, John Hunt, and Fei Xie.


LUCY NESBITT • biography

Lucy Nesbitt is a freelance horn player and music educator. She graduated from the University of Toronto with her bachelors in horn performance in 2022 and is an active member of the freelance community. She is an alumna of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and held the position of associate principal/third horn with the Ontario Philharmonic this season. When not playing the horn, Lucy is a mental health and wellness counsellor and coach, and often runs life skills workshops for youth orchestras and arts programs in the community.

PROGRAM NOTES
by John Green

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 - 1750)
Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV 1060R (1736)  

The composition date of Bach’s lively C minor concerto is uncertain, but it was likely penned some time between 1717 and1723, during his six years as Kappelmeister at Cothen. Johann Forkel’s 19thCentury Bach biography describes the concerto as “very old” which probably supports this early composition date. It was a period when Bach’s duties allowed him time to compose secular music, including the one for violin and oboe. Although the original score has been lost, Bach later transcribed the work for two harpsicords, the only copy of the concerto that still exists. And it’s interesting to note that its later reconstructed edition for violin and oboe, probably in 1736, is not in Bach’s handwriting.

The work is in the traditional three-movement arrangement—fast-slow-fast. The first is a stunning and animated Allegro full of melodic motifs. The second Adagio is a passionate duet between the violin and oboe accompanied by orchestrated strings. The up-tempo Ritornello (recurring passage) of the last movement is a carefree display of individuality for the two solo instruments, steering the concerto to its spirited end. 


Carl Maria von WEBER (1786 - 1826)                     
Clarinet Concertino Op.26          

Carl Maria von Weber composed Concertino for Clarinet in E-flat major, Op. 26, J. 109 for Heinrich Bärmann, clarinetist in 1811 in three days from March 29th to April 3rd.  Bärmann learned the work over the subsequent three days and the command performance on April 5, King Maximilian I of Bavaria attended, having purchased 50 tickets.

The concertino unfolds in one movement with a form of theme and variations. It commences featuring a slow introduction in C minor. The E-flat major theme is sixteen bars in length (Rice 2003, 173). The next section is marked poco più vivo. In some editions, "Variation I" follows, although it has be argued, the previous section is actually the first variation.  The so-called Variation I presents variations of the theme in triplets. The so-called Variation II is marked poco più vivo and presents sixteenth notes. The following variation is slow and in the parallel minor. The next variation is in 6/8 time. The piece concludes with a section marked con fuoco.


Giuseppe TARTINI (1692 - 1770)             
Trumpet Concerto in D Major, D53       

To say that Giuseppe Tartini led a most unusual life would be a major understatement. At a young age his wealthy and aristocratic parents sent him off to become a Franciscan Friar, and although he remained an active candidate for a religious life, in 1710 he abandoned the monastic cloister. To assuage his parents’ disappointment, he moved to Padua to take up studies in law. To further complicate his problems it was here where he married a woman his family disproved of; and it was also here where the Bishop ultimately had him charged with abduction. Finally, in order to escape his ongoing tribulations he fled to Assisi where, at last, he began his musical education in earnest and where he would become a celebrated violinist and composer.            

Tartini’s music rests on the border between the Baroque period and the Classical era. His output, particularly for the violin, was prolific—more than 125 concertos—including tonight’s D major Trumpet Concerto transcribed from an E major violin concerto.            

The first movement is distinctly Baroque with the sounds of hunting horns, appropriately suited for the trumpet. The second movement moves across the border to classicism, reminiscent of melodies found in opera. A Baroque motif returns in the third movement with an enchanting duet between the solo instrument and the orchestra.


Carl Maria von WEBER (1786 - 1826)              
Andante e Rondo ungarese in C minorop.35, for Bassoon solo and Strings
           

Composer, virtuoso pianist, opera composer, guitarist, and conductor, Carl Maria von Weber’s compositional output was nothing less than staggering. His more than 300 works, including ten complete operas, earned him the title “the father of German Romanticism”. He was the first composer attributed with creating opera a serious musical drama. Musicologist Richard Streatfield wrote, “Without Weber, Richard Wagner would have been impossible”. His four piano sonatas had a significant influence on the later compositions of Liszt, Chopin and Mendelssohn.          

The Andante e Rondo, written for the composer’s brother as a piece for viola, was reworked by the composer for bassoon at a request from George Frederic Brandt in 1809. At the time, Brandt was principal Bassoonist for the Munich Symphony Orchestra. The work stood out remarkably in the repertoire when very little else had been written for the bassoon.            

The Andante’s initial theme is moderately nostalgic, and the three variations that follow provide a lavish and varied repetition of that same theme; however, the lyricism of the piece is always close by, and the dramatic final flourish is a spectacular exhibition for the soloist’s virtuosity.



Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)        
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K.297b, for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn & Bassoon solos and Strings
           

Surrounded by mystery, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante had a less than auspicious beginning. It dates from around 1778 intended for a performance at a public concert series, music that was intended to provide entertainment for events such as Easter and other religious holidays. For unknown reasons, the concert series director replaced the piece at the last minute for another piece, and Mozart’s work was never performed; the soloists’ parts were never copied; the original manuscript was never returned to Mozart, and the score was lost, never to be seen again.

The version performed today has been labelled by music scholars as an “attributed work”, to whom is unknown.  It begs the question: how did a manuscript copy for the four winds concertante show up in 1870 not in Mozart’s hand? The Grove Dictionary of Music states “its credentials are dubious, and any music by Mozart it may contain can only be in corrupt form”. There is, however, no controversy when it comes to the work’s melodies and charm.

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