The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) presents Mendelssohn and New Voices, a concert inspired by Felix Mendelssohn’s highly praised Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49. Contemporary works by Jeremy Podgursky, Sean Varah and Craig Walsh provide fresh 21st century perspectives on the piano trio. Tickets will be available at the door.
Mendelssohn and New Voices features Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49, scored for violin, cello and piano, widely considered to be one of the composer’s greatest works. In reviewing the piece, composer Robert Schumann praised his colleague by saying, “He is the Mozart of the 19th century, the most brilliant of musicians, the one who most clearly perceives the contradictions of the age, and the first to reconcile them.” This piece, both energetic and lyrical, has continued to enchant audiences in ensuing decades. The concert includes contemporary works by Craig Walsh, Jeremy Podgursky and Sean Varah, each providing an exciting new take on the traditional piano trio.
“The D Minor Mendelssohn Trio on this program is one of the first pieces of chamber music I fell in love with,” explains Anna Presler, LCCE Artistic Director. “My parents had a box set, recordings of famous piano trios, that we listened to over and over when I was four or five years old.” After not hearing the trios for a long time, Presler revisited the piece as a teenager and was surprised at how intense her experience of the music was. “It let me listen again with the wordless happiness that music gives children.”
Left Coast is eager to present the Mendelssohn with new works, bringing a modern perspective to the piano trio. “Each of the contemporary piano trios we are presenting alongside the Mendelssohn uses the piano trio a little differently to create a unique color and energy,” explains Presler. “I can’t wait to hear all four pieces together.”
About the Contemporary Composers
Jeremy Podgursky’s music has been featured in venues and festivals in the United States, Europe and Japan. His compositions have been performed, premiered, and read by groups such as Alarm Will Sound, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Square Peg Round Hole, Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, Holographic, Peabody Modern Orchestra, and NewEar New Music Ensemble. Some of his awards and honors come from the American Academy Of Arts And Letters, Copland House Residency Award, Indiana University JSoM Dean’s Prize, Fromm Music Foundation, Finale/American Composers Forum/Eighth Blackbird, Mizzou New Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra/Earshot, Northridge Prize For Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, and National SCI/ASCAP Commissioning Competition.
A native of Louisville, KY, Podgursky received his B.M. and M.M. in music composition and piano from the University of Louisville. He taught music theory/aural skills and private composition lessons at the University of Louisville, and created and taught multiple after-school composition programs in Louisville-area public high schools. Currently located in Bloomington, IN, Jeremy is a doctoral candidate (D.M.) at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University where he received a Jacobs Doctoral Fellowship.
Along with composer Ryan Chase and conductor Ben Bolter, Jeremy is the co-founder of a new music project in Bloomington, IN called HOLOGRAPHIC. The project draws from a pool of the JSoM’s finest performers, with concerts held in alternative venues. Jeremy was the founder/singer/songwriter/guitarist of the psychedelic/indie rock band THE PENNIES. Having shared the stages with the likes of My Morning Jacket, Mike Watt, The Grifters, Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, and the Apples in Stereo, THE PENNIES entertained audiences all over the U.S. and Europe. Music by THE PENNIES has been featured in episodes of the show SHAMELESS, starring William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum, on the SHOWTIME network
Sean Varah is a composer, cellist, and entrepreneur. Raised in Vancouver, Canada, he studied cello with Judith Fraser at the Vancouver Academy of Music, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at the University of Western Ontario, and Eric Wilson, University of British Columbia. He holds degrees from Stanford and Columbia University, where he received his doctorate of musical arts. His principal teacher was Mario Davidovsky.
In 1994, he designed and constructed the Harvard Computer Music Center, and was Lecturer in Music, and Associate Director of the Center until 1997, when he returned to San Francisco to compose and explore entrepreneurial opportunities in the technology industry.
Pushing the envelope of modern classical music, Varah composes purely instrumental works, as well as ones that combine technology with orchestral instruments. His recent work, Four Neruda Songs, premiered February 9th, 2004, performed by Nikki Einfeld and Michael Goldberg, presented by The Left Coast Ensemble.
Varah’s recent awards include an orchestral commission from the Canada Council, commissions from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the Empyrean Ensemble. He also received 1995 and 1996 ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a fellowship to the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, a Canada Council Art Grant B, and Meet the Composer awards. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.
Craig Walsh is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Meet-The-Composer/MetLife Creative Connection Grant, Jebediah New Music Commission, Salvatore Martirano Award, St. Botolph Club Creative Award, Concorso Internazionale Luigi Russolo, National Association of Composers in the United States, Friends and Enemies of New Music, Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Siday Prize for Musical Creativity, and grants from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and the Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award for chamber music, among others.
Walsh’s music has been presented on five continents, performed by such groups as New York New Music Ensemble, Empyrean Ensemble, Manhattan String Quartet, Lontano New Music, Arizona Contemporary Ensemble, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Oberlin Sinfonietta, Wellesley Composer’s Conference Chamber Orchestra, Friends and Enemies of New Music, Mallarme Chamber Players, Middle Voices; and soloists Rhonda Rider, Daniel Stepner, Stephen Gosling, Madeleine Shapiro, Stella Markou, Mark Rush, Norm Weinberg, Todd Rewoldt, F. Gerard Errante, and Philipp Staudlin.
Dr. Walsh holds a Bachelor’s degree in composition from the Mannes College of Music and Master of Fine Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in composition and theory from Brandeis. He is currently Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, where he teaches composition, theory, electro-acoustic music, and orchestration. Before being appointed at the University of Arizona, Dr. Walsh was on the faculty of Brandies University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Bridgewater State University.
About Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Left Coast is a versatile group of twelve musicians that performs in different combinations, presenting chamber music new and old. It is the mission of Left Coast Chamber Ensemble to forge connections through stirring presentations of chamber music across the Bay Area. The Ensemble strives to make connections between composer and performer, performer and audience, audience and music, and between music of all eras by staging a spectrum of imaginative programs that enchant and delight the listener, and give diverse audiences multiple entry points for engaging with the music.
