September 20th Noon Concert featuring
Vinifera Trio
Ian Scarfe, piano
Rachael Patrick, violin & viola
Matthew Boyles, clarinet
~ Program ~
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Trio in E-flat Major, K. 498
Alban Berg
4 Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5
Igor Stravinsly
Suite from “A Soldier’s Tale”
Taking its name from the Old World wine producing grape (Vitis Vinifera), this trio hails from California’s New World wine country in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Vinifera Trio performs a range of classical and contemporary repertoire, and bring an appealing kind of casual intimacy to even the most formal concerts and events.
With training at some of the top music programs in the world, the trio has as its rootstock the classical repertoire – from the elegance of Mozart and Schumann to the more gnarled works of Bartok and Stravinsky. These healthy and reliable roots, along with the groups’ musical passions and myriad talents, have allowed the trio to successfully graft other varietals of music into their programs. A sampler flight would include the wild energy of Klezmer, the snappy rhythms of jazz, and the mournful rhetoric of many folk traditions. Expert arrangers themselves, Vinifera also offers new blends of old favorites by composers such as Gershwin, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Ligeti.
But not all of their musical offerings are well-aged and barreled – they are strong advocates of contemporary music and have commissioned and performed new works from a handful of composers. They have also brought their fresh energy and insights to underage audiences at schools and workshops, seeking to inspire the next generation of connoisseurs.
They have performed at venues and concert series across California and Oregon, and were a ensemble in residence at the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival. They have given lectures and presentations at Willamette University and Pacific Union College, and are in the process of creating the Napa Valley Forum for New Music, which will debut 2016.
***
Violinist Rachel Patrick leads a versatile musical life as both a performer and teaching artist/educator. Ms. Patrick has taken part in successful concert tours of Europe, Asia and North America, and has performed as soloist with orchestras across the United States and Europe, most recently with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra for the German premier of Tan Dun’s “Hero” Concerto. A dedicated teacher, she is currently a teaching artist with two El Sistema programs in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys and maintains an active private studio. She completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Michigan studying with Stephen Shipps and Yehonatan Berick and completed a Master of Music degree at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, serving as an Associate Instructor in violin and studying with Alexander Kerr.
Matthew Boyles lives, performs, and educates in the San Francisco area of California performing with the with a number of orchestras and chamber music groups in the North Bay area. Matt enjoys teaching all levels of music from kindergarten to college at several private and public schools and at Pacific Union College. Before moving to the west coast, he was an active professional clarinetist in the Philadelphia area. Upon completing his Master’s Degree in 2011 at Temple University, he continued to perform with groups across the Northeast, including the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, performing Mahler’s 8th Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and as a substitute musician with the Philadelphia Orchestra. While working on his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, he performed with various ensembles in the area including the Louisville Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.
Ian Scarfe enjoys a busy career as a piano soloist, collaborative pianist, and chamber musician. Based in California, he performs regularly around the entire San Francisco Bay-Area, from Napa and Sonoma Valleys in the north, to Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay in the south. An enthusiastic performer, he averages over one hundred performances each year, some of which take him across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Recent highlights include the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska, and annual tours in Switzerland with the Zurich Mozart Trio. He is the founder and director of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, an organization dedicated to bringing classical music to the communities, schools, and youth of Northern California. For more information, please visit www.TrinityAlpsCMF.org. Ian’s personal website can be found at www.ianscarfe.com.
WEDNESDAY NOON CONCERTS
The community is invited to our complimentary Wednesday Noon Concert series. As part of our ongoing mission to use the transformative power of the arts to inspire and enrich our community, we have opened our doors for the past two years, every Wednesday at Noon, and presented concerts performed by talented musicians that are free of charge to the public. These free noon performances offer listeners the opportunity to discover the beauty of music in an intimate accessible setting, while providing the community with cultural enrichment and exposure to talented performers.
Concerts are in a one-hour format and performances take place in the intimate Tivoli or Crescendo where both audience and musicians can sit in vibrant, close proximity. Musicians often stay after the performance to informally speak about the program and their upcoming concerts.
