Throckmorton Theatre’s Summer Twilight Concert Series kicks off July 11th with thEMA Ensemble featuring musicians Evelyne Luest (piano), Mariko Smiley (violin) and Angela Lee (cello). The free concert series – donations welcome and greatly appreciated – replaces the theatre’s longstanding Wednesday Noon Concerts for July. Join us on Thursdays from 6:30-7:30pm in the intimate Tivoli Room.
Concert Schedule and Info: https://throckmortontheatre.org/twilight-concert-series/
JULY 11 PROGRAM
Evelyne Luest, piano; Mariko Smiley, violin and Angela Lee, cello
Sonata in C Major, Opus 102, Nr 1, for cello and piano (1815)..LV Beethoven
Andante – Allegro vivace
Adagio-Allegro vivace
Sonata for violin and piano (1917)……….Claude Debussy
Allegro vivo
Intermède (Fantasque et Léger)
Finale (Très anime)
Trio for violin, cello and piano, Opus 17….Clara Schumann
Allegro moderato
Scherzo, Tempo di Menuetto
Andante
Allegretto
Mariko Smiley received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Juilliard, where she was a student of Dorothy DeLay. She has been a member of the San Francisco Symphony’s first violin section for over twenty years. She was also founding Concertmaster and soloist with Music in the Mountains Festival in Nevada City, CA, as well as a member of the Aurora String Quartet. The Aurora Quartet performed in the U.S. and abroad, and recorded the entire quartet works of Mendelssohn and Prokofiev for the Naxos label. Ms. Smiley has been deeply involved with contemporary music as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral player. She has a two violin ensemble with her husband, Sarn Oliver: Tangled Duo, which has commissioned and premiered works for Ebb and Flow Music in Hawaii and California. In addition to teaching at UC Berkeley, Ms. Smiley maintains a private studio in Marin County.
Angela Lee has held recitals in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Victor Borge Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York, Chicago’s Cultural Center, The Phillip’s Collection and Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Copenhagen’s Nationalmuseet, and the Purcell Room at South Bank Centre in London. A graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music, she is a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to study in London with William Pleeth, a grant from the Foundation for American Musicians in Europe, the Jury Prize in the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and a cello performance fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation. She is frequently invited to festivals including St. Petersburg’s Revelations, IMS at Prussia Cove, Cagayan Valley International Music Festival, Taipei Summer Festival, Pontino Festival, La Musica, Banff, Marlboro Music Festival, Anneberg Festival, Chelsea Music Festival, Music Mountain, Mahler-Jihlava Festival, and Mainly Mozart collaborating with Nobuko Imai, Bruno Giuranna, Frans Helmerson, Isabelle Faust, Lydia Artymiw, Andras Schiff, Alexander Lonquich, Anthony Newman, Franco Petracchi, the Hausmann Quartet, the Telegraph Quartet and members of the Beaux Arts Trio and Guarneri Quartet. Using music to foster peace and goodwill, Angela Lee has made numerous humanitarian trips to the Republic of the Philippines and the former Yugoslavia. While on a U.N.-sanctioned tour of six war-torn cities throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina, she performed for American and NATO troops and displaced civilians. As part of The Lee Trio with her sisters–Lisa, violinist, and Melinda, pianist–Angela Lee traveled to Ukraine in 2010 to work and perform for underprivileged children. She plays on a 1762 Nicolo Gagliano cello from Naples.
An accomplished soloist and chamber musician, Evelyne Luest has been hailed in the San Francisco Examiner as a “virtuoso pianist sailing through complex demands … impressive piano technique” and in Fanfare Magazine for her “fine musicianship ….Luest finds the right amount of emotion, at times allowing the music to speak so powerfully for itself”. She has performed and toured in Europe, South America, Asia and the USA. She has won several competitions including the Artists International Competition in New York as soloist, as well as many awards with the Contrasts Quartet. Ms. Luest has performed as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Italy and on NPR’s St. Paul Sunday. Her many collaborations include such noted musicians as cellist Truls Mork, flutist Emmanuel Pahud, cellist Joshua Roman, the Lark Quartet, and the Daedalus string Quartet.. Her performances include festivals and concert venues in Norway, France, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela, Canada and the US. Ms. Luest‘s long list of premieres includes compositions by Ned Rorem, Joan Tower, Aaron Jay Kernis and Lisa Bielawa. She studied with Gilbert Kalish at SUNY/Stony Brook, where she received an M.M. and D.M.A. in piano performances. Ms Luest lives in New York City with her husband, Aaron Jay Kernis and their two children.
