Seattle Chamber Orchestra presents Schubert's "The Trout"

• Christina Wu, violin
• Alexander Grimes, viola
• Christine Lee, cello
• William Langlie-Miletich, double bass
• Lorenzo Marasso, piano
• Jeffrey Wang, cello
• Stacey Mastrian, voice

Join us on Friday October 6th 2023, at 8pm, to kick off SCO's Second Season with a great program of chamber music by Franz Schubert, performed by members of the Seattle Chamber Orchestra.

The program begins with Schubert's Nocturne in E-flat, a relatively neglected piece that has affinities with other works by Schubert (not on the program) including the slow movements of both the String Quintet in C major D. 956, and the Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D. 898. The piece, which is scored for piano trio (violin, cello, and piano) was completed in the Autumn of 1827, the year before Schubert's death. It has the sublime slowness of the string quintet movement. The main thematic idea has a characteristic common to a number of Schubert's most celebrated melodic ideas, that of not going anywhere but revolving round a single note.

The Piano Quintet known as the "Trout" Quintet takes its name because its fourth movement is a set of variations on one of Schubert's earlier songs, Die Forelle ("The Trout"). The quintet was written for a wealthy music patron and amateur cellist Sylvester Paumgartner, from Steyr, Upper Austria, who also suggested that Schubert include a set of variations on the song. Sets of variations on melodies from Schubert's Lieder are found in four other of his works: the "Death and the Maiden" String Quartet, the Trockne Blumen ("Dried Flowers") Variations for Flute and Piano, the "Wanderer" Fantasy, and the Fantasia for Violin and Piano in C major.

The works on the program will be performed by members of the Seattle Chamber Orchestra, including Violinist Brendan Shea, Violist Alexander Grimes, Cellist Christine Lee, double bassist Will Langlie-Miletich, and SCO Music Director/pianist Lorenzo Marasso.

Concert will be held at Tagney Jones Hall at the Seattle Opera (363 Mercer Street, Seattle, 98109). Join us at 7:15pm for a pre-concert talk. Concert begins at 8pm. Admission includes the pre-concert talk, the performance, accompanied by fines wines and appetizers.

About Seattle Chamber Orchestra

Founded in 2021, Seattle Chamber Orchestra seeks to bring music lovers tantalizing combinations of the traditional and modern, performed by world-class professional musicians. Brought to life through thoughtful programming that educates as much as it inspires, SCO seeks to reinvigorate live classical music, which has suffered most of all during the pandemic, by providing opportunities musicians and audiences to explore new music and challenge established boundaries.

About Christina Wu, violin

Currently serving as concertmaster in Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Christina also appears
frequently with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. She is a recurring artist at the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria. Her past affiliations include first violin with Washington Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. Her notable collaborations feature legends such as Leon Fleisher, Kiri Te Kanawa, the Vienna Boys' Choir, Jose Carreras, Claus Peter Flor, Joseph Silverstein, and Alan Gilbert.

Christina started playing the violin at the age of five, receiving her early training at the Wuhan
Conservatory of Music. She obtained her Bachelor's Degree in violin performance with honors under Zuo Jun and Alexandra Souptel at the National University of Singapore, and later was granted a full scholarship to pursue her Master's Degree and Performance Certificate from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied with the renowned violinist Cyrus Forough who himself was the student of the legendary violinist David Oistrakh.

About Alexander Grimes, viola

https://www.alexandergrimes.com/

About Christine Lee, cello

A Paris Fulbright Fellow recipient, cellist Christine Lee has been noted by the New York Times as a "clear delight." Currently splitting her time between Seattle and San Francisco, Christine pursues a wide range of creative, musical projects; while her passion is in chamber music, she also devotes her time towards teaching, social media management, and solo engagements. Most recently, Christine joined the Camellia Symphony and Christian Baldini in opening their 59th Season with a performance of the Schumann Concerto, and as part of her engagement with the symphony, had the great joy of meeting and teaching a masterclass for the local cello students in Sacramento. During her most recent studies in the Chamber Music Program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she performed alongside exciting artists such as Gil Kalisch, Ian Swensen, Tessa Lark, Jennifer Culp, David McCarroll, and Dimitri Murrath. In addition to a full-time performing schedule, Christine’s interest in utilizing social media in the classical music realm has lead her to a role as social media manager of the Seattle-based chamber music series, Emerald City Music, where she is part of the marketing team.

Christine is the cellist of L'arc Trio, a piano trio based in San Francisco who most recently won a grant by IntermusicSF to commission a brand-new work titled Ominous Machine by the inspiring, trailblazing composer Vivian Fung. L'arc Trio was first prize winner of the Barbara Fritz Chamber Music Award and have participated in Music for Food concerts in San Francisco. Christine's interest in collaborative music also extends to her co-founding Ensemble Blank, an ensemble focused on premiering new music and whose concerts are innovatively designed in art museums in Seoul, South Korea.

After spending a summer playing chamber music at the Fontainebleau Music Festival in France, Christine was deeply inspired to pursue studies in Paris; in 2017, Christine was selected as one of two Fulbright Fellows to study in Paris and studied with renowned cellist Michel Strauss. During her studies in Paris, she made her solo debut at the Reid Hall and had the great privilege of performing for over 600 Fulbright Scholars and Nobel Laureates for the Fulbright Seminar in Berlin.

About William Langlie-Miletich, double bass

https://www.seattlechambermusic.org/artists/william-langlie-miletich/

About Lorenzo Marasso, piano

Lorenzo Marasso is an impassioned and sympathetic conductor, concert pianist, chamber musician, educator and radio host. Dubbed the "king of repertoire," Lorenzo's creative programming reveals lesser known masterpieces and rarely performed arrangements. Lorenzo's performances have been broadcast in numerous media outlets, including Seattle's 98.1 Classical King FM and NPR. In 2021 Lorenzo founded the Seattle Chamber Orchestra and is serving now as the ensemble's music director. In the same year he also started hosting a weekly radio program called Dress Rehearsal on 107.3FM KBFG Seattle. Equally inspired by contemporary music, Lorenzo has commissioned and performed world premieres of new works by several international composers who have written and dedicated pieces to him. In July 2020 he completed the Invention Project, a commission of new pieces for piano inspired by J.S. Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias. Further commissions included works composed by Michael Finnissy, Edward Cowie and Bernhard Lang.

About Stacey Mastrian, voice

Stacey Mastrian, a "manifestly courageous" (Boston Globe) and "versatile and passionate" (Der Tagesspiegel) Italian-American soprano, has sung at the Konzerthaus (Berlin), Kennedy Center (DC), Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur (Montréal), Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (NY), St. Peter's (Vatican City), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), and in Mexico and more than half of the U.S. states. Dr. Mastrian performs music from Hildegard von Bingen to the present, specializing in Italian vocal music, and she teaches voice, diction, and anatomy. She has been a Fulbright grantee to Italy and appears on the NAXOS, Neuma, and Stradivarius labels.