Northwest Sinfonietta: Immortal Beloved

• Denise Dillenbeck, violin
• Maria Sampen, violin
• Alistair MacRae, cello
• Ronaldo Rolim, piano
• Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

Explore one of music's greatest mysteries, the identity of Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved." In a new violin concerto composed by Nancy Ives for NWS Concertmaster Denise Dillenbeck, Ives tells the stories of three women in Beethoven's life, each with such talents and fortitude of spirit that they may have inspired his undying affection. Beethoven's Triple Concerto for violin, cello and piano—a true musical spectacle featuring the Puget Sound Piano Trio—closes the program.

2 performances:
- Saturday, January 25, 7:30pm at Schneebeck Concert Hall in Tacoma
- Sunday, January 26, 2pm at Pioneer Park Pavillion in Puyallup

About Northwest Sinfonietta

http://www.northwestsinfonietta.org/

About Puget Sound Piano Trio

The Puget Sound Piano Trio is the ensemble-in-residence at the University of Puget Sound School of Music. Their celebrated performances on the Jacobsen Concert Series and in other Pacific Northwest venues reach the campus community and a large regional and national audience.

The three musicians come from distinguished musical backgrounds, bringing a rich variety of professional experiences to their work as an ensemble.

About Denise Dillenbeck, violin

https://www.denisedillenbeck.com/

About Maria Sampen, violin

Maria Sampen is the University of Puget Sound School of Music's professor of violin and chair of the string department. With extensive experience as a soloist and chamber performer, Sampen teaches a talented studio of Puget Sound students. Her students are frequent winners of various competitions at the local and regional levels.

About Alistair MacRae, cello

Cellist Alistair MacRae has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal throughout North America and in Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. His playing has been praised for its "rich sound and lyrical phrasing" (Palm Beach Daily News) and his performances have been featured in radio broadcasts across the United States on WQXR, WWFM, WDAV, WCQS, KING FM, and Vermont Public Radio.

MacRae is the Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel Artist in Residence, cello and chamber music at the University of Puget Sound.

About Ronaldo Rolim, piano

With "a special ability to present touching interpretations" (El Norte), Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim is a prominent figure among an emerging generation of outstanding musicians. Acclaimed for his "consummate elegance" (New York Concert Review) and "mastery of phrasing, agogic accents, and dynamics" (Oberbaselbieter Zeitung), he has performed extensively over four continents, in such venues such as Carnegie Hall, Zurich's Tonhalle, London's Wigmore Hall, the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts. He is a Winner of the 2017 Astral National Auditions and has captured top prizes at numerous prestigious international competitions, including the Géza Anda, James Mottram, Bösendorfer, San Marino, Lyon, and Teresa Carreño competitions. In 2019, Mr. Rolim released his latest album on Odradek Records, Szymanowski – The Wartime Triptychs, devoted to the programmatic works the Polish composer wrote during World War I. Diapason magazine considers Mr. Rolim "an ideal guide to [Szymanowski’s] magic world”, whereas Classica magazine hails his “clear but thunderous pianism." The album's topic was extensively discussed in Mr. Rolim's doctoral thesis, completed in 2016 at Yale University.

In the 2021-22 season, Mr. Rolim performs Falla's Noches en los Jardines de España and Ravel's Concerto in G major with the Minas Gerais Philharmonic in Brazil, a recital tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany, and is in residence at the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival. Recent guest soloist performances include Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5 with the Louisiana Philharmonic and on a tour of Germany with Ukraine's Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Grieg's Concerto with the European Philharmonic Orchestra of Switzerland and the Brazilian Symphony, Liszt’s Concerto No.1 and Schumann's Concerto with the Youth Orchestra of Bahia, and Brahms' Concerto No. 1 with the Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella. Other recent engagements include performances at the Septembre Musical Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, a chamber music recital at New York's Merkin Hall with members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chausson's Concerto with the São Paulo String Quartet, a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Enrique Granados with performances of the composer’s complete Goyescas in venues in the U.S., Europe, and Brazil, and an appearance in Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety in the Bernstein Centenary Festival hosted by the Minas Gerais Philharmonic.

Mr. Rolim has performed with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Concerto Budapest, Phoenix Symphony, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as many of Brazil's foremost ensembles. A frequent presence at international music festivals, he has been featured in solo recitals and chamber music performances at Ravinia, Rio Folle Journée, Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Musikdorf Ernen, Académie Musicale de Villecroze, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, and the Lake George Music Festival. His performances have been featured in radio broadcasts in Brazil (Radios MEC and Cultura), the U.S. (Spokane Public Radio and WBJC Baltimore), and Europe (Radios SWR 2, BBC 3, Rai 3, and France Musique). He has also been featured in several television programs in his home country, including Brasil Piano Solo, a series of recitals dedicated exclusively to Brazilian music, presented by the TV Cultura Channel. He has also participated in the documentary Magda Tagliaferro: A World Inside The Piano, in which he performed music of Scriabin.

A passionate advocate of chamber music, Mr. Rolim is the founding member of Trio Appassionata, formed in 2007 with violinist Lydia Chernicoff and cellist Andrea Casarrubios. Some of the ensemble's recent projects include tours of Brazil and China, and the release of its debut album, gone into night are all the eyes, for Odradek Records, featuring piano trios by American composers. Gramophone said the disc "deserves automatic respect," whereas International Record Review lauded its "music-making as impressive and dangerous as a granite cliff." Mr. Rolim is a frequent chamber music collaborator to ensembles such as the Aizuri, Jasper, Guimarães, and São Paulo string quartets; and has performed with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Brazilian Symphony, Ensemble Connect, and Bronx Arts Ensemble.

Ronaldo Rolim began musical studies with his mother, Miriam Correa, and gave his first public performance at the age of four. He was admitted to the Magda Tagliaferro School in São Paulo as a student of Zilda Candida dos Santos and Armando Fava Filho. After winning the Nelson Freire and the Magda Tagliaferro national piano competitions at the age of 18, he moved to the U.S., where he studied with Flavio Varani at Oakland University (Michigan), Benjamin Pasternack at the Peabody Conservatory, and Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music. Mr. Rolim was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, where he joined its faculty in the Fall of 2022.

About Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm and high-level music-making, galvanizing audiences and communities alike.