Music by Members - Mar 3, 2016
The Musical Club of Hartford continues the celebration of its 125th anniversary year on March 3, 2016, at 10:00 am in the sanctuary of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford with a program of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and local composer Connie Hegarty. This concert commemorates a program presented fifty years ago, on April 21, 1966, in celebration of the Club’s 75th anniversary.
Admission to this event is free to members of the Musical Club and $5 for the general public. The church is wheelchair accessible from the side entrance near Mountain Road.
The first half of the program in April of 1966 was devoted to piano pieces performed by Karen Wolfe Shaw. She performed works by Haydn, Chopin, Stravinsky, and Scriabin. The program finished with a performance of the Beethoven Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 70, no. 2, performed by Isaac Hurwitz, violin, Jane Hurwitz Rabin, cello, and Ruth Hurwitz, piano.
On the upcoming concert on March 3, 2016, Allison K. Platt and Maryjane Peluso will perform Morceaux for Piano Duet, Op. 11 by Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff. Born in 1873, Rachmaninoff entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory at age ten and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1891, at eighteen. His Morceaux for Piano Duet were first published in Moscow in 1894. Ms. Platt and Ms. Peluso will play three movements of the six: the Scherzo, the Russian Theme, and the Waltz.
Following that, three pieces originally written for the musical clock, a mechanically operated miniature organ, which was the most popular mechanical musical instrument of the Rococo, will be performed by Bridget de Moura Castro on the organ. Joseph Haydn wrote these pieces for a friend of his, a musician who wanted his musical clock to play nothing but music from the Viennese master. Ms. de Moura Castro will play three sections of ‘The Musical Clock’ transcribed for organ. They are Hoboken XIX:1 in F Major, Hoboken XIX:2 in F Major, and Hoboken XVII:10 in G Major.
Soprano Laura Cook will sing five songs composed by member Connie Hegarty, who will accompany Laura at the piano.
Ms. Hegarty set James Agee's poem, "Lullaby", when she was a graduate student. Agee, who died in 1955, is mostly known for his autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family, for which he won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.
Ms. Cook and Ms. Hegarty will also perform four settings of poems by Elizabeth Garber - Living in the Quiet House of Winter, What the Poet Doesn't Write to Him, Morning Light and An Invitation.
Ms. Hegarty has returned to composing upon encountering the poetry of Elizabeth Garber, who has published several collections of poetry reflecting her sensitivity to the changes in nature, life and love with a simple clarity that makes the listener feel they are experiencing the emotion or have lived it before. Ms. Garber begins one set with an epigraph from W. S. Merwin: "One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there's still time."
As Ms. Hegarty says, “I set these poems to music because they suggest a color, a feeling, a response to what is evoked. The poet says the songs enhance her words. I say the words find their song.”
Susan DeWolf, pianist, will perform Robert Schumann’s Variations on the Name ‘Abegg’, Op. 1. Schumann was born in the Kingdom of Saxony in 1810 and was fascinated by both literature and poetry as a child, showing compositional talent very early in his life. Written as a musical puzzle on the letters of the last name of a young woman he had met in 1829, while he was studying law in Heidelberg, the composer was twenty years old when he published this piece. The piece includes the theme, three variations, a cantabile movement and a fantasia for the finale.
Born in 1797, in Austria, Franz Schubert’s vocal ability had drawn the attention of the musical community, and of Antonio Salieri, the eminent Viennese musician who recognized Schubert’s genius and took him on as a composition student.
Musical Club members Lisa Kugelman, violin, and Stacy Cahoon, piano, will perform two movements from Franz Schubert’s Sonata No. 4 in A Major, D574, also known as the Grand Duo. Schubert had become a prolific composer of music for symphony orchestra and his famous lieder when he published this sonata for violin and piano in 1817.
Membership in this marvelous non-profit all-volunteer organization is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. For more information please call 860-561- 1588.
Please visit the website to see the concert schedule for the year. It is also possible to download a membership application at www.musical-club-of- hartford.org.
Information on the performers
Stacy Cahoon holds a piano performance degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and a Master of Music Degree from the Hartt School of Music in Accompanying. She is an active accompanist in the area working with singers and instrumentalists. In addition, she is the accompanist for the Travelers Chorale and the CitySingers of Hartford. As a composer, she has had vocal compositions premiered at Bushnell Hall, and the Women Composers Festival of Hartford. Ms. Cahoon is an independent piano teacher in West Hartford teaching students of all ages.
Laura Cook began singing at an early age but started formal training with Frank Baker at Bennington College and went on to earn a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance at Yale University under the guidance of Phyllis Curtin and Joan Heller. Laura has always been drawn to the performance of new music and has premiered works by Neely Bruce, Sylvia Goldstein, Amy Snyder, Henry Brant, Sarah Meneely-Kyder and many other composers. She is delighted to be presenting Connie Hegarty's songs on today's program.
Susan DeWolf received her BM from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Joseph Schwartz and her MM at the University of Illinois as a student of Malcolm Bilson. She recently retired from teaching piano and theory after teaching at the Detroit Institute of Musical Art, Cornell University and many years of working with private studio students. She is a past president of Hartford Chapter, CSMTA
Constance Hegarty began work as Music Director/Organist at age 15, a position she held at many churches in MA, RI and ME for over 45 years. Connie did her graduate study in organ with Alessandro Esposito in Florence, Italy, on full scholarship. She studied piano with Donald Rankin at University of Rhode Island and taught piano and organ privately. In the last 15 years, she has performed numerous duo-piano concerts in Florida and Maine. She recently moved to Windsor Locks.
Lisa Kugelman, violinist, originally from West Hartford, studied with Bernard Lurie, Roman Totenberg, and Syoko Aki, and performs regularly with the Hartford Symphony, the Worthington Trio, and the Arensky Trio. Lisa has been a professional free-lance violinist in the Hartford area for the past 25 years.
Pianist Bridget de Moura Castro holds degrees from Reading University, in England, and from Texas Christian University where she studied with Lili Kraus. A British Council Scholarship recipient, she did graduate studies at Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, Hungary. Ms. de Moura Castro specializes in organ, piano, and chamber music and has recorded fifteen albums. Of those, seven are with her husband, pianist Luiz de Moura Castro. The recordings also include one of Baroque music for flute and piano, two of French music for flute and piano, and one of Mozart concertos and sonatas for flute and organ. Two of them are solo organ recordings and one is a recording of solo fortepiano. Ms. de Moura Castro has performed and taught in Spain, Czechoslovakia and Brazil.
Maryjane Peluso , NCTM, has music degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the Crane School of Music, SUNY at Potsdam, and the Hartt School, University of Hartford. She is a committed piano teacher and performs locally as piano soloist, in chamber music, and as choral accompanist. Maryjane is delighted to perform these beautiful Rachmaninoff pieces with Allison for the Musical Club.
Allison K. Platt has a Bachelor’s of Music in piano from the Hartt School, where she studied with Luiz de Moura Castro. It's been many years since Allison has performed at Musical Club and she is excited to do so with her dear friend, Maryjane Peluso. Allison has taught piano, been an organist/choir director, and been involved with musical theatre as a director and pit orchestra member. While her family has taken much of her attention these days, she is thankful to be a part of today's program.