05/01/2021

Bach Marathon - Baroque Recorder

Bach: Flute Partita, BWV 1013
Allemande

Jacob van Eyck: Engels Nachtegaeltje from der Fluyten Lusthof

Saint-Seans: Fantasie for Violin and Harp Op.124

About the Program

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Flute Partita in A minor, BWV 1013, is his only known work for
solo flute. Because its technical difficulties surpass that of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 composed in 1721, it is estimated that the Partita in A minor was written sometime around 1723.What was originally thought to be an autograph manuscript of the partita turned out to be the work of two different copyists. This also contributes to the challenge of accurately dating the composition. Allemande is the first movement of the partita and is a Renaissance and Baroque dance.

Jacob van Eyck was a Dutch composer of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He is well known for compiling the most immense body of work for a solo wind instrument in European history. His collection der Fluyten Lust-hof, translated to the Flutes Pleasure Garden contained 143 songs for recorder. The songs are a collection of psalms, folk songs, dances, popular songs of the day, and van Eyck’s original compositions. Engels Nachtegaeltje or English Nightingale mimics a birdsong through the use Baroque ornamentation.

Camille Saint Seans (b.1835 - d.1921) was a French composer, pianist, organist, and conductor. His career was long and successful. He had a large fan base for his performances as a freelance pianist and as a composer. Fantaisie for Violin and Harp was written in 1907. The piece is unique because of its instrumentation and because of the virtuosity it requires from both players. Compositions for piano and violin were much more standard for the time. When music was composed for harp it was often used as an accompanimental instrument. However, Saint Saens had an inclination towards writing primary parts for the harp. The Fantaisie for Violin and Harp op.124 would become one of three major works Saint Saens would compose for the harp during his life. Fantaisie for Solo Harp op. 95 came first in 1893 and the Morceau de Concert for harp and orchestra was completed at the end of his life in 1918.

-Ann Fink

Concert Artists

Rachel Siegel/Baroque Recorder
Rachel Siegel is a clarinetist and baroque recorderist, as well as a Master of Social Work candidate, based in St. Louis, MO. She has performed on clarinet with several orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Washington National Opera Orchestra, and the Richmond Symphony. Her recorders have brought her to the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the NSO, and more, performing film soundtracks by John Williams. The Philadelphia Inquirer has described her recorder playing as “beautiful…and charmingly folksy.”

Rachel previously held the position of clarinetist with the “President’s Own” United States Marine Band, the premiere military band in the U.S. While in the Marine Band, she performed Vivaldi’s Recorder Concerto in C Minor with the “President’s Own” Chamber Orchestra. She received her BM from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and her MM from the University of Southern California, and a second MM from Rice University. Her teachers include Burt Hara, Yehuda Gilad, and Tina Ward.

Allegra Lily/Harp
Allegra Lilly joined the St. Louis Symphony as Principal Harp in 2013. She has appeared as Guest Principal Harp with the Chicago, Houston, Toronto and Charlotte symphonies, Boston Pops, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and All-Star Orchestra. A frequent substitute with the Boston Symphony, she acted as Guest Principal Harp for the BSO’s 2015 Tanglewood season and European tour, and she has earned the unique distinction of appearing as Principal Harp on back-to-back albums that won the GRAMMY Award for Best Orchestral Performance: the SLSO’s City Noir in 2015 and the BSO’s Shostakovich: Under Stalin’s Shadow in 2016.

Since making her solo debut at the age of twelve with the Detroit Symphony, Lilly has appeared as soloist with the St. Louis Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, and numerous ensembles in New York and in her home state of Michigan. She has also taken prizes at the Concours International de Harpe in Nice, the American Harp Society’s Anne Adams Awards, and the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition. Lilly’s summer festival appearances have included Brevard Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Festival dei Due Mundi (Spoleto, Italy), National Repertory Orchestra, Artosphere Festival, and Castleton Festival. She is also an active chamber musician and has been a featured guest artist with the Missouri Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, Innsbrook Institute Music Festival, Missouri River Festival of the Arts, Argento New Music Project, and Carnegie Hall’s EnsembleConnect.

In addition to holding the harp faculty position at Brevard Music Center since 2017, Lilly has given masterclasses at Northwestern University, Tanglewood Music Center, Boston University, and the University of Ottawa. She has also coached orchestral and chamber music for New World Symphony and the preparatory divisions of The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory. Born in Detroit, Lilly began her own study of the harp with Ruth Myers at age seven. She went on to join the studio of New York Philharmonic Principal Harpist Nancy Allen at The Juilliard School, where she earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees.

Hannah Ji/Violin
Violinist Hannah Ji joined the first violin section of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2020 after spending two seasons as a one-year replacement member. Ji’s playing has been hailed by critics as "engaging, mature, well thought-out, and honed down to the finest details" (głos na Wieniawskiego,Polish Radio Journal). She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Curtis Institute of Music, studying with the late Aaron Rosand, a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, studying with Ida Kavafian, and an Artist Diploma degree from The Colburn School, studying with Robert Lipsett. She began her musical studies at the age of seven in South Korea and previously attended Manhattan School of Music's Precollege Division, studying with Grigory Kalinovsky.

As a soloist, Ji's performances have been widely publicized on NPR’s “From the Top,” Philadelphia’s WHYY, Taos’ KTAOS Solar Radio, and “Live from Lincoln Center” by PBS, which broadcast throughout North America. She performed in Canada Day concerts with Maestro Pinchas Zukerman in Centre National des Artes, with pianist Jeremy Denk for the non-profit organization, "The Art of Giving Back,” and a gala concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble at Lincoln Center. Additional venues at which Ji has performed include: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, David Geffen Hall, Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall and A. Mickiewicz University Hall in Poland. She has also recently performed at the United States Embassy of Canada.

As a classical and contemporary chamber musician, Ji has collaborated with renowned groups and artists such as Jamie Laredo, Jennifer Koh, Roberto Díaz, The Borromeo String Quartet, The Calidore String Quartet and Time for Three. She has worked with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Shanghai, Emerson, Guarneri and Orion String Quartets, respectively. Ji has been an active participant in The Juilliard School's ChamberFest and Focus! Festival, which features U.S. and world premieres of works by composers around the world. She was also a contemporary ensemble artist at Atlantic Music Festival. As an orchestra musician, she served as Concertmaster and Principal Second with Symphony in C, Spoleto Festival USA, YMF Debut Orchestra, The Colburn School, The Juilliard School Orchestra and Curtis Symphony Orchestra. She has been a participant at the Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Taos School of Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Summit Music Festival and the National Arts Centre's Young Artist Programme.

Additionally, Ji has held Artist Faculty positions at The Danbury Music Centre's Chamber Music Intensive, The Bronx Conservatory of Music, Manhattan in the Mountains, and The Curtis Institute's SummerFest Young Artists Program & Adult Chamber Music Program. She was a substitute faculty member at The Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, and had a large studio in New York City, the students of which have been accepted to conservatories and summer festivals across the country. She currently enjoys working as a mentor through the SLSO’s Mentoring the Music: Peer to Peer program.