Carmen and Sonoran Storm

Bizet/Sarasate: Carmen Fantaisie  arr. Nicolas Baldeyrou
I. Entr'acte
II. L'amour est un oiseau rebelle
​III. Près des remparts de Seville
IV. Les tringles des sistres tintaient

Mozart Duo No.1 in G Major K.423 - Adagio

Nokuthula Ngwenyama: Sonoran Storm for Solo Viola
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Weber: Hunting Song from "Der Freischutz."

About the Program

Bizet/Sarasate: Carmen Fantaisie arr. Nicolas Baldeyrou

Pablo de Sarasate, b.1844-d.1908, was a Spanish virtuoso violinist, composer and conductor. Inspired by themes from Bizet’s opera Carmen, he wrote the Carmen Fantasy for solo violin and orchestra in 1882. The opera is set around the year of 1830. It tells the tale of a soldier, Don José, who abandons his duties and his girlfriend to pursue Carmen, a tempestuous factory girl. Sarasate’s fantasy is an incredibly demanding work for solo violin, but for this program the technical feats and demands of the piece will be performed with great skill by four clarinets!

​-Ann Fink

Mozart Duo No.1 in G Major K.423 - Adagio
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Mozart wrote Duo No.1 in G Major in the summer of 1783. It was the first of two duets that Mozart would write for violin and viola. Although the violin was often featured in Mozart’s chamber music, these duos are significant because the viola has an equal role to that of the violin. The melodies, as well as the technical passages, are equally traded between the two instruments. For our program, Ben Adler plays the violin part on clarinet. Linda Numagami joins him on viola. The sound of the clarinet easily blends with the viola, creating a unique sonority that rivals that of the original instrumentation.

-Ann Fink

Nokuthula Ngwenyama: Sonoran Storm for Solo Viola

Sonoran Storm was written in 2016 by a living female violist and composer, Nokuthula Ngwenyama. The piece is composed in tandem with a poem, also by Nokuthula, about a storm in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. You can read the poem in its entirety at:
https://soundcloud.com/thulamusic/sonoran-storm-for-solo-viola-1

​-Ann Fink

Weber: Hunting Song from "Der Freischutz."

Written for full orchestra, but played by four clarinets for this performance, the Hunting Song is the most famous tune in Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Die Freischütz (The Marksman). Weber chose to ignore the traditions of Italian opera while composing Die Freischütz, so the premiere of the opera on June 18th, 1821 was a turning point in the history of German opera. He composed his opera entirely in German and used a German libretto based on supernatural legends and folklore. It was quite shocking for the time. Weber also incorporated German folk music, such as the theme for the Hunting Song. Die Freischütz takes place in a German forest and village during the middle of the 17th century. The Hunting Song occurs in Act III when Max, a marksman, competes in a shooting contest to win the hand of his beloved, Agathe. Because of a deal he makes with the devil and the use of magic bullets during the contest, Max almost kills Agathe. As punishment, he is forbidden to marry her for one year and is banished from the country.

-Ann Fink

CONCERT ARTISTS

Linda Numagami/Viola
Linda Numagami joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as acting section-violist from 2018-2020.  In addition, she has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  As an active chamber musician, Numagami has performed with the Ceres Quartet, the Boston Symphony Orchestra Prelude Series and Music For Food (San Francisco and New York).  She has collaborated with Kim Kashkashian, Natasha Brofsky, Daniel Phillips, and Ian Swensen.
Numagami earned a Bachelors degree and Masters degree from the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School, respectively, where her primary teacher was Roger Tapping.  She also was coached regularly with the Borromeo String Quartet, the Juilliard String Quartet, and Donald Weilerstein. She also received a postgraduate degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Jonathan Vinocour. ​

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Rachel Siegel/Clarinet
​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.

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Robert Walker/Clarinet
​Originally from Queens, NY, Robert Walker is currently the 2nd Clarinetist of the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky. Before moving to Louisville, Robert was a member of the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago, the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, OH, and the Sarasota Opera Orchestra in Florida. He has also performed as a substitute with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Robert is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he received his Master's Degree in Clarinet Performance, studying with Yehuda Gilad, and a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where he completed his Bachelor's Degree, studying with Alan R. Kay and Charles Neidich. When not playing Clarinet, Robert spends most of his time reading and writing music. ​

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Benjamin Adler/Clarinet
Benjamin Adler joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal/ E-flat/ Second Clarinet in 2015. He also held a one-year position with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the 2018- 19 season. In addition, Adler has held a position with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and has performed regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra and gone on tour with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Adler is a member of the clarinet faculty at the Brevard Music Center. Prior to Brevard, Adler has spent his summers performing as a guest in The Breckenridge Music Festival, Artosphere Festival and the Sierra Summer Festival. He holds the Second Clarinet position at the Britt Festival Orchestra and is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, and the Brevard Music Festival.

Adler has performed as soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra and was a grand-prize winner in the Francis Walton LMC competition in 2014. Benjamin competed in the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition, where he was a semi-finalist.
As a chamber musician, Adler has performed throughout the Milwaukee area, including performances with the Prometheus Trio, Present Music, Milwaukee Musaik and the PianoArts Competition judges concert. He also has performed with the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella concert series, and the Hear Now Music Festival with members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Along with being a performer, Adler is an active educator within his surrounding communities. He is currently on faculty with the Wisconsin Lutheran College and has been on faculty with the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Adler has given masterclasses at Indiana University, UNC Greensboro School of Music and UNLV School of Music. Adler is the Artistic Director of the Clarinet Maestro Festival, a festival he founded in 2020.

Adler grew up in Brooklyn, New York where he first started studying clarinet with his mother Laurie Friedman-Adler. He earned a Bachelor's degree at Northwestern University under the tutelage of Steve Cohen.He received his Masters degree and Artist Diploma from the University of Southern California and the Colburn School respectively, where he studied with Yehuda Gilad.

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Tzuying Huang/Bass Clarinet
Tzuying Huang was appointed the Bass Clarinetist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in February, 2015 under music director David Robertson, and since 2019, has also held the position of Clarinet/Bass Clarinet with the Britt Music Festivalin Jacksonville, Oregon. Ms. Huang is also the Artist Director of the Ariel Concert Series. Prior to joining the St. Louis Symphony, she played  Clarinet/Bass Clarinet with the Kansas City Symphony. Additionally, Ms. Huang has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Colorado Music Festival. As a chamber musician, Ms. Huang performs throughout the year with the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, Chamber Projects St. Louis, and Missouri Chamber Music Festival. Outside of North America, she has performed in Taiwan, Shanghai, Beijing, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Singapore. 

Ms. Huang is also an educator with seventeen years of teaching experience, having given master classes in Taiwan and North America. She also works with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Education and Community Program, where she teaches in public schools in and around the St. Louis area. Ms. Huang’s awards and honors include a First Prize in the 2011 National Couer d’Alene Symphony Young Artist competition; an Honorable Mention from the 2011 National Midland-Odessa Symphony Young Artist Competition; First Prize in the 2012 National Music Teacher Association Music Competition state competition;  and First Prize at the 2012 Mid Texas Young Artist Competition, after which she was subsequently invited to perform, as soloist, Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto with both the Couer d’Alene Symphony and Mid-Texas Symphony.
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Ms. Huang has spent several summer as a Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, one summer at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Banff Music Festival, and the Young Artist Program of the National Arts Center in Ottawa, Canada. Holding a Masters of Music Degree as well as a Performance Diploma from The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University-Bloomington, her former teachers include James Campbell, Joaquin Valdepeñas, Burt Hara, Nathan Williams, Wei-Ling Chen and Pei-Lin Lee. Tzuying is also a Buffet Crampon performing artist, and D’Addario Woodwinds Artist. She plays exclusively on D'Addario Reserve Bass Clarinet reeds and Buffet Crampon clarinets and bass clarinets.

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