Program​

​J.S. Bach: "Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 (Arr. by Peter Chow)

Felix Mendelssohn: Concert Piece No.1 in F minor, Op.113
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​Felix Mendelssohn: Concert Piece No.2 in D minor, Op.114

Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Highlight (Arr. by Peter Chow)

Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite for Clarinet Quartet (Arr. by Alexandre Chabod)
I. Overture
II. March
III. Tarentelle
IV. Danse dela fee-dragee
V. Trepak
VI. Coda

​Date: December 10, 2024
​Time: 7:30pm
Location: Grace United Methodist Church   
Address: 6199 Waterman Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112
Admission: Free

Concert Artists

Sang Yoon Kim, Clarinet

Tzuying Huang, Bass Clarinet

Yao Guang Zhai, Clarinet

Lin Ma, Clarinet

Brian Woods, Piano

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Meridian Clarinet Quartet

The Meridian Clarinet Quartet, established in February 2023, is comprised of four accomplished musicians from prominent orchestras across the United States.  

Sang Yoon Kim, Principal Clarinet of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The top prize winner of the 67th Prague Spring International Music Competition 2015. Assistant Professor of the University of Minnesota. 

Yao Guang Zhai, Principal Clarinet of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Clarinet Faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. Associate Professor of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. 

Lin Ma, Principal Clarinet of the National Symphony Orchestra.

Tzuying Huang, Bass Clarinet of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Ariel Concert Series. 

Our name, 'Meridian,' signifies our converging paths here in the United States, all of us having traveled from one side of the globe to the other to embark on our respective musical journeys. It also symbolizes our aspiration to reach the great artistic heights only possible through sensitive and thoughtful collaboration, the musical thread passing through each of us before being transmitted to our audiences. Our mission is deeply rooted in nurturing appreciation for the enchanting world of clarinet music while fostering the talents of future generations.

All members of the Meridian Clarinet Quartet are Buffet Crampon Artists. Yao Guang Zhai, Lin Ma, and Sang Yoon Kim also hold the title of Vandoren Artists, while Tzuying is recognized as a D'Addario Artist and Sang Yoon Kim as a Silverstein Pro Team Artist.

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J.S. Bach: "Little" Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 (Arr. by Peter Chow)
Johann Sebastian Bach, a German composer and organist, lived from 1685 until 1750. Fugue in G minor was originally written for organ between the years 1703-1707. It has been arranged for many instrument ensembles, including a version for orchestra by Leopold Stokowski. The fugue has been titled “Little” to set it apart from the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor titled “Great”, that came many years later.

Felix Mendelssohn: Concert Piece No.1 and No. 2 
​Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist, and conductor. He died at the tragically young age of 38 but was still able to compose a huge library of works during his lifetime. Among his most famous compositions are his Midsummer Night’s Dream, Symphony No. 4 (Italian), his Violin Concerto in E minor, and his String Octet In E-flat major.

It is unusual to hear a piece by Mendelssohn featuring the clarinet. The Concert Pieces were composed in the early 1830s, after being commissioned by the Baermanns, a famous father-and-son clarinet duo. At the time, it was rare for clarinet to be featured as a solo instrument, and the Baermanns were the first known virtuosos on the instrument. Mendelssohn originally composed the pieces for B-flat clarinet and basset horn, an early version of the bass clarinet.

Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Highlight 
(Arr. by Peter Chow)
Richard Strauss was born in Munich in 1864 and died in West Germany in 1949. He was a composer and conductor. Thought to be one of the most important composers of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he is best known for his large-scale tone poems and operas. Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks was written by Richard Strauss in the mid-1890s. The piece is about a German peasant, Till Eulenspiegel, who may or may not have been a real person who lived during the 14th century. Till was a prankster and was always having humorous adventures. When composing Till Eulenspiegel, Strauss strayed from writing a serious work that would have fit the tradition of the time. He is known to have said “ …I only wanted to give the people in the concert hall a good laugh for once.

Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite for Clarinet Quartet
(Arr. by Alexandre Chabod)
Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer who lived from 1840-1893. He became the first Russian composer whose music would become famous world wide. The Nutcracker Suite for Clarinet Quartet is based on the music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet which he composed between 1891 and 1892. The ballet is based on a short story from 1844, also titled The Nutcracker, by Alexandre Dumas. The short story was a re-telling of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman from 1816. The ballet is about a girl named Clara who makes friends with a nutcracker doll that comes to life on Christmas Eve. The nutcracker and Clara fight a mouse king who is the evil ruler of a magical kingdom. With Clara’s help, the nutcracker defeats the evil mouse king and is turned back into a real prince. The prince takes Clara to the land of the sugar plum fairies to celebrate her for defeating the mouse king. Eventually, Clara is led back home by pages of the sugar plum kingdom and wakes from her enchanted dream on her living room couch.