Image: Christoph Willibald von Gluck by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis
On Saturday, January 14 at 3 PM, the SANTA BARBARA MUSIC CLUB will present another program in its popular series of concerts of beautiful Classical music. This concert will be held at the Faulkner Gallery in the Downtown Santa Barbara Public Library. Admission is free.
One of the highlights of Santa Barbara Music Club’s concerts is the opportunity for audiences to hear great music from a variety of historical periods, with a diversity of musical forms, performed by excellent artists. The concert opens with pianist Christopher Davis performing Franz Liszt’s transcription of J.S. Bach’s organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543. Next, Katelyn Adair Neumann and Laurie Neumann, accompanied by Farley Neumann, will perform the “Flower Duet” from Lakmé, by Léo Delibes, and Gluck’s “Che farò senza Euridice?” from Orfeo ed Euridice. Finally, Natasha Kislenko and Ilya Sinaisky— the Sinaisky-Kislenko piano duo— will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Andante and Variations, Op. 83a, and Samuel Barber’s Souvenirs, Op. 28, for piano four hands.
Program Details
(1862-1918)
- Prélude
(1714-1787)
Farley Neumann, piano
(1910-1981)
Notes on the Program
Franz Liszt’s transcriptions of organ music by J.S. Bach, published as Six Preludes and Fugues for the Organ in 1852, bring together piano arrangements made between 1842 and 1850. The organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543, dates from Bach’s period as court organist in Weimar from 1708 to 1717. The Prelude is in the style of a toccata, and the Fugue, with a long subject, is meticulously transcribed, with pedal entries emphasized by the use of octaves.
Premiered in 1883, Léo Delibes’ Lakmé brings together several themes popular in 1880s opera: an exotic location, mysterious religious rituals, and the difficulties of cross-cultural interpersonal relationships. The “Flower Duet” falls near the beginning of Act 1 and helps to establish the opera’s exotic atmosphere. In the years since the opera’s premiere, the duet has come to permeate popular culture, a staple not only of the concert hall, but of advertising and film scores.
First performed in 1762, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera based on the myth of Orpheus. In the myth, Orpheus travels to the underworld to rescue his wife, Euridice, from death. Hades and Persephone agree that she may return on the condition that he walk in front of her and not look back or speak until they are both in the upper world. In the opera, Gluck has Euridice entreat Orpheus to look at her, to tell her what’s going on. Taking his continued silence to mean that he no longer loves her, she sings that death would be preferable and refuses to continue. Orpheus looks back, and she dies. “Che farò senza Euridice?” is the aria in which he expresses his great grief at again losing his wife to death.
The Sinaisky-Kislenko piano duo will end the concert with Samuel Barber’s Souvenirs, Op. 28, and the Andante and Variations Op. 83a, by Felix Mendelssohn. The duo, formed in 2010, has presented recitals and masterclasses in numerous venues around the country, including the University of Maryland College Park, Tulane University, and the Embassy of Russian Federation in Washington, D.C.
Composed in 1952, Barber’s Souvenirs, Op. 28, is a suite offering his interpretations of a variety of dance types: the waltz, schottische, pas de deux, two-step, “hesitation tango” (Barber’s phrase), and galop. Mendelssohn’s beautifully sensitive Andante and Variations, Op. 83a, was composed in 1844 and premiered in that same year.
The Performers
Christopher Davis, pianist, has been concerto soloist with several orchestras including the Northwest Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and has studied with renowned teachers and scholars in Germany, Austria, and Portugal. He earned his BA Degree from UC San Diego, his MM Degree from the University of Arkansas, and his DMA Degree from UCSB. In addition to serving as the Music Academy of the West’s House Manager (2009-2016), Dr. Davis has been on the staff of the Ojai Music Festival and Westmont College (2014-2016), and has worked for Camerata Pacifica, collaborating independently with many of their musicians.
Katelyn Neumann, mezzo-soprano, is a previous SB Music Club scholarship awardee. Ms. Neumann earned her A.A. in Music at SBCC where she studied classical voice under the tutelage of Nathan Kreitzer. She earned a B.A. in Music at CPSU, San Luis Obispo, and attained a M.M. in Vocal Performance at CSU, Northridge. Ms. Neumann has performed as a soloist throughout California and has been the recipient of various accolades both locally and nationally. Ms. Neumann has performed several operatic roles including Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar in Germany, the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, and as Mother in Capitol City Opera’s world premiere of Curtis Bryant’s The Secret Agent. Ms. Neumann performed the role of Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Capitol City Opera in 2012 and made her Lamplighters Musical Theatre debut in San Francisco as Leila in Iolanthe in 2013. Ms. Neumann sang with Opera San Jose in its productions of Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, and Le Nozze di Figaro, and with the Lyric Theatre of San Jose in their productions of The Prince of Pilsen,Utopia Limited, and Iolanthe, as Mrs. Crocker, Lady Sophy, and the Fairy Queen respectively. Ms. Neumann is also a cantor and soloist at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco. In February, she will be singing the role of Mother and inspiring children in the Bay Area to love music and theater through the Children’s Theatre production of Stiles & Drewe’s musical The Three Little Pigs in Palo Alto.
Laurie Neumann, lyric soprano, began singing at age 7 in her church’s Junior Choir, later receiving private voice lessons from Floyd Mussard. She received her AA Degree from Cuesta College, studying with Nella Girolo, and earned her BA Degree from UCSB, studying with Dorothy Westra and performing in recitals and opera workshops. Winner of the Monday Club Scholarship Competition in San Luis Obispo, Laurie has performed throughout the Central Coast and is currently Unit Commander for the Santa Barbara Cottage Health System.
Farley Neumann, pianist, received his AA Degree from Cuesta College, and was concerto soloist with the San Luis Obispo Symphony in Brahms Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major. As a double major at UCSB, he earned his BA Degree in Composition and Piano Performance, and as winner of the UCSB Concerto Competition he performed Liszt’s Concerto No. 2 in A major. Farley has published Five Pieces for Piano (1985) and Four Pieces for Piano (1987), and currently is the owner of Dependable Appliance Repair in Santa Barbara.
Natasha Kislenko, pianist, was born in Moscow, holds graduate degrees from the Moscow Tschaikowsky Conservatory and Southern Methodist University (TX), and earned her DMA Degree from Stony Brook University (NY). She has concertized in Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the U. S., and has been prizewinner in piano competitions in both Europe and the U.S. Collaborative faculty member at the Music Academy of the West since 2004 and Principal Keyboard with the Santa Barbara Symphony since 2010, Dr. Kislenko is currently a Lecturer in the UCSB Department of Music.
Ilya Sinaisky, pianist, was born in the Ukraine and emigrated to Israel in 1990. Following undergraduate studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, he earned his MM Degree from Tel Aviv University and his DMA Degree from the University of Maryland. Prizewinner at the Darius Milhaud Performance Competition, he was awarded the Robert McCoy Prize for Excellence in Collaborative Piano at the University of Maryland. Dr. Sinaisky has been a collaborative piano faculty member at Colorado State University, Heifetz International Institute for Strings, and the Aspen Music Festival, and currently teaches piano at Rubin Conservatory (Haifa) and is pianist for the Israeli Opera.
This project is funded in part by the Community Arts Grant Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.
