Image: Myroslava Kisilevitch and Jimmy Calire with the national flowers of Ukraine and USA
The Santa Barbara Music Club presents more exquisite classical music on Saturday, May 4, at 3:00 pm, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Dr., Santa Barbara. Admission is free and parking is ample and convenient.
The program will feature five pieces by Ukrainian composers for piano quartet performed by Gulia Gurevich, violin; Alexander Gurevich, viola; Virginia Kron, cello; and Myroslava Kisilevitch, piano. The pieces include Mykola Lysenko’s “Sorrow” Elegy for viola and piano, Vasy Barvinsky’s Lyrist Song, Variation III from Piano Sextet, Victor Kosenko’s Courante in E minor from Eleven Etudes in the Form of Old Dances, “Dreams” for violin and piano, Stanislav Lyudkevych’s Chabavarashka for violin and piano, and Myroslav Skoryk’s Dance from Hutsul Triptych for violin and piano, Burlesque for piano and Melody for violin, viola, ‘cello and piano.
The program will also include Virginia Kron, ‘cello, and Leslie Hogan, piano, performing Air on Seurat (The Grand Canal) by Stephen Paulus, Cool Front, written for Virginia Kron by Leslie Hogan, and Lament (premiere) by Jimmy Calire.
Program Details
(b. 1971)
Burlesque
Melody
(1938-2020)
Virginia Kron, cello; Miroslava Kisilevitch, piano
Notes on the Program
Of Air on Seurat, Stephen Paulus writes:
Air on Seurat originally began as a song cycle. In 1983 the Schubert Club of St. Paul celebrated their 100th anniversary by commissioning my Artsongs, a seven movement cycle for tenor and piano on poems about famous works of art. The middle song is entitled Seurat. In 1991 I was contacted by the National Society of Arts and Letters and commissioned to write a work for their ‘cello composition to be held in May, 1992. They specifically requested that the work be about seven minutes in duration, lyrical, and of no more than medium difficulty. With the ‘cello being the “tenor” of string instruments, I chose to adapt Seurat for ‘cello and piano. The original poem by Ira Sadoff is entitled Seurat: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Le Grand Jette in which he muses on the famous painting by Seurat. It is a moving, nostalgic poem which inspired me to make the musical setting not only lyrical in style, but also somewhat haunting and impressionistic.
The Performers
Composer/pianist Leslie A. Hogan received her principal training at the University of Kansas and the University of Michigan. Her music often manifests her longtime fascination with other art forms and with the potential of music to reflect or respond to visual stimuli from the natural world. As a pianist, she has performed with UC Santa Barbara’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music and was a co-founder and frequent performer for the Current Sounds concert series in Santa Barbara. She was on the board of the Chamber Music Society of Santa Barbara for over a decade. She has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Fellowship, 2002; Charles Ives Scholarship, 1993), the Rapido Composition Contest, the American Music Center, ASCAP, and the Chicago Civic Orchestra, among others. Dr. Hogan has taught composition in the College of Creative Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara since 1995.
Virginia Kron, cellist, was hailed in the Los Angeles Times: “Accomplished cellist … has done her best to keep alive the music of our time” and by the Ventura County Reporter: “Virginia evoked a rich, dark tone from her 300 year-old instrument.” From her extensive career, of special note is her premiere of John Biggs’ Cello Concerto with the New West Symphony and subsequent recording with the Czech National Symphony, and most recently, her premiere of Jimmy Calire’s Jazzical Cello Sonata. Her original album, “The Crystal Harp,” evoked this tribute from the American Library Association Booklist Review: “This original humorous fantasy, written and performed by Virginia Kron, features clear, well-paced narration and delightful music.” She has a B.M. Degree from the University of Wisconsin and a M.M. Degree from USC, and has long been a pillar on cello at California’s Cabrillo Festival. A frequent collaborator with UCSB’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music with featured festival performances and recordings, her mastery of the music of our time is matched by recordings and concerts with noted Celtic harpist Kim Robertson.
Gulia Gurevich, is violinst and violist of the Prima Trio and winner of the Grand Prix and Gold Medals at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Co-founder of the Nelli Shkolnikova Academy (Château de La Flocellière, France) and Artistic Director of the “Classical Concerts on the Hill” in Los Angeles, she has taught masterclasses at Oberlin and San Francisco Conservatories and is a member of the jury of the International Violin Competition in Braga, Portugal. She is a graduate of Indiana University, and also holds a degree from Oberlin Conservatory. Gulia is currently pursuing a DMA Degree at UCSB.
Alexander Gurevich, violist, completed his studies at the Manhattan School of Music, then studied at UCSB and USC. He has performed in the LA Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, New World Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and San Diego Symphony, and at Umbria
Segreta Concerts, French-American Quartet Festival, and the Paris Conservatory at Château de la Bretesche (France). Alexander has performed at Kneisel Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festivals, and is currently General Manager of the New West Symphony.
Myroslava Kisilevitch, piano, was born in Ukraine into a family of professional musicians. She earned MM and DMA Degrees from both the Lviv Higher State Music Academy and the University of Minnesota, and has concertized in Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and the U.S. She has received critical acclaim for her large and varied repertoire, including many works of promiment Ukrainian composers. Miroslava was invited to perform chamber recitals on the Smithsonian Institute Recital Series by the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, CD, and in Chicago in a concert sponsored by the Ukrainian Museum of Chicago.
