Santa Barbara Music Club

From Fauré to Bolcom

Saturday, March 23, 2019 3:00 pm

Faulkner Gallery

40 E Anapamu St, Santa Barbara, CA, 93101

Image: William Bolcom

On Saturday, March 9 at 3 p.m. the Santa Barbara Music Club will present another program in its popular series of concerts of beautiful Classical music. This afternoon pianist Betty Oberacker, violinist Nicole McKenzie, and soprano Carolyn Kimball Holmquist perform a program of chamber music and song ranging from the classical tradition to musical theater. This concert, co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara Public Library, will be held at the Faulkner Gallery of the library, 40 East Anapamu, Santa Barbara. Admission is free.

Program Details

Old Mother Hubbard (Set in the Manner of Handel)
Victor Hely Hutchinson
(1901-1947)
“The Black Swan”, from The Medium
Giancarlo Menotti
(1911-2007)
Lime Jello
William Bolcom
(b. 1938)
Medley from My Fair Lady
Music: Frederick Loewe
Lyrics: Alan Jay Lerner
Carolyn Kimball Holmquist, soprano
Betty Oberacker, piano
Sonata in A major, Op. 13
Gabriel Fauré
(1845-1924)
  • Allegro molto
  • Andante
  • Allegro vivo
  • Allegro quasi presto
Nicole Mckenzie, violin
Betty Oberacker, piano

Notes on the Program

Betty Oberacker and Carolyn Kimball Holmquist feature today a selection of songs spanning the gamut of stylistic and emotional spectra: A parody of nursery rhymes, horrifying lullaby, comedic aria, absurd cabaret, and medley of a now-classic American musical.

The British musical polyglot Victor Hely-Hutchinson (1901-1947) had a childhood analogous to that of Mozart. He apparently could recognize and sing notes before learning to speak! So his family immersed him in musical study early in his life, which afforded him the opportunity to study with the great Donald Tovey. Around 1909, the Hely-Hutchinson family moved to Ascot, where Tovey lived, so the young Victor could study regularly with him. Victor’s lessons consisted of piano technique, composition, and music history. Tovey noted the boy of 10 was supremely gifted in composition, as evinced by the boy’s 1912 song “Old Mother Hubbard.” Tovey’s blended approach to lessons seems to have informed the young Victor’s creative prowess, as “Old Mother Hubbard” parodies – even mock’s a little – Handel’s operatic style. In the larger context of Western music history, looking back to master’s of the 17th and 18th centuries characterized the early-modernist period, and all but defined the neoclassical period that followed.

Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) also reached back to an operatic tradition in his works, that of the Italian school, as demonstrated in “The Black Swan.” This piece comes from the opera The Medium, which had a successful run on Broadway, New York City, beginning in 1947. The Medium critiques with bleak, unforgiving drama the emotional manipulation that often befalls bereaved persons at the hands of pseudo-spiritualists, psychics, and mediums. “Swan Song” closes the first half of the brief, two-act opera in which the young girl Monica sings the lullaby to calm her incensed mother, the medium Baba, after having been visited by an unknown spirit. Critics almost unanimously agree on “Swan Song” as the most memorable and popular tune of The Medium.

“Lime Jello: An American Cabaret” (1980) takes a turn away from the operatic and steps toward, as the title suggests, cabaret and vaudeville with this wildly funny culinary concoction. William Bolcom (b. 1938) is one of the most recognized names in American contemporary classical music, due largely to his versatility. He penned symphonies, string quartets, piano rags, organ works, art songs – all of which in styles ranging from jazz to serialism. This song demonstrates Bolcom’s ability to convey humor and even satire. Listening to this piece has the peculiar effect of describing the recipe of a sweet and savory jello casserole – equal parts fascination and repulsion at the absurdity of it all.

The 1956 musical My Fair Lady became the most successful of the decade with over 2700 performances. Composers Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe wrote the classic musical on the heels of Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon, and it became the musical for which they were best known. By then, the duo had garnered more notoriety than Rodgers and Hammerstein. From My Fair Lady came such memorable tunes as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face,” “On the Street Where You Live,” and “Get Me To the Church On Time.” Oberacker and Holmquist complete their performance with a medley on such famous melodies.

In hindsight, most classical-music enthusiasts regard Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924) as a traditional figure, especially in comparison to the so-called Impressionist composers who followed him. Yet examined against the backdrop of his French socio-historical contexts, Fauré is both maverick and trendsetter. Many elements of his life run against the grain of what French composers were like in the era immediately preceding the fin de siècle. He was not educated at the Conservatoire de Paris, and for many years critics considered his musical vision too dangerous and revolutionary for a teaching post. Also his chamber works, among them the Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 13 (1875 – 76), were atypical of what French composers were producing in the 1870s. For all the apparent derision, Fauré eventually became director of the Conservatoire in the early 1900s, and his Violin Sonata, along with his Piano Quartet, Op. 15, and César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Major became the premiere large-scale chamber works of the French Romantic tradition. Indeed, Fauré’s violin sonata received extravagant praise and became an instant classic of French chamber music. Violinist Nicole McKenzie and pianist Betty Oberacker close this afternoon’s program with Fauré’s sumptuous piece.

The Performers

Carolyn Kimball Holmquist, soprano, graduated from Mt. Holyoke College and has won international acclaim for her concert, film, musical comedy, opera, theatrical, and TV appearances. She has represented the U.S. in the Tchaikovsky International Vocal Competition, toured Central and South America presenting American music for the U.S. State Department, and sang three seasons with the Bellas Artes National Opera. Ms. Holmquist sings in six languages, and has had leading roles in many musicals, including Carousel and The Sound of Music. In addition to numerous TV appearances, she starred in a Gershwin tribute for ABC and had a recurring role on the PBS Series, On Common Ground.

Nicole McKenzie, violinist, has concertized widely as soloist and chamber musician, and her performances of classical, contemporary, and ethnic repertoire (the latter including the Klezmer/Jazz group Kalinka) have earned her lavish critical praise. The Santa Barbara Independent declared, “McKenzie made a splash in the luscious and exciting music – she performed with gorgeous musicality.” Winner of the Sutton Chamber Music Award, she graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, earned her BM Degree from Oberlin Conservatory, her MM Degree from Florida State University, and studied with Dr. Gary Kosloski at the Music Academy of the West. With a background in dance, she teaches the course, Music For Dancers, as a UCSB faculty member, and was founding member of the Nicole McKenzie Improv Group, an improvising group of dancers and musicians. Concertmaster of the Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara, she coaches chamber music for Santa Barbara Strings, co-directs and teaches for Sandcastle Music together, and maintains a private violin studio. Ms. McKenzie’s violin was created for her by Michel Eggimann of Rome, Italy.

Betty Oberacker, pianist, is internationally acclaimed for her interpretations of both traditional and contemporary solo and chamber music repertoire, and has toured throughout Europe, Israel, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and the U.S., including performances at Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic Hall and Vienna Musikverein. She has been Artist-in-Residence at 55 universities, conservatories and music festivals worldwide, and many important composers have dedicated their compositions to her. Her musical gifts were evidenced at three, when she began to play the piano and compose entirely by ear. Piano lessons started at age seven, and at nine she was accepted on scholarship as the only child student of the noted pianist Beryl Rubinstein. Her BM/MM Degrees are from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her DMA Degree is from Ohio State University, where she was concomitantly a member of the piano faculty. Her discography includes Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (Clavier Records), A Bach Commemorative Recital (MIT Great Performances Archives), Chamber Music of Emma Lou Diemer (Orion), Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (Century), John Biggs’ Variations on a Theme of Shostakovich (VMM), and Diemer’s Piano Concerto (MMC), the latter two works composed for Oberacker. Honors accorded her include a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Italy and the University of California Distinguished Teaching Award, and her students hold important positions as performers and teachers in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Dr. Oberacker is UCSB Professor Emeritus, and enjoys an active performing, teaching and chamber music coaching schedule.


This concert in the Faulkner Gallery is being presented through a partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library.