Concert 5: Nightingale’s Encore

In the second week of the festival on August 1, I’m honored to have flutist and author, Thomas Wolf, returning to KCMF with an entirely new program – part storytelling, part live music on our subscription concert 5, after his successful performance of The Nightingale’s Sonata at URI’s Fine Art Center on July 28, 2021. This new program is called Nightingale's Encores, Thomas Wolf recounts fascinating and amusing stories involving his multi-generational musical family. Stretching from the Jewish ghetto on the Black Sea to the palaces of European royalty to Carnegie Hall and the White House and beyond, each story is accompanied by a short musical encore that family members helped make famous. And these encore selections were frequently performed by his family members and relatives, both at home and concert halls. This program will give each of our KCMF guest artists the opportunity to perform an encore piece, which will be the first all-encores programming in our festival history.
**Pre-concert Panel discussion: The Great Musical Melting Pot: How America Became Preeminent in Classical Music
During the early decades of the 20th century, the United States looked to the great cities of Europe for great music and musicians. Legendary soloists were from there, the best orchestras and opera companies were there, the most important composers were working there. Desired pedagogues could be found there in the conservatories in Paris, Moscow, Berlin, and many other European cities.
But forces and events well beyond the music would transform the United States from an envious consumer of European music and musicians to the preeminent musical leader that it is today. What were these events and forces and who are some of the individuals – not only from Europe but from Asia–who made this transformation possible?

Henryk Wieniawski - Scherzo Tarantelle
Juliane Rhee, violin; Natalie Zhu, piano
Frederic Chopin - Etude Op. 10 no.5 for piano solo
Natalie Zhu, piano
Reinhold Gliere - Romance for violin and piano, Op.3
Zachary DePue, violin; Henry Kramer, piano
Franz Liszt - “La Campanella”
Henry Kramer, piano
Niccolo Paganini Caprice No. 16 (transcription for viola)
Che-Hung Chen, viola
Intermission
Alexander Borodin/William Primrose - Nocturne from String Quartet No. 2 Burchard Tang, viola; Natalie Zhu, piano
Frederic Chopin - Polonaise Brillante in C Major, Op.3
Priscilla Lee cello; Natalie Zhu, piano
Felix Mendelssohn - Rondo Capriccioso
Henry Kramer, piano
Fritz Kreisler Praeludium and Allergro
Julian Rhee, violin; Henry Kramer, piano