Francis Poulenc: Supreme Melodist

A panorama of over forty years of Poulenc's creative activity: from the urbane a gracious Nocturne No. 1 of 1929 to the Clarinet Sonata written a year before his untimely death in 1963, a mature work exhibiting technical expertise and profound beauty. The program will conclude with songs, mostly written during the war years. These, more than anything else he wrote, display his unique style characterized by haunting melodies and a lushly dissonant harmonic landscape, with influences from popular music, jazz, and dance forms. His melodic gift and marked affinity with words make him one of the highest representatives of the vocal genre.

Program

Nocturne No. 1
Nocturne No. 2
Mélancolie
Clarinet Sonata
I. Allegretto
II. Romanza
III. Allegro con fuoco
Miroir Brûlants, FP 98
I. Tu vois le feu du soir

Fiançailles pour rire, FP 101
V. Violon

La Courte Paille, FP 178
III. La Reine De Coeur

Métamorphoses, FP 121
I. Reine des mouettes
II. C'est ainsi que tu es

Deux Poèmes de Louis Aragon
I. C

Banalités, FP 107
IV. Voyage à Paris

Internationally acclaimed pianist Roberto Hidalgo has performed in some of the most prestigious venues in the world and his native Mexico with a repertoire that covers a vast array of works that explore boundaries and creatively challenges his audience’s imagination. Recent performances include a program devoted to the music of Nicolai Medtner, at the David Greer Hall, Bloomingdale School of Music and the Mexican premiere of George Crumb’s Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik, at the Urtext Festival in Mexico City. He has toured Chile with concerts in Concepción, Santiago and Viña del Mar; also, he has played at the Scriabin Museum and Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow; Collegial Saint-Julien in Tournon, France; Komitas Hal in Yerevan, Armenia; and Philharmonia Hall in Minsk, Belarus. He offered a lecture-recital at Moscow Conservatory on Mexican music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. He has been invited as soloist by the Orquesta de Minería, Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa and Orquesta de Baja California. Carlos Miguel Prieto, Fernando Lozano and Grzegorz Nowak are some of the conductors he has worked with. Festivals and series include Friends of Mozart, in New York, Festival Cervantino, in Mexico, Compositores del Caribe Festival, in Medellín, Colombia, August-to-April Series at Festival Hill, Round-Top, TX and numerous presentations organized by the Mexican Cultural Institute both in New York and Washington, DC. He has offered Mexican premieres of works by George Crumb, Emmanuel Nunes and Sebastian Currier among others. His New York recitals at Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall have been enthusiastically received by the press and public. In addition, he keeps an ongoing partnership with Marc Peloquin with whom he has formed the Split Second Piano Ensemble presenting a wide array of works for two pianos in venues such as the KeyedUp Music Project in New York and Festival Hill at Round-Top. He holds a bachelors and masters degree from Mannes College of Music and a doctoral degree from Manhattan School of Music.

Vocalist Noelle Barbera holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied under Joan Caplan and Maitland Peters. She has been a finalist in Indiana Opera's McAllister Awards competition and was a resident artist with Caramoor Opera. A versatile and accomplished performer in opera, concert and theater, Ms. Barbera has been favorably reviewed in New York for her work with the Bronx Opera where she performed the roles of Ännchen in Der Freischütz and Fiammetta in the rare operetta Boccaccio. Critics praised her "shining upper register and musicality"(Opera News). The soprano with a "face made for the stage"(Opera News) has also sung the roles of Mimi in La Boheme, Violetta in La Traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto, Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, and Adele in Die Fledermaus. Ms. Barbera's concert credits include Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Haydn's Stabat Mater, Mozart's Requiem and Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate with such orchestras as One World Symphony, The Berlinnerkammerorchester, The Orchestra at William Patterson, The Orchestra of the Bronx and the Barnard-Columbia Symphony. Most recently, Noelle performed the "Lux Aeterna" from Paul Leavitt's Requiem with the Litha Symphony.

Danny Mui is the 2nd/Bass Clarinetist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra at Lincoln Center. Prior to joining the orchestra, he was the Principal Clarinetist of the Baton Rouge Symphony and 3rd/Utility Clarinet in Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Danny has won and received awards in numerous solo and chamber competitions such as The Fischoff National Music Competition, National Arts and Letters Mid-Michigan Wind Competition, American Opera Society of Chicago Competition, Chicago Chamber Winds Competition, Evanston Music Club Competition, Jacqueline Event Concerto Competition, and Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition.

He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra at St Luke’s, Grand Rapids Symphony, and Ann Arbor Symphony. Danny holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Western Michigan University, a Master of Music in Clarinet Performance from Northwestern University, and a Specialist Degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Michigan.

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