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performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

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Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

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Concerts are made possible in part through the generosity of donors

to the National Gallery ofArt through The Circle. Reserved seating is

available in recognition oftheir support. Please contact the development 

office at (202) 842-6450 or circle (a) nga.gov for more information.

The Seventy-second Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

3,002nd Concert

National Gallery ofArt Chamber Players

with Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Presented in collaboration with the 

Delegation ofthe European Union

to the United States

May 28, 2014

Wednesday, 12:10 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Steven Joseph Psaila (Maltese, b. 1984)

The Forsaken

Nejc Kuhar (Slovenian, b. 1987)

Quintet no. 2 (2014)

World premiere performance

Jes Grixti (Maltese, b. 1969)

Sospiro (2014)

World premiere performance

Milos Stedron (Czech, b. 1942)

Rockfor 22 Strings (2012)

World premiere performance

Rock

Barock 

Rock-Ballade

Jazzrock

Ventzislav Dikov (Bulgarian, b. 1979)

Movementfor Cello and Piano

This afternoon’s concert is the culmination of a month-long collaboration among the National Gallery ofArt, the Delegation ofthe European

Union to the United States, and numerous other concert presenters in

the Washington, DC area, celebrating May as the “European Month of

Culture.” In this, the last ofsix such concerts at the Gallery, the National 

Gallery ofArt Chamber Players perform music by composers from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Malta, and Slovenia. Notes on the composers

and their works may be found in the enclosed insert to the program.

The Musicians

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART CHAMBER PLAYERS

Consisting primarily ofsmall ensembles from within the National Gallery of

Art Orchestra, members ofthe National Gallery ofArt Chamber Players 

have provided appropriate chamber music in conjunction with a number of

recent Gallery exhibitions, including music by nineteenth-century French

and Belgian composers in honor of The Darker Side ofLight: Arts ofPrivacy,

1850-igoo (2009); Renaissance Spanish music in honor of The Art ofPower:

Royal Armor and Portraitsfrom Imperial Spain (2009); Music by Gershwin,

Joplin, and Milhaud in honor of From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester

Dale Collection (2011); and music for silent films from Catalonia in honor of

Joan Miro: The Ladder ofEscape (2012). Joined on this occasion by soprano

Rosa Lamoreaux, artistic director ofthe National Gallery ofArt Vocal Ensemble, chamber players participating in this afternoon’s concert are:

Teri Lazar and Claudia Chudacoff, violins

Osman Kivrak, viola

Marion Baker and Diana Fish, violoncellos

Barbara Fitzgerald, contrabass

Danielle DeSwert Hahn, piano

Sara Nichols,flute

Gerry Kunkle, guitar
National Gallery of Art Chamber Players

With Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

May 28, 2014

Program Notes

A music teacher at Saint Benedict’s College and the Johann Strauss School ofMusic in Floriana,

Malta, Stephen Joseph Psaila began his musical training as a piano student ofAntoinette Berg at

age six. He graduated from the University of Malta with a degree in music studies, specializing 

in musicology and composition. Composer of a number ofshort works for strings and piano as

well as sacred and liturgical music, Psaila expresses his love for nature in compositions such as

The Storm, Whispering Winds, and Waves, the last ofwhich was inspired by the beautiful 

beaches of Malta. Psaila’s interest in poetry inspired him to compose The Forsaken, a statement 

of helplessness and isolation based on William Wordsworth’s (1770-1850) eponymous poem:

The peace which other seek they find;

The heaviest storms not longet last;

Heaven grants even to the guiltiest mind

An amnesty for what is past;

When will my sentence be reversed?

I only pray to know the worst;

And wish as ifmy heart would burst.

O weary struggle! Silent year 

Tell seemingly no doubtful tale;

And yet they leave it short, and fear

And hopes are strong and will prevail.

My calmest faith escapes not pain;

And, feeling that the hope in vain,

I think that he will come again.
Slovenian guitarist and composer Nejc Kuhar began his musical study under the guidance

ofAnton Cmugelj and continued in Vienna with guitarist Alvaro Pierri and composer Rainer 

Bischof. As a guitarist, Kuhar has won numerous prizes, including first prizes in the TEMSIG

and Primoz Ramovs competition (Slovenia), and second prizes in the Gorizia and Vibo Valetia 

guitar competitions (Italy). In 2013 he performed at the National Gallery with fellow Slovenian

guitarist Mak Grgic. Among Kuhar’s recent compositions are several that have won international

awards, including third prize for Six Miniatures at the prestigious Gustav Mahler Competition in

Austria (2009) and first prize at the Recital Music Composition Competition in England for

Svasta for double bass (2010). His Quintet no. 2 is the second in a planned series of pieces for

soloist with string quartet. Since this combination allows a similar approach to a concerto for

soloist and orchestra, Kuhar adheres to an updated sonata form: the Quintet features an

introduction, two distinct expository themes, a development that transforms from a peaceful

cantabile to brutally aggressive agitato, and a recapitulation relying heavily on string pizzicati

and harmonics.

Maltese composer Jes Grixti’s music has been performed internationally, in venues that

include the National Conservatory ofMusic in Mexico City, the National Museum of Kenya in

Nairobi, and Weill Hall in New York City. Later this year another of Grixti’s works will be

premiered at the forty-third annual International Double Reed Society convention, hosted by 

New York University. Grixti holds PhD and master ofmusic degrees in composition from the

University of Melbourne, Australia, and is currently a visiting fellow at the Australian National

University in Canberra. His composition teachers included Brenton Broadstock (Australia),

Franco Donatoni (Italy), Carmelo Pace (Malta), and Michael Regan (UK). Winner ofthe Billy

Joel Award in screen composition, Grixti also scores for films and multimediaJSospiro, a

lament, draws its inspiration from Maltese folk music. Its lyrical lines combine modality,

tonality, and atonality, and its rhythmically lively moments are presented in clear, succinct, and

distinctive gestures for virtuoso flute.

Czech composer, pianist, librettist, musicologist, and pedagogue Milo tedron holds

degrees in piano, composition, and musicology from the Janacek Academy of Music and

Masaryk University in Brno. A teacher of composition, harmony, form analysis, and

contemporary music at the Prague Conservatory, he writes in a broad range of genres, including 

chamber and orchestral works, theater and film music, operas, and musicals. His compositions
have been performed in Europe, South America, and the United States, tedron composes 

primarily for chamber ensembles, and many ofhis pieces draw inspiration from folk music and

feature non-traditional instruments.

tedron frequently links the music ofthe past to contemporary music. He uses the

methods of collage, montage, and other techniques leading to modernist banalization and even

parody. In writing Rockfor 22 Strings, he pays tribute to rock-and-roll, with its fusion of

influences from blues, jazz, gospel, and country music. For this reason each ofthe four

movement titles refers to a different style. Not intended as a crossover piece, the work 

emphasizes the rhythmic power ofrock music as well as its simple harmony, which tedron 

converts to classical and modal harmonies. He explores the potential ofthe string quartet to

imitate an electric bass or a snare drum, with the tonal result being a chamber guitar concerto

with the string quartet as an accompanying band.

A multimedia artist, Ventzislav Dikov uses unconventional combinations ofinstruments 

and sounds. Most of his compositions fall within the field of chamber music, often combining 

digital modification with “classical” compositional techniques. His primary stylistic influences

are electronic music, folkloric music, free improvisation, late vanguard jazz, and minimalism. A

painter as well as a composer, Dikov has developed an audiovisual project, Macrostation, which 

uses his fresh musical language to deepen the relation between visual art and music. Written in

2013 for cellist Geoffrey Dean and pianist Daniela Dikova and premiered by the duo at Sofia,

Bulgaria’s Chamber Stage Festival, Movementfor Cello and Piano is the first of a sequence of

movements for these two instruments that form one ofDikov’s larger projects. Among his more

traditional chamber music compositions, it combines characteristics ofboth romanticism and

minimalism.

Program notes by Michael Jacko, musicprogram assistant, National Gallery ofArt.