Upcoming Events of the SeventySixth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, all programs

take place in the West Building,

West Garden Court.

Heinavanker Ensemble

Featuring ancient Estonian songs

and folk hymns

Celebrating Michel Sittow: Estonian

Painter at the Courts ofRenaissance Europe

April 8, 3:30

Tamagawa University Taiko 

Drummers and Dancers

April 13, 12:10

East Building Atrium

Fretwork

Featuring music by Alexander Goehr

and J. S. Bach

April 15, 3:30

Inscape Chamber Orchestra

Featuring Saint-Saens’s Carnival of

theAnimals, with new verses by

Marc BamuthiJoseph, and Mahler’s

Symphony no. 4, chamber version

April 22, 3:30

The Westerlies

The Songs We Sang: American Vocal

Music ofthe 20th Century

In celebration ofInternationalJazz Day, the

Westerlies premiere a quartet of pieces by

Duke Ellington adapted for brass quartet.

April 29, 3:30

Julia Bullock, soprano

John Arida, piano

Music by Schubert, Barber, Faure,

and more

May 6, 3:30

Ranky Tanky

Celebrating Outliers andAmerican

VanguardArt

May 13, 3:30

Christina and Michelle Naughton

Piano music by Mozart, Schubert,

Bolcom, Bach/Kurtag, Debussy,

Chopin, and Futoslawski

May 20, 3:30

Admission to the National Gallery ofArt

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the performance is not

allowed. Please be sure that all portable

electronic devices are turned off.

The department of music produced

these program notes. Copyright © 2018

Board ofTrustees, National Gallery of

Art, Washington

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 of their support. Please 

contact the development office at 

(202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for

more information.

Cover Arthur F. Flory, Blossoms (detail),

1962, National Gallery ofArt, Washington,

Rosenwald Collection

nga.gov/music

76TH SEASON OF CONCERTS

APRIL 1, 2018 / NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Richard Stoltzman and Mika Stoltzman. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco

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Program

Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

Mika Stoltzman, marimba

Duo Cantando

APRIL 1, 2018/3:30

WEST BUILDING, WEST GARDEN COURT

Bill Douglas (b. 1944) Bill Douglas

Irish Spirit Diamond Dance

Waltz Cantando

William Thomas McKinley (1938-2015)

Selections from Mostly Blues Torn Takemitsu (1930-1996)

Air

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Chromatic Fantasy

Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

Arr. Richard Stoltzman Torn Takemitsu

Richard Stoltzman, clarinet Wings

arr. Bob Becker

John Zorn (b. 1953)

The Nymphs John Zorn

Mika Stoltzman, marimba Palimpsest

Chick Corea (b. 1941)

Sea Journey Impressions

Arr. Tim Garland

Intermission

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Pavane pour une infante defunte

Arr. Mika Stoltzman and

Richard Stoltzman

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Program subject to change.

Three Piecesfor Solo Clarinet

Richard Stoltzman, clarinet
The Musicians

RICHARD STOLTZMAN

Richard Stoltzman’s musicianship and personal magnetism have made him one of

today’s most sought-after concert artists. As a soloist, he has performed with more

than one hundred orchestras; he is a two-time Grammy winner, an innovative jazz

artist, and a prolific recording artist, known to dazzle critics and audiences with his

virtuosity in many musical genres.

A graduate of Ohio State University, with a double major in music and mathematics, Richard earned his master of music degree at Yale University, studying with

Keith Wilson. Later he worked toward a doctorate degree with Kalmen Opperman

at Columbia University. As a ten-year participant in the Marlboro Music Festival,

Richard gained extensive chamber music experience and subsequently became a

founding member of the noted ensemble TASHI, which made its debut in 1973.

Richard gave the first solo clarinet recitals for the Llollywood Bowl and Carnegie

Hall, and he became the first wind player to win the Avery Fisher Prize. He was

featured in the International Emmy-winning series Concerto!, with Dudley Moore

and Michael Tilson Thomas, and was given the prestigious Sanford Medal by the

Yale School ofMusic. As both a jazz and classical artist, Richard has performed or

recorded with such jazz and pop greats as Gary Burton, the Canadian Brass, Chick

Corea,Judy Collins, Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez, Keith Jarrett, the King’s Singers, 

Mike Manieri, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Mel Forme, Kazumi Watanabe,

and Jeremy Wall, the founder of Spyro Gyra.

Richard’s commitment to new music has resulted in the commissioning and 

premiere of numerous new works for the clarinet, including Fantasma/Cantos, by 

Torn Takemitsu; Landscapes with Blues, by Stephen Hartke; a concerto by Einojuhani

Rautavaara; TRIO 2009, written by Yehudi Wyner for Richard, cellist Lynn Harrell,

and pianist Robert Levin; and Marika Groove, written by Chick Corea for Richard

and his wife, marimbist Mika Stoltzman. The piece premiered with Eddie Gomez

and Steve Gadd at Carnegie Hall.

Richard’s discography includes more than eighty releases on BMG/RCA,

SONY Classical, MMC, BIS, Albany, and other labels, including a Grammy-winning

recording of the Brahms Sonatas with Richard Goode. In 2017, Richard released

Duo Cantando with Mika Stoltzman on marimba (Savoy/Denon).

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MIKA STOLTZMAN

Originally from Amakusa Island in southern Japan, Mika Stoltzman was born

into a family steeped in music and culture. Her grandparents played the biwa and 

shamisen—traditionalJapanese instruments—and her aunt taught piano. At age

three, Mika began piano studies and later joined her school brass bands. It was

there that her fascination with drums began. Later, while attending a local music 

college, she discovered the marimba and it seemed a perfect combination of her

earlier training on piano and the drums. A lifelong love for the instrument began.

Following graduation, Mika studied with the Canadian percussion ensemble

NEXUS and attended a music performance program at the University ofToronto.

She launched her career with debuts in Tokyo and New York and produced her first 

music festival in her hometown in 2005. An ardent admirer of clarinetist Richard

Stoltzman, she invited him to perform at her 2008 festival. Over the succeeding

years, their continued collaboration resulted in performances throughout the world,

as well as their marriage in 2012. In 2017, they released the album Duo Cantando,

produced by Stephen Epstein and featuring guest artist Chick Corea and the Boston

Modern Orchestra.

Described as a “high-wire jazz marimbist...an amazing, energetic performer”

(LA Times), Mika has performed at numerous prestigious venues: seven times at 

Carnegie Hall; the 2005 and 2007 Percussive Arts Society International Conventions;

the Cairo Jazz Festival; and several appearances at the Blue Note in Tokyo and

Nagoya. In Japan, she premiered works with the Kyushu Symphony and the

Kumamoto Symphony Orchestras and has been a guest soloist with the Krakow

Philharmonic (Poland), the Szombathely Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), and

the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra (Mexico). Linder the name Mikarimba, she performed

before a sold-out audience at the 2015 RockportJazz Festival in Massachusetts, with

legendary drummer Steve Gadd.

Mika released her first album titled Mitsue in 1998, followed by Marimba Phase

in 2003. She recorded a live DVD, Marimba Madness, in 2010, with Steve Gadd,

bassist Eddie Gomez, and pianist PeterJohn Stoltzman. Gadd subsequently produced her two albums Mikarimba (Video Art Music,Japan), which again featured

Gomez, and IfYou Believe (TeeGa Music,Japan). Her arrangement and performance

of Tokyo /Vermont Counterpoint is included on Steve Reich’s album Triple Quartet

(Nonesuch). She has also performed on Richard Stoltzman’s album Goldberg Variations (BMG Japan) and Jo Hisaishi’s Asian XTC (UniversalJapan).

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Program Notes

The program’s title—Duo Cantando—means “singing duo” and is taken from the

musicians’ affinity for the composition Waltz Cantando, featured today. When asked

exactly what singing means to instrumentalists, Richard Stoltzman says, “It is joy 

and sorrow. Also a delight in innocent sounds.” Mika Stoltzman adds, “I often tell

Richard we want to play like singing. It’s hard to play marimba, a percussion instrument, like singing. It is an eternal challenge, a vision also. Richard is an expert in

that style—I’m learning day by day.”

Richard’s close association with composer Bill Douglas reaches back to their

college days. “Bill was in my class at Yale School of Music, a bassoon player, and 

we used to play together a lot as a duo. I understand jazz chord progressions, but I

learned how to improvise and use modal jazz from him. I owe him for being able to

create works transcending the traditional genre. He also could make invaluable and

challenging suggestions like ‘let’s make it more poignant,”’ Richard recalls. Featured

today are three works by Douglas: Irish Spirit, Diamond Dance, and Waltz Cantando.

According to Mika, Douglas wrote his first commission for the duo in 2000, and

“he would always offer us a new piece he was happy with, as our best friend. This

[Diamond Dance] was music he freshly wrote.”

Mostly Blues was composed by William Thomas McKinley—also a Yale classmate

of Richard’s and a close composer friend. “When I asked him to write a short piece for 

Mika and me, he sent me this Mostly Blues after one month, consisting oftwenty-two

movements! The pieces seem simple, but each one is cleverly connected to the basic

blues scale with its flat third and follows Mika’s request to have a groove!” says Richard.

Throughout the years, the Stoltzman duo has maintained a deep friendship with

legendary composer and pianist Chick Corea. In a 2013 Carnegie Flail performance,

they paid tribute to his legacy by featuring six of Corea’s compositions—including

one world premiere—on the program. This mutual collaboration resulted in the

inclusion of Corea’s Sea Journey Improvisation —improvisations based on his original

work Sea Journey—on the Duo Cantando album that was performed with the duo

and the composer. Tim Garland, in his arrangement of Sea Journey Impressions for

marimba and clarinet duo, is also centered on this original piece by Corea.

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John Zorn, a remarkable composer and saxophonist in the contemporary music 

world, wrote The Nymphs at Mika’s request in 2012. “He sent me this score in three

months. Then I came to New York and he gave me two fantastic coachings!” recalls 

Mika. Written in two parts, the mysterious character of the first half features circular

sounds, with the second half full of excitement, acceleration, and brilliance. The

Stoltzmans premiered one of Zorn’s newest compositions for the duo, Palimpsest, at 

Carnegie Hall in 2017.

Throughout his career, Richard’s cross-genre musical activities have been

credited with breaking through the wall that existed between classical and popular

music until the 1980s. It may be more accurate to say he “built a bridge,” especially 

through his fresh, novel take on classical masterworks, as evidenced in J.S. Bach’s

Chromatic Fantasy for solo clarinet to collaborations with Mika in Ravel’s Pavane pour

une infant defunte, on today’s program.

Program notes adapted from liner notes by Yo Nakagawa for the Stoltzmans’

Duo Cantando album, 2017.

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