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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 ofmusic 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

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more information.

Cover Keith Anden Achepohl, Capricdo

VII (detail), 1995, National Gallery ofArt,

Washington, Gift of the Artist

nga.gov/music

76TH SEASON OF CONCERTS

FEBRUARY 11, 2018 / NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Zora String Quartet with David Shifrin and Jiacheng Xiong. Photo by Pete Checchia

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Program

Curtis on Tour

The Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute ofMusic

David Shifrin, clarinet 

Dominic Armstrong, tenor

Jiacheng Xiong, piano

Zora String Quartet

Dechopol Kowintaweewat and Hsuan-Hao Hsu, violin

Pablo Munoz Salido, viola

Zizai Ning, cello

FEBRUARY 11, 2018/3:30

WEST BUILDING, WEST GARDEN COURT

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano

Grazioso— Lin poco piu mosso

Andantino—Vivace e leggiero

David Shifrin, clarinet 

Jiacheng Xiong, piano

Leonard Bernstein

“Extinguish My Eyes,” from Two Love Songs

“I’ve Been Afraid” from A Quiet Place

“So Pretty”

“When My Soul douches Yours,” from Two Love Songs

“My Twelve-Tone Melody”

“Dream with Me,” from Peter Pan

Dominic Armstrong, tenor

Jiacheng Xiong, piano

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Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Sextet for Piano, Clarinet, and String Quartet

Allegro vivace

Lento

Finale: Precise and rhythmic

David Shifrin, clarinet

Jiacheng Xiong, piano

Zora String Quartet

Intermission

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Lullaby

Zora String Quartet

Leonard Bernstein

Songs and Dances (from West Side Story)*

Arr.John B. Hedges

“Something’s Coming”

“Dance at the Gym”

“Maria”

“Ballet Sequence— Somewhere”

This concert is generously supported by the Billy Rose Foundation.

* Songs and Dances is commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music for

Curtis on Tour in celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s Centenary.

Program subject to change.

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The Musicians

CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC

Drawing upon ninety years of artistry, the Curtis Institute ofMusic pairs tradition

and innovation, educating exceptionally gifted young musicians as artist-citizens who 

engage local and global communities through music-making ofthe highest caliber.

Each year, 175 students come to Curtis, drawn by a tuition-free, performance-inspired

learning culture that is nurtured by a celebrated faculty. The school’s distinctive 

“learn by doing” approach results in more than two hundred concerts each year in 

Philadelphia, as well as performances around the world through Curtis on Tour.

Known as one of the world’s finest music academies, Curtis reaches global

audiences through Curtis Performs, the school’s dedicated HD performance video 

site. Online music courses and Curtis Summerfest programs offer lifelong learners

other ways to listen, explore, and learn. Students also hone twenty-first-century

skills through social entrepreneurship programs that bring arts access and education

to the community.

The extraordinary young musicians of Curtis graduate to join 4,000 alumni who 

have long made music history. Each season, leading orchestras, opera houses, and 

chamber music series around the world feature Curtis alumni. They are in the front

rank ofsoloists, composers, and conductors and hold principal chairs in every major

American orchestra. Curtis graduates are musical leaders, making a profound impact

on music, both onstage and in their communities.

CURTIS ON TOUR

Curtis on Tour is the Nina von Maltzahn Global louring Initiative of the Curtis

Institute ofMusic. An embodiment ofthe school’s “learn by doing” philosophy, the

initiative offers students professional touring experience alongside celebrated alumni

and faculty. In addition to performances, the tour offers master classes, interactive

programs, and community engagement activities. Curtis on Tour also facilitates solo

performances of Curtis students and alumni with professional orchestras and recital

series. Since the program was established in 2008, students, faculty, and alumni have

performed more than two hundred concerts in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

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DOMINIC ARMSTRONG

Dominic Armstrong, tenor, has quickly established himself as an artist ofsuperb

musicality and characterization. This season, Armstrong joins the IVdilwaukee

Symphony for Bach’s Magnificat, Curtis on Tour for its annual touring initiative,

Hudson Hall as Jo the Loiterer in The Mother ofUsAll, and appears with both the

Los Angeles Opera and the Center for Contemporary Opera in a double bill of

two Gordon Getty one-act operas, Usher House and The Canterville Ghost, as both

Edgar Allan Poe and Duke Cecil ofYorkshire.

Last season, Armstrong returned to the Dayton Opera as Don Jose in Bizet’s

Carmen and to the Lansing Symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In January,

he joined the Beth Morrison Projects for the New York City performances of Breaking the Waves. Previously, Armstrong traveled to Russia to perform Britten’s War

Requiem with the Russian National Orchestra and subsequently performed in a series

of concerts, collaborating with Craig Rutenberg. Armstrong also made his company

debut with Opera Colorado as Arthur Dimmesdale in the anticipated world premiere

of Lori Laidman’s The Scarlet Letter, sang the Second Jew in Strauss’s Salome with

the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and performed in recital with the Brooklyn Art

Song Society. During the summer of 2016, Armstrong performed the role ofAlfredo 

in Verdi’s La traviata with Chautauqua Opera.

DAVID SHIFRIN

Clarinetist David Shifrin is one of only two wind players to have been awarded the

Avery Fisher Prize since its inception in 1974. He is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber music collaborator, and has appeared with the

Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras and the Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, 

Detroit, and Phoenix Symphonies. He has performed internationally with orchestras

in Italy, Switzerland, Germany,Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and has been principal 

clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra (under

Leopold Stokowski), the Honolulu and Dallas Symphonies, the Los Angeles Chamber

Orchestra, and the New York Chamber Symphony. As a recitalist, he has received 

critical acclaim, appearing at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Library of

Congress. A much sought-after chamber musician, he has collaborated frequently

with such distinguished ensembles and artists as the Tokyo and Emerson String

Quartets, Wynton Marsalis, and pianists Emanuel Ax and Andre Watts.

An artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CxMSLC)

since 1989, Shifrin served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004. He has toured

extensively with CMSLC and hosted and performed in several national television

broadcasts on PBS’s Livefrom Lincoln Center. He has been the artistic director of

Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, since 1981 and is also the artistic

director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Festival.

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In 1987, Shifrin joined the faculty at the Yale School ofMusic and was

appointed artistic director of its Chamber Music Society in 2008. He has served 

on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California,

the University ofMichigan, the Cleveland Institute ofMusic, and the University

of Hawaii. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary professorship at the Central

Conservatory ofMusic in Beijing.

Shifrin’s recordings have consistently garnered praise and awards, receiving three

Grammy nominations. His recording of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Mostly

Mozart Festival Orchestra was named Record of the Year by Stereo Review. His latest

recordings are Shifrin Plays Schifrin (Aleph Records)—a collection of clarinet works 

by composer/conductor Lalo Schifrin—and the Clarinet Trios of Beethoven, Bruch, 

and Brahms with cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han (ArtistLed). Shifrin

also continues to commission and champion the works oftwentieth- and twenty-firstcentury American composers, including John Adams,Joan Power, Bruce Adolphe,

Ezra Laderman,John Corigliano, Bright Sheng, and Ellen Zwilich. In addition to

the Avery Fisher Prize, Shifrin has received a Solo Recitalist Fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2016 Concert

Artist Guild Virtuoso Award, and an honorary membership by the International

Clarinet Association in 2014 in recognition oflifetime achievement.

JIACHENG XIONG

Jiacheng Xiong, from Beijing, entered the Curtis Institute ofMusic in 2011 and is

the Wike Family Fellow, studying piano with Robert McDonald. During the 2014-

2015 season, Xiong performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Des Moines

Symphony. He won first prize at the 2014 Korea International Competition for

Young Pianists in Seoul, the American International Piano Competition in Asia

Pacific Macau, and the Xiamen National Youth Piano Competition. Xiong was

also awarded second prize and audience favorite at the Viseu International Piano

Competition and second prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition.

Most recently he was awarded third prize at the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation’s

New York International Piano Competition.

Xiong has attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, was featured on

National Public Radio’s From the Top, and has performed at Carnegie Hall

and at Cortot Hall in Paris. At age twelve, Xiong was invited to perform at the

Luxembourg and Norway embassies in China. Xiong previously studied at the

Central Conservatory ofMusic in Beijing.

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ZORA STRING QUARTET

The Zora String Quartet is in its second season as quartet-in-residence at the Curtis

Institute of Music. During the 2016-2017 season, the quartet debuted with Curtis

on Tour, gave recitals in New York and Washington, DC, and performed nationwide.

This season, the ensemble’s highlights include a US tour with clarinetist David 

Shifrin and tenor Dominic Armstrong as part of Curtis on Tour; debuts at London’s

Wigmore Hall and Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and performances

with violist Roberto Diaz and cellist Peter Wiley on the Philadelphia Chamber

Music Society series.

T he Zora String Quartet won the grand prize and gold medal at the 2015

Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; first prize and several concert prizes 

at the 2015 Young Concert Artists International Auditions; and the Coleman National

Chamber Music Competition. In 2016, the quartet participated in the Chamber

Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Encounters program, concluding

with a performance at Alice Tully Hall, and also appeared at Chamber Music Northwest and the Oregon Music Festival. The group has participated in chamber music 

residencies at the Banff Centre (Canada); in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival

(Connecticut); and in the Advanced Quartet Studies program of the Aspen Music

Festival, where the musicians worked intensively with Earl Carlyss, the Takacs

Quartet, the Pacifica Quartet, and the American String Quartet.

The Zora String Quartet previously served as graduate quartet-in-residence

at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana LTiversity and at the Beethoven-Haus

in Bonn, Germany, in 2014. The name “Zora” means “sunrise” in Bulgarian.

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Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and George Gershwin composed some of

America’s most iconic and beloved music. Each told a distinctly American story: the

Tin Pan Alley songs of Gershwin, the open spaces of the frontier as expressed by 

Copland, and the bustling jazz-flavored urbanity of Bernstein. With this program,

Curtis joins the worldwide centenary celebrations of Leonard Bernstein, a 1941

conducting graduate, who studied at Curtis in his early twenties just before launching his meteoric career. In addition to Curtis on flour performances in Arizona,

California, Florida, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC, the Curtis Opera

Theatre presents Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, the American premiere of the chamber

arrangement by Garth Edwin Sunderland, in New York and Philadelphia. The Curtis

Archives also shares its collection with the public, including photos, letters, and

programs, with more items available online.

Program Notes

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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.

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

To Travel Is to Live

Music by Grieg, Gade, Mendelssohn,

and Tchaikovsky 

February 18, 3:30

Narek Hakhnazaryan, cello 

Noreen Cassidy-Polera, piano

Music by Albeniz, Brahms,

Schumann, and others

February 25, 3:30

ETHEL

Blue Dressfor String Quartet

Music by contemporary women

composers

March 4, 3:30

Janoska Ensemble

Classical music with jazz, gypsy, tango,

Latin, and a dash of pop

March 11, 3:30

The Canales Project

Hear Her Song

A celebration of the choices of

extraordinary women

March 18, 3:30

Benedetto Lupo, piano

Featuring solo piano works by Debussy

Celebrating Cezanne Portraits

March 25, 3:30

Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

Mika Stoltzman, marimba

Duo Cant undo

Music by Bill Douglas, Chick Corea,

Toru Takemitsu, and John Zorn

April 1, 3:30

Pleinavanker Ensemble

Featuring ancient Estonian songs 

and folk hymns

Celebrating Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter

at the Courts ofRenaissance Europe

April 8, 3:30

Fretwork

Johann Sebastian Bach, Art ofFugue

“Fretwork is the finest viol consort

on the planet.”—Stephen Pettitt,

London Evening Standard

April 15, 3:30

Inscape Chamber Orchestra

Saint-Saens, Carnival

Mahler, Symphony no. 4, chamber version

April 22, 3:30

The Westerlies

The Songs We Sang: American Vocal

Music ofthe 20th Century

In celebration of InternationalJazz Day

April 29, 3:30

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