77TH SEASON OF

CONCERTS

national gallery of art | may 8, 15 & 22, 2019
2 3

EUROPEAN MONTH OF CULTURE

Photo courtesy of the artists

The Danish Clarinet Trio 

Tommaso Lonquich, clarinet 

Jonathan Slaatto, cello 

Martin Qvist Hansen, piano 

In collaboration with the Embassy of Denmark and celebrating the 

European Month of Culture

May 8, 2019 | 12:10

West Building, West Garden Court

Niels W. Gade (1817–1890)

Fantasy Pieces for Clarinet (or Violin) and Piano, op. 43 (1864)

Clara Schumann (1819–1896)

Arr. for clarinet by Tommaso Lonquich

Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 17 (1846)

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

Adagio and Allegro for Cello and Piano, op. 70 (1849)

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)

Trio in A Minor, op. 114 (1891)

PROGRAM

The year 2019 marks Washington, DC’s, seventh annual European Month of Culture, a 

festival of cultural events highlighting the diverse cultures of the European Union (EU). 

The National Gallery of Art’s music department has participated each year of the 

celebration, presenting concerts that feature artists and composers from many of the 

thirty-two EU states. Both the EU Delegation to the United States and EU embassies 

partner with prestigious US institutions to offer innovative programs — concerts, 

dance, lectures, theatrical performances, symposiums, workshops, film screenings, 

language classes, culinary demonstrations, and art and other exhibitions. Most events 

are free. For more information, see the listings at EUintheUS.org/eumoc.
5

THE MUSICIANS

Danish Clarinet Trio

Formed by three of the most exciting chamber musicians in Scandinavia, the Danish 

Clarinet Trio has given concerts in Italy, England, Wales, Denmark, and Brazil. Since 

meeting at Ensemble MidtVest in 2011, clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich, cellist Jonathan 

Slaatto, and pianist Martin Qvist Hansen have enjoyed a fertile and exciting collaboration, specializing in two areas of musical research and performance. They have 

delivered lively and thoughtful interpretations of the great masterpieces for clarinet 

trio, such as the works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, while aiming 

to shine a light on neglected gems by Danish composers, such as Per Nørgård and 

Vagn Holmboe.

Lonquich, Slaatto, and Hansen collectively hold numerous honors, including prizes 

at the ARD Competition in Munich, and memberships in the BBC New Generation 

Artists Scheme in London and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New 

York. With Ensemble MidtVest, the group has appeared on several live broadcasts for 

the BBC and Danish Radio. They have recorded Vagn Holmboe’s Eco for clarinet, cello, 

and piano, opus 186 (DaCapo), as well as several other works in duo settings for the 

recording labels DaCapo and CPO. Their upcoming appearances include concerts in 

Scandinavia and a tour of the United States. 

Tommaso Lonquich

Acclaimed as a “formidable clarinetist” (Mundo Clásico) and praised for his “sumptuous 

tone” and for “the mastery and passion of his playing” (Oberon ́s Grove), Tommaso 

Lonquich enjoys a varied and distinguished career. He is solo clarinetist with Ensemble 

MidtVest in Denmark and with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society in New York. 

He has appeared in four continents on the world’s most prestigious stages, notably 

Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, King’s Place in London, and Tokyo’s 

Suntory. He is regularly invited to such major festivals as Lockenhaus, Mecklenburg, 

Pacific, Brevard, and Montepulciano. Lonquich holds a busy chamber music schedule, 

partnering with Carolin Widmann, Pekka Kuusisto, Klaus Thunemann, Sergio Azzolini, 

Alexander Lonquich, the Esbjerg Ensemble, and the Danish, Zaïde, and Noûs String 

Quartets. Lonquich can be heard on several CD releases by Ensemble MidtVest and 

Plural Ensemble (DaCapo, CPO, Col Legno), as well as on live broadcasts by national 

radios worldwide. Future engagements include his Wigmore Hall debut, as well as 

extensive tours in North America, Italy, Scandinavia, France, Slovenia, Germany, and 

the Netherlands. 

Jonathan Slaatto 

As a member of Trio Ondine, cellist Jonathan Slaatto was awarded first and second 

prizes at international competitions, such as the ARD Music Competition in Munich, 

the Melbourne International Music Competition, the Joseph Haydn Competition in 

Vienna, and the London Parkhouse Award. He has performed at London’s Wigmore 

Hall, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Prades Festival in France, the Aldeburgh Festival in 

England, the Canadian Orford Festival, and the MIDEM fair in Cannes. As a chamber 

musician, he has been artist-in-residence at the Danish Broadcast, the Philharmonia in 

Duisburg, and the BBC New Generation Artists Programme. Slaatto has enjoyed solo 

performances with orchestras, such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the 

Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Martin Qvist Hansen

Danish pianist Martin Qvist Hansen (MQH) is a founding member of Trio Ondine and 

of the LSH Group. With Trio Ondine he has won prizes in such competitions as ARD

(Munich), Haydn (Vienna), Parkhouse (London), and DR Competition (Copenhagen), 

to mention a few. He has performed in such venues as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, 

Purcell Room, Vienna Konzerthaus, Herkules Saal, and Mozarteum. Trio Ondine has 

also been a BBC New Generation Artist group with several performances in London 

and a residency with the Duisburg Philharmonic. As a soloist, MQH was a prizewinner 

in the Bratislava Competition and has played concertos with most symphonic orchestras 

in his native Denmark. As a member of Ensemble MidtVest, he has played throughout 

the world, with notable appearances in New York, Rio de Janeiro, London, and Berlin. 

MQH holds a teaching position in chamber music at the Academy of Music in Århus.

4
7

Hanna Bachmann, piano 

Isabel Pfefferkorn, mezzo-soprano

In collaboration with the Embassy of Austria and the Austrian Cultural 

Forum Washington, and celebrating the European Month of Culture

May 15, 2019 | 12:10

West Building, West Garden Court

Isabel Pfefferkorn (b. 1991)

Wüstenschrei 

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

Winterreise (1827)

PROGRAM THE MUSICIANS

Hanna Bachmann

Described by Kirill Petrenko as “a mature personality at the piano,” Hanna Bachmann 

has established herself as an internationally recognized recitalist. As the recipient of 

Vorarlberg’s Richard Wagner Scholarship, she has performed numerous times at 

Bonn’s Beethoven House and Beethovenfest, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Blüthner 

Concert Series, and the well-established Austrian festival Kultursommer-Semmering. 

After graduating from the University Mozarteum Salzburg, Bachmann made a successful North American debut in Mexico in 2018 that included performances with the 

Orquesta Sinfónica de San Luis Potosí and a master class at the renowned Universidad 

Nacional Autónoma de México. Highlights of her 2018–2019 season include a concert 

appearance with the orchestra Sinfonietta Vorarlberg, her debut in the Berlin Philharmonie, and concert tours to the United Kingdom and the United States. In November 

2018, Bachmann released her second album Plaisanteries (Gramola).

Isabel Pfefferkorn

Isabel Pfefferkorn started violin lessons at the age of four and continued her music 

studies in cello, piano, and voice. In 2013, she received the Wagner scholarship, and 

recently she was the youngest finalist in the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, Germany. Pfefferkorn studied at the University of Arts in Zurich with 

Lina Maria Åkerlund. In 2016, she was a member of the “School of Excellence” with 

Margreet Honig at the Basel Music Academy. She attended master classes by Thomas 

Hampson, Angelika Kirchschlager, and Christa Ludwig. As a soloist and chamber musician, 

Pfefferkorn has appeared with several orchestras, including the Sinfonieorchester 

Liechtensein, and at international festivals, such as Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, Vaduz 

Classic, and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg. In addition to her classical repertoire, 

Pfefferkorn’s vocal spectrum includes pop, jazz, and contemporary music. She made 

her debut in the Konzerthaus Wien in 2017, performing Pierre Boulez’s Le marteau 

sans maître.

6

Hanna Bachmann, photo © Nancy Horowitz. Isabel Pfefferkorn, photo © Leo Stopfert
9

Kuba Cichocki, piano 

Bogna Kicinska, vocals 

Patrick O’Leary, bass

In collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and 

celebrating the European Month of Culture

From Warsaw with Love: Polish-American Jazz for Springtime

May 22, 2019 | 12:10

West Building, West Garden Court

The program will be announced from the stage.

PROGRAM THE MUSICIANS

Kuba Cichocki 

Kuba Cichocki is a Polish jazz pianist and composer based in New York City. Over the 

years, he has performed in a variety of contexts in the United States, Europe, and Asia, 

including such festivals as the International Solo Piano Festival (Czech Republic), 

Jarasum International Jazz Festival (South Korea), and New York’s Mafrika Music 

Festival and the International Chopin and Friends Festival. Before coming to New York 

City in 2010, Cichocki performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in 

Polish and European jazz, including Zbigniew Namyslowski, Michael Urbaniak, Aga 

Zaryan, Urszula Dudziak, and Jaromir Honzak. Currently, he is active in New York’s jazz 

and experimental/improvised music, collaborating with five-time Grammy winner John 

Benitez, composer George Brandon, Flin van Hemmen, Rafal Sarnecki, and others. 

Cichocki has performed with his own groups at New York music venues, including 

Nublu, Spectrum, Bowery Electric, Rockwood Music Hall, Shapeshifter Lab, and IBeam. 

He is the leader of Audubon Lab Experiment, a jazz/world/experimental group that 

recorded their debut album in 2016. In December 2018, he released his second album, 

Live at Spectrum, under the Polish label Multikulti.

Bogna Kicinska 

Bogna Kicinska, jazz vocalist, composer, and educator, is originally from Poland. Before 

coming to the United States, she was already recognized as one of the most prolific 

singers on the modern jazz scene, having won the International Jazz Competition for 

Singing Musicians in Zory, the Old Jazz Meeting in Ilawa, and the Nadzieje Warszawy in 

Warsaw. Poland’s Jazz Forum Magazine described her as “a real discovery . . . a vocalist 

with a wide range of voice, singing with great feeling and improvising using scat 

technique without any restraint.”

In 2010, Kichinska moved to New York to study at the Aaron Copland School of 

Music (CUNY). She is in New York’s music scene, performing with a variety of bands 

and projects. In 2012, she started her own quintet, which features some of the finest 

jazz musicians in New York. In 2014, she released her first album, The Maze, which was 

nominated for the Fryderyk 2015 Award, the Polish equivalent of a Grammy. Rick 

Anderson of cdhotlist.com praised Kichinska for her “jaw-dropping vocal facility . . . 

thrilling approach to improvisation. . . . [She is] one of the finest scat singers I’ve heard 

in years.” 

8

Kuba Cichocki, Patrick O’Leary, and Bogna Kicinska, all photos courtesy of the artists 
10 11

Patrick O’Leary 

Patrick O’Leary, bassist, studied piano and bass at Potsdam State University’s Crane 

School of Music, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in music. Originally from 

Buffalo, New York, and now living in New York City, O’Leary has toured North and 

South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, the 

Illinois Jacquet Orchestra, the Hal Garper Trio, and Teri Thornton. While with the 

Lionel Hampton Orchestra, he recorded the Grammy-nominated Sentimental Journey

(Atlantic). O’Leary has recorded with J. R. Monterose, Mundell Lowe, Mel Lewis, Bucky 

Pizzarelli, Jerry Bergozi, and Scott Robinson. Other artists with whom O’Leary has 

played include Diana Krall, James Moody, Junior Cook, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Barry 

Harris, Junior Mance, Joe Williams, and Marlena Shaw. He regularly appears at The 

Blue Note, The Village Vanguard, Bradley’s, Fat Tuesdays, and The Iridium, and has 

recently performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall.

Upcoming Events of the SeventySeventh Season of The William Nelson 

Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, concerts 

are held in the West Building, West 

Garden Court.

The Canales Project

Hear Her Voice, Part II: 

A Mother’s Day Celebration

Featuring lullabies from around the world

May 12, 3:30

Joshua Cerdenia, composer and pianist

Enrico Lagasca, bass-baritone

In honor of Asian Pacific American 

Heritage Month

May 14, 12:00

East Building Auditorium

Rob Curto’s Forró for All 

Jazz in the Garden

Brazilian Folk Jazz

May 17, 5:00

Sculpture Garden

Yumi Kurosawa, koto

With special guests Anubrata Chatterjee, 

tabla, and Virgil Gadson, dancer

Celebrating The Life of Animals in 

Japanese Art

May 19, 3:30

Open Rehearsal: New York Opera Society

The Evolution of Fools: From Jesters 

to Buffoons

Celebrating Sense of Humor

June 1, 3:00

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art 

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.

—

Concerts are made possible in part 

through the generosity of donors to the 

National Gallery of Art 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.

—

The department of music produced 

these program notes. Copyright © 2019 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington

cover Ryszard Gieryszewski, Division 

Lines 2 (detail), National Gallery of Art, 

Washington, Gift of Gerald Cerny
12

NGA.GOV/MUSIC