75TH SEASON 

OF CONCERTS

OCTOBER 16, 2016 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
PROGRAM

3:30 • West Building, West Garden Court

Curtis on Tour

Ashley Marie Robillard, soprano

Dennis Chmelensky, baritone

Mikael Eliasen, piano

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)

Italienisches Liederbuch

Act I

Ich hab' in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen

Wenn du mich mit den Augen streifst

Wie viele Zeit verlor' ich

Mir ward gesagt, du reisest in die Feme

Und steht Ihr fruh am Morgen auf 

Du sagst mir daft ich keine Furstin sei

Ich lieft mir sagen

Was fur ein Lied soil dir gesungen werden

Man sagt mir, deine Mutter woll' es nicht

Und willst du deinen Liebsten sterben sehen

Act II

Was soil der Zorn

Schon streckt' ich aus im Bett die muden 

Glieder

Geselle, woll'n wir uns in Kutten hullen 

Nein, junger Herr

Daft doch gemalt all' deine Reize waren 

Wer rief dich denn?

Selig ihr Blinden 

Auch kleine Dinge

0 wijfttest du, wie viel ich deinetwegen

Mein Liebster ist so klein

Act III

Wie soil ich frohlich sein

Wenn du, mein Liebster, steigst zum

Himmel auf

Wohl kenn' ich Euren Stand

Heb' auf dein blondes Haupt

Mein Liebster singt

Gesegnet sei das Grun

Ihr jungen Leute

Gesegnet sei, durch den die Welt entstund

Wie lange schon war immer mein Verlangen

Laft sie nur geh'n

Act IV

Mein Liebster hat zu Tische mich geladen

Ihr seid die Allerschbnste

Du denkst mit einem Fadchen

Hoffartig seid Ihr, schones Kind

Wir haben beide

Ein Standchen Euch zu bringen

Nicht langer kann ich singen

0 war' dein Haus durchsichtig wie ein Glas

Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag' erhoben

Schweig' einmal still

Epilogue

Ich esse nun mein Brot nicht trocken mehr

Heut' Nacht erhob ich mich urn Mitternacht

Benedeit die sel'ge Mutter

Sterb' ich, so hullt in Blumen meine Glieder

Verschling' der Abgrund

Nun laft uns Frieden schlieft

The Musicians

Ashley Marie Robillard

Ashley Marie Robillard, from Norton, Massachusetts, entered the Curtis Institute of Music

in 2013 and studies with Julia Faulkner, adjunct voice faculty. All students at Curtis receive

merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Robillard is the Joseph Cairns Jr. and Ernestine 

Bacon Cairns Memorial Fellow.

During the 2016-2017 season, Robillard performs the roles of the Bat in Ravel's

L'Enfantet les sortileges, Lucia in Britten's Rope ofLucretia, and Bianca in Puccini's Lo Rondine.

She also performs with Curtis on Tour, singing Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch, with

baritone Dennis Chmelensky and pianist Mikael Eliasen.

During her previous seasons at Curtis, Robillard performed the roles of Musetta (La

Boheme), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Poussette (Manon), Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), and

Tisbe (La Cenerentola). Before attending Curtis she performed as a soloist with the New 

England Conservatory's Youth Chorale and Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Honegger's 

King David. She has also performed in numerous productions at the Walnut Hill School for

the Arts, including the Fairy Godmother in Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon and multiple roles in

Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortileges. Robillard also participated in a production of Die Zauberflote,

with the Tuscia Opera Festival/International Lyric Academy in Italy.

Dennis Chmelensky

Dennis Chmelensky, from Berlin, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013 and studies

with Marlena Kleinman Malas and Mikael Eliasen. He is the Guna S. Mundheim Annual Fellow.

In the 2016-2017 season, Chmelensky performs as a soloist with Curtis on Tour, singing Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch, with soprano Ashley Robillard and pianist Mikael

Eliasen. He has previously appeared as a soloist with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Staatsund Domchor Berlin, Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, Lautten Compagney Berlin, Philharmonie

Siidwestfalen, and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Chmelensky is the recipient of many awards, including scholarships from Opera

Libera, Inc. and the Wagner Society. He is also the winner of the Engelbert Humperdinck

Prize (2008), Grand Prix Golden Snowflake Prize (2008), the Barenreiterpreis (2008), first

prize in Germany's Young Composer Awards, and the Europaischer Hoffnungspreis (2009).

He released his debut album DENNIS in 2009 with Sony.

Chmelensky's notable roles include Papageno (D/e Zauberflote), Blansac (La Scala di

Seta), Fyodor (Boris Godunov), Spinellocchio (Gianni Schicci), Schaunard (La Boheme), First

Officer (Dialogues of the Carmelites), and Paul in the world premiere of Empty the House, an

opera by composer Rene Orth and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Mark Campbell. He has

participated in the Orchestra of the University of the Arts and the State and Church Choir

of Berlin, as well as the Chautauqua Institution and the Kempinski Young Artist Programme. 

Chmelensky previously attended the Georg-Friedrich-Handel-Musikgyrmnasium and the 

University of the Arts Berlin for voice and conducting.

Chmelensky began violin lessons at age five and voice and piano lessons at age

seven. His former teachers include Heide Gortz, Dr. Anna Sylvan, Kai-Uwe Jirka, Anne

Kathrin Balo, Regina Schudel, and Sebastian Noack. In his spare time, Chmelensky enjoys 

board games, reading, jogging, debating, and film.

75th Season * 3
Mikael Eliasen

Danish-born coach and accompanist Mikael Eliasen received his early training in Copenhagen,

Montreal, and Vienna. He has collaborated with numerous singers in recital worldwide,

including Robert Merrill, Tom Krause, John Shirley-Quirk, Elly Ameling, Edith Mathis,

Florence Quivar, Mira Zakai, Sarah Walker, Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, and Curtis alumni

Theodor Uppman, Michael Schade, and Rinat Shaham.

Eliasen has given master classes at Aix-en-Provence, the Shanghai Conservatory, 

Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Moscow), Jerusalem Music Center, and National Opera of Prague.

He has a long association with the young-artist programs at the Royal Danish Opera and

the Opera Studio of Amsterdam. In the United States, he works regularly at the Lyric Opera

of Chicago, L.A. Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and the

Metropolitan Opera and is artistic advisor to Opera Philadelphia. He has recorded for Albany

Records, CBC, Hilversum Radio, Polish State Radio, Kol Israel, Irish Radio and Television, 

London Records, MHS, and Supraphon.

Eliasen was music director of the San Francisco Opera Center from 1994 to 1996 and

artistic director of the European Center for Opera and Vocal Art in Belgium from 1984 to

1994. For twenty years he has taught at Chautauqua's Voice Program during the summers.

In 2013, he was appointed artistic adviser to Opera Philadelphia. Eliasen led the Young Artist

Voice Program as part of Curtis Summerfest 2016. Eliasen joined the faculty of the Curtis

Institute of Music in 1986 and became the head of the department in 1988. At Curtis, he is

Artistic Director of the Curtis Opera Theatre and the Hirsig Family Dean of Vocal Studies.

Curtis Institute of Music

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

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

a local and global community through music-making of the highest caliber. Each year 175

students come to Curtis, drawn by a tuition-free, performance-inspired, learning culture.

In this intimate environment, they are nurtured by a celebrated faculty and inspired by the 

school's distinctive "learn by doing" approach, offering more than two hundred concerts

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

Described as "one of the world's finest music academies" by BBC Culture, Curtis reaches

global audiences through Curtis Performs, the school's dedicated high-definition performance 

video site. Online music courses and Summerfest programs offer lifelong learners further

ways to listen, explore, and learn. And students 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 four thousand alumni

who have long made music history. They are in the front rank of soloists, composers, and

conductors and hold principal chairs in every major American orchestra. Curtis graduates

are musical leaders, making a profound impact on music onstage and in their communities.

4 • National Gallery of Art

Curtis on Tour

Curtis on Tour is the Nina von Maltzahn global touring initiative of the Curtis Institute of 

Music and offers students professional touring experience alongside celebrated alumni and

faculty. In addition to performances, musicians offer master classes, interactive programs,

and community engagement activities while on tour. 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.

75th Season * 5
Program Notes

Hugo Wolf, who mastered the art of the small form in the German "lied," began Italienisches

Liederbuch singing the praises of small things. "Auch kleine Dinge” is the first of forty-six

songs based on Paul Heyse's German translation of Tuscan and Venetian love songs, and of

the collection, only six are more than two pages long. While they are short, they are dense

with intricacies of both drama and music. The composer, whose ability to match word with

tone in his native language was extraordinary. In the songs, he masterfully sets the Mediterranean depictions of daily life in a new way, no longer married to the monumental grandeurs of German romantic literature.

The manner in which Wolf composed was in creative spurts —and he wrote these

two volumes in similar fashion. He began in earnest and with great fervor in the fall of 1890,

completing seven songs in three months, then had writer's block for a year. At the end of

1891, he composed fifteen more songs in twenty-five days, which Schott Music published in

1892. For the next two years Wolf suffered from the effects of syphilis (the disease would

eventually kill him), and he did not write a single note. At the end of March 1896, he

resumed his composition of the Italian songs and completed twenty-four more in a matter

of five weeks. Less than a year later, Wolf lost his sanity due to his illness and remained

unable to work for the remainder of his life. The Italienisches Liederbuch was not composed

as a song cycle, nor was it intended to be performed as such by Wolf. He himself never had 

the chance to hear all forty-six songs performed together. In recent years it has become

more common for the two books to be performed in one program, as much as a theatrical

piece as a concert piece.

6 * National Gallery of Art

Upcoming Events of the SeventyFifth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

LeStrange Viols

The Duarte Family: A Musical Household

in the Age of Rembrandt

Presented in honor of Drawings for

Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt

October 23, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Anderson & Roe Piano Duo

Danse Macabre

October 30, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Four Goldberg Variations

Spend an afternoon immersed in Bach's 

iconic keyboard variations on a G-major

theme. The monumental work has inspired

numerous transcriptions, each one bringing

new aspects of its genius to light. Come

for your favorite, or stay to hear them all.

November 6

Ignacio Prego, harpsichord

12:00, West Building Lecture Hall

Aspen String Trio

1:30, West Building, West Garden Court

Atlantic Reed Consort

3:00, West Building Lecture Hall

Dan Tepfer, jazz pianist

4:30, West Building, West Garden Court

A Far Cry

Dreams and Prayers

featuring David Krakauer, clarinet

November 20, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

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.

www.nga.gov

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www.twitter.com/ngadc

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The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery ofArt, Washington

Cover Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pianist and Singer

(detail), 1928, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, Gift in

Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National

Gallery of Art

Back cover West Building, Constitution

Avenue entrance, viewed from Sixth Street NW,

1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 

Gallery Archives