The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

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

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Beliri

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

Concerts in Honor of

Women’s History Month

March 5, 12, and 19, 2008

Wednesday Afternoons, 12:10 pm

West Building Lecture Hall

Admissionfree
2,663rd Concert 

March 5, 2008

Women ofthe National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble

Rosa Lamoreaux, Joellen Brassfield, soprano

Gisele Becker, Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano

Maribeth Gowen, piano and harpsichord

Tina Chancey, viola da gamba and percussion

Risa Browder, violin

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

O Viridissima Virga

The ensemble

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)

Sonetto proemio dell’opera

Merce di voi, miafortunata Stella

Ms. Lamoreaux, Ms. Hollinshead

Strozzi

Consiglio amoroso

O sojfrire, ofuggire

Ms. Lamoreaux, Ms. Becker, Ms. Hollinshead

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847)

Two Duets

Im wunderschonen Monat Mai

Ms. Brassfield, Ms. Hollinshead

Aus meinen Trdnen spriessen

Ms. Lamoreaux, Ms. Becker

Mendelssohn-Hensel

Waldruhe

The ensemble

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

Five Hebrew Love Songs

Poems of Hila Plitmann

Temuna

Kala kalla

Larov

Eyze sheleg!

Rakut

The ensemble

EricThiman (1900-1975)

Spring Wind

Poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Ms. Lamoreaux, Ms. Brassfield

Clara Schumann (1819-1896)

Toccatinafrom. Soirees Musicales, No. 6 (1834-36)

Ms. Gowen

Maria Malibran (180S-1836)

Nocturne: Le Rendez-vous

Ms. Becker, Ms. Hollinshead

Pauline Garcia-Viardot (1821-1910)

Les Bohemiennes (After a Hungarian Dance ofJohannes Brahms)

The ensemble

Liza Lehman (1862-1918)

There are Fairies at the Bottom ofthe Garden

Arranged by Tina Chancey 

The ensemble
The Musicians

ROSA LAMOREAUX

Soprano Rosa Lamoreaux is known for her “wonderfully rich timbre and

an amazingly flexible voice” (The Washington Post), versatile musicianship,

and diverse repertoire. An award-winning vocalist with a busy international

career, she has earned praise for her interpretations of a wide range ofmusic,

from the songs of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) to those of Dmitri

Shostakovich (1906-1975). She has been a featured soloist with the symphony orchestras ofAtlanta and Cincinnati and has won critical acclaim for

her performances at Bach festivals in both the United States and Europe.

She has been the artistic director ofthe National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble

since 2004.

JOELLEN BRASSFIELD

Soprano Joellen Brassfield is a familiar figure in the local early music scene

as both an accomplished soloist and ensemble artist. She has appeared

as a soloist with many ofthe area’s most prominent musical organizations

including the Alexandria Choral Society, the American Repertory Singers,

Cantate Chamber Singers, Cathedral Choral Society, the New Dominion

Chorale, Orpheus, the Palestrina Choir, the Washington Bach Consort, the

Washington Kantorei, and the Woodley Ensemble. Recent highlights include

performances with the Folger Consort in a critically acclaimed production of

Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, a program ofmusic by Dietrich Buxtehude

with Hesperus, and a supporting role in Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas in a

joint concert with the Bach Sinfonia and Chantry.

4

Soprano Gisele Becker maintains an active career as a choral conductor as well

as a singer. Music director ofthe Cantate Chamber Singers since 1994, she led

that ensemble in concert at the National Gallery in December 2002. She has

prepared choirs for many stage and symphonic productions in Washington,

including a Cathedral Choral Society presentation of Hindemith’s When Lilacs

Last in the Dooryard Bloomed (under the direction of Robert Shaw), a Folger

Consort performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and a National Symphony

performance ofCharles Ives’ Symphony no. 4, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

A graduate ofThe Catholic University ofAmerica, Becker has taught at Trinity

College in Washington, dc, and the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in

Winchester, Virginia.

BARBARA HOIIINSHEAD

Acknowledged as one ofWashington’s finest early music interpreters, mezzosoprano Barbara Hollinshead has been a member ofthe National Gallery

Vocal Arts Ensemble since 2004. She frequently performs as a soloist with

other ensembles throughout the Mid-Atlantic region as well as in Indiana and

New York. Outside the United States, she has performed in Canada, Germany, 

Italy, and Scotland. Her repertoire ranges from medieval Byzantine chant to

twentieth-century song cycles.

RISA BROWDER

Violinist Risa Browder is much sought after as a performer of early music. A

graduate ofthe Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the Royal College of

Music in London, and the Schola Cantorum in Basel, she is the concertmaster

ofthe baroque chamber orchestra Modem Musick, which she cofounded with

her husband, cellist John Moran. The long list of early music ensembles with

which she has performed includes the Academy ofAncient Music, the English

Concert, Florilegium, the Folger Consort, the Hanover Band, London Baroque, 

the London Classical Players, Les Musiciens du Louvre, rebel, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and the Washington Bach Consort.

GISELE BECKER

5
TINA CHANCEY

Tina Chancey is a master not only ofthe viola da gamba but also ofseveral

lesser-known period instruments, among them the kamenj, the rebec,

and the vielle. A pioneer in generating early music activity in the Washington area, she is a founding member ofthe ensemble Hesperus, known

throughout the United States for its early music and folk music concerts 

and recordings. Chancey has also performed with the Folger Consort and

the Ensemble for Early Music, and she writes articles and book reviews for

Early Music America and other publications. She has bachelor and master of

music degrees from Queens College, the City University of New York, and 

New York University, and a Ph.D. in musicology from the Union Institute.

MARIBETH GOWEN

A graduate ofthe University ofAlabama and Emporia State University,

pianist Maribeth Gowen studied with Manahem Pressler, Nelita True, and 

members ofthe Guarneri String Quartet. She was the winner ofthe 1980

Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Artist Competition and the 

1990 Baltimore Chamber Music Award. In addition to numerous appearances at the National Gallery, she has performed at the Bams at WolfTrap,

Chicago Symphony Hall, Constitution Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center 

for the Performing Arts, the Phillips Collection, and Weill Recital Hall. She

performs regularly in piano duo with her husband, Bradford Gowen.

6

2,665th Concert

March 12, 2008

Life! Love! Song! A Visit with Gena Branscombe (1881-1977)

Kathleen Shimeta, mezzo-soprano

Martin Hennessy, pianist

Ould Doctor Ma’Ginn (1911)

Text: Arthur Stringer

I Shall Hold to Life (1934)

Text: Josephine Hancock Logan

Starlight (1907)

Text: Laurence Hope

Serenade (1905)

Text: Robert Browning

The Morning Wind (1913)

From “The Sun Dial”

Text: Kendall Banning

How do I love thee? (1907)

From “Love in a Life”

Text: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Enchantment (1911)

Text: Josef von Eichendorff
Sprightly Mrs. Grasshopper (1922)

Text: Gena Branscombe

On Green and Grassy Hillside (1911)

Text: Gena Branscombe

Hilltop Dreaming (1925)

Piano Solo

At the Postern Gate (1919)

From “Songs ofthe Unafraid”

Text: Kendall Banning

Hail Ye Tyme ofHoliedayes (1912)

Text: Kendall Banning

Heartsease (1915)

Text: Gena Branscombe

Spirit ofMotherhood (1924)

Text: Louise Driscoll

Bluebells Drowsily Ringing (1916)

Text: Gena Branscombe

Ah! Love, I Shall Find Thee (1927)

From “Bells ofCircumstance”

Text: Gena Branscombe

The Composer

This recital, created by mezzo-soprano Kathleen Shimeta and coauthored by

Evan Pappas, showcases the life and works of Gena Branscombe (1881-1977),

a pioneer among American women composers. In her 1980 doctoral dissertation, Gena Branscombe, American Composer and Conductor: A Study ofHer

Life and Works, Laurine Elkins-Marlow wrote: “The life of Gena Branscombe

is an inspiring record of a woman of great ability who carved for herself a

viable musical career at a time when American composers were just coming

into their own in this country.” In today’s language, Branscombe was a

woman who did it and had it all. She established a career in music while

single and maintained it during her marriage, successfully balancing her

work with actively raising a family.

Influenced early by the late German romantic style, Branscombe helped

develop a twentieth-century musical voice that blended American and

Victorian themes. She produced 150 art songs as well as choral, piano solo,

and chamber music, most ofwhich was published within her lifetime.

After her death, her richly melodic music seemed lost to history, despite its

outstanding beauty. This concert gives tribute to a woman ahead of her time, 

whose professional training and perseverance, contemporary associations, 

continuous support of American musical organizations, and European

compositional influence helped lay an enduring foundation for modern

women in music.

9
The Musicians

KATHLEEN SHIMETA

Mezzo-soprano Kathleen Shimeta is a versatile interpreter of art songs,

chamber music, oratorio, and opera, whose work has been enthusiastically

received throughout the United States and Europe. She has devoted considerable time to discovering and recording works from the rich repertoire of

American composer Gena Branscombe. The CD Ah, Love I Shall Find Thee:

Songs ofGena Branscombe, now available on Albany Records, is a collaboration between Shimeta and pianist Martin Hennessy.

Shimeta’s recent and upcoming performances include an appearance

at the Library ofCongress and The University of Maryland, celebrating the

100th anniversary ofthe MacDowell Colony and its women composers, and

two other performances of “Life, Love, Song!” one with the Cantata Singers 

of Elmira, New York, and the other at Hofstra University in Long Island, New

York. A strong advocate for contemporary American composers, Shimeta

made her New York City debut when she performed die premiere of Michael

Linton’s Cantata #2 at Merkin Hall. She premiered Linton’s Canti Catulli at

die Seatte, Washington, convention ofthe National Association ofTeachers 

of Singing and has appeared in performances ofBach’s St.John Passion,

Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabaeus, Respighi’s

Laud to the Nativity, and Verdi’s Requiem.

10

MARTIN HENNESSY

Martin Hennessy is a composer, vocal coach, and pianist based in New 

York City. His studies at Georgetown University and at the Juilliard School 

of Music with Samuel Sanders and Marshall Williamson prepared him

for rewarding collaborations with many leading singers. Hennessey’s keen

interest in language and poetry, together with his exemplary accompaniments, continue to make him a highly-prized recital partner. He has toured

extensively through Asia, Europe, and the United States with the Bel Canto

Trio and the Ambassadors of Opera, and he has been musical director

and pianist for numerous productions and master classes presented by the

Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Education Program. He has also served on the

faculties ofthe Juilliard American Opera Center; Carlo Bergonzi’s Bel Canto

Seminar in Busseto, Italy; Joan Dornemann’s Opera Training Institute in

North Carolina; and Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont.

Hennessy’s compositions have earned him awards from ascap, the

American Music Center, and Meet the Composer. A compact disc featuring

seven ofhis songs, paired with Ned Rorem’s cycle Women’s Voices, can be

found on the Newport Classic label. Hennessy’s most extensive work to date 

is the musical edgar, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, which

was developed over two years by Live Arts Theater in Charlottesville, Virginia,

and produced as an equity showcase by Vital Theatre Company in New York

City. A member ofthe Dramatists Guild ofAmerica, Inc., Martin Hennessy

has an honors degree in English literature from Columbia University.

11
2,667th Concert

March 19, 2008

Faces of a Woman

Tapestry

Cristi Catt, soprano

Laurie Monahan, mezzo-soprano

Daniela Tosic, alto

With guest performers

Diana Brewer, mezzo-soprano and vielle

Shira Kammen, alto, harp, vielle, andfiddle

Anonymous

A Windowfor Her Eyes

Text from a Serbian epic poem, The Building ofSkadar

Marcos Krieger (b. 1967)

Lyulyala, lyulyala

Montenegran lullaby

Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Tebye poyem

From The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom

Ivan Moody (b. 1964)

Slova: Anna Akhmatova and Orthodox liturgy

12

Rachmaninoff

Sugubaya i Posleduyuschiya Ekteniya

From The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom

Joan Szymko (b. i960)

Nada te turbe

Dom Dinis (1261-1325)

Non sei como me salv’a

Traditional romanceiro, Alentejo Portugal

Raihna Santa Isabel

Comtessa Beatrice de Dia (Twelfth century)

A Chantar

Bamberg Manuscript (Thirteenth century)

Nonne sui, nonne/Amour vaint toutfors cuer defelon

Appalachian Folk song

Careless Love

Arr. Cristi Catt

Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978)

IfYou Love Me

Margaret McAllister 

Grainne (Grace O'Malley)

Irish folk song

Ord se do bheatha
The Musicians

The women ofTapestry met in the early 1990s at the Longy School of Music

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where their interest in medieval music and

the twelfth-century abbess, mystic, and composer Hildegard von Bingen led

them to form the ensemble. For their debut in 1995, however, they chose

to sing Tehillim by contemporary composer Steve Reich. In 2005 Tapestry 

was invited to celebrate Reich’s seventieth birthday, and performed Tehillim

with Marin Alsop and the Denver Symphony. Tapestry has four recordings

on the Telarc International label: Angeli, Celestial Light, Song of Songs,

and The Fourth River. Its fifth CD, Sapphire Night, produced by Musikhaus

Dabringhaus und Grimm, won the Echo Klassik Prize. In 2007 mdg

also released Faces ofa Woman.

In addition to their active performance schedule, the members ofTapestry

teach and present workshops at the Medieval Institute at the Longy Music 

School and perform with a wide array ofmusical ensembles. Laurie Monahan

periodically performs baroque music as a soloist with Aston Magna, most

recently as Messegerio and Musica in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Cristi Catt follows

her fascination with the meeting points between medieval and traditional

music, which has lead to performances with Balmus, HourGlass, and Le Bon

Vent, and research grants for study in Portugal and France. Daniela Tosic

juggles music ofthe Renaissance (with Blue Fleron), world music (with

Balmus and FlourGlass), and baroque music (with La Donna Musicale).

Diana Brewer, also a Longy Music School alumna, performs with

the Amor Artis Baroque Orchestra of New York, the Arcadia Players of

Northampton, and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, in addition to her

frequent guest performances with Tapestry. Shira Kammen travels the

world performing, teaching, and looking for adventure. She produced a

recording in the Grand Canyon, founded Class V Music so she could play

on river rafting trips, and, together with Laurie Monahan, once entertained

an elephant at the Jerusalem Zoo.

14

Program Notes

Drawn from the individual and shared passions ofthe women ofTapestry,

this program crisscrosses borders and centuries to tell tales ofremarkable

women who inspired nations and generations and captured the imaginations of artists, composers, and writers.

A Windowfor Her Eyes and Lyulyala, lyulyala

I remember The Building ofSkadar from my school days when it was forever

etched into my memory. It haunted me then and it haunted me even more

when I became a mother. This medieval epic poem takes place in present day

Montenegro, near the Albanian border, at the dawn ofthe Ottoman invasion.

Three brothers—a king, a duke, and a fictitious youngest brother—are

charged with building a fortress at an important crossroad. For three years, 

the fortress is built by day and destroyed at night by the Vila, a female

mountain spirit. Finally, the Vila summons the king and demands a human

sacrifice. The bride ofthe youngest brother is the unfortunate victim. She 

pleads for her life for the sake ofher baby. Nevertheless, she is built into the

tower. A miracle occurs, and through a window around her breasts she is

able to feed her son for one year. I selected three verses from the poem and

set them to a somewhat altered traditional Serbian melody. To introduce this

tale, we sing a Montenegran lullaby by Marcos Krieger. A citizen of Germany,

Dr. Krieger was raised in the Brazilian Amazon region, where his parents

are missionaries to the Xerente tribe. He is an active conductor, vocal coach, 

singer, and keyboard artist.

Daniela Tosic

15
Tebye Poyem, Slova, and Sugubaya i Posleduyuschiya Ekteniya

Condemned for her “preoccupation” with love and God, Russian poet Anna

Akhmatova (1889-1966) was harshly denounced as a “harlot-nun” and alien

to the Soviet people. In 1923 she entered a period ofpoetic silence and

literary ostracism, living in exile without fleeing her country. Following the

German invasion in 1941, Akhmatova gave an inspiring radio address to the

women of Leningrad. She was lovingly called “Anna Chrysostom of all the

Russias” by her contemporary, Marina Tsvetayeva. Only later in her life did

Akhmatova receive recognition for her work.

Sergey Rachmaninoffwas forced to flee Russia after the 1917 Revolution 

and eventually settled in the United States. His Liturgy ofSaint John Chrysostom. composed in 1910, received a lukewarm reception in Russia and subsequently fell into oblivion. In the late 1980s a complete set ofthe vocal parts for 

the Liturgy was discovered at the Saint Tikhon ofZadonsk Monastery in South

Canaan, Pennsylvania. British-born Ivan Moody resides in Portugal and won

the Royal Holloway Prize for his Three Poems ofAnna Akhmatova. Eastern

liturgical chant has profoundly influenced his music, and some ofhis music

has been called reminiscent ofthe Rachmaninoff Vespers. Together, these

three works make an effective musical triptych.

Daniela Tosic

Nada te turbe

We discovered Joan Szymko’s setting ofTeresa ofAvila’s (1515-1582) poem

“Nada te turbe” during a residency with Cantus Femina at Western Michigan

University. Inspired by their performance ofthe piece, we decided to include

it here. Szymko is a prolific choral composer, conductor, performer, and educator from the Pacific Northwest. Teresa nearly fell to the Spanish Inquisition for daring to teach men and wrote an account of her life and way of

prayer in order to clear her name. She is the author of Interior Castles, The

Way ofPerfection, and several poems. Her heavenly visions inspired sculptor

Gian Lorenzo Bernini s masterpiece The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.

Cristi Catt

16

Raihna Santa Isabel and Non sei como me salv’a

Bom in Saragossa, Spain, Isabel of Portugal (1271-1336) left her home to

assume the throne of Portugal as a young teenager. The queen quickly won

the love ofher subjects and was referred to as “The Peacemaker,” due to her

skillful mediation between various warring factions. She also possessed a

remarkable understanding of architecture and engineering. The convent of

Santa Clara in Coimbra as well as other hospitals and churches in Portugal

were built under her direct supervision. After the death ofher husband, she

became a nun, dedicating her life to good works. Her popularity increased

over time as numerous tales of her “miracles” spread throughout Portugal

via song and storytelling. Canonized in 1625, she was also a central figure

ofthe Crypto-Jewish cult in Portugal, as many drew parallels between Isabel

and Queen Esther.

Tapestry’s realization offragments of a cantiga de amor by Isabel’s husband, Dom Dinis, reveals their marriage as far from perfect. Hints ofthis are

also reflected in Portugal’s popular tradition with tales ofIsabel outwitting

her husband. For our version ofthe tale, I adapted melodies from Cantiga de

Santa Maria #7 and an ancient ballad from Tras os montes and set them to a

traditional romanceiro text.

Cristi Catt

A Chantar and Nonne sui, nonne

“The Countess of Dia was the wife of En Guillem de Poitiers, a lady beautiful

and good. And she fell in love with En Raimbaut d’Orange, and wrote many

good chansons in his honor” (Hieronymous Vida). The clues from this brief

medieval biography ofComtessa Beatrice de Dia (second halfofthe twelfth 

century) are difficult to trace, but she is the most famous ofthe some twenty

named women poet-composers, trobaritz, from the Southern French musical

tradition, and her song, A Chantar, is the one song from these composers to

survive with text and music intact. The language for the performance, Old

Provencal, is the fruit of a challenging opportunity to work with language
scholar Dr. Margaret Switten, who heads the remarkable Medieval Lyric

project at Mt. Holyoke College. Her scholarship and insight into the details 

ofthe language provide an important key to unlocking the sentiments ofthe

song’s expression. We have paired A Chantar with Bamberg motets that

express the often humorous protestations ofyoung nuns doing battle with

the cloistered life.

Laurie Monahan

IF YOU LOVE ME

Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978) is remembered as an influential social

activist and songwriter. Denied her high school diploma because ofher

parents’ opposition to World War 1, she went on to receive a Ph.D. in 1936.

A Jewish Socialist woman in the midst ofthe Great Depression, she was 

unable to find a teaching position, so she became a social worker and

columnist for The People’s World. In her forties, she discovered her true

calling in music. Her song “What Have They Done with the Rain?” helped

to end nuclear testing under the Kennedy administration, and a number of

her songs have been recorded by Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, and others.

“IfYou Love Me” is one ofmy favorite songs. I sang it with a good friend as

we traveled cross country singing for our supper, and later with my daughter.

I am happy to have the chance to include it here, and have paired it with

another favorite, the Appalachian folk song “Careless Love,” which I’ve

known as long as I can remember. According to ethnomusicologist Alan 

Lomax, it is the earliest American blues tune.

Cristi Call

18

GRAINNE

Grace O’Malley, aka Grainne Mhaol (1530-1603), a highly idealized and

romanticized figure in Irish folklore and poetry, was a contemporary of Mary

Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England. At that time the O’Malleys were an

ancient and respected clan, one offew known for their seafaring skills. Contemporary research reveals her as a complex character—an expert navigator,

literate in Latin, a leader ofmen in battle, smuggler, pirate, politician, wife,

lover, and mother—but above all a survivor in the precarious times that

marked the final twilight ofCeltic Law and the Celtic way oflife in Ireland.

Her remote castle on Clare Island, within view ofthe sacred Druid and

Christian mountain Crough Patrick, was her seat of power. I have attempted

to reveal a little ofthe complexity ofGrace with music and words evocative

ofher relationship to the land and sea, and her heart both wild and canny. I

include a quote from her letter ofsubmission to Elizabeth. She was one of

the last ofthe clan leaders to submit to English domination and did so with

characteristic boldness, presenting herself directly to Elizabeth at Hampton

Court. Elizabeth was sympathetic towards Grace, but there can be no doubt

that this submission was a galling requirement for the Irish woman’s survival

in dangerous and uncertain times. I dedicate this piece to my grandmother,

Margaret Kelly, bom in Glasgow to Irish parents.

Margaret McAllister, senior lecturer in music theory, Boston College