75TH SEASON

OF CONCERTS

JANUARY 8, 2017 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
PROGRAM

12:30 • West Building, West Garden Court

Curtis on Tour

Complete Violin Concertos of 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Concerto no. 1 in B-flat Major, K. 207

Allegro moderato

Adagio

Presto

Hsuan-Hao Hsu, violin

Concerto no. 3 in G Major, K. 216, Strassburg

Allegro

Adagio

Rondo: Allegro

Angela Sin Ying Chan, violin

Intermission

Concerto no. 5 in A Major, K. 219, Turkish

Allegro aperto

Adagio

Rondo: Tempo di menuetto

Stephen Kim, violin

3=30 • West Building, West Garden Court

Curtis on Tour

Complete Violin Concertos of

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Concerto no. 2 in D Major, K. 211

Allegro moderato

Andante

Rondo: Allegro

Abigail Fayette, violin

Concerto no. 4 in D Major, K. 218

Allegro

Andante cantabile

Rondeau: Andante grazioso; 

Allegro ma non troppo

Brandon Garbot, violin

Intermission

Sinfonia Concertante in

E-flat Major, K. 364

Allegro maestoso

Andante

Presto

Shmuel Ashkenasi, violin

Roberto Diaz, viola

2 • National Gallery of Art

The Musicians

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

local and global communities through music-making of the 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 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 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 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.

Curtis on Tour

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

of Music. An embodiment of the school's "learn by doing" philosophy, it 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.

Hsuan-Hao Hsu, violin

Hsuan-Hao Hsu, from Taipei, Taiwan, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2009 and

studies with renowned violinist Pamela Frank. In recent seasons, Hsu has given solo recitals

at the Macao Cultural Centre and Taipei's National Theater and Concert Recital Hall. He has

performed as a soloist with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, as winner of its competition.

He was a member of the Orchestra of the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan

Normal University for two years and previously studied with Juin-Ying Lee, director of 

National Chiao Tung University.

Angela Sin Ying Chan, violin

Angela Sin Ying Chan, from Hong Kong, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013 and is

a violin student of Shmuel Ashkenasi and Aaron Rosand. Chan was chosen as a 2012 junior

competitor for the Yehudi Menuhin Competition Beijing. She recently was awarded first prize

and a concerto prize in the senior division of the 8th International Louis Spohr Competition

for young violinists.

75th Season • 3
Stephen Kim, violin

Stephen Kim, from Cupertino, California, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013 and

studies violin with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Aaron Rosand. He has performed as a soloist

with several orchestras, including the Aspen, Sendai, and Suwon Philharmonic Orchestras;

the Terre Haute, Carmel, Fremont, Prometheus, and San Francisco Youth Symphony 

Orchestras; and the San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Monta Vista Chamber Orchestras.

Kim was the winner of the Aspen Music Festival's 2014 Violin Competition, the 2013

Dorothy DeLay Memorial Fellowship, and the 2011 American Academy of Conducting at

Aspen's Violin Competition. He has won prizes in numerous other competitions, including

the Sendai, Yehudi Menuhin, and Seoul international music competitions.

Abigail Fayette, violin

Abigail Fayette, from Wading River, New York, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2012

and studies violin with Ida Kavafian. Fayette has performed as a soloist with the Sound

Symphony, Massapequa Philharmonic, Juilliard Pre-College Chamber, and El Paso Symphony 

Youth Orchestras. She served as the concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra for

the 2015-2016 season and as associate principal violin for the 2014-2015 season.

Fayette was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2016 and has attended the

Artosphere Festival, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival, Greenwood Music

Camp, Music from Angel Fire, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Hotchkiss

School's Summer Portals Program, and the Taos and Meadowmount Schools of Music.

Brandon Garbot, violin

Brandon Garbot, from Portland, Oregon, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013 and

studies violin with Ida Kavafian and Arnold Steinhardt. Garbot is a substitute violinist with

the Philadelphia Orchestra and has been a guest artist at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

He served as the concertmaster of the New York String Orchestra in 2014.

Garbot has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Oregon and

Meridian Symphonies, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, and Brevard Music Center

Festival Orchestra. He made his debut at the Kennedy Center in 2012 with the Conservatory

Project. Garbot has performed as part of the Taos School of Music, Perelman Music Program,

Music from Angel Fire, Chamber Music Northwest, and Festival Mozaic, and in the inaugural

season of Chamber Music Encounters with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

He performs regularly as the violinist in Trio St. Bernard and has collaborated with members

of Eighth Blackbird and the Cavani Quartet.

Shmuel Ashkenasi, violin

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Shmuel Ashkenasi attended the Musical Academy of Tel Aviv and

gave his first public performance at the age of eight. After studying with Ilona Feher, he

came to the United States to study with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Ashkenasi won the Merriweather Post Competition, was a finalist in Belgium's 

Queen Elisabeth Competition, and received second prize in the International Tchaikovsky 

Competition in Moscow. In 1969, he formed the Vermeer Quartet and remained its first

violinist throughout the quartet's thirty-nine-year career, gaining a reputation as one of the

world's outstanding chamber musicians.

4 ’ National Gallery of Art

Ashkenasi has toured the former Soviet Union twice and concertized extensively in

Europe, Israel, the Far East, and the United States; and he has collaborated with Rudolf Serkin,

Thomas Hampson, Murray Perahia, Peter Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. He has performed

as soloist with many leading orchestras, including those in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, 

Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, London, Moscow, and Tokyo. Ashkenasi joined the faculty of 

the Curtis Institute of Music in 2007 and also teaches at Bard College.

Roberto Dfaz, viola

A violist of international reputation, Roberto Dfaz is president and CEO of the Curtis Institute

of Music. As a soloist, Dfaz collaborates with leading conductors of our time on stages

throughout the world. He also has worked directly with important twentieth- and twentyfirst-century composers, most notably Krzysztof Penderecki — whose viola concerto he has

performed numerous times with the composer on the podium and whose double concerto

he premiered in the United States.

A frequent recitalist, Dfaz enjoys collaborating with young musicians, bringing a fresh

approach to the repertoire. Dfaz has performed with major string quartets and pianists in

chamber music series and festivals worldwide and is a member of the Dfaz Trio. His recordings

include a Grammy-nominated disc of viola transcriptions by William Primrose for Naxos, as

well as releases on the Artek, Bridge Records, Dorian, Nimbus, and New World labels.

In addition to his decade-long tenure as principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra,

Dfaz was also principal viola of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich and a

member of the Boston Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestras. He is a graduate of the

New England Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he continues

to serve on the faculty, holding the James and Betty Matarese Chair in Viola Studies and the

Nina von Maltzahn President's Chair. Dfaz plays the ex-Primrose Amati viola.

75th Season • 5
Program Notes

We think of Mozart as a composer first and foremost, but in his day he was also renowned

as a musical performer. He was acknowledged as one of the finest keyboard virtuosos of his

era, and he was also an accomplished string player, having been tutored in the violin by his

father, whose extensive violin treatise (published the year of Wolfgang's birth) stands as

a monument of eighteenth-century pedagogy. The young Mozart became adept enough 

to serve as a court violinist —eventually as concertmaster —in his native Salzburg, and he

never relinquished the ability to demonstrate musical ideas convincingly with violin in hand.

Mozart's catalog of works for solo string player includes thirty-three, full-scale sonatas,

two sets of stand-alone variations for violin and piano (more than half of these dating from

his maturity), and five concertos for violin and orchestra. His Concertone for Two Violins and

Orchestra and his famous Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola round out the list of his

extant concerted string works (not counting some serenades in which the violin is spotlighted

as an occasional soloist); and among his chamber music works we find two finely crafted

duos for violin and viola. There also survive three stand-alone movements for violin and

orchestra: the Adagio in E Major, K. 261; Rondo in B-flat Major, K. 269; and Rondo in C Major,

K. 373.

Mozart may have composed his concertos for his own use, but other musicians soon

mastered them as well. Apparently the first virtuoso to pick them up was Antonio Brunetti,

a Neapolitan who was appointed Court Music Director in Salzburg on March 1,1776. He

succeeded Mozart as concertmaster the following year, after Mozart had a falling-out with

Archbishop Colloredo. All five concertos follow the same basic pattern. The first movements

are in sonata-allegro form with a double exposition (the first taken by the orchestra and the

second by the soloist). The soloist is expected to perform an improvised or composed cadenza

at the end of the recapitulation. The second movement of each concerto is in a contrasting

key from the outer movements and also in sonata-allegro form with a featured cadenza

just before the concluding phrase. With the exception of Concerto no. 1, the last movement

of each concerto is in rondo form. Concerto no. 1 features the sonata-allegro form, though

Mozart also wrote an alternate Rondo in Bb Major, K. 269, which remains in the repertoire

as a stand-alone piece.

6 • National Gallery of Art

Upcoming Events of the SeventyFifth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Carlos Rodriguez, piano 

Peter Burroughs, tenor

"Washingtonians on Wednesdays"

Musical Migration

January 18,12:10

West Building, West Garden Court

Noah Getz, saxophone

Osman Kivrak, viola

Danielle DeSwert Hahn, piano

"Washingtonians on Wednesdays"

American works for saxophone,

viola, and piano

January 25,12:10

East Building Auditorium

Cuarteto Latinoamericano

Music by Leo Brouwer, Aaron Copland,

Alberto Ginastera, George Gershwin,

and Dan Roman

January 29, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Marcolivia, violin and viola duo 

"Washingtonians on Wednesdays"

From Bartok to Bebop

February 1,12:10

West Building, Lecture Hall

The Chamber Ensemble of the

American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras

Music by Samuel Barber

February 4, 2:00

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

www.instagram.com/ngadc

www.twitter.com/ngadc

www.facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart

The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Cover John Frederick Peto, The Old Violin (detail),

c. 1890, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Gift of the Avalon Foundation

Back cover West Building, Constitution

Avenue entrance, viewed from Sixth Street NW,

1941, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Gallery Archives