THE FOUR SEASONS
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 | 7:30 PM
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Victoria
ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678 – 1741)
The Four Seasons
Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, “Spring” (La primavera)
- Allegro
- Largo e pianissimo sempre
- Allegro pastorale
Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315, “Summer” (L’estate)
- Allegro non molto
- Adagio e piano – Presto e forte
- Presto
Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293, “Autumn” (L’autunno)
- Allegro
- Adagio molto
- Allegro
Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, “Winter” (L’inverno)
- Allegro non molto
- Largo
- Allegro
INTERMISSION
ASTOR PIAZZOLA (1921 – 1992)
Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)
- Verano Porteño (Buenos Aires Summer)
- Invierno Porteño (Buenos Aires Winter)
- Primavera Porteña (Buenos Aires Spring)
- Otoño Porteño (Buenos Aires Autumn)
Nicolas Tavani, violin
Francesca Anderegg, violin
Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, conductor
VBF Chamber Orchestra
VIOLIN I
Rachel Shapiro, concertmaster
Jackson Guillen
Lee Taylor
Caleb Polashek
VIOLIN II
Juan Jaramillo, principal
Abigail Bellorin
Susan Doering
Steven McMillan
VIOLA
Caitlyn Lynch, principal
Désirée Elsevier
Luis Bellorín
Vincent Marks
CELLO
Gregory Sauer, principal
Carol Anne Bosco
Barbara George
Dieter Wulfhorst
DOUBLE BASS
Andrew Potter, principal
Jonathan Rouse
Sponsors
Doris & Gary Childress
This concert is generously supported by our concert sponsors and by donors to the Victoria Bach Festival’s Annual Fund. Many thanks to our generous supporters!
Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, conductor
Esteemed conductor and pianist Dr. Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez was named Artistic Director of Musica Viva NY and Director of Music of the historic Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan in 2015. He is also Co-Founder of the New Orchestra of Washington and Artistic Director of the Victoria Bach Festival. He has earned accolades from The Washington Post as a conductor “with the incisive clarity of someone born to the idiom,” as well as praise from The New York Times for leading “a stirring performance” of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem.His guest conducting engagements include appearances at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Degollado Theatre in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he led the Jalisco Philharmonic. As a pianist, Hernandez-Valdez performed for the 2013 Britten100 festival in New York, organized by the Britten-Pears Foundation to honor the 100th anniversary of the titular composer’s birth. Read full bio
Nicholas TAVANI, violin
Violinist Nicholas Tavani was born in Arlington, VA, and debuted in Washington, D.C.’s Gaston Hall at the age of eight. The Cleveland Plain Dealer praised him as “ an alert and sensitive artist, with beautiful tone and exquisite phrasing,” and the Washington Post has hailed his “brilliant musicianship.” As a chamber musician, recitalist, and concerto soloist, Mr. Tavani has performed extensively to critical acclaim in the United States and around the world. As first violinist of the Aeolus Quartet, he was a winner of the 2011 Plowman International Chamber Music Competition, the 2011 Yellow Springs Chamber Music competition, and the 2009 Coleman International Chamber Music Competition. He is also a laureate of the Postacchini and Kingsville International Violin Competitions.
Mr. Tavani serves as first violinist in the Aeolus Quartet, who are currently Artists in Residence at Musica Viva New York. In addition, he serves as concertmaster of the New Orchestra of Washington and is a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble and the Smithsonian Chamber Players.
A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Tavani has premiered and recorded several works by living composers, including Samuel Adler, Alexandra Bryant, Christopher Theofanidis, Missy Mazzoli, and Dan Visconti. His discography includes four albums with the Aeolus Quartet in wide release on the Azica, Naxos, and Innova labels. Solo performances with orchestra include the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Arlington Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Prince William Symphony, New Orchestra of Washington, and many others. Collaborations include Renee Fleming, Peter Salaff, Jon Kimura Parker, Daxun Zhang, and Michael Tree.
Mr. Tavani’s current season includes chamber, recital and concerto performances across the US and extensive touring across the US with the Aeolus Quartet.
As a committed educator, Mr. Tavani has served on the faculties of the George Washington University School of Music, Point CounterPoint Music Festival, the MasterWorks Festival, and the University of Maryland High School Music Academy. He served as teaching assistant to the Juilliard Quartet at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes, and the Aeolus Quartet was 2013-2015 Graduate Quartet in Residence. Mr. Tavani completed a doctorate under the mentorship of David Salness at the University of Maryland. His thesis was titled Quantifying Dynamic Pitch Adjustment Decision Structures in String Quartet Performance. An alumnus of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Nicholas studied violin with William Preucil and chamber music with Peter Salaff and the Cavani Quartet. In addition to a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from CIM, Nicholas also studied mathematical physics at Case Western Reserve University.
Francesa ANDEREGG, violin
Hailed by The New York Times for her “rich tone” and “virtuosic panache,” violinist Francesa Anderegg consistently delivers insightful performances of both classical and contemporary scores. Through her inventive programming, active composer collaborations and precise, yet impassioned interpretations, she has earned renown as a musical explorer of the first order.
As a soloist, Francesa Anderegg has performed a wide variety of traditional and contemporary violin concerti with orchestras throughout the United States and South America. Following her 2008 Carnegie Hall debut, she has been presented in recital in distinguished national and international venues, among them The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, The Arts Club of Washington, Chicago Symphony Center and Bógata’s Museo Nacional de Colombia. Ms. Anderegg’s festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center, National Music Festival,California’s Music in the Vineyards, Sarasota Music Festival and Yellow Barn in Vermont.
Francesca Anderegg is also active in the recording studio, and her albums have been featured on radio programs throughout the United States and noted for “stunning virtuosity” (Fanfare Magazine), “lustrous tone” (The Strad Magazine) and “riveting listening experience” (Second Inversion). “Wild Cities” was selected as a favorite of 216 by New Music Box, and her most recent release, “Images of Brazil,” won praise as “the most delightful disc of Brazilian chamber music to come along in years” (Fanfare Magazine).
The continual search for unusual repertoire has made Francesca Anderegg a fierce advocate for new music. Since her 2007 New York City concerto debut in Ligeti’s Violin Concerto with The Juilliard Orchestra, she has championed the works of 20th Century and living composers. She performed Daniel Schnyder’s jazz-influenced Violin Concerto with Orchestra for the Next Century and played Pierre Boulez’s orchestral and solo compositions, under the direction of the composer, at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. With her husband, the Venezuelan-American composer Reinaldo Moya, she has presented a series of his original works exploring magical realism and other fascinating elements of Latin American literature and imagination. In collaboration with the celebrated conductor Gemma New, Ms. Anderegg gave the August 2019 world premiere of Moya’s violin concerto, Vestida de Mar, commissioned for her by Greenwood Music Camp and the Lakes Area Music Festival.
Francesca Anderegg holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and earned both master’s and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, where her teachers included Robert Mann, Ronald copes and Naoko Tanaka. She is a laureate of the Corpus Christi International String Competition, the Second Place winner of The American Prize Instrumental Soloists Competition (Professional Division) and recipient of fellowships from both the McKnight Foundation and the Leonore Annenberg Fund. An enthusiastic educator and mentor of young musicians, Ms. Anderegg has been a guest teacher at universities throughout the United States and abroad and has taught at Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts. Currently, she is Associate Professor of Violin at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.
