Symposium 87 - November 2, 2008

Helicon's 24th Season Explores Great Musical Cities

Symposium 87 — NEW YORK & BOSTON
November 2, 2008
“AMERICAN VISIONS & VISIONARIES”

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Nicholas Phan, tenor
James Roe, oboe
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
Brooklyn Rider String Quartet
Alex Sopp, fife

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Charles Loeffler Rhapsody for Oboe, Viola and Piano
Songs by Charles Ives
Samuel Barber String Quartet, Op. 11
John Cage In a Landscape
Amy Beach Piano Quintet in F# Minor, Op. 67

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Helicon opens its twenty-fourth season with a Symposium dedicated to the multi-faceted voices of American composers. We begin in 1901 at the dawn of the “American Century” with the evocative music of French-immigrant, Charles Loeffler, and then move to iconoclast, Charles Ives for his quirky, touching songs steeped in American folk music. Samuel Barber’s String Quartet follows with its gripping “Adagio for Strings,” famously featured in Oliver Stone’s “Platoon.” After intermission, Pedja Muzijevic plays the hypnotic In a Landscape by visionary genius, John Cage, and then is joined by the young string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, for Amy Beach’s lush Piano Quintet of 1907.

Nicholas Phan, tenor

James Roe, oboe

Pedja Muzijevic, piano

Brooklyn Rider
Alex Sopp, fife
THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 88 - December 7, 2008

Helicon's 24th Season Explores Great Musical Cities

Symposium 88 — VIENNA
December 7, 2008
“TWO LATE MOZART QUINTETS”

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Eric Hoeprich, clarinet
Mark Steinberg, violin
Claire Jolivet, violin
David Cerutti, viola
Jessica Troy, viola
Myron Lutzke, ‘cello

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Quintet for Strings in D Major, K. 593
Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A Major, K. 581

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Mozart lived out his final years in the sophisticated musical world of late 18th-century Vienna. This program pairs two of his masterpieces from that time in vivid period-instrument performances. Helicon’s internationally distinguished ensemble features the world’s foremost expert on historical clarinets, Amsterdam-based, Eric Hoeprich, who designs and builds his own instruments to period specifications. Our 88th Symposium opens with Mozart’s sublime String Quintet, K. 593. Written within a year of the composer’s death, it evinces no sign of diminished powers, but instead overflows with vigor, invention, and joy. Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Quintet is among the finest achievements of his last years and combines graceful intimacy with sparkling soloistic display.

Eric Hoeprich, clarinet

Mark Steinberg, violin
Myron Lutzke, cello
Claire Jolivet, violin

David Cerutti, violaJessica Troy, viola

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 89 - April 5, 2009

Helicon's 24th Season Explore Great Musical Cities

Symposium 89 — ROME
April 5, 2009
“CURIOSE INVENZIONI"
MUSICAL FIREWORKS FROM 17th-CENTURY ITALY

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ENSEMBLE GALATEA
Richard Savino, guitar
Bruce Dickey, cornetto
Julie Andrijeski, violin
Paul Beier, lute & theorbo
Gianluca Capuano, organ

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Improvisations on the music of Palastrina
and virtuoso chamber works by Marini, Castello, Buonamente, and Rognoni

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Helicon’s 89th Symposium features the world’s foremost virtuoso on the nearly forgotten instrument, the cornetto, Rome-based American, Bruce Dickey. The cornetto is a wind instrument fashioned out of a tube of curved wood wrapped in leather. It has finger holes like a recorder and a small mouthpiece like a trumpet. Its haunting tone bears an uncanny likeness to the human voice, and though not widely known today, the cornetto vied with the violin for virtuosic dominance in 17th-century Italy.

This program offers a rare opportunity to hear this fascinating instrument showcased with the violin in beautiful, ancient music of the Italian Baroque. It will be an evening of musical discoveries of exceptional beauty and invention.

The CORNETTO

Richard Savino, guitar

Julie Andrijeski, violin
Bruce Dickey, cornetto

THE HELICON FOUNDATION
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Symposium 90 - May 17, 2009

Helicon's 24th Season Explores Great Musical Cities

Symposium 90 — PARIS
May 17, 2009
“THE CELEBRATED SALON of ERNEST CHAUSSON”

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Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
Harumi Rhodes, violin
John Marcus, violin
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Matthew Herren, ’cello

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César Franck Sonata for Violin and Piano
Ernest Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano & Strings

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We complete our tour of great musical cities in 19th-century Paris, where composer Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) hosted his famous salon at 22 Boulevard de Courcelles. There he welcomed France’s leading artists, poets, musicians, and intellectuals to exchange ideas and introduce new work. The two pieces on this program were dedicated to a member of this circle, the prodigious violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), whose playing inspired many composers to write works for him. In Helicon’s 21st-century salon, we are fortunate to regularly hear the inspiring collaborations of Jennifer Frautschi and Pedja Muzijevic, who will be joined by an ensemble of new and familiar faces for these opulent works from the height of French Romanticism.

Jennifer Frautschi and Pedja Muzijevic

Jennifer Frautschi, violinHarumi Rhodes, violin

John Marcus, violin

Hsin-Yun Huang, viola

Matthew Herren, cello

THE HELICON FOUNDAITON
James Roe, Artistic Director
William A. Simon, President
Albert Fuller, Founder

Helicon Foundation Board of Directors

William A. Simon, President
Lisa Welch, Vice-President
Franklin Heller, Treasurer
Pamela Drexel, Secretary
Philippine Dodd
Joan K. Easton
Karen McLaughlin
David S. Moyer
Sherman Pazner, M.D.
Susan Zolla-Pazner, Ph.D.

Directors In Memoriam
Albert Fuller†, Founder
Craig Logan Jackson†
Zoltan Ovary, M.D.†
Gregory B. Smith†
Miss Alice Tully†

Helicon Foundation Advisory Committee

Leslie Armstrong, AIA
Abbe Aronson
Bart Feller
Jennifer Frautschi
Matthew Herren
Joe Hsu
Bejun Mehta
Pedja Muzijevic
Jody Ripplinger
Thomas Sokolowski
Jason Starr
Mark Steinberg
Barry Wacksman

The posts below outlined the programs for Helicon's 23rd Season, 2007-2008. The following is a short introduction to our organization.

In 1985, harpsichordist, scholar, educator, conductor, and raconteur, Albert Fuller, in the company of Alice Tully and Gregory B. Smith, brought together a group of musicians and music lovers to create The Helicon Foundation.

Taking its name from the Greek mountain revered as the home of Memory and her daughters, the nine Muses, the organization's goal was to address a need in the New York music community. Large concert halls and the manner of playing necessary to fill them had pulled music away from what composers knew and intended. Helicon bridges that gap with style and élan, presenting chamber music in an intimate setting and using the instruments and performance techniques of the period.

In 2006, James Roe succeeded Albert Fuller as Artistic Director, to continue Helicon’s goals into its third decade.

• CHAMBER MUSIC IN AN INTIMATE SPACE — Helicon returns chamber music to an intimate space where the audience can follow a performer’s every nuance and experience proximity to music’s expressive power.

• PROGRAMMING — By focusing on a single composer or specific cultural question, Helicon Symposiums deepen our experience through immersion and focused inquiry.

• MUSICIANS — Helicon chooses its musicians for their virtuosity, openness, and musical creativity, and provides the opportunity to know them as artists and people.

• PERIOD INSTRUMENTS & PERFORMANCE PRACTICE — Our musicians seek out the sounds composers knew by using the instruments and performance techniques of the time.

• COMMUNITY — Helicon’s unique Membership structure connects music lovers and musicians who share the enjoyment of musical exploration.

Helicon has produced over 80 Symposiums covering a broad range of musical genres, from the 14th through the 21st centuries. From these Symposiums have arisen recordings, public concerts, educational programs, and most importantly, a body of performers and music lovers with a deepened experience of music in their lives.

THE HELICON FOUNDATION, INC.
James R. Roe, Artistic Director
Albert Fuller, Founder
William A. Simon, President

2067 Broadway, Studio 50
New York, NY 10023
(212) 874-6438
HeliconFoundation@gmail.com