Coffee Patisserie & Classical Music 2.5.22

Recorded on 2/5/22

Katherine Needleman, oboe
Meng Wang, viola
Hanchien Lee, piano

Katherine Needleman is a multi-faceted musician and native of Baltimore. She won first prize in the International Double Reed Society’s Inaugural Commissioning Competition in 2020. She curates Coffee, Patisserie, and Classical Music at An die Musik Live. She explores the connection between composer and performer in this series, focusing on music that has been unreasonably under-programmed for various reasons. She performs as an oboe recitalist throughout the U.S. As a day job, she is an orchestral oboist, having performed as guest principal with all of the U.S.’s “Big Five” orchestras except for one and has been the Baltimore Symphony’s principal oboist since 2003.

Violist Meng Wang joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2017. Previously, he was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Principal Violist of the Kansas City Symphony. In addition to his orchestral work, Mr. Wang enjoys an extensive career as a chamber musician. He is deeply committed to the genre and has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lars Vogt, Sharon Robinson, Chao-Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, Joseph Silverstein, Pinkas Zukerman, Lang Lang, Barbara Westphal and pop star Bono. In his native China, Mr. Wang studied violin at Central Music Conservatory in Beijing. He immigrated to the United States to study viola at New England Conservatory and later at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of renowned violists Hsin-yun Huang, Michael Tree, Karen Tuttle and Roberto Diaz. A dedicated educator himself, Mr. Wang has served as Principal Viola Coach for the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra and Adjunct Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a pianist whose playing is “warmly charismatic” and “calm maturity with naturalness” by Seen and Heard International, pianist Hanchien Lee is recognized for her eloquent and virtuosic performances as a soloist and chamber musician. A dedicated and enthusiastic chamber musician, Lee has performed in many highly respected music festivals  Born in Taipei, Taiwan, she immigrated to US to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age eleven where she was under the tutelage of Claude Frank and Eleanor Sokoloff. Following graduation from Curtis, she continued her studies at Yale University with Claude Frank, earning both a Master of Music degree and an Artist Diploma. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts from Peabody Conservatory where she worked with Boris Slutsky. Currently, she resides in Philadelphia and teaches at University of Pennsylvania.

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PROGRAM

Clémence de Grandval (1828-1907)
arr. Katherine Needleman
Romance et Gavotte for oboe, viola, and piano

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)
Sonata for Viola and Piano (1919)

Althea Talbot-Howard (b. 1966)
Blue Sahara Crossing & The Lost Tribe for oboe, viola, and piano
WORLD PREMIERE

Katherine Needleman (b. 1978)
qua resurget ex favilla (2020), sonata  for oboe and piano

August Klughardt (1847-1902)
Five Schilflieder, op. 28 for oboe, viola, and piano

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)
arr. Katherine Needleman
Three Pieces (1914) for oboe, viola, and piano