A program of chamber music with flute that shines a lens on sparkling and witty writing for winds, strings and piano in works by Haydn & Harbison. Anchored by a vivacious early flute quartet of Haydn, Harbison’s evocative musical “after-images” of six American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum, and his witty, virtuosic and quite original take on American music of a bygone era, reworked and re-imagined for a chamber quintet.
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Iva Ugrčić, flute | Alicia Lee, clarinet | Hillary Hempel, violin | Madlen Breckbill, viola | Mark Bridges, ‘cello | Satoko Hayami, piano
Program
Haydn: Flute Quartet in D Major, Op. 5 No. 1
A vivacious early quartet from the master of the form.
Harbison: Six American Painters, for flute quartet
Bingham | Eakins | Heade | Homer | Hoffman | Diebenkorn
Inspired by paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, each of the short movements in this set was begun as a musical description of that work. Eventually they ranged further and it seemed more helpful to name them for the painters rather than for the specific paintings. I wanted to evoke the artists' after-images, rather than any of the individual paintings. When you look at a picture, you take away with you a general impression, a mood or color, that dominates the details; in music, on the other hand, one is apt to remember the details, a tune or a harmony. I wanted these movements to be a perceivable whole, an act of seeing. - John Harbison
“Six American Painters offers a ‘general impression’ of the style of six artists, its programmatic nature secondary to the captivating moods Harbison creates.” - Grammophone
Read more: Field Notes—Stories inside the Music: After Images LINK
Harbison: Songs America Loves to Sing
In this set of arrangements of American hymn tunes, folk and protest songs, Harbison offers ingenious and entertaining canons and solos on familiar songs in much the same way Bach used pre-existing material in his cantatas and chorale settings. “It is my hope that choosing well-known musical material will make these settings transparent,” the composer writes.
Scored for flute, clarinet, strings and piano, Harbison “gamely channels any number of 20th-century composers handling familiar, popular material (Berio and Britten, especially), and lets his hair down a bit indulging his long love of jazz. It’s a lovely piece, at times lots of fun (as in the folksy “Will, the Circle Be Unbroken” and the jazzy, Ivesian setting of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”)…I couldn’t help but be charmed by it.” —Jonathan Blumhofer, ArtsFuse
Read more: Field Notes—Stories inside the Music: Those good old bygone songs LINK coming soon
Harbison: Prelude-Variations and Chaconne
These two short works, almost 25 years apart, form a long-awaited pair. Both are written for the classic Pierrot Ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano), both present imaginative varitations on a ground bass, and both were inspired by Andrew Imbrie’s music— lucidly constructed but full of free invention—for whose 80th birthday Harbison composed the Chaconne (2000).
The Artists
Madlen Breckbill, viola
Madlen H. Breckbill has worked with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the TAÏGA String Quartet in Denmark, and with Villa-Musica in Rheinland-Pfalz. With them she toured China and Japan,and performed across Europe and North America. Madlen founded the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival in 2019, which fosters chamber music collaborations focused on diverse and experiential programming. She has also performed with Trio With(out), Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Midsummer Music, the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, The Happenstancers, and the West End Micro Music Festival. She began her training with Suzuki Strings of Madison, and later studied with Suzanne Beia and Eugene Purdue, and participated in the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) throughout high school. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from UW-Madison and an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. Her primary teachers include violinists David Perry, Paul Kantor, Erica Raum, Barry Shiffman, and violists Steven Dann and Sally Chisholm.
Mark Bridges, ‘cello
Mark Bridges is Assistant Principal Cello of the Madison Symphony, serving as chair of the players’ committee, and performs frequently with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and many other local groups and festivals. As a chamber musician, Mark has worked and performed with principal musicians of the Boston Symphony and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Muir, Pro Arte, Borodin and Brentano String Quartets. Mark is a core member of the Willy Street Chamber Players, a frequent performer at the Token Creek Festival, was artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre and is a member of ambient-electronic duo High Plains with composer Scott Morgan (Loscil). A native of the Boston area, Mark received the bachelors degree in cello performance from Boston University, the Master’s degree and Orchestral Studies Diploma from the Eastman School of Music, and the DMA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mark is passionate about teaching and maintains a diverse private studio in Madison, coaches chamber music for the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, and has taught at UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point.
Satoko Hayami, piano
A native of Japan, award-winning pianist Dr. Satoko Hayami performs and teaches solo, duo, and chamber music worldwide, most notably in Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Canada, and throughout the U.S. Her adventurous programming and virtuosic playing brought her to prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center, Millers Theater (Houston), and Harris Hall (Aspen, CO). A passionate performer of new music, Satoko co-founded Sound Out Loud Ensemble, a contemporary chamber ensemble that won first prize in Chamber Music Performance of The American Prize She is a versatile artist and acclaimed collaborative pianist, and her busy schedule has her performing with leading musicians from San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Lyric Orchestra, and Decoda Ensemble. She is pianist of the flute-piano duo with Dr. Iva Ugrcic, touring throughout the US. She was a lecturer in collaborative piano at the UW-Madison and is currently a piano instructor at Beloit College.
Hillary Hempel, violin
A native of the Chicago area, Hillary Hempel is Assistant Principal Second Violin of Madison Symphony and a member of the first violin section in Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. She also subs in the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, and was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She performed the Brahms Concerto with the Middleton Community Orchestra, and the Tschaikovsky Concerto with Northwestern Orchestra. Regular chamber music commitments include MSO’s Hunt Quartet and the Oakwood Chamber Players. Hillary’s undergraduate degee is from Colburn Conservatory of Music and she earned the master’s degree at Northwestern University. Principal teachers include Robert Lipsett, Danielle Belen, and Almita Vamos. She maintains a lively private studio.
Alicia Lee, clarinet
Clarinetist Alicia Lee enjoys a diverse musical life performing old and new UW-Madison, where she also performs with the Wingra Wind Quintet. Prior to her appointment at UW, Alicia was a resident of New York City for over a decade where she performed and toured regularly with a variety of groups including The Knights, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, and NOVUS NY. She is also a member of the composer/performer collective, NOW Ensemble with whom she has premiered dozens of new works written for the ensemble. She is a founding member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall that places equal emphasis on artistry and community engagement. Alicia has performed at the Marlboro, Lucerne, Spoleto (Italy and US), Yellow Barn, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals. She held positions with the Santa Barbara Symphony and the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway. She earned degrees from Columbia University, the University of Southern California, and The Colburn School.
Iva Ugrčić , flute
Dr. Iva Ugrčić is one of the most versatile and adventurous flutists on the international scene. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, with New World Symphony, at Sale Cortot, and at Ravinia. Her bachelor's degree is from the University of Belgrade (Serbia), she earned the Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste on full scholarship from the Albert Roussel Foundation in France, and received the DMA from UW-Madison. as a Paul Collins Fellow. Her numerous awards include First Prize from The American Prize, both in solo and chamber music, the Gold Medal at the International Vienna Competition, and she was a finalist for the Pro Musicis International Award. A champion of new music, her most recent solo album, Gates of Dream (2024), features works of contemporary Roumanian composer Doina Rotoru. Ugrčić is the Founder and Director of LunART, an international nonprofit dedicated to to supporting and celebrating women in the arts. She founded Artistic Wealth Coach, LLC to offer financial and career coaching services to artists and creatives globally.