JOSHUA BELL
photo © David Bazemore

Saturday, November 4, 2006, 8 pm

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin

Henze: Erlkönig
Schubert: Symphony No. 6
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major

Principal Sponsor:
  The Samuel B. & Margaret C.
    Mosher Foundation
Sponsor: Santa Barbara Bank & Trust

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, recognized as one of the world's outstanding orchestras, returns for its annual concert in Santa Barbara! British-born Maestro Jonathan Nott is Principal Conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker and former Kapellmeister at Frankfurt Opera. In August 2000 he became Musical Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and currently serves as its Principal Guest Conductor. Grammy® Award-winning American violinist Joshua Bell was Billboard Magazine's 2004 Classical Artist of the Year and a recent inductee into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. Joshua Bell came to national attention at age 14 when he made his orchestral debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then he has recorded 30 albums and appeared in recital and concert throughout the world.

"…the Los Angeles Philharmonic tops the list of America's premier orchestras and serves as a lesson in how to update an august cultural institution without cheapening its work."
   – Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

"Bell is dazzling."
   – Gramophone Magazine

Wednesday, January 17, 2007, 8 pm

HILARY HAHN, violin
In Recital
Valentina Lisitsa, piano

Janácek: Sonata for violin & piano, JW 7
Mozart: Sonata for piano & violin No. 22
  in A Major, K. 305
Tartini: Sonata for violin & continuo in
  G minor, B. g 5 ("The Devil's Trill")
Ysaÿe: Sonata for violin solo No. 2 in
  A minor ("Obsession"), Op. 27, No. 2
Beethoven: Sonata for violin & piano
  No. 9 in A Major ("Kreutzer"),
  Op. 47

Sponsors:
  The CAMA Women's Board
  The Stephen & Carla Hahn Fndn.
  Nancy & Kent Wood
Co-Sponsor:
  Raye A. Haskell, in loving memory of
    Dr. Melville H. Haskell, Jr.

Returning to Santa Barbara following her CAMA Masterseries debut in recital at the Lobero last season, Grammy® Award-winning Hilary Hahn (born 1979) is renowned as one of today's great violin virtuosos. A student of the violin since a month before her fourth birthday, Ms. Hahn entered Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music at age 10, making her debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra a year-and-a-half later. Ms. Hahn was named “America's Best” young classical musician by Time Magazine in 2001, and appears regularly with the world's great orchestras. Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa enjoys an international career. She last appeared in CAMA’s Arlington Series as soloist with the Prague Chamber Orchestra in 1998.

Hilary Hahn is “a virtuoso for our age, accessible and also sophisticated."
   – Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News-Press

"Hilary Hahn certainly deserves a place in the pantheon of supreme violinists."
   – Cleveland Plain Dealer

Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 8 pm

NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC
OF RUSSIA
Vladimir Spivakov, conductor
Olga Kern, piano

All-Russian Program
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

Sponsors:
  Bitsy Becton Bacon/
    Becton Family Foundation
  Herbert & Elaine Kendall
  André Saltoun & Michele Neely
Co-Sponsor:
  Robert & Sherry Gilson/
    Merrill Lynch Montecito

The National Philharmonic of Russia, founded in January 2003 by commission of President Vladimir Putin, is composed of Russia's leading symphonic musicians. A symbol of Russia's deep commitment to its rich cultural traditions, the NPR serves as a cultural ambassador for the nation. The NPR is resident orchestra of the new Moscow International Performing Arts Center. Violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov, Music Director of the NPR, is also the founder, conductor and violin soloist of the Moscow Virtuosi, one of the world's leading chamber ensembles. He is President and Artistic Director of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center. Returning to Santa Barbara for the third consecutive CAMA season, Russian pianist Olga Kern was a Gold Medalist at the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition. Since her two debut appearances at Carnegie Hall in May 2004, she remains in demand for recitals and concerto appearances worldwide. Ms. Kern is featured as soloist in Rachmaninoff’s great romantic masterpiece, the Piano Concerto No. 2.

Olga Kern is "a pianist of poise and poetry, and she plays a singing cantabile just as easily and effectively as she blazes her way through technical thickets."
   – George Gelles, Santa Barbara News-Press

"From the start, Kern comes across as a pianist with no limitations..."
   – Hartford Courant

SIR ANDREW DAVIS
photo © Clive Barda

JONATHAN BISS
photo © J. Henry Fair

Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 8 pm

PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Jonathan Biss, piano

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5

Sponsors:
  Judith L. Hopkinson
  John & Kathleen Moseley
Co-Sponsor:
  Bertling & Clausen, LLP

Founded in 1896, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has a noble history of fine conductors and musicians and a strong commitment to artistic excellence. Since the early 20th Century, the PSO has confirmed its ranking as a world-class orchestra, earning critical acclaim at home and abroad. Sir Andrew Davis is Artistic Advisor to the PSO and Music Director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is also Conductor Laureate of the Toronto Symphony and the BBC Symphony. Jonathan Biss (born 1980) has already established a flourishing international reputation as a pianist of artistic maturity and versatility. Biss, the first and only American chosen to participate in the BBC's New Generation Artist program, is the winner of several awards, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2005 Leonard Bernstein Award presented to him at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany.

"You could go to concerts all your life and hear a performance like this only once or twice."
   – The Wall Street Journal

PAAVO JÄRVI
photo © Sheila Rock

Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 8 pm

CINCINNATI SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Paavo Järvi, conductor

Nielsen: Symphony No. 4,
  "The Inextinguishable"
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Principal Sponsor: Léni Fé Bland
Co-Sponsors:
  Andrew & Helen Burnett
  Theodore Plute/Larry Falxa

Founded in 1895, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States. The list of notable music directors who have led the orchestra includes Leopold Stokowski, Eugène Ysaÿe, Fritz Reiner, Thomas Schippers, Max Rudolf, and Jesús López-Cobos among others. Estonian-born Paavo Järvi, son of conductor Neeme Järvi, became the twelfth music director of the CSO in 2001. The winner of a Grammy® Award for his recording of Sibelius's Cantatas, Maestro Järvi is one of the most in-demand conductors on the international stage. Beginning in the 2006-2007 season, he will become Music Director of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

"The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Paavo Järvi, has easily slipped into the top echelon of American orchestras…"
   – The Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Friday, November 17, 2006, 8 pm

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET
Joel Smirnoff, violin
Ronald Copes, violin
Samuel Rhodes, viola
Joel Krosnick, cello

60th Anniversary Tour

All-Mozart Program
Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 428
Quartet in D minor, K. 421
Quartet in C Major, K. 465,
  "The Dissonance"

Principal Sponsor: Dolores M. Hsu

_____________________________
SPECIAL MASTERCLASS
with RONALD COPES
of the Juilliard String Quartet
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Geiringer Hall, UCSB Music Dept.
12 - 2 pm
Presented as part of the new UCSB Distinguished Chamber Music Guest Artists Series •
Co-sponsored by CAMA
_____________________________

For sixty years the Juilliard String Quartet has been an international presence and an American institution. It performs with emotional intensity, technical precision, and intellectual rigor in concerts across the globe. At home its members have been educators, mentors, and champions of new music. Second violinist Ronald Copes, formerly a string professor at UC Santa Barbara, joined the quartet in 1997. The Juilliard String Quartet will play three of the six Mozart string quartets dedicated to Haydn in interpretations newly informed by the first-edition manuscript, recently donated to the Juilliard School.

"...the Julliard Quartet remains unsurpassed in bringing attention to details and expressive devices." 
   – Cleveland Plain Dealer

Wednesday, February 14, 2007, 8 pm

DAWN UPSHAW, soprano
In Recital

Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864):
  Beautiful Child of Song
  If You've Only Got a Moustache
  Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903):
  Die Spröde, from Goethe-Lieder, No. 26
  Die Bekehrte, from Goethe-Lieder, No. 27
Robert Alexander Schumann (1810-1856):
  Er ist's!, Op. 79, No. 23
Modest Petrovich Musorgsky (1839-1881):
  from The Nursery
    In the corner
    With the doll
    Evening prayer
    The hobby horse
Charles Ives (1874-1954):
  from Sonata: Concord, Mass., 1840-1860,
    Movement III: The Alcotts
      (MOLLY MORKOSKI, Piano Solo)
Robert Alexander Schumann (1810-1856):
  Die Lotusblume, from Myrten, Op. 25, No. 7
Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953):
  White Moon, from Five Songs
William Bolcom (1938- ):
  from Cabaret Songs
    Song of Black Max
    Waitin'
    Amor

Sponsors:
  The CAMA Women's Board
  The Stephen & Carla Hahn Fndn.

With her natural warmth and commitment to the communicative power of music, soprano Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide renown as a singer of both opera and concert repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to contemporary music. Ms. Upshaw began her career at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 and has since made nearly 300 appearances there. Her opera performances comprise the great Mozart roles as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen, and new works by today's composers. Ms. Upshaw is a favored performing partner of many leading musicians, including pianist Richard Goode, the Kronos Quartet, James Levine, Sir Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. A three-time Grammy® Award winner, Dawn Upshaw is featured on more than 50 recordings.

Dawn Upshaw "has become one of the most consequential performers of our time."
   – Los Angeles Times

Thursday, March 15, 2007, 8 pm

ALFRED BRENDEL, piano
In Recital

Haydn: Sonata in C minor, Hob. XVI:20
Beethoven: Sonata No. 31
  in A-flat Major, Op. 110
Schubert: Impromptus No. 1 in F minor
  and No. 3 in B-flat Major, D. 935
Mozart: Sonata in C minor, K. 457

Sponsors:
  The Stephen & Carla Hahn Fndn.
  Judith L. Hopkinson
Co-Sponsor:
  Virginia Castagnola-Hunter

A legend of the piano, Alfred Brendel is recognized worldwide for the emotional and intellectual depth of his performances. As a supreme master of his art, Mr. Brendel has earned a place among the world's most revered musicians, performing with virtually all the leading orchestras and conductors in a career spanning nearly six decades. He is one of the most prolific recording artists of all time: the first to record all of Beethoven's piano compositions and one of the few to record the complete Mozart piano concertos. A published writer and poet, Mr. Brendel is well-versed in the fields of literature, language, architecture and film. He returns to the Lobero following his acclaimed debut in CAMA’s 2004-2005 Masterseries season, cited as the top classical concert of the year 2005 in the Santa Barbara News-Press by arts writer Josef Woodard. Brendel’s recital will feature Beethoven’s late masterpiece, the Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 110.

"To share a theater space with him, especially in the enlightening intimacy of the relatively small Lobero Theatre, is to bask in the quintessence of what a piano recital is all about."
   – Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News-Press

"One of the defining performers of our age."
   – Boston Globe

Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 8 pm

STEPHEN HOUGH, piano
In Recital

Mendelssohn: Variations Sérieuses,
  Op. 54
Anton Webern: Variations, Op. 27
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32
  in C minor, Op. 111
von Weber: Invitation to the Dance
Chopin: Waltz in C-sharp minor,
  Op. 54, No. 2
Chopin: Waltz in A-flat, Op. 34, No. 1
Saint-Saëns: Valse Nonchalante
  in D-flat, Op. 110
Chabrier: Feuille d'Album
Debussy: La plus que lente
Liszt: Valse oubliée No. 1
Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1

Sponsor: Nancy & Kent Wood
Co-Sponsor: Carol L. Valentine

English pianist Stephen Hough returns to the Lobero stage following his brilliant Santa Barbara debut recital in last seasons's Masterseries. Mr. Hough was the winner of the 1983 Naumberg International Piano Competition, and is the first classical musician to be awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001. His repertoire includes classical music's great standards, contemporary music, and unusual and neglected works. He has an extensive catalogue of recordings, many of which have won international prizes. His 1998 release "New York Variations" was chosen as Time magazine's "Best Classical CD of the Year." Hough’s eclectic program will feature Beethoven’s final piano sonata and an all-waltz second half.

"...this rapturous concert's deeper message was that Mr. Hough is a pianist worth going out of one's way to hear."
   – Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News-Press

"One of the most consistently imaginative keyboard artists around..."
   – Baltimore Sun