Sunday January 22, 2017 in Mclean:
IBIS!
A Paid Concert
On January 22, three principal players from the Kennedy Center’s resident orchestras perform gorgeous “watery” music for flute, harp and viola. Featured artists are Adria Sternstein Foster, flute, Susan Robinson, harp and Daniel Foster, viola.
The program includes William Alwyn’s Naiades, New Zealand composer Gareth Farr’s Taheke, inspired by the waterfalls of his native country, and the fiery Soleil Multicolore by Jacques Bondon.
BIO’S
Violist Daniel Foster’s varied career encompasses orchestral, chamber and solo playing, as well as teaching. Since capturing the First Prize in both the William Primrose and Washington International Competitions, he has appeared in recital and as soloist with orchestra in Washington, DC and throughout the United States. After studying with Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey at Oberlin Conservatory and with Karen Tuttle at The Curtis Institute, Mr. Foster became a member of the National Symphony’s viola section in 1993, and was appointed Principal by Music Director Leonard Slatkin in 1995. Mr. Foster has appeared frequently as soloist with the National Symphony since his appointment.
Mr. Foster is a member of the critically acclaimed Dryden Quartet, which he founded along with his cousins Nicolas and Yumi Kendall and National Symphony Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef. He was also a member of the Manchester Quartet, and is a founding member of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. Mr. Foster has performed chamber music at the Marlboro, Bowdoin, Killington and Alpenglow Festivals, and at Strings in the Mountains.
Mr. Foster is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, where his former students have gone on to major orchestral and university positions, and he has been a faculty member at the Bowdoin and Killington festivals. Mr. Foster has given master classes at Oberlin and Peabody Conservatories, the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and is a regular faculty member for the National Orchestral Institute. In addition, Mr. Foster is a member of the “International Principals” faculty at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. The Journal of the American Viola Society published an article by Mr. Foster in 2002. In May 2005 Mr. Foster was a member of the jury for the William Primrose competition, where he also presented a recital.
Mr. Foster comes from a musical family. His father William is also a violist with the National Symphony, and his late grandfather John Kendall was a renowned violin pedagogue.
Susan Robinson is the principal harpist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, a position she has held since 1995. She has also served as the principal harpist of Tampa’s Florida Orchestra, the Sarasota Opera Festival, and the Boston ‘POPS’ Esplanade Orchestra, with whom she has toured the Far East and the US. Susan performs with the National Symphony and Boston Symphony Orchestras.
Avid performers of chamber music, Susan and her husband, violinist Joseph Scheer, are the founders of the IBIS Chamber Music Society (www.ibischambermusic.org). Based in Arlington VA, IBIS presents between 6-10 concerts every season and has been praised as “splendid” and “compelling” by the Washington Post. Susan is featured on the IBIS cd “Souvenir: Music for Violin and Harp”, and performs the Handel Concerto for Harp and the Debussy Danses Sacree et Profane on IBIS’ most recent release, “IBIS x 2”.
Among Susan’s solo engagements are performances of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the Opera House Orchestra under Heinz Fricke, and with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra and Emil de Cou. She was re-engaged to perform Debussy with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra this fall. Susan has also soloed with the Newton (MA) Symphony, the Indian Hill Symphony, the New Hampshire Philharmonic, the Rhode Island Chamber Orchestra, and the Dedham (MA) Choral Society.
Susan is a graduate of Harvard University with a cum laude degree in Art History and French Literature. She also holds an Artist Diploma in Harp Performance from the Boston University School for the Arts, where she was a student of Lucile Lawrence. She and Joseph are the parents of Lillie and Nathanael.
Adria Sternstein Foster has been the Principal Flutist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 1994. The orchestra performs a variety of roles by providing music for ballet and musical productions in addition to performing for all Washington National Opera performances. At the invitation of Mstislav Rostropovich, she made her solo debut performing the Mozart Concerto in G Major with the National Symphony Orchestra. Other concerto appearances include the Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp performed with Principal Harpist Susan Robinson and Music Director Heinz Fricke conducting the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Ms. Foster has performed with the New York Philharmonic as Guest Principal Flute and has participated in several summer music festivals in recent years including the Alpenglow and Grand Tetons Music Festivals, and the Mohawk Trail Concert Series. Ms. Foster received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School. Her main teachers have been Bonnie Lichter, Julius Baker, and Jeanne Baxtresser.