Sunday March 26, 2017 in Mclean:

IBIS Fundraiser

MUSIC FOR PIANO TRIO

featuring

Joseph Scheer, violin

Sean Neidlinger, cello

John Sutherland Earle, piano

Program

Piano Trios by Gabriel Faure and Antonin Dvorak

Fauré’s Piano Trio Op 120 in D minor was written when he was 78 and nearly blind. Fauré’s career spanned the Romantic, Impressionist and Modernist eras and this dazzling work invokes all three.

Also on the program: Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio, one of his most beloved works. Music critic Daniel Felsenfeld describes the form as follows:

“The form of the piece is structurally simple but emotionally complicated, being an uninhibited Bohemian lament. Considered essentially formless, at least by classical standards, it is more like a six movement dark fantasia—completely original and successful, a benchmark piece for the composer. Being completely free of the rigors of sonata form gave Dvořák license to take the movements to some dizzying, heavy, places, able to be both brooding and yet somehow, through it all, a little lighthearted.”

About the Performers

Since moving to the DC area in 2010, John Sutherland Earle has become a member and frequent performer with the IBIS Chamber Music Society; he also performs regularly with the Rock Creek Chamber Players, Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association, Friday Morning Music Club, and members of the US Army Orchestra, and at the Emerson Avenue Salons. He has also performed as soloist and chamber musician in more than a dozen states of the US, several countries of Europe, and in Russia and Japan.

John studied piano, accompanying, and chamber music at the Oberlin Conservatory, Stanford University, and the Vienna Hochschule fűr Musik. His principal teachers were Peter Takacs, Adolph Baller, Haggai Niv, and Hans Petermandl and he also had coaching and master courses with John Perry, Gennady Kleyman, Alexander Lipsky, Jorge Bolet, Garrick Ohlsson, and Oleg Maisenberg. A National Merit and Fulbright Scholar as well as prizewinner at the Pacific International, Carmel Music Society, and Palo Alto Symphony Competitions, he participated twice in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and has returned to Russia for several concerts. In a parallel life, John teaches at George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs.

Cellist Sean Neidlinger enjoys an active career as a recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher. He received a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and also studied at New England Conservatory. Described as “fiery” and “impassioned” by the Washington Post, Sean received top prizes at several concerto competitions, including those of the Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria Symphonies. He has performed at numerous embassies, the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and Terrace Theatre; he performs with the Baltimore Symphony, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and is the principal cellist of the Winchester (VA) and McLean Orchestras. Sean recently toured Europe as soloist for the world premiere of the Rodriguez Elegy and Rondo for cello and wind ensemble.

A native of Wichita, Kansas, violinist Joseph Scheer recently retired after 30 seasons as concertmaster of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, with whom he extensively toured the United States and Japan. Joe appeared on numerous occasions as soloist with the Boston POPS Esplanade Orchestra in Boston’s famous Symphony Hall, including performances of Milhaud’s Cinema Fantaisie and the Bruch Scottish Fantasy with Keith Lockhart conducting, and the Glazunov Violin Concerto under the baton of John Williams. Other concerto appearances include the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Brockton (MA) Symphony, and the Scottish Fantasy of Max Bruch with the Newton (MA) Symphony. Joe appeared annually on the POPS’ nationally televised Fourth of July broadcast and was featured as a soloist in that broadcast, performing the violin solo from John Williams’ music for the film Schindler’s List.

In the 1990’s Joe held the concertmaster position of both the Florida Symphony (Orlando), as well as Tampa’s Florida Orchestra. He made frequent solo appearances with both orchestras, performing such diverse works as the Korngold Violin Concerto, Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending and the Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto #5. He left Florida to join his wife Susan Robinson in Washington, D.C., where she is the principal harpist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Joe and Susan are the founders of IBIS Chamber Music, which has performed many of Joe’s original arrangements including the Gershwin Piano Preludes, Ravel’s Mother Goose, and John Williams’ music from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Joe received a violin and a fishing pole for his fifth birthday, sparking a lifelong passion for both. In 2004 he founded the Fishinfiddler Rod Company and now enjoys a second career as a maker of fine, handcrafted split bamboo fly rods. View his work at www.fishinfiddler.com.

About IBIS

Founded by violinist Joseph Scheer (concertmaster of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra) and Susan Robinson (principal harp of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra) the IBIS Chamber Music Society is an ensemble of string quartet, flute, harp and piano. Their fine musicians are drawn from the Kennedy Center, National Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. IBIS prizes musical excellence and imaginative programming. Friendly and informal performances in intimate neighborhood venues encourage many first-time concertgoers to come out and hear great music—the IBIS audience is comprised of sophisticated music lovers and musical neophytes (and kids!) alike. Those audiences are rewarded with a variety of music from Brahms and Debussy to Ellington and Scott Joplin. The Washington Post has praised IBIS concerts as “splendid” and “compelling”, and the St. Petersburg Times appreciated the “refreshing mix of music, well-played and fetchingly presented.”

A community spirited group, IBIS presents a free program for children each season, in some years reaching as many as 800 area kids. IBIS has also participated in fundraising concerts for Japanese tsunami victims, Music Link, an organization that provides music education for underserved children, MusiCorps which rehabilitates veterans through music, and the renovation of their local community center in Lyon Park, Arlington.

Recent IBIS projects include “crossover” concerts with singer/songwriter Dar Williams (a collaboration that sold out 3 concerts in Boston and DC), as well as an original chamber version of Richard Strauss’s opera Capriccio, in collaboration with European diva Wendy Waller. IBIS has devoted programs to women in music and black composers, championed the music of more obscure but wonderful composers and enriched the chamber music repertoire with original arrangements ranging from John Williams’s film scores to George Gershwin to Ravel.

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