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Sunday, September 7, 2025
— a “hybrid” event —
Minji Nam
Piano
Florrie Marshall
Viola
Atticus Mellor-Goldman
Cello
Convergent Paths
PROGRAM
Liliya Ugay (b. 1990)
“Convergent Paths” (2025)
Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896)
“Three Romances for Violin and Piano”, Opus 22 (1853)
arr. for viola by Emma Wernig
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Sonata for Viola and Piano, Opus 11 no. 4 (1919)
Udi Perlman (b. 1990)
“Nostos”, for piano trio (2022), VI. “Nostalgia”
Program Notes
Liliya Ugay (b. 1990): Convergent Paths (2025)*
The music of composer and pianist Liliya Ugay (b. 1990; Tashkent, Uzbekistan) often explores the immigrant experience, female physicality, and motherhood. She writes through storytelling and draws inspiration from folk instruments and children’s toys. Critic Tyler Klyne has described her style as capturing “curiosity, awkwardness, and wonder to play” (Modern Notebook). Ugay earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music and now serves on the faculty of Florida State University, where she directs the new music ensemble Polymorphia.
Convergent Paths (2025) is the third work Ugay has written for violist Florrie Marshall, following the Grace Hopper String Quartet (2018) and A Tale of One Viola (2022). Tonight’s performance marks the world premiere of the piece. Drawn from one section of A Tale of One Viola—a theme-and-variations on the stages of a woman’s life, the new work, Convergent Paths, expands the idea of companionship into a duet, giving one voice to the viola and the other to the piano.Although not titled a berceuse, the opening bears the marking very gently rocking, immediately placing it in the sound world of a lullaby. Like others in the berceuse tradition, it maintains steadiness in the lower voice, achieved here through repeated pitches rather than rhythmic regularity.
The music begins with the two lines moving closely together, as if in step, before setting off on their own distinct paths of contrasting rhythms, textures and cascading figures. Yet even as they move independently, the two parts remain in contact through conversational gestures. Later sections are marked cantabile (singing) and tenderly,underscoring the vocal quality of the viola. This expressive palette is expanded through timbre: sul tasto (over the fingerboard) produces a muted, veiled sound, while sul ponticello (near the bridge) creates a raspy, icy whisper. The thoughtful composition highlights the independence of the two voices while treating their dialogue as the shared expression of character and affect.
*Personal note regarding Convergent Paths: This piece holds deep personal meaning for its performers. Violist Florrie Marshall and pianist Minji Nam first met at the start of Marshall’s doctoral studies at Yale, when Nam was recovering from breast cancer treatment, including chemotherapy and a double mastectomy. From that beginning grew a friendship that has since deepened through music and led to Notes of Hope, a program that brings music and the story of cancer survival to hospitals and survivor communities. As Ugay writes in her dedication to the performers:
“Convergent Paths expresses the tender and compassionate relationship between the close friends (Florrie and Minji), within the journey both positive and harsh that our lives take us through. I hope this piece resonates with each listener with the same feeling of empathy that I sensed from their relationship and the incredibly touching life story.”
Further information about Notes of Hope, including a short film created by Ettore Causa, is available at thesoundbridges.com.
Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896): Three Romances for Violinand Piano, Opus 22 (1853) arr. for viola by Emma Wernig
Clara Schumann wrote her Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22 in 1853, the most prolific year of her compositional life. This was the same year Clara and Robert Schumann were introduced by the violinist Joseph Joachim to the young Johannes Brahms. Clara dedicated the Three Romances to the noted violin virtuoso Joachim, with whom she shared a celebrated duo partnership esteemed across Europe. Together they performed the pieces widely, including for King George V of Hanover, who praised them as “marvelous, heavenly pleasure.”
The word romanz refers to a genre of Old French literature in the vernacular, which was about love, chivalry, and heroism, often told in the people’s language instead of Latin. By Clara Schumann’s time, the musical romance had developed into a lyrical instrumental form, typically in a single movement. The genre lends itself to expressive storytelling, with Beethoven’s two romances serving as prominent examples. In Clara’s set, each of the three romances shapes its own character through contrasting textures and the interplay between the viola and piano.
The first romance opens with the somewhat unusual marking Andante molto, meaning “very much in a walking manner.” It unfolds as a series of lyrical utterances that are constantly pushed and pulled. The melody flows, and its inflections are shaped like speech and gentle sighs. The sense of motion emerges through the performers’ pacing of phrases and ornamental flourishes that lend the music a rhapsodic air.
The second romance, Allegretto, pairs a leaping, syncopated melody with a steady chordal bass in the piano. Playful exchanges emerge, giving the sense of a lively chase. When the opening material returns, the piano enters in literal imitation, echoing the viola a measure later. The effect is a spirited and elegant dialogue between the two instruments.
The third romance, Leidenschaftlich schnell (“passionately fast”), contrasts sharply with the preceding movement with an extraverted melody soaring over cascading piano arpeggios. This movement highlights Clara’s gift for lyricism and her imaginative distribution of roles when she turns the viola into a delicate pizzicato accompaniment while giving the piano the soaring tune. The movement closes in a manner that is as unassuming as it is gentle.
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963): Sonata for Viola and Piano, Opus 11 no. 4 (1919)*
with Minji Nam, piano
Both as a composer and a performing violist, Paul Hindemith remains a towering figure of the 20th century, having given the viola a breadth of repertoire. Banned in Germany by the Nazi regime in 1936, Hindemith left for Switzerland in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940. He soon joined the Yale School of Music faculty,where he founded one of the country’s first early music ensembles, Collegium Musicum. Fascinated by Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque sounds, he revived them through period instruments and inventive staging, bringing these traditions to life on this very stage of Sprague Hall.
Hindemith’s affinity for music of the past deeply shaped his compositional voice. As a whole, Sonata for Viola and Piano, Opus 11 no. 4 recalls the Baroque model of the toccata and fugue: a virtuosic opening followed by extended sections of meticulous counterpointforming a continuous trajectory. On the first page of the score,Hindemith instructs:
“Notification: the sonata is to be played without pauses between the movements, especially the second and third movements should be so well bound together that the listener does not have the impression of hearing a finale but rather must apprehend the last movement strictly as a continuation of the variations.”
In this sonata, Hindemith also looks back to earlier traditions through the movement titles and the forms they suggest: 1) Fantasie (as York Bowen did in the Phantasy heard earlier on this program), 2) Themamit Variationen, and 3) Finale (mit Variationen). Both the fantasia and the theme-and-variation form arose as instrumental music gained independence, offering freedom of invention alongside opportunities for virtuosity. In like fashion, Hindemith used the same forms to propel the viola forward as a solo instrument. However, while the form echoes earlier traditions, the sudden and dramatic harmonic shifts place the music firmly in the late-Romantic style. Through Hindemith’s command of modern tonal language, the movement traverses fourteen key areas within the initial three minutes of music.
Connecting the first and second movements, a single, exposed A sharpin the viola lingers, as though losing its train of thought. As it is suspended in time, it becomes enharmonically spelled B flat, and the piano rejoins the viola to place the music gently in the key of G flat major to begin the second movement, Thema mit Variationen. The theme enters with the marking calm and simple as a folk-song. Its melody unfolds with hymn-like clarity, as though sung by a congregational voice. Subsequently, Hindemith subjects this theme to a complex journey across seven variations, including a fugue marked to be performed with bizarre clumsiness.
Since Hindemith requested that the three movements be played without pause, and especially that the second and third connect imperceptibly, Finale (mit Variationen) carries the compositionalprocess forward without interruption. In Variation VII, Coda, the theme begins in a hushed voice before continuously accelerating through rapid figures and driving syncopations. Heard a dizzyingfifteen times in succession, the theme propels the work to its stamping conclusion.
BIOGRAPHY
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Minji Nam is an energetic pianist, chamber musician, and educator. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Minji has worked as a collaborative pianist for Yale University, the Washington International Competition, the Washington National Opera, the McDuffie Center for Strings, Florida State University, Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and the MTNA competition. Additionally, she has performed as a Guest Artist for the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Atlanta Chamber Players, and the Hawaii Chamber Music Festival. As the head Collaborative Pianist and Coordinator at the Yale School of Music, Ms. Nam worked with students and renowned faculty, performing for recitals, masterclasses, and coordinating the collaborative piano program. At Florida State University, she worked as a vocal coach and music director for their opera outreach program, where she helped to coach vocalists in many different productions. At the Aspen Music Festival, in addition to her duties as a collaborative pianist, she performed as a keyboardist in the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and with all the festival orchestras, and was also selected to perform in recital as a concerto competition winner at Harris Concert Hall.
Ms. Nam has been privileged to perform in recitals with some of the world’s most sought-after artists, including Augustin Hadelich, Hsin-Yun Huang, Isabel Bayrakdarian, and Amy Schwartz-Morretti, and has played in Masterclasses for Emmanuel Pahud, Hilary Hahn, Anne Sophie-Mutter, Kyung-Sun Lee, Midori, Lambert Orkis, Renée Fleming, and Jessye Norman. Recent highlights include recording an album with her good friend and longtime duo partner Jacquelin Cordova-Arrington, in addition to a showcase concert in Carnegie Hall. Ms. Nam maintains an active private studio where she teaches piano, violin, and music theory, in addition to coaching chamber music, and hosting chamber music residencies. She is a member of the Chestertown Piano Quartet, currently the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Kent Cultural Alliance in Chestertown, MD, with upcoming performances in the greater DMV area and the Orfeo Music Festival. Ms. Nam is dedicated to organizing benefit concerts for non-profit organizations that aid cancer patients, recently performing in multiple concerts with two of her colleagues in a deeply personal musical program entitled “Note for Purpose,” with aspirations to establish an artist fund to support this cause further.
Ms. Nam is currently serving as faculty at the National Music Festival, Orfeo Music Festival and will appear in upcoming solo and chamber recitals throughout the USA and Europe for the 2024-25 season. In her past time, Ms. Nam enjoys painting, playing pickleball, and cooking with her husband at their home in Virginia.
Atticus Mellor-Goldman, originally from Los Angeles, California, received his Bachelor’s degree in 2019 from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and studied with Julie Albers, Hans Jensen, and Richard Aaron. He went on to earn his Masters degree in 2021 from Yale University, where he studied with Paul Watkins and Ole Akahoshi. Upon graduation, Mellor-Goldman moved to Washington, D.C. after winning a position in the Air Force Strings.
He has performed at concert venues around the world and has been featured on NPR’s “From the Top” and American Public Media’s “Performance Today,”. In 2015, his string quartet from Los Angeles was awarded the Gold Medal Prize of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition’s Junior division. In 2014, he was selected as one of two musicians to act as a “cultural ambassador” for New York University Abu Dhabi. He is also a past winner of the Townsend School of Music’s concerto competition.
He has also been privileged to perform chamber music alongside distinguished artists including Osmo Vänskä, Erin Keefe, Edgar Meyer, Ivano Zaneghi, Amy Moretti, Rebecca Albers, Annie Fullard, and Robert McDuffie. His chamber music and orchestral experience includes the summer festivals of Kneisel Hall, Rome Chamber Music Festival, Moritzburg Festival Academy, Sarasota Music Festival, Festival Schiermonnikoog, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival Fellowship Program.
Mellor-Goldman currently resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife Minji.
Florrie Marshall is an artist of sounds, and lover of all things musical. Florrie comes from a long musical lineage and is proud to be continuing in the footsteps of her family members from previous generations. After the passing of both paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother who lead lives as professional musicians, Marshall continued her musical studies with her great-aunt and legendary pedagogue Dora Marshall Mullins in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
With a passion for exploring chamber music literature, Marshall has been a participant at several esteemed chamber music festivals most recently including ClasClas, under the direction of Guy Braunstein, former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. Other festival appearances include the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival’s Winter Workshop 2016, 2017 & 2019, the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Beethoven Institute in New York City, and the Manchester Music Festival. Such festivals have afforded Marshall the opportunity to perform alongside revered artists such as Guy Braunstein, Franz Bartolomey, Chris Grymes, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Michael Kannen, Ara Gregorian, Hye-Jin Kim, Ilya Kaler, Ralph Kirshbaum, Mark Jakobs, Raman Ramakrishnan, Emanuel Gruber and Melissa Reardon.
In addition to her love of chamber music, she also developed as an orchestral musician, having served as principal violist of the Yale Philharmonia, concertmaster, principal second violin and principal viola for both the East Carolina University Symphony Orchestra and conductor-less ensemble, The Virginia Beach Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. During her senior year at ECU, Marshall performed an orchestral concert in the same way her grandfather once did: As concertmaster from the first violin section for the first half, and as concertmaster from the viola section for the second half.
Florrie earned a bachelor’s degree in violin performance and a Certificate of Advanced Performance Studies in viola from East Carolina University where she studied with Hye-Jin Kim and Ara Gregorian. She recently earned her Master of Music degree from Yale University, studying with renowned pedagogues Steven Tenenbom and Ettore Causa. As a graduate student and recipient of the Stephen and Denise Adams Fellowship, she received the 2017 Presser Foundation Graduate Award and the 2018 Philip F. Nelson Prize. Florrie also received the 2017 Interdisciplinary Arts Award from Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts and Media.
Florrie is currently completing her first year as a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music, where she studies with violist Ettore Causa.
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