Mozart in the Gardens
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Musicians
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The New York Times has praised flutist Beomjae Kim’s playing for its “memorable eloquence.” Beomjae [pronunciation: buhm-jae] has appeared in various concerts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, Weill Recital Hall and Stern Auditorium, Lincoln Center, (le) Poisson Rouge, National Sawdust, Trinity Wall Street, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Kimmel Center for Performing Arts and the Seoul Arts Center. His performances have been broadcasted live on New York City’s WQXR, Philadelphia's WRTI, Chicago’s WFMT and Medici TV. 

Beomjae is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect (formerly known as Ensemble ACJW) – a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and Weill Music Institute. As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Albany, York, and Korean Symphony Orchestras. Beomjae was also featured as one of the six emerging artists in classical music by Symphony Magazine (published by League of American Orchestras) in their Winter 2020 issue, and on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase.

Beomjae is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Flute at Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey. He has given guest lectures and masterclasses at the Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University, California State University Fresno, Dickinson College, and Skidmore College. Additionally, he served as a faculty member in flute performance at JCC Thurnauer School of Music in New Jersey.

Beomjae holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a master’s degree and the prestigious Artist Diploma from the Manhattan School of Music.

Beomjae is represented by Astral Artists (Philadelphia, PA)

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An "eloquent" clarinetist with "incredible artistry” Russian-born Stas Chernyshev has established a versatile career as an orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician, and educator (Dallas Morning News, Theater Jones). Principal clarinetist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Chernyshev has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Russia, South Korea and Japan. A devoted chamber musician, Mr. Chernyshev has collaborated with Grammy-winning ensembles Eighth Blackbird and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, commissioned new works for his instrument. He has been featured on WQXR -New York’s classical music station and WHYY’s television program - On Stage at Curtis. He is the founder and artistic director of Fort Worth Performances for Autism, and a co- founder of Opus Nova Chamber Music Series. Mr. Chernyshev holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and a Master’s degree from St. Petersburg Conservatory.

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Ann Hung, born in Taipei, Taiwan, began her musical studies at a young age, starting with piano at age five and clarinet at age nine. Dr. Hung is an active performer in the Dallas and Fort Worth area who regularly performs in the realms of both the orchestral and chamber music. She has shared the stage with the Fort Worth Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the faculty of the Juilliard School. Dr. Hung is always pushing the boundaries of her repertoire and skills, such as collaborating with jazz musicians and commissioning new composers. As a proponent of new music, she has avidlycommissioned new works including a wind quintet with her quintet Opus Now premiering in Symphony Space in NYC. One of the new works that Dr. Hung commissioned is included in a recently released album “Stained Glass Story” by Eldad Tarmu. Dr. Hung is currently teaching in Lewisville ISD, Burleson ISD as private lesson instructor and often plays with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She is the associate director of the Fort Worth Performances for Autism and co- founder of Opus Nova Chamber Music Series.

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​Molly Baer joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 2012. Before moving to Texas, Molly was a violin fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. She graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston as a student of Miriam Fried, and received her Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music, where she studied with Andrés Cárdenes. Since moving to Fort Worth, Molly has participated in frequent chamber music performances with local ensembles and festivals. She has performed with Spectrum Chamber Music Society, Hall Ensemble, the Basically Beethoven Festival, Opus Nova, and Sedici Strings, a string quartet made up of colleagues in the Fort Worth Symphony. 
She also teaches a private studio of violin students and has enjoyed coaching young chamber musicians for the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra.

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Anna Kolotylina is Ukrainian violist. She began to play violin at the age of 5. While at school, she performed as a soloist with a Lutsk Philharmonic Orchestra and was a part of famous Ukrainian ensemble “Volyniany”. In 1999 and 2001 Ms. Kolotylina won a First Prize and Grand Prix at the Regional Competition in Lutsk. In 2003 she studied at the special music school in Lviv, Ukraine, where she was the soloist with the Lviv Symphony Orchestra. In 2006 Anna entered National Lviv Music Academy and after one year was accepted to study at the International Menuhin Music Academy, Switzerland. While studying there, Ms. Kolotylina participated at the International Brahms Competition (Pörtschach, Austria) and was awarded a scholarship. Anna was a part of the IMMA Quartet which in 2011 won the First Prize and the Audience Prize at the “Chamonix Mont Blanc” International Competition in France. Anna received her Master’s Degree at the National Lviv Music Academy in 2011 and performed in Switzerland, Italy and Portugal with string ensemble “Camerata Menuhin ”. In summer 2014 Ms. Kolotylina was invited to teach at the International Idyllwild Summer Festival, USA. She was a teaching assistant at The Menuhin Academy. Anna received an Artist Diploma at The Colburn School, (Los Angeles) in 2016 where she studied with Paul Coletti. In 2016 Ms. Kolotylina was an Assistant Principal Viola at the Baton Rouge Symphony, and a Principal Viola at the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra.

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Jenny Kwak joined the cello section of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in January of 2022. She has previously held the positions of section cello with the New Haven Symphony and principal cello with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. She has won first prize in multiple competitions, appearing as a soloist with the Music in the Mountains Chamber Orchestra and the TCU Symphony Orchestra. She has attended the Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, Orford Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West, where she was selected as a Zarin Mehta fellow to appear with the New York Philharmonic. As a chamber musician, Ms. Kwak has performed at major halls worldwide, including the Seoul Arts Center, Suntory Hall, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, and Carnegie Hall, among others. She received her B.A. from Texas Christian University, her M.M. and M.M.A. from the Yale School of Music, and is currently pursuing her D.M.A. at Stony Brook University. Her major teachers have included Jesús Castro-Balbi, Aldo Parisot, and Colin Carr.

Program Notes 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quartet No. 1, Op. 79, No. 1, KV Anh. 170, (Mozart's Violin Sonata in B-flat Major, Kv 378)

As with many musical genres of his era, Mozart made great contributions to the "classical" sonata for violin and piano with at least 32 known compositions, the very first dating from when he was around 8 years old. His father, Leopold Mozart, wrote a well-regarded treatise on violin technique and made sure that his son had mastered the violin as well as a variety of keyboard instruments. Of Mozart's mature, celebrated sonatas there are around 16. While today we naturally tend to call them "violin sonatas", at the time, the genre emerged from the so-called "accompanied sonatas", that is, for keyboard (harpsichord and later piano) with accompaniment by violin. Earlier examples of the genre are just that: essentially piano sonatas where an optional violin part reinforces the melody line in the pianist's right hand, an easy arrangement for domestic music making among amateurs. Mozart was the first great composer to elevate the violin part to the status of equal, independent partner and it is worth emphasizing that his sonatas are for violin and piano, not merely a showcase for one or the other of the instruments. Mozart composed the Violin Sonata, K. 378 in 1779 in Salzburg and it was the first to be included in a set published by Artaria in 1781.

The composer, music publisher and arranger Johann Anton André (1775-1842) has been long forgotten for his own music. He is chiefly remembered today as the first important Mozart researcher. In 1799, André purchased the bulk of Mozart's manuscripts and papers from Mozart's widow Constanze and thus began decades of work towards assembling a definitive catalog of Mozart's work. During these years, André published a set of three Mozart arrangements for "clarinet quartet" (clarinet, violin, viola and cello), two of them after violin sonatas (K. 378 and 380) and the third after Mozart's Piano Trio, K. 498. It is worth remembering that Mozart himself was immensely fond of the newly emerging clarinet and wrote the first important masterworks of the repertoire (a concerto, a trio and a quintet). André's arrangement is a wonderful chamber music transcription of Mozart's sonata for violin and piano transferring the bulk of the violin part to the clarinet while retaining the violin as a contrasting soloist for color, dialog and chief passages derived from the piano part. The harmonic and textural foundation originally found in Mozart's impressive piano part shifts in André's arrangement to the string trio where its warm timbre and blended texture works most effectively.

 - program notes by Kai Christiansen
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Barbara Strozzi: Arie a voce sola, op. 8, “Che si può fare”
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Barbara Strozzi was a noted 17th-century Baroque composer who is now regarded as a great of her time. Born in Venice, Italy, she first came to prominence as an opera singer, performing amongst her family’s high-class social circles. It was in part because of her high social status that she was given the opportunity to study with great teachers and composers like Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli.

Strozzi bucked the trend of other contemporary female opera singers by spending the next 20 years publishing numerous vocal collections, which include in excess of one hundred motets, arias and madrigals. As a result of this consistent productivity, Barbara Strozzi has since been spoken about as one of the most prolific composers of her time.

Strozzi’s “Che si puo fare - Aria for Solo Voice” in her 8th collection is familiar to many and its melancholic melodies are perfectly complemented by the accompanying lute. This collaborative work saw Strozzi set music to poetry created by Aurelio Aureli, featuring lyrics like “What can be done if heaven has no peaceful influence to soothe my sorrows”. This brilliant work sets out to evoke feelings of despair and heartache, which it does expertly thanks to the way Strozzi combines gentle lyricism, subtle dissonance and the meters of poetry. This version for string trio and two clarinets was arranged by Ann Hung.
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Georg Philipp Telemann: Fantasia No. 12 in G Minor for Solo Flute 

Music for unaccompanied melodic instruments has always been a relative rarity. In the baroque period one naturally thinks of Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin, his suites for unaccompanied cello, and of Jacob van Eyck’s much lesser known pieces for recorder. Stringed instruments can produce simultaneous sounds and near-chords in the form of arpeggios, and Bach was able to compose true fugues for violin. But such an accomplishment is impossible with the flute, which produces but one sound at a time.
It would have been surprising had Telemann, amongst his immense chamber music production, not taken up the challenge of writing for unaccompanied flute. His Twelve Fantasies for flute without bass were published no later than 1732, a few years before his Fantasies for solo violin. Possibly written for didactic purposes, as their key progression suggests, these Fantasies do not follow a strict form. The number of movements varies in the extreme; some are short da chiesa sonatas while others consist of sections which flow into one another. This formal freedom is particularly apparent in the openly improvisational character of several of the introductory movements.


Fantasia No. 12 is in the key of G minor starts off with a slow Grave written in an almost vocal style, that soon leaves place to a lively Allegro; the two tempos alternate a couple times before introducing a “sweet” Dolce built on arpeggios and slow large intervals. Another short Allegro makes its appearance before culminating in the final Presto, written in the style of a bourrée.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Quartet in D major, K.285

Mozart's genius as chamber composer rests on his mature masterworks for string quartet and quintet, but his total oeuvre comprises a rich diversity of ensembles. Several compositions feature strings and a guest from the wind family: the flute, clarinet, oboe or horn. Primarily dating from an early period before the first "Haydn Quartets", the chamber music for winds offers perfect and colorful delicacies with exquisite chamber textures and superbly idiomatic part-writing sensitive to the innate characteristics of each featured guest. While the unemployed Mozart traveled around Europe with his mother seeking opportunity, he received a commission from an amateur flautist in Mannheim named Ferdinand Dejean. The commission produced three flute quartets including the Quartet in D major, KV. 285 completed on December 25, 1777.

Like many of his early chamber compositions for a wind instrument, the flute quartet is primarily in "concertante" style where the flute enjoys the prominent role as the strings artfully accompany. Though a sort of a "chamber concerto", the ensemble is intimate, the textures transparent, with a vivid contrast of color and articulation yielding pleasures unique to the purest chamber music. The lightness and brevity of the quartet place it stylistically in that charming realm of the Rococo, a brief, gallant flourish representing a hybrid of the emerging early classical period with traces of the lingering Baroque.

The quartet is compact, with only three short movements, the last two joined without pause. The first movement is a clear and lively sonata with a wealth of themes, a terse development and a wonderfully elaborated recapitulation. The middle movement suspends motion and mood in a wistful serenade with delicate pizzicati speckling a pensive melody in the flute, evoking the Baroque or possibly some further antiquity of austere grace and poise. This demure reverie is just about to evaporate, when, without pause, the moment is seized by am exuberant finale rondo, utterly contemporary again in all its shimmering Rococo excitement. Between rondo refrain and intervening episode, there is but gaiety, and the frivolity of effortless perfection.

 - program notes by Kai Christiansen
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