Barrie Concerts & Georgian Music

It was a poignant return for Georgian Music, as they launched their “make up series” (for 2020 Spring concerts) on Sunday afternoon with an animated performance by the Magisterra Soloists, featuring Quintets by Hummel and Schubert.

As Magisterra’s Artistic Director, Annette-Barbara Vogel, explained between works, she and the late Bruce Owen had spoken on the phone many times about their performance, and he had insisted on the program being a pairing of these two quintets. She dedicated their performance to him.

Both Hummel’s Quintet in E flat minor, Op.87 and Schubert’s Quintet in A major, D.667 “The Trout” are written for piano quintet — although not the piano and string quartet modern audiences are used to, but with the second violin replaced by a double bass, giving a wider palette of register and tone (and allowing the viola and cello to step out of their usual roles).

Vogel, on violin, was joined by pianist Francine Kay, violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot, cellist Katerina Juraskova and bassist Talia Hatcher. As the ensemble’s name suggests, each is an exceptional and celebrated soloist in her own right, but proved to have the sensitivity and synergy required for the intricate ensemble work of these two pieces.

The piano takes the lead for most of the Hummel quintet — its virtuosic passages navigated exquisitely by Kay. Watching the fun everyone had playing the Minuet & Trio was a delight, but the highlight for me was the breathless beauty with which they played the Largo, before diving back into playfulness of the Finale. The performers seemed to be enjoying it as much as the audience!

Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet was commissioned in 1819 by Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy musical patron and amateur cellist — partly inspired by the 1802 Hummel quintet, with the added challenge of incorporating Schubert’s Lied “Die Fiorelle” (The Trout). This theme is heard most clearly in the fourth movement Theme and Variations, but the song’s piano accompaniment is a motif heard burbling and shimmering throughout the piece — the trick for performers is to make the complex and intricate patterns seem effortless, which this ensemble pulled off beautifully.

Again, it wasn’t just the technical mastery that each musician brought to their part, but the sheer enjoyment they showed performing together that stood out the most. I was particularly impressed with Hatcher’s tone, and Vogel and Juraskova’s abilities to make their technically challenging parts sound light and easy. Great ensemble work by all!

It’s a shame that Bruce was unable to attend this performance, but I’m sure he would be pleased at the results of his vision — and I know other audience members will be joining me in seeking out Magisterra Soloists in the future!

Submitted by Alyssa Wright, cellist, singer-songwriter, music educator and writer

Noted for “an extraordinary range of colour” (Montreal Gazette), and “poeticbrilliance” (Toronto Star), pianist Francine Kay has performed extensively in North America, Europe and Asia, acclaimed for her beauty of sound and for the intensity and depth of her interpretations.

Since making her debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall as winner and 'Recitalist of the Year' of the Pro Piano Competition, Francine Kay has been a regular guest at festivals internationally, such as Music Mountain, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the International Music Festival NowySącz (Poland), the 60th Chopin Festival (Czech Republic), and at the Zodiac Academy and Festival in France.

Ms. Kay has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center Rose Studio, Salle Gaveau (Paris), The National Gallery, The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, and Bargemusic. She has been soloist with orchestras such as the Toronto Symphony, the Princeton Symphony, the Princeton University Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra London, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Victoria Symphony, Sinfonia Toronto and the West Side Chamber Orchestra (NYC) among many others, under conductors Georg Tintner, Mark Laycock, Nurhan Arman, Agnes Grossman, Kevin Mallon, Jonathan Yates, Michael Pratt, Ermanno Florio and Simon Streatfeild.

Ms. Kay’s recordings on the Analekta, Audio Ideas and CBC labels have received international accolades; her Debussy recording was nominated for a JUNO award for 'Best Classical Album Solo or Chamber Music' and was chosen as Disc of the Month by the German publication, Fono Forum. Her performances are broadcast frequently on NPR, the BBC, WFMT, Radio France, and the CBC.

Ms. Kay enjoys collaborations with ensembles such as the Penderecki, Avalon, and Harlem String Quartets, Trio Arkel, the MagisterraSoloists and the Richardson Chamber Players.

Ms. Kay received her Bachelor’s and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School, the Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School and the Doctor of Musical Arts at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her principal mentors include Gilbert Kalish, Marek Jablonski and Leon Fleisher.

Francine Kay is on the faculty of Princeton University. She regularly gives master classes at festivals and universities in Europe and North America. Her newest recording, Things Lived and Dreamt will be released on the Analekta

label in early 2023.

Francine Kay website

Annette-Barbara Vogel’s rich international performing career has featured her as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in over 35 countries across 6 continents.

Considered one of the finest German violinists of her generation, she is renowned for her “authoritative and highly sensitive performances,” and “formidable technique, stunning musicality, and stage presence that transmits to orchestra and audience alike.” Gramophone Magazine has lauded “Vogel’s perfect intonation,” while Classical CD Review has proclaimed her “the most ideal exponent a composer could hope for.” Her exceptional musicianship has been recognized by numerous prestigious solo prizes and scholarships across both Europe and North America.

At eleven years old, Vogel was the youngest student ever accepted to the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen, where she later completed her solo and chamber music diplomas “summa cum laude.” Her early training as a violinist included several years of study at Amsterdam’s Sweelinck Konser vatorium under legendary Dutch violinist, Herman Krebbers. Already a professional touring musician at age sixteen, Vogel was selected to study for one month at the Menuhin Academy under Sir Yehudi Menuhin. With her piano trio, Trio Alani, she later studied chamber music under Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) at the Musik-Akademie Basel, before enrolling in the Artist Diploma program at Los Angeles’ University of Southern California. Vogel completed an Artist Diploma “summa cum laude” under Dorothy Delay at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory and was later chosen to perform the Brahms Violin Concerto under the baton of Keith Lockhart at a Gala concert honouring Delay’s seventy-fifth birthday.

Vogel’s prolific recording career as soloist and chamber musician has produced more than fifteen commercial albums under Avie Records, Bluegriffin Recordings, Cybele Records, Eroica Classical Records, and Harmonia Mundi Germany. Her 2011 release of “FranzösischeKomponistinnen” received the British IRR Outstanding Recording Award.

As a champion of lesser-known works, Vogel has met high critical praise for her many ground -breaking recordings of works for the violin by composers such as Hans Gál.

Her CD of violin sonatas by Ethel Smyth, Elfrieda Andrée, and Mel Bonis has been released on the UK-based Toccata label in August 2021 and was listed in the top 10 of Naxos Sweden within the first week of the release.

Previous appointments include an artistic residency with the “Monticello Trio” at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and violin professorships at both the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen and at the University of Iowa. Currently a Full Professor, Vogel accepted her appointment at Western University in 2004, where she continues to serve as the head of the string area and is in high demand as a pedagogue and chamber music coach.

Annette-Barbara is the 2020 recipient of the Forest City London Music Award in the solo classical instruments.

Born in Vienna, Jutta PuchhammerSédillot studied viola under Siegfried Führlinger at the Wiener Hochschule fürMusik und Darstellende Kunst, where she graduated with honours. She then perfected her art at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, under the direction of Heidi Castleman.

Described as an exceptional violist, Jutta is invited to perform as a guest soloist with numerous orchestras in North America, South America, and Europe. She was the principal violist with the Orchestresymphonique de Laval for 20 years. She premiered Tim Brady’s Viola Concerto, which is dedicated to her, and recorded the piece with the Nova Scotia Symphony Orchestra. Passionate about chamber music, Jutta is a founding member of the Trio Kegelstatt, the Quatuor Claudel, the Trio à cordes de Montréal, and the QuatuorOndine. She recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Duo Puchhammer Desjardins.

Her albums German Romantic Works and Alto Romantic Fantasies were praised by music critics. In 2016, she released the double album entitled Pièces de Concours: Virtuosic Romantic Works by French Composers 1896–1938, featuring lesser-known romantic viola works of French composers and virtuosos, which she also edited in three volumes for Schott’s editions of Pièces de Concours (ED 22234=22236).

Jutta PuchhammerSédillot has been a viola and chamber music professor at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Music for over 25 years. She is regularly invited to give master classes at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Cleveland Institute of Music, as well as at conservatories and universities across Canada and Europe. During the summer, she teaches at Orford Music in Quebec. As a master and performer, she has also been involved with the Heifetz International Music Institute in Virginia, the Perlman Music Program, the Saratoga Music Festival, the Teach Teachers Teach program in Chile (Villarrica), as well as various festivals in Italy, Austria, and France.

Every year, Jutta plays an active role at the International Viola Congress, where she shares her discoveries and love of the instrument with her peers. In 2006, she presided over the highly successful 34th International Viola Congress, held at the Université de Montréal. Her dedication to the international viola community earned her the Maurice Riley Award of Excellence in 2006 as well as the highest distinction of the International Viola Society, the “Silver Viola Clef,” in 2019.

Czech-born cellist Katerina Juraskova has been acclaimed for her “electrifying spells, natural intensity, beautiful phrasing and sonority” (Santa Barbara Independent), as “one of the great cellists of the future” (La Presse Montreal).

She graduated from the Prague State Conservatory and holds performance diplomas from the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, Conservatoire européen de musique de Paris, France, Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal, and Master and Doctorate degrees in Performance from McGill University, Canada.

For nine years Ms. Juraskova was the principal cellist and soloist for the McGill Chamber Orchestra. Her passion for Canadian contemporary music led to a collaboration with the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal with whom she served as the principal cellist and toured across Canada. She was the soloist in the highly acclaimed contemporary dance and music collaboration Corps Secrets working with Canadian dancer/choreographers Isabelle Van Grimde and José Navas, performing with them in Canada, Sweden and Japan. From 2006-2008 Dr. Juraskova served as the Principal Cellist and Artist in Residence of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. As soloist and chamber musician, her career has taken her to major concert venues on three continents.

Currently on the faculty at STEP Birmingham, AL, she has taught as an assistant chamber music teacher at the International Menuhin Music Academy, as a lecturer at the University of Montreal, and in Montgomery, AL, as a cello instructor at the Montgomery Music Project and at the Montessori Academy. She has served as an adjudicator for the 2010 National Tour of the Canadian Music Competition, for the 2015 Sherbrooke Music Competition in Québec, Canada, and annually for the ACES competition in Montgomery.

Ms. Juraskova studied the cello with František Pišinger of the Dvorak Quartet, Radu Aldulescu, Denis Brott, Antonio Lysy and Christopher Rex, and chamber music with Yehudi Menuhin, Alberto Lysy, Mauricio Fuks, Bernard Greenhouse, Kathleen Winkler and Jerome Lowenthal.

Katerina lives with her husband Thomas Hinds, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and their four year old son Christopher in Montgomery where they are active in the city's musical life.

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Talia Hatcher completed her undergraduate degree at the Conservatory of Music of Montreal with René Gosselin. She then completed her master’s degree at the University of Ottawa with mentor Joel Quarrington in 2019. During her time in Ottawa, Talia participated in several programs with the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) including the NAC Institute for Orchestral Studies, the NAC Summer Music Institute and the NAC Bursary Competition where she won the Vic Power award for her solo playing and orchestral excerpts. These programs allowed Talia to explore and deepen her skills in chamber music as well as orchestral music.

Talia started her journey of orchestral playing with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada back in 2014 as well as the Orchestra of The Americas in 2016 and 2017, touring in Canada, Europe and South America. Since then, she has played with numerous orchestras and ensembles including the Canadian Studio Symphony, Conservatory of Music of Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Métropolitain Orchestra of Montreal, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Niagara Symphony, Ottawa Symphony, Sinfonia Toronto, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra. One of her most memorable orchestral experience was touring with NACO in Europe where the bass section didn’t go unnoticed: ‘’… et un pupitre de contrebasses dont beaucoup d’orchestres peuvent rêver…” (Le Devoir).

Talia has had the opportunity of recording several albums including The Bound of our dreams with NACO and a project of new music with The Canadian Studio Symphony where she played the double bass solos. She also recently played a live recording of the Adagio and Allegro by Schumann for the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra 2022\2023 season launch.

As of September 2020, Talia Hatcher has been in the position of Associate Principal Double Bass with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. She also plays regularly in Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, Niagara, Ottawa and Toronto as a freelancer and relishes any opportunity to play chamber music with her colleagues.