The Schoenberg – Puccini Connection

In collaboration with
Deutsches Haus at NYU

The Schoenberg – Puccini Connection
A Centennial Celebration in Music and Dialogue

6:00-7:30pm
Deutsches Haus at NYU (42 Washington Mews)

Panel Discussion with:
Harvey Sachs
Music historian, Curtis Institute of Music
Author of Schoenberg:Why He Matters (Liveright, 2023)

Linda Fairtile
Music Librarian / Musicologist, University of Richmond
Author of Giacomo Puccini: A Guide to Research (Routledge, 1999)

Moderated by
Michael Beckerman, NYU

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8:00pm
NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò (24 West 12th Street)

Concert
Featuring:

Ariadne Greif, soprano

Eduardo Leandro, conductor

Ginevra Petrucci, flute
Kai Hirayama, clarinet
Doori Na, violin
Clare Monfredo, cello
Riko Higuma, piano

Program:
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Pierrot Lunaire

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Terra e Mare
Sole e Amore
Avanti, Urania!

On April 1, 1924, Palazzo Pitti in Florence hosted a “Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music” aimed at presenting new musical trends to Italian audiences. The highlight of the performance was the Florentine premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, an atonal melodrama for soprano and chamber ensemble composed in 1912 that – by then – was already becoming the Austrian composer’s most celebrated and performed work. The composer himself led the performance from the podium. To his delight, attending in the audience – score in hand – was Italy’s preeminent opera composer, Giacomo Puccini, whom Schoenberg considered one of the innovators of twentieth-century harmonic language, having made reference to his works in his 1911 book Theory of Harmony (Harmonielehre).

100 years later, as we celebrate important anniversaries of both composers (150 years from Schoenberg’s birth and 100 years from Puccini’s death – which occurred less than 9 months after their meeting), NYU’s Casa Italiana and Deutsches Haus join forces to present an evening dedicated to the impact of these two composers on each other, on the world around them, and on the many composers who have continued to carry the torch of musical innovation.

The event will begin with a panel discussion at Deutsches Haus (42 Washington Mews), featuring music historian Harvey Sachs (author of, among others, Schoenberg: Why He Matters) and musicologist Linda Fairtile (author of, among others, Giacomo Puccini: A Guide to Research), moderated by Michael Beckerman (NYU). Following the panel, the audience will walk over to Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò (24 West 12th Street) to attend a performance of Pierrot Lunaire and selected works by Puccini.

Bios:
Ariadne Greif, praised for her “luminous, expressive voice,” “searing top notes,” and “dusky depths,” (NYTimes), enjoyed a casual child career as a “boy” soprano at the LA Opera, making an adult debut singing Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She starred in operas ranging from Donizetti’s Elixir of Love with The Orlando Philharmonic, to Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Aldeburgh Festival, and Atthis, by Georg Friedrich Haas, which the NY Times called “one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.” Ariadne performed with William Kentridge in Ursonate at The Oslo Opera House, The Luxembourg Philharmonic, Cal Performances, and Performa. She sang with Opera Philadelphia, The Knights, Brooklyn Rider, JACK Quartet, The Ojai Festival, Ultima in Norway, Helsinki’s Meidän Festival, Long Beach Opera, The Park Avenue Armory, AMOC, and Sydney Chamber Opera. Ariadne has premiered upwards of thirty new operas and more than 150 chamber works.

Eduardo Leandro is a conductor and percussionist who seeks to bridge the gap between both worlds by applying his extensive experience in new music to his interpretation of earlier orchestral repertoire. He is the principal guest conductor at the Greater Bridgeport Symphony in Connecticut, conducts the New York New Music Ensemble, regularly performs with the New York University Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted Camerata Aberta in Brazil, Talea and Sequitur Ensembles in the United States, Ensemble Lemanic in France, and the New Music Ensembles in the conservatories of Geneva and Lausanne. He is an Associate Professor at Stony Brook University and artistic director of its Contemporary Chamber Players, conducts the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. He also teaches percussion at the Université de Montreal. As a percussionist, Eduardo Leandro has performed as soloist and with ensembles in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In the U.S. he performs regularly with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, having appeared with Steve Reich Ensemble and Bang on a Can All Stars among others. Eduardo Leandro was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and attended the Sao Paulo State University, the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands, and Yale University.

Hailed by the press as “one of the most interesting talents of her generation”, Ginevra Petrucci has performed at Carnegie Hall (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Salle Cortot (Paris), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Villa Medici (Rome), Ohji Hall (Tokyo), as well as throughout China, South America and the Middle East. As a soloist, she has appeared in concert with I Pomeriggi Musicali, I Virtuosi Italiani and the Chamber Orchestra of New York, and has released the first recordings of Giulio Briccialdi, Edouard Dupuy, and Ferdinand Buchner’s Concertos. Her chamber music experience has brought her to appear alongside pianists Bruno Canino and Boris Berman, and to a long-standing collaboration with the Kodály Quartet, with whom she has released the highly acclaimed recording of the complete Flute Quintets by Friedrich Kuhlau. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University, and a Master of Music at Yale University. Her education include a Master at Santa Cecilia Conservatory in her native Rome under the guidance of her father, and a Diplome Superieur at the École Normale in Paris. She serves as Principal Flute at Chamber Orchestra of New York.

Clarinetist Kai Hirayama is a performer, improviser, and recording musician devoted to the music of now. An avid champion of new music and a strong believer in its necessity for a culturally relevant musical future, he has worked with many composers including Igor Santos, Conrad Tao, Amy Beth Kirsten, Alan Hankers, David Sanford, and more to create and perform new works of clarinet solo and chamber music. An active member of the NYC/NY freelance musician community, Kai is a frequent substitute with many local orchestras, including the Albany Symphony, so&so NYC, and the US Broadway premiere of “Gwangju – the Musical”. A passionate educator as well as performer, he maintains a large private studio of clarinet and saxophone students, has served as substitute clarinet faculty for the Juilliard School Pre-college Division, and is on the faculty of the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival in Leavenworth, WA. Kai has performed internationally, with concerts around Europe, Australia, and North America. He completed his doctoral studies at Stony Brook University under the guidance of Alan Kay.

Praised for his captivating performances and expressive artistry, Doori Na has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, and beyond. In 2018, he made a notable debut with the San Francisco Symphony, performing Bach’s Double Violin Concerto alongside the legendary Itzhak Perlman under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. Doori is a graduate of the Juilliard School and is currently based in Brooklyn playing with numerous ensembles in the city.

Clare Monfredo is a cellist originally from Maine, currently living in Brooklyn where she is pursuing a doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Yale and a Master of Music from Rice University. As a Fulbright Scholar, Clare studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany and has performed widely across Europe. An enthusiast for contemporary music, she has played with Ensemble Intercontemporain and the International Contemporary Ensemble, and co-founded DownEast New Music, a contemporary music festival in coastal Maine. Clare also teaches at Hunter College.

Versatile pianist, Riko Higuma made her US debut as a soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony. A sought after collaborative pianist, she has performed with artists such as Aaron Rosand, Cho-Liang Lin, Alan Gilbert, Ray Chen, Timothy Eddy, Neil Rosenshein and Steven Banks to name a few and has collaborated with Leonidas Kavakos, Gil Shaham, Michael Tilson Thomas and Lera Auerbach among many others as a rehearsal pianist for the New York Philharmonic. Performance highlights as the founding member of the Zodiac Trio include Festival Radio France/Montpellier, Ottawa Chamberfest, Edinburgh Festival, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and Zodiac Music Academy & Festival in France. Her performances were featured by France 3 Television, Radio France, CBC, WQXR, WFMT, WGBH and NPR. She studied chamber music with the Ysaye String Quartet at the Paris Conservatory and currently, she is a staff pianist and vocal coach at the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Phillip Kawin.