Welcome to Music for Life, enhancing the Armstrong concert experience. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. In today's episode, we will spotlight the Grammy-winning cellist Sarah Sant'Ambrosio and the Journey Through North and South America program she is bringing to Armstrong Auditorium on April 8th. Sarah Sant'Ambrosio is a founding member of the world-famous Eroica Trio, and she has been on our series a number of times before as both soloist and member of the trio.
Her program at Armstrong will include a handful of American composers plus composers from Latin America. So stick around as we explore this exciting program featuring works by Gershwin, Barber, Piazzolla, and more today on Music for Life. We are very excited to have cellist Sarah Sant'Ambrosio back at Armstrong. And in these COVID days, we're really excited to have anyone here. Sarah Sant'Ambrosio is a founding member of the world-renowned chamber ensemble, the Eroica Trio. The trio has performed on our series a couple of times, and this will be Sarah's third time in solo recital on the series, and the second time since Armstrong Auditorium was constructed. Ms. Sant'Ambrosio first came to international attention after she won the 8th International Tchaikovsky Violoncello Competition in Moscow, Russia.
As a result of her medal, she was asked to perform a recital at Carnegie Hall. The event was filmed by CBS News and was aired internationally. The New York Times described her performance as sheer pleasure. She has since developed an extensive career, both as a soloist and a founding member of the Eroica Trio. She has appeared with orchestras such as Atlanta, Boston Pops, Chicago, Dallas, Moscow State Philharmonic, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Ms. Sant'Ambrosio has performed in some of the major music centers and festivals of the world, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikverein in Vienna, Lincoln Center, Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, Ravinia, and Aspen. Her father, John Sant'Ambrosio, principal cellist of the St. Louis Symphony, was Sarah's first teacher. At age 16, she was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music on a full scholarship. Only three years later, world-renowned cellist Leonard Rose invited her to study at the Juilliard School.
Her chamber ensemble, the Eroica Trio, won the prestigious Nomburg Chamber Music Competition in 1991. The trio has since traveled the globe, touring parts of the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. The trio has released eight recordings for Angel EMI Classics Records, which has received several Grammy nominations. As a soloist, she won a Grammy for her performance of Bernstein's Arias and Barker Rolls on Sebastian Records. A track from her 2004 album, Dreaming, was featured as the opening soundtrack in an award-winning HBO documentary. In 2009 and 2011, respectively, she released two volumes of Bach cello suites.
raved about Volume 2, calling it technically formidable and intensely communicative, and saying, these performances grab you by the ears and refuse to let you go. About Volume 1, the same publication gushed, she comes impressively close to the soul of Bach, and it is a miracle of sound. Her last concert here at Armstrong back in 2016 featured works off her Chopin Collection album. Her latest album, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, debuted at number six on Billboard magazine's classical charts, where it stayed in the top ten for months. For her concert at Armstrong this time, she will be doing a variety of works from North and South American and Spanish composers. So let's talk about this great music. She will open the concert with a fantasy on Porgy and Bess, essentially a medley of the greatest hits from the opera by George Gershwin.
Sarah recorded this along with members of the Eroica Trio on their American Journey album released back in 2008. So I'll play a little of this from that recording. Just to be clear, since this is a trio, you'll also hear a violin in this recording. But the sections I'll play really feature the cello, and we'll hear this section to the end of the work. of the fantasy on Porgy and Bess, basically a medley of greatest hits from George Gershwin's opera, Porgy and Bess, and that was performed by the Eroica Trio, and Sarah Sant'Ambrosio, the cellist from that trio, will be starting her program here at Armstrong on April 8th with that selection. Sarah's concert will feature her with a pianist, and yours truly will be the pianist for Ms. Sant'Ambrosio. And not only am I her pianist, I'm also honored to be one of the composers on the program. After the Gershwin, Sarah will be playing my rondo for cello and orchestra.
I originally wrote this for my son Seth Malone to play, and special thanks to Seth for helping me produce this episode of Music for Life, by the way. Seth is a cellist, and we wanted to feature him with the school orchestra at the end of his senior year of high school. So this piece is built like a cello concerto, just a one-movement concerto. But the name Rondo implies the form that it is in. It is comprised of three melodies, an A theme, then a B theme, then back to the A theme, then a C theme, and then back to the A theme one last time. The A theme is characterized by three ascending notes. This A theme is played against this repeated chord.
Then the B theme starts with three descending notes. The C theme is my favorite. It starts like this. What I love about this section is that this melody is played on top of an alternating major chord, then minor chord. But as the melody climaxes, the major chord becomes minor, and the resolving minor chord becomes major.
Then in the final statement of the A theme, it includes what's called a cadenza, a traditional moment in any concerto, that is a work featuring a solo instrument backed by orchestra, where the soloist plays alone in sort of a showier way. And of course, I'll be at the piano playing, there won't be an orchestra. And for that cadenza, I'll sit there as she plays all these amazing things. I'll go ahead and move ahead now to the next selection on the program, but I will put a link to the Rondo for Cello and Orchestra, the YouTube video of my son Seth playing that with our school orchestra. The next piece on the program moves us into the South American flavor of this journey through North and South America, even though it is by a Spanish composer, Enrique Granados, a very significant late 19th century composer for Spain. This is the Orientale from Spanish Dance No. 2. This is Sarah Santembrojo herself and her longtime friend and colleague and fellow founding member of the Eroica Trio at the piano, Erica Nickrens.
We just heard two founding members of the Eroica trio playing the Orientale from Spanish Dance No. 2 by Enrique Granados, pianist Eric and Nick Renz, and cellist Sarah Santambrosio. Sarah will be playing that on her April 8th program at Armstrong Auditorium here in Edmond, Oklahoma. Continuing in the Latin American flavor, Sarah will play a piece by Gaspar Casado, an exuberant piece called Requiebros. Casado was himself one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century, taught by the legendary Pablo Casals himself. Later, he taught the famous Benjamin Zander, who is not only the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but who has made quite the reputation, giving TED Talks, speeches, and masterclasses, inspiring thousands, musicians and non-musicians alike, with the power of classical music. Here's a masterclass Benjamin Zander gave about this piece to a young cellist, and he recalls what the composer, Casado, taught him about this work. I played this piece for him, and he shook his head like this, and he said, no, no, no, no, no. He said, no, no, no. And then he took his cello, and he played it.
And I said, but Maestro, you didn't write that into the part. He said, this music can't be written down. He meant it's like jazz, it's like flamenco, it's like any kind of folk art. It is extremely free. And there's another thing he told me, which is very important for me to tell you, which is, do you know what Recaiobras means? What it means is it means compliments, flirtatious compliments between lovers.
And so I said to him, isn't it a little wild? He said, not for Spaniards. So let's hear this wild piece, this flirtatious conversation. This is a recording with Iñaki Ejpere, cello, and Lurovika Mosca, piano. That was the passionate Requi Ebros by cellist and composer Gaspar Casado, which Sarah Sant'Ambrosio will perform on her April 8th concert here at Armstrong. This program is dubbed Journey Through North and South America, and next we'll continue the Latin theme with a composer actually from South America, the Argentine legend Astor Piazzolla.
I did a whole Music for Life episode about him called New to Tango, which you can look up in our program archives at kpcg.fm or on SoundCloud or iTunes. Sarah will do two famous pieces by Piazzolla, the first being the slow tango called Oblivion. She actually played this on her concert here five years ago. It was an all Chopin concert, but this was the encore. You are listening to Music for Life. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. This is KPCG. In today's episode, we are spotlighting the Grammy-winning cellist Sarah Sant'Ambrosio and the program she is bringing to Armstrong Auditorium on April 8th, a journey through North and South America.
This is her second time as soloist on the Armstrong stage and her third solo appearance on our series, which began long before the auditorium existed. I'm very excited to be joining her again as her pianist on the series. We just heard Sarah Sant'Ambrosio from her last time on the Armstrong stage with yours truly as the pianist there. And that was the delicious Oblivion, a slower tango by Astor Piazzolla, arranged by Sarah herself for cello and piano. So we'll be doing that again as part of the South America angle of this journey through North and South America. Then to conclude the first half, we'll hear a livelier tango by Piazzolla and certainly his most famous, the Libertango. Here is Sarah again at the cello from her album Dreaming.
with pianist Anissa Newman. We just heard Astor Piazzola's famous Libertango, which will close the first half of Sarah Sant'Ambrosio's concert at Armstrong Auditorium on Thursday, April 8th. That was a recording of Sarah playing from her 2004 album Dreaming.
along with pianist Anissa Newman. The second half of the program leaves South America and goes back to North America for a major work for cello and piano, the cello sonata by Samuel Barber. Barber is one of the most significant figures of American contemporary music. Born in Pennsylvania in 1910, he began taking interest in music at an early age, despite his parents' attempts to make him a football player. He composed his first work, albeit a short one, at the age of seven, and entered the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 14, where he would spend the next 10 years as a pianist, baritone, and composer. It was during this period of life where Barber would compose this cello sonata, a 22-year-old Barber composer.
In the case of this sonata, it contains this very brooding A theme. That A theme is contrasted by this lyrical B theme.
The second movement is, as expected, the slow movement, but Barber inserts a very rapid and playful middle section to keep everyone awake. The sonata concludes with a fiery third movement, and we'll hear this one in its entirety. This is cellist Ronald Leonard with pianist Kevin Fitzgerald in the third movement to Samuel Barber's Cello Sonata, Op. 6. You are listening to Music for Life. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. This is KPCG. In today's episode, we have been spotlighting the Grammy-winning cellist Sarah Sant'Ambrosio and the program she is bringing to Armstrong Auditorium on Thursday, April 8th, A Journey Through North and South America.
More information about this and all our Armstrong Auditorium events can be found at armstrongauditorium.org. That's armstrongauditorium.org. Plus the venue's various social media platforms, of course. Be sure to check out today's show notes for some interesting video links as well. We just heard the third and final movement of the cello sonata by Samuel Barber in a recording there by Ronald Leonard, along with pianist Kevin Fitzgerald. We will conclude today's episode with the final number on this program, going back to the South American flair of our journey. This is The Dance of Fire by Manuel de Falla, technically another composer from Spain and one of that country's most influential 20th century musicians. He lived from 1876 to...
and this is an adaptation of a movement from his 1915 ballet. I think the arrangements that came from this ballet's music are more well-known than the ballet itself, and the music for this movement is very exhilarating. We're going to conclude today's program with a recording by the famous cellist Janosch Starker and pianist Shigeo Neriki. I hope you enjoy, and I hope to see you soon at Armstrong. You have been listening to Music for Life, a production of KPCG 101.3 on the FM Dial in Edmond, Oklahoma. From the Herbert W. Armstrong College campus, I'm Ryan Malone. Thanks for joining me.