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Yumi Hwang-Williams to perform with Denver Phil
Contributed by: Robin McNeil on 5/9/2007

Ms. Yumi Hwang-Williams, concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, will perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by Dr. Horst Buchholz, this concert will take place in the King Center on the Auraria Campus this Saturday, May 12, at 7:30 PM.

Yumi Hwang-Williams has served as concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (CSO) since 2000 and is concertmaster for the Cabrillo Music Festival. She is a faculty member of the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.

In March 2003, she made her debut with the Indianapolis Symphony under the baton of Lawrence Leighton Smith playing the moving Lament and Prayer by Aaron Jay Kernis, written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the holocaust. The performance was described as 'notable for the outstanding interpretation of the solo violin part'. Also in 2003, in an historic collaboration between the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop, John Adams, John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse, at the CSO Contemporary Music Festival, Ms Hwang-Williams' brilliant account of the Rouse Violin Concerto was proclaimed by the composer to be 'the definitive version'. A previous performance of the Rouse Violin Concerto, at the prestigious Cabrillo Music Festival in 2001, was deemed 'Sensational!' by the Wall Street Journal. At the 2003 Cabrillo Festival in August, Ms Hwang-Williams was the soloist in the West Coast premier of Michael Daugherty's Fire and Blood for Violin and Orchestra. She was also featured in recital with eminent pianist/conductor Dennis Russell Davies in Lou Harrison's Grand Duo. Both performances were lauded by critics and audiences alike. In November 2003, she was the soloist in Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the CSO and conductor Peter Oundjian.

Yumi Hwang-Williams began violin studies at the age of ten in Philadelphia, one year after emigrating from South Korea. At fifteen, she appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and was accepted as a student of Jascha Brodsky and Yumi Ninomiya-Scott at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music where she went on to receive her Bachelor of Music degree. She has also studied with S ylvia Rosenberg, Joseph Silverstein and David Arben, former Associate Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, who continues to be her mentor.

In 1878, Brahms composed his only violin concerto and dedicated it to the great violinist Joseph Joachim whom he had met when he was only 15 years of age. Joachim, two years older than Brahms, became a lifelong friend. There is no question that Brahms asked Joachim for his opinion while he was composing this concerto, but let us not forget that Brahms was his own man. While he certainly respected Joachim's input, this work shows Brahms to be the virtuoso composer that we know him to be. Yes, this was the only violin concerto that he wrote, and it shows the influence of Beethoven, Viotti, even Bach and Joachim, but these two men were good friends, and a collaboration was natural. It should be noted that Brahms also respected Joachim for his own compositional ability. Brahms, out of deference to Joachim's ability as a total musician, wrote no cadenza for the first movement, leaving Joachim to provide one. With Brahms conducting on the podium, it was Joachim who delivered the premiere of the work for his friend and colleague in Leipzig on New Year's Day of 1879.

Opening Saturday's concert will be the Roman Carnival Overture by French composer, Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). This work uses material from his opera Benvenuto Cellini, which was first performed in 1838. In 1830, Berlioz spent a year in Italy as a result of his winning the coveted Prix de Rome, the most prestigious prize in the world for composition. He fell in love with Italy, and the result was the aforementioned opera, Harold in Italy (a symphony with viola obbligato written for Paganini), and this overture.

The last work on the program will be Beethoven's Symphony Nr. 6 - the Pastoral. Beethoven gave the symphony its nickname, a reflection of his often-stated love for the country. He began the work while staying in the little town of Heiligenstadt - now a suburb of Vienna - in 1802. When it was eventually finished in 1808, it created a stir. It was unlike the previous symphonies because of its serenity. There was no sturm und drang, plus the fact that it was in five movements, rather than the usual four. All of the movements are clear cut, but scholars at the time were taken aback by this "breach of sonata form etiquette." They labeled the fourth movement as a long introduction to the fifth, similar to the Mozart String Quintet, K. 516, failing to realize just how innovative Beethoven was.

Tickets for this concert may be purchased only at the King Center box office. The prices are $17 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $7 for students. The King Center box office phone number is 303-556-2296.




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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Robin McNeil

Littleton , CO

Robin McNeil has posted 698 stories and 0 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Robin McNeil 's average story rating is 5.
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