Lynn Harrell and Victor Santiago Asuncion [Rebroadcast]

May 11, 2020, 8:00 pm

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Lynn Harrell (Photo: Christian Steiner)

This is a rebroadcast from January 16, 2012.

In August of 1965, Billboard magazine printed a recap of the Ravinia festival, which had opened on a 40-degree evening in the middle of June. Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky had conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that summer. “Ravinia perennial” Elizabeth Schwarzkopf sang; the festival’s 29-year-old music director Seiji Ozawa conducted, and Ella Fitzgerald performed on the “popular artist” series. There was a 21-year-old cellist by the name of Lynn Harrell who gave a recital – that was the beginning of a long and celebrated relationship which continues to unfold in Chicago’s musical life.

Over the last 50 years, Lynn Harrell has shared Chicago’s stages with the CSO, conductors James Conlon, James Levine, Sir Georg Solti; other orchestras, like the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He’s given masterclasses at area universities and music shops, and played chamber concerts with artists ranging from Isaac Stern to Gil Shaham, not to mention a number of collaborations with CSO principals.

WFMT.com

Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist.  He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.

A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, Giora Schmidt, the Dover, Emerson, Serafin, Sao Paulo, and Vega String Quartets. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival.  He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe.

His recordings include the complete Sonatas of L. van Beethoven with cellist Tobias Werner, Sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff with cellist Joseph Johnson, the Rachmaninoff Sonata with the cellist Evan Drachman, and the Chopin and Grieg Sonatas, also with cellist Evan Drachman. He is featured in the award winning recording “Songs My Father Taught Me” with Lynn Harrell, produced by Louise Frank and WFMT-Chicago.  Mr. Asuncion is the Founder, and Artistic and Board Director of FilAm Music Foundation, a non-profit foundation that is dedicated to promoting Filipino classical musicians through scholarship, and performance.

He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 2007 from the University of Maryland at College Park under the tutelage of Rita Sloan. Victor Santiago Asuncion is a Steinway artist.

Biography courtesy of the artist’s website.

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  • Sonata for Cello and Piano, Debussy
    Prologue:  Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto
     Sérénade: Modérément animé
    Finale: Animé, léger et nerveux

  • Three Little Pieces, Op. 11, by Webern

  • Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major, Op. 69, by Beethoven
    Allegro ma non tanto
    Scherzo. Allegro molto
    Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace

  • Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19, Rachmaninoff
    Lento – Allegro moderato
    Allegro scherzando
    Andante
    Allegro mosso

  • The Swan from Carnival of the Animals, Saint-Saëns