THIS PERFORMANCE IS PART OF THE
2017 Houston Early Music Festival
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Subscribers can exchange tickets for another Ars Lyrica 2016/2017 Season performance — Learn more
Hobby Center Box Office:
713-315-2525
Touring Performance:
February 13 at 7 p.m.
Friends of Chamber Music Concert Series
First Presbyterian Church
1100 Carter Creek Parkway
Bryan, Texas
MORE INFO in Special Events
Scalable Heights
Sunday, February 12 at 6pm
Zilkha Hall / Hobby Center For The Performing Arts
Fast passagework? High notes? No problem for the greatest virtuosos of the early 18th century, whose talents inspired some of the most spectacular music of the late Baroque.
J. S. Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, one of the great showpieces of the soprano and trumpet repertoire, headlines a program that also includes showstoppers by Vivaldi and Scarlatti.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052
Alessandro Scarlatti, Su le sponde del Tebro
Antonio Vivaldi, "Folia" Sonata in D minor, Op. 1/12 (after Corelli)
Johann Sebastian Bach, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51
Special Thanks to our Reception Sponsor, Trinchero Napa Valley Wines. Learn more about the wines at www.trincheronapavalley.com
Soloists:
Sherezade Panthaki
soprano
Nathaniel Mayfield
natural trumpet
Matthew Dirst
harpsichord
About the Artists:
Sherezade Panthaki
Soprano Sherezade Panthaki’s international success has been fueled by superbly honed musicianship; “shimmering sensitivity” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), “astonishing coloratura with radiant top notes” (Calgary Herald); a vocal color “combining brilliance with a dark, plumlike tone” (The Wall Street Journal), and passionately informed interpretations, “mining deep emotion from the subtle shaping of the lines” (The New York Times). An acknowledged star in the early-music field, Ms. Panthaki has developed strong collaborations with many of the world’s leading interpreters including Nicholas McGegan, Simon Carrington, the late John Scott, Mark Morris, Matthew Halls, Nicholas Kraemer, and Masaaki Suzuki, with whom she made her New York Philharmonic debut in a program of Bach and Mendelssohn.
Highlights of her current and recent seasons include Handel’s Messiah with Bach Collegium Japan (Tokyo), National Symphony Orchestra (Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.), National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa, Canada), Calgary Symphony, and Nashville Symphony; Handel and Bach oratorios with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco; several productions with the Mark Morris Dance Group, including Handel’s L’allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and the title role of Galatea in the company’s premiere performances of Handel’s Acis and Galatea; Handel’s Saul with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Houston Symphony; Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and Brahms Requiem with the late John Scott and the Choir and Orchestra of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, New York City; numerous Bach cantatas and Mozart Requiem with Music of the Baroque (Chicago); Handel’s Solomon with the Radio Kamer Filharmonie in Holland; Handel at Carnegie Hall with William Christie and the Yale Philharmonia; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and solo cantatas with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York city; Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate and Requiem with the Washington Bach Consort (Washington D.C.); and solo concerts of Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi cantatas with the Rebel Baroque Orchestra. She is a frequent soloist with the most accomplished early music ensembles in New York, including the Choir and Orchestra of Trinity Church Wall Street (with whom she performed on a Grammy nominated recording).
Born and raised in India, Ms. Panthaki holds an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where she won multiple awards, including the prestigious Phyllis Curtin Career Entry Prize, awarded to launch the career of a student who demonstrates exceptional promise and talent as an artist. She earned a Masters degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelors degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Ms. Panthaki is an active and passionate music educator, frequently called upon to present vocal masterclasses at Universities and Arts Schools across the United States. She teaches as an adjunct voice professor at Yale University.
Nathaniel Mayfield
Originally from Austin, TX, Nathaniel Mayfield was awarded a four-year scholarship to study trumpet at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, MI. At age 18, he competed in the Young Arts Talent Search sponsored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and was one of 20 high school artists chosen to receive the prestigious Presidential Scholarship in the Arts from President Bill Clinton, an honor that included a Rose Garden ceremony and solo performance in the Kennedy Center. After acceptance into both The Juilliard School and Columbia University, Mr. Mayfield graduated after three years of studies with Professor Raymond Mase (Chairman of the Juilliard Brass Department), and earned a BA in Classical History from Columbia. Other awards and honors included first prizes in The National Trumpet Competition, The Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, and the International Trumpet Guild Solo Competition.
Mr. Mayfield went on to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue graduate work with Professor Reinhold Friedrich in Karlsruhe, Germany. During this time, he won positions in music festivals such as The Round Top Institute, National Repertory Orchestra, and The Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo Japan, as well as performed with a variety of professional orchestras including Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Mannheim Opera.
A world-renowned baroque trumpet soloist, Mr. Mayfield has presented masterclasses at such institutions as: The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Laval University in Quebec, UT Austin, Baylor, TCU, Lausanne Conservatory Switzerland, and many others. Further, he was a three-year assistant at The Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar in Enfield, NH, faculty member of the Domaine Forget Brass Academy Quebec, and has participated in international trumpet competitions Kiev, Ukraine; Paris, France; Markneukirchen, Germany; and Bad-Säckingen, Germany.
Upon returning to Austin, Mr. Mayfield founded the Lake Austin Strings booking agency and the Austin Brass Institute (a 501-c3 non-profit), joined the faculties of Texas A&M University in College Station and Concordia University, performed frequently with the Austin Symphony, Austin Lyric Opera, and Austin Chorus, and served on the Board of Directors at the Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts before being named its Artistic Director.
In addition to his performance schedule with numerous period instrument ensembles, Mr. Mayfield is President of Mayfield Energy, LLC (an oil and gas exploration and production company), Director of Sales and Marketing at Mayfield Dairy Queens, and recently completed an Executive MBA at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Mr. Mayfield lives in Austin with his wife, Ulrike, and their three daughters Elizabeth, Charlotte and Rebecca.
He can be contacted anytime through his website, www.natemayfield.com.
Matthew Dirst
Ars Lyrica Founder & Artistic Director Matthew Dirst is the first American musician to win major international prizes in both organ and harpsichord, including the American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition (1990) and the Warsaw International Harpsichord Competition (1993). Widely admired for his stylish playing and conducting, the Dallas Morning News recently praised his “clear and evocative conducting” of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, which “yielded a performance as irresistibly lively as it was stylish.” Dirst’s recordings with Ars Lyrica have earned a Grammy nomination and widespread critical acclaim. His degrees include a PhD in musicology from Stanford University and the prix de virtuosité in both organ and harpsichord from the Conservatoire National de Reuil-Malmaison, France, where he spent two years as a Fulbright scholar. Equally active as a scholar and as an organist, Dirst is Professor of Music at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, and Organist at St Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston. His book Engaging Bach: The Keyboard Legacy from Marpurg to Mendelssohn was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012. He is also the editor of Bach and the Organ, which appears in the Bach Perspectives series from the University of Illinois Press in early 2016.
