After a brief intermission, Sean and Carley will sing two duets and two arias from Giuseppe Verdi’s, La Traviata and a duet from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. There may also be an encore.

Sean Bianco

Sean was born in Stockton, California in 1966. He began his journey into music with violin and viola lessons at the age of eight.

He began to sing in his high school choir and quickly became a featured soloist, winning many top awards at regional solo festivals and competitions. Sean also participated in several summer music programs and master classes. He studied voice at the University of the Pacific while in high school and continued his singing and conducting training at Chapman College. In 1989, Sean was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Regional Vocal Competition.

Sean has performed with the Los Angeles Opera and the opera companies of Stockton, Sacramento and Orange County. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Stockton, Sacramento, Napa and Merced symphonies.

Sean has conducted children’s musical theater, as well as the Sacramento Opera Chorus in concerts. His conducting credits also include Stockton Musical Theater Company, Davis Comic Opera, Runaway Stage, Capitol Opera, Orange County Lyric Opera and Light Opera Theater of Sacramento.

Sean is also a voice, violin and conducting teacher and has been an adjudicator for voice and concerto competitions. Sean does opera lecturers for UC Davis Extension and is a masterclass instructor.

Sean joined Capital Public Radio as an on-air announcer in 1998 and has been a supportive voice for opera in the region ever since. In addition to local audiences, Friday Night at the Opera is also enjoyed by a world-wide audience via the Internet.

Carley Neill

Carley Neill, soprano, is an active classical vocalist in Northern California. Recent performances include the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah with the Carmichael Adventist Chorale, and the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Sacramento City Chorale. Other recent highlights include guest performances the Camellia Symphony (Puccini arias) and the Sacramento Youth Symphony (Selections from The Merry Widow). Recent stage roles include Phyllis in Iolanthe, Gianetta in The Gondoliers and Rapunzel in Into the Woods.

In addition to performing, she maintains and active private voice studio, and is a music therapist at a school for adults with developmental disabilities. She resides in Sacramento with her husband Robert Vann, who is also a tenor and composer.

See Program Notes for more information on the selections Sean and Carley will be singing.

*Please Notice Date/Time Change

Sunday, November 20th at 3 p.m. at the home of John Cozza,
Carmichael, (916) 944-1322.

We have a special treat! Member Richard Ciionco, piano and
guest baritone Michael Sokol will perform Schubert’s song
cycle Schwanengesang. Mr. Cionco is Professor of Piano at
CSUS, and Mr. Sokol is on the CSUS Voice Faculty and
Director of Opera. As an added feature, CSUS student Ariadne
Antipa (winner of the Renaissance Society Scholarship) will
perform several piano solo pieces as a prelude.

Email or call John Cozza for directions: (916)944-1322
cozzafamily [at] aol.com

Richard Cionco will be performing at the 2012 Festival of
New American Music on Sunday, Nov. 13th at noon at the
Music Recital Hall at CSUS. This concert will feature the
music of Sunny Knable, including the 28-minute “American
Variations” written for Richard. Admission is free.

Capitol Chamber Players (Elizabeth Collins, piano, Robert
Samson Bloch, violin, Julian Woodruff, viola, Rejean
Anderson, cello) will present a concert titled “Romantic
Strings” on Sunday, November 20th at 3:00 p.m. at
Congregation B’nai Israel, 3600 Riverside Blvd. The program
includes: the Brahms Quartet in g minor, Op. 25 for piano
and strings, the Mozart Sonata in B-flat, K. 454, for violin
and piano, and the Schubert trio in B-flat, D. 471.
Admission $18 general, $12 senior, $7 student.

DECEMBER CONCERT

Our December Concert is our annual Holiday Party. This year
our Holiday Party will take place on Sunday, December 11th
at 4:00 p.m. at the home of Jan Luoma. Look for the flier
with the details in the December newsletter.

QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR CONCERTS?

If you have any questions about Saturday Club Concerts,
please call Program Chair, Pauline Cazanis at (916) 393-7506

VISIT OUR WEB SITE

Visit our web site at:
www.sacramentosaturdayclub.org

Saturday Club members who are performing in concerts may
submit articles about their upcoming performances. The
deadline for all articles for the December 2011 newsletter
is the 20th of November, 2011. Articles should be written
and either sent by mail to Gerry Greer, 5421 Casa Grande
Ave., Rocklin, CA 95677-4750 or e-mailed to
recorder@inreach.com. Articles may be in written or
electronic form. (Acceptable electronic formats are text
files, WordPerfect files, or Microsoft Word files.)

During dinner, diners were serenaded by the beautiful cello duets of Steve and Anne Millington.

After dinner, all were treated to the exquisite sounds of Deborah Pitman, clarinet, Lynne Richburg, viola, and John Cozza playing Brahms trios.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Jan Luoma played wonderful duets on the flute with Steven Sherman on recorder.

Rufina James sang Laudate Dominum by Mozart and Schubert’s Ave Maria -although one in Latin and the other in Italian, both compositions are by German composers.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

The food!

The fun!

The Beer!!!

(Its the kind you can only get from Germany in October)

OCTOBER HOUSE CONCERT

The Opening Concert of the 2011-2012 season will take place
on Saturday, October 15th at 7 pm at the home of Arleen and
Merlin Bradshaw, 4933 Durland, fair Oaks, (916) 961-7716.
It will feature cellist Steve Millingham, soprano Tiara
Rooks and pianists LuAnn Higgs and John Cozza. The program
will include the Brahms E minor Cello Sonata, and the Robert
Schumann Fantasy Pieces.

OCTOBERFEST

Saturday Club’s annual Oktoberfest will be held Saturday,
October 1st at 5 pm – at the home of Rona and Dick Commins,
(916) 487-2137

UPCOMING CONCERTS BY SATURDAY CLUB MEMBERS

Thursday, October 6th at 7:30 pm: Opera at the Cathedral–
The opening concert of the Sacramento Opera season will take
place in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and will
feature arias and ensembles sung by artists from the 2011-
2012 season. Pianist John Cozza will accompany. For more
information, see http://www.sacopera.org/News/calendar.html

Capitol Chamber Players (Rona Commins, soprano, Robert
Samson Block, violin, Rejean Anderson, cello, and Susan
Erickson, harpsichord) will present a concert titled “Happy
Birthday Zipoli” on Sunday October 16th at 3:00 p.m. at
Congregation B’nai Israel, 3600 Riverside Blvd. Sacramento.
Admission $18 general, $12 senior, $7 student.

Richard Cionco will be performing at the 2012 Festival of
New American Music on Sunday, Nov. 13th at noon at the Music
Recital Hall at CSUS. This concert will feature the music of
Sunny Knable, including the 28-munite “American Variations”
written for Richard. Admission is free.

Look for the President’s letter, arriving in a separate email

NOVEMBER CONCERT

Saturday, November 19 at 7 pm: We have a special treat!
Member Richard Ciionco, piano and guest baritone Michael
Sokol will perform Schubert’s song cycle Schwanengesang at
the home of John Cozza. Mr. Cionco is Professor of Piano at
CSUS, and Mr. Sokol is on the CSUS Voice Faculty and
Director of Opera. As an added feature, Mr. Cionco’s student
Ariadne Antipa (winner of the Renaissance Society
Scholarship) will perform several piano solo pieces as a
prelude.

QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR CONCERTS?

If you have any questions about Saturday Club Concerts, please
call Program Chair, Pauline Cazanis at (916) 393-7506

NEWSLETTER ARTICLES

Saturday Club members who are performing in concerts may
submit articles about their upcoming performances. The
deadline for all articles for the November 2011 newsletter
is the 20th of October, 2011. Articles should be written and
either sent by mail to Gerry Greer, 5421 Casa Grande Ave.,
Rocklin, CA 95677-4750 or e-mailed to recorder@inreach.com.
Articles may be in written or electronic form. (Acceptable
electronic formats are text files, WordPerfect files, or
Microsoft Word files.)

Sunday, May 8th

4:00 p.m.

Room 151,  CSUS

In a program featuring Bach and Rameau

Click here for Program

$8 General | $4 Students and Seniors

LuAnn Higgs Bio

LuAnn Higgs is a singer and a pianist. She studied at the University of California, Davis, California State University Sacramento, and also in Vienna at die Hochschule der Musik und darstellende Kunst. She’s continued her studies over the years and still takes two lessons a week in piano and actively studies voice.

For the past 26 years LuAnn had a “day job” in “IT” or “Information Technology” as a computer programmer, working on big applications. When LuAnn turned a “certain age,” she decided to commit wholeheartedly to music – and retired (early) from her “day job.” While working the day job, “in my spare time”,

LuAnn is a theater veteran – both on stage and “in the pit” with the with Davis Comic Opera Company and others. She’s directed and played and even won two “Elly Awards” as “Best Actress in a Musical” and was nominated for two more.

Recent productions include vocal directing “Jungle Book” for Sense Theatre, a theater for children with Autism, and also was musical director and pianist for “Fever-The Great Songs of Peggy Lee” a fund raiser for “Citizens Who Care” in Davis. She currently teaches voice privately and is an active accompanist.

The pieces LuAnn has chosen for the March 19th performance are really a labor of love; most of them were introduced to LuAnn by the many wonderful teachers she’s had. LuAnn enjoys songs of whimsy and humor (Elfenlied, Villanelle des petits canards); the rich dissonance of Wolf, and the melancholy and other-worldliness of French Song. Barber’s “The Hermit Songs” are just fun. The Hermit Songs were basically just “doodles” or written meanderings by monks, not really for anyone to read – “Poems translated from anonymous Irish texts of the eighth to thirteenth centuries”. The Handel and Mozart are just fun to start and end with – joyous and rippling!

“I truly appreciate the opportunity to perform for the Saturday Club. I love to teach and accompany – and I am usually called upon to perform those roles, so this is a special treat for me.” – LuAnn Higgs

Program

O had I Jubal’s Lyre – Handel

German Set:

Elfenlied – Wolf
Das verlassene Mädchen – Wolf

French Set:

Villanelle des petits canards – Chabrier
Clair de lune – Faure

Hermit Songs – Barber (Selections)
I. At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory
IV. The Heavenly Banquet
V. The Crucifixon
VII. Promiscuity
VIII. The Monk and his Cat

Alleluia – Mozart – from Exsultate, jubilate Motet K.165

Translations

German – From The Fishcher-Dieskau Book of Lieder – translations by George Bird and Richard Stokes
French from A French Song Companion by Graham Johnson, Richard Stokes

German Translations:

Elfenlied/Elf-song (Edward Mörike)

The village watch cried out at night
‘Eleven!’
An elfin elf asleep in the wood, at eleven,
Thinks that, from the valley,
The nightingale is calling him by name,
Or Silpelit summoning him,
The elf rubs his eyes,
Ventures from his snail-shell home,
And is like a drunken man—
Not having slept his fill—
And hobbles hobble-hobble
Down through the hazels to the valley,
Keeping ever so close to the wall
Where the glow-worms sit, light by light.
‘What bright windows are those?
Must be a wedding going on there,
With the little ones sitting at the table
And having fun in the ballroom-
I’ll just take a peek!’
–Same, he bangs his head on stone!
Elf, don’t you think you’ve had enough?
Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

Das verlassene Mägdlein/Forsaken Servant-girl ä

At cock-crow, early,
Before the tiny stars are gone,
I must be at the hearth,
Must light the fire.

Pretty the flames’ glow,
The sparks leap;
I stare into them,
Lost in grief.

Suddenly it comes to me,
Unfaithful boy,
That last night
I dreamt of you.

Tear upon tear
Then falls;
So the day starts—-
Would it were gone again!

French Translations:

Villanelle des petits canards (Rosemonde Gérard)

There they go, the little ducks,
All along the river bank,
Like good country-folk!

Paddling and waggling,
Happy to muddy the clear water,
They go on their way, the little ducks.

A little gullible, perhaps,
But they go about their business,
Like good country-folk!

Into the tadpole-teeming wter,
Where a delicate weed is trembling,
They make their way, the little ducks.

Walking in scattered groups
With a regular gait,
Like good country-folk;

In the beautiful spinach green
Of the moist watercress,
They make their way, the little ducks,

And though a little mocking,
They’re by nature benevolent,
Like good country-folk!

Chattering in circles,
Making a terrible racket,
They go on their way, the little ducks,

Plump and glossy and cheery,
With a gaiety all their own,
Like good country-folk!

Amorous and snuffling,
Each one with his lady,
They go on their way, the little ducks,
Like good country-folk!

Clair de lune – Paul Verlaine

Your soul is a chosen landscape
Bewitched by masquers and bergamakers,
Playing the lute and dancing and almost
Sad beneath their fanciful disguises.

Singing as they go in a minor key
Of conquering love and life’s favours
They do not seem to believe in their fortune
And their song mingles with the light of the moon.

The calm light of the moon, sad and fair,
That sets the birds dreaming in the trees
And the fountains sobbing in their rapture
Tall and svelt amid marble statues.

Billie Gonzalez Bio

Billie Gonzalez is a concert Classical Violinist and Violist. She also has a private teaching studio in Folsom, CA and has over 40 years of private teaching experience. She studied with Albert Markov, Concert Violinist, in New York and Connecticut.

Together with her husband Henry Gonzalez, Double Bassist, Billie has been a member of various symphony orchestras on both East and West coasts, as well as in Honolulu.

Program Notes

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) Recitativo & Scherzo-Caprice, Op. 6, was dedicated to the violinist-composer, Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931), who had dedicated his Solo Sonata No. 4 to Kreisler. We are now familiar with the many short transcriptions and arrangements which Kreisler created for his own programs, and the story of his initially attributing many of them to long-forgotten composers, which eventually were admitted to be his own works. Of his original compositions with piano accompaniments, this Recitativo & Scherzo is unaccompanied.

The Recitativo begins intensely, with a dark, plaintive theme of improvisatory nature, building to a short cadenza-like completion. Pizzicato effects, finger tremolo, and artificial harmonics, and texture, then there is a sense of meditative resignation at the end.

The Scherzo has lighthearted humor with contrasting peasante chordal sections and a brilliant cadenza-like passage with delicious dissonances, returning to charming simplicity at the end.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), Sonata for Violin Solo, Op. 31, No. 2.

The inscription at the beginning of the work is: “…It is a fine day…” and aptly sums up the lightly flowing mood throughout the first movement, and indeed, the entire piece. Changing meters are woven effortlessly into the fabric without disturbing the gentle ambling theme. It mutters to a finish in high register, with three satisfying pizzicato chords at the end.

The second movement is basically a “waltz,” though the number of beats per measure is not always three. There are what sound like “bird twitterings” sprinkled here and there, and at the end.

The composer instructs the third movement to be played entirely pizzicato, at a comfortable tempo. It is a humorous little march. A repeated motif stays in tempo until the end as it becomes softer and softer until it just floats away, barely audible.

The fourth movement is Five Variations on a Theme of Mozart, “Komm, licher Mai” (usually translated as “Come, Dear Spring.”) I think we can all relate to this, since our Spring this year is taking so long to arrive! Hindemith plays with clever and fantastic embroidering of the theme, changing rhythms and string color and even adding an impishness in the fourth variation. The end brings back a gentle, brief quote of the theme, at which point we can appreciate all the imaginative treatments of it we have just heard.

Serge Prokofiev, Solo Sonata for Violin, Op. 115.
Unbelievably, this piece was conceived for children to play in unison! The first movement impressed me as a march with drum motifs throughout, which I play pizzicato to make them more prominent. Interspersed, there are songful sections, then we have a perky section using grace notes throughout which conjures up the image of children skipping, followed by a carefree and playful bridge leading to the recapitulation. The ending passage is two-voiced, with the lower notes imitating the drums again.

The second movement is a theme with five variations, beginning with a sweet but haunting melody. The mood of the first variation is similar, but adds rhythmic movement and a bit of playfulness. Scherzando marks the second variation, cleverly crafted, using accents and spiccato for sparkle. The third variation is a darker quote of the theme, which then is contrasted by the fourth variation in triplet figures throughout, with the theme poking out on top. In the fifth (final), variation there is a double stop treatment with a slight brooding quality, ending with two pizzicato chords.

The third movement is a waltz marked “con brio.” There are some drum-type motifs again, and a brief lyrical melody leading to an “Allegro precipitato.” The accented melody perches on top with spiccato interspersed as accompaniment. After the theme returns, dissonant legato eighth notes are played against the open G string alternating with the lyrical phrases again. The Allegro precipitato returns and scrambles up to a flashy, triumphant finish.

All the pizzicati are Billie’s own additions wherever they occur throughout the piece.

~ Program notes by Billie Gonzalez ~

They were joined by James Gentry in the introspective and melancholy “Dover Beach.”

And then what followed was full of surprises and delights!

After so artfully singing the beautiful and haunting Dover Beach, James reemerged as… Lit’le Susie… singing the effervescently entertaining song written by actress Norah Blaney entitled, “Mr. Bear.”

Doesn’t Jim look adorable as Lit’le Susie?

Jim has a way of bringing the words of a song to life…

After a beautiful and nostalgic tour through American Parlour Songs, James once again made a stunning costume change, and reemerged, to the delight of the audience, as…

Jim Gentry as “Big Susan”

“Big Susan” singing William Balcom’s “Lime Jello.”

And what a rendition it was! Those who missed it have much to regret!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the concert we were all treated to Pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin Pie for all!

Adobe Hacienda

Jia-Mo Chen on Cello, John Cozza, piano

Jia-Mo Chen played a number of wonderful selections on the cello, accompanied by John Cozza. Additional music was provided by other members of the club.