at National Gallery of Art
Concert
Preconcert Talk:
6:00 pm – West Building Lecture Hall
Concert:
6:30 pm – West Garden Court
As part of A Celebration of Italian Art, Music and Film, jointly presented by the Italian Cultural Institute and the National Gallery of Art, the program features a preconcert talk by David Gariff on Nineteenth-Century Italian Sculpture and the Risorgimento as well as the concert Roots of Nineteenth-Century Virtuosity
PROGRAM
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)
Tre Sonetti del Petrarca (1843 – 1846)
Benedetto sia’l giorno
Pace non trovo
I’ vidi in terra angelici costumi
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)
Pace, pace, mio Dio
From La Forza del Destino
Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)
Vissi d’arte From Tosca
Francesco Cilea (1866 – 1950)
Io son l’umile ancella From Adriana Lecouvreur
INTERMISSION
Niccolò Paganini (1782 – 1840)
From Twenty-Four Caprices, op. 1 (c. 1805)
No. 1 in E Major No.
5 in A Minor No.
6 in G Minor
No. 24 in A Minor
Liszt
From Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini (1838 – 1840)
No. 1 in G Minor
No. 12 in A Minor
RSVP
FREE ADMISSION – OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
LOCATION:
National Gallery of Art
4th and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20565
THE MUSICIANS
THOMAS MASTROIANNI
Active as a chamber musician, concerto soloist, lecturer, and recitalist through- out Europe, Latin America, Russia, and the United States, pianist Thomas Mastroianni is an emeritus professor at the Catholic University of America, president of the American Liszt Society, director of the piano program at the
Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival, and a member of the board of direc- tors of the La Gesse Foundation. His many workshops and lecture-recitals have included topics such as “Performance Anxiety,” “The Team Approach to Wellness for the Performer,” “Chopin and Bel Canto,” “The Italian Aspect of Liszt,” and “Musical Memory.” He has worked closely with members of the medical profession in workshops and panel discussions, and was invited to present a series of sessions on wellness at the 2002 World Piano Peda- gogy Conference. His article “Memory and Anxiety” recently appeared in the Journal of the International Society for the Study of Tension in Performance, published in London.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mastroianni studied at Juilliard, where he was a scholarship student of Beveridge Webster. After military service, he earned a doctorate in piano performance from Indiana Univer- sity, where his teachers included Bela Nagy and Sidney Foster. Prior to his forty-year tenure at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at Catholic University, he served as chairman of the applied music division and profes- sor of piano at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He maintains a website at www.thomasmastroianni.com.
ALESSANDRA MARC
Dramatic soprano Alessandra Marc has consistently been acclaimed as one of the most outstanding singers of our day. Andrew Porter, writing in The
New Yorker, described her voice as “an instrument of unsurpassed beauty and impact” and “perhaps the richest, fullest, most beautiful big soprano voice around.”
Not long after her first performance at the White House in 1991, Marc was selected by then National Gallery music director George Manos to substitute for ailing soprano Arleen Auger to sing with the National Gallery Orchestra on the occasion of the Gallery’s fiftieth anniversary (and coinci- dentally its 2,000th concert). The resulting performance of Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs was a resounding success with the audience and critics alike. A frequent guest of the world’s leading opera houses and orchestras, Marc collaborated often with the late Giuseppe Sinopoli, for whose funeral mass she sang in 2001 in Rome.
Marc performs the title roles in Aida and Turandot — her signature roles — at major international and United States opera houses. Of her sold-out opening night performance of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Times reported: “She displayed burnished tone and enormous volume, especially in climactic phrases that soar above the orchestra and chorus.” Her debut solo album, American Diva, peaked at number thirteen on Billboard maga- zine’s classical charts. She has also recorded Opera Gala with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Alessandra Marc’s longstanding commitment to her community and to charitable causes most recently included singing at the American Red Cross Tiffany Circle’s annual summit conference in Washington as well as per- forming in the 2011 Flight 93 Memorial Concert in Alexandria, Virginia. She maintains a website at www.alessandramarc.com.
RICARDO CYNCYNATES
Violinist Ricardo Cyncynates has performed extensively as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, and South
America. Appointed assistant concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra during the tenure of Mstislav Rostropovich, he has appeared as soloist with the orchestra in concertos by Mozart and Vivaldi as well as works for solo violin and orchestra by Paganini, Saint-Saëns, Sarasate, and Sibelius. Cyncynates has performed as soloist with a number of other Washington- based orchestras and has appeared as recitalist and chamber musician at the area’s most prestigious concert venues, including a 1996 concert at the National Gallery of Art with the Ensemble da Camera of Washington.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Cyncynates studied the violin with his father, Felix Cyncynates, and made his debut at age eleven as the winner of Brazil’s National Young Soloists’ Competition. By age nineteen he had an extensive solo career to his credit, and was appointed first concertmaster of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. He completed his studies at the Santa Cecilia Conserv- atory in Rome; Accademia Chigiana in Siena; and at Indiana University, studying under Arrigo Pelliccia, Salvatore Accardo, and Franco Gulli.
A renowned teacher with several students receiving prizes in national and international competitions, Ricardo Cyncynates has given master classes throughout the United States, Asia, and South America. He per- forms on a violin made in 1873 by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (“The David”) and uses a bow specially made for him by the renowned French archetier Benoit Rolland, winner of a 2012 MacArthur Fellowship. He maintains a website at www.ricardocyncynates.com.
FRANCIS CONLON
A veteran of numerous concerts in the concert halls, churches, and universi- ties in the greater Washington area, Francis Conlon has also performed at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and Robin Hood Dell in Philadelphia in addition to appearances in Canada, Central America, Europe, India, and Japan. He has played concertos with the Alexandria Symphony, Amadeus Orchestra, Georgetown Symphony, Montreal Chamber Orchestra, Washington Chamber Orchestra, Washington Pro Musica, and Washington Sinfonia as well as many local chamber music groups, including the National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble. He serves as minister of music at the Church of the Annunciation in Washington and as choir director, organist, and pianist at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. A member of the faculty of the George Washington University, he has also taught at the Catholic University of America, Ellington School of the
Arts, Levine School of Music, George Mason University, Georgetown Univer- sity, and Sidwell Friends School. He has also served as artist-in-residence for the District of Columbia’s public school system.