Sunday, March 29, 2009, 4 p.m.

Program
Anton Rubinstein Persian Songs (12), op 34
Jules Massenet Poèmes d’avril
Gerald Finzi Let Us Garlands Bring, op. 18

Described by Opera News as “a commanding bass,” singer Jason Hardy will appear on the last concert of the Candlelight Concerts 2008-09 season. A graduate of Emory University and Peabody Conservatory, Mr. Hardy is emerging as one of the most versatile young talents on the opera and art song stage. He has sung with the New York City, Cleveland and San Francisco Operas, has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and has been a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council auditions as well as a finalist for the Lyric Opera of Chicago Center for American Artists. Among the operas in which he has performed are La Bohème, The Barber of Seville, Falstaff, Sweeny Todd, Don Giovanni, L’Elisir d’amore, La Cenerentola, The Rake’s Progress, The Tales of Hoffmann, and Salome. Mr. Hardy has perfomed chamber works ranging from Purcell to Prokofiev at the Marlborough Music Festival and has given recitals throughout the country under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. He has recently recorded a CD entitled “Youth and Love.”

Mr.Hardy’s art song recital will take place at 4 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets will be available at the door for $25 ($10) for students. For more information on this concert or to request to be put on the mailing list for the Candlelight Concerts series, please call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. The Candlelight Concerts series benefits the Wilton Library. Tax deductible individual and corporate contributions to the series are gratefully accepted.

Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.

Program
Joseph Fiale: Quartet for Oboe and Strings
Beethoven: String Trio op. 9, no. 3
Murray Adaskin: String Trio
Martinu: String Trio
Mozart: Quartet for Oboe and Strings, K. 370

On Sunday, February 22, 2009, oboist Thomas Gallant joins the Adaskin String Trio in the third concert of the 2008-09 Wilton Candlelight Concert series. Award winning artist Thomas Gallant is one of the world’s few virtuoso solo and chamber music performers on the oboe. His technique and breath control have been compared to that of the great violinists and singers. Praised by the New Yorker as “a player who unites technical mastery with intentness, charm and wit,” Mr. Gallant was First Prize Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition. His performances have taken him from Avery Fisher and Carnegie halls to the Salle Pleyel in Paris, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Italy’s Spoleto Festival. Among other summer venues, he has appeared at the Ravinia and Mostly Mozart Festivals and has collaborated with such artists as Jean Pierre Rampal, Paula Robison and with the Cuarteto Casals. Mr. Gallant is the solo oboist of the Wind Soloists of New York. He plays on an “Evoluzione” oboe made by Fratelli Patricola.

The Adaskin String Trio has won over audiences internationally with exuberant and stirring performances. Their playing has been hailed for “vigor, precision and stylistic certitude.” Formed in 1994, the trio—violinist Emlyn Ngai, violist Steve Larson, and cellist Mark Fraser—performs extensively throughout the United States and Canada and has appeared at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and in Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Santa Barbara, and Chicago. In addition, the trio’s concerts have been regularly recorded for broadcast by CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, and National Public Radio. This dynamic ensemble commands a large string trio repertoire ranging from Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to Dohnányi, Rozsa, Villa-Lobos, and Schnittke. Among contemporary composers from whom they have commissioned works are Murray Adaskin, Robert Carl, Thomas Schuttenhelm, and David Macbride.

Although the Adaskin String Trio is currently based in New England, its members are all originally from Canada. They met in Montreal where they studied chamber music with founding Oxford Quartet cellist Marcel Saint-Cyr. They later completed two years as ensemble-in-residence at The Hartt School under the guidance of the Emerson Quartet. The trio is named in honor of Murray Adaskin, one of Canada ‘s most loved and respected composers.

The February 22nd performance will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church on Route 33 just north of Wilton center. Tickets may be purchased at the door one-half hour prior to performance for $25 ($10 for students). For more information on this program or on subscriptions to the Candlelight Concert series or to request a season brochure, phone 203-762-3401. Wilton Candlelight Concerts are for the benefit of the Wilton Library Association. Tax deductible individual and corporate donations are gratefully accepted.

Sunday, November 23, 2008, 4 p.m.

Program
J.S. Bach-Cortot-Hough: Toccata and Fugue in D minor
Fauré: Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat, op. 63
Impromptu No. 5 in F-sharp minor, op. 102
Barcarolle No. 5 in F, op. 66
Franck: Prelude, Choral and Fugue
Copland: Piano Variations
Chopin: Nocturne in B, op. 62, no. 1
Sonata in B minor, op. 58

On Sunday, November 23, 2008, at 4 p.m., Stephen Hough will appear on the second concert of the Wilton Candlelight Concerts season. This marks Mr. Hough’s third performance for the series. Widely regarded as one of the most important and distinctive pianists of his generation, Mr. Hough is well-known as a music scholar as well as pianist. He is renowned for his performances of the core recital repertoire in recital as well as his interest in neglected 19th century works. Mr. Hough integrates the imagination and pianistic color of the past with the scholarship and intellectual rigor of the present, illuminating the very essence of the music he plays. He was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2001 in recognition of his achievements, joining prominent scientists, writers and others who have made unique contributions to contemporary life. And in December 2007, the Northwestern University School of Music in Chicago announced that Stephen has been chosen to be the second recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance.

Since winning first prize in the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1983, Stephen Hough has appeared with most of the major American and European orchestras and plays recitals regularly in the major halls and concert series around the world. He is also a guest at festivals such as Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Blossom, the Hollywood Bowl, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and the BBC Proms, where he has made over a dozen concerto appearances. Recent engagements include performances with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, London Philharmonic and the orchestras of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit, Cincinnati, Toronto and Dallas.

Stephen Hough is a Hyperion recording artist, and many of his catalogue of over 40 CDs have garnered international prizes. Recordings of concertos by Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns, Hummel, Scharwenka and Sauer as well as Mompou’s solo piano music and two Liszt recitals have won multiple awards. He has received recognition from Gramophone Magazine (seven awards including “Record of the Year” in 1996 and 2003) as well as the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and several Grammy nominations.

The November 23rd performance will take place at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets will be available at the door one-half hour before the concert and are $25 ($10 for students). For more information on this concert or on subscriptions to the Candlelight series or to request a brochure, phone 203-762-3401 or 203-762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library. Individual and corporate contributions are gratefully accepted.

October 26, 2008, 4:00 p.m.

Program
Mozart (arr.): Five Four-Voice Fugues from J.S. Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier
György Kurtág: String Quartet op. 28
Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C minor K. 546
György Kurtág: Six Moments musicaux op. 44
Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, op. 161, D. 887

The Keller Quartet opens the Candlelight Concert 2008-09 season on October 26th with an unusual program juxtaposing works of Bach and Mozart with the ensemble’s prominent mentor, the Hungarian composer György Kurtág. Founded at the Liszt Conservatory of Music in Budapest, the Keller Quartet achieved its international breakthrough in 1990 when winning prizes at the Évian and Borciani Competitions. The members of this distinguished ensemble, violinists Andreas Keller and János Pilz, violist Zoltan Gál, and cellist Judit Szábo, recently celebrated their twentieth year of musical collaboration with concerts at Wigmore Hall in London, at the Essen and Berlin Philharmonie, and in Milan, Hamburg and Brussels. Graduates of the Liszt conservatory, they were trained and have performed as soloists, but string quartet playing has always been their first love.

The Keller Quartet, which performs on modern instruments by violinmaker Peter Greiner, has enjoyed links to ECM for some time now and has recorded the Art of the Fugue by Bach as well as the complete works for string quartet of Kurtág. The year 2003 saw the release of a CD by ECM of Schnittke’s Piano Quintet (with Alexej Lubimov), along with the last string quartet of Shostakovich. A recording of all of Bartók’s Duos by the two violinists of the quartet has also appeared on ECM. At the end of the year 2004 a DVD with a Bach/Kurtág program was released by EuroArts, and the ensemble has also made a highly-praised recording of the complete string quartets of Bartók on the Erato label. Since July 2006, the quartet has been associated with the Yale Chamber Music Festival at Norfolk.

The October 26th concert takes place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Congregational Church, just north of Wilton center on Route 33. Tickets may be obtained at the door for $25 dollars ($10 for students). For information on subscriptions to the entire four concert series, go to the ticket order page. Season tickets start at $90 ($75 for seniors); and patrons and benefactors of the series have the option of bringing two or four children under 16 (respectively) to the concerts free of cost. For more information on this concert or on the series or to order a series brochure to be sent to you, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax deductible contributions.