The Slavic Soul

Paul Marleyn, cello

Madeline Hildebrand, piano     

These two vibrant Canadian artists have designed a superb program featuring beautiful works by Ukrainian composers, combined with celebrated works from the repertoire for cello and piano. Joining them is violinist Elation Pauls, in a premiere performance of a Piano Trio by Canadian composer, Karen Sunabacka.

Cellist Paul Marleyn tours regularly across Canada and frequently performs in the United States, Europe and Asia. He participates regularly in international summer music festivals that include Korea and the UK, and is the Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s own Agassiz Summer Chamber Music Festival. He has made several compact disc recordings. Paul has served at professor of cello at the University of Manitoba, and more recently at the University of Ottawa, where he now mentors an award-winning studio of young cellists. His broad and eclectic repertoire ranges from the Baroque period to the twenty-first century. Read more about Paul here.

Madeline Hildebrand recently completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at Stony Brook University, NY, where she won the prestigious position as an IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility) grad, crafting pathways through curriculums for new interdisciplinary degree programs, and devising service-learning projects for the music department. Her formative teachers include Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, Jane Coop, Judy Kehler Siebert and Michelle Sawatsky. Maddy’s playing has taken her coast to coast in Canada and the USA, Italy, Romania and most recently to Armenia, Georgia upon the invitation of composer David Braid. Read more about Madeline here.

Violinist Elation Pauls is Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and in constant local demand for her lush sound and expressive solo and chamber music performances. She has premiered many chamber works, and has collaborated with such artists as Andrew Wan, Martin Beaver, Yosuke Kawasaki, Paul Marleyn, David Harding and Martin Roscoe, and performed in many of the major concert halls of North America and Europe. Elation is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Rosamunde Summer Music Academy and Festival, bringing international artist-mentors to Winnipeg every August. Read more about Elation here. 

Program

*Embroidered with Jagged Patterns - Karen Sunabacka

Vocalise - Rachmaninov

Sonata - Prokofiev

Spiegel im Spiegel - Arvo Pärt

Pohadka - Leoš Janáček

Epilogue LB - Valentyn Sylvestrov

Hungarian Rhapsody - David Popper

Prelude no. 3 - Gayane Chebotaryan

In the Style of Albeniz - Rodion Shchedrin

*Embroidered with Jagged Patterns – Karen Sunabacka, Commissioned for WMC’s 130th Anniversary Season  

The inspiration for this composition comes from a poem by Sunabacka’s mother, Joyce Clouston, about the relationship between Joyce and her older sister Beverley. Beverley, medically fragile and disabled after complications at birth, suffered from day-long seizures at age six. Joyce drew close to Bev as she watched her struggle in a colonial world where people with disabilities were often hidden in institutions and not valued. As a child, Karen observed this relationship between her mom and her aunt and felt a closeness to Bev as well, especially because Bev stayed with the family on a regular basis. “Bev was always so excited to see all of us!”, writes Karen.

The composition’s title, Embroidered with Jagged Patterns, is taken from this poem:

Beverley and Joyce.

They danced with butterflies along ancient trails.

They wrestled through thorny pathways and though riven,

their bond deep rooted like wind-blown prairie grasses.

Their inner lives entwined, embroidered with jagged patterns.

Beverley and Joyce.

Karen writes: “This beautifully describes the relationship I saw between my mom and her sister. I used the final line of the poem as the title of this piece as I was inspired by this idea of relationships as embroidered jagged patterns that are deeply connected.

The pitch material, which is introduced slowly, comes from two motives I developed from nicknames my mom and aunt Bev had as children – Bevvie and Joycie. I turned those names into BEAABE and CADCBE. Embroidered jagged patterns, close relationships that can both be hard and life-giving, along with a Métis family deeply rooted on what is now known as the Canadian Prairies are the themes explored in this piece.”