Thursday, August 27, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
Susan Lamb Cook and Friends
Duo with two Obligato Eyeglasses, WoO 32 for Viola and Cello Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
with violist Cassandra Lynne Richburg
Sonata for Violin and Continuo in G Major, BWV 1021 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
Adagio – Vivace – Largo – Presto
in virtual performance with violinist Nancy Wu
Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 Zoltán Kodály (1882 – 1967)
Allegro serioso, non troppo
Adagio
Maestoso e largamente, ma non troppo lento – Presto
with violinist Dagenais Smiley
As an active performer and educator both nationally and internationally, Susan Lamb Cook is sought after as soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, the Far East, and the United States. She has performed as soloist with the Sacramento Philharmonic, the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, the Reno Philharmonic, the Cairo Symphony (Egypt), the Paradise Symphony, the Camellia Symphony, the American River College Orchestra, and in 2015 was featured as soloist in a Gala Concert in the Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria with the Classical Music Festival Orchestra. Currently on faculty at the Saarburg International Music Festival (Germany), she has also served on the artistic staff for the Classical Music Festival (Austria), and the Vianden Festival (Luxembourg). She has completed five concert and teaching tours of China, has performed and given master classes at San Francisco State University, Scripps College, Harvey Mudd College, Marshall University (West Virginia), and Austin College (Texas), and her performances have been featured on National Public Radio and Austrian National Television. Ms. Lamb Cook is Faculty Affiliate in cello and chamber music at the University of California, Davis, and a member of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera and the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra. She is director of “The Great Composers Chamber Music Series” at the Harris Center for the Performing Arts in Folsom, California.
Violist, Cassandra Lynne Richburg, is a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra based in San Francisco, and is an active studio musician in Los Angeles. She has performed on numerous motion picture soundtracks which include: The Lion King, Steel Magnolias, A Beautiful Mind, Moana, The Princess and the Frog and Avatar. She has performed with the Academy and Emmy Awards Orchestras on many occasions, and performed with musicians for Soul Train, NAACP Image Awards, the Grammy Awards and Dancing with the Stars. Cassandra was invited to join the jury panel as an adjudicator for the 2014 William Primrose International Viola Competition. Lynne has been recognized as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and has won many competitions, including: The William Primrose International Viola Competition, and a prize winner in the Lionel Tertis International Viola competition, and First Prize Winner of the Wendell Irish National Viola Competition. She has been featured a soloist with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Lansing Symphony, National Arts Chamber Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Savannah Symphony and the Sacramento Symphony. Ms. Richburg has served as Assistant Principal Viola for the Sacramento Symphony, and Principal Violist with the Sacramento Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and toured with both the New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra as a substitute musician. Lynne attended the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from USC while studying with Donald McInnes and Alan deVeritch.
Dagenais Smiley, a Northern California native, earned her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory under the direction of Milan Vitek and her Master of Music from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, studying with Ms. Kathleen Winkler. An active orchestral musician, Ms. Smiley performs as Acting Associate Concertmaster with the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, Assistant Concertmaster with the Modesto Symphony, and also performs with the Stockton Symphony, the Monterey Symphony, the Napa Symphony, the Reno Philharmonic, and other various Northern California and Bay Area orchestras. Dagenais currently teaches violin at UC Davis and maintains a private violin studio. In her spare time, Ms. Smiley enjoys hiking, watching and reading science fiction, playing Pokemon Go, and practicing yoga.
Nancy Wu has served as Associate Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1989. As concertmaster, she has led performances with James Levine, Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Seiji Ozawa, Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda, and has performed chamber music with the MET Chamber Ensemble, at the Verbier Festival and the Fondation Pierre Giannada. She graduated with honors from Stanford University, and studied in Vienna on a Fulbright scholarship at the Hochschule für Musik. Ms. Wu has been a coach for the Verbier Festival Orchestra since its founding in 2000, is on the faculty for the Mannes School of Music, the Round Top Summer Music Institute, and the Tsinandali Festival. She is an exclusive artist for Thomastik-Infeld Strings. Ms. Wu lives in Pleasantville, NY, with her husband, double bassist Leigh Mesh and her two children, Guinevere and Wolfie.