WICA Show Information

biographies AMADEUS
featuring Elizabeth Pitcairn
with The Saratoga Chamber Players and Judy Geist

Conducted by Artie Kane
Guest Conductor, George Henny

Elizabeth Pitcairn, celebrated virtuoso violinist, is one of America's most beloved soloists. She has performed concertos with the New York String Orchestra at Lincoln Center and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music. She performs with the legendary 1720 "Red Mendelssohn" Stradivarius, the 1990 Christie's Auction of which is said to have inspired the 1999 Academy Award-winning film, "The Red Violin."

Born into a musical family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, she started studying the violin at age three and made her solo debut with orchestra at age 14. In 1990 (at the age of 16) as her solo career rapidly ascended, the "Red Mendelssohn" Stradivarius was purchased anonymously at Christie's of London as a gift from her grandfather, which set a world record price and created an international mystery. Pitcairn's path took her to Los Angeles at age 17 to study with world-renowned violin professor Robert Lipsett at the University of Southern California. She is currently a member of the distinguished faculty at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and the Colburn School of Performing Arts Conservatory in Los Angeles.

To learn more about Ms. Pitcairn, please visit here website HERE.

Artie Kane (conductor) began his piano studies at the age of three. Through his childhood he won numerous piano competitions. His teachers discovered he was able to sight-read any piece of music he was given. From the age of thirteen until he began traveling as a musician at eighteen, Artie played daily radio shows for WBNS in Columbus , Ohio . For eight years, he was the show pianist for Holiday On Ice, and he conducted their first European tour when he was twenty-one. After two years in New York as pianist and assistant conductor at the Roxy Theater, Artie relocated to Los Angeles to work in the film industry. For the next fifteen years as a studio player, he was valued as the most versatile in the business because of his ability to play any style of music. When he switched to composing in 1975, he turned out several film scores such as: Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Eyes of Laura Mars along with an amazing collection of television product like Love Boat, Vegas, Dynasty and Matlock. In 1994, Artie moved to Whidbey Island with his wife, JoAnn, and frequently commuted to Los Angeles to conduct film scores until 1999 when he retired. He is respected by all his colleagues, but especially by the composers he has worked for, and the studio musicians he has played with and conducted.

Judy Geist (viola) joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1983 under the baton of Riccardo Muti, becoming the first woman violist in the orchestra’s century long history.

Throughout her career, she has been involved in virtually every genre of music, appearing in recital and with leading ensembles in a vast musical network.

Her early credits include performing as soloist in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante on a European tour with the Long Island Youth Orchestra. After attending The Curtis Institute of Music and playing in the Audubon Quartet until the mid-1970’s, Ms. Geist became principal violist of the Soviet Émigré Orchestra and the Philharmonia Virtuosi taking her on tour to U.S. cities, South America, and Japan. As principal violist of the National Ballet of Canada, she toured across Canada and the

U.S.

playing repertoire including the grand viola solos in Copellia and Giselle, accompanying dancer greats Rudolph Nureyev and Karin Kain.

After settling in NYC, she worked frequently with Orpheus and the NY Philharmonic and performed as guest artist with several chamber ensembles. Active in new music, she recorded and premiered works with Parnassus , the Philadelphia Composer’s Forum, the American Composer’s Orchestra, Orchestra of Our Time, and under the auspices of the International Women’s Arts Festival. On a world tour in 1978, Ms. Geist performed with Chick Corea in his 13-Piece Band and later recorded with soprano saxophonist, David Liebman. She performed in the Madeira Bach Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Mostly Mozart, and the Newport Jazz Festival. After joining the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ms. Geist played with Network for New Music and the Penn Contemporary Players. In recital, Ms. Geist performed in several venues including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and at The Curtis Institute of Music. On the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Music Series, she collaborated with orchestra members and soloists including Chantal Juillet, Emanual Ax, Trulls Mork, Pamela Frank, and Philadelphia Orchestra Maestro/pianist, Christoph Eschenbach.

As an advocate of new music, Ms. Geist commissioned music for viola and spoken word, When the Peace Comes, by Hannibal Lokumbe, and Geistmusik by Sylvia Glickman. As a guest resident at Cornish College in Seattle , she introduced the viola to young composing students and premiered their new works.

Living a life of two passions, Ms. Geist is an artist versatile in old world and contemporary styles. Exposed to music and art at an early age, she worked independently for ten years drawing pen and inks solely in black and white. While freelancing as a musician in NYC, she found her way to the Art Student’s League where she studied figurative painting and drawing with master artists, David Leffel and Barbara Adrian. Now, sharing her experience as a musician and artist, Ms. Geist often gives dual presentations of musical and visual art as a way to enhance understanding of new music and abstract art. Featured in the documentary, Music From the Inside Out, Ms. Geist has been highlighted among people in the arts in Philadelphia on NBC10 and on WHYY Radio in performance and interviews. Her paintings have appeared in exhibition in Philadelphia , New York , New Jersey , and Washington state, and she maintains a studio in Philadelphia and Whidbey Island . Accustomed to playing in different styles as a musician, Ms. Geist freely traverses between styles as an artist, painting commissions in expressionistic styles and pet portraiture rooted in the Dutch tradition. Many of her works are among private collections.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptized Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. His output of over 600 compositions includes works widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of European composers and many of his works are part of the standard concert repertoire.

For additional biographical information, please visit Wikipedia.

Antonio Salieri (August 18, 1750 – May 7, 1825), was an Italian composer and conductor. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was one of the most important and famous musicians of his time.

Raised in a prosperous family of merchants in Legnago, Salieri studied violin and harpsichord with his brother Francesco, who was a student of Giuseppe Tartini. After the early death of his parents, he moved to Padua , then to Venice , where he studied thoroughbass with Giovanni Battista Pescetti. There, he met Florian Leopold Gassmann in 1766, who invited him to attend the court of Vienna, and there trained him in composition based on Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum. Salieri remained in Vienna for the rest of his life. In 1774, after Gassmann's death, Salieri was appointed court composer by Emperor Joseph II. He met Therese von Helferstorfer in 1774, and in the same year the two were married. The couple went on to have eight children. Salieri became Royal and Imperial Kapellmeister in 1788, a post which he held till 1824. He was president of the "Tonkünstler-Societät" (society of musical artists) from 1788 to 1795, vice-president after 1795, and in charge of its concerts until 1818.

Salieri attained an elevated social standing, and was frequently associated with other celebrated composers, such as Joseph Haydn and Louis Spohr. He played an important role in late 18th and early 19th century classical music. He was a teacher to many famous composers, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ignaz Moscheles, Franz Schubert, and Franz Xaver Süssmayr. He also taught Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's younger son, Franz Xaver, some years after the death of Franz's illustrious father.

Salieri was buried in the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof (his remains were later transferred to the Zentralfriedhof) in Vienna . At his funeral service his own Requiem in C minor - composed in 1804 - was performed for the first time. His monument is adorned by a poem written by Joseph Weigl, one of his pupils:

Rest in peace! Uncovered by dust
Eternity shall bloom for you.
Rest in peace! In eternal harmonies
Your spirit now is dissolved.
He expressed himself in enchanting notes,
Now he is floating to everlasting beauty.

During his time in Vienna , Salieri acquired great prestige as a composer and conductor, particularly of opera, but also of chamber and sacred music. The most successful of his more than 40 operas included Europa riconosciuta (1778), Armida (1771), La scuola de' gelosi (1778), Der Rauchfangkehrer (1781), Les Danaïdes (1784), which was first presented as a work of Gluck's, Tarare (1787), Axur, Re d'Ormus (1788), Palmira, regina di Persia (1795), and Falstaff (1799). He wrote comparatively little instrumental music, however his limited output includes two piano concertos and a concerto for organ written in 1773, a concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra (1774), and a set of 26 variations on La follia di Spagna (1815).

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