John Jensen with Russell Harlow, Leslie Harlow, and Lauren Posey
Founder/Director
LESSLIE HARLOW
Artistic Directors
RUSSELL HARLOW
Musicians
John Jensen - Piano
Russell Harlow - Clarinet
Leslie Harlow - Viola
Lauren Posey - Chello
Park City Institute Artist Liaison
JENNY KNAAK
Park City Institute Technical Director
HAYDEN CHIPLEY
Program
FOUR FAVORITE WORKS by Johannes Brahms: Three Intermezzos Op. 18, No. 1, 2, 3 and the Cappriccio Op. 18, No. Op 116 No. 7
PIANO SOLOS by Paul Reale:
"Beethoven for the Braindead", "Chocolate Soccerball" and "Concert Etude No. 2" from pianist John Jensen's recent recording "Stroke of Midnight" of works of Paul Reale.
Pianist John Jensen was a close friend of Paul Reale, the composer who, during his over 40-year tenure at UCLA, taught many aspiring composers including the famed film composer James Horner. In addition to these works, John Jensen has recorded three piano trios and a cello sonata by Reale.
SONATA FOR FOR CELLO AND PIANO by Dimitri Shostakovich
This fantastic sonata is a masterpiece of the cello and piano repertoire and an audience favorite among works by this great composer. The Sonata is filled with wonderful contrast and style resulting in a great showcase for virtuoso cello performance.
- INTERMISSION -
TRIO FOR CLARINET, VIOLA, AND PIANO by Carl Fruhling
This trio, recently transcribed for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano is an engaging four-movement lyrical work in the Viennese style.
Theater
The Eccles Center is the largest theater in Park City, Utah with 1,269 seats. It is home to Park City Institute's Main Stage Season from October through April each year, presenting a broad range of world-class performing arts from international dance companies to Broadway icons to beloved authors/humorists to virtuosos in a host of musical styles from Chamber Music to rock'n'roll.
Health and Safety
The Park City Institute and the Park City School District have taken measures to assure the health and safety of our patrons, staff, and performers. We are constantly adjusting our COVID protocols based on the recommendations of the CDC, and directives of local and state health departments. Permanent changes include, updated HVAC, touch-less restrooms faucets, electronic ticketing, electronic programs, enhanced cleaning, and all volunteers and staff to be fully vaccinated. Based on guidance, we adjust the capacity of the theater and reserve empty seats between ticketed groups.
The artists are asking that for the safety of our audience everyone wear N95 face masks for this performance.
Park City Institute
Presents
John Jensen with Russell Harlow, Leslie Harlow, and Lauren Posey
SUNDAY, JULY 31, 3:00 PM
Since 1984, internationally acclaimed classical solo artists have been converging on picturesque Park City, Utah, working together to prepare unique, vibrant chamber music programs designed to delight intimate audiences that include everyone from first-time concertgoers to lifelong chamber music fans.
Chosen for their dynamic musical personalities, the Beethoven Festival roster of artists breathe expression into every Festival performance, making each concert a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the listener.
These exceptional artists perform these programs throughout Utah and beyond, as well as including their work in outreach to lesser served communities, senior living facilities, and schools.
More information and a Full Concert Calendar can be found at:
https://www.pcmusicfestival.com/
PROGRAM NOTES
The Players
JOHN JENSEN - PIANO
Classical and Jazz recording artist John Jensen is known for his gift for improvisation and exceptional musical memory. He received his musical education in Los Angeles, where he attended Occidental College and the University of Southern California, studying with pianists John Crown, Gwendolyn Koldofsky, and composers Ingolf Dahl and Halsey Stevens. After graduating, he served as accompanist on US tours for Columbia Artists Management and joined the Mirecourt Trio with cellist Terry King and violinist Ken Goldsmith.
The Mirecourt Trio subsequently became artists-in-residence at Grinnell College, commissioning upward of 30 works for the piano trio and recording albums for the Music & Arts label. The trio also toured Europe and, through the efforts of composer Paul Reale, toured China, presenting concerts and masterclasses. In 1990, Jensen left Grinnell for the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) where he worked for many years with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and was the collaborative pianist at St. Olaf College. He also held the position of director of music at the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis for 22 years.
Jensen is also in demand as a chamber music partner for recordings with many exceptional classical solo artists. He taught at the University of St. Thomas, including students interested in jazz improvisation. The music of Paul Reale has been a constant in his pianistic life, and Jensen has recorded solo piano music of Reale on the Music & Arts label along with his landmark solo recording of Charles Ives' tour de force "Concord Sonata". John Jensen will be featured in the upcoming release of the Martinu Clarinet and Piano Sonata with Clarinetist
featured in the upcoming release of the Martinu Clarinet and Piano Sonata with Clarinetist Russell Harlow and Hindmith's Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano and has also performed and recorded as a jazz piano soloist throughout his career.
Russell Harlow
Clarinetist and Beethoven Festival Artist in Residence Russell Harlow is one of the nation's premiere solo and chamber clarinetists. Mr. Harlow performed the New York Premiere of the Ramiro Cortes Trio (written for him), along with the Brahms Quintet, at Carnegie's Weill Hall in New York. The Sonolumina Ensemble ISOMIKE Label High Definition recording featuring Mr. Harlow entitled "Chamber Music for Clarinets and Strings" has received critical acclaim in both the U.S. and Europe. His most recent recordings for the ISOMIKE Label are "Mozart and Romantic Encores" and "Beethoven by Special Arrangement". These two recordings are featured on the High Definition recording site NativeDSD.com. The Mozart recording was nominated for Chamber Music Recording of the Year on this audiophile site and the Beethoven recording has been labeled as one of the site’s "Best-Selling" albums.
Russell Harlow co-directs the Beethoven Festival Park City and has performed and lectured for International Clarinet Association events throughout the world. His website ClarinetCentral.com is regularly visited by clarinetists worldwide. In addition to performances in Utah with the Beethoven Festival, the Contemporary Music Consortium and Sonolumina Orchestra, Mr. Harlow has performed with the Affetti Festival, Sitka and Anchorage Fall Classics Festivals (Alaska), the Amsterdam Chamber Players, the Puerto Rico Clarinet Festival, the Ars Nova, Lyrica and Piatigorsky Foundation concerts in New Jersey and with the Leonore Trio and Bargemusic in NYC.
Russell Harlow's mentors include Gary Foster, Mitchell Lurie, Harold Wright and violinist Charles Libove, and he was coached in chamber music and attended the masterclasses by cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Harlow is featured on recordings with flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, the Mirecourt Trio, the Beethoven Festival and the Utah Symphony abd has recorded numerous solos for major film scores. He founded and directed Utah's Nova Series until he joined the Beethoven Festival as Co-Director in 1986. He attended both UCLA and USC before joining the Utah Symphony at the age of 21.
LESLIE HARLOW
Festival Artist in Residence, Violist Leslie Harlow, is the Founder and Co-Director of the Park City Beethoven Festival. She has performed in chamber concerts with a host of the finest artists of this era. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Leslie Harlow performed in masterclasses for William Primrose, Paul Doktor, Donald McGinnis, Heidi Castleman, and Nabuko Imai and her primary teachers were Marna Street, Susan Schoenfeld, Paul Doktor, and violinist Harry Shub with additional lessons with Heidi Castleman, Donald Wright, and Francis Tursi. Ms. Harlow studied chamber music with coaches including Felix Galimer, Samuel Rhodes, David Soyer, Paul Doktor, Charles Castleman, Robert Sylvester, and Julius Baker.
Following graduation from Juilliard, Ms. Harlow moved to Utah with the plan to found a chamber music festival modeled after festivals she had been performing with over the years. She founded the Deer Valley (Utah) Chamber Music Festival in 1984 which has since been renamed the Beethoven Festival. The Festival continues to this day as Utah's oldest classical music festival, as of 2021,
presenting over 800 festival chamber concerts featuring many of the finest classical soloists of this era.
An active recording artist, both in chamber music and in commercial studio work, Ms. Harlow's viola solos have been featured on a number of film and television soundtracks including "Murder in the First”, "Surviving Picasso” and, most recently “Alpha”. She also founded and for many years directed the Park City Film Music Festival, the first U.S. film festival dedicated to the impact of music in film.
Active in teaching, Leslie Harlow is the coordinator and coach for the chamber music program Utah Valley University Department of Music in Orem, Utah. In 2015 Ms. Harlow was invited to present the collegiate level viola master class at the National ASTA Convention and to serve as a judge for the collegiate solo competition.
Representing the Festival, Leslie and clarinetist Russell Harlow perform concerts together with their colleagues throughout the year. They particularly enjoy performing for senior residents in retirement homes and for aspiring young artists at their schools.
Outside of the Festival, Harlows are busy professional performing artists, invited to perform in Utah and beyond, including for the Bargemusic Series in New York. Leslie Harlow’s recording credits also include the critically-acclaimed SACD recording for the ISOMIKE label: Chamber Music for Clarinets and Strings which features works by Karel Husa, Bohuslav Martinu, and Ingolf Dahl.
CELLIST LAUREN POSEY
Dr. Lauren Posey currently directs the Posey Cello Studio in Holladay, UT and she is also the Faculty and Artistic Director for the Intermountain Suzuki String
Institute. She is a member of the Rosco String Quartet and Ballet West Orchestra in Salt Lake City, UT, as well as on faculty at the Gifted Music School.
Dr. Posey completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Colin Carr and was a recipient of the Staller Scholar Award. Dr. Posey began her music training in Salt Lake City with teachers Carey and Elliott Cheney. In 2012 she won the T. Gordon Parks Memorial Collegiate Concerto Competition and the following year she won the 2013 University of Utah Concerto Competition.
Since 2012, Dr. Posey has been a founding member of the Rosco String Quartet with which she attended the 2013 Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, 2014 Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, and the 2014 Deer Valley Music Festival Emerging String Quartet Program. In 2014, she won the 2014 MTNA National String Chamber Music Competition as well as the 2014 University of Utah Chamber Music Competition.
Dr. Posey was a founding member of Trio Mondial, a piano trio formed in 2015 and coached by Colin Carr at Stony Brook University. She was a quarterfinalist in the 2016 and 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, attended the 2016 Banff Chamber Music Residency and performed in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Masterclass Series for Wu Han.
She graduated in 2011 with her Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance from the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Alexander Suleiman and received a Master of Music degree from the University of Utah in 2014, where she studied with John Eckstein and Elliott Cheney. In her spare time, Dr. Posey enjoys taking road trips with her five dogs Riggins, Taylor, Lyla, Garrity, and Kora.
Dr. Posey’s cello was made in 2006 by local Salt Lake City maker Carrie Scoggins.
Chamber Music at the Eccles Center is made possible with the generous support from Bob Shallenberg, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, and Summit County Cultural RAP Tax.