Dear Music Lover,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our 19th year of music at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The Shenson Chamber Music Concerts are named in honor of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson, who were longtime supporters of the museum and lovers of music. Through these concerts, the museum carries out its mission of recognizing and supporting women in all areas of the arts.

The 2016–2017 season builds on the series’ tradition of promoting debuts and presenting a star performer. The young, talented, and highly regarded Armenian violinist Catherine Manoukian will be making her Washington, D.C., debut on February 8, 2017. On April 19, we will be presenting the fabulous William Bolcom Cabaret Songs with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Singers and Lydia Brown, pianist, a much-anticipated concert which will be repeated at the Neue Galerie in New York City. Susanna Phillips, the celebrated Metropolitan Opera star and radiant American lyric soprano, will close our season with the Washington debut of a song cycle for soprano and piano that she commissioned, William Harvey’s Speaking for the Afghan Woman.

This will be an exciting season, and we draw great strength from your continued support.

Gilan Tocco Corn Artistic Director

2016–2017 SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTSGilan Tocco Corn, Artistic Director

National Museum of Women in the Arts 1250 New York Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20005202-783-5000 | nmwa.org

PL E A SE P OS T

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. VISIT NMWA.ORG/SHENSON TO REGISTER.

National Museum of Women in the Arts is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20005, two blocks north of Metro Center.

PARKINGNMWA has partnered with Parking Panda, the nationwide leader in online parking reservations, to allow visitors to purchase guaranteed parking at nearby parking garages.

For more information, visit NMWA.ORG/VISIT/VISITOR-INFORMATION

SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTSGilan Tocco Corn, Artistic Director

2014–2015

1250 New York Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20005

202-783-5000 • nmwa.org

Dear Music Lover,

Welcome to the 17th season of the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ concert series featuring women musicians. The Shenson Chamber Music Concerts are named in honor of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson, who were long-time supporters of the museum and lovers of music. Through these concerts, the museum carries out its mission of recognizing and supporting women in all areas of the arts.

This season we are delighted and proud to present the fast-rising young cellist Cicely Parnas, acclaimed for her velvety sound and keen imagination, on Wednesday, October 29, 2014. You will also hear the distinguished and renowned guitarist Lily Afshar, an innovative talent with an international following, on Wednesday, April 22, 2015. Our season concludes on Wednesday, May 13, 2015, with the striking young soprano Julia Bullock, a versatile talent whose expressive breadth, luminous voice, and stage presence captivate audiences.

We take pride in presenting these splendid artists and look forward to having you join us.

—Gilan Tocco Corn, Artistic Director

ALL FREE!All Shenson Chamber Music Concerts are FREE. Reservations are required. Visit nmwa.org/shenson to register.

National Museum of Women in the Arts is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20005, two blocks north of Metro Center.

PARKINGis available at LAZ Parking, 1100 New York Avenue, NW (entrance on 12th Street between New York Avenue, NW, and H Street, NW). Open until midnight. For more information, visit lazparking.com/find-parking

For other parking options, visit nmwa.org/visit/visitor-information

PREVIOUS PERFORMERS IN THE SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT SER IES:

Ahn Trio, Julie Albers, Elena Bashkirova, Christine Brewer, Sara Davis Buechner, Wendy Chen, Claremont Trio, Sarah Coburn, Judy Collins, Concertante, Sasha Cooke, Sara Daneshpour, Jeanine De Bique, Simone Dinnerstein, Denise Djokic, Rina Dokshitsky, Eroica Trio, Ingrid Fliter, Miriam Fried and Jonathan Biss, Elizabeth Futral, Jeanne Galway, Caroline Goulding, Sofja Gülbadamova, Linda Hohenfeld, Sharon Isbin, Ran Jia, Kim Kashkashian, Olga Kern, Yolanda Kondonassis, Nina Kotova, Jessica Krash and the National Gallery of Art String Quartet, Lori Laitman, Lisa-Beth Lambert, Lark Quartet, Yura Lee, Valentina Lisitsa, Tift Merritt, Anne Akiko Meyers, Midori, Mary Millben, Monarch Brass Quintet, Joan Morris and William Bolcom, National Symphony Orchestra Wind Ensemble, Olga Orlovskaya, Navah Perlman, Cynthia Phelps, Marina Piccinini, Rachel Barton Pine, Inbal Segev, Juana Zayas, Arianna Zukerman and Eugenia Zukerman, Eugenia Zukerman and Anthony Newman

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PREVIOUS PERFORMERS IN THE SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT SERIES

Lily Afshar, Ahn Trio, Julie Albers, Elena Bashkirova, Christine Brewer, Sara Davis Buechner, Julia Bullock, Wendy Chen, Claremont Trio, Sarah Coburn, Judy Collins, Concertante, Sasha Cooke, Sara Daneshpour, Jeanine De Bique, Rhoya Tocco Didden and James Tocco, Simone Dinnerstein, Denise Djokic, Rina Dokshitsky, Eroica Trio, Ingrid Fliter, Miriam Fried and Jonathan Biss, Elizabeth Futral, Jeanne Galway, Caroline Goulding, Sofja Gülbadamova, Linda Hohenfeld, Bella Hristova, Sharon Isbin, Ran Jia, Kim Kashkashian, Olga Kern, Yolanda Kondonassis, Nina Kotova, Jessica Krash and the National Gallery of Art String Quartet, Lori Laitman, Lisa-Beth Lambert, Lark Quartet, Yura Lee, Valentina Lisitsa, Tift Merritt, Anne Akiko Meyers, Midori, Mary Millben, Monarch Brass Quintet, Joan Morris and William Bolcom, National Symphony Orchestra Wind Ensemble, Olga Orlovskaya, Cicely Parnas, Navah Perlman, Cynthia Phelps, Marina Piccinini, Rachel Barton Pine, Inbal Segev, Nadine Sierra, Juana Zayas, Arianna Zukerman, Eugenia Zukerman and Anthony Newman

ALL SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS ARE FREE.

ALL FREE!

Wednesday, February 8, 2017, 7:30 p.m.

CATHERINE MANOUKIAN, VIOLIN WASHINGTON, DC DEBUTViolinist Catherine Manoukian has been praised for her innate musicality and imaginative artistry on orchestral, chamber music, and recital stages. Her career began at age 12, with her orchestral debut with the Vancouver Symphony.

Manoukian’s impressive accomplishments include guest performances with many major North American and international orchestras, such as the Toronto Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Calgary and Fresno Philharmonics, and the Manitoba Chamber and CBC Radio Orchestras, as well as the Tokyo Philharmonic, Osaka Century Orchestra, the Armenian Philharmonic, the Helsingborg Symphony, the Norrköping Symphony, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar, and the Duisburg Philharmoniker. As a recitalist, she has appeared on major stages in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Tokyo, and Osaka, and as a chamber musician at the Aspen, Caramoor, and Newport International festivals. She has collaborated with such esteemed conductors as Mario Bernardi, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Keith Lockhart, Roy Goodman, Peter Oundjian, and Stefan Solyom.

Manoukian maintains an extensive discography. Recent releases include a live performance of the Elgar Violin Concerto, with the Staatskapelle Weimar and Stefan Solyom (2013), and the Brahms Sonatas with Gunilla Süssmann (2014), both on the Berlin Classics label. She most recently recorded the Brahms Violin and Double Concertos with the Helsingborg Symphony and with cellist Jakob Koranyi, with an anticipated release date of early 2017.

Manoukian began violin studies with her father, and made her first stage appearance at the age of four. From 1994 to 2000, Catherine studied with the late violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay in New York City.

SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS 2016–2017 • GILAN TOCCO CORN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 7:30 p.m.

WILLIAM BOLCOM CABARET SONGS FEATURING STARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI COLLEGE-CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC WITH LYDIA BROWN, PIANOPraised by the New York Times as “intensely expressive,” pianist Lydia Brown has performed at such notable venues as the Salle Cortot, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall, 92nd St. Y, Caramoor, the Phillips Collection, the Freer Gallery of Art, SongFest, Philadelphia Chamber Music Series, the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Weill Recital Hall, Grand Teton Music Festival, Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music Series, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts of Chicago, and Santa Fe New Music. Active in the performance and promotion of new music, she has premiered song cycles by Libby Larsen, Paola Prestini, Daniel Sonenberg, and Renée Favand-See, as well as songs by Richard Hundley. She has prepared several U.S. operatic premieres, including Emilie by Kaija Saariaho, Faustus, the Last Night by Pascale Dusapin, and the New York premiere of Elliott Carter’s What Next?

Brown holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in collaborative piano from the Juilliard School, as well as degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. She currently serves as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, where she has worked with, amongst others, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI COLLEGE-CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

The Department of Opera at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) boasts one of the most comprehensive training programs for opera singers, coaches, and directors in the United States. Program features mezzo-sopranos: Chelsea Duval-Major, Eleni Franck, Reilly Nelson, Grace Newberry, and Paulina Villarreal.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 7:30 p.m.

SUSANNA PHILLIPS, THE WOMAN’S EXPERIENCE INCLUDING THE WASHINGTON, DC PREMIERE OF WILLIAM HARVEY’S

SPEAKING FOR THE AFGHAN WOMANAlabama-born soprano Susanna Phillips, recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, continues to establish herself as one of today’s most sought-after singing actors and recitalists. The 2016–17 season will see Phillips return to the Metropolitan Opera for a ninth consecutive season, starring as Clémence in the Met premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin conducted by Susanna Mälkki, as well as a return of her acclaimed Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème. In March 2017, Phillips will make her Zurich Opera debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She also appears as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman.

2016–17 orchestra engagements include a return to the San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a program of American songs, Mozart’s “Exsultate Jubilate” and his Mass in C Minor with Jane Glover and the Music of the Baroque, the Britten War Requiem with Kent Tritle and the Oratorio Society of New York, as well as Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with Robert Spano leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Phillips will also perform recitals at the Celebrity Series of Boston, Huntsville Chamber Music Guild, and her popular dual recital program with Eric Owens at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for Washington Performing Arts.

Photo by Tony Briggs

Photo by Dario Acosta

Lydia Brown

The Shenson Chamber Music Concert Series is made possible by support from Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston and The Shenson Foundation in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson.