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

PLEASE POST

FIRST-CLASS MAILU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDWOODBRIDGE, VAPERMIT NO. 9

NON-PROFIT ORGUS POSTAGE

PAIDWOODBRIDGE, VA

PERMIT NO.9

PRESORTEDFIRST CLASS MAILU.S. POSTAGE PAIDWOODBRIDGE, VAPERMIT NO. 9

PRESORTED STDU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDWOODBRIDGE, VAPERMIT NO. 9

PRSRT STDECRWSS

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

EDDM RETAIL

EDDM Retail

S H E N S O N C H A M B E R M U S I C C O N C E RTS 2014–2015 • G I L A N TO C C O C O R N, A RT I ST I C D I R E CTO R N AT I O N A L M U S E U M O F W O M E N I N TH E A RTS

Wednesday, April 22, 2015, 7:30 p.m.

A JUG OF WINE AND THOU: MUSIC OF PERSIA AND ANDALUSIA LILY AFSHAR, GUITAR A true citizen of the world, guitarist Lily Afshar has performed in concert tours taking her to solo, chamber music, and orchestral performance venues in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including Wigmore Hall in London and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Afshar’s Persian heritage has given rise to some of her greatest musical innovations. Born in Iran to a musical family, she has drawn from Persian and Azerbaijani folk music traditions to create arrangements of works for the classical guitar which are as rich and beautiful as a Persian miniature. Her recordings are in demand worldwide. Among them, 24 Caprichos de Goya, Op. 195 (1994), composed by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco; A Jug of Wine and Thou (1999), inspired by the famous poem of Omar Khayyám and featuring arrangements of Persian melodies; and Hemispheres (2006), which reached No. 7 on Billboard Magazine’s Chart of Top Classical Albums in 2006 and led to her feature on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

A student of Andrés Segovia at the University of Southern California, Ms. Afshar is now head of the guitar program at the University of Memphis. She conducts master classes worldwide and has released seven instructional DVDs. Ms. Afshar has won a top prize in the Guitar Foundation of America Competition and Grand Prize in the Aspen Music Festival Guitar Competition.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015, 7:30 p.m.

JULIA BULLOCK, SOPRANOSoprano Julia Bullock is an “impressive, fast-rising soprano…poised for a significant career” (The New York Times). Equally at home with opera and concert repertoire, she has been hailed for her versatile talent. As First Prize Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists Auditions, she was presented in debut recitals at the Kennedy Center and Merkin Hall, where she “demonstrated both profound artistry and impressive originality” (Opera News). She also won First Prize at the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition.

Ms. Bullock has performed the title roles in the Juilliard Opera productions of Massenet’s Cendrillon and Janác̆ek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, to rave reviews. She has toured South America as Pamina in Peter Brook’s award-winning A Magic Flute; and toured China, singing with the Bard Music Festival Orchestra. Other opera roles include Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Monica in The Medium, and the title role in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. In 2013, she made her San Francisco Symphony debut in West Side Story, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; an album of the concert is available on the orchestra’s label. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “The evening’s most remarkable showstopper Julia Bullock appeared out of nowhere to deliver a full-voiced stunningly paced account of ‘Somewhere’— for just a moment, it seemed as though nothing Bernstein ever wrote was quite as magical as that one song.”

Ms. Bullock is currently pursuing her Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School.

Thursday, October 30, 2014, 6:30 p.m.

SAVE THE DATE—FALL BENEFIT 2014CABARET EVENING WITH KAREN AKERSKaren Akers, one of America’s most arresting and successful concert and cabaret stars, has performed throughout the United States, Europe and the former Soviet Union. She has appeared in many prestigious venues worldwide including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, New York’s Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, and London’s Pizza on the Park. Her career also includes three performances at the White House.

The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner says of her sound, “It’s a great voice, an instrument with the power of Streisand’s, the dark passion of Piaf’s and the lean irony of Dietrich’s, but a voice uniquely her own, because it’s coupled with an intelligence that creates moments of riveting theatricality.”

Tony® Award nominee Ms. Akers has starred in two of her own PBS specials and performed in PBS musical tributes to Ira Gershwin and Duke Ellington.

Ms. Akers’s film roles include the femme fatale in Mike Nichols’s Heartburn opposite Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, and Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo and Vibes.

Please join NMWA for a delightful evening of music to support the Shenson Chamber Music Concerts, the museum’s education programs, and groundbreaking exhibition Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea, on view December 5, 2014–April 12, 2015. The evening’s festivities include cocktails, dinner, and a performance by Karen Akers, 2014 recipient of the NMWA Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

Shenson Chamber Music Concerts are partially supported by generous gifts from Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson. Additional support is provided by Washington Marriott at Metro Center and Sofitel Washington D.C. Lafayette Square.

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N , V I S I T N M W A . O R G / S H E N S O N O R C A L L 2 0 2 - 7 8 3 - 5 0 0 0 .

CHRISTIAN STEINER

CHRISTIAN STEINER

Wednesday, October 29, 2014, 7:30 p.m.

CICELY PARNAS, CELLOAmerican cellist Cicely Parnas is recognized for bringing “velvety sound, articulate passagework and keen imagination” to her performances (The New York Times).

Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions at the age of 19, she debuted at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center to rave reviews. Ms. Parnas has also appeared at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Vanguard Concerts, and the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, and participated in the Young Concert Artists Festivals in Tokyo and Beijing. She has performed with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra, where she gave the world premiere of Jim McGrath’s Concertino for Cello. She also captured First Prize in the 2011 Cello Concerto Competition at Indiana University.

In 2012, Ms. Parnas made her Carnegie Hall concerto debut, performing with the New York String Orchestra under Jaime Laredo. She has performed with the Vermont Symphony, and toured France performing with L’Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. Named an inaugural Young Artist in Residence on NPR’s Performance Today, Ms. Parnas was featured in broadcasts and an American Public Media video spotlight.

Granddaughter of the distinguished cellist Leslie Parnas, Cicely Parnas has studied with cellists Peter Wiley and Ronald Feldman, and earned an Artist Diploma from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she worked with Sharon Robinson. Ms. Parnas performs on a 1712 Giovanni Grancino cello.

Individual Ticket: $350Table Sponsor: $5,000Honored Donor: $10,000Special Supporter: $25,000 For additional information about the Fall Benefit, please contact Emily McHugh, Development Events Manager, at emchugh@nmwa.org or 202-266-2815.