Behind the Score: Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
Symphony Orchestra
Cliff Colnot, guest conductor
Jorja Fleezanis, project curator
Repertoire
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
About the Artists
Cliff Colnot (guest conductor)
In the past decade Cliff Colnot has emerged as a distinguished conductor and a musician of uncommon range.
One of few musicians to have studied orchestral repertory with Daniel Barenboim, Colnot has served as assistant conductor for Barenboims West-Eastern Divan Workshops for young musicians from Israel, Egypt, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries. Colnot has also worked extensively with Pierre Boulez and has served as assistant conductor to Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy. He regularly conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), with whom he recently recorded Richard Wernicks The Name of the Game for Bridge Records, and he collaborates regularly with the internationally acclaimed contemporary music ensemble eighth blackbird. Colnot has been principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestras contemporary MusicNOW series since its inception and is principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, an orchestra he has conducted since 1994. Colnot also conducts Contempo at the University of Chicago, the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, and orchestras at Indiana University. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Utah Symphony.
Colnot is also a master arranger. His orchestration of Shulamit Rans Three Fantasy Pieces for Cello and Piano was recorded by the English Chamber Orchestra. For the chamber orchestra of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Colnot has arranged the Adagio from Mahlers Symphony No. 10, Schoenbergs Pelleas and Melisande (both published by Universal) and Manuel De Fallas Three Cornered Hat. For ICE and Julia Bentley, Colnot arranged Olivier Messiaens Chants de Terre et de Ciel for chamber orchestra and mezzo-soprano, also published by Universal. For members of the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Colnot arranged Shulamit Rans Soliloquy for Violin, Cello, and Piano, to be published by Theodore Presser. Colnot recently re-orchestrated the Bottesini Concerto No. 2 in B Minor for Double Bass, correcting many errors in existing editions and providing a more viable performance version. He has also been commissioned to write works for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Percussion Scholarship Group. His orchestration of Duke Ellingtons New World Coming was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim as piano soloist in 2000, and Colnot also arranged, conducted, and co-produced the CD Tribute to Ellington featuring Barenboim at the piano. He wrote music for the MGM/UA motion picture Hoodlum and has written for rock-and-roll, pop, and jazz artists Richard Marx, Phil Ramone, Hugh Jackman, Leann Rimes, SheDaisy, Patricia Barber, Emerson Drive, and Brian Culbertson.
Colnot graduated with honors from Florida State University and in 1995 received the Ernst von Dohnnyi Certificate of Excellence. He has also received the prestigious Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University, where he earned his doctorate. In 2001 the Chicago Tribune named Cliff Colnot a Chicagoan of the Year in music, and in 2005 he received the William Hall Sherwood Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts. He has studied with master jazz teacher David Bloom and has taught jazz arranging at DePaul University. He also teaches advanced orchestration at the University of Chicago and film scoring at Columbia College. As a bassoonist, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, and the Contemporary Chamber Players.
“Cliff Colnot conducted the excellent International Contemporary Ensemble in an alluring performance.”
–Anthony Tommasini, New York Times
“To every score, conductor Cliff Colnot brought a dedication, virtuosity, and intensity of feeling new music needs but doesn’t often receive.” –John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
“Everywhere [in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1] were signs of meticulous preparation and keen stylistic acuity.” –Michael Cameron, Chicago Tribune
Jorja Fleezanis (project curator)
Jorja Fleezanis joined the faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2009 as professor of violin and Henry A. Upper Chair in Orchestral Studies. She was concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1989 to 2009, assuming that position after being associate concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony and a member of the Chicago Symphony.
Fleezanis has been guest concertmaster for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony. She has been a frequent guest artist teacher at the Prussia Cove Chamber Music sessions, New World Symphony, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Music@Menlo Festival, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Madeline Island Music Camp, and the Round Top International Festival Institute. She is concertmaster of the Chicago Bach Project, performs annually in France with French pianist Cyril Huvé, and gives frequent recitals with her long-term partner, Karl Paulnack.
The Minnesota Orchestra commissioned two major solo works for her, the John Adams Violin Concerto and Ikon of Eros by John Tavener, the latter recorded on Reference Records. The complete violin sonatas of Beethoven with Huvé were released in 2003 on the Cyprés label. Other recordings include Aaron Jay Kernis’s Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky on CRI, commissioned for her by the Schubert Club of St. Paul, Minn., and Stefan Wolpe’s Violin Sonata with Garrick Ohlsson as her partner for Koch International. The world premiere of Nicholas Maw’s Sonata for Solo Violin, commissioned for her by Minnesota Public Radio, was broadcast on Public Radio International’s Saint Paul Sunday in 1998, and in 1999, Fleezanis gave the British premiere at the Chester Summer Festival. Also in 1998, she was the violin soloist in the American premiere of Britten’s recently discovered Double Concerto for Violin and Viola.
Fleezanis has been an adjunct faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory and the University of Minnesota, and plays a violin made in 1700 by Venetian maker Matteo Goffriller.
Cost: Free
For more information contact:
Sarah Slover
(812) 855-9846
[email protected]