CMFW Fall Festival 2018
“Cradling the Sound”: Festival of Music and Family
Artists’ Concert
“SING THE BODY! A JOURNEY IN MUSIC”
Cello and Piano Duo
Francesco Mastromatteo, Cello
Patti Wolf, Piano
Tuesday, October 9th, 7:30 pm to 9 pm
Oak Hill United Methodist Church on 7815 US-290, Austin, TX 78749
“Sing the Body” is an exploration of the complete experience we have in the moment we enter into the realm of Music, our Voice and our Body are put in connection through sound and we give a voice to our physicality in the very same moment in which are soul is fulfilled with sound. Chopin Sonata is the master piece of this connection, the ability of the Polish composer to make the piano sing, and to let the cello explore every angle or our persona is a true mistery. This masterpiece of the late Chopin year is filled with llonging and humanity, embracing soul and body in the most compete union. The Piazzolla garn Tango is also an abstraction of an intimaly felt dance, our body transcend into the embrace center of the tango to connect the spiritual and physical aspect of our being, and finally the Rimembranze dal Trovatore, let the voice free to express the music we are as humans. A voice that is neither male of female, is a cello: neutral, personal, universal.
Program
Grand Tango – Piazzolla (1921 – 1992)
Sonata op.65 – Chopin (1810 – 1849)
Allegro moderato
Scherzo: Allegro con brio
Largo
Finale: Allegro
Rimembranze dal Trovatore op.22 – C. A. Piatti (1822 – 1901)
Francesco Mastromatteo, Cello
Described as a “virtuosic and passionate musician” by the Dallas Morning News, the Italian-born cellist Francesco Mastromatteo keeps performing in Italy and U.S.A. He is the artistic director of Associazione Amici della Musica “G. Paisiello” in Lucera (Italy) and he is also artistic director of the no-profit organization Classical Music for the World in Austin (Texas). From 2008 to 2013 he has been the artistic director of the concert series “Spring of Harmony” held at S. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Dallas. He is currently Professor of Chamber Music at the Conservatory “U. Giordano” in Foggia (Italy) – Residency of Rodi Garganico.
Francesco performed as soloist with Meadows Symphony Orchestra in Dallas, Round Rock Sympnony, Balcones Community Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica “Città di Pescara”, Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Foggia, “Suoni del Sud” chamber orchestra, Meadows Wind Ensemble and Starlight Symphony. He also performed J.S. Bach’s solo suites in the US and in Italy at the prestigious Ravenna Festival in 2009. He keeps a busy schedule as chamber musician and is now the cellist of the Duo & Trio Mastromatteo. He performs in duo with pianists A. Wright, C. Wright-Ivanova and M. Schneider. He also collaborated in duo with A. Pompa-Baldi recording Grieg’s cello sonata op.36 for Centaur Records. Francesco has been invited to perform solo recitals and teach master classes at Oklaoma City University, University of Nevada – Las Vegas and Southern Methodist University.
Interested in performance practice as well as in contemporary music, Francesco performed with baroque ensembles like Concerto Italiano and Camerata Anxanum. He also performed the world premieres of T. Sleeper cello sonata, and of works for cello solo by S. Taglietti (Symplex), R.Franck (Taberah) and K. Hanlon (That’s It). He won first prize in the National Cello Competition “G. Turci” in Ravenna and first prize as duo cello and piano with Tommaso Cogato in the International Competition “Città di Padova”. He was Principal Cellist of Orchestra Sinfonica Umberto Giordano of Foggia from 2003 to 2004.
Francesco completed his Doctoral degree in Cello Performance at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 working with B. Tsang, he also holds a Master Degree and an Artist Certificate from Southern Methodist University where he studied with A. Diaz. In Italy he worked with teachers like A. M. Mastromatteo, M. Shirvani and L. Piovano and R. Filippini.
Following an inborn love for various artistic paths, Francesco also holds with honours a Master Degree in Literature and History of Arts from the Università “Aldo Moro” in Bari. He published a volume on Italian composer Umberto Giordano for Bastogi Editrice and an extensive article on Kodàly Solo Sonata op.8 for the International Journal of Musicology.
Patti Wolf, Piano
Being chosen at age nineteen as the youngest competitor of the 1985 Van Cliburn Competition, Patti Wolf has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has collaborated in recital with many of the world’s most distinguished musical artists, such as cellist Lynn Harrell, pianist Jon Kimura Parker, flutist Carol Wincenc, violinist Ilya Kaler, concertmasters Glenn Dicterow, Andrés Cárdenas, David Halen and Nina Bodnar, soprano Erin Wall, Chicago Symphony principal horn Dale Clevenger, and renowned German horn soloist and recording artist Hermann Baumann. As a collaborative pianist, Ms. Wolf has participated in International Brass Conferences in Chicago, Kansas City, and San Francisco.
A scholarship student of Jane Allen at the Saint Louis Conservatory, Ms. Wolf later studied with Joseph Kalichstein at the Juilliard School, where she received a Bachelor of Music in 1987. In 1989 she earned a Masters Degree from Yale University School of Music, working with Peter Frankl, Claude Frank, and Boris Berman. Ms. Wolf’s numerous awards and honors include the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition, the American Music Scholarship Association, the Artists’ Presentation Society, Music of the Americas, and the Yale Alumni Association Award.
From 2001 to 2009 Ms. Wolf was a staff collaborative pianist at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, performing a repertoire of over 200 recitals. She has also served on the faculties of Washington University and Maryville University in St. Louis. She has performed and given master classes at the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Westminster College, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Iowa, University of Houston, University of Texas-Austin, the Chautauqua Piano Program and the Juilliard School of Music.
In August of 2004, Ms. Wolf made her Chautauqua, New York debut, playing a duo recital with Hungarian pianist, Peter Frankl. Subsequently, she has appeared on an almost annual basis with the Audubon Quartet, the Chautauqua Wind Quintet and the
Chautauqua String Quartet. In 2010, she performed the Grieg piano concerto with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, America’s oldest summer festival orchestra. Summer engagements have taken her to the Marrowstone Festival, the Cactus Pear Festival, Strings in the Mountains, Garth Newel, and the Aspen Festival, where she worked as an accompanying fellow.
As a soloist she has appeared with the Saint Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Saint Louis Philharmonic, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and has performed under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, Raymond Leppard, and many others. Recently, Ms. Wolf was a guest artist with the Olmos Ensemble in San Antonio and is featured on their first CD, Olmos Live, performing the John Harbison trio for piano, violin, and horn.
In 2017, Ms. Wolf joined the faculty at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas, Austin, in the Collaborative Piano Department.