Poulenc Trio & Shawnette Sulker Set for Music at Kohl Mansion This Month

Music at Kohl Mansion (MAKM), the Bay Area's venerable presenter of the finest international chamber music, will continue its 41st anniversary with the much-anticipated 2024 spring concert series, showcasing many of the world's leading artists in musical programs of exceptional repertoire spanning classical masterworks to highly praised contemporary chamber works.

The nationally acclaimed Poulenc Trio, named after celebrated French composer Francis Poulenc, will be presented for one-night only in an exceptional concert featuring the world premiere arrangement of Poulenc songs, commissioned by Music at Kohl Mansion, of some of his most beautiful and lyrical works newly set for the Trio and soprano, in a debut performance by popular soprano Shawnette Sulker. Musical highlights also include works by Viet Cuong, Duke Ellington and Gioachino Rossini.

The concert will be held on Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 7 p.m. at Music at Kohl Mansion, 2750 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA.

PROGRAM:       

POULENC TRIO with guest artist, soprano Shawnette Sulker*

Francis Poulenc: Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, FP43

Francis Poulenc: Sonata for Oboe and Piano, in D Major, Op. 166

Viet Cuong: Explain Yourself! 

Francis Poulenc (new arrangement by Zakarias Grafilo for trio and soprano): two song cycles, Cocardes and Métamorphoses, and two songs, À sa guitare, and Les Chemins de l'amour

Duke Ellington (arr. Jonathan Jensen): In a Sentimental Mood and The Mooch/Black and Tan Fantasy

Gioachino Rossini: Fantaisie Concertante on Themes from Semiramide

Aleh Remezau*, oboe; Bryan Young, bassoon; Irina Kaplan Lande, piano; with guest artist, soprano Shawnette Sulker*

About The Poulenc Trio

The Poulenc Trio is celebrating its 20th year of captivating performances and inspiring the next generation of musicians. With over 25 commissioned pieces written or arranged for the ensemble, they have significantly expanded the repertoire for oboe, bassoon, and piano. The group's most recent commissions include Explain Yourself! by composer Viet Cuong; two works by Juri Seo, Melodie de Poulenc, and Breathing Light, a collaboration with accordionist Hanzhi Wang; and the premiere of a new arrangement for the Trio and soprano of Poulenc songs. In a recent review, The New York Times praised the Trio for its “elegant rendition” of Piazzolla's Tangos and has been called “virtuosos of classical and contemporary chamber music” in one profile for Russian television.

According to the Trio about Viet Cuong's new work, Explain Yourself!,“the piece is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser written as a counterpart to Poulenc's 1926 Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano - a high energy, rollicking romp, perfect for today's chamber music concerts.” Of special interest, audience members are in for a sound that they've never heard before: Explain Yourself! features what must be the most multi-phonic oboe notes ever written in a tonal chamber music work. Multi-phonics are a special playing technique where oboist Aleh Remezau will be heard to play multiple notes at once, similar to the ‘double-stop' effect used by string instrumentalists. The multi-phonic effect adds to the wild feeling that infuses the piece.

About Shawnette Sulker

A native of Guyana, soprano Shawnette Sulker has sung leading roles with many opera companies including San Francisco Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Internationale Opera Producties, Opera Naples, Union Avenue Opera, Natchez Opera Festival, Pacific Opera Project, Opera Parallèle, West Edge Opera, Festival Opera, West Bay Opera, Music in the Mountains, and Mendocino Music Festival. Sulker's current 2024 engagements include Barber's poetic Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with San Jose Chamber Orchestra; a joint recital with soprano Hope Briggs in Palo Alto; a Music at Kohl Mansion debut with the Poulenc Trio; two roles in Opera Parallèle's double bill premiere of Birds & Balls; The Magic Flute with Livermore Opera; and Bulrusher with West Edge Opera.

Single tickets for all concerts are now on sale and priced $58 (adult), $55 (senior) and $25 (age 30 and under). To purchase tickets, call the Box Office at (650) 762-1130 or order online at the button below.

St. Lawrence String Quartet cellist and educator Christopher Costanza will offer an informative and lively pre-performance lecture at 6 p.m. in the Kohl Mansion Library. The audience is invited to attend a complimentary post-performance reception with the artists. Free and ample parking is available.

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