Scroll down for the artists, insights from Maestro Blachly, and links to listen.
Meet our October Guest Artists
Mark Addleman, horn
Mark Addleman has served as Assistant/Associate Principal Horn of the Erie Philharmonic since 2012.
Mark began his instrumental journey on the piano at age 5 and traveled through the cello, trumpet, and euphonium before finding his voice on the French horn at the age of 20 while studying music education at Temple University. After graduating from Temple, he attended Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s principal horn, William Caballero. Upon earning his Masters degree in French horn performance from CMU in 2012, Mark began his orchestral performing as assistant principal horn of the Erie Philharmonic, under the baton of current music director, Daniel Meyer. While he is on the stage of the Warner Theatre for most of the Erie Philharmonic’s concerts, Mark performed as principal horn on several acclaimed concerts, including Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In addition to the Erie Philharmonic, Mark has been invited on many occasions to be guest principal horn with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, the Altoona Symphony Orchestra, and the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra.
When not on the stage with a full symphonic orchestra, Mark feeds the soul through chamber ensembles. It is through chamber music that he can show his personality and sensitivity that may not always be possible as an assistant principal. His favorite groupings, though there is much music he loves outside of these instrumentations, are the trios with violin and piano, oboe and piano, and the brass and woodwind quintets. The intimate and soloistic nature of a smaller ensemble provides more room for experimentation in color and sound that informs his orchestral performances. Additionally, he has stepped outside the world of classical symphonic music and was the horn player for Alia Musica, a contemporary ensemble championing the works of Pittsburgh composers; principal of Microscopic Opera, a small and intimate chamber opera company; and has performed with Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh for Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov.
Mark is a musician in the evening, as he spends his days as a Vice President of Risk Management at his local community bank, Somerset Trust Company. The lessons and skills gained from learning to play an instrument are those that can translate to almost any industry. Through his creative experience performing across genres and business involvement through Somerset Trust, Mark was recently named President of the Board of Trustees for the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra. He was born and raised in Somerset, PA, where he currently resides with his partner, Chad.
Flávio Chamis, guitar and composer
A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Flavio Chamis began his formal training in conducting and composition at the Rubin Academy of Music (Tel Aviv University) under S. Ronli Riklis and Zubin Mehta of the Israel Philharmonic. He continued his studies with Martin Stephani in Detmold, Germany, graduating from the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Chamis moved to Vienna, where he was appointed Music Director of the Villa Lobos Ensemble. While in Europe, Chamis made recordings for RIAS with the Radio Sinfonie Orchester Berlin and the Nouvelle Philharmonique de Radio France – his conducting of the world premiere of Michel Philippot’s Concerto for Violin and/or Viola has been released by the label Solstice. His European engagements have included, among many others, performances at the Musikverein (Vienna), the Wiener Festwochen and the Royal Festival Hall in London.
In 1985, Chamis was named conducting assistant to Leonard Bernstein. In this capacity, he led the Israel Philharmonic in preparation for tours of Europe, Japan and the United States, featuring performances of Mahler’s 9th Symphony. The following year, he conducted in New York the rehearsals for the world premiere of Bernstein’s Jubilee Games, later renamed Concerto for Orchestra. In 1989, he again assisted Maestro Bernstein, this time on the European tour of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Chamis returned to Brazil in 1987, as Music Director of the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra. There he won enthusiastic critical acclaim for his performances and appearances on Brazilian radio and television. As well as having conducted all of the major orchestras in Brazil, Mr. Chamis enjoys engagements as guest conductor throughout Europe and Latin America.
Chamis has collaborated with such highly acclaimed international soloists as Mischa Maisky, Paul Badura Skoda, Ileana Cotrubas, Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Dang Thai-Son, Ransom Wilson, Antonio Meneses, Jean Louis Steuerman and Arnaldo Cohen, among others. He has also participated in numerous international music festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Festival, Bayreuther Festspiel, and Schleswig Holstein Music Festival.
As a composer, his works embrace a wide range of styles, from solo, chamber, and symphonic pieces, to jazz and Brazilian music. This versatile musician has also written the text for many of his vocal compositions. “Especiaria”, a Latin Grammy nominated CD exclusively with Mr.
Chamis Brazilian Jazz compositions was released by the Brazilian label Biscoito Fino.
Flavio Chamis received the International Press Award as Outstanding Brazilian Musician based in the U.S. A frequent guest lecturer, his presentations on both Brazilian and classical music have been heard in Universities, as well as several cultural and educational organizations across the country. Since 2008, Mr. Chamis has been a permanent member of the Screening Committee of the Latin Grammy.
Since 2017 Chamis has been working in conjunction with the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital in Pittsburgh, leading a bold new approach to the intersection between music and mental health while initiating “Infinity”, a musical group of patients who performed for larger audiences during the 2018/19/20 Pittsburgh Annual Schizophrenia Conferences, and also producing “Infinity - The Role of Music in the Road to Recovery in Schizophrenia”, a short documentary about the concept.
Flavio resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife Tatjana, acting Principal violist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and their three children. He speaks fluent English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, with conversational abilities in French and Italian.
Joseph Satava, piano
Pianist Joseph Satava has a diverse repertoire with performances spanning the standard solo literature, chamber music, and works just composed.
Dr. Satava has collaborated with orchestras and conductors and performed at festivals across Europe, Canada and the U.S. His performances have included appearances with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra, the Millennium Orchestra, the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, and at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Steinway Gallery in Tuscon, AZ, the Music Academy of the West, The Kosciuszko Foundation, the French Embassy in Washington D.C., the American Conservatory of Fontainbleau, France, Iglesia San Felix de Candás, The Banff Centre, and the International Piano Festival in Gijon, Spain. Dr. Satava has appeared in Alice Tully Hall as part of the Focus! Festival for Contemporary Music and at Merkin Hall in New York City. In Baltimore, he has appeared as a frequent collaborator with the artists of Baltimore Musicales. He has performed with the New Prism Ensemble, culminating in a recording of works by Robert Baker, the album Sharp Edges. His playing is featured on the Navona label, in solo and chamber works by composer Keith Kramer. Notable recent regional performances include a recital tour featuring works of Franck, Duparc and Faure with tenor Joseph Regan, the piano obligati in Ola Gielo’s Luminous Night of the Soul and Dark Night of the Soul with the Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Orchestra, as well as Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion at York College, Pennsylvania.
In 2011, he received the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Classical Music Solo Performance, and was named a finalist in The American Prize for Piano. He has taken prizes in the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, the Miecyslaw Munz Piano Competition, the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Peggy and Yale Gordon Piano competition, and was named a Promising Young Artist by the National Society of Arts and Letters.
Dr. Satava is a committed teacher. In the spring of 2013, Dr. Satava was appointed Distinguished Artist in Residence at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, and has held faculty positions at Harford Community College, St. James School and maintains a large private studio. He served as vocal and instrumental collaborator for five years at Shepherd University, for ten years he was on the piano faculty of the Bryn Mawr School, and has acted as Program Coordinator and Director of Operations for the Gijón International Piano Festival in Gijón, Spain.
Primary teachers and mentors have included Julian Martin, Jerome Lowenthal, Olga Radosavljevich, Ann Schein, Marc Durand and Boris Slutsky. Dr. Satava received his DMA from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded the Turner Memorial Prize in Piano and a Peabody Career Development Grant to complete a residency at the Banff Centre for Performing Arts in Alberta, Canada. He completed a bachelor’s degree at the Peabody Conservatory and master’s degree at the Juilliard School.
Notes About the Program from Maestro Blachly
Each of the six pieces you will hear on the first half of the concert are written with specific people in mind, and form “musical portraits” of each of them. Rather than having the subjects sit for a painting, I engaged them and their family members in a series of wonderful conversations, during which time I learned more about them individually, and began to get an idea of both what kind of music they would most enjoy – and how to begin to “paint” them in sound.
This whole concept was drawn from the inspiration of Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” in which he paints a portrait of his friends, and also on a piece that was performed a year ago at a chamber concert of the JSO. The idea is to create a lasting gift.
What I hadn’t anticipated before composing these pieces, was how much it would draw me closer to each individual and to their families. I read long biographies and family documents; I spoke to siblings and children and friends, and I spent hours meditating on their lives and relationships. This project has brought me closer to everyone involved, including the musicians I was composing for, and I felt like as I composed, I was weaving a richer tapestry of relationships throughout the pandemic year, using this time to bring me closer to a community that I was by necessity separated from except by teleconference.
In a fantastic twist, my piece for Mark Pasquerilla meant writing in a Brazilian style, something I felt comfortable doing from my travels to that amazing country. But he also introduced me to a uniquely wonderful musician named Flávio Chamis, with whom I decided to “co-compose” this piece of music. The result is what I think you’ll agree is a very lively and joyful piece.
I will be introducing each piece from the stage. I hope you enjoy these six “portraits in sound.”
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Song Form from Sinfonietta No. 1
Over the past year, many of us in the orchestral field found ourselves exploring new music, and this piece by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson kept calling to me, so I ordered the score and played through it many times over the course of our months of not performing in front of live audiences. I am struck by the economy of means-the relatively simple textures and gestures-and the masterful approach to musical language, as well as the colors that the composer achieves with just five string voices. Perkinson is a towering musical figure in both the jazz and classical worlds, having performed as a pianist with Max Roach, and as a conductor with many orchestras across the country.
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring
There may be no more iconic and well-known composition by an American composer than Appalachian Spring. For many, the musical language developed in this piece defines the “American Sound.” And for good reason.
There is something in this music that is quintessentially American: a kind of simplicity and directness, but with great power; an openness of sound that evokes the open plains of this great country; an optimism in its gestures and harmony that mirrors the US in our young but impactful history. But also like the country that this piece is often compared to, there is more than meets the eye–and more complexity than we see at first glance. The opening motive, which we hear built slowly in the strings, stacks two different chords on top of each other, one note at a time. This layering of harmonies has the effect of two different ideas working together at the same time, creating a richly satisfying – but hard-to-define – texture.
Important to remember about this piece is that in the end, it is telling the story of a young couple starting their life on a farm in Pennsylvania – a story as old as time, and immediately relevant to this region. Martha Graham, for whom the piece was written, hailed from Pittsburgh, so as I perform the piece now, I like to think that these hills, and the character of the people of western Pennsylvania, are somehow woven into the musical textures as well.
The version of the piece we perform tonight is the original version for 13 instruments, and is a suite drawn from the much longer ballet.
Many of you will recognize the setting of the Shaker melody “Simple Gifts” near the end of this sweeping 20-minute piece, and the wonderful and virtuosic variations that Copland spins from that melody. But the piece actually ends on a different note-a quite special, personal section marked “Moderato (like a prayer).” This section evokes the beginning, but with our changed experience of the rich inner adventures of the piece, we hear it in a new light. We hope that our return to the live concert stage for you tonight bears some of that reflection and wonder, and sense of gratitude.