Throughout our interview I was interested to learn new things about my friend Priscilla.

Mimi Stillman: What was studying at Curtis like for you?

Priscilla Lee: Curtis was an incredible and enriching experience for me. I fell in love with playing chamber music. Mostly because I wanted to play with as many people as I could (everyone was so talented!), but also because my dear teacher, the late David Soyer, was an incredible force in the Guarneri String Quartet. I learned so much from him. He defined the cellists’ role as being the bass line and he knew how to support the melodies of the upper strings with such character and beauty. From my first year at Curtis (I was there for 5 years), I think I played in at least 6-8 chamber groups a semester. I definitely spent more hours rehearsing chamber music than practicing by myself!

Mimi: You’re a member of the highly acclaimed Trio Cavatina. How did the ensemble come about?

Priscilla: When we founded Trio Cavatina in early 2005, Ieva, Harumi and I were all living in New York City. We knew each other from before (Ieva and I were at Curtis and Mannes together, Harumi and Ieva knew each other from Kneisel Hall, a festival in Maine). We were all at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont together in 2003. We hung out a lot that summer, and when Ieva approached me with the idea of forming a piano trio in the fall, we naturally thought of asking Harumi to be our violinist. We met a couple of times to read through some Mozart and Haydn trios, and while sipping tea around the kitchen table we decided to form Trio Cavatina.

Mimi: Who are your favorite composers?

Priscilla: That is a hard one! There are too many to name but I love Beethoven (he was truly a genius; to me his music comes straight from God). I also love Schubert and Bach.

            This season, every concert on the Dolce Suono Ensemble Presents series will feature one or more chamber works by Claude Debussy, presented in a context with other repertoire that illuminates a different aspect of this monumental composer.

            Several guest artists join DSE for the first time this season, opening new and exciting artistic experiences for our artists and audiences. They include Matthew Levy, saxophone; Anthony McGill, clarinet; Anthony Newman, harpsichord; Elizabeth Reiter, soprano, and Natalie Zhu, piano.

            Returning guests soprano Lucy Shelton and composer Fang Man build on the fruitful partnerships we formed over the past seasons.

            Our first foray into interdisciplinary projects with dance takes shape in collaboration with Koresh Dance Company and Ronen Koresh’s choreography for a world premiere by Fang Man.

            The season features DSE’s first ever composition competition, geared toward young composers, as part of our Debussy festivities.

Click this link to see all concerts listed.

We hope to see you at our next concert, “Russian Roots”, on April 13. this concert also has an event page at our Facebook site, which you can visit and do an online RSVP.

While we’re on social media, please follow us on Twitter @DolceSuonoE.

To link up even more, go to Mimi Stillman’s page on Facebook, and her Twitter: @MimiStillman.

We look forward to seeing you virtually and at concerts!

Mimi: What is your musical life like at the moment?

Sarah: I divide my time between playing with the Baltimore and Delaware Symphonies–performing the gamut of symphonic repertoire as well as fully staged opera and ballet productions, running the harp department at the University of Maryland, and playing chamber music whenever I can (which is probably my favorite form of musical expression). I still perform by myself occasionally but I haven’t been concentrating much on solo concerts in the last few years–I personally just find it so much more fulfilling and exciting to collaborate on stage with other musical minds! I feel so lucky that I have such a wide variety exciting performance and teaching opportunities that change from week to week. They say that variety is the spice of life, and in my case, I feel it really is true!

Mimi: Do you come from a musical family and how did your family encourage your talent?

Sarah: I’m sort of an anomaly in my family. (Unless you count two or three generations ago with some relatives who dabbled in singing and composition). Although my parents are big lovers of music and the arts, neither of them had any formal training. I was very very lucky, however, to have two parents who supported all my artistic endeavors whole-heartedly. My mother tirelessly squired me around to music, dance, and art lessons when I was young and she used her personal savings to buy me my first and second (professional sized) harps! My mom always told me that she never wanted me to say “I wished I had…” when I was older.
Mimi: How did you get started on harp?

Sarah: In all honesty, I have a hard time remembering what exactly it was that initially inspired me to turn to the harp. My mother was really great about taking me to a wide variety of live performances and we debate the possibility that it might have been a performance of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with the Pennsylvania Ballet performing at the Academy of Music (which has a beautiful harp part) that initially perked up my ears and curiosity. My parents were also big classic Hollywood cinema buffs, so there were a lot of Marx Brothers movies being played during my childhood. (To this day, I think Harpo is quite the phenom.)

Mimi: What pieces of music do you turn to most, to listen to and to play?

Sarah: Oh gosh, this is a difficult one to answer…there are so many!
As a soloist, I think our greatest piece in the harp repertoire is Paul Hindemith’s Harp Sonata (1939). In my opinion, it has it all–incredible intricate, almost Bach-like, harmonies and voicings, raw power, gentle intimacy, humor and playfulness juxtaposed with spiritual reverence. I hate to say it, but in my opinion, a considerable portion of the repertoire for solo harp tends toward what I refer to as fluff/schmaltz–and although that can be very pretty, it doesn’t have a whole lot of substance. So this piece by Hindemith is such a treat. For chamber music, I adore Debussy’s Sonata for flute, viola, and harp and Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro (for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet). They both have such richness and unique color and I never tire of performing them.
Symphonically speaking, I love the works of Mahler, Britten, and Ravel. They were each such brilliant orchestrators and I think I become a better musician every time I get to sit on stage and listen to the inventive color palettes they each painted with.

Mimi: What are the greatest challenges, and greatest strengths, in the world of classical music and its role in society today?

Sarah: I feel that the greatest challenge for classical music, and classical musicians, today is keeping performances fresh and accessible so they appeal to a contemporary audience and especially to new listeners. The greatest strength of classical music is that going to a concert is like going to a museum where the art is performed live and the traditions and sounds of another era unfold right before you. The greatest weakness is, again, that going to a concert can be like going to a museum where the contents feel out-of-date, stale, and hard to relate to. There is, of course, much to be said for tradition, but as our audiences grow older we need to continue to reach out to younger generations in order for our art form to survive. I feel that one way to do this is to blur the lines more between genres, eras, and cultures in our programming.

Mimi:  What do you like to do when not playing music?

Sarah: I love to cook! I’ve actually signed up for an Indian cooking class that starts in a month and I’m very excited. And, of course, I love to occasionally splurge on a great meal out. (I’ve really been missing Philadelphia’s fabulous restaurants since I’ve moved!)  
I’m also a big film nut, both new and old, and I try to keep up by going to the independent movie theaters when I can. Don’t laugh, but the newest hobby I’ve taken up in the new year is adult beginning ballet class. I’m terrible, but it’s really fun! I love literature and art. My favorite authors are too many to name all, but Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Lewis Carrol, symbolist poets, and David Sedaris are high on my list. I have many favorite artists, too: Calder, Rothko, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Chagall, Brancusi, and lots more.

Mimi: What would you be if you weren’t a musician?

Sarah: I used to joke that I’d make an excellent truck driver (since I was on the road so much commuting back and forth between jobs in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Delaware, etc. with my harp in the back of my car.) But I always thought it would be so much fun to be either a film critic or a food critic. I mean, getting paid to eat and watch movies all day sounds pretty great!

Read the New York Times review of our New York debut concert at Symphony Space as part of the Composers Now Festival.

This review appeared in the Broad Street Review about our “Mahler 100 / Schoenberg 60″ project.

Some of us don’t appear in the shot, but the ensemble members are Mimi Stillman, flute, Paul Demers, clarinet, Marc Rovetti, violin, Yumi Kendall, Charles Abramovic, piano.

We’re excited for our “Mahler 100 / Schoenberg 60″ project concerts! Please join us Friday, February 3 at 8:00pm at Haverford College and Sunday, February 5 at 3:00pm at Trinity Center for Urban Life, Philadelphia. This program includes Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor and the world premiere of Shulamit Ran’s Moon Songs: A Song Cycle in Four Acts for Soprano, Flute (doubling Piccolo), Cello, and Piano in addition to the Schoenberg. Dolce Suono Ensemble will give its New York debut at Symphony Space on Monday, February 6 at 7:30pm. The program includes 7 of our commissioned works.

Join us on Monday to hear the entire piece. Our concert, “Dolce Suono Ensemble Commissions and Premieres,” is part of the city-wide Composers Now Festival and features seven of our recent commissioned works. Our star-studded cast also includes composers Richard Danielpour, David Ludwig, Steven Mackey, Stratis Minakakis, Shulamit Ran, Steven Stucky and baritone Randall Scarlata.

DSE artists: Mimi Stillman, flute – Paul Demers, clarinet – Marc Rovetti, violin – Yumi Kendall, cello – Charles Abramovic, piano – Gabriel Globus Hoenich, percussion

Here’s a video clip from our rehearsal tonight. Randall Scarlata and Dolce Suono Ensemble play the opening of David Ludwig’s Ewigkeit, which we commissioned for our “Mahler 100 / Schoenberg 60″ project and premiered last season. We’re preparing to give the New York premiere at Symphony Space on Monday, February 6, 2012 at 7:30pm. Ewigkeit (Eternity) is a song setting of a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the collection of German folk poetry to which Mahler turned for inspiration throughout his life.

 We’re excited about the concert “Dolce Suono Commissions and Premieres,” part of the Composers Now Festival. Please join us! Lucy Shelton, soprano and Randall Scarlata, baritone, join Dolce Suono Ensemble in works by Shulamit Ran, Steven Stucky, Steven Mackey, Richard Danielpour, Fang Man, and Stratis Minakakis.

Masterman is one of my favorite schools to visit, and it’s one of Dolce Suono Ensemble’s oldest educational outreach partnerships. The music director there, Kim Kelter Neu, is very talented, dedicated, and successful, as her middle and high school music students are some of the most knowledgeable and sophisticated my colleagues and I have encountered.

Gabe and I had fun performing music from Jewish and Latin traditions, as well as excerpts from Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire.

Mimi and Gabe performing for the students

Gabe brought student volunteers up to play percussion instruments as part of an exercise in which the class learns about creating rhythmic patterns.

Mimi and Gabe with students after the session

Premiere performances will take place:

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:00pm – Marshall Auditorium, Roberts Hall, Haverford College, PA

Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 3:00pm – Trinity Center for Urban Life, Philadelphia

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 7:30pm – Symphony Space, New York City