Mark Travis on Frautschi-Manasse-Nakamatsu Trio

PROGRAM:

YSAŸE: Sonata for solo Violin in d minor “Ballade”, Op. 27, No. 3

(Jennifer Frautschi)

WEBER: Grand Duo Concertante for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 48

(Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu)

CHOPIN: Fantasy in f minor, Op. 49

(Jon Nakamatsu)

KHACHATURIAN: Trio in g minor for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano (1932)

RAVEL: Tzigane for Violin and Piano

(Jennifer Frautschi, Jon Nakamatsu)

BARTÓK: Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano, Sz. 111/BB116

(Jennifer Frautschi, Jon Nakamatsu)

Mark Travis

With more than two decades of experience, Mark Travis has just about done it all, serving as a writer, producer, broadcaster, lecturer, podcaster, voiceover artist, multi-cam director, video editor and audio engineer. Currently Director of Media Production for the New York Philharmonic, he has directed the orchestra’s broadcasts (hosted by Alec Baldwin) since 2003.

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From 1999 to 2011 Mark served as a producer for Chicago’s WFMT Radio Network, where he wrote and directed more than 800 nationally syndicated programs. He also has an extensive discography as a music producer, including three Grammy-nominated recordings in five categories by the New York Philharmonic. Other credits include projects with Carnegie Hall’s Song Studio with Renée Fleming, Ensemble Connect, Handel & Haydn Society, Ensemble Companio, Living Music with Nadia Sirota—Pirate Radio Edition, the 92nd Street Y, the National Youth Orchestra, the Chicago Chorale, UMS, Interlochen Public Radio, Greenwich Choral Society, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as a regular guest lecturer for Mannes College of Music at New School University and the Grand Piano Series in Naples, Florida.

Mark is a member of NARAS and serves on both the Grand Jury and Radio Advisory Board for the New York Festivals International Broadcasting Competition. He has also served as juror and Music Committee Chair for the United States Artists panel in Los Angeles.

He has been the recipient of more than 30 medals and honors for his broadcast work, including the 2015 Grand Jury Prize and five best-director awards from the New York Festivals, and he was named a special honoree for his writing in the 2017 Webby Awards.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi has garnered worldwide acclaim as a musically adventurous violinist with a wide-ranging repertoire. As the Chicago Tribune noted, “violinist Jennifer Frautschi is molding a career with smart interpretations of both warhorses and rarities.” Equally, at home in the classic and contemporary repertoire, her recent seasons have featured innumerable performances and recordings of works ranging from Brahms and Schumann to Berg and Schoenberg. She has also had the privilege of premiering several new works composed for her by prominent composers of today.

Among the most distinguished classical artists of his generation, clarinetist Jon Manasse is internationally recognized for his inspiring artistry, uniquely glorious sound, and charismatic performing style. An avid chamber musician, Jon Manasse has been featured in New York City programs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theatre (on Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers Series”), The Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse and Merkin Concert Hall; at the Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Colorado Springs Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival and France’s Festival International des Arts, as well as the chamber music festivals of Bridgehampton, Cape, and Islands, Crested Butte, Georgetown, St. Bart’s, Seattle and Tucson. He has also been the guest soloist with many of the leading chamber ensembles of the day, including The Amadeus Trio and Germany’s Trio Parnassus and the American, Borromeo, Colorado, Lark, Manhattan, Moscow, Orion, Rossetti, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Ying String Quartets, and has collaborated with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jon Nakamatsu. Jon Manasse and his Duo partner, the acclaimed pianist Jon Nakamatsu, serve as Artistic Directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, an appointment announced during summer 2006.

American pianist Jon Nakamatsu continues to draw unanimous praise as a true aristocrat of the keyboard, whose playing combines elegance, clarity, and electrifying power. A native of California, Mr. Nakamatsu came to international attention in 1997 when he was named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the only American to have achieved this distinction since 1981. Mr. Nakamatsu has performed widely in North and South America, Europe, and the Far East, collaborating with such conductors as James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Osmo Vänskä, and Hans Vonk. Mr. Nakamatsu's extensive recital tours throughout the U.S. and Europe have featured appearances in New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, and in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, London, and Milan. He has worked with various chamber ensembles - among them the Brentano, Tokyo, Kuss, Jupiter, Cypress, Prazak, and Ying String Quartets - and has toured repeatedly with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Together with clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu tours continually as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. The Duo also serves as Artistic Directors of the esteemed Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival in Massachusetts.