Levine Presents 2022-23

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Program

From 3 Romances, Opus 22 | Clara Schumann
     I. Andante molto 

Piano Trio No. 1, Opus 8 (1854) | Johannes Brahms
     I. Allegro con brio (excerpts)

Piano Trio No. 1, Opus 8 (1891) | Johannes Brahms
     I. Allegro con brio

String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 | Franz Schubert
     I. Allegro ma non troppo 

INTERMISSION

Piano Quintet in f minor, Opus 34 | Johannes Brahms | Arr. Seth Castleton
     I. Allegro non troppo 

Piano Quintet in f minor, Opus 34 | Johannes Brahms
     I. Allegro non troppo
     II. Andante, un poco Adagio
     III. Scherzo. Allegro
     IV. Finale: Poco sostenuto – Allegro non troppo

About the Artists

Pianist and educator Melinda Baird has performed in Paris, Salzburg, Jerusalem, and Carnegie’s Weill Hall. Dallas Morning News calls her playing “poetic, tasteful,” Ft. Worth Star Telegram, “fiery (yet) lusciously voiced”, and Deseret News, “brilliant clarity, big-hall spaciousness.” Melinda has collaborated with members of Baltimore, Chicago, and Indianapolis Symphonies and has appeared as a soloist with the Utah and Spokane Symphonies. Recipient of a doctorate from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Menahem Pressler, Melinda returns to Indiana every summer to co-direct the Piano Academy. Dr. Baird is Director of Group Piano Programs at Levine. Her latest solo album, Kaleidescope, and her Christmas album recorded with her daughter, Shaundra Culatta, are available on iTunes.

Violist Caroline Castleton performs and teaches in the Washington, DC area and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in viola performance at the University of Maryland, studying under Katherine Murdock and Daniel Foster. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with the Left Bank Quartet, the Ibis Chamber Music Society, and the Annapolis Chamber players. Caroline was a top award winner in the University of Maryland Concerto competition and has soloed with the Brigham Young University Philharmonic Orchestra. She enjoys instructing young violists in her home studio in Silver Spring, where she lives with her husband and three children. 

Seth Castleton is a cellist, viola da gambist, and composer and has performed with the Alexandria Symphony, Apollo Chamber Orchestra, Saint Andrew Parish Orchestra, and various chamber ensembles in the DC metro area. He has degrees in Cello Performance from Brigham Young Univeristy (BMus) and the University of Maryland (MM, DMA). Seth has enjoyed developing a Baroque aesthetic through his studies with Kenneth Slowik and participation in Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and performing with the Levine Baroque Trio. He is a chamber music and cello coach for the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra (MCYO) and teaches cello privately at Levine Music.

Violinist Shaundra Culatta has performed as a soloist with the Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, as the winner of the Riverton Concerto Competition, and for the Washington Festival of Lights. She performs solo, chamber, and orchestral music regularly throughout the DC region, including with the National Philharmonic, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony, and the American Festival Pops Orchestra. Shaundra comes from a musical family and is appearing tonight with her mother, Melinda Baird. She is herself a mother of four musical children and a luthier and rentals manager for Day Violins in Chantilly, VA.

Violinist Erin Durham is an avid chamber musician and has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as well as at festivals and concerts in Hilton Head, South Carolina. She has appeared as a soloist with the Hilton Head Symphony and Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra. After moving to Maryland in 2015, Erin joined the faculty at Levine Music and has performed with chamber and orchestra ensembles in the DC region, including appearances at Wolf Trap, The Mansion at Strathmore, The Church of the Epiphany, and with the Washington Chamber Orchestra and Alexandria Symphony Orchestra.

Cellist Vasily Popov performs frequent recitals as a soloist and chamber musician. He serves on the cello and chamber music faculties of the Levine Music in Washington, DC as an associate chair of Chamber Music and conductor of the Levine Chamber Orchestras. Mr. Popov is also on the music faculty of the Northern Virginia Community College, teaching cello on its Loudoun Campus. He leads various workshops and master classes and adjudicates national and international competitions. Mr. Popov performs on a French cello made in 1870, presented to him by Stephen and Susan Low.