Le Salon Vénitien
Thursday, October 16th, 7pm | Venice, Italy
The salon will feature music by several of the composers in Singer's circle, accompanied by anectodal stories, wine and hors d'oeuvres.
The Program
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SERGEI RACHMANINOV - CELLO SONATA IN G MINOR
I. Lento – Allegro moderato
III. Andante
IGOR STRAVINSKY - THE RITE OF SPRING
I. L'Adoration de la Terre
II. Le Sacrifice
GABRIEL FAURE - THE DOLLY SUITE
Selections TBD
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Scenes from The Palazzo
The Legacy of Winnaretta Singer
Winnaretta Singer Self-Portrait
American-born Winnaretta Singer [1865-1943] was a millionaire at the age of eighteen, due to her inheriting a substantial part of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Her 1893 marriage to Prince Edmond de Polignac, an amateur composer, brought her into contact with the most elite strata of French society.
After Edmond's death in 1901, she used her fortune to benefit the arts, science, and letters. Her most significant contribution was in the musical domain: in addition to subsidizing individual artists [Boulanger, Haskil, Rubinstein, Horowitz] and organizations [the Ballets Russes, l'Opéra de Paris, l'Orchestre Symphonique de Paris], she made a lifelong project of commissioning new musical works from composers, many of them unknown and struggling, to be performed in her Paris salon.
Winnaretta and Igor Stravinsky on the balcony of Palazzo Contarini Polignac
The list of works created as a result is long and extraordinary: Stravinsky's Renard, Satie's Socrate, Falla's El Retablo de Maese Pedro, and Poulenc's Two-Piano and Organ Concertos are among the best-known titles. In addition, her salon was a gathering place for luminaries of French culture such as Proust, Cocteau, Monet, Diaghilev, and Colette.
Many of Proust's memorable evocations of salon culture were born during his attendance at concerts in the Polignac music room. Winnaretta’s legacy shows she was truly an eccentric and extravagant lover of the arts, whose influence on the 20th Century world of music and literature remains incalculable.
The Performers
Tanya Tomkins
Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, cellist Tanya Tomkins is equally at home on Baroque and modern instruments. She has performed on many chamber music series to critical acclaim, including the Frick Collection, “Great Performances” at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, San Francisco Performances, and the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal.
She is renowned in particular for her interpretation of the Bach Cello Suites, having recorded them for the Avie label and performed them many times at venues such as New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, Seattle Early Music Guild, Vancouver Early Music Society, and The Library of Congress.
Audrey Vardanega
Praised as a “[musically] eloquent” (San Francisco Classical Voice) player “with the kind of freedom, authority, and strength…that one expects from the world’s finest pianists” and a “bewitching musical presence” (The Piedmont Post), American pianist Audrey Vardanega has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist across Europe, China, South America and the United States.
Audrey is the Founder and Artistic Director of Musaics of the Bay, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting musicians, composers and visual artists for collaborations, commissions, residency programs, and mentorships in the Bay Area and beyond. She is passionate about providing emerging artists with opportunities to determine their own careers by creating new artistic communities, collaborations and sustainable networks.
eric Zivian
Music Director and Co-Founder of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, Eric Zivian has given solo recitals in Toronto, New York, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. He has performed Mozart and Beethoven concertos with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. He performed the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with Philharmonia Baroque in April 2018.
Since 2000, Mr. Zivian has performed extensively on original instruments, playing fortepiano in the Zivian-Tomkins Duo and the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio. He is also a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and has performed with the Empyrean Ensemble and Earplay. He is a frequent guest artist on the San Francisco Conservatory’s faculty chamber music series. Mr. Zivian’s compositions have been performed widely in the United States and in Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded an ASCAP Jacob Druckman Memorial Commission to compose an orchestral work, Three Character Pieces, which was premiered by the Seattle Symphony in March 1998.
CHRISTOS VAYENAS
Christos Vayenas is a pianist, composer, author and curator. He is the founder of the Autumn Salon, an online journal, film production house and events organization that raises awareness around artists who, through connecting the traditional wisdom of the past with the living energy of the present, are contributing to a global culture of the future.
With a focus on solo improvisation, Christos’ musical language draws inspiration from the Romantic and Symbolist eras of the past, as well as a wide range of musical traditions of the world. He perceives music as a harmonizing force that can evoke powerful experiences of genuineness, emotion and meaning.