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Home > Hancher > Kremerata Baltica

Kremerata Baltica with Gidon Kremer, Soloist and Artistic Director (Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 8 p.m.)

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Kremerata Baltica Musicians
  3. About the Artists
  4. Tonight's Program

Introduction

This performance supported by John and Ellen Buchanan and The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Program

Wie der alte Leiermann - Leonid Desyatnikov

Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a - Dmitri Shostakovich

Arranged for string orchestra from String Quartet No. 8 by Abram Stassevich.

Intermission

Symphony No. 14 in G minor, Op. 135 - Dmitri Shostakovich

Kremerata Baltica is supported by Adolf Würth GmbH & Co KG.

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Kremerata Baltica Musicians

Violin I

Violin II

Viola

Cello

Bass

Cembalo & Piano

Percussion

* = sectional leaders

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About the Artists

Kremerata Baltica was founded in 1997 by the renowned violinist Gidon Kremer and is already considered one of the most prominent international ensembles in Europe and beyond. Although it originally began as a "birthday present to myself" to celebrate his 50 years of life in 1997, Kremer immediately envisaged the potential behind the 27-member ensemble of young musicians drawn from the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as a medium to share his rich artistic experience with the new generation and, at the same time, to promote and inspire the musical and cultural life of the Baltics.

Having opted to make the world their permanent home, Kremerata Baltica annually performs about 60 concerts during six annual tours throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. Regular performances in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London, Moscow and New York in the greatest halls are followed by appearances at renowned music festivals such as Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, Dresden, the Prague Spring and the BBC Proms in London.

In addition to its performances as a full chamber orchestra, Kremerata Baltica also shines in ingeniously programmed chamber music performances under the label Kremerata Musica with small to medium-sized formations comprised of members of the group.

Naturally, the musical scene of the Baltics is of great importance to Kremerata Baltica. Supported by a joint-program of the Ministries of Culture of all three countries, numerous performances are held every year in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. While the majority of the concerts are led by and performed with Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica has appeared with celebrated conductors and soloists such as Jessye Norman, Oleg Maisenberg, David Geringas, Boris Pergamenschikow, Tatiana Grindenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach and Kent Nagano.

Programming and performing an unusually extensive and versatile repertoire, Kremerata Baltica gives much importance to contemporary music. The ensemble regularly performs music of living Eastern European composers and has commissioned new works by Pärt, Kancheli, Vasks, Desyatnikov and Raskatov.

Kremerata Baltica's already impressive discography includes the Grammy-winning After Mozart (2001), the Grammy-nominated George Enescu (2002), Happy Birthday and Russian Seasons (both 2003) for Nonesuch, and the new Deutsche Grammophon release Kremerland.

Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer (violinist) has established a worldwide reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation in the 30-year course of his distinguished career. He has appeared on virtually every major concert stage with the most celebrated orchestras of Europe and America and has collaborated with today's foremost conductors and instrumentalists.

His unusually extensive repertoire encompasses all of the standard classical and Romantic violin works, as well as music by 20th-century masters such as Henze, Berg and Stockhausen. He has also championed the works of living Russian and Eastern European composers and has performed many important new compositions, several of them dedicated to him. He has become associated with such diverse composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Aribert Reimann, Peteris Vasks, John Adams and Astor Piazzolla, bringing their music to audiences in a way that respects tradition yet remains contemporary.

Since making his Western debut, Kremer has appeared with the orchestras of Berlin, Boston, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, London, Paris and Vienna in collaborations with a distinguished list of conductors that includes Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Eugen Jochum, André Previn, Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Sir Neville Marriner and David Zinman.

Deeply committed to chamber music, Kremer devotes a portion of his schedule to recital appearances with partners such as Valery Afanassiev, Martha Argerich, Keith Jarrett, Oleg Maisenberg, Vadim Sakharov, Tatyana Grindenko, Misha Maisky and Thomas Zehetmair.

An exceptionally prolific recording artist, Kremer has made more than 100 albums for Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, Philips, ECM, Sony Classical, EMI/Angel and Nonesuch. His recordings have garnered many awards, among them the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque and Deutsche Schallplattenpreis.

Since 1981, Kremer has invited a select group of artists to participate in the music festival he founded in the small Austrian village of Lockenhaus. For two weeks each summer, musicians from all parts of the world gather to perform in an intimate setting. The festival's emphasis is on the exploration of new repertoire, with unusual pairings of musicians who collaborate in an informal atmosphere conducive to discovery and communication. Lockenhaus is the realization of the violinist's belief that music can overcome all barriers of language and culture. Since 1992, musicians from Lockenhaus have been touring throughout the world under the name Kremerata Musica. Tours have included the critically acclaimed "Hommage à Piazzolla" program in 1997, as well as a world tour and recording of a concert version of Piazzolla's tango operita Maria de Buenos Aires in 1998. In 1997 and 1998, Kremer was artistic director of the Musiksommer Gstaad in Switzerland, succeeding Lord Yehudi Menuhin. In 2002 he became the artistic leader of a new festival in Basel, Switzerland, "les muséiques."

In November 1996, Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra to foster outstanding young musicians from the three Baltic states. He undertakes regular concert tours with the orchestra, serving as artistic director and soloist. He and the Kremerata Baltica were awarded a Grammy for their Nonesuch recording After Mozart (2001). The ensemble's other Nonesuch recordings include CD of works by Romanian composer Georges Enescu (2002), The Russian Seasons and Happy Birthday (both 2003).

Kremer was born in 1947 in Riga, Latvia. He began his study of the violin at age four with his father and grandfather, both of whom were accomplished string players. At seven his formal education began with his entry into the Riga Music School as a student of Professor Sturestep. By the time he reached the eighth grade he was auditioning for competitions in Poland, Romania and France, and at 16 he was awarded the First Prize of the Latvian Republic. Two years later he successfully auditioned for David Oistrakh and became one of the few students selected to apprentice under that master at the Moscow Conservatory.

In 1967 Kremer won his first international prize: the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Following this triumph, he took a prize in the Montréal Competition, top honors in the Paganini Competition in Genoa, and, finally, the coveted First Prize in the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition.

Gidon Kremer plays a Guarnerius del Gesù, "ex-David," dated 1730. He is also the author of three books, published in German, which reflect his artistic pursuits.

Yulia Korpacheva

Yulia Korpacheva (soprano) was born in 1972 and studied violin and worked for the Opera Orchestra of Moscow before finishing her studies in the subject of solo singing at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in Moscow.

Her concert activities include performances with the Ensemble of Old Music (at the Moscow State Conservatory), the Kremerata Baltica, the Moscow Kamerata, the Moscow Soloists, the Orchestra Sent Luis en l´ile and the Latvian National Orchestra. Conductors with whom she has collaborated include Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, S. Sondeckis, A. Rudin, H. Koschuchar, R. Gwso and the pianist A. Goribol.

Korpacheva has participated in many festivals in Europe and Russia, including Yuri Bashmet's festival in Tours, France; "les muséiques" in Basel, Switzerland, in 2003; and at Lockenhaus with Kremer, "Musical Europe" in Elba and "Music on the Ocean" in France.

In March 2001, with the Kremerata Baltica in St. Petersburg, she performed the premiere of Leonid Desyatnikov's composition The Russian Seasons, written for string orchestra, violin solo and a female voice. She also participated in the recording of Desyatnikov's score to the film Moscow.

Fedor Kuznetsov

Fedor Kuznetsov (bass) won first prize in the All-Russian Vocal Competition in 1987and has performed as a soloist with Russia's leading opera companies. As principal soloist of the Mussorgsky Opera House from 1987-1997, Kuznetsov sang the title roles of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Petrov's Peter the Great, Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, The Grand Inquisitor in Verdi's Don Carlos and Colline in La Boheme, among many others, appearing on tour with the company in France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Netherlands and the U.S.

Since 1996, Kuznetsov has performed with the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly the Kirov Opera), winning critical acclaim for his appearances on tour with the company at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Colon, Teatro Alla Scala and elsewhere around the world-"a superb young bass," said Alex Ross of The New Yorker. Major roles he has sung with the Mariinsky include the parts of Lindorf and Miracle from Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, Il Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the King of Egypt in Aïda, Farlaf in Ruslan and Ludmilla and Varlaam in Boris Godunov.

In addition to concert appearances with Kremerata Baltica, Kuznetsov has also performed extensively as an orchestral soloist in such major works as Mahler's Symphony No. 8, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mozart's Requiem and Rossini's Stabat Mater. He has recorded many of Shostakovich's songs and is featured on the world premiere video and audio recordings of Boudewijn Buckinx's chamber opera Karoena the Mermaid.

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Tonight's Program

by Arthur Canter

Leonid Desyatnikov (b. 1955)

Desyatnikov, born in Kharkov in 1955, graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory and shortly thereafter joined the Union of Composers. Among his works are opera (Poor Liza), ballet (A Love Song in A Minor), symphony (Sacred Winter, Sketches of Sunset), vocal cycles, instrumental variations on themes of Astor Piazzola and music for many Russian films, making him one of the most sought after Russian composers of today. Desyatnikov's music is frequently performed at major European festivals and by leading orchestras. He has collaborated with violinist Gidon Kremer for a number of years.

The following annotation is by the composer.

Wie der alte Leiermann

Work on Like the Old Organ Grinder was a real grind: the mere thought of celebrating the 200th anniversary of Schubert's birth with the "whole of progressive humanity" was a form of exquisite torment for me, as Schubert's music is the most perfect expression of gemutlichkeit.

At first sight, a modern piece based on motifs from "The Organ Grinder" from Schubert's Winterreise-a masterpiece of early 19th century minimalism-might seem to demand a minimalism treatment. But that would have been the easy way out. I thought a lot about Schubert's variations on themes from his own songs, including the variations for flute and piano on Trockne Blumen and the slow movement from the C Major Fantasy for violin and piano, with its variations on the theme of Sei mir gegrusst, in which the composer radically departs from the sense of Ruckert's poem and in so doing moves away from the exemplary structure of the song, which now provides no more than a basic impulse.

But Like the Old Organ Grinder is not a set of variations, it is not a fantasy or a paraphrase. It is a commentary, a sort of critique (in a positive sense!), albeit one that employs musical means that cannot be put into words.

The piece is dedicated to, and intended for, Gidon Kremer and, in a way, is the sketch of a portrait of him. Here there are, as it were, reminiscences of his repertory-listeners with an eye for detail may be left to guess the meaning of this charade for themselves. In some quite wonderful way, the "foreign" element is combined with "Schubert," and the puzzle falls into place.

- Leonid Desyatnikov

Dmitri Dmitryevich Shostakovich (1906-1975)

In spite of the turbulence in his long career, or perhaps because of it, Shostakovich has come to be recognized as one of the great composers of the 20th century. He produced 15 symphonies and as many string quartets. He composed a number of other chamber pieces, at least two operas, several ballets, piano concertos, violin concertos, cello concertos, many works for chorus and orchestra, works for solo voice(s) and orchestra, for voice and piano, works for solo piano, incidental music for plays, and many scores for films. He died on August, 1975, finally succumbing to illnesses that plagued him for most of the preceding decade. He apparently suffered from poliomyelitis, lung disease and cardiac disease. During all this period he spent as much time traveling as his health permitted to attend performances at home and abroad. He continued to compose even during his final hospitalization, writing down his music himself despite the severe impairment of his right hand.

Shostakovich was a patriotic and loyal Russian but he ran afoul of the Soviet authorities on a number of occasions when he deviated from the official policy regarding artistic works. His attempts at compliance while trying to express his individuality, even when it ran the risk of disfavor, have made portrayals of Shostakovich, the man as well as the composer, controversial and complicated to say the least. It is important to note that the attacks made upon him by the Stalinists accused him of "formalism," i.e. "pure" composition as opposed to music in the service of the state. Pure music, as was taking shape in the early 20th century, was viewed as "petty-bourgeois sensationalism," "chaotic" and "anti-people art." All "formalistic tendencies" were to be stamped out. He was practically flayed by Pravda in 1935 for his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, premièred the year before, even though it was received in Leningrad and Moscow as his greatest success since his First Symphony. The state-ordered public condemnation seems to have swayed Shostakovich to recant his "formalist tendencies" and he turned to the composition of major works in more accessible styles to regain favor with the Soviet authorities and support for his existence.

In-depth analyses instigated by memoirs and writings about the composer after his death in 1975 suggest clever codes and perhaps not so subtle mockery of the Stalinists couched in the music of the major works he had written during their regime. The questions about the validity of these revelations have created a controversy that has divided musicologists and music historians into separate camps. It is not surprising that there are revisionist and anti-revisionist views as well as rebuttals to each in the recently published accounts of Shostakovich, the man, the composer and his works after the death of Stalin. Feelings in the controversy run strong as may be sensed in the commentary by Vladimir Ashkenazy (in Shostakovich Reconsidered, Allan B. Ho & Dmitry Feofanov, eds. Toccata Press, 1998):

"But what I find even more amazing and distressing is that some of the so-called 'experts' on Shostakovich in the West still persist in distorting the facts to suit their arguments, while others show an unacceptable lack of knowledge of the Soviet reality-and I need hardly to emphasize at this stage that without profound (and I repeat, profound) knowledge of what Shostakovich had to live through it is virtually impossible to be a serious and credible analyst of his output."

Whatever side one takes, it should be obvious that it is not necessary to understand any "code" messages or special significance that may be involved in any music to appreciate its value or to experience emotions appropriate to its sound. The only difference such knowledge may make is how you listen and then perhaps the experience will evoke more personal associations.

Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a

The Chamber Symphony, opus 110, is an arrangement of the composer's String Quartet No. 8. This quartet has been long considered an "autobiographical" work. It is commonly held that the quartet was inspired by Shostakovich's visit to Dresden, Germany in July, 1960, ostensibly to collaborate on a film (Five Days and Five Nights) commemorating the destruction of that city during World War II. The destruction of Dresden (by the British bombers, by the way!) served the post-war Soviet authorities as a symbol of the aftermath of the fight against fascism. What better symbol than a documentary film with an accompanying musical score by Shostakovich?

The story is that the composer was so shaken by the memories evoked by the destruction of Dresden that he was temporarily diverted from working on a score for the film to write a new quartet to express his private reactions. After three days of feverish work, he completed the quartet on July 14, 1960. However, a letter written by the composer to his friend Isaak Glickman shortly after his visit to Dresden offers some additional insights as to his motivations for the String Quartet No. 8. In a letter dated 19 July 1960, Shostakovich writes about Dresden being "an ideal set-up for getting down to creative work" referring to the beauty of the place, 40 kilometers outside of Dresden where he was staying.

"The good working conditions justified themselves: I composed my Eighth Quartet. As hard as I tried to rough out the film scores which I am supposed to be doing, I still haven't managed to get anywhere; instead I wrote this ideologically flawed quartet which is of no use to anybody. I started thinking that if some day I die, nobody is likely to write a work in memory of me, so I had better write one myself. The title page could carry the dedication: 'To the memory of the composer of this quartet.'

The basic theme of the quartet is the four notes D natural, E flat, C natural, B natural-that is, my initials, 'D S C H'." The German transliteration of these notes is D, Es (E-flat,) C, and H (B).

He writes to indicate that he used themes from his own compositions citing: the Revolutionary song (Tormented by grievous bondage), his First Symphony, his Eighth Symphony, his Tenth Symphony, the Second Piano Trio, the Cello Concerto and Lady Macbeth. In addition he used themes from Wagner's Funeral March (from Götterdämerung), and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. Shostakovich relates how he considers his quartet as a "pseudo-tragedy" that brought tears to him as he was composing it "but not so much to the pseudo-tragedy as to my own wonder at its superlative unity of form."

In an interview in London in late September 1960, in describing his reactions to the Dresden visit, Shostakovich indicated he was dedicating his Eighth Quartet "To the memory of the victims of fascism and war." One may contrast the public statement with the private one given above. The work is known today, as its composer intended it to be, as Shostakovich's autobiographical quartet. The première performance was given by the Beethoven Quartet in Leningrad on October 2, 1960, and made an impressive impact upon the public and the critics. Rudolf Barshai, the violist and popular conductor for many of Shostakovich's symphonic works, felt compelled, with the approval of Shostakovich, to arrange the quartet for string orchestra. With the sheer tonal weight of a full string orchestra, Barshai's arrangement increased the dramatic impact of the quartet. It has achieved great popular appeal, reaching those who ordinarily shy away from quartet music or have little access to this genre.

The Chamber Symphony is in five movements played without pause. The opening notes DSCH, the acronym for Shostakovich, serve as a motto theme throughout the quartet. The motto is sounded in the Largo as an arpeggio which introduces a segment of the theme from his First Symphony. As the motto recurs it lends a rather hauntingly mournful cast to the movement. The Allegro molto is in a more frenzied, stormy vein, with punctuating chords of the "dance of death" theme from the Second Piano Trio. The third movement (Allegretto) follows with a satirical and grotesque-sounding waltz with a bit of a theme borrowed from the First Cello Concerto, all blended by the DSCH motto. The quotation from the Cello Concerto moves into the fourth movement (Largo) and quotes from the Revolutionary song (see above) followed by a melody from the Siberian scene of The Lady of Macbeth of Mtsenk, and then a reminiscence of his Tenth Symphony. The fifth movement, another Largo, returns to the DSCH motto in the grave intonation of the opening movement, but expressed fugue-like. The movement draws to a close with phrases from the earlier movements, ending the work as its epitaph.

Symphony No. 14 in G minor, Op. 135

The composition of the Symphony No. 14, written in 1970, marked the beginning of a final phase in which Shostakovich's obsession with death became paramount. In the latter part of the 1960s his health began to fail, requiring several hospitalizations. Shortly after the première of his Violin Sonata in January, 1969, he entered the hospital for treatment of the recurring neurological disability involving his right hand. The hospital stay, scheduled to be a brief one, was extended because of a coincidental flu epidemic. As he informed Glickman on February 1, Shostakovich passed the time with what he called a "senile graphomania" by composing what he called an "oratorio" on texts by Federico Garcia Lorca, Guillaume Apollinaire, Rainer Maria Rilke and Wilhelm Küchelbecker for soprano, bass and chamber ensemble. He called his effort a "fascinating entertainment," and by the time he had completed the orchestration of the "oratorio" on March 2, 1969, he decided to call the work his Fourteenth Symphony. In his letters to Glickman, written from Moscow on March 19, 1969, in which he sent the texts of the poems used and details of the music, Shostakovich admitted being preoccupied with morbid thoughts about the complete loss of function of his right hand, or that he would go blind, or something would happen to him. However, he indicated that the day before going to the hospital he had been listening to Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death and "the idea of addressing the question of death finally came to fruition in me."

After completing the symphony, which he dedicated to Benjamin Britten, Shostakovich sought the help of Barshai on scoring details and vocal casting for its first performance. The first run-through of the symphony was at noon on June 21, 1969, before an invited audience that overflowed the hall in the Moscow Conservatory. Shostakovich introduced the work and in addition to summarizing the essence of each poem, he felt the need to explain why he gave so much attention to such a morbid subject, stating that "Death awaits all of us. I don't see anything good about such an end to our lives and this is what I am trying to convey in this work." The public première took place in Leningrad on September 29, performed by Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano, and Mark Reshetin, bass, and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Barshai. While some members of the audience found the work disturbing, it received a thunderous ovation.

The following notes are derived from the annotation by Rory Guy for the World Premiere LP Recording (1975) of the Symphony on Melodiya/Angel SR-40147.

The first two songs are settings of poems by the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca (1899-1936). De profundis, (Allegro-Bass) tells of "a hundred fervent lovers who fell into eternal sleep and lie buried beneath the dry soil of Andalusia." It gives a haunting picture of desolation.

The Malagueña (Allegretto-Soprano) is introduced abruptly with slashing strokes of the double basses. The music turns shrill as "death stalks in and out of the tavern." The sounds of the havoc wreaked, a wild dance with castanets and the cracks of a whip are heard, and then silence.

After a very brief pause, the first of six settings of poems by Apollinaire (1880-1918) is presented: Lorelei (Allegro molto-Soprano and Bass). "The blonde sorceress from the Rhone country has attracted countless lovesick men." Even the Bishop who has summoned her is affected by her and allows her to live, but in a convent. Lorelei, heartsick from the loss of her own lover, desires only death. Breaking away from the three knights escorting her to the convent, she hurls herself into the Rhine. The strings depict her agitation, the xylophone beats out the exchange with the Bishop and bells toll twice. Her end is depicted by the strings and celeste in a solemn requiem.

A solo cello leads at once to The Suicide (Adagio-Soprano). Here the setting is a starkly simple two-part writing for voice and cello to represent the grief as we hear the haunting recurring phrase about "Three lilies, three lilies, three lilies on my grave"..."Their beauty is as somber as regal scepters"..."lonely as they grow on my grave...on my cross unmarked."

The percussive instruments predominate as the strings are joined for On Watch (Allegretto-Soprano) that tells of a woman's premonition of her brother-lover's death in battle. Each verse is prefaced by a grotesque parody of military songs. At the end: "The hour of Death struck...today he will die, as roses die."

The xylophone links us to Madam, Look! (Adagio-Soprano and Bass). "Look, you have lost something...Just a trifle! It is only my heart...laugh at the heart which is cut off by death." (The Russian word for "laugh"-"khokhhochu"-rings out by the soprano again and again).

The dark strings lead into a profound setting of the Apollinaire poem In Prison (Adagio-Bass). "Here I am dead to everyone. Hope ended here...There are only two of us in this cell: I and my mind." The music evokes the solitary pacing back and forth of a prisoner in total isolation.

The last of the settings of an Apollinaire poem is The Zaporozhian Cossacks' Answer to the Sultan of Constantinople (Allegro-Bass) introduced by brusque strings that accompany the text. "Thou art a hundred times more evil than Barabbas, steeped in sinful mire. Rotten cancer, horrid nightmare, thou wert born in my mother's filth."

Elegiac-sounding strings bring on the setting of the Russian poem by Wilhelm Küchelbecker (1796-1846) O Delvig, Delvig (Andante-Bass). The setting has been said to be a personal address from Shostakovich to Benjamin Britten and to artists everywhere. The "Delvig" of the title was a 19th-century poet and close friend of Pushkin. The music is calm and lyrical to remind one that "bold, inspired deeds and sweet poetry are alike, immortal...The bond of eternal lovers of the Muses."

The Death of the Poet (Largo-Soprano) is the first of the two settings of poems by the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) that close the symphony. Here it speaks of the man who remains forever hidden from others by the life mask and the death mask. "The poet was dead...His face was that expanse which reaches out to him in vain; but this mask will die being openly exposed, a tender fruit doomed to decay."

The final setting is titled simply as Conclusion (Moderato-Soprano and Bass). "All powerful is death. It is on watch even in the hour of happiness...It suffers within us, lives and longs and cries within us." The music evokes the sound of the rattling of bones to remind us of the skeleton beneath our flesh. The work ends with a full crescendo by the strings, followed by utter silence.

Professor emeritus Arthur Canter is a retired clinical psychologist on the faculty of the UI Department of Psychiatry. An amateur music historian, he has been a long-time contributor of program notes for Hancher concerts and participant in the musical life of Iowa City.

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