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43rd Karp Family and Friends Opening Concert

Alicia Lee, clarinet
Benjamin Hoffman, violin
Suzanne Beia, violin
Maynie Bradley, violin
Madlen Breckbill, viola
Katrin Talbot, viola
Parry Karp, violoncello
James Waldo, violoncello
Christopher Karp, piano

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Program

We dedicate this program to our beloved colleague Richard Blum (1929-2024) in loving memory. He was violist of the Pro Arte Quartet from 1957-1991, and principal violist of the San Antonio, Dallas and Madison Symphonies. Our years of work together in playing concerts by the Pro Arte Quartet, the Madison Symphony and of this Karp Family Opening Concert Series will remain treasured memories.

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Clarinetist, Alicia Lee, enjoys a diverse musical life performing old and new works in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings.

Before her appointment at the Mead Witter School of Music, Alicia was a resident of New York City for over a decade where she performed and toured regularly with a variety of groups including The Knights, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, and NOVUS NY. She is also a member of the composer/performer collective, NOW Ensemble with whom she has premiered dozens of new works written for the ensemble.

She is a founding member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. Founded on the principles established during their time as fellows in Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program, Decoda’s pursuits places equal emphasis on artistry and community engagement. She also serves as the co-Director of the Decoda Chamber Music Festival, one of ensemble’s flagship educational programs. She has performed at the Lucerne, Spoleto (Italy and US), Yellow Barn, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Marlboro Festivals.

Alicia was formerly the associate principal and E-flat clarinet player of the Santa Barbara Symphony and also spent one season as guest bass clarinetist of the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway. She earned degrees from Columbia University, the University of Southern California, and The Colburn School.

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Violinist Benjamin Hoffman has been heard across North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, the Wiener Konzertverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Seoul Arts Center, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts Beijing. He has appeared at festivals such as Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, Atlantic Music Festival, Aspen, the Ojai Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West, collaborating with artists such as Ani Kavafian, Wolfram Christ, Jorja Fleezanis, Peter Frankl, Soovin Kim, and Yura Lee, among others. Benjamin is a founding member of both the Brightfeather Duo with pianist Irene Kim and of the Webern Quartet, whose upcoming debut recording of the four Schönberg string quartets will be released in late 2024. Benjamin is also an enthusiastic concertmaster and has led much of the symphonic repertoire both with and without conductor. He has performed as a guest musician with the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony. Mr. Hoffman holds a doctorate and master of music degree from the Yale School of Music and an undergraduate degree from Indiana University, and in 2024 was appointed to the violin faculty at Bowling Green State University.

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Suzanne Beia is second violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet, artist in residence, and chamber music coach for both the School of Music and the Wisconsin Youth Symphony at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She serves as concertmaster of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and Madison Opera, and Co-Concertmaster of the Madison Symphony. She is a founding member of the Rhapsodie Quartet of the Madison Symphony’s HeartStrings Community Engagement Program. Beia has also served as assistant concertmaster of the New World Symphony and as concertmaster of the Reno Chamber Orchestra), Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and Chamber Symphony of San Francisco. She has held positions as Principal Second Violin of the Wichita Symphony, and in the Orchestre de l’Opera de Nice in France.

Beia began musical studies on the viola at the age of ten, but soon shifted to violin, making her solo debut at age fourteen with the North Lake Tahoe Symphony (Nevada). She studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the San Francisco Conservatory. Her major teachers have included Theodore Madsen, Roy Malan, Jorja Fleezanis and David Perry. She performs on a 1901 Enrico Marchetti violin.

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Violinist Maynie Bradley graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in music performance and psychology in 2021. She currently works as an advanced line therapist for people with autism of all ages, from two years old to adulthood, at Achieving Collaborative Treatment (ACT). As a musician, Maynie is a member of the first violin section of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and coaches chamber groups with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. She has also played as an orchestral violinist or in a small group with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, LaCrosse Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Philharmonic, Children’s Theater of Madison, Capital City Theatre, Music Theatre of Madison, and Fresco Opera. As a chamber musician, she has made appearances as an emerging artist at the Mimir Chamber Music Festival and the Garth Newel Music Festival. Maynie has played on faculty chamber recitals at UW Madison and the University of Iowa. She has also repeatedly participated in the LunART Festival and the National Women’s Music Festival both highlighting women composers.

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Stoughton violist and violinist Madlen H. Breckbill lived in Berlin (Germany) working as an orchestral trainee with Konzerthaus Berlin, as the violist of the TAÏGA String Quartet in Denmark and as a chamber music trainee with Villa-Musica in Rheinland Pfalz. As an orchestral player, Madlen toured China and Japan, and performed under the batons of Sir Roger Norrington, Leon Fleisher, Christian Eschenbach, & Ivan Fischer. As a chamber musician, Madlen has performed across Europe, Canada, and the US, collaborating with Martin Beaver, Ernst Kovacic, Steven Dann, and cellist Richard Lester (to name just a few).

Since her return, Madlen has performed with the Bach Dancing Dynamite Society, Midsummer Music, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, The Happenstancers in Toronto, West End Micro Music Festival, Madison Bach Musicians, and on countless recitals.

Madlen has also performed as soloist with the Itasca Orchestra in Minnesota and UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Madlen founded the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival, organizing and presenting programs with an emphasis on experiential trajectories, combining contemporary music with music spanning across 400 years. The festival just finished it’s 6th season and is set to expand in the coming year.

A graduate of UW-Madison and the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, Madlen has studied with David Perry, Paul Kantor, Barry Shiffman, Erica Raum and Steven Dann. She recently completed a Masters in Viola performance at UW-Madison with Prof. Chisholm as a Collins Fellow.

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Australian-born Katrin Talbot is assistant principal viola (the Dove Family Chair) of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and has played chamber music with the Pro Arte Quartet, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the Red Hot Lava Chamber Music Festival, and the Oakwood Chamber Players. She has appeared on many recordings of chamber music, has taught for several years in the Chamber Music in the Mountains program in Tucson, and teaches violin and viola. She has quite a few poetry books under her belt, including her latest from Turning Point Press, Falling Asleep at the Circus. The Devil Orders A Latte is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. Her dirty little secrets include playing rhythm guitar in a science nerd rock band and getting a Masters in Molecular Biology.

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Cellist Parry Karp is Artist-in Residence and the Graebner Professor of Chamber Music and Cello, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is director of the string chamber music program. He has been cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet for the past 48 years, the longest tenure of any member in the quartet’s over 100 year history.

Parry Karp is an active solo artist, performing numerous recitals annually in the United States, and has recorded six solo CDs. He is active as a performer of new music and has performed in the premieres of dozens of works, many of which were written for him, including concerti, sonatas and chamber music. Unearthing and performing unjustly neglected repertoire for cello is a passion of Mr. Karp’s. In recent years he has transcribed for cello many masterpieces written for other instruments. This project has included performances of all of the Duo Sonatas of Brahms and all but one of the Duo Sonatas of Beethoven. In July of 2024 he recorded a Concerto CD with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) which included both Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo and his Suite for Viola and Orchestra of 1919. It will be released by Signum Records in 2025.

As cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet he has performed over 1000 concerts throughout North, Central and South America, Europe, and Japan. His discography with the group has been extensive (over two dozen recordings) and includes the complete string quartets of Ernest Bloch, Miklos Rosza, and Karol Szymanowski . Many of these recordings received awards from Fanfare and High Fidelity Magazines.

Former students of Mr. Karp’s are members of professional string quartets, major orchestras, and teachers in North America. In 2012 he was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the spring of 2016, Parry Karp was named a fellow of the Wisconsin Academy.

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Cellist James Waldo’s “nuanced, richly ambered” playing (Lucid Culture NYC) can be heard in diverse chamber music and recital settings. Notable concert appearances include Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully and Merkin Halls, Piccolo Spoleto, the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, Midsummer’s Music, LunArt Festival, and the Clazz International Festival in Tuscany. Waldo will serve as cellist in residence for the Magisterra Soloists’ 2024-25 season in London, Ontario. Equally comfortable on modern and period instruments, Waldo is principal cellist of the Madison Bach Musicians, and is a founding member of LeStrange Viols, whose freshman album William Cranford: Music for 4, 5, and 6 Viols received honorable mention in Alex Ross’ best recordings of 2015 in The New Yorker. As a recitalist, Waldo and his pianist spouse Alyona A. Waldo have performed at numerous festivals and series together across North America, Europe, and Asia. Waldo was principal cellist of the Cecilia Chorus of NY from 2013-2018, and has performed with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, the Princeton Symphony, the New York Pops, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

Waldo received his Doctor of Musical Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Master of Music degree from Mannes College. He has recently appeared as soloist with the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra, and will return to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in April 2025. Waldo is a champion of new music, and has served yearly as a co-commissioner for the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium since 2022. Waldo currently serves as Lecturer of Cello at the Mead Witter School of Music.

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Pianist and violinist Chris Karp’s extra-familial music training included violin and chamber music studies with Lorand Fenyves and Robert Koff. Recordings include 3 CDs of the chamber music of Joel Hoffman (Albany Records) as well as a recording of Eric Nathan’s Missing Words III (New Focus Recordings). An immunologist, infectious diseases specialist and internist, he was on the faculty of the Departments of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and founded the Division of Molecular Immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, where he was the Esiason/Bell Professor of Pediatrics. His 20-year academic scientific career focused on defining the mechanisms underlying the regulation and dysregulation of inflammatory responses in infectious, allergic and genetic diseases. He is currently the Director of Global Health Discovery & Translational Sciences at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading a team whose mission is to catalyze innovation for the discovery and translation of transformative solutions to global health and development inequity.