Aaron Rosengaus & Jennifer Lee

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The English Viola: 20^th century English music for viola and piano Aaron Rosengaus, viola; Jennifer Lee, piano Frank Bridge Two Pieces (1908) Rebecca Clarke Morpheus (1917) Arnold Bax Sonata for viola and piano (1922) Rebecca Clarke Passacaglia on an old English tune (1941) Julius Harrison Sonata for viola and piano (1946) Please join us for an evening of English music composed for viola and piano. The music was written during the era of World War I and World War II when England was trying to rebuild its economy and social order. The music has many impressionist moments, and powerful outbursts, but always returns to a feeling of hopefulness. There are parallels between the difficult and confusing post-war times the composers were living through, and our current Covid-19 pandemic. Jennifer Lee holds a Bachelor of Music from Rice University and Master of Music in Piano Performance with an emphasis in chamber music from Indiana University. She studied with pedagogues, Robert Roux, Shigeo Neriki, and William Wellborn. Neriki, a Grammy-nominated pianist for the renowned Israeli violinist Irvy Gitlis and cellist János Starker, had a profound influence on her career in collaborative piano. As an orchestral keyboardist and chamber musician, she performed in the Kent/Blossom Music Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Bloomington Camerata Orchestra, and at Festival Napa Valley with the Blackburn Academy Orchestra. At the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, she performed chamber music works on two evolutions of the fortepiano, an early predecessor of the modern piano. She also performed at Flower Piano at Golden Gate Park and the Noontime Concert Series at St. Mary's Cathedral. A native to San Francisco, she won a number of awards in the Bay Area, including the Fremont Symphony Young Artists Concerto Competition, Ross McKee Competition, Burlingame Music Competition, and CAPMT Bartok State Competition. A strong advocate of music education in the Bay Area, she is Faculty at the Crowden School in Berkeley and manages a thriving teaching studio in San Francisco and the Peninsula. She is a member of the Music Teachers Association of California and Music National Teachers Association. Aaron Rosengaus is a Bay Area native and currently lives in San Francisco. He has been a Fellow at the Mendocino and Silicon Valley Music Festivals, and has performed as a soloist with San Francisco State University Symphony Orchestra. Aaron studied Viola at the Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Patricia McCarty, and at San Francisco State University with Paul Yarbrough and Zakarias Grafilo of the Alexander String Quartet. A sought-after chamber musician, Aaron has performed with world renown artists such as Josef Spacek, Kensho Watanabe, and Michelle Kwon. Aaron has also performed in masterclasses for James Ehnes, Steven Tenenbom, Toby Appel, the Julliard String Quartet, and American String Quartet.