Program for SFIPF – Les Années Folles
Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 4 pm
Download a copy of the program here.
San Francisco International Piano Festival
Les Années Folles
Gwendolyn Mok, piano
Philippe LeRoy, harpsichord
Jory Vinikour, harpsichord
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
Program
Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Suite Française d’après Claude Gervaise
Bransle de Bourgogne
Pavane
Petite marche militaire
Complainte
Bransle de champagne
Sicilienne
Carillon
Gwendolyn Mok, piano
Jory Vinikour, harpsichord
François Couperin (1668–1733)
from 13th Ordre in B minor
Les Folie Françoises ou les Dominos
from 8th Ordre in B minor
Passacaille
Philippe LeRoy, harpsichord
Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979)
Vers la vie nouvelle (1918)
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
Intermission
Déodat de Séverac (1872–1921)
from En vacances (Book I)
Invocation à Schumann
Les caresses de Grand’-Maman
Mimi se déguise en “Marquise”
Où l’on entend une vielle boîte à musique
Valse romantique
Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983)
Deux Valses
Valse Lente
Valse brillante
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
La Valse
Gwendolyn Mok, piano
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
About the musicians
Born in New York City, Gwendolyn Mok has appeared in many of the world’s leading concert halls, including the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, and the Hong Kong Performing Arts Center. She is frequently invited to play and record with major international orchestras, such as the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra and the Residency Orchestra of the Hague.
Ms. Mok is a recording artist for Nonesuch/Elektra, Musical Heritage Society, Musician Showcase Recordings, Cala Records, and EMI. Her highly acclaimed debut CD with the Philharmonia of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major on the Cala label was nominated for an Alternative Edison award. A second Cala recording of Saint-Saëns’s Africa—Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra with the London Philharmonic has been equally applauded. Three solo CDs, Ravel Revealed (Ravel’s piano works), Brahms: Late Piano Works, and Legacy, The Spirit of Beethoven were recorded on historic pianos for the Musicians Showcase Recording label. All three CDs received outstanding reviews and are broadcast frequently around the world. Recently two new CDs have been released: Poldowski Art Songs with soprano Angelique Zuluaga and pianist Gwendolyn Mok on the Delos label and EKTA Trilogy, featuring Mok as soloist on EKTA II, a concerto written for her by composer Brent Heisinger.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Mok appears regularly in the San Francisco Symphony Chamber Music Series, as well as in the San Jose Chamber Society and the Sacramento Chamber Society series. She collaborates often with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. A popular soloist with the Symphony Silicon Valley, Ms. Mok co-produced and appeared in four sold-out performances of The Gershwin Radio Hour. In 2016 Ms. Mok was named President’s Scholar by San Jose State University, the highest honor given to an outstanding faculty member for their scholarship and research. Mok was also presented with the Artistic Achievement Award by the College of Humanities & the Arts in 2008.
Ms. Mok began her studies at the Juilliard School of Music, completed her undergraduate work at Yale University, and earned her Masters and Doctorate at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at San Jose State University and maintains a busy performing and recording schedule.
After simultaneously studying harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he was awarded a premier prix, and earning a degree in musicology at the Sorbonne, harpsichordist, organist, and musicologist Philippe LeRoy continued his studies with revered pedagogue Huguette Dreyfus. In addition to special studies under the tutelage of Early Music pioneer Gustav Leonhardt, he was admitted as an honors student in the prestigious and competitive postgraduate department of the Paris Conservatory, the Troisième cycle/cycle de perfectionnement, in which he took part in the fortepiano class of Patrick Cohen.
An organ student of Olivier Latry and scholar of Baroque organ repertoire under the supervision of Gilbert and Leonhardt, Philippe has participated in several respected European institutions’ summer courses, including Sienna’s Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Académie musicale de Villecroze, and Académie musicale de clavecin de Clisson. In 1998, he received the top prize of the International Harpsichord Competition in Warsaw, followed in 2000 by a prize in the Twelfth Bach Competition in Leipzig, where he was also awarded the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunks Special Audience Prize.
Philippe has been heard in performance as a solo harpsichordist throughout Europe, and as an organist specializing in Baroque repertoire. He favors French, Spanish, and Italian music of the 16th and 17th centuries. He has performed on France Musique/ Radio France on several occasions, and his début recording was sponsored by Culture France as part of their series Declic, dedicated to young French winners of international music competitions. From that start, his subsequent recordings have received numerous accolades: his 2007 recording of the rarely- heard complete works of Armand-Louis Couperin on the Syrius label was named Best Instrumental Recording of the Year by online magazine NewOlde.com. For Peyrole Records, sonatas by Sebastián de Albero and Padre Antonio Soler were welcomed with rave reviews. His recording of Padre Antonio Soler’s Six Concerti for Two Keyboards with Jory Vinikour was released on the Delos label in August of 2016.
In repertoire ranging from Bach and before, to Poulenc and beyond, Jory Vinikour has performed as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic of Radio France, among many others, under the direction of renowned conductors such as Stéphane Denève, Martin Haselböck, Armin Jordan, Marc Minkowski, et al, and as recital soloist in series and festivals throughout much of the world.
Mr. Vinikour’s debut recording for Sono Luminus, the complete harpsichord works of Jean-Philippe Rameau, was nominated for a Grammy® award, in the category of Best Classical Solo Instrumental Recording in 2013, an honor also accorded to his recording Toccatas (Contemporary American works for harpsichord) in 2015. Jory’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Partitas for harpsichord was released in late 2016. His recording of Bach’s Six Sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord with Rachel Barton Pine marks Jory’s debut on Cedille Records. Also for Cedille – 20th century concerti for Harpsichord and Orchestra (Leigh, Rorem, Kalabis, Nyman) with the Chicago Philharmonic, and harpsichord works of François Couperin. Jory made his recital debut at Chicago’s famed Ravinia Festival this summer, and his conducting debut at the Aspen Festival.
In recent seasons, Mr. Vinikour has made appearances as conductor/ soloist with the St. Louis Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Musica Angelica, Korea Chamber Orchestra, musicAeterna, Juillard415, Alabama Symphony, West Edge Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Florentine (Milwaukee) Opera.
With the Wiener Akademie, Jory conducted Mozart’s Bastien et Bastienne and Der Schauspieldirektor for the 2019 Salzburger Mozartwoche. Jory can be heard as fortepianist in the Deutsche Grammophon Mozart Opera series, under Yannick Nézét Séguin’s direction. He conducted the gala concert for the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe, and will conduct and play concerts for the Seattle Symphony, l’Orchestre de Bretagne, and the Hawaii Symphony at the end of 2021.
Jeffrey LaDeur is known for his for his rare blend of insight, spontaneity, and approachable, communicative stage presence. LaDeur’s performances have taken him around the world, appearing regularly as soloist with orchestra and in recital. Having inherited a rich tradition of pianism and interpretation from Annie Sherter, student of Vlado Perlemuter and Alfred Cortot, LaDeur has established himself as a compelling exponent of a large and diverse repertoire. In March of 2018, LaDeur made his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall on the centennial of Claude Debussy’s death, and his debut solo recording (Debussy & Rameau, MSR Classics) was hailed by Gramophone Magazine for its “…understatement, simplicity and ‘old school’ chord playing where every note sings out with meaning.” He is the founder and artistic director of the San Francisco International Piano Festival and president of the American Liszt Society, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.
A chamber musician of distinction, Jeffrey’s collaboration with mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich has produced To My Distant Beloved, an album exploring the connections between Beethoven and Schumann through cycles in song and solo piano works. Henry Fogel wrote “…LaDeur’s ability to spin out a cantabile line makes one forget that the piano is actually a percussive instrument.” LaDeur has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Robert Mann, Bonnie Hampton, Ian Swensen, Axel Strauss, Geoff Nuttall, and the Alexander String Quartet.
An active educator, Jeffrey offers masterclasses frequently as guest artist in universities throughout the United States and coaches gifted pre-college piano and string ensembles at Young Chamber Musicians in Burlingame, California. LaDeur holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music in piano performance and chamber music, respectively. Jeffrey counts among his teachers Mark Edwards, Douglas Humpherys, Yoshikazu Nagai, and Robert McDonald.