George Cleve, music director

The name George Wolfgang Cleve has become almost synonymous with W.A. Mozart as one of the world's most devoted interpreters of that composer's music in the concert hall and opera stage. Worldwide acknowledgments of his Mozart expertise include invitations by Vladimir Spivakov to conduct the Requiem as the grand finale of the International Festival Mozartiana in Moscow, returning in 2005 to conduct the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia in Mozart's 41st Symphony and Schumann's 4th Symphony for a series, featuring the last symphonies of great composers. In recent seasons, Mr. Cleve has conducted Mozart and Brahms for Symphony Silicon Valley and Don Giovanni for Opera San José, as well as a return to open their 2006-07 season with Gounod's Romeo et Juliette. He made his fourth appearance in Moscow conducting Brahms for the State Academic Orchestra in fall 2006. Directly following Moscow, he made his debut with San Francisco Opera conducting Bizet's Carmen in November as well as opening the San Francisco Ballet season conducting Divertimento No. 15 by Mozart/Balanchine. Guest engagements for next season include a fifth return to Moscow for concerts with the National Philharmonic of Russia, performances with the Seattle Symphony, and concerts with Symphony Silicon Valley.

As a busy guest conductor, he has appeared with most of the North American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Montreal Symphony. He has also appeared at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival and at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony. Invited in 2000 by choreographer Twyla Tharp to conduct the world premiere of her The Beethoven Seventh at New York City Ballet, Mr. Cleve subsequently has become a frequent guest conductor there, conducting The Firebird, Concerto in 5 Movements, Symphony in C, Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Midsummer Night's Dream and other works in ensuing seasons. For the New York City Ballet's Balanchine Centennial celebration in January 2007, he conducted Mozart/Balanchine's dazzling Divertimento #15.

He was appointed Music Director Laureate of the San Jose Symphony in 1992, upon the conclusion of his twenty-year tenure as Music Director of that orchestra, which through his leadership had become one of the finest regional ensembles in the U.S. In Europe, his conducting credits include the Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, English Chamber, Ulster, Swedish Radio, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish Radio, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Zurich Tonhalle, Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Vienna Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Russian National Symphony, and the Mozarteum Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival 1993. Mr. Cleve has also conducted the Singapore Symphony three times, and has appeared on many podiums in South America, New Zealand, and Australia.

Opera credits include Don Carlo, Carmen, La bohème, La traviata, Rigoletto, Dido and Aeneas, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Abduction from the Seraglio, Bastien und Bastienne, Cavalleria rusticana, I pagliacci, Madama Butterfly and Oedipus Rex with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, San Francisco Spring Opera, Opera San José, Long Beach Opera and the Spoleto USA Festival, as well as a concert version of Gluck's Orpheus and Euridice with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1994 he conducted Don Giovanni with the Mannheim Opera.

Mr. Cleve has made several Mozart recordings, receiving Grammy nominations for his recordings with the Midsummer Mozart Orchestra on the Sonic Arts label.

George Cleve was born in Vienna, and at the age of four moved to New York with his family. He received his musical training at the High School of Music and Art, and the Mannes College of Music, where he studied viola with Paul Doktor, chamber music with William Kroll, and conducting with Carl Bamberger.

In addition to studying piano and conducting with Seymour Lipkin, he pursued further conducting studies with Pierre Monteux, George Szell, Leonard Bernstein and Franco Ferrara.

Mr. Cleve was awarded the rank of Officier of the Order of Arts and Letters of the Republic of France in recognition of his performances of French music. He has also received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Santa Clara, the Gold Medal of Honor of the Republic of Austria, and the Silver Medal of the City of Vienna for his part in founding the Midsummer Mozart Festival, now celebrating its 33rd season.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born in Salzburg, Austria, January 27, 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart displayed uncanny musical talent as a toddler; by five, he was a keyboard virtuoso. His father, Leopold Mozart, one of Europe's leading musical pedagogues, realized that he could earn a substantial income by showcasing his son as a Wunderkind in the courts of Europe. For years Mozart toured exhaustively, astounding the musical world and charming royal audiences with his compositions, improvisational ability and dazzling playing.

By 1777 the Mozarts, seeing limited opportunity in Salzburg and the Archbishop's court for a composer so hugely gifted, resolved to seek a post elsewhere for young Mozart. Wolfgang went on a tour with his mother, but in 1779 she died suddenly in Paris. With no job prospects, Mozart returned to Salzburg and became court organist to the Archbishop. Dismissed in 1781, he became one of the first musicians in history to embark upon a freelance career, without the benefit of a court or a rich patron. A suitably prestigious position was to elude Mozart all his life, due partly to his complicated personality and tactless, often childish behavior, but the break with Salzburg marked the beginning of Mozart's maturity as a composer. His successes, particularly the opera Idomeneo, prompted a move to Vienna, where he married Constanze Weber in 1782, against his father's wishes.

Beginning in 1782 with the singspiel The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart began turning out masterworks in virtually every musical genre of his age. His serenades, divertimenti and dances, written on request for the entertainment and outdoor parties of the nobility, are exemplified by the Serenade in G major, which Mozart called Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

A sampling of Mozart's mature works from his Vienna years comprise a virtual honor roll of masterpieces: the last ten string quartets, the string quintets, and the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings; the Mass in C minor and the unfinished Requiem; the Serenade for Thirteen Wind Instruments the Clarinet Concerto, the late piano concertos, and the last six symphonies. Mozart's more than twenty piano concertos remain models of the classic concerto form, developed by him over time into works of symphonic breadth and scope. In his last three symphonies, Mozart infused this form with a heretofore unheard of passion and expressiveness.

In Vienna, Mozart met composer Franz Joseph Haydn, and the two became close friends.

The older composer's music had a deep influence on Mozart: he composed a series of six string quartets dedicated to Haydn.

Unparalleled in its depth of characterization and synthesis of music and drama, his opera, The Marriage of Figaro (1786), contains some of the most sublime ensemble writing in all opera. Figaro was followed by Don Giovanni (1787) an opera of enormous power and eloquence, depicting the exploits and eventual punishment of an inveterate womanizer. His last great opera, The Magic Flute (1791) incorporated the unconventional combination of low comedy and high ideals.

Mozart earned a living for his family (of six children, only two survived infancy), through teaching, concertising, and occasional commissions from wealthy aristocrats, but he and Constanze did not manage their money wisely, and were often in debt. Mozart died penniless of unknown causes on December 5, 1791, at the age of 36, and was buried, by prevailing custom, in a common grave, the exact location of which remains unknown. 250 years later, interest has not waned in the composer's enigmatic life and personality as well as his music.

Janina Fialkowska, piano

Janina Fialkowska

The exceptional artistry and brilliant virtuosity of Janina Fialkowska garner enthusiastic accolades from audiences and critics worldwide. Celebrated for her classical and romantic repertoire, she is particularly distinguished as one of the great interpreters of the piano works of Chopin and Liszt. She has also received acclaim as a champion of the music of 20th-century Polish composers, both in concert and on disc.

Ms. Fialkowska has performed with the foremost North American orchestras, among them the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony as well as with all of the principal Canadian orchestras, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

In yearly European tours, Ms Fialkowska has appeared with such prestigious orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, London Philharmonic, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish National Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic and the French and Belgium National Radio Orchestras. She has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic, working with such renowned conductors as Thomas Dausgaard, Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Sir Charles Groves, Bernard Haitink, Kyril Kondrashin, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Eiji Oue, Peter Oundijan, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Klaus Tennstedt and Bruno Weil.

Ms. Fialkowska received special recognition for a series of important premieres, most notably the world premiere performance of a newly discovered piano concerto by Franz Liszt with the Chicago Symphony. She has also given the world premiere of the Piano Concerto by Libby Larsen with the Minnesota Orchestra, the North American premiere of the Piano Concerto by Sir Andrzej Panufnik with the Colorado Symphony and the Piano Concerto by Marjan Mozetich with the Kingston Orchestra.

The 2005-06 season encompassed concerts in North America (US, Canada and Mexico) and Europe (Germany, Italy, Poland and England). The current season finds her again busy touring both sides of the Atlantic and looking forward to a new recording project of piano concertos by Mozart.

Ms. Fialkowska was the Founding Director of the hugely successful Piano Six and its successor Piano Plus. In 2000, Piano Six won Canada's Chalmers Award. CBC produced a sixty-minute television documentary, "The World of Janina Fialkowska," which won a Special Jury Prize at the 1992 San Francisco International Film Festival. Ms. Fialkowska was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada.

At the onset of a major European tour in 2002, Ms. Fialkowska's career was brought to a dramatic halt by the discovery of a tumor in her left arm. Following successful surgery to remove the cancer, she underwent further surgery in 2003, a rare muscle-transfer procedure. After 18 months of performing the Ravel and Prokofiev concertos for the left hand (transcribed for her right hand), she resumed her two-handed career, beginning with a tremendously successful and highly emotional recital in Germany, January 2004.

Ms. Fialkowska's discography includes the Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3 and the Impromptus, a solo album of Liszt piano works and her astonishing version of the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt, also a solo Szymanowski albumentitled "La jongleuse-Salon pieces and encores," Paderewski's Piano Concerto with the Polish National Radio Orchestra, the rarely-heard Piano Concerto by Moritz Moszkowski and more recently, to highest critical acclaim, the three Liszt piano concertos with Hans Graf conducting.

Ms. Fialkowska's latest recording is a unique performance of the two Chopin concertos in an authentic version consisting of piano solo and string quintet accompaniment.

Born to a Canadian mother and Polish father in Montreal, Janina Fialkowska began early piano study with her mother. The University of Montreal awarded her both advanced degrees of Baccalauréat and Maîtrise at only 17. In 1969, her career began with two events: a first prize in the Radio Canada National Talent Festival and traveling to Paris to study with Yvonne Lefebure. One year later, she entered the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki, later becoming his assistant for five years. In 1974, her international career was launched by Arthur Rubinstein after her prize-winning performance at his inaugural Master Piano Competition in Israel.

Elspeth Franks, soprano

Known for her unusually wide vocal range, Elspeth Franks performs an array of operatic and concert roles throughout the mezzo, alto and soprano repertoires.

Ms. Franks was recently heard as the alto soloist in Bach's Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion and G Minor Mass with the San Francisco Bach Choir, Bach's Magnificat with San Francisco Choral Society, and Verdi's Requiem with the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra. She made her New York debut with the Mark Morris Dance Group in the role of Commère (Four Saints in Three Acts), a role she repeated with them in September 2005.

She made her European debut in 2004 in Haydn's Harmoniemesse in Munich, Prague, Budapest and Vienna. Named a Virginia Best Adams Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival for 2002 and 2003, Ms. Franks returned there in 2005 as featured soprano soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the seldom-heard Trauer-Kantate.

Other appearances have included Sacramento Opera, Virginia Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Fresno Philharmonic; Berkeley Symphony, Bear Valley Music Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Rogue Opera (OR), Rimrock Opera (MT), West Bay Opera and Pocket Opera.

An active performer on the concert stage, both in recital and oratorio work, Ms Franks has given recitals throughout the U.K. and the U.S.A. featuring the music of contemporary English, French and American composers.

Robin Hansen, violin and concertmaster

Concertmaster of the Midsummer Mozart Orchestra, Robin has held concertmaster positions in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra and the New World Symphony. She currently holds a first violin position with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and performs regularly with the San Francisco Opera and many Bay Area chamber ensembles.

Rufus Olivier, bassoon

Principal bassoonist with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet Orchestras, Rufus is a founding member of the Midsummer Mozart Orchestra, former bassoonist with the San Francisco Symphony and is on the music faculties of Stanford University and San Francisco State University.

Cantabile Chorale

Cantabile Chorale, founded in 1979, first sang with the Midsummer Mozart Festival for the Mass in C minor presented in 2005. The chorus offers quality performances and innovative programming with demanding repertoire from all periods. Based in Palo Alto, the chorus produces a season of three programs with concerts throughout the Bay Area and also collaborates with other local groups. Visit www.cantabile.org for more information.

Sanford Dole, tenor, composer and conductor, has been artistic director of Cantabile Chorale since 2000. He is also music director at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco and a member of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Chorale. His extensive choral background includes work with Chanticleer, the Grace Cathedral Men's Choir, and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, where Mr. Dole served as assistant conductor for ten years.

Ruthann Lovetang, mezzo-soprano, has been a member of Cantabile Chorale since 2001. She also sings at St. Gregory of Nyssa and with the Consort Chorale and Chora Nova. Ms. Lovetang premiered Sanford Dole's God's Grandeur for mezzo-soprano and orchestra in June 2007.

David Miller, baritone and assistant conductor, has been a member of Cantabile Chorale since 1986. He also sings with the California Bach Society and is organist for the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, San Francisco.