Join Music Director Finalist Michael Wheatley and Philharmonia Northwest for this special program highlighting kinship across time and place, designed specifically for the excellent acoustics of Town Hall Seattle. Paige Roberts Molloy joins the orchestra as soloist on Dmitri Shostakovich’s shimmering Second Piano Concerto, followed by Beethoven’s immortal embodiment of the spirit of revolution: the “Eroica” Symphony. Jennifer Jolley’s The Ferry Crossing – a touching ode to arrivals, departures, and the ferries of Lake Champlain – opens the program.
PROGRAM:
Jennifer Jolley: The Ferry Crossing
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica”
Adult: $30
Senior/Student: $20
Child (under 18): Free
Pianist Paige Molloy has been described by The New York Times as “a lucid and passionate performer.” The Wall Street Journal applauded her WNYC Around New York radio performance as “marvelously sensitive playing…the essence of every interlocking and tiny gesture came through.”
Born in East Texas, Paige made her orchestral debut at the age of thirteen at Baylor University, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Since then she has been soloist with the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, East Texas Symphony, Rice University Orchestra, Jupiter Symphony, Flagstaff Festival Orchestra, and Leopoldinum Orchestra in Poland, among others.
Paige has performed frequently in NYC at Bargemusic, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, and Miller Theatre. She was Artist-in-Residence at NYC’s Lotus Club. Recital appearances include Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Ottawa, Houston, Miami, Pittsburgh, Prague, and Paris.
Paige has participated in many music festivals such as Marlboro, Tanglewood, Aspen, Santa Barbara, Grand Canyon, European Mozart Academy, and Mecklenberg, Germany. She has collaborated in chamber music concerts with Augustin Hadelich, James Ehnes, Karen Gomyo, Toby Hoffman, Cynthia Phelps, Clive Greensmith, David Sawyer, and Charles Neidich, to name a few.
In 1999, Paige had the distinct honor of playing Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations for Twyla Tharp’s ballet, Diabelli, which premiered in Palermo, Italy and continued performances in Europe and the U.S. She subsequently performed Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata with Ms. Tharp’s company at Duke University.
Paige has Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School. Her beloved teachers were Peter Serkin, Leon Fleisher, Maurizio Pollini, Abbey Simon, and Mary Norris.
Since 2016, she has had the privilege to perform at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and is currently a faculty member of the SCMS Academy. Paige also plays regularly with members of the Seattle Symphony. A newly released CD in 2022 features Paige and principal oboist of Seattle Symphony, Mary Lynch VanderKolk, performing works of Christopher Nickel.
Upcoming engagements include Concerts at the Barn on the Olympic Peninsula, WA; recitals in Port Angeles, Sequim, and Edmonds, WA; and concerto appearances next spring with the Port Angeles Symphony.
Paige also teaches privately in Seattle, and otherwise enjoys skiing, hiking, biking, and being a mom to two teenage daughters and a few kitties.
Active as a conductor and classical music educator, Maestro Wheatley is the Music Director and Conductor of Skagit Symphony. Prior to this, he held the posts of Assoc. Conductor of the American Youth Philharmonic, Music Director of the Seven Hills Sinfonietta (Cincinnati, OH), and Assoc. Conductor of the Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure with the Seven Hills Sinfonietta, Maestro Wheatley established a reputation as a builder of orchestras and audiences. Now leading Skagit Symphony along similar evolutionary steps, his orchestra has grown by over a third to nearly 80 musicians, has debuted an annual Skagit Pops! concert program, and has set new records in season subscribers and concert goers.
Dr. Wheatley has led professional orchestras on three continents, most recently in Poland, Russia and Ukraine, and in the USA with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Fargo Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Southern Illinois Music Festival, and the Cincinnati Chamber Opera. Equally dedicated to guiding young orchestral players, he has led the student orchestras of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, the Pierre Monteux School Festival Orchestra, the Eastman School of Music, and the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony (Russia).
Dr. Wheatley’s conducting teachers have included Christopher Zimmerman, David Zinman, Vassily Sinaisky, and Neil Varon. He is an alumnus of the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors, Peter the Great Music Academy (Russia), and the College-Conservatory of Music (Univ. of Cincinnati). In 2019 he was awarded his Doctorate of Music Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music. He has collaborated with soprano Renée Fleming, violinist David Kim, clarinetist Eric Mandat, pianist Sandra Wright Shen, and Pulitzer-winning composers John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Kevin Puts, and Jennifer Higdon.
In addition to his work as a conductor, Dr. Wheatley is a frequent clinician and also performs as a violinist. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with members of the Grammy-winning LaSalle and Tokyo String Quartets. He has recorded on the Centaur and Claremont record labels.
Philharmonia Northwest’s 2023-24 Season is made possible in part by generous grants from these Season Sponsors: