Exotic Ensembles: Music for Flute, Harp, and String Octet

TACOMA, Wash. – How rewarding it is for both the composer and the audience to have the flute and harp paired together in a piece of music. The alluring match has inspired composers through centuries and has been born a global trove of musical literature written for the flute-harp duo.

In the Jacobsen Series concert Exotic Ensembles: Music for Flute, Harp, and String Octet, audiences will be treated to various regional flavors of the flute and harp, as captured by composers from five cultural backgrounds: Japanese, French, Dutch, Latin American, and American.

The public performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6, in Schneebeck Concert Hall, at the University of Puget Sound. The ticket information is below.

Performing will be Puget Sound Affiliate Artist Patricia Wooster, harp; guest artist Carol Wollenberg, flute; and faculty members Maria Sampen, violin; Timothy Christie, viola; Joyce Ramee, viola; David Requiro, cello; and Meta Weiss, cello.

The night’s opening work will be Josef Molnar’s Haru No Umi (The Sea in Spring). An Austrian by birth and a classically trained harpist, Molnar has lived in Japan for decades and has exerted a large influence on the development of music for Japan's harp.

“Molnar’s thorough knowledge of Japanese music comes through clearly in this work,” says harpist Patricia Wooster. “Many of the passages for harp mimic the tone and style of the traditional Japanese koto, the closest indigenous instrument to the Western harp. Of course, the flute is also found in much Japanese traditional music and is right at home in this work.”

The evening’s program will include:

Josef Molnar:Haru no Umi(The Sea in Spring)
Claude Debussy: En Bateau, from Petite Suite
Hendrik Andriessen: Intermezzo voor fluit en harp
Angel Lasala: Poema del Pastor Coya
Vincent Persichetti: Serenade No. 10
Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Opus 20

Patricia Wooster, the affiliate faculty artist at the University of Puget Sound, holds degrees in music and education and did her postgraduate study in harp with Lynne Wainwright Palmer in Seattle. Wooster has extensive experience as an orchestral harpist, a director of local student harp ensembles, and as a sought-after teacher in the harp. She served as a harpist and a board member at both the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and Northwest Sinfonietta. Wooster also has served as a judge in the state, national, and international harp competitions. Well-known in the worldwide harp community, she served for five years as president of the American Harp Society and for 17 years as chair of the World Harp Congress. 

Carol Wollenberg, flute, plays with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra and serves on the orchestra board, a former president. She has performed with the Thalia Symphony Orchestra, Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, and Philharmonia Northwest. Wollenberg formed a flute-harp duo with Patricia Wooster while she was teaching at Seattle University. The duo has performed at numerous venues around Washington state. Wollenberg has a master’s degree in performance from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she studied with James Pappoutsakis, flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. While at Bates College in Maine, she studied with David Whiteside and Erich Graf.    

The Jacobsen Series, named in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former chair of the piano department at Puget Sound, has been running since 1984. The Jacobsen Series Scholarship Fund awards annual music scholarships to outstanding student performers and scholars. The fund is sustained entirely by season subscribers and ticket sales.

FOR TICKETS: Tickets are available online at tickets.pugetsound.edu or Wheelock Information Center, 253.879.3100. Admission is $15 for the general public; $10 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound faculty and staff. The concert is free for current Puget Sound students. Group ticket rates are available for parties of 10 or more by calling 253.879.3555 in advance. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.

For directions and a map of the campus:pugetsound.edu/directions

For accessibility information, please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

Press photos of Patricia Wooster and Carol Wollenberg can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photos on page: Top right Patrician Wooster (left) and Carol Wollenberg; Above left: Harp, by Holzwvim52

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