Jason VieauxGuitar
Sasha CookeMezzo-Soprano

Jason Vieaux and Sasha Cooke

Presented in association with OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts

Saturday, April 8, 2023 |  7:30pm

Herbst TheatreVenue Information

$65/$55/$45

About This Performance

Grammy®-winner Jason Vieaux is “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation,” according to NPR. He is well known for a relaxed and affable stage presence paired with a fierce and flexible technique described as “virtuosic, flamboyant, dashing and, sometimes ineffably lyrical” (New York Times). “Equal parts poise, radiance, and elegant directness,” (Opera News) double Grammy®-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke is at home and in demand from the world’s opera houses to intimate concert halls.

Program

MANUEL DE FALLA: Siete canciones populares españolas
PAT METHENY: Four Paths of Light
PETER SCOTT LEWIS: What Day is It Now?, Going Out to Meet the Moon Whales
JAYME OVALLE: Azulão
HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS: Bachianas No. 5
ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIN (arr. Dyens): A Felicidade
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Gretchen am Spinnrade, Schlummerlied, Nacht und Traüme, Auf dem Wasser zu singen
STEPHEN SONDHEIM: Children will listen, Losing my mind
LENNON/McCARTNEY: I will, Julia

Encore

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS (arr. Andy Poxon): Not Everyone Thinks That I’m Beautiful

Artist Information

Performer Biographies

Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is described by NPR as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation”.

Jason’s multiple appearances for San Francisco Performances, Caramoor Festival, Ravinia Festival, PCMS, 92nd Street Y, Domaine-Forget, and many others, have helped to cement his reputation as one of the world’s leading guitarists. Other overseas performance venues include Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Concert Hall, Sala Sao Paolo, and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Jason Vieaux has performed as soloist with over 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Toronto, Houston, Nashville, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, working with renowned conductors such as Giancarlo Guererro, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, and Michael Stern.

Vieaux has a strong presence on radio and streaming services. In 2022, his long-awaited Bach Volume 2: Works for Violin was released in April 2022 on Azica Records to critical acclaim. Shining Night, a CD from Avie Records featuring his duo with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, was released in May. His Sony Classical recording of Michael Fine’s Concierto del Luna for flute and guitar (with flutist Alexa Still) is yet another 2022 release. Vieaux recently recorded Pat Metheny’s Four Paths of Light, a solo work dedicated to him by Pat for Metheny’s 2021 album Road To The Sun.

Jason’s passion for new music has also fostered premieres from Jeff Beal, Avner Dorman, Vivian Fung, Pierre Jalbert, Jonathan Leshnoff, David Ludwig, Mark Mancina, Dan Visconti, and many more. The Huffington Post declared his Grammy-winning 2014 solo album Play “part of the revitalized interest in the classical guitar.”

Vieaux’s multiple appearances over the years with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Eastern Music Festival, PCMS, etc., have forged his reputation as an in-demand chamber musician. Regular collaborators include the Escher String Quartet, Grammy®-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, Grammy-winning harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro.

As a teacher, Vieaux co-founded the guitar department at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2011 (with David Starobin) and has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 25 years. Jason’s online Guitar School for ArtistWorks Inc. has hundreds of subscribers from all over the world. He plays a guitar by Gernot Wagner, 2013, made in Frankfurt.

Two-time Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” by the New York Times and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” by Opera News. Ms. Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with over 80 symphony orchestras worldwide frequently in the works of Mahler. This season marks Ms. Cooke’s appointment at the Music Academy of the West as Co-Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute.

Ms. Cooke opens the 2022–23 season with a return to Houston Grand Opera in her role debut as Thirza in the company’s new production of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers conducted by Patrick Summers. On the concert stage, she performs throughout the U.S. and abroad: in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Houston Symphony conducted by Juraj Valčuha; Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Wiener Konzerthaus; Michael Tilson Thomas’ Meditations on Rilke with the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer; Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra alongside Gemma New; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Klaus Mäkelä and later with Nashville Symphony. She debuts with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, and the Utah Symphony in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, which she later performs with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert. She makes returns to Chicago Symphony for works by Vivaldi, to Philadelphia Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah and to Kansas City Symphony for Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d. Special collaborations on the recital stage include Jake Heggie’s Intonations: Songs for the Violins of Hope with Music of Remembrance; recitals with guitarist Jason Vieaux at San Francisco Performances and Round Top Festival; and a recital at Kaufman Music Center, alongside pianist Kirill Kuzmin featuring how do I find you, a collection of words and music created in 2020 that was recorded and released on the Pentatone label in January 2022.

Artist Videos

Jason Vieaux plays Gigue (6th Movement) from Lute Suite No. 1 in E Minor BWV 996 by J.S. Bach

Sasha Cooke sings Süsser Freund from Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben