Mara Gearman

Violist Mara Gearman presents an inventive program of chamber music with pianist Jerrod Wendland and mezzo soprano Kathryn Weld featuring Brahms’ Two Songs, opus 91, along with his Scherzo, transcribed by Manuel Diaz, Paganini’s La Campanella, and Shostakovich’s Sonata, opus 147.

As a solo performer Mara Gearman has won awards at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, performing viola solos ranging from American composers Alan Shulman and Derek Bermel to Hungarian composer Miklos Rozca. She regularly performs with the chamber groups American String Project and Seattle Chamber Players, and has collaborated with such prestigious performers as Ani Kavafian, Peter Wiley, Vladimir Feltsman, and Dale Clevenger, the legendary principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She is also a founding member of the Barston String Quartet as well as Trio Tara with pianist Oksana Ezhokina and Laurie DeLuca, clarinet.

Gearman has held or been awarded a number of orchestral appointments, including principal viola (at age twenty) under maestro Rossen Milanov, and principal viola at the Kansas City Symphony and at the Oregon Symphony under music director James DePriest. Currently she is the second desk violist for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under maestro Gerard Schwarz. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, her primary teachers included Roberto Diaz, Pinchas Zukerman, and Karen Tuttle, as well as additional study in Canada, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland with Nobuko Imai, Barbara Westphal, and Gerard Causse.

Mezzo-soprano Kathryn Weld has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. Her expertise extends from Baroque ornamentation to bel canto opera, from Mahler’s symphonic song cycles to contemporary work. She has made two solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic, one with Charles Dutoit conducting de Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat, and the other under the direction of Kurt Masur in Grieg’s Peer Gynt. She made her Carnegie Hall debut to critical acclaim in a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Musica Sacra. Highlights of her recent symphonic work include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Northwest Mahler Festival, Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with the Seattle Youth Symphony, and Berlioz’ Les Nuits d’Ete with Orchestra Seattle. Other northwest appearances include the Oregon Symphony, Helena Symphony, Wyoming Symphony, and Portland Baroque Orchestra, the latter broadcast live on National Public Radio. On stage, Weld has appeared with the Seattle Opera, Opera Carolina, Tacoma Opera, the Regensburg Opera Theater in Germany and the State Repertory Opera of New Jersey, among others. Her roles include Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte, Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and the Prince in Cendrillon. She also portrayed the famous chef Julia Child in the one-woman opera Bon Appetit! by Lee Hoiby. Weld has also been a featured soloist with the Bayerischen Rundfunkchor (Bavarian Radio Choir), Consortium Musicum (Munich), and the Prague Philharmonic. She has also been featured with the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under Nicolas McGegan, the Mark Morris Dance Company, the Sapporo Symphony, and the Osaka Chamber Orchestra. Last year saw her first concerts in Paris, France with internationally renowned accompanist Laurana Mitchelmore, a duo recital with baritone Robert Orth, and concerts in Helsinki, Moscow, and St. Petersburg.

Jerrod Wendland began his musical studies in Milwaukee with Stephanie Jacobs, and continued with Carole Tafoya, Jane Allen, and Dr. John Schuster-Craig at Webster University. His acceptance to the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory allowed him to accelerate his musical studies, while also exposing him to an even broader diversity of insights and interests. While at Oberlin he assembled several chamber ensembles and accompanied a wide variety of instrumental and choral repertoire. Since relocating to Seattle in 2001, he has studied theory and composition with Johnathan Bernard, John Rahn and Joël Durand, and was awarded a University of Washington assistantship which allowed him to teach theory and ear-training. He has performed for the Seattle Composers Salon, and has accompanied many local musicians. Recent performances have included a recital at the Seattle Art Museum with mezzo-soprano Emily Greanleaf, singing and playing music by Alban Berg, Thomas Baker, Claude Debussy and Dominick Argento.