Impressions

Lukáš Sommer (b.1984)

Czech composer, Lukáš Sommer, is a  leading personality in the current generation of young composers with a fresh new voice that explores many textures and genres. A distinctive branch of Sommer’s work is his guitar recitals, which he has presented on many Czech and international stages since 2012. The artist has regular concerts at festivals in Chicago, New York, New Delhi, Nurnberg, Milan, Florence, Manilla and many others. Because of his ability to switch genres, he is often invited to participate in improvisational projects with theatre, pantomime or music- therapy elements.

His Maějovaě Suite “May Suite” is a four movement work for clarinet and guitar that contains beautiful floating melodies that oscillate between  child-like playfulness and  calm serenity.

Antony Sidney (b.1952)

Anthony Sidney is a living American composer and guitarist who draws inspiration for all his music from every aspect of the arts; painting, poetry, architecture, music, and life. His “Sonata for Harp and Guitar” is influenced by French artists Odilon Redon and Émile Gallé as well as the city of Paris. Throughout the score are descriptive phrases such as “shadows of leaves dance on the walls, beauty in the darkness of night”.

In 1989, he was invited as a guest artist on Ray Charles’s Italian tour, performing his classical guitar compositions as the opening act for the legendary musician. During the tour, Sidney performed before a total audience of 20,000 people, with concerts in prestigious Italian theaters such as the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, the Teatro Sistina in Rome, and the Teatro Verdi in Florence. He also performed in the Netherlands, Denmark, England, Germany, the United States, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Poland.

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)
Rebecca Clarke is a name familiar to all violists. A violist herself and a champion for the instrument’s rightful place as a solo voice on the concert stage, her viola sonata of 1919 brought her instant international attention when it tied with Ernest Bloch’s sonata for 1st place in an American competition sponsored by the famous American patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The judges were blind to the composers of the submissions and were astounded to learn Clarke’s work was written by a woman. They had assumed it was a composition by Ravel. Her career as a performer and composer is important not only because she was considered brilliant during her lifetime and broke many ‘firsts’ for women but also because she, like many women, was reduced in importance as time went on. Her rightful place in the chamber music canon is returning. As of October 2025 every manuscript Clarke left that was readable has been published. Read on about this magnificent musician, the first we present this season from Leah Broad’s book Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World. As of October 2025, every note that she left in a performable state had been published. from the Rebecca Clarke website.

In the composers own words, from a letter to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge after Clarke had witnessed Coolidge’s first chamber music festival in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, and were instantly pumped for advice and repertoire suggestions for future festivals:
“It is only those who have loved Chamber Music all their lives who can fully realize what a wonderful thing you are doing by this innovation of yours. It is going to make people in this country realize, as I don’t think they have ever been given the chance to before, that Chamber Music is really the highest form of all.”

Pierre Vellones (1889-1939)

Pierre Vellones, a French composer, artist, pianist and saxophonist was also a medical doctor who specialized in an early version of electrotherapy.  He was at the forefront of electronic music in the 1930s and was one of the first composers to write for the Ondes Martenot, one of the first electronic instruments.  Check out this short documentary about Vellones. “Be sure to turn on the closed captioning if you do not understand French.”

His “Impressions D’Espagne, Op. 68”, originally written for piano, has been arranged for flute, bassoon and harp and includes two movements: “Les Chevres de Tarifa”, and “Les Jasmins de Cordoue”. Full of lush harmonies similar to the style of Ravel, this work floats in a dream world of unbound imagination.

According to 20th c. French pianist and composer Jean Michele Damase:
“Pierre Vellones wrote in the French tradition of Ravel, not far from Jacques Ibert and Honneger. He wrote a clear language, refined and personal, precisely with his instrumental research of colors, Orientalism, and Spain.”

Ethel  Smyth (1858-1944)

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth was a composer, conductor, author, and Suffragette. She fought during the societal restrictions of the Victorian age that denied women the right to a profession. She insisted on an education, on performances of her works, and on having her works published. Her “Quartet in C minor” was written while she was in Leipzig where she went intentionally as it was considered the capital of music in Europe. She studied composition with Reinecke and believed that if she could succeed there she could succeed anywhere. Ethel was determined to be a composer on her own terms. Smyth is a champion of women’s rights and a pioneer for women in the classical music world, but still remains relatively unknown. Smyth is the 2nd composer we present from Leah Broad’s book Quartet.

In the composers own words:
“I feel I must fight for [my music] because I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs, not just to go on hugging the shore, afraid to put out to sea”