Impressions

Pierre Vellones (1889-1939)

Pierre Vellones was a French composer, artist, and medical doctor who was an accomplished pianist and saxophonist. He was at the forefront of electronic music in the 1930s and was one of the first composers to write for the ondes Martenot. Check out this short documentary about Vellones. “Be sure to turn on the closed captioning if you don’t speak 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.”

Lukáš Sommer (b.1984)

Lukáš Sommer is a one of leading personality in the current generation of young composers. Beginning in 1998, he studied at the Conservatory in České Budějovice where he studied guitar under Professor Vilma Manová and composition under Professor Jiří Churáček. In 2003, he studied one year at the Prague Conservatory under Professor Věroslav Neumann. In 2009, he graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts where he studied composition under Professor Ivan Kurz. He has composed over 50 opuses of works ranging from works for orchestra, piano, chamber music and film and is a gifted guitarist.

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.”

Antony Sidney (b.1952)

Sidney’s 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”. 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.

In the composers own words:

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”