APPASSIONATA PROGRAM – A PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE! 

A message from Ornela Ervin, Appassionata program director.

In 2022 our students continue to share their music through the Musical Bagatelles program. They hope to brighten your days and put a smile on your face with their music selection.

Access 2020 – 2021 Bagatelles performances: HERE


November 15 2022

Young and talented, just turned 6 years old

Claire Liu plays Toccatina by Ruth Henderson

Access: HERE

The success of Appassionata music students comes from hours of diligent practicing, dedication and perseverance that starts at a very young age.

Claire is the youngest member of the program, she dreams of one day playing with the TOPhil

Your support ensures that we continue to offer the amazing Opus performance opportunities to new generations of musicians.


November 1 2022

Appassionata students Beatrice Jiang and  Eric Zhang

play

Beethoven’s Sonata for piano and violin No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 

commonly known as the Spring Sonata.

It was recorded at Gustav Adolf Church in Hamburg, Germany where both students were invited to participate at a series of concerts and masterclasses through the Junior Chamber Music Festival.

Enjoy the performance: HERE


August 16 2022

Appassionata string student Beatrice Jian

plays 

Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor Op. 64 

Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace 

with the

Ventura Collage orchestra 

under the baton of Ashley Walters.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64, is his last concerto. Well received at its premiere, it has remained among the most prominent and highly-regarded violin concertos. It holds a central place in the violin repertoire and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto for all aspiring concert violinists to master, and usually one of the first Romantic era concertos they learn.

 In 1906, the year before his death, the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim told the guests at his 75th birthday party:

The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven’s.
The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by
Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart’s jewel, is Mendelssohn’s

Access Performance: HERE


July 15 2022

Piano Appassionata student Raymomd Tan

joined by his two friends Aaron Liu (Violin) and Noah Choi (Cello)

play

Clara Schumann’

Piano Trio in G minor Op. 17

first movement, Allegro Moderato. 

The three young musicians are part of the Junior Chamber Music program and enjoy the opportunity to make music together.

Access the performance: HERE

Clara Schumann’s compositions include 30 Lieder(songs), choral music, solo piano pieces, 1 piano concerto, chamber and orchestral works. The Piano
Trio has been called “probably" the “masterpiece" among her
compositions.The work, written for a piano trio comprising piano, violin and cello, was her first attempt at writing music for instruments other than the voice and piano.[The trio minor was written in 1846 when she was twenty-seven. From a larger perspective of her multi-faceted musical life, it is clear that Clara Schumann was one of the most outstanding and influential female musicians of the 19th century if not the history of European classical music in general up to that.

Mar 27 2022

Appassionata student Charles Berryhill plays

Rachmaninoff Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, no. 5

Access the performance: HERE


February 28, 2022

Appassionata students Karolina Protsenko and Eric Zhang wish all the supporters of the TOPHIL a beautiful spring!

Hope the youthfulness and joy of the Mozart’s piano-violin Sonata accompanies all of you on this season of rebirth

Access the performance: HERE


February 11 2022 

We wish all of you Happy Valentine’s Day! 

We have chosen a special Lied (Song) for this day. 

 Daniel Aluko plays Franz Schubert’s Ständchen 

 This Ständchen or “Sérénade” is a Lied (Song) that was published a few months after Schubert’s death. It was one of the last things he ever wrote. It’s a short story of a person wishing to be loved by another.

Enjoy the performance, click: HERE

Silently my songs beg

Through the night to you;

Down into the quiet grove,

Darling, come to me!

Whispering, slim treetops rustle

In the moonlight;

The hostile eavesdropper’s ear

maid, fear not

Do you hear the Nightingales singing?

Oh! they implore you,

With the sounds of sweet laments

They Plead for me.

They understand the bosom’s longing,

Know love’s pain,

Stirring with their silvery tones

Every soft heart.

Let them also stir your breast,

Darling, listen to me!

Trembling I awaited

you.

Come, make me happy!