FOUR BY FOUR
featuring Crossing Borders Music
and Marianne Parker, piano

FCE is closely monitoring developments surrounding the Covid-19 health pandemic.  As a result, the quartet has made the decision to cancel this concert series with Crossing Borders Music.  Tickets holders have been notified individually.  In it's place, the quartet will host a live conversation with Crossing Borders Music and guest moderator Oliver Camacho on Sunday, June 7 at 6pm CST.
Friday, June 5, 2020
7:30pm
Nichols Concert Hall (Evanston)
This performance is made possible by generous sponsorship support from  Zachary Vanderburg & Felipe Ramos Barajas
Sunday, June 7, 2020
6pm
Logan Center Penthouse (Hyde Park)
This performance is made possible by generous sponsorship support from  Kent Smith Dymak & Theodore Foss
Fourth Coast Ensemble and Crossing Borders Music co-present Four by Four, a showcase of chamber works composed for voice, strings, and piano. The program features vocal quartet/string quartet settings by Andrea Clearfield and Gwyneth Walker, vocal works from Latin American composers, and an ode to Beethoven’s 250th birthday.
Program
CESAR MIRO  -  Todos vuelven (SATB)
ADRIAN FLORES ALBAN  -  Alma, corazon, y vida (T)
Selected Haitian Folk songs

LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN  -  selected Irish & Scottish folk songs
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS  -  Bredon Hill, from On Wenlock Edge (T)
SAMUEL BARBER  -  Dover Beach (B)

LEE KESSELMAN  -  So is my beloved, from Song of Songs (SM)
MOHAMMED FAIROUZ  -  A Prayer to the New Year (SM)
GWYNETH WALKER  -  selections from The Golden Harp (SMTB)
ANDREA CLEARFIELD  -  Three Tenses of Light (SATB)
Artists
Crossing Borders
​Music - String Quartet
Founded in 2011, CROSSING BORDERS MUSIC has become a leading interpreter of chamber music by composers from under-represented cultures including the Chickasaw Nation, Colombia, Egypt, Haiti, India, Syria, and Uganda, and a pioneering, critically acclaimed presenter of music by graduates of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education in Iran. Crossing Borders Music was a Headline Artist at the African Festival of the Arts, a Resident Arts Organization at the Chicago Cultural Center, and has been presented by the Old Town School of Folk, Montréal’s Society for the Research and Promotion of Haitian Music (SRDMH), United World College of South East Asia, and at Chicago’s Symphony Center through the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s African American Network. Crossing Borders Music has been featured on NBC-5 and ABC-7 Chicago News, on WFMT, on WBEZ, in the Chicago Tribune, and as a Critic’s Pick in TimeOut Chicago. Through a grant from The Chicago Community Trust, in August, 2016, Crossing Borders Music released a world premiere album of newly commissioned string quartet music by Haitian composers Jean “Rudy” Perrault and Sabrina C. D. Jean Louis. Through a grant from the Sparkplug Foundation, in August 2018, Crossing Borders Music recorded a world premiere album of original chamber music with the composer, Grammy-nominated sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar, set to be released in 2019.
The mission of Crossing Borders Music is to use music to promote the dignity of people from all cultures.

Marianne Parker
piano
Crossing Borders Music pianist MARIANNE PARKER’s playing has been described as “a cut above...her sympathetic fingers offering well-sculpted phrases and impassioned pealing” (Chicago Classical Review). Her debut album, Pages intimes, released in early 2019, features recently re-discovered works by Haitian composers. An active chamber musician, Marianne co-founded the marimba and piano new music ensemble, L+M Duo, in 2016 along with marimbist Laurel Black. The duo is committed to commissioning new work for their medium by today’s composers. Most recently, they presented their program, “Illuminating Wrigley,” in celebration of the Wrigley Building’s centennial anniversary - an event that was highlighted in their recent feature in Chamber Music Magazine; and performed as part of the Nief-Norf New Music Festival. An avid proponent of new music, Marianne enjoys collaborations with performers and composers all over the country. As an orchestral pianist, Marianne has performed under the batons of Riccardo Muti, Jaap Van Zweden, Michael Tilson Thomas, Ludovic Morlot, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Michael Christy. Marianne is currently curating a 21st century anthology of works for solo piano through New Music Shelf Publishing. Marianne’s work is driven by her passion to communicate the vibrancy and variety of classical music, especially to those who have yet to discover it.

Sarah van der Ploeg
soprano
SARAH VAN DER PLOEG is an American lyric soprano who has been singing since before she could speak. Praised as a singing actor for her “thoughtful musicality”, “clarity of tone” and “versatility”, the New Jersey native has performed in London, New York, Chicago, Vienna, and elsewhere around the US and Europe. Equally at home on stage, in concert halls, and in recital, she particularly loves 20th Century & contemporary music and composer collaborations. Performance highlights: world premiere of staged Gary Fry work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; “Une bête” in Ravel’s L’Enfant with Esa Pekka Salonen and CSO; Stella/Muse in Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s Tales of Hoffmann: Retold; solo turns at the Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall; Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with Civic Orchestra of Chicago; Barber’s Knoxville with Lake Forest Civic Orchestra; staged production of David Lang’s the little match girl passion; Mozart’s Requiem with Chicago Chamber Orchestra & Elmhurst Choral Union; Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus) at Northwestern; Encouragement Award, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; First place, Chicago NATS. Sarah holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music (Diane Forlano), Northwestern University (Theresa Brancaccio & Alan Darling), and Princeton University (Public Policy & Music Performance). A Marshall Scholar, she believes deeply in the communicative power of the arts for cultural diplomacy and reconciliation, and works through music outreach and education in addition to performance in pursuit of these aims. sarahvanderploeg.weebly.com

Bridget Skaggs
mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano BRIDGET SKAGGS has swiftly gained the attention of Chicago audiences for her "warm and plaintive" singing (Chicago Classical Review) across a broad range of genres, including classical, contemporary, avant-garde, jazz, and musical theater. Critics have noted the way she “lights up the scene” (Chicago Reader) in appearances with Chicago Fringe Opera, Chicago Folks Operetta, Haymarket Summer Opera, Lake Forest Civic Orchestra, Baroque on Beaver Festival, Opera Steamboat, and Pittsburgh Festival Opera. A passionate advocate for art song, Skaggs is a founding member and executive director of vocal quartet Fourth Coast Ensemble, and was recently named Vocal Arts Associate for Chicago Fringe Opera. She has twice been awarded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago's vocal chamber fellowship, and performed for master clinicians Martin Katz, Michelle DeYoung, and Craig Terry. Skaggs loves collaborating with composers to promote and perform new repertoire. She co-hosted the Chicago premiere of the Sparks & Wiry Cries songSLAM competition for new art song in 2019, and sang for the 2016 NATS national convention in music of Gwyneth Walker. Skaggs debuted the role of Austin in the world-premiere production of Rossa Crean’s The Great God Pan in 2018, which received The American Prize in Opera Performance. She will record on the Naxos label this year in music by composer Lori Laitman, and has recorded the American premiere of Paul Abraham's jazz operetta Ball at the Savoy for future release. A native of Southlake, Texas, Bridget received her education at Oklahoma City University's Wanda L. Bass School of Music, and resides in Chicago.

Ace Gangoso
tenor
ACE GANGOSO, tenor, enjoys an eclectic musical career in Chicago as a singer, music director, pianist, and teacher. Ace is thrilled to be joining Fourth Coast Ensemble this season, adding to his existing singing engagements with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Grant Park Chorus, and Chicago a cappella. Within Chicago a cappella, Ace also serves as the Program Director for the High School Apprenticeship, an auditioned group of young singers seeking experience in high-level ensemble singing and arts nonprofit operations.

Ace is the Director of Music Ministry at St. Nicholas Parish in Evanston where he conducts several choirs and musical groups, and plays up to four Masses each weekend. Additionally, he is a pianist for the Chicago Black Catholics Choir and a supplementary staff musician at St. Michael in Old Town. Ace is also a private voice instructor at Highland Park High School.

A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Ace became a Chicagoan in 2010 and currently resides in the Lakeview neighborhood. Ace holds Bachelor’s Degrees in Music Education and Voice Performance from the University of Central Arkansas, and a Master’s Degree in Voice Performance from Northwestern University; he continues voice study with NU Professor W. Stephen Smith. He is a proud alumni member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the world’s oldest and largest fraternal society in music.

David Govertsen
bass-baritone
Chicago native DAVID GOVERTSEN has been active as a professional singer for fifteen years, portraying a wide variety of opera’s low-voiced heroes, villains, and buffoons.  An alumnus of the Ryan Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, he has performed ten roles with the company, most recently appearing as Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte and King Priam in Les Troyens.  This past season he also appeared at Santa Fe Opera as Frank in Die Fledermaus, and he created the role of Stoever in Stewart Copeland’s The Invention of Morel for Chicago Opera Theater. 

As a concert soloist Mr. Govertsen has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival among many others.  He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2011 as the Herald in Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti.  He is an alumnus of both the Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera apprentice programs and holds degrees from Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University and the College of DuPage.  Mr. Govertsen is currently on faculty at Valparaiso University, Lewis University, and the College of DuPage.
VenueS
Friday, June 5, 2020 @ 7:30pm
Nichols Concert Hall
1490 Chicago Ave
Evanston, IL 60201
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Logan Center, Performance Penthouse
915 E 60th St.
Chicago, IL 60637