MOZART'S SPRING | Calla Lilies

Two stellar soloists, music from Baroque to modern-Romantic, and a bouquet of beautiful spring melodies. Nurhan Arman conducts. SINFONIA TORONTO NURHAN ARMAN Conductor CAITLIN BROMS-JACOBS, Oboist TINA SIEVERS Violinist Program BACH Concerto for Oboe in D Minor MOZETICH Calla Lillies SCHUBERT Rondo in A major for Violin and Orchestra SARASATE Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) for Violin and Orchestra MOZART String Quartet K 387a, “Spring” orchestra version ABOUT THE PERFORMERS Oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs - Renowned for her “gorgeous singing tone” and “sensitive musicality”, (Winnipeg Free Press) Canadian oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs leads a multifaceted career as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician. She is the principal oboist of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, a position she has held since 2009. Caitlin has performed across Canada as one half of oboe and piano duo Fierbois, with pianist Madeline Hildebrand. Caitlin and Madeline’s debut album, Sing to Me Again, was released in January 2025 to critical acclaim. “They're two of our city's finest musicians. Artistically enticing, sympathetic, creative and dynamic.” (Winnipeg’s Classic 107) Fierbois will tour Western Canada with Prairie Debut for the 25-26 season. Described as “always sublime” (Winnipeg Free Press) Caitlin’s recent concerto performances include appearances with Sinfonia Toronto and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, giving the world premiere of Prayer in a Green Cathedral by Kevin Lau. As a chamber musician and recitalist, Caitlin has appeared at numerous festivals in Canada and abroad, including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, Under the Spire, The Banff Centre, and Winnipeg’s prestigious Millennium Recital Series. Caitlin can often be heard performing with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as guest principal oboist; she has played countless concerts with the WSO, including numerous performances in the pit for the Manitoba Opera and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Caitlin served as principal oboist of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and has played under esteemed conductors such as Andrey Boreyko, Jun Märkl, JoAnn Falletta, Nello Santi, Yakov Kreizberg, Bramwell Tovey, Nodoka Okisawa, Daniel Raiskin, and Anne Manson. Caitlin previously held the position of principal oboist of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. Caitlin was the Artistic Director and co-founder of the highly successful Liberty Village New Artist Series, a series of chamber music concerts held at the Academy of Spherical Arts in Toronto in 2009. Originally from Toronto, Caitlin studied with Keith Atkinson at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Young Artists Performance Academy. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Richard Killmer. Caitlin furthered her studies with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra principal oboist Eugene Izotov. Violinist Tina Sievers has played the violin since age 3 and the piano since age 5. She studies violin at the Taylor Academy with Mayumi Seiler. Tina has received many accolades, including 1st place awards for solo and chamber at the Ontario Music Festivals Association Provincial Competition (2019, 2021-2025), and winner of the York Chamber Ensemble Concerto Competition (2025) and the Sinfonia Toronto Concerto Competition (2025). Tina has performed as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2024), the Odin Quartet (2023, 2024), and the Canadian Sinfonietta Youth Orchestra (2021). Tina has participated in several orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (2021-present, where she serves as co-concertmaster) and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (2025, where she served as co-concertmaster). She is also an active chamber musician, playing with the Tinangellie trio (2019-present) and the Trio Élan Aria (2025-present). Sinfonia Toronto now in its 28th season, has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released six CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner, and performs in many Ontario cities. Its extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works. Under the baton of Nurhan Arman the orchestra’s performances present outstanding international guest artists and prominent Canadian musicians. Maestro Nurhan Arman has conducted throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. Among the orchestras Maestro Arman has conducted are the Moscow Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Filarmonica Italiana, Orchestra Sinfonico di Roma, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic. ABOUT THE MUSIC Oboe Concerto in D minor, BWV 1059 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Leipzig was one of the most active musical cities in Germany during the 1730s and 1740s, and Bach was the most important and busiest musician there, preparing new church pieces, directing and performing them and composing for and directing the Collegium Musicum’s weekly concerts. Like many composers of his time, Bach borrowed and rearranged his own previous works and the works of others. This was considered a completely reasonable way to ensure enough repertoire. Bach studied, emulated and at times borrowed from Vivaldi, especially, and often used Vivaldi’s structure of three movements in a fast, slow, fast sequence, as well as his ritornello form, a refrain alternating with contrasting episodes. It was also normal during Bach’s time to write works without specifying which instrument should play a solo part, perhaps in order to allow for performance by the best musician available for the performance. This concerto for oboe was originally the D minor keyboard concerto. Probably the best known of Bach’s keyboard concertos, the D minor Concerto was itself created from other originals. the first and second movements were re-cast from Bach’s Cantata 146: “We must endure great hardship” and the third movement was the sinfonia (overture) of his Cantata 188: “I have my faith.” The cantata movements in turn were likely transcribed from a violin concerto that has been lost. The concerto’s highly unified first movement opens with an urgent theme, played by the soloist and orchestra in unison and octaves, which returns in a developmental episode and then closes, again in unison and octaves. The middle movement’s G minor harmonies continue the work’s dark character, unlike Bach’s other minor-mode concertos where the slow movement is usually in a major key. The Adagio has a poignant cantilena (lyrical) solo line over a repeating pattern in the bass (basso ostinato or ground bass) of thirteen measures, which is played in unison and octaves to open and close the movement. The last movement’s relentless drive is relieved by a cadenza just before the final appearance of the main theme. Calla Lilies by Marjan Mozetich (1948 - ) Calla Lilies by Marjan Mozetich is taken from the concluding movement of his Oboe Concerto. Commissioned by the CBC, it was written for and premiered by the Thirteen Strings of Ottawa in 1991. The movement is composed in the form of a theme and variations, and was inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe's still-life photographs of calla lilies. Without complications or anxiety, the work's simple melody and austere harmony convey a sense of resignation to the fleeting beauty of life that cannot be possessed. Like a new spring growth, one can only marvel at its beauty in its brief moments of existence. Calla Lilies was also written in memory of friends who had died untimely of Aids during the creation of this work. Marjan Mozetich is one of the most broadcast classical composers in Canada. His works have been premiered and performed around the world, including by Sinfonia Toronto on the orchestra’s South American tour.