Sue Ann Kahn, Susan Jolles to Perform Aug. 13

WEST CAPE MAY — Enjoy a glass of wine, some Mozart and more with Sue Ann Kahn, flutist, and Susan Jolles, harpist, winners of the Walter W. Naumberg Chamber Music Award. They will perform at Access to Art’s Summer Chamber Sam Maitin Chamber Music Festival on Aug. 13 at the Willow Creek Winery on 168 Stevens St., in West Cape May, New Jersey at 7:30 p.m.
Although both were born in Pennsylvania five days apart, Sue Ann Kahn and Susan Jolles never met until they were established in New York’s musical scene. After playing together in various groups, they formed the Jubal Trio with soprano Lucy Shelton. Since then, they have been joined at the hip musically and have transcribed music for flute and harp from Mozart to Gershwin. Their Aug. recital at the Winery will feature one of their transcriptions, a Mozart Sonata originally written for piano.
Said Sue Ann, “Mozart is particularly interesting to us right now; we are just beginning to publish our musical transcriptions so that others can use them, and Mozart Sonatas are our very first published work.
Both women have performed and recorded extensively. And they have musical families. Sue Ann mother’s cousins, a violinist and a pianist, attended Curtis and taught at Settlement Music School. “My aunt played viola as an amateur her whole life. My father, (the famed architect Louis I. Kahn) had to choose between a life in music and a life in visual arts. He was asked to choose, because he could get only one scholarship, and he chose visual arts, but he thought that if he had stayed in music, he might have been a composer. His brother played saxophone, and immigrated to California where he created the jingle, the musical advertisement. My father played piano for silent movie theaters to support his family and then taught his sister to do the same. His family all played by ear,” said Sue Ann Kahn. Sue Ann’s mother, Esther Kahn, ran the Fairmount Park Music Festival. Lou’s mother played the harp.
Susan Jolles, who performs with her daughter, Renee Jolles ,as the Jolles Duo, is one of New York’s premier harpist and her violinist daughter, Renee, plays with Orpheus and teaches at Eastman. Susan’s grandaughter plays the flute and studied with Sue Ann. Originally, Susan wanted to play the flute, but her mother encouraged her to play the harp instead.
Sue Ann Kahn, flutist, is known for her virtuosic and sensitive performances of music of all periods. She was honored with one of the first Solo Recitalist Fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts in recognition of her outstanding gifts as a flutist and received the American New Music Consortium Award for distinguished performances of contemporary music. Ms. Kahn has commissioned, premiered, and recorded the works of American composers as diverse as George Crumb, Ralph Shapey, Peter Schickele, and Tania Leon as soloist and with the Jubal Trio. She won the coveted Water W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award as a founding member of the Trio, and she performs with the League-ISCM Chamber Players and other ensembles throughout the United States. Ms. Kahn presents recitals of unusual interest and has received critical acclaim for her recordings for CRI, Musical Heritage, MMG, Vox-Candide, New World and, most recently, The Mozart Flute Quartets for Albany Records. She presents masterclasses on various aspects of the flute and its music throughout the United States. Music runs in Sue Ann’s family. Her father, famed architect, Louis I. Kahn, played the piano, and her mother ran the Fairmount Park Music Festival.
A former faculty member at Bennington College, Ms. Kahn taught flute and chamber music at Mannes College the New School for Music for over fifteen years and also directed its Pre-College Program. She presently teaches in the Music Performance program at Columbia University and performs and coaches at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East. An active advocate for the flute and its music, Ms. Kahn has been President of both the New York Flute Club and the National Flute Association.
Susan Jolles, harpist, has enjoyed a long and varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, teacher and arranger. A founding member of the Walter W. Naumburg Award winning Jubal Trio, she also appears with daughter, Renee, violinist, as the Jolles Duo. Ms. Jolles is a member of the American Composers Orchestra, Musica Viva, Queens Symphony Orchestra and The Little Orchestra Society, and is associate harpist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Past affiliations include the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, The Group for Contemporary Music, The New York Chamber Symphony, and the Juilliard Ensemble. She also appears regularly with the Encores Orchestra.
Ms. Jolles has been associated with contemporary music since receiving a Fromm Fellowship in contemporary music performance in l963. Susan Jolles has an extensive discography that encompasses a full range of musical genres including classical, klezmer, jazz, cabaret and Broadway, recording with such diverse artists as Giora Feidman, Kenny Garrett, James Galway and Barbara Cook. She has recently recorded four albums of original flute and harp music with flutist Laurel Zucker. Ms. Jolles is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music where she teaches harp as well as orchestral repertory and chamber music.
This is the second concert of the Sam Maitin Summer Chamber Music Festival, and will be held at Willow Creek Winery, 168 Stevens St., West Cape May at 7:30 p.m. Directions can be found online on Willow Creek Winery’s site. Tickets are $30. for seniors, and $35. for adults including a free glass of wine at intermission.. Call Access to Art, Inc. at (609) 465-3963 for reservations.
You may send checks to Access to Art, Inc., 417 E. Pacific Ave., Cape May Court House, NJ. Tickets will also be available at the door from 6:30 p.m. the evening of the concert.