Steven Osborne and Jean Johnson

Saturday 6 March 2010
7.30 pm St Michael's Parish Church Linlithgow

Schumann: 3 Romanzen

Ravel: Jeux d'eau (solo piano)

Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit (solo piano)

Saint Saens: Clarinet Sonata

Miklos Rozsa: Sonatine for Solo Clarinet

Gershwin: Songs from Porgy and Bess (arr. Osborne)

Gershwin: Three Preludes

American clarinettist Jean Johnson enjoys a varied musical career that includes orchestral, chamber, and solo performances. Since moving to Britain in March of 2005, Jean appears regularly with all the major Scottish orchestras. As a guest principal she has worked with the Bergen Philharmonic, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Scottish Ballet Orchestra. She has also worked with the Paragon Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, Mr. McFalls Chamber Orchestra, performed chamber music at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Schwetzingen Festival, Lake District Summer Music Festival, Sound Music Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, St. Magnus Festival, and has toured the UK performing recitals with her husband, pianist Steven Osborne.

Ms. Johnson served as Associate Principal Clarinettist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1998 where she remained until 2005. During 2000-2002, she covered the post of Principal Clarinet with the Singapore Symphony. Ms. Johnson enjoys her pursuits as an active solo and chamber musician, and her interests in contemporary music have led to numerous premiere performances of new works for the clarinet. She has premiered works on the "Bridge" contemporary music series at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts in NYC, and has organised innovative contemporary music concerts such "The Russian Voice of the Clarinet" in the US as well as the premiere performance of L'Histoire du Soldat in Singapore. She has been a guest artist with the critically acclaimed T'ang Quartet, and as a soloist she has been featured with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra performing Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and with the Wuhan Symphony Orchestra performing Weber's Concerto No. 2. In Scotland, she has performed clarinet concertos by John McLeod and Steve King, and recently performed Messaien's "Quartet for the End of Time" for festivals and radio broadcasts in Belgium and Germany. Forthcoming performances include guest principal with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, recitals with Steven Osborne, and chamber music at the Heimbach Festival.

Ms. Johnson received both music performance and music education degrees on full scholarship from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as a student of Michael Sussman, where her awards included the Chancellor's Talent Award, Chancellor's Academic Award, and the prestigious Lebow Memorial Music Award. She was then accepted to Indiana University for graduate school where she was an Associate Instructor in Clarinet while studying with Eli Eban (formerly with the Israel Philharmonic) and Alfred Prinz (formerly with the Vienna Philharmonic). Ms. Johnson was a member of the touring ensemble, the "American Wind Symphony Orchestra" and was the Clarinet Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival where she played in the Aspen Festival Orchestra and Chamber Symphony.

From exhilarating concertos to delicate chamber works, from mainstream Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms to the rarefied worlds of Messiaen, Tippett and Alkan, Steven Osborne is at home with the widest range of styles and his carefully crafted recital programmes and idiomatic approach to contrasting works are both publicly and critically acclaimed.

Concerto performances take Steven Osborne to orchestras all over the world including recent performances with the NHK Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum, Residentie Orkest, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hannover. With these orchestras he has enjoyed collaborations with conductors including Christoph von Dohnanyi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Svetlanov, Sir Charles Mackerras, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Andrew Litton, Alan Gilbert, Vassily Sinaisky and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

In the UK he works regularly with the major orchestras, especially with the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestras. His concerts are frequently broadcast by the BBC and he performs every year at the Wigmore Hall. He has made seven appearances at the Proms, most recently in July 2007, receiving unanimous praise from critics for his performance of the Britten Piano Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov.

Steven Osborne is a renowned recitalist and has performed in many of the world’s prestigious venues including the Konzerthaus Vienna, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philharmonie Berlin, Musikhalle Hamburg, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington and Carnegie Hall in New York where he made his debut in December 2005.

Tickets £8, £7 concession, and £4 student from Linlithgow Gazette Office, Blast off Books, or telephone 01506 844247

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