University Singers – Betsy Burleigh, conductor; Ingrid Matthews and Danqi Zeng, baroque violin; Macarena Sanchez Ruíz, baroque cello; and Jonathan Oddie, harpsichord; and the Pacifica Quartet with Marta Aznavoorian, piano (guest)

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Repertoire
Mielczewski: Canzona prima a 3
Moniuszko: Selections from “Sonety krymskie (Crimean Sonnets)” (1867)
Penderecki: Agnus Dei (1981)
Górecki: Totus Tuus, Op. 60 (1987)
Zarębski: Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 34 (1885)

About the Artists

A multi-Grammy nominated artist, pianist Marta Aznavoorian performs to critical acclaim on the world stage as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. She made her professional debut at age 13 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the invitation of Sir George Solti. A champion of new music, she collaborates with several of today’s most innovative composers and has been recognized for her outstanding outreach, performance, and mentoring in the United States and abroad. She is a founding member of the celebrated Lincoln Trio and the Aznavoorian Duo with her sister, Ani. A Steinway Artist, Aznavoorian currently serves as lecturer in piano and chamber music at DePaul University and records extensively under the Cedille Records Label. A student of the renowned teacher Menahem Pressler, Aznavoorian earned a bachelor’s degree and an Artist Diploma at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a master’s degree from New England Conservatory, where she studied with Patricia Zander.

Betsy Burleigh is Thomas R. Kasdorf Professor of Choral Conducting and professor of music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she was chair of the Choral Conducting Department from 2013 to 2024. Burleigh served as music director of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh from 2006 to 2015, leading performances of Brahms’ Requiem, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor, and preparing the choir for performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO). As a guest conductor, Burleigh has led the PSO, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony, and Handel Society of Dartmouth College. She prepared the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus for performances with the Cincinnati Pops. Burleigh served as assistant director of The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for 11 years, during which time she prepared the chorus for all performances at the Blossom Festival and oversaw the chorus for Pierre Boulez’s Deutsche Gramophone recording of Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette. Other positions have included directing the Providence Singers, Akron Symphony Chorus, Canton Symphony Chorus, and Mastersingers of Lexington. Acclaimed for her oratorio conducting, Burleigh’s Chorus pro Musica performance of Haydn’s Creation was praised as an “expansive, poetic reading” (The Boston Globe). Her rendition of Orff’s Carmina Burana was called both “nuanced” and “hair-raising” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer). She won the 2000 Northern Ohio Live Achievement Award for best classical/opera performance for Ulmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and conducted The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus on an Emmy Award-winning concert for the 9/11 Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Burleigh previously held teaching positions at Tufts, Clark, Southeastern Massachusetts, and Cleveland State universities, Longy School of Music, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree with distinction from Indiana University, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting degree with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Doctor of Music in Choral Conducting from the Jacobs School.

Ingrid Matthews is professor of practice in historical performance (baroque violin) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A graduate of IU, where she studied with Josef Gingold and Stanley Ritchie, Matthews is one of today’s most respected baroque violinists. Since winning first prize in the Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music in 1989, she has appeared as soloist, guest director, chamber musician, and concertmaster with leading early music ensembles, including the New York Collegium, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Ars Lyrica (Houston), Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto), Musica Pacifica (San Francisco), and many others. Matthews cofounded the Seattle Baroque Orchestra in 1994 and served as its music director until 2013. Matthews has won high critical acclaim for her extensive discography. Her recording J. S. Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Violin was named “top recommendation for this music … on either period or modern instruments” by American Record Guide. She also plays jazz and swing styles and is active as a visual artist.

Jonathan Oddie is professor of practice in historical performance (historical keyboards) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Oddie is in demand across the United States as a versatile performer on harpsichord, fortepiano, and continuo organ. As a continuo player, he works with leading musicians including violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky and flutist Janet See and with orchestras including Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. He has performed on chamber music series including Gallery Concerts Seattle and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and he has been featured as a soloist with the Northwest Sinfonietta and Saratoga Orchestra. Oddie studied piano and harpsichord at Indiana University, where his teachers included Elisabeth Wright, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, and Edmund Battersby. He also earned a doctorate in musicology from the University of Oxford, where he researched the instrumental music of English composer Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). Oddie has published research in the journals Early Music and Historical Performance. His awards include a Performer’s Certificate from the Jacobs School of Music and a Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship.

Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has achieved international recognition over the past 30 years as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today, establishing itself as the embodiment of the ideal American quartet sound. Named faculty string quartet-in-residence at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2012, Pacifica was previously quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and most recently received its second Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for Contemporary Voices (2020), featuring the works of three Pulitzer Prize–winning women. In 2017, the Quartet was appointed to lead the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Formed in 1994, the Pacifica Quartet quickly won chamber music’s top competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In 2002, the ensemble was honored with Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award and the appointment to Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program, and in 2006 was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. The Pacifica Quartet has proven itself the preeminent interpreter of string quartet cycles, having given highly acclaimed performances of the complete Carter, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Shostakovich cycles in numerous cities across the United States, in Australia, and in Tokyo and London. An ardent advocate of contemporary music, Pacifica commissions and performs many new works, including compositions by Keeril Makan, Julia Wolfe, and Shulamit Ran. The Quartet has recorded the Carter cycle (Naxos) and the Shostakovich cycle (Cedille Records) to rave reviews. Other recording projects include Leo Ornstein’s piano quintet with Marc-André Hamelin, the Brahms piano quintet with Jacobs Distinguished Professor Menahem Pressler, and the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets with Anthony McGill. Prior to its appointment to the Jacobs School, Pacifica was on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for 9 years and served as resident performing artists at the University of Chicago for 17 years. Visit pacificaquartet.com for more information.