A Forgotten Cello Concerto

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[box type=”note” icon=”none”]Over the past several months, I’ve had a front row seat watching my very dear friend and spectacular cellist, Michael Samis, rediscover a lost cello concerto. Normally, music that has been lost and forgotten is usually on purpose. But listening to Michael work up the solo part, and joining him by playing off of the piano reduction early on, all skepticism was replaced with a sense of joy. And that is why I’ve asked Michael to share his journey, step by step, on how he found and brought back to life this beautiful concerto. ~ Holly Mulcahy[/box]

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A Forgotten Cello Concerto

By: Michael Samis

As a classical musician who is always looking for something new and wonderful to play, I feel very fortunate to have stumbled upon something old and wonderful. About a year ago, the Delos label offered to release my debut solo album. Immediately I found myself on a mission to find repertoire for cello and chamber orchestra to fit my own musical voice and personality, but with the added challenge of finding repertoire that hadn’t been recorded before.

The dilemma was that my musical personality is most compatible with the Romantic era! After searching the internet like crazy, poring through blogs and forums, and asking around, I happened across a forum called Unsung Composers, a website focusing on “unsung” or lost music of the Romantic period.

A user posted that Carl Reinecke’s cello concerto is long overdue for a top-notch recording. Never having heard of the piece, I immediately went to an online public domain sheet music library. After I found the solo part and piano reduction, I played the opening theme — singing, sincerely expressive, and almost folksy. It was then that I knew this concerto had to be the centerpiece of my first album. It truly felt like my voice. My personality.

Michael SamisOver the past year, I worked through this technically demanding 1864 concerto, preparing to perform it with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra this past February. Not having a recording to dictate tempo or interpretation, there was a feeling of absolute freedom as I honed the concerto into a viable work of art with the help of pianist, Megan Gale.

It was during our reading rehearsals that tempos and ideas would change drastically from meeting to meeting, which doesn’t happen as much when one can listen to five different recordings of the piece at hand.

As the performance approached, other challenges revealed themselves. The only set of orchestral parts that could be found was in a Philadelphia library, but the condition of the music was sadly unusable and incomplete.

The performance was getting closer, and the pressure was on to find parts for the orchestra’s players! It felt like a suspense film; we’d requested the parts to be reprinted and sent from a German publisher. Ten days before the performance, they finally arrived.

But, things were not right just yet. The parts were littered with errors!! My album’s producer, Nashville Symphony librarian, Wilson Ochoa, sacrificed his Superbowl party and spent that entire weekend correcting the errors to prepare the parts by the first rehearsal. Finally things seemed to be looking like they were moving in the right direction.

michael samisAnd then flu season was the next obstacle; the 5-member first violin section of the Gateway Chamber Orchestra lost two members at the last moment. Luckily my mother, Sylvia Samis, violinist in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was able to fill in starting on the final day of rehearsals. It was truly an experience beyond words having her on stage with me, as she has always been a true inspiration to me as both a musician and a person.

The final result was an exciting performance with the spirit of true collaboration. It was likely the first hearing of Carl Reinecke’s cello concerto in the U.S. since the late 1800’s. The fact that I’m grateful for the sensitivity and artistry of all involved is an understatement. Our performance of the Reinecke cello concerto was met with a rave review and standing ovation.

After finding the Reinecke concerto and seeing how a gem from the 1800’s can be forever lost, I was moved to build my entire album around connections to the past. After all, music shares the stories and emotions of people through all of time. I truly hope that my upcoming album illuminates the role music plays in connecting us with our past, while bringing a forgotten cello concerto back to life. Music critic John Picher of ArtsNash discusses some of my upcoming album’s other works in his in-depth review of one of my recent recitals.

I invite you to explore A Forgotten Cello Concerto, my album’s Kickstarter page, which will be updated regularly!

[toggle title_open=”Read less” title_closed=”About Michael Samis” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

Recognized for his “shining and expressive” playing (The Tennessean) and “haunting” tone (The Cincinnati Post), Michael Samis is an accomplished solo, chamber and orchestral cellist. He was recently awarded a 2013 Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in Music for Solo Instrumental Performance. Samis performed Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age 17. Other solo performances with orchestra have included Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major with the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra and Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Bryan Symphony Orchestra. Samis has performed in numerous music festivals around the world, including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, where he sat Principal Cello under the baton of Michael Tilson-Thomas. He plays an Italian cello made in Naples circa 1850.

Other career highlights include performing as Principal Cellist under Helmuth Rilling, at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra, and at the Sarasota and Kent/Blossom chamber music festivals. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1999 with the Ellis A. Feiman Award in Cello. In Cleveland, Samis studied with the Cleveland Orchestra’s longtime Principal Cellist, Stephen Geber. He has also studied with Desmond Hoebig, Jerry Grossman (Principal Cellist, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and Geraldine Sutyak.

Samis has been a member of the Nashville Symphony’s cello section since 1999. In addition, he is Co-Principal Cellist of the Grammy®-nominated Gateway Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has recorded on Summit Records (Chamber Symphonies, to be released in 2012). He frequently performs on National Public Radio affiliate WPLN’s Live in Studio C program, both as soloist and with chamber groups. Samis also performed extensively as cellist with the Alexis Piano Trio from 1992 to 2001. He has given solo recitals at the Blair School of Music (Vanderbilt University), Middle Tennessee State University and the Taft Museum of Art Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati. He currently plays improvisational cello with his band, Rossi.

Michael Samis has served as Adjunct Professor of Cello at Middle Tennessee State University. A strong supporter of music education and advocacy, he has designed an educational program for string quartet, which he and his colleagues present in schools as part of the Nashville Symphony’s “Ensembles in the Schools” initiative. He believes in the healing power of music and volunteers his time to play for hospice and hospital patients and their families.

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About Holly Mulcahy

After hearing Scheherazade at an early age, Holly Mulcahy fell in love with the violin and knew it would be her future. She currently serves as concertmaster of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. She spends her summers at the celebrated Grand Teton Music Festival. Believing in music as a healing and coping source, Holly founded Arts Capacity, a charitable 501(c)3 which focuses on bringing live chamber music, art, artists, and composers to prisons. Arts Capacity addresses many emotional and character-building issues people face as they prepare for release into society. Holly performs on a 1917 Giovanni Cavani violin, previously owned by the late renowned soloist Eugene Fodor, and a bespoke bow made by award winning master bow maker, Douglas Raguse.

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