Summer Recital Series: Elation Pauls & Naomi Woo

This recital will be available until the end of August 2022.

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The WSO’s Elation Pauls (violin) and Naomi Woo (assistant conductor) are once again teaming up for the summer for a wonderful violin and piano recital that will include Brahms’ Sonata No. 2, Op. 100, along with works by contemporary composers Reena Esmail and Carmen Braden.

“It was wonderful to come up with this programme with Naomi Woo! says Pauls. “We have so much repertoire to choose from that it took us a while to settle on these three works. I love that they all involve intimate songs. The Esmail piece incorporates a lullaby that her mother sang to her as a baby. Carmen Braden’s piece is a whole lot of fun and asks the violinist to insert a childhood song into the composition. I even have to sing while playing, which took some getting used to! The final piece is Brahms’ Second Violin Sonata in A major. Brahms quotes a few Lieder in this work, which he wrote for the admired singer Hermine Spies.”

“We’re especially thrilled that this concert includes music by two living women composers, says Woo. “I conducted one of Carmen Braden’s pieces for the WSO’s Manitoba Mosaic in 2021. She is Canadian and lives in Yellowknife. I’m such a fan of her work, so it’s really exciting to be playing her playful, joyous Foxy Fox’s Musical Games. Reena Esmail is an Indian-American composer who I studied with in graduate school. Her piece Jhula Jhule beautifully weaves folks songs from her childhood into the musical language of the piano and violin. It’s evocative and improvisatory, and very very beautiful”.

Reena Esmail (b. 1983) Jhula Jhule (Back and Forth) (2013) 

Carmen Braden (b. 1985) Foxy Fox’s Musical Games (2018) 

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sonata No. 2 in A major Op. 100 (1886) 

I. Allegro amabile
II. Andante tranquillo – Vivace
III. Allegretto grazioso

“The violin-piano duo relationship is always very special, and it’s an immense joy to collaborate with Elation,” says Woo. “Although the instruments are so different, the partnership should be equal, and so there has to be mutual respect, trust, and understanding. It was fun to work on pieces that explicitly involved improvisation and playfulness, too; the music really challenged Elation and I to push our musical partnership further!”